sholio | Awwww .... show...

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tv:sga

Awwww .... show...

SGA will end its run with season 5.

My thoughts on this:

I'm sad. Of course I am. I've fanned harder and heavier on SGA than on any show since I was a teenager. (And they couldn't have waited until next week to announce this, after the inevitable "Shrine"-high, could they? *g*) The show has been a disturbingly integral part of my life for over two years, and it feels like a bit of a punch in the gut that we won't get to have new adventures of Team SGA anymore. It's also sad because it really felt like they were hitting their stride during seasons 4 and 5, and I really would have liked to see what they did after that.

But ... here's why I'm not too depressed about it. 5 years is a good, solid run for a series. Most of the shows I've fanned on have made it a lot less than that. (My last active fanning on an open-canon show was "Invisible Man", and that only made it for two seasons!) With the shows I've watched that did go for more than five seasons, it seemed like most of them tanked in later seasons, in some cases to the point where my enjoyment of earlier seasons is tainted by the massive pile of suck that the show later became. (I'm not saying *every* show does this. But an awful lot of them do.) Back at the start of season 3, I remember saying that I hoped the show would run for five seasons and go out on a high note. Now that we're here, er, I'm kinda eating my words a little bit XD ... but, honestly, I am glad it's going out on a high note with strong episodes and a thriving fandom, not limping to a conclusion with most of the fandom having moved on to shinier pastures.

And I'm heartened by looking around me at other closed-canon fandoms. As far as I can tell, based on my f'list, SG1 fandom is still going just as strong as it was at the close of season 10. Sentinel and Due South were cancelled a decade ago, but both of them still seem to have active fandoms and new fans coming in as they discover the shows. Most of the shows I've fanned on other than SGA are shows that had either been cancelled when I started watching them, or had a planned limited run (like most anime does, or like Life on Mars) so it's not like this is new for me.

There's a mellowness to closed-canon fanning that's kind of nice. As wonderful as it is to get new canon every week, it's an emotional roller coaster ride as canon changes, stories get jossed, ships run aground and fans freak out over new developments. Once the show's over, we can still write our happily-ever-afters, explore the Pegasus galaxy, and make up detailed life histories for every character -- without any worries of being contradicted by canon or having our favorite characters die.

I'm sad about losing the show, I really really am, but I'm also kind of happy and even excited about being active in a closed-canon fandom again. It's not really worse, it's just ... different. (And I'm already contemplating "keep the show alive!" projects of various sorts. I am the woman who ran the Trigun Virtual Third Season, after all. [Edit: which, wow, is still online. Is that a trip down memory lane or what. I haven't thought about it in ages!])

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I've never been into a fandom while being heavily active and had it go away. To me I've lost something, wondering who'll go with it.

You have a point about things being active after canon is gone, but this is MY fandom. I don't have another one, not really, so it feels so odd to feel so sad about it.

As far as the run, my biggest problem is the reason for it being axed.

SGU

It was all about ratings to get season 5, now that SGU came into the picture and ratings went up, then all of a sudden there were other 'issues'.

Anyway, maybe I'll go read some big bang fic, I was going to write, but don't feel motivated. Thanks though for the pep talk, it did feel like things would slip away with the show, but I guess it won't.

*nods*
Considering my first fandom was for a (admittedly 11 season) canon that ended a year after I was born and my second fandom was a 10 part miniseries I discovered 3 years after it aired...I can pretty much guarantee closed canon isn't the end of the world or anywhere near the end of fandom. In fact, in some ways it gives you more freedom to play because you can't get Jossed. I was freaked out when I joined Stargate fandom and had to figure out how to deal with open canon.

I...yeah. I feel like I should care more, but 5 years is a solid run and personally I feel like it's been flailing around without a central purpose, and, well, part of me thinks fandom can keep it better.

I just hope season 5 is excellent and it goes out with a solid, exciting bang (hopefully not a LITERAL bang)

Plus! Movies!

Ha, I loved the Invisible Man - I was just watching an episode last night.

