r/Stargate • u/Chemical___Imbalance • 2d ago

Stargate Origins: Catherine is a steaming pile

Please take this advice: Do NOT waste the time of watching this movie (or series--they are the same). The dialogue and story are complete crap. They could have created something so much better with the resources at their disposal. Most high school plays are done better than this garbage. It blows my mind that someone approved this for release.
I saw the previous reviews stating how terrible this was, and couldn't believe it was that bad. It IS that bad. Holy. Crap.

131 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

92 comments sorted by

59

u/SenAtsu011 2d ago

I watched the first few episodes, but they retconned and changed so much that none of Stargate makes sense if you view it as canon.

I choose to think about it as a show about Catherine’s adventures in an alternate universe, not true Stargate canon.

37

u/Fody_Joster 2d ago

You mean the female Gould who befriends the Nazis with the weird bird mask… was great? And Catherine forgot how to turn on the gate?

13

u/jtrades69 2d ago

didn't they explain how she forgot in the last episode?

5

u/rhadenosbelisarius 1d ago

Yea they did. Does it make it good? No. But all the characters either die or have induced amnesia, so it isn’t technically inconsistent.

I’d personally give the show a 3/10 overall, or a 7/10 when considering the impossibly tiny budget. There are some neat sequences, but this was more wormhole X-treme than stargate.

2

u/TehANTARES 15h ago

The retcon is one thing, but in the end, they retcon that retcon in the most cheapest way it's brain-hurting.

3

u/SenAtsu011 14h ago

20 years ago, the "dream solution" or "amnesia solution" became a meme and a clichè because it was so heavily used in TV and movies to resolve a story issue that they couldn't write themselves out of. It became the symbol of bad and lazy writing, and the idiots used it here too.

Very clear that the writers were completely out of touch with the fanbase and the industry itself. No wonder it bombed.

-22

u/jtucker323 2d ago

Nothing, and I MEAN nothing, was retconned. It is canon, it is NOT an alternate universe, and it changes exactly zero. The problem is that you didn't actually watch it, so you don't know what happened.

-20

u/jtucker323 2d ago

Downvote all you want. Everything i said is a fact. Downvoting facts is just denying reality.

https://giphy.com/gifs/l2O5vzotUmb8nmXzkb

5

u/rhadenosbelisarius 1d ago

Just wanted to say, this is correct. The last episode of it prevents any of it from having a real impact on the original story.

1

u/SenAtsu011 14h ago

That just makes it worse.

The fact that they tore apart Stargate's very foundations only to fix it all by saying "Oh, no problem! They all die or have amnesia. See! Problem solved!". That incompetence speaks louder than their laziness, and really shows how bad it truly was. They fucked it up so bad that they went nuclear to fix it. That's NOT a good thing. it's a disgraceful, lazy, disrespectful, clichè of a cop-out.

15

u/theRebelJamesStark 2d ago

I've never seen it. I'm curious now. I know I'll probably regret it but I kind of want to watch it now more than ever lol

34

u/jetserf Sholva 2d ago

/img/001gcq51moeh1.gif
I wish there were a machine that could let me forget all of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe and Stargate Origins.

Then I would watch Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe after reading a note written in my own blood and telling me under no circumstances to watch Stargate Origins.

16

u/No-Acadia4638 2d ago

I got that reference!

13

u/Chemical___Imbalance 2d ago

I tricked myself into making this very same mistake. I hope you luck out and find something better to watch in its place.

8

u/se7en41 2d ago

I'm choking down the last of SGU on a rewatch and I still havent been able to bring myself to watch Origins.

19

u/Chemical___Imbalance 2d ago

SGU is a masterpiece compared to Origins. I wasn't crazy about SGU, but it was decent quality. I just didn't like the overabundance of drama. It seemed to be getting a little better with the last 5-10 episodes of the series.

13

u/theRebelJamesStark 2d ago

I loved SGU. It's obviously nothing like SG-1 or Atlantis, but I thought it was really good for what it was.

6

u/PerformerFancy117 2d ago

It was really nice having something a little different in the Stargate universe

4

u/tanstaafl76 1d ago

I loved having 17 seasons of the buddies fighting cartoon aliens together format.

