IMO Stargate could use a reboot. I know a new series is in the works, and that this is supposedly a continuation rather than a reboot. But honestly I think I would prefer a clean reboot. I think this for two main reasons - contemporary relevance and power creep.

Stargate was unique in that it was a sci fi setting brought into our world. It’s not the enlightened 24th century humans of Star Trek seeking out new civilizations and going where no one has gone before. It’s some random US Air Force officers in our world today. People who could be your next door neighbor are visiting space aliens and fighting for the survival of humanity, and you’re completely oblivious. And as the series went on, the post-9/11 environment definitely was reflected in the Stargate world as well. So many of its themes explored anxieties of that era.

But now? Too much time has passed. The technology introduced by the events of the show would have percolated out into wider society and had such an impact that the Stargate world and our world don’t really resemble our own anymore. Maybe the new series will make it work. But that show was such a thing of its time, I think a complete reimagining would be the best way to bring it into the present.

Second, simple narrative power creep. As the story advances, humanity gathers artifacts and technologies. Now, one very cool difference between Stargate and Star Trek is that Stargate actually remembered its lore. In Star Trek, the ship’s doctor or chief engineer will invent a miraculous new technology or medical treatment, inventions that should have massive world-shifting implications…and then be promptly forgotten about. In one episode of TNG they discover a transporter effect that turns adults into children. Yet no one is later seen using transporters as a fountain of youth. In Stargate, the teams discover alien artifacts, meet and make alien allies, vanquish alien foes, etc. The official standing orders of the whole operation are to go through the gate and acquire new technology. And those technologies show up later in the show! Over the course of the show, humanity slowly grows from contemporary humans to a galactic-level power having acquired the complete technological and historical records of two of the most powerful races to have ever existed. They’re defeating literal gods at the end of SG1.

It was an amazing journey to go along. Hell, I grew up with that story. It was an epic journey to go down. Yet, it’s hard to see where you could credibly go from there. The power levels were already ridiculous at the end.

I would like to see a completely new SG1. In this setting, the Stargate program is started not in 1992, but in 2026. (Hell, you could canonically make it an alternate reality. Inter-reality travel was canonically established. So there would still be a way to do cameos of characters from previous series. Hell, feel free to really shake it up. Who says the aliens they meet out in the stars have to be exactly the same as in the original show? Alternate reality. Alternate history. Alternate aliens. This would allow the show to have a sense of genuine mystery even among those who watched the previous series. And it being an entirely alternate version of the creation of the SGC would allow a story to be told that better reflects our current times.