And this is a good way of looking at things - and lets face it a door opens, so you jimmy open a window, crawl through it and get a movie, maybe even a couple. And as you say just because the source material will be closing up shop doesn't mean that the community that we've formed has to suffer for it.

Nice post.

I'm still pissed.

But, there are many reasons why I am pissed today and canceling a show that I really, really enjoy was just icing on the cake for me. So I'm going to bed and I'm going to restrain myself as much as possible from strangling someone at work tomorrow when I send back an element for the same damn mistake that they've made every single day and...yeah.

Still very sad, I like this show and I'm going to miss it. Your post rocked however and at least I feel a little better about this part of my day than I did earlier. I'm still going to kill someone at work.

They better end the show with a really great ending, at lease give us that.

Court

Very well said.

I had come into this season with the expectation that, likely, it would be the last. It still hurts a little, as it's a huge, bright shiny point in my week, but as long as we still have fandom... I think I'll be happy. This is the first show I've been involved with fandom from the show's start to finish.

I'm glad that it's going out on a high note, because I do love this show so much.

I liked INVISIBLE MAN, until they inserted that woman into the show (to draw in the teenager boys). I'm not happy with the cancellation, a two hour movie isn't enough (and worse, Mallozzi will pen it - he's not a good writer when it comes to character develoment). I do think SGU is the main reason for its death - two shows are very expensive to run. New shiny toys are cheaper and they can hope for a hit. It's a business decision of course, but fans are fans of characaters not explosions, so i'm sure a lot of SGA fans will not bother with SGU because, hey, no SHeppard? No McKay? No watch...

Meanwhile, think the boards will burn with ranting for the next day or two, which is normal.

For me, I guess what hurts is that...well, I didn't love S4 like a lot of other people seemed to. It had some great moments, but mostly it just always seemed like a transitional year to me. But with S5 and Woolsey here now (I've been loving Woolsey) I've really felt like the show was getting back on track, and I was looking forward to seeing that dynamic play out over at least one more year. I didn't have much hope in it going beyond that, or interest really - you're right that a lot of shows start going downhill in the later seasons. And cast contracts would have to be renegotiated after S6 (if I'm not mistaken-everything I've heard says that the cast were signed for six years originally), and Jason Momoa has already made it clear in interviews that he wanted to do something else after a sixth season. So a sixth season seemed like a natural ending, and this just feels (to me) like getting cut off too soon. :(

As far as fandom goes, I'm sure fanfiction and everything will be around for a long time. But SGA is my first and only real fandom. Yeah, I watch other shows, and read fanfic for them, but I've mostly stayed on the edges - on the outside looking in so to speak. I don't really forsee myself finding another fandom - I think this was it for me. It's too stressful!! :D So yeah, it's sad. But I'll get over it-it's just a TV show after all! :) I'm just going to miss John and Rodney a lot! :(

I prefer it if shows I love either get a real finite arc, or kind of die slowly. For me even if I dislike later stuff, it's never ruined my enjoyment of the earlier parts. I stuck with the *X-Files* through the end (though I didn't watch all of the last seasons), and that decline didn't ruin my love for the earlier seasons in any way beyond being mildly disgruntled with conspiracy arc being truly non-sensical, and that kind of process gives me time to let the show go rather than have it taken from me. For me the "risk" to have a show kind of suck is always worth it, and better than not having the show at all, because then there is zero chance for it to be still good.

Very similar thinking, my friend. Having only ever written for closed canon before, I can tell you -- it's really freeing. So, its sad, but its also sort of exciting.

Basically, I just agree. Which, frankly, isn't anything new.

Oddly enough, I'm more sad about not having any more McKay than I am about not having any more show, if that makes any sense. But... fandom will continue on, so it's really not the end of the world.

I think all my cancellation rage was burned out of me after the end of SG1, anyways. It takes too much energy.

Your views have made me feel better. Though I'm still a mite sad.