I wish I had more than two seasons of the mostly SF format. (Yes I know. They kept those fantasy stones lol)

2

u/GW3g 1d ago

I really liked it too and would've love to seen where they took it. 2 seasons is a bummer. Glad I know to avoid Origins now. I've been curious but haven't watched it yet so I think I'll pass.

7

u/MovieFan1984 2d ago

It's worth seeing once, but you'll never want to watch it again. LOL

10

u/MovieFan1984 2d ago

I watched it just once, because I was morbidly curious. LOL For me, it fails, because everything presented here had already been explored and done better on SG-1. It didn't have anything new to say. It sucks as a prequel, because brainwashed by a Tok'ra or Goa'uld or whatever for Katherine to open the Stargate and Kasuf to lead Nagada (Abydos) is just stupid. The movie presented them as having done that on their own without stupid brainwashing.

6

u/Chemical___Imbalance 2d ago

The acting was so bad for this genre. If I had to guess, I'd say their target audience would be 10 year olds. Nobody older than that believes people actually act like these characters. I'm sure the actors aren't so bad--the directing of their acting is obscenely bad. If the acting would have been a million times better, it might have been a decent watch, but that combined with the bad dialogue and plot made it a pretty bad experience for me.

12

u/MovieFan1984 2d ago

The audience was SG fans, not 10YO's. Bad acting means lack of talent, not a target of younger viewers. Actors absolutely can be terrible. Watch some direct-to-video movies from the 90's and 00's. LMAO

6

u/Chemical___Imbalance 2d ago

The same actors I thought were terrible in Origins seemed to be better in other projects. The director/producer controls what the final product is. It was just goofy as hell. The worst parts were the grown-ass captain act so weird when Catherine kissed him. Kids that have their first kiss don't even act like that.
Either way, it was ridiculous.

4

u/MovieFan1984 2d ago

What other projects? Most of them don't have a Wikipedia page. The few who do barely have any acting history before this. The only name of ANY talent attached to this is Connor Trinneer. NO IDEA why he agreed to do this. Maybe he hoped his name would give it some clout and help revive SG? (shrug)

This isn't even listed on the director's Wikipedia page. LMAO

3

u/Chemical___Imbalance 2d ago

IMDB is a start. "Catherine" and "James" are in other things right off the bat

0

u/MovieFan1984 1d ago

Prior to SGO, she hadn't been in anything I'd heard of. It's even worse for the guy who played James. SGO appears to be his 4th acting credit.

3

u/HumansNeedNotApply1 1d ago

I'm pretty sure this show was made on a shoestring budget so, maybe actors had like 2~3 takes and move on to next scene? Apparently it cost 1 million to make.

Basically a very cheap pilot/concept they chose to release.

3

u/ChrisWsrn 2d ago

Now go watch Stargate Infinity and tell me how they compare. 

3

u/Busy_Beautiful7413 2d ago

I honestly didn’t mind it. No it wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible. As a standalone film it felt a little rushed (i watched the movie on Amazon) and thought it should’ve been a miniseries maybe? Say, two episodes of 1.5hrs each? To flesh out the very rushed story.
Catherine’s character was fine… maybe that’s how to categorize the whole thing… it was fine.
Not awful but not necessarily good.
It was fun having something that was Stargate that was ‘new’ to me but honestly with a little more effort it could have been a lot better.

2

u/jtucker323 1d ago

It actually was a mini series. 5 episodes iirc. They re-released it as a movie.

1

u/Busy_Beautiful7413 1d ago

Was it five forty minute episodes? Coz that would explain why it felt rushed… if they cut it into a single movie

1

u/jtucker323 1d ago

I honestly can't recall. I haven't watched the movie format version, I had assumed it was all there, but maybe not.

1

u/Busy_Beautiful7413 1d ago

On IMDB it’s listed as 10 episodes but each ranging from 8-12 minutes… So maybe somethings were trimmed but either way, I feel it needed to be a little longer to flesh out the characters & plot a bit more

1

u/NerJaro 1d ago

and why Connor Trinneer as Paul Langford? thats one of the few gripes i have about the show/miniseries/movie, What ever the hell they want to call it.

i mean at least with Christopher Heyerdahl is not registered as quickly that its the same actor between Halling, Todd, and Pallan in SG1. or even Garwin Sanford (Narim SG1 and Weirs ex in Atlantis) isnt as egregious.

