That the majority of the Stargate SG-1 audience is female and over 30, this we already know. It's also quite obvious that the online fandom rests firmly in feminine hands. To do a survey online would be futile - as soon as you put up a poll with questions like "who's your favourite character", supporters of various actors, actresses and characters will start to motivate on lists and boards their friends to go and "vote as often as you can".
On the other hand, the much-lusted after sci-fi target group of the male teenagers is practically non-existent within the online fandom. As they are talked about so often, we thought it was about high time to ask the teenagers what they think about Stargate SG-1. The results were - interesting, to say the least!
"And why asking gay folks?" Well - why not? Quite a considerable number of people within this fandom insist on a very close friendship between Jack and Daniel, and the slash authors are legion. However, most, if not all of the authors are female. So we were curious, and cornered some gay friends. The outcome of this survey is also pretty interesting.
How do they see Stargate SG-1?
A Pink Khaki survey
CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE SURVEY WAS TAKEN
Of course these results are not representative. We neither have the time nor the money to ask thousands of people for their opinion.
The Teenagers
We asked 16 youngsters between 13 and 19 years of age various questions and showed them pictures. All 16 are not involved with the online fandom. They are internet users, but they mainly use it to play games or download games and episodes. They are neither on newsgroups nor mailing lists. All of them are either watching Stargate SG-1 regularly or occasionally - on TV, video, DVD or by downloading episodes - so they are pretty much up-to-date with the episodes.
Gays
13 people were questioned, age between 20 and 55. 4 of them watch Stargate SG-1 regularly or occasionally, 6 have seen in a couple of times and 3 have never seen it. We asked them to watch the show on TV for 3 weeks, and asked them to answer the questions afterwards, so they've all seen the last couple of episodes from season 4 plus the first 4 episodes of season 5.
Also, all but two people have seen "Children of the Gods", "Within the Serpents grasp / The Serpent's Lair" and "Meridian" (on squinty vision).
We have not mentioned "Dannygate" or the controversy over the "Jonas Quinn" character. We did nothing to influence the statements. Also, please keep in mind that so far no episodes but "Meridian" showing Jonas Quinn are available. And he didn't get very flattering promo pictures. So any statements should be taken with a grain of salt.
Oh yeah - cut the youngsters some slack for their statements - at 14, you think you know it all - and all better!
WHY DO A SURVEY AMONG TEENS AND GAYS?
These are the pictures we showed to all the questioned people. As soon as the season 6 pictures came out, we sent them out as well. That's why there's one less picture of Daniel and Jack (there was no single pic of season 6 Jack available).
QUESTION 1: WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT STARGATE SG-1?
The special effects
Space battles, fights, the death gliders
"All the archaeology things, the tombs and everything", Mythology, "all things egyptian"
The weapons
The Goa'uld (costumes, voice, ribbon device)
The humour (Jack, Teal'c, Daniel - Sam is considered to be "humourless")
"No stupid love story like in other series"
QUESTION 2: WHICH EPISODE DO YOU REMEMBER BEST?
"The one(s) with the replicators/lego bugs/metal monsters" (Various episodes)
"The one where everything happens again and again, where Jack and Teal'c play golf in the gateroom" ("Window of Opportunities")
"The one with Daniel and the dinosaur/monster/Unas" ("The First Ones")
QUESTION 3a: YOUR COMMENT ON JACK O'NEILL
QUESTION 3b: WOULD YOU WATCH STARGATE WITHOUT HIM?
"He's very cool! My favourite character!"
"He is cool, but too old."
"He looks so tired."
"Very funny, I like him a lot!"
"In the last episodes, he looked like he is angry/bored/annoyed".
All 16 questioned youngsters stated that they wouldn't watch Stargate without Jack O'Neill (only 2 have every heard of MacGyver, by the way...)
QUESTION 4a: YOUR COMMENT ON DANIEL JACKSON
QUESTION 4b: WOULD YOU WATCH STARGATE WITHOUT HIM?
"I like it when he works with old things (=artefacts)."
"I'm very intersted in archaeology, so I like it when they are on digs."
"He's cool, he can really fight."
"He is cool."
"He's boring."
"He and Jack are very funny when they argue."
"He's cool when he's angry."
9 stated they wouldn't watch Stargate without Daniel Jackson. 4 said they'd maybe watch (of which 2 wrote that "Stargate without Daniel is a stupid idea"), 2 said they'd definitely watch, also if he wasn't part of the team anymore, 1 didn't care.
QUESTION 5a: YOUR COMMENT ON SAMANTHA CARTER
QUESTION 5b: WOULD YOU WATCH STARGATE WITHOUT HER?
"She's ok."
"She holds the gun right."
"She's great, a female soldier is cool."
"She's quite nice, but too old."
"I don't like it when she's flirting with Jack."
"It's silly she wears make-up."
"She's boring."
12 stated they'd watch Stargate, also if Sam wasn't part of the team anymore. 1 would most probably not watch anymore if she left and 3 don't care.
QUESTION 6a: YOUR COMMENT ON TEAL'C
QUESTION 6b: WOULD YOU WATCH STARGATE WITHOUT HIM?
"Teal'c is really cool!"
"He and Jack are the best!"
"I like it when he does this eyebrow thing."
"He's boring."
"I like how he fights."
"The Jaffa are great."
"He's the best, he looks like a wrestler."