Though SGA isn't my first fandom, it is the first fandom I've really sunk my teeth into: the first show where I was actually interested in things like behind-the-scenes photos, cast interviews, spoilers, forums and so on. And despite a few frustrations - mostly with fanfic - it's been one heck of a wild ride for me. I also owe this show for all the story ideas it gave me and for all the writing it provoked me to do, helping me build my writing muscles, so to speak. So though I knew the end would eventually come - and, like you, had a feeling season five would be it - it's still a bit of a kick-to-the-gut shock. Heck, I almost cried, and I've never wanted to cry over a cancelled show.

But what you've said has helped. For me, it used to be that once a show left the air, my interest in that show went with it. But that was before we started getting fave shows on DVD, and before my discovery of fandom. I do not want SGA to fade into obscurity for me - becoming a show that either I no longer have an interest to ever see again or a show that made me wonder why I ever liked it in the first place. I do not want that to happen with SGA and, hopefully, through fandom and having every episode on DVD, it won't.

Finally (and I apologize for being so long winded about this) you have a point. Better the show end on a high-note than gradually decay - which is exactly what had happened with the last two sci-fi shows I was obsessed with (and one of them only lasted for five seasons as well). It's why a part of me is able to see the positive side to this. It's better that the show end with people disappointed that it's over, rather than people disappointed that they kept pushing for more episodes.

*g* So, basically you're saying that it's sad not to have new episodes coming but also better for the nerves in the long run. ;-)

Yeah, that's a way to see it and I'll probably come around to this opinion too sooner or later but for now I'm still ... *uhm* sulking, I guess. And shedding a few tears while I'm on it.

I was in Sentinel fandom for 7 years before I discovered (or rather: was dragged kicking and screaming into) SGA last year and fell *hard* for it. So, I know what it means to be in a fandom that has a closed canon but getting your favorite show cancelled while still in the honeymoon phase with it is a litte ... well, it hurts somewhat and not in the good way.

*Sigh* It was not a surprising decision with SG Universe waiting in the wings and all the money-related reasons but still ... not exactly happy right now.

I'm crushed. really crushed. I think 5 years was WAY too short :( Especially when it was growing in the ratings this year and winning awards. I can see if it was declining. :( :( :(

I'm going to send Sci-Fi lemons.

Thank you for this post. I've never been in a closed fandom except for brief glimpses here and there so I'm almost looking forward to it. It will be nice to know that the writers can't mess with canon whenever they feel like it and knowing the characters won't die makes me happy. *searches for silver lining*

This is comforting. Thanks for being a voice of reason. ;)

*snuggles*

Yeah it's hard. this is the first TV fandom I've been actively involved in, and only the second fandom at all, so I don't have the same experience to gain the perspective you do. LOTR was semi-closed canon when it resurged for the movies, and we knew from the beginning when we'd be getting no more new material.

This is tough, and I'm a little scared of what they might do to end the franchise in the movies - but I won't get into that.

On the plus side - meta will be hugely easier with closed canon. And five years is fantastic. this season isn't halfway through and I've finally seen the Teyla stuff I wanted, had awesome Ronon stuff, TEAM Dork Squad, snark a plenty, Woolsey... and not an Ori or Prior equivalent in sight!

But, unlike some who centre on fanfic, watching the show itself was the centre of my fandom experience, even if I didn't always want to take it apart afterwards. So to not have this is very very very sad.

I know many are already saying "I hate SGU and won't watch on principle", but I'll be there waiting to see what happens. Heck, I pre-judged SGA negatively and look how that turned out!

I can totally see all of this. I usually think 5 seasons should be the limit for all shows. And heck...I'd rather have canon closed now before they kill off Kanaan or marry Rodney off to Keller (...okay, okay, will stop being snarky, but it's a positive thought for me & my McSheppiness! And who knows what they'll do in the movies, but they'll be far enough removed by then not to matter...)

