Alright, Stargate fans, the moment we’ve been waiting for is finally here. After an 18-month
hiatus, the Stargate franchise is finally back on Amazon Prime Video in the United States.
Just a quick update here as we celebrate the TV show’s return to Prime, and why if
you live in the United States and you don't own the show on physical media,
this is absolutely, unquestionably the best place to watch it.
Let’s get this out of the way first: Yes, if you live in the U.K., or Canada, or parts of Europe,
or maybe some other places, you’ve already had access to Stargate on
Prime Video through the “MGM Channel” add-on. That costs you a few extra bucks each month.
In the U.S., though, we don’t have that. Never have. So when Stargate SG-1,
Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe left the streaming service back in February of 2021,
that was it. You had to try and find inferior copies on another service ... or just buy the
DVDs and save yourself all this trouble. Actually it was just after Stargate left
Prime Video that Amazon announced it was buying Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lock,
stock, and barrel — including Stargate. I’m recording this in September of 2022,
so it’s been a whole 18 months without Stargate on Prime. That was even after the Amazon-MGM
deal closed back in March of this year. The companies have been completely silent on
what they’re going to do with the franchise. So Stargate has been off of Prime for so long
that during this time Amazon announced it was buying MGM for eight and a half billion dollars;
they went through the entire regulatory oversight process, and eventually finalized the deal.
Then there was another five months since then that we’ve been twiddling our thumbs
waiting for some signal that Amazon even knows that it owns Stargate.
So, what do we have here? As of today it’s all ten seasons of Stargate SG-1,
five seasons of Atlantis, and two seasons of SGU. There is no sign of SG-1’s two movies, The Ark of
Truth and Stargate: Continuum, on Prime Video just yet — though they can be rented for $3.99 each.
That also goes for the movie-length cut of the 2018 Web series Stargate Origins.
You can still watch the animated series Stargate Infinity on here with the “CONtv” channel add-on.
But ... you’re not going to do that, are you? Stargate’s return to Prime Video is great news
for viewers in a lot of different ways. For starters, Prime has a far superior copy of the
episodes than other streamers. These are all 16:9 widescreen episodes, with a higher resolution.
(It looks like they’ve been upscaled to something around 720p. These copies air
on “HD” broadcast channels in some countries.) For SG-1’s early seasons Netflix only has the
4:3 version. And to make matters worse, they’re still falsely listing all 214 episodes as rated
TV-MA for nudity — almost two years later. This arguably does real harm to the show’s
discoverability by new viewers, especially families who are looking for a sci-fi
adventure show they can enjoy together. In case you’re new to this, only the first
episode of SG-1 has nudity. It was a concession to Showtime back in 1997, which the producers
immediately dropped in order to make the family-friendly show they wanted to make.
Netflix doesn’t seem to care that every single individual episode has its own rating — usually
TV-PG or TV-14. They just slapped “TV-MA” on the whole show. Now I have to enter my parental
controls PIN number every time I want to watch “Wormhole X-Treme!” And Netflix tells me to watch
out for all the nudity in “Urgo.” You don’t have to worry about
any of that nonsense on Amazon. Even better: in 2009 series co-creator
Brad Wright went back and re-edited the pilot episode, fixing things like the visual effects,
the score, and some uneven dialogue. He also recut Sha’re’s nude scene to earn that TV-14 rating.
(I know, I know ... Americans have all kinds of hang-ups about nudity you don’t
have in Europe. Put in the comments ... and remember, Brad Wright is Canadian!)
Anyway, this is the version of “Children of the Gods” that Prime Video has — the "Final Cut." And
it’s the one I much prefer, not so much because of the nudity, but for all the other reasons.
Joel Goldsmith’s original composition has been restored. (MGM originally made the producers
stuff in a bunch of score from the movie, because they had already paid for the rights.)
In this cut Hammond is a little bit less in-your-face, and closer to the wise and
fatherly General we’d come to know in the series. There’s a cargo ship at the end instead of
that insanely large death glider that never appeared again in any subsequent episode.
And Christopher Judge’s entire performance has been redubbed, so Teal’c sounds more like
he does later in the series. (When they were originally filming in Vancouver in February of
1997 Judge was so cold that his lips were blue and his teeth were chattering in the dailies.)
Amazon’s copy of Stargate Atlantis is also better. Right now Atlantis is on
Hulu in the U.S., and they’re streaming the version that is edited with hard act breaks
for commercials. This is when the screen and the score completely fade to black. Here’s an
example of the difference. WEIR: Rodney, you have seven minutes.
WEIR: Rodney, you have seven minutes.
Isn’t that annoying? No, buy yourself the discs or watch this show on Prime.
Nobody should have to put up with this in 2022. Last but not least, Stargate Universe hasn’t been
available to stream anywhere since Hulu’s license expired last year — at least not without ads.
All three shows have been available with ads on Pluto TV in the U.S. since April of 2022. But
if you have a Prime subscription, again, watch it there for the best experience.
Now, the $64,000 question: How long is all this going to last? You might be watching
this video in the future (Hello, future!) and saying to yourself, “This show isn’t
on Amazon! What is this guy talking about?” Well, the truth is that MGM licenses out Stargate
to all these different services under fixed and finite terms. Those terms vary from streamer to
streamer (and from country to country). So there’s really no telling how long the franchise will
remain on Prime this time around. It could be six months, or a year,
or a lot more. But the fact that Amazon just bought all of MGM for its film and
television library suggests — Bezos willing — that it might stay for good this time.
Over on Netflix, SG-1 is going to reach the 1-year mark on its current license at the end of November
2022. We’ll find out then if Netflix will re-up, or if the show will be leaving that service.
Meanwhile, this October Atlantis will reach the 1-year mark since
its most recent license renewal on Hulu. And if you are having trouble keeping up
with all these changes to where Stargate is streaming, we’ve got you covered. Just go to
gateworld.net/wheretowatch ... even if you live in the future! We'll keep this page updated with
which shows are on which services in the U.S. Elsewhere, check your local listings —
I'm just one guy and I can’t keep up with what Sky and Stan are doing.
Keep it locked right here on GateWorld and our Web site for the latest Stargate news.
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