Analyzing why Stargate is Better Written than Star Trek

colonel i hope that once we gain each other's trust you'll be able to shed some light on the technology that powers the great ring it is unlike anything we have seen before we call it the stargate and our people share the same hope commander of course in due time [Music] [Music] one of the major annoyances i find in the comments of most of the videos i produce is how little people think of star trek writers opinions on how security can't actually be competent or how realism isn't possible because it's a television show or if it worked out logically then everyone would be bored because it'd be solved in 30 seconds people having the opinion that you can't have competent security or logical systems and have a show that opinion is simply not true there were and are many contemporary television series that had competent security and logical systems in place and were still very very good an example of a show that did this would be stargate sg1 and for today's purposes i'm going to put it up against one of the most beloved series of star trek specifically the next generation now just so you know about the two series versus each other so that someone in the comments doesn't say something ignorant stargate was released in 1997 while the next generation was released in 1987. there were specific seasons that ran concurrent to each other not only that but these two shows have a lot in common one of these key confluences is the impact that the protagonists had on other organizations nations and species some of these nations are inferior to the technology that they have and some are superior to said technology in both trek and stargate they would go to strange new worlds and meet strange new peoples and today i'm going to focus on how each series really dealt with well the interference of other organizations and nations now i'm going to be completely honest with you here there's really no contest between the next generation and stargate when it comes to non-interference at least how the writers handled the situations while you will have episodes like pen pals or who watches the watchers they're very very surface level trek never goes in depth on how non-interference can impact other species other people they're trying to protect not really the closest you get is in the disco era or kurtzman era trek and even that is completely surface level compared to stargate though they do a lot better than tng ds9 and even voyager to really hone in on that and to make my point i'm going to be looking at two stargate episodes specifically icon and ethon it's effectively a two-parter that's split between several different episodes and these episodes in the middle actually build on themes between the two which is genius by the way but that's something i'll get into another time sorry about scaring the tourists we've made first contact with a lot of planets but this is the first time we found ourselves coming out of a museum please one of our artifacts suddenly coming to life was a little surprising but that pales in comparison to its purpose in icon the first of the two stargate command sends through one of their scouts and determines they found a thriving civilization one that's in the middle of a cold war with another nation but thriving nonetheless this world or at least one government had thrown off the shackles of religion and they were prospering to the extent that they could the guard would be extremely proud of the fact that most of them seem to be atheists unfortunately the arrival of the sg-1 team would ignite old god-fearing beliefs throughout the realm i take the great ring as a recurring motif in your culture it is simply a reminder of certain traditions that predate our age of enlightenment most people wear them more for the sake of fashion than for religious belief the texts of old told of a time that the gods would return through the gate and it was believed by a marginalized few that this would bring peace and prosperity to all with someone actually returning through said gate the movement would grow and it would grow and it would grow and what happens with an ideology unconstrained we are close to reclaiming vital air now is not the time for rhetoric our reports indicate large elements of your military are on the brink of mutiny your civil unrest has become a civil war well it's taken over by zealots and co-opted into something more radical unfortunately the stargate crew had started a chain reaction that was resulting in a civil war and while there were some that were a part of stargate that cared at least a little there wasn't a lot that they could do once the carnage started it would get much much worse not only would they be facing a civil war but the rand protectorate would have larger problems than anyone realized we are targeting your missile sites only if you do not wish a full-scale war you will not retaliate trident commander we've detected multiple launch signals from caledonia positions the problem is in this it's hard to blame the rand protectorate nor the caledonian what are they called the problem in this is that it's hard to blame the rand protectorate or the caledonian federation i mean you have to look at it from both perspectives one side is in the middle of a civil war that they're trying to get everything under control and the other one sees that their greatest enemy is starting to crumble and they have to protect themselves they have no idea what's going on and will be forced to do what is necessary to ensure the safety of their own people none of this is easy and both sides have a legitimate point and unfortunately when both sides have a legitimate point to legitimate fear that makes a very bad situation a lot worse but ironically i do believe that both sides are trying to keep all the pieces on the board but they're failing the reason why i love this episode so much and the next one is because of how brutally honest it is it shows what can happen by the mere presence of an outside influence even one that is benevolent and it shows how this benevolent organization doesn't necessarily have the best in mind for those they're dealing with they're going out and searching and some of them don't seem to care about the destruction they cause now before we made contact with them these people were considered zealots who took the ancient texts too literally the gate being activated has given them all they need to prove that they were right all along their numbers will grow that's terrible and yet not our problem at least not to some grand degree as stated things continue to spiral out of control until well nothing's left the original government is destroyed both by the cold war going hot and well the civil war that we had discussed the religious elements would take over and have absolutely no interest in improving things and i believe it'd be at this point that stargate command probably would back off let them figure out what's going on after they've blown themselves into oblivion some people would get upset and speak up against it but it's not stargate's problem unfortunately for the command staff they lost one of their own and due to this a plan would need to be conceived to save him whether the forces of earth liked it or not they'd have to choose a side and help restore the government they would work with the rebels who wanted to restore the government to what it was and the attack would ultimately be successful daniels would promise to them that they would help and luckily it doesn't just end here like most series would do we actually get a resolution we made a promise and we intend to keep it we'll be back to help you rebuild before i go into the next episode