11 said they wouldn't watch Stargate without Teal'c, 2 would and 3 don't care.
QUESTION 7: YOUR COMMENT ON JONAS QUINN - DO YOU THINK HE'S A GOOD ADDITION TO THE TEAM?
13 of the questioned teenagers think that Jonas is absolutely NOT cool ("On that picture, he looks like he's about to water a plant").
2 will wait and see what season 6 brings. 1 doesn't care.
QUESTION 8: PLEASE LIST YOUR FAVOURIT SCI-FI SHOWS - BEST LIKED FIRST
1. Farscape (the winner by far)
2. Stargate
3. ST: Voyager
QUESTION 1: LIKELINESS OF ASKING ONE OF THE CHARACTERS OUT FOR A DATE
TEAL'C ("absolutely gorgeous") wouldn't have one evening a week to stay at home. He's definitely the winner in the category "most handsome and desireable character".
JACK ("a real bear") wouldn't have to sit at home and be shrinking violet, either. At least on weekends he'd be booked out. It was specially mentioned that he "looks very hot in uniform". Sidenote: 4 people mentioned that they love military based shows because for them it's "seeing fantasies come true" ...
DANIEL ("very attractive") is pretty popular, too - as popular, actually, as Jack. However, this goes for season 3 - 5 Daniel, the long-haired version is not really popular. Honorary mention for the bandana.
GENERAL HAMMOND ("a teddy bear"), though not listed, does have his fans, too, unlike
JONAS QUINN ("who's responsible for the styling of his hair?") would have to stay at home and watch the paint go dry most evenings - only 2 considered to ask him out - and one stated that he'd "only ask him if nobody else was available". But at least one thought he looked cute.
QUESTION 2: WHICH EPISODE DO YOU REMEMBER BEST?
Window of Opportunity
The First Ones
Need
Double Jeopardy
QUESTION 3: YOUR THOUGHTS ON SAM CARTER
Very classy lady, strong female character, beautiful. Quote: "If I'd be Jack, I'd asked her out long ago. But then, if I was Jack, I'd ask Teal'c out, so she'd be unhappy again.
QUESTION 4: WHAT HAS CHANGED ABOUT STARGATE WITHIN THE LAST YEAR?
It was stated the development was a negative one: more fights, battles, weapons and violence, less character development, "human stories". Not enough "sci-fi" - more a normal military show. Not enough sex. Also mentioned: the growing agressivity of Jack O'Neill and the loss of humour in the show.
QUESTION 5: HOW LIKELY IS IT THAT THERE WILL BE A GAY CHARACTER IN A SCI-FI SHOW WITHIN THE NEXT 5 YEARS?
"Not likely at all": 10 votes
"Not in an american show": 2 votes
"Likely and about time": 1 vote
QUESTION 6: SLASH - JUDGING FROM THE EPISODES YOU'VE SEEN - WHAT WOULD BE THE MOST LIKELY PAIRING?
And the winners are:
Jack and Teal'c.
QUESTION 6: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE "RELATIONSHIP" BETWEEN JACK AND DANIEL?
"Good friends": 6
"More than friends": 3***
"Father / son": 3
"Jack's younger self": 1
***All three state that they were undecided about this till they saw "Meridian", but: "Why didn't he hug him? He's done so before. I've been waiting all through the episode for him [Jack] to hug Daniel."
"Somehow it didn't 'feel' right Jack didn't touch or hug Daniel at the end, before he left through the Stargate. Maybe this went too far for the producers? I would be interest to know if this was a decision by the cast or by their bosses."
As mentioned above: these results are not representative, but they give us a certain impression. Maybe one should talk to a target group before producing for it? Just an idea.
To be fair: Jonas Quinn had Meridian, really lousy promo shots and a bad hair stylist against him. We will repeat this survey mid-season 6, and will see if he managed to win people over.
We'd like to thank all those who participated in this survey, specially R. for his support. (Er möchte ausserdem der Welt Kund tun, dass er Daniel Jackson für eine "Sahneschnitte" hält (du liest zuviele Comix, meine Liebe!) Was hiermit geschehen ist!)
cartoon by Ralf König
Judging from the answers this group gave and from their additional comments, we can say that they really love the action of Stargate SG-1, battles in space can't be too big for them ("bigger! bigger! bigger!")
Much to our surprise, the mythology and archaeology part of the show is very attractive for this viewer group, almost as attractive and important as big honking space guns. Specially the egyptian mythology and history seems to fascinate them.
The military aspect is not very prominent. First and before all they look at Stargate SG-1 as a science fiction show.
For this group, Samantha Carter is not a woman, but a soldier. When we asked further questions regarding the bad result for Carter, we noticed that they have no negative feelings towards that character, they actually quite like her, but she's not really considered "vitally important" for the team. The reasons - that's difficult to tell. Maybe Sam Carter is too far away from the prototype of "woman" that's sold today in magazines and on TV to teenagers. (This will hopefully *not* encourage somebody at MGM to introduce Britney Spears as a new Tok'ra).
Jack is considered vitally important for the team - but Teal'c is the "coolest" one. In fact he's very popular in this viewer group. Interesting note: Jack being aggressive towards his team members or angry is not very well liked.
Daniel is very popular (specially when he's doing what he was originally intended to do: digging for "old things"); funny enough he's even more popular when he's angry.
