What is it that makes SG-1 and Atlantis so extremely re watchable? I absolutely loved deep space 9, but watching TOS, TNG, and DS9 gave me such a feeling of disconnect and failed to immerse me like before. Maybe due to the subpar acting?
I actually enjoyed watching DS9 more the second time around than the first, and even moreso the third time with my partner.
I was a bit disappointed the first run as I favored TNG and felt DS9 didn't have as strong a lead or "pure" a story. But I gained a better appreciation for the character development on the re-watch and feel its characters have the most depth of all the series - especially its minor ones. Quark in particular is a gem.
And Voyager had at least one season there that delivered one great episode after the next.
We've been watching all the Star Treks from the beginning of TNG, and even though she's not a SciFi nerd she's picked up little nuanced bits here and there I missed before - a freshly rewarding experience. Now we're watching Lower Decks which is silly but jam-packed with nostalgic references.
When we began she'd always complain "why are you making me watch more of this". But the other day she said something technobabble to me about warp fields and I realized she's been converted into a bonafide closet Trekkie ;-).
If anything, I’d say the acting isn’t as good in SG1 and Atlantis as DS9. I think the reason SG1 works is the same reason the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is more popular than X-Men or DC movies: MCU doesn’t take itself seriously.
When you have plots that are, at times, a little silly (as SciFi often can be) you need a suspension of disbelief to enjoy the show. When stories are too dark or take themselves too seriously it leaves the audience taking the story seriously. And that can be a problem if any aspects are far fetched or hard to take seriously.
However MCU doesn’t take itself seriously (generally speaking). It pokes fun at itself and winks to the audience at times saying “we know this is daft too but let’s have some fun”. This makes it much easier to suspect one’s disbelief.
SG1 employs the same approach to storytelling where it will use humour to disarm some of the more far fetched sub-plots allowing the audience to play along more easily.
It’s probably because SG1 brought with it a more modern mode of storytelling and production values which is familiar and past some threshold that star trek doesn’t meet until maybe the later parts of ds9 to an extent at best.
I liked the stories of Babylon 5, but the acting is so ridiculous that I could hardly concentrate on it. It felt like watching a play with very over-the-top actors.
To me Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica are the same in that regard. Ridiculously strange bad acting, or maybe just completely different from what else I was watching at the time, but an interesting story line which kept my interest.
