BTW, just a note about the start of the summer TV season.
Last week new episodes of Monk started airing on USA.
Tonight Sci-Fi is launching the new season of its shows Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica.
CHECK YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
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So why is no one producing long threads on the morality of Stargate?
Because nobody has found a document written years ago to a third party regarding an article on the show; said document perhaps written by the man who later became Pope and that can possibly be translated that Stargate may be dangerous – meaning, of course, that the Pope unequivocally damns all things Stargate?
But isn’t it likely that the Pope thinks Stargate is evil? I mean, just because he hasn’t said anything against it infallibly doesn’t mean that we’re allowed to watch it! What are we, cafeteria Catholics?
Umm..Just wondering but..Why is stargate evil?
Stargate is evil only because the best writers seem to have gone to Stargate Atlantis series, thus making Stargate full of cliches. And cliches are annoying. Evil is annoying, too. Therefore… You see the logic?
Okay. Thanks for the clarification 😛
Jimmy, how can you be so cruel as to mention my beloved Monk again (that’s twice in about one week if I remember correctly) knowing that my inability to see it is seriously eating away at my already abismally low level of patience?
Unfair!
God Bless.
I’ve never had a chance to see that Monk show but I’ve heard people speak highly of it. What’s it about? Does it have any religious connotations to it? I’m interested in seeing it but all I have at the moment is basic tv.
I’ve never seen it but from what I understand, no it does not have any religious connotations. It is about a man who solves crimes, but it is funny.
I can’t recall seeing any episode of Monk that has religious connotations. The funny part of the show is that Monk has OCD-obsessive compulsive disorder–and he can’t stand anything to be out of order or dirty. On the same token, his obsessiveness is what helps him to solve crimes in a way most others wouldn’t be able to–he sees all sorts of minute details that most people would miss.
This week his brother was on the show and he has his own problematic behaviors that make it an even better show than usual.
Sci-Fi really has something special going on Fridays now.
My wife is a real Stargate fanatic. I am thus forced to be a real watcher as well. At its best its as good as nearly anything in the Star Trek canon, and not too far behind Babylon 5. Its overuse of cliches and formulas is offset by its irreverent whimsy. The last two seasons they’ve taken more chances by twisting the formulas more often.
I dunno about the morality. They’ve pillaged just about every historical mythology available but scrupulously avoided messing with anything in the big monotheistic faiths. The idea that we may have been creations/descendents of the Ancients may be problematic but not nearly so much as the fact that nearly every alien race seems to speak perfect American idiom English.
But maybe I’ll wait for Pope Benedict or his correspondents to weigh in.
I confess that I had a real bias against Battlestar Galactica. I adamantly refused to watch the miniseries or the first season, being a devotee of the original series in my misbegotten youth) on the grounds that Richard Hatch’s pilot was rejected and that the series that did get greenlit seemed obsessed with having lots and lots of gratuitous sex and making every possible character into a politically correct blend of ethnicity and gender. And of course with so many roles given to (always fetching) women there are more opportunities for…lots of gratuitous sex.
But having seen a few episodes now I must admit, these serious, bothersome flaws notwithstanding, it enjoys some really remarkable, even outstanding writing and direction, and truly impressive FX (better than some feature films) and camera work, and some highly effective and daring twists on the premise of the original. On these scores it simply (I reluctantly concede) utterly blows the original series out of the water to the point of making it look utterly hackneyed, and generally runs rings around nearly every sci-fi series I have seen. Perhaps TNG, B5 and Firefly at their very, very best could match the writing and direction. But that’s probably it.
With Battlestar Galactica you get a real sense that it’s just about game over and you’re really not sure who’s going to be around next episode in a way the original series can only dream about. Only in rare instances do you ever get anything like that sense in the Star Trek series, B5, Farscape, or the Stargate shows – though Atlantis is showing some signs of promise in that regard.
If they could just tone down the sex and the Cornel West approach to casting a little, they could have a show that sets a new and well nigh unebeatable standard for sci-fi programming. Or heck, nearly all TV drama for that matter.
I have to second Richard’s comments about Battlestar Galactica. For quality and realism, it is second to none. I am HOOKED!!
BTW, Sci-Fi is now playing Firefly prior to the Stargate/Galactica shows on Friday night!
Even the sex isn’t always gratutious, though they certainly don’t have to show it onscreen. I think a major part of the Cylon plot is to crossbreed Cylons and humans, so that explains some of the sex.