Season Nine?

[Ahryantah]

It's no secret that Sci-Fi would love for Stargate SG-1 to come back for another season. That show brings in the second largest audience of anything on the Sci-Fi channel (largest audience belongs to Stargate Atlantis, which will almost defintely be back for a second season). MGM is also still making money on the show, and at least one of the show's producers wants to continue to a ninth season.

The problem is that Richard Dean Anderson ("Jack O'Neill") has said he will not do another season, and Amanda Tapping ("Samantha Carter") is also not looking forward to the show continuing indefinitely. There are also many fans who think the quality of the show has decreased in the last couple seasons, and they don't want to see Stargate go the way of "The X-Files."

So what do you think? Do you believe the writers still have enough ideas to make the show interesting? Can the show survive without Anderson or even Tapping? Or should they just stop now before they embarrass themselves?

I personally have nothing against a ninth season. I think the writers, if they work really hard, can still come up with good storylines. I think that there should only be a ninth season if all the cast members stay, though. Season eight hasn't been as much fun without Hammond; what do you think will happen if Jack disappears? He's been the driving force behind the show since it began, and it wouldn't be the same if he left.

[JAGuar]

I think there should be a ninth season. If nothing else, it should be around to help boost Atlantis in the ratings. Because I've always found that when a spinoff is started right when the original is about done that no one will watch it. But if Atlantis can get two seasons under it's belt, it can go much longer without the needed butress of SG-1.

[Ahryantah]

Good point, JAG, though I don't know if I like the idea of SG-1 staying around just to bolster Atlantis. If SG-1 starts majorly sucking and most people stop watching, that's not going to do Atlantis a whole lot of good. Plus I think Atlantis has already proven itself able to hold its own audience. It has consistently had higher ratings than SG-1 all season, not to mention better writing and storylines, in my opinion. Of course, most of its audience is composed of people sticking around after SG-1, but I know several people who have gotten tired of SG-1 and stopped watching, but do watch Atlantis religiously because they like it. And seeing as Atlantis has higher ratings, there is definitely a large chunk of people watching Atlantis who are not watching SG-1.

There's no doubt that SG-1 was a valuable lead-in when Atlantis first started, and hopefully will remain so for the rest of this season, but I think Atlantis is already at the point where it can hold its own. I think most people are now watching Atlantis because of its own merits, not because they happen to leave the T.V. on after SG-1 ends. I personally don't think Atlantis would suffer at all if SG-1 ended after this year. SG-1 ending might even bring more people to it, people who haven't seen Atlantis but like the Stargate universe and want to keep watching it even after SG-1 ends.

If that makes any sense. Like I said, I would welcome a ninth season of SG-1, but only if it's done right. When they started talking about a ninth season I had bad flashbacks to X-Files and how much it sucked in season nine. I don't think SG-1 can hold its own without Richard Dean Anderson. It will be just as bad for SG-1 as losing David Duchovny was for X-Files.

[JAGuar]

I don't want the ninth season to suck. That wouldn't help. I'm just saying that they do need an extra season to rap everything up and while they're at it, they might as well let the show help with Atlantis. Sure, Atlantis has a higher rating. Angel was a better show than Buffy, too. Angel ended one season after Buffy and I don't want the same thing happening to a show like Atlantis. Plus I don't think that a show can really be considered a success until it's been past two seasons.

[volgman]

I think as long as they are decently good, it will be well worth it to have more seasons