Is Stargate More Optimistic Than Star Trek?

When it comes to optimism in science fiction, Star Trek is often the go-to example, but I think there’s an argument to be made that Stargate may be more optimistic and humanistic than Star Trek.

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#stargate #startrek #rowanjcoleman

[michaellewis]

I do like that Stargate take the stance that wisdoms is learning from your mistakes and the only way to learn is to go out and do things.

[pudlordtynan]

I think the biggest reason for this difference of vibes is the timescale. When we enter the Stargate universe, its the 90s. Humans in the 90s with all our issues and stuff, still won against Ra. Star Trek fast forwards through the growing pains, or rather the therapy humanity as a whole underwent. We're not perfect, but from the darkness directly before First Contact, we're trying.

Optimism fundamentally is about trying.

[AleksandrPodyachev]

Reminds me of a stargate meme "Your Gods are false, here are some guns"

[lotsofspots]

Star Trek is also in a post-scarcity world. Limitless energy and items via the replicators. In SG1 they actually run out of stuff, and SG:A is basically an endless quest for ZPMs.

[hypotheticalaxolotl]

I think Stargate is more optimistic because it's talking about us in the here and now. Star Trek is, objectively, more idealistic about the motivations and the outcomes of the actions of humans, but it's more or less saying "A few hundred years from now, we'll figure it out. Might need a nuke or two to get it right though."

Stargate, on the other hand, has less idealistic outcomes overall, but it's still a pretty good showing, and it asserts that we, right here and right now, are capable of doing that. That's a pretty optimistic outlook. To me, far more optimistic and hopeful to say we're capable of the things they accomplish and their motivations to do so as we are now, than to say "Eh, we'll get it right eventually."

[ConvoySeibatoron]

When people say they want a crossover with Star Wars and Star Trek I say no Stargate Star Trek crossovers is a better idea

[BogeyTheBear]

7:33 Starget literally does this in the episode "Space Race". Earth acquires an advanced form of sublight engine technology from the planet Hebridan in exchange for a Stargate, a device they either had lost to history or never possessed in the first place.

[grandsome]

Star Gate is the product of the 90s post-Soviet techno optimism. It buys into the idea that it was freedom of information that brought down the Soviets and that the US winning the cold war was a sign of its awesomeness and that going forward humanity would consolidate behind good guy, I weild my power responsibility U. S. of A; the nation that started as the underdog, went to the moon and headed the international space station program.

Star Trek on the other hand has a cold war DNA, in a time that we were actively pointing nukes at each other but still went to space, landed on the moon, and had a beginning of civil rights going on. It was also created not long after the Korean war and during the disastrous intervention in the Vietnam war. That's why we see Roddenberry's anxiety about that in the form of the prime directive and the post-apocalyptic origins of the Federation.

[ctemoc]

"We're already awesome, so we should race out into space and get our hands on as much cool stuff as possible." Love it!!!

[Gpz]

Star Trek is humanity after gaining wisdom, Stargate is humans learning to be more wise.

The former is a decline from the top while the latter is the rise of humanity from the bottom.

Both are fun to watch but one has already achieved what the other is trying to replicate. That being said I love Stargate more, there's more action and "the dumb answer is usually the right one" premise always get me to laugh.

[funnythag]

Stargate is completely against anything like a Prime Directive, but they also show cultures that have good reason for withholding technological advancements like the Nox & Tollan. Then we have the Asgard who slowly gave Tau’ri tech upgrades throughout the series before finally giving them everything in the finale.

I’d like to see where earth is now nearly 20 years with the entire Asgard knowledge base.

[trunkage]

The Ascended Ancients are the ones following the Prime Directive. And Stargate tells us why it was such a terrible Directive

[admiraltiberius]

I really would love to see the universe of Stargate and how everything has changed in, say, the year 2050 or so. How much has humanity accomplished? Are the Jaffa moving towards extinction and reintegration with baseline humanity. Are the Tok Ra extinct ? How did the Wraith war go ?
What are conditions like on Earth ?

[RaceCarDoughnuts]

Absolutely loving the Stargate content on this channel. Happily subscribed, please keep it up!

[mattblom]

Star Trek is more an idealistic optimism, something to strive for but isn't realistic anytime soon (such as money not existing and the world being united). Stargate is more grounded and while people are rougher and more flawed, it shows its "optimism" in learning from our mistakes and making small steps forward.

[DanielSolis]

Re: Stargate villains keeping their populace ignorant. Isn't the Stargate program and the whole existence of aliens still top secret for the entire franchise?

[solstickan]

Man I still wish that they had made more seasons of Stargate Universe.

[OmniNautEarth]

I don't fully agree that the core philosophy of ST is that deep down we're savages. Although I can't fully disprove it. But I will give you this. There is plenty of research done into the 'growing pains' of human development. In fact there is a whole field devoted to it, it's called Developmental Psychology. There are dozens of different models, focussing on a different part of human development, but all saying the same thing, there is an upward evolution towards human psychological development. I think the most famous one is the Hierarchy of Needs by Abraham Maslow. But the one I want to point out the most is Spiral Dynamics developed by Don Beck and Chris Cowan. SD is modelled on the work of Clare Graves's Cyclical Levels of Existence . Now comes the funny part, it's said (although I could not find any evidence) that Gene Roddenberry was a big fan of Clare Graves's work and that different races in Star Trek are modelled on the different levels of development from Clare Graves's model. So Klingons are Red, Vulcans Blue, Ferengi Orange, Humans (24th century) Yellow, Q race Turquoise.
There are many more models that explore this growth phenomenon, like Ego Development Theory by Susan Cook Greuter, Integral Theory by Ken Wilber, Integral Yoga by Sri Aurobindo all of them getting more complex and integrating more aspects of reality. If you're interested in knowing more, I have made a playlist on my channel called Spiral Dynamics. Start with the top one.

[Yoshi-Wise]

Pretty sure SGC violated the Geneva Conventions multiple times 😂

[spencersholden]

Coming from Star Wars I was amazed when in Star Trek and Stargate, people didn’t hide the existence of dangerous things. Like people talk about Q and the Ascended. But no one talks about the Gods of Mortis in universe.
However, one of my biggest gripes with Stargate is that they don’t tell the public about any of this. Earth is a galactic superpower and less then 90% of humans know this. It is really annoying to preach knowledge and keep it from the people of Earth.