SFA really open for noms this time! Plus, some pre-Canon vs. Fanon meta.

[fignewton]

The Stargate Fan Awards really are open for nominations now. We have until December 31st. Once you've logged in (or created an account), the site is easily navigated. I'm having some personal trouble with some of the coloring for the text boxes, but I've dropped the SGA team a note and I hope to see that revised soon.

So far, I've nominated six vids. I can see this is going to be an ongoing process... so yeah, better to get started now. :) I've bookmarked the "Manage My Nominations" page, which should help.

And now for some meta, because believe it or not, I really do have another Canon vs. Fanon in the works!

While skimming some S6 transcripts (heh, how else can I do S6 research...?), I discovered a most interesting exchange in Memento:

Jonas: How many planets have SG-1 been to?

Teal'c: One hundred thirty three.

So, after nearly six years, they've been to 133 planets. That comes out, in average, to about 22 planets a year. Now, contrast that with Mitchell's pride in 200 about his 200th time through the Stargate... Hmm. Even with the obvious conclusion that Mitchell isn't counting missions but event horizons, aren't those numbers just a little out of proportion?

I think I'm going to sneak this little factoid into the next Canon vs. Fanon, which will be about offworld, because many fanfic writers have the team Gating out weekly at a minimum, if not even more frequently than that. A list of 133 planets (and I adore Teal'c for having that information effortlessly at his fingertips) contradicts that rather strongly. Unless, of course, you suggest that Teal'c was making up a number at random - but the timing seems wrong for that kind of thing, and as far as I can tell, Teal'c did not have that kind of "straight man" relationship with Jonas. If I'm wrong about that, I'd appreciate correction from those of you that have actually watched S6. :)

ETA: I have now edited the subject of this post and the tags to reflect that this has essentially turned into a canon vs. fanon debate. As always, my flist rocks. :)

Comments

[nomadicwriter]

Well, Teal'c's numbers give 22 brand new planets visited each year, or roughly two a month. Considering he's not counting return visits or perhaps any time a single member of SG-1 makes a trip alone, I think it's not unreasonable to estimate that the individual members average about four back-and-forth trips a month.

Mitchell, if he's counting every single event horizon, has made 100 back and forth trips in, what, a year and a half? So that's 5-6 a month. Which is more, but then, as redbyrd_sgfic says, in the early years the SGC were hampered by calculating stellar drift for new destinations, and also the alpha site was not really up and running as somewhere they'd go to regularly. (Mitchell, let's be honest, strikes me as somebody who would gleefully volunteer to join every routine trip to deliver MREs if given the opportunity.) Then there's diplomatic relations with the free Jaffa, which gives them more regular-visit destinations.

Plus, of course, the biggest factor is that the Ori war is on. They're racing to visit as many planets as possible before the Priors get there, and regularly checking in with ones they've already visited to see what's going on. So the schedule of missions is going to be a lot faster-paced than the "explore new places in search of useful stuff" mindset of the early years. So, yeah, I think Mitchell has been making more trips than early-years SG-1, but that the numbers work out fairly plausibly given the changed circumstances.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

You're fudging your numbers just a bit, but with averages, I suppose that doesn't matter. :) I agree that it's quite possible that there were times the team went back and forth on almost a weekly basis, but fanon often suggests one completely separate mission after another, and that's what I'm questioning here.

I don't think the stellar drift thing really makes that huge of a difference - it's only one and a half years that were hampered that way. OTOH, I adore your suggestion that Mitchell would seize any and every opportunity to bounce through the Gate, and you're right that the SGC was doing a lot of back-and-forth visiting - and very very little exploring - once the Ori crisis hit. So yes, I agree that the numbers can add up under the circumstances.

[nomadicwriter]

Well, bear in mind with the number fudging that "back and forth trips" encompasses any time within a mission that they return to the SGC for some reason and then go back to the same planet. (Which is in fact a high percentage of their missions, or at least the ones that get televised, because inevitably: "Tra-la-la, here we are back home and all done with that planet now - oh, wait, we've been infected/lied to by the locals/invaded by alien entities/turned into robots. Back to PX-Random-Number we go.") And then there's the times that they visit multiple planets on the trot, like when they divert to Cimmeria or the Alpha Site instead of going straight home. So, yeah, I don't think they went out on new missions as much as every week, but the ones that they did go on often involved more gate travel than just, "Go there at the beginning, come back at the end," and Mitchell would be counting all of it. Because he's an enthusiastic puppy that way.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

"Tra-la-la, here we are back home and all done with that planet now - oh, wait, we've been infected/lied to by the locals/invaded by alien entities/turned into robots. Back to PX-Random-Number we go."

Bwah! Most succinct summary of SG-1 ever. :)

Yes, I do concede your point that Mitchell's numbers are very likely accurate, under the circumstances. Teal'c listed planets, not Gate trips.

Mitchell the "enthusiastic puppy" is my favorite aspect of him, so yay!