Sfdebris.net

Well, Amazon just bought MGM.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/busi ... n-MGM.html

I've made this a recent topic for discussion, and I'd really hoped to lay it down for a bit and give others time to breathe, but the world just doesn't let you do that. One small catastrophe ends, fifteen others hit somewhere else. Others are worrying about James Bond or thousands of other IPs, but in my small corner of the holding, my concerns are for SG.

I REALLY don't want another SG show. In fact, I don't know what this means for SG. I mean, we knew Mr. Wright was in talks for another show going back to 2019, but how this affects that, I don't know. But I will reiterate and emphasize this more strongly, it should be a reboot so we don't have any of the terrible writing and modern politics polluting SG, as well as calls for the original fanbase to shut up and go away, we're going for the younger and new fans now, especially since continuity would be very hard to maintain with outsiders coming and filtering it by their own biases without the desire to educate themselves on the lore and art and continuity. I encourage a reboot, I want a reboot, no matter what shape it ultimately takes. Let the next generation and producers have their day.

But frankly, what concerns me is the way SJWs will react to this, making it a crusade to shove in identity politics. Draco Dracul had said in the other thread that the reason y'all are so obsessed about politics is frankly because you're afraid of being purged by the tyrants of America, so, nice to admit you're just paranoid, but why direct that toward demanding representation and diversity from these big giant companies? They are not there to cater to social themes, they are there to make money, and appealing to that when they don't care about you is just another way to divide us, and the story and art winds up suffering for it. Maybe you should start boycotting them simply on the basis that even if you can't change the monopoly, supporting it is antithetical to all the values you claim to hold. Or at least pirate their content.

Amazon, especially, has some very shady business dealings and treats their workers terrible. It's just appalling Amazon hasn't unionized due to all sorts of various loopholes, to the point even both camps in Congress can admit Big Tech is a problem - they just don't know how to handle it. So why crusade for them to put in identity politics? Is it just revenge over their RL abuses? Honestly, I don't care how bad they are, I'd like a good story where identity politics was done subtly, but I hold no hope for that. At least with a reboot, the IP can stand on its own and newcomers can have their entryway while being free to examine the past shows on their own merits, and it isn't terribly shocking that many of them prefer it over the dreck we have now.

But, who knows what happens. Dare we say, a Mr. Abrams SG reboot? I literally could see just that. Because what SG really needs is lens flares and mystery boxes.

Hey your the one who can't go five minutes without mentioning SJW.

I wonder if they're going to change the Casino.

First Amazon doesn't own James Bond, they got the old Library of Bond films. Eon Productions still owns James Bond. Just means that the old Bond films commissions now go from Eon Productions and MGM to Eon Productions and Amazon. ANd Eon gets to have all the old Bond films for free on Amazon now. What Amazon does own is StarGate which franchise was killed off by StarGate Universe and the RoboCop witch franchise was killed off by RoboCop 3, the Live-action TV show, and the god-awful RoboCop Remake. And The Handmaid's Tale which is on Hulu right now. They now own other TV shows whose popularity has worn off years ago like The Apprentice and Desperate Housewives.

thisithis wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 6:53 am First Amazon doesn't own James Bond, they got the old Library of Bond films. Eon Productions still owns James Bond. Just means that the old Bond films commissions now go from Eon Productions and MGM to Eon Productions and Amazon. ANd Eon gets to have all the old Bond films for free on Amazon now. What Amazon does own is StarGate which franchise was killed off by StarGate Universe and the RoboCop witch franchise was killed off by RoboCop 3, the Live-action TV show, and the god-awful RoboCop Remake. And The Handmaid's Tale which is on Hulu right now. They now own other TV shows whose popularity has worn off years ago like The Apprentice and Desperate Housewives.

Yeah, this seems like it's mostly a legacy content acquisition for Prime as opposed to setting up any major NEW content, apart from getting the Bond films some consistent funding again.

Oh, and Captain? Please, just don't? We get it, you think systemic discrimination and erasure of minorities* is a myth and that only problem is that people think there's a problem. It's not and there is. Let's just have a gay person of color be the hero of a show every once in a while, eh?

*AKA poor, non-fundamentalist Christian, non-Anglo-Saxon, non-cisallohet, people, often under the age of fifty. Broke the flow of the sentence to not use short-hand, but clarity and specificity are important.

ProfessorDetective wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 12:46 pm Yeah, this seems like it's mostly a legacy content acquisition for Prime as opposed to setting up any major NEW content, apart from getting the Bond films some consistent funding again.

Oh, and Captain? Please, just don't? We get it, you think systemic discrimination and erasure of minorities* is a myth and that only problem is that people think there's a problem. It's not and there is. Let's just have a gay person of color be the hero of a show every once in a while, eh?

