![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rodoI remembered that I wrote this months ago because today is Stargate Wednesday on RTL2. I think I mentioned it somewhere already, so I’m posting this before I forget about it again.
So I’ve been watching a lot of Stargate lately, both SG-1 and Atlantis. Which isn’t quite that unusual since I used to watch it every Wednesday until Pro7 decided to air the xth season of Buffy in the same time slot, and given the choice between Stargate and Buffy, my father lost and my brother and I won. That was before I changed schools for the last time, I think, so it’s been eight or nine years. And I’ve changed since then. As has Stargate. Characters died and left and … well, I don’t want to spoil anyone, but a lot has changed.
I also realise that what I’m about to say has probably been said a zillion times before, but a lot has been bugging me about the Stargate franchise from the start, back when I still lacked the words and the knowledge to express my thoughts. I also find it easier to accept some problematic content (like the premise that pyramids were built for spaceships and its implications) while some insignificant details annoy me to no end. I can suspend my disbelief only selectively, apparently. I also realise that sometimes, the shows did it right. I’m talking more about my general impressions.
Pretty much the first thing I had problems with? Aliens speaking English. First off: The aliens in the movie didn’t speak English. They spoke some version of Egyptian, if I remember it right, which makes the switch even more confusing. The major civilisations even get to keep their own languages, but they still speak English. The show uses other languages mostly as something decorative. As someone who studies languages, I find it hard to understand how language barriers could not be a problem. And not only are the languages pure decoration and occasional plot device: the cultures are, too.
The Stargate cultures are my next problem. The human cultures generally fall in two categories: the technologically and culturally inferior and the technologically superior and culturally inferior. I don’t remember a human civilisation that was portrayed as culturally superior on the show. There was always some point on which earth (and by that I mean America) was superior. This leads to a lot of unfortunate implications because many, many of the human civilisations off world were modelled after civilisations on earth. This essentially means that America is portrayed as vastly superior to any other country on earth. The other civilisations are helpless, America has to save them, and once America saved them and everything is shiny, the other civilisations appreciate it and America’s goodness is once again reinforced.
Sound familiar? It does to me, considering I grew up in one of the two countries where that actually worked out, if Michael Mittermeier is to be believed. In most other cases: not so much. It also reminds me of the arguments made in the 19th century to justify colonialism. Sure, the SGC doesn’t want colonies, but the show still portrays the Americans in a way similar to the colonialists. They are the benevolent people whose burden it is to help the rest of the universe. They can fix everything, even if the natives couldn’t figure it out for thousands of years, the SG teams will within the episode. There are even the token characters from other civilisations that support and validate their goal.
I also find it quite problematic how earth is portrayed. At the beginning, the Stargate program is top secret. It endangers the whole world without the rest of the world not knowing and not having any say in it. That always struck me as extremely arrogant. What government has the right to do something like that not only to its own people, but also to the other six billion people on the planet?
And then, of course, that changed. I still don’t know how (Buffy was more interesting, remember?) but when I started watching Stargate Atlantis, there was suddenly the IOA and we even got Zelenka, a minor character whose native language is not English. But there was still only this one character, and the IOA was always portrayed as some kind of benevolent villain (well meaning but too bureaucratic and clueless). The heroes are once again mostly American, and if not, from the Western world. International cooperation was portrayed as a bad thing that stands in the way of everything that’s good and right. As a European, I find this vaguely baffling, despite the fact that the EU is notorious for its over-regulation.
So I’ve been watching a lot of Stargate lately, both SG-1 and Atlantis. Which isn’t quite that unusual since I used to watch it every Wednesday until Pro7 decided to air the xth season of Buffy in the same time slot, and given the choice between Stargate and Buffy, my father lost and my brother and I won. That was before I changed schools for the last time, I think, so it’s been eight or nine years. And I’ve changed since then. As has Stargate. Characters died and left and … well, I don’t want to spoil anyone, but a lot has changed.
I also realise that what I’m about to say has probably been said a zillion times before, but a lot has been bugging me about the Stargate franchise from the start, back when I still lacked the words and the knowledge to express my thoughts. I also find it easier to accept some problematic content (like the premise that pyramids were built for spaceships and its implications) while some insignificant details annoy me to no end. I can suspend my disbelief only selectively, apparently. I also realise that sometimes, the shows did it right. I’m talking more about my general impressions.
Pretty much the first thing I had problems with? Aliens speaking English. First off: The aliens in the movie didn’t speak English. They spoke some version of Egyptian, if I remember it right, which makes the switch even more confusing. The major civilisations even get to keep their own languages, but they still speak English. The show uses other languages mostly as something decorative. As someone who studies languages, I find it hard to understand how language barriers could not be a problem. And not only are the languages pure decoration and occasional plot device: the cultures are, too.
The Stargate cultures are my next problem. The human cultures generally fall in two categories: the technologically and culturally inferior and the technologically superior and culturally inferior. I don’t remember a human civilisation that was portrayed as culturally superior on the show. There was always some point on which earth (and by that I mean America) was superior. This leads to a lot of unfortunate implications because many, many of the human civilisations off world were modelled after civilisations on earth. This essentially means that America is portrayed as vastly superior to any other country on earth. The other civilisations are helpless, America has to save them, and once America saved them and everything is shiny, the other civilisations appreciate it and America’s goodness is once again reinforced.
Sound familiar? It does to me, considering I grew up in one of the two countries where that actually worked out, if Michael Mittermeier is to be believed. In most other cases: not so much. It also reminds me of the arguments made in the 19th century to justify colonialism. Sure, the SGC doesn’t want colonies, but the show still portrays the Americans in a way similar to the colonialists. They are the benevolent people whose burden it is to help the rest of the universe. They can fix everything, even if the natives couldn’t figure it out for thousands of years, the SG teams will within the episode. There are even the token characters from other civilisations that support and validate their goal.
I also find it quite problematic how earth is portrayed. At the beginning, the Stargate program is top secret. It endangers the whole world without the rest of the world not knowing and not having any say in it. That always struck me as extremely arrogant. What government has the right to do something like that not only to its own people, but also to the other six billion people on the planet?
And then, of course, that changed. I still don’t know how (Buffy was more interesting, remember?) but when I started watching Stargate Atlantis, there was suddenly the IOA and we even got Zelenka, a minor character whose native language is not English. But there was still only this one character, and the IOA was always portrayed as some kind of benevolent villain (well meaning but too bureaucratic and clueless). The heroes are once again mostly American, and if not, from the Western world. International cooperation was portrayed as a bad thing that stands in the way of everything that’s good and right. As a European, I find this vaguely baffling, despite the fact that the EU is notorious for its over-regulation.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-11 09:12 am (UTC)