I just wish it hadn't happened so soon. I wish I could've had a couple more months of hope at the very least, because now, watching every ep is going to hurt a little, knowing it's the last we'll get (melodramatic, much?!) Mostly I'm personally upset - I'm still fairly new to SGA here, it's still shiny enough that I'm going to miss it a lot. If only I'd listened to you sooner and given my soul away a couple years ago! I only got to experience the excitement of one premiere (and no mid-season premiere, even) and that's not fair! And I know I'm not going to be in it for that much longer (I know myself too well), and to be drifting away when everyone's still sad...it hurts.

Also, I'm going to miss Rodney & David Hewlett's presence on my screen a lot. And everyone else, of course. But him most especially...

After shock, pain, and horror at the crash-and-burn ending of the Harry Potter series, I took refuge in closed-canon (Sentinel and dueSouth): they were warm and fuzzy and untouchable, just what I needed. Deciding to follow a show that was actually *airing* in the US (with the hassle of trying to get episodes, and being jossed, and spoilers, nrgh) was a big decision. So there is comfort in knowing that, when canon closes, it's safe. I just hope that S5 doesn't pack any unpleasant surprises before it goes.

*crosses fingers for a dueSouth-style ride into the sunset, as opposed to WTF my ship is dead HP-style closure*

It sucks that SGA has been cancelled but I watched Due South and the Sentinel and yes have had to live with the axing of more than one show. (I must say I like the UK where they make six episodes a year and clearly tell you that it will only run for three or whatever years.)
It's sad but I guess we roll with it. You are right about the fanfic because Canon will no longer change.
:( (And it's a work night so I can't have a drink but even then with the Saturday driving lessons I couldn't drink tomorrow night.)

I'm somewhat disappointed that it will just end in the middle (I hope they didn't do a cliffhanger for the S5 ending???) rather than having a real end, but on the whole, I am not too upset about it.

I much prefer closed-canon fandoms, and I have been watching the show more to keep up with canon so I can participate in fandom than because I really enjoy watching it, so now I don't have to take an hour out of my day every week to watch something I'm not that thrilled with.

I'd been unhappily contemplating life w/o Ronon (Momoa has said he'd like S5 to be his last), and at least that isn't going to happen (or at least is less likely).

I'll miss the post-ep squee (and anti-squee), that's for sure.

But I'm already kind of excited about what I could do, fic-wise, with the characters with a closed canon. Not that there's anything stopping me now; but I like to stay in-canon.

- Helen

It's great to read this, having just been blind sided with the news. I've never fallen for a show like I fell for this one. Sure, new stuff comes ablong. But could there really ever be another McShep? No way.

Having said that, you're right. Closed canon can still be fun, and I'm already looking forward to a virtual 6th season:) I just hope folks stick around and keep writing our boys. They're the best hobby I've ever indulged in.

Thanks so much for the pep talk :)

I think at least 50% of my guttedness is that my 2008 has sucked, and this means there will be no new shinies to make 2009 better. 10% of it is that it feels like they're killing the cash cow ("oh lookie, we're about to hit syndication, we can stop spending money now") but that might be me being overly cynical. The rest, I'll probably get over.

What you're saying makes a lot of sense, thanks. Once the shock dies down, hopefully things will be as happy and creative as the Due South fandom that my best friend keeps trying to drag me into. Maybe I'll have the time for it now!

Friend's friends hopping here...

I came into SGA just this year. I was really sad about how my other show, Supernatural, always wavered on the brink of cancelation and I was so sure that SGA would continue for at least one more year. That's why this hit me really hard. Actually so hard that I literally cried my eyes out. Whenever a show is canceled, I feel like I lost a friend...

My problem is that once a show ends, I lose slowly interest in the fanfics. I need the show to feed my interest in fanfiction. I lost interest in SG1, The Sentinel, Due South fics... And I don't want it to happen with SGA but I know it will and that depresses me even more...

ETA: You know, I wouldn't be so upset if I knew that S5 would be the last. But at Comic Con, the Sci-fi representative raised everybody's hope for the future of the show so this cancelation feels like such a blow...

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