I don't want to show him just one, but I don't want to just show him season 1 either for obvious reasons. I've got him interested over the explanation of the show having a fantastic fictional universe so I'd like to sum up the core team, the secrecy of the stargate program, the Goauld, and maybe the ancients and asgard too.
Posted Aug 28, 2016, 8:40 PM UTC
I don't want to show him just one, but I don't want to just show him season 1 either for obvious reasons. I've got him interested over the explanation of the show having a fantastic fictional universe so I'd like to sum up the core team, the secrecy of the stargate program, the Goauld, and maybe the ancients and asgard too.
My previous response is just a quick rundown of an approach you could consider using to introduce someone to Stargate.
In direct response to your message, it might be a good idea to have just 1 episode as the absolute must-see episode to really spark their interest in it. Have a list on hand, so they can watch others.
Pick what you think they will find to be the best episode of the entire franchise and show them that. Although, if it's really heavy with spoilers, probably shouldn't go that route. Maybe pick the best stand-alone episode that's mostly spoiler free. Likewise with the list of any other episodes.
You brought up a few points that you'd like to include, you can pick 1 episode for each:
Fantastic fictional universe
Sum up the core team
Secrecy of Stargate program
Goa'uld
Ancients
Asgard
...I might respond again later with what I think would be some good key episodes covering those points, and some might overlap, so it may only need a couple or few episodes.
Other responses in here are probably already listing some good choices.
I know we all hate clip shows, but Politics can be a good episode to sum up everything about the Goa'uld and the original SG-1, it doesn't even mention the Asgard or Ancients though, so it mightn't be what you want
I'll add that one in! I'm already planning on showing him The Fifth Race.
I'd recommend The Torment of Tantalus if you want a good one on the Asgard and Ancients, I think it would be a good "hey look at who you'll meet in this show, oh wait, they're not here, yet
Keep in mind clips shows are basically 100% spoilers, although they're excellent ways to introduce someone to Stargate. Still, it'd help if the new viewer is aware of that before watching any of them. Personally, when I'm going in to watch amazing shows/movies for the first time, I want to minimize spoilers as much as possible so I can really enjoy them within the context of the ongoing story, rather than being abruptly introduced to the key resolutions (or any other giveaways or reveals) to major plot points or character developments.
Agreed (Indeed!) - I hate even watching "previews" on iTunes of anything past the first season of a show, because by definition any character I see in a season 2+ preview is someone who survived season 1.
I'm in the process, well it's on hold now, but will eventually have all-things-Stargate transferred from discs to a single external hard drive, for use with streaming via Plex server. A future project after completing that will be to edit all of the videos to remove the previews, "previously on" clips, and credits/titles. The goal with that would be so it can be seen as one very long nonstop story. There will be some interruptions, like between shows/movies, but otherwise nonstop.
That is a really good question. I am in the middle of putting together a document with the sole purpose of introducing new viewers to Stargate. It's an ongoing process, though, so probably won't finish it for a while.
The quick and dirty approach is to pick something from any of it that they think they are more likely to enjoy. I'd say grab excerpts from SG '94, early-SG1, mid-SG1, late-SG1, early-SGA, late-SGA, SGU.
You'll probably find youtube videos with excerpts, or just pick a handful of key episodes, sort them in order starting with what the new viewer might like the most (gotta have the good first impression), then they can start at the top of the list. If they like it, they can keep watching the sampler of excerpts or episodes, or better yet they can start from the beginning with Stargate (1994) and watch all 270+ hours of it.
If a buddy had shown me a few SG-1 episodes and included the Wormhole Extreme episode, I would have been hooked!
I really liked SG-1 but when I saw Wormhole Extreme, that was when SG-1 surpassed StarWars / Trek for me.
Wormhole X-treme was one of my first thoughts - but I think what makes it great is that you already know the characters and history. To someone not already familiar with SG-1, I'm not sure it'd be that great of an episode.
A handful of episodes from the first two season. Nothing in Season 2 is too important that they need backstory from stuff not shown in Season 1. (Yes, I intentional avoided jumping too far ahead in the series.)
Season 1
Season 2
Otherwise, use my list of episodes to watch in Season 1 and tell them that starting in Season 2, 98% of episodes relate to those watched in some way or another and are no longer episodic in nature.
A great episode.
Some of those are very heavy with spoilers. That's something a new viewer needs to consider when being introduced to the franchise. They will inevitably receive some degree of them, but the actual selections that they view can either decrease or increase the number of spoilers.