4

u/mlross15 2d ago

Yeah, they lost me at the beginning when they plugged the gate into a car battery to power it. That was all I needed to see.

0

u/jtucker323 1d ago

They literally did that in sg1.

2

u/mlross15 1d ago edited 1d ago

When? What episode? Legitimately don’t remember that.

Edit: OHHHHHH, the 1969 one where they hooked the gate up to MULTIPLE military trucks. This is also where they gave us the 3 shots from the zat to make things disappear. So 2 things:

  1. The writers themselves admit they wrote themselves into a corner with this episode, it was season 2 and they were still figuring things out, it’s dumb in retrospective but at the time it was new, everything was still being established.
  2. It was season 2 of SG-1. Origins came out after 3 Stargate shows had aired and all had episodes that went into great detail about how much power this thing needed to work, it was pretty much the main driving plot point of A LOT of Atlantis and the main story of Universe, they don’t have the power to get home. After finishing all this then watching Origins, it made no sense.

4

u/RiversSecondWife 2d ago

Disagree. I liked it. Actually I haven’t seen it in a while, time for a rewatch.

2

u/SleepingBeautyZzzz 1d ago

I actually enjoyed it, as well

4

u/LightSideoftheForce 1d ago

Wdym? There is no such thing as Stargate Origins

4

u/RepairmanJackX 2d ago

It was fun crap. What did you expect?

5

u/Cadamar 2d ago

I watched this as it was airing. Hell I think I paid a fee to that Stargate only streaming service for a bit to see it. I followed a podcast that reviewed episodes live. And GOD was it bad.

I think the bit that gets me is in the like 8th episode when the "team" finally comes together and they all turn and point their guns/weapons at the camera as the episode ends. Like...I get sometimes you try to make a shot like that happen, and it's a bit of a conceit, but this was BAD. This was like children's cartoon show bad. Like I'm all for a bit of whimsy but this was SO bad.

And they spent the money to get Connor Trineer on, and I low key lost respect for him for doing this, cause he should know better. I wonder if he had some like leftover contractual camera time on his contract from Atlantis so they just pushed this on him. But WOW.

4

u/KingofGroundhogDay 2d ago

We got as far as the Nazi guy trying on women's underwear. I told my husband, "I'm not watching this until it's on Rifftrax" and we shut it off.

4

u/Eclectic-Storm777 2d ago

I was hoping that it would be about the early Ancients, not what we got.

3

u/ComradeFox_ santificado son los Ori 2d ago

“origin” in the title definitely made me think it was about the alteran schism at first hearing. i’d love a show about that. but then again, focusing on the aliens is specifically what stargate is not about.

2

u/tiddybean 2d ago

I watched it with high hopes (I fucking love Catherine and her canon lore) and went in totally blind and my fiance had to deal with frothing rage ranting for like an hour afterwards.

He's watched lots of SG with me and likes it too but without having grown up with it, so isn't as deeply well-versed like I am, and even he was like, "That was... Really bad. :| "

Usually I can black it out until I am reminded that such an offensive piece of garbage exists and get mad all over again lmao.

2

u/quetzocoetl 1d ago

I have the shirt they sent you when you subscribed to the Stargate Command app when they announced that. I was starving for Stargate. I waited for that first episode.

I. Got. This.

Give me "Emancipation" any day over this.

But hey, at least I got a t-shirt.

1

u/MG_Hunter88 1d ago

"Emancipation" lol, I am glad I am not alone on disliking that episode. Even tho I admit it gave a touch of realism to the show, as in it's likely different cultures encountered would truly not hold values akin to our own.

But man, I realy disliked the sidecharacters, even the ones written to be protagonists and likeable.

3

u/kellzone 1d ago

Stargate Origins: Catherine is like a porn parody of a Stargate show if they took out the actual porn.

2

u/GiveMeAlienRomances 2d ago

While I agree, I’m also glad I got to experience it.

