10 Most Controversial Stargate Episodes
Even this beloved sci-fi franchise didn't go without the odd bump every few seasons.
Pop culture entertainment. It's the biggest source of content for fans and creators alike. Everyone nowadays is at least aware of some sort of pop culture franchise.
Whether it's the global superpowers of Marvel and DC or more obscure things like The Witcher or Attack On Titan, everyone has some universe they have fallen in love with.
Sci-fi fans have no shortage of franchises to envelop themselves in. For many, it is television shows like Star Trek or Stargate that truly defined the genre, and introduced entire generations to the ideas of intergalactic conflict and the ever-present struggle for peace and understanding.
Yet the other side of many fandoms is the side of controversy. Controversy is by no means new to pop culture entertainment. From the toilet flushing scene in Psycho, to Michael Keaton's portrayal of Batman, controversy has been the other side of the coin for fandoms.
Stargate is often hailed as one of the greatest sci-fi television series ever made, right next to The X-Files. Yet even this show has had controversy, ever since the very first season up to the launch of Stargate Universe.
With the prospect of a possible Amazon revival of the franchise, it seems an astute time to look at the darker moments of this beloved series. From bad writing to the mistreatment of Stargate's diverse cast, the following are some of the most controversial episodes in the Stargate franchise.
10. Stargate Atlantis, Season 3 Episode 15 - The Game
The character development in Stargate Atlantis between the main characters of Colonel John Sheppard and Dr. Rodney McKay is one of the series's most intriguing. The two have gone through many phases in their relationship, from enemies to teammates to close friends on par with a brotherhood.
While the two did eventually get over their inflated egos and learn to trust in each other as teammates, they still held a petty rivalry that almost led to a global catastrophe in the fifteenth episode of the third season.
In this episode, Shepard and his team travel through the Stargate to another planet, only to find out it is exactly identical to a world McKay and Sheppard were interacting with in what they thought was some sort of Ancient version of a video game.
It turns out this "video game" was actually an Ancient experiment where two civilizations of people were controlled through this video game computer.
McKay obviously took this godlike power straight to his head, creating his civilization to be technologically advanced and essentially worship him. He even put his own face as his civilization's flag.
Where the controversy comes into play for this episode is that McKay forced the women of his civilization to style their hairs and appearances to look exactly like SG-1s Captain Samantha Carter, who McKay was infatuated with.
This upset many fans, who felt that Carter was already overused sexually in SG-1, and McKay's infatuation came off as creepy and massive abuse of power over the lives of innocent women.