i do want to kind of discuss the conclusion of this episode they continually say that it wasn't stargate command's fault that daniels didn't do anything wrong that this would have happened anyway and while that might be true it didn't happen any other way it happened because people walked through the stargate and those people were from earth it really was their fault at least in some ways now could they have prevented it maybe but honestly the planet was probably doomed the minute they stepped on it it was a powder keg after all but someone lit it and the person who lit it doesn't get off because it was always going to be lit now the debate on why they had to come onto the planet is a different conversation altogether so let's look at the next episode it was already clear your government wasn't going to offer us the type of weapons and technology this prior was offering us you see we weren't just on the verge of suffering defeat at the hands of the caledonians we were on the verge of collapsing as a nation now we see the conclusion of what's going to happen in this arc and the planet in the episode ethon here we see what happens when a world touched by stargate command is then visited by the bad guys i won't be going into the big bad the priory or anything of that nature again that's a conversation for another time but needless to say the broken and destroyed world with two major powers still fighting each other are visited by a superior race that is against the heroes of the show stargate command had left the world open to be manipulated by these people and again some people say it's not their fault but stargate command didn't have to make it so easy the big bads offer the ram protectorate technology that would give them complete domination of the planet while we know that earth was working to help and provide aid to the planet they weren't doing it fast enough and so the rand protectorate forsakes earth and begins to build this weapon of mass destruction and honestly why shouldn't they earth's help was slow and largely ineffective this new entity offered a much more permanent solution so they went with the quick and easy what i do love about all of this is how ironic it is or are not arming their followers who says they won't eventually help them build ships capable of attacking other planets we need to nip this trend squarely in the bud the gate being activated has given them all they need to prove that they were right all along their numbers will grow that's terrible and yet not our problem it's capable of attacking other planets and yet not our problem in the first episode this was a situation that involved one planet that's something they can ignore but now they have an entity that is about to be built up and can be used against earth so we're off to the races those at stargate are going to have to become directly involved they can't allow a rogue state to have advanced technology that ultimately could be used to destroy them now there were elements that wanted to try to talk to both the rand protectorate and the caledonians to convince them not to do this but to be blunt stargate only really got very very involved when their own safety was at risk this was just a problem for people who weren't connected to earth until they were and when weapons of mass destruction that could threaten human lives became a problem they would then deploy the mega ship the prometheus this vessel would have the mission of destroying the satellite of doom if they couldn't come to some kind of understanding unfortunately the information that stargate had would be bad and the ship would get the holy living hellbeat out of it and i just love how poetic this battle is the captain and there was a part of star gate would opt to try to destroy the satellite first they had the option of talking but they felt that it wouldn't work so they fired their weapons and then they found they were fighting an enemy that could actually fight back and once they were the ones that were weak once they couldn't defend themselves they sued for peace the hubris of stargate command is on full display in these two episodes and it's really interesting to consider the situation the head of the rand protectorate is quite obviously the bad guy and i'm not justifying him but he's not completely wrong ever since sg1 had came through that stargate they have been nothing but trouble the entirety of the planet was in shambles because of actions that they took now they didn't mean for it to happen but still the actions that they took caused this devastation so he has very little reason not to blow the prometheus out of the sky pragmatically to be fair he does from an empathy and moral standpoint there's a lot of reasons not to destroy a disabled vessel but again that's a conversation for another time with little fanfare the prometheus is gone and a lot of people are probably dead but thanks to great scientists and actual real world tech tech sg1 finds a way where they can destroy the satellite and this is where we have another decision by sg1 instead of destroying it they talk to both sides and offer them a chance for peace rand is offering the gate and a limited ceasefire so all those from caledonia who do not want to follow origin and wish to seek refuge on another planet and do so they want us to leave our home our planet personally i think carter's idea makes little sense why not destroy the satellite and let the caledonians escape anyway it'll take time to rebuild it so they've really put a clock there but at least they've gotten people talking and talking is where war always begins and it always ends for most of this i've been pretty hard on the scoobies at sg1 and i should be because the problem with this entire scenario is that while everything states that they didn't do it and i know i've said this like six times they really did it didn't happen another way it happened because of the people at earth and no matter how hard they tried to fix it once they got that ball started to roll it couldn't be stopped these people probably were going to destroy each other no matter what but stargate didn't have to make it easier for them tying this into what i discussed at the top as well as the title i stated quite unequivocally that stargate is better when it comes to matters of the prime directive and i stand by that stargate as a series is willing to take a look at interference and show actual consequences you have people you want to help and you try but fail and then you get to see what happens once you've failed everyone is trying to do what's best for them i believe that stargate was working in the best interests of everybody i believe the ram protectorate was trying to work in the best interests of everybody and i believe that the caledonians were as well but they just couldn't trust each other there is not an episode that i could really break down like this for star trek but i do believe that the writers could have done something with this they just chose not to now why they didn't is an interesting conversation and one i'll have at a later date now i have three videos to do because of this one so i guess thanks me for that but let me know what you guys think of all of this put your thoughts in the comments don't forget to rate subscribe and i'll see you on the next lore reloaded

Channel: Lore Reloaded

Views: 212,840

Keywords: Lore, Lore Reloaded, Lore Master, star trek vs stargate ships, star wars vs star trek vs stargate, star trek stargate, stargate 200 star trek, stargate analysis, star trek sg1, prime directive star trek, prime directive debate, Non Interference

Id: KoPGQcsHJgw

Length: 15min 38sec (938 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 17 2022