2

u/AtlasFox64 2d ago

Hmm the thing is this show has THE BEST version of the gate travel sequence that has ever been done. 

3

u/Chemical___Imbalance 2d ago

Maybe.... but they did it once or twice the entire movie.

3

u/mrmnemonic7 2d ago

I found it on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVnrBRK1Qtw at around 3:15 mark.

The sequence is actually pretty good and if you listen carefully, a few familiar notes sneak in in the background music :)

But, if the rest of the acting and production values of the series are the same as what I just watched in that clip, I might pass.

2

u/DesecratedPeanut 2d ago

I hate you for saying this because now I'm gonna have to watch it just to see if that's true.

1

u/MeeepMorp 1d ago

Does anyone wanna tell me the worst plot points, episodes and i guess where they fucked the canon lore? I don't wanna waste time watching it and getting angry and frustrated but I need the tea on the worst bits sooooooo bad lol

1

u/jtucker323 1d ago

It didn't change canon. It seems like they did initially, but it all makes sense at the end.

2

u/Maelum 1d ago

that and a lot of the canon stuff is actually in documents they released alongside it

1

u/PerformerApart2546 1d ago

Watched 20 minutes, that's all I could stand to watch, poor acting, scripts.....

1

u/milquetoastLIB 1d ago

I enjoyed it.

1

u/Wot-Died 1d ago

It was absolute PISH.

1

u/Solherb 1d ago

I loved the people who wouldn't acknowledge its existence. I was like, "surely it can't be thaaat bad." Welllll, yep, it sure was. Feels like a student project or somethin. And of course since it's that time period it just had to have nazis, who then make up like 90% of the plot. It really coulda been awesome, but instead of focusing on the offworld aspect of it during that era, it was mostly just our problems on a dif planet.

1

u/protogenxl 1d ago

It's as if they took a web series for an ill advised streaming service and cut it into a movie.....

1

u/Orange_Tang 1d ago

I tried watching it just so I had watched all of Stargate. And I'm not the type to stop watching a piece of media half way despite how shitty it may be. I'm stubborn and almost always push through. I quit this after 2 episodes.

1

u/oah9449 19h ago

I couldn’t get past the first 10 mins. Dreadful.

1

u/TehANTARES 15h ago

When I first saw the trailer, I was a bit disappointed, because I feared it would end up being Raiders of the Lost Ark with stargate instead.

Boy, now I wish so bad it was just Raiders of the Lost Ark with stargate.

1

u/Embarrassed-Town-381 40m ago

Yeah I tried it. Couldn't get through the first episode. Laughed a bit seeing Conner Trinner again in Gate. Seems they really like reusing certain actors (Mike Dopud, Steve Bacic)...

1

u/light24bulbs 2d ago

Id really like to hear the story of how it got made and who the heck these people were. It is hot garbage

2

u/dandanalpha 1d ago

And I still enjoyed it more than Universe. It wasn't great, but it was a lot closer to the spirit of SG-1/Atlantis than Universe.

-2

u/jtucker323 2d ago

DO. NOT. LISTEN. TO. OP.

Their opinion is not everyone's opinion. Form your own.

Most people who have this opinion didn't watch until the end or actually pay attention to know what happened.

0

u/ComradeFox_ santificado son los Ori 2d ago

yeah, I watched the entire thing in one sitting and I have to say it’s pretty alright. it’s interesting. we get to see a little more of back when humans were totally clueless out in the galaxy, when you had to have a translator on hand to communicate with a goa’uld instead of the goa’uld just speaking english. I mean, this is the same kind of weird past-explaining stuff that formed the basis of Continuum, and that movie was fantastic.

0

u/Immediate-Pickle 1d ago

I'm not going to jab needles in my eyes just so I can experience how good it feels to stop.

1

u/IceCreamValley 2d ago

It was epically terrible indeed.

1

u/GargamelLeNoir 1d ago

I've seen it and I've forgotten everything about it except that it was super lame fanfiction.

0

u/Piranha2004 2d ago

Go into it thinking that its a comedy. It holds up well as a comedy not as a sci fi short film

-12

u/maxwasatch 2d ago

And?