*AKA poor, non-fundamentalist Christian, non-Anglo-Saxon, non-cisallohet, people, often under the age of fifty. Broke the flow of the sentence to not use short-hand, but clarity and specificity are important.

Problem is market trends that demand that nostalgia grab have to tangentially connect it in some form to the past shows. That's how the Temporal Cold War came about. That's why Prime Spock was in reboot ST. That's why Disney wanted to get the older actors on board for the DSWST. And on and on and on. It really makes me wish more could follow the example from NuBSG, in that BSG didn't feature very heavy at all in the production of it, they are literally two but equal continuities, and in that sense, gender-swapping Starbuck wasn't bad. Many of the hardcore anti-SJWs will insist that, but I don't agree. As I've said recently, a Mara Jade for DSWC isn't Mara Jade. Same way the female Starbuck isn't Starbuck - she's a new character with the same name. Which is fine, TBH.

Moving the goalposts. I've never been very religious. Plus plenty of POC reviewers have taken issue with the horrible writing that so often accompanies these modern-day IPs when they default into that sorta thing. And there are plenty of bisexuals who are not nor were they ever part of the activist side of the LGBT community. My friend, father was a Reagan Republican, and had a few issues with his decision to date only men. Despite that, he was very supportive. Said friend abhors the LGBT with a passion. And yet people here would call his dad a homophobe anyway. People are not simple and life is not simple. This is why they say SJWS eat their own. This person who should fit the blue category for your tribe would be outed because he sides with his dad when you insult him. How is that surprising?

SG is a completely different world from our own, and is kind of a distinctly 1990s show, in the "all the beliefs you held true are wrong and the peace you knew is false" themes. A new show set in the previous continuity would have to explain what has happened since. My worry is since they broke the masquerade and went public, Earth is like that from The Road Not Taken as a means for heavy-handed commentary on how far America has fallen, because that gets you huge accolades. And that just stomps over the optimism from SG-1 and SGA. Are we still waging a secret war with aliens? If so, then adding in woke is stupid because we've never seen that become an issue like today. Granted, Cam talked down that dude who was ogling Dr. Lam, and I liked that. It was a nice, subtle thing you didn't focus on too long. As noted elsewhere, Teal'c's race was an issue on that planet with Lord Odo, and it was a good story. Plus there are literally dozens of SG units with black soldiers, and it's never made an issue with them! Why do we gotta keep insisting it should be? H, a good interesting twist would be a white soldier who cites #BlackLivesMatter and a black soldier who thinks they're race hustlers. I've seen this in RL. Show them having a debate about it in the mess hall before gearing up.

Keep it subtle and classy, where it doesn't interrupt the flow of story. Can we really make SG the way it used to be? It's not even the same timeline! We had a president from 1996 to 2004 who was not the same as RL, and then President Hayes walks in from 2004 to what would have been 2012 in the verse's timeline, and we never learn his party affiliation, but I would guess GOP since Kinsey was a straw evangelical. I feel it would just be way too easy to go the route of "orange man bad," like his trans ban on the military, when Mr. Trump isn't even there now and his rise to power was entirely dependent on the chaotic social conditions predating 2016, Mr. Obama's twin victories surrounded in a backdrop of post-9/11 social tensions. I'd never defend the murderers and bigots back then harassing Muslims, but there's no denying 9/11 and then Mr. Obama's presence made race relations worse. No, I don't want Trump allegories. Especially since one would assume economic conditions had slowly been improving thanks to new alien technologies creeping into the market. So why should things have gotten worse when the economy would theoretically be going strong, much stronger than the RL 2016 which led to Mr. Trump? Naquadah generators, for example, being a source of revolutionary clean energy.

Speaking of religion, how would the world react to the revelation of the SGC's activities? Specifically, the churches? Do new churches spring up with the discovery of Ascension? Are there far more Buddhists now? How does Catholicism's doctrine about the foundation of life change based on the discovery of life outside our planet and ancient aliens on Earth? They could easily try to use the story as a platform to discredit Christians because they hate the GOP that much and don't see the many wonderful people who are part of the church. It's funny as well, since the Ori most definitely represent Christian emissaries who drowned the natives in water to "save" them, which is laughable. But it worked well as allegory instead of being blunt as a hammer. Basically, SG is such a density of possibilities and lore, I just really don't think they're gonna have the right priorities or ability to successfully capture lightning in a bottle a second time, as SGU was already shaping up to the way SG would head and many other major IPs back then.

But what would be interesting in the context of a proper continuation, and probably won't happen is an expansion to the IOA, go the route of The Expanse and show them coordinating interstellar law regarding fleet activity between the nation-states, with a number of space habitats and moon colonies spread through the solar system. Russia, interestingly, seems as if it would have more 303s than 304s, but makes up for that with sheer numbers. And you could kept the optimistic themes as well as we branch out into accepting our role as the Fifth Race. That's another thing, though. What do you want to bet that in an SG sequel show, the CCP would make demands of China on screen that would be met because Hollywood wants their money and the Russians would be vilified after 2016 out of revenge writing for messing up our elections (so the DNC claims)? I do not want to see that.

And you know, I've been called transphobic lately, but it's kinda funny how every gay or bisexual I've ever met and known personally didn't really feel the need to make that a point, except the same way het couples do, who have in fact been very thick-skinned when confronted by whatever homophobe or idiot exists out there. Like one time I was a party with my bud, he was with his boyfriend, and we were just chilling out, relaxing - it was fun, but then some drunk creep comes up and insults him for his date, but before we could do anything, he just waved the guy aside, and owned him without ever having to hit him with his fists. Think what Lionel says to Archie on All in the Family. I thought that it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen before, and I let my pal know. As he says, Cro-Magnon people like that aren't worth it. Words can hurt, but at the same time, they ARE only words! They hurt if we let them.

Just reboot, please. A reboot in the topical world of the 2020s after Mr. Trump's reign would work a lot better. Like if they activated the Stargate sometime after 2016. Is it dropping an anvil? Sure. But it does explain the turbulent social conditions that would put in more emphasis on woke. Like his trans ban. I'd support shoehorning that in with the context of a reboot. And it works far better in that context than it does trying to build on the 1990s aesthetics that went into making SG.

StarGate after that whole Stargate Universe was almost rebooted with the StarGate Origins web series. But from what I understand a lot of people just didn't care. There was that RoboCop Remake to reboot Robocop, but having RoboCop and Ed 209 in Black armor and have them fight in the black of night was a really bad idea, along with so many other bad ideas.

Now The Handmaid's Tale, that's where the shit is going to hit the fan. Seeing first Fox and now Disney paid a ton of money to The Handmaid's Tale put the show on Hulu. If Amazon just decides to move The Handmaid's Tale to Amazon Prime. Well, that's going to hurt Disney.

They're also on the side that something about Trump and the apprentice TV show now belonging to Amazon. Jeff Bezos and Trump don't get along with one another.

Something else I'd like to add, in response to ProfessorDetective's sneering contempt. The ultimate smackdown to end all insinuations I am racist.

CAPTAIN MOTHEREFFIN' SISKO.

Sisko is capital-A AWESOME. Who doesn't love him? He's a great character, because his race is never beaten over your head. The only two times it was made sense, and was in the context of past prejudice. Sisko was a positive male role model in defiance of the idea the black communities are rife with welfare queens and drug gangs, at a time when that is more timeless than ever. What do you want to bet if Captain Sisko showed up in Mr. Kurtzma's ST series, that he'd just appear 20 years after he disappeared?

When time has no meaning to the Prophets, that's a bad idea. It in effect perpetuates the very stereotype he never was. It makes him a deadbeat dad who abandoned his family, when Jake especially would take it very hard, as Sisko himself knows, and his wife and newborn child. Sisko was never meant to be written that way, yet I have no doubts that's what Mr. Kurtzman and his flunkies would do. THAT is racism. Should we defend that? Because it really just ruins the characters and stories we already had, we already loved in the name of fake, empty diversity the executives themselves refuse to even live by.

If they want to make this woke, then maybe they should try not to destroy the past and focus on good story.

Captain Crimson wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 3:42 pm Something else I'd like to add, in response to ProfessorDetective's sneering contempt. The ultimate smackdown to end all insinuations I am racist.

CAPTAIN MOTHEREFFIN' SISKO.

Sisko is capital-A AWESOME. Who doesn't love him? He's a great character, because his race is never beaten over your head. The only two times it was made sense, and was in the context of past prejudice. Sisko was a positive male role model in defiance of the idea the black communities are rife with welfare queens and drug gangs, at a time when that is more timeless than ever. What do you want to bet if Captain Sisko showed up in Mr. Kurtzma's ST series, that he'd just appear 20 years after he disappeared?

When time has no meaning to the Prophets, that's a bad idea. It in effect perpetuates the very stereotype he never was. It makes him a deadbeat dad who abandoned his family, when Jake especially would take it very hard, as Sisko himself knows, and his wife and newborn child. Sisko was never meant to be written that way, yet I have no doubts that's what Mr. Kurtzman and his flunkies would do. THAT is racism. Should we defend that? Because it really just ruins the characters and stories we already had, we already loved in the name of fake, empty diversity the executives themselves refuse to even live by.

If they want to make this woke, then maybe they should try not to destroy the past and focus on good story.

Cool... one PoC character... from the mid 1990s. Good for you.

No offense to Sisko, of course. Not a bad choice, if you HAVE to pick ONE.

> Conveniently ignore the thousands of others present in the '90s.

To which I could name many.