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Pardon my French, but God DAMN IT, says Alasdair Stuart of the latest Stargate news.

After hiring former series writer Martin Gero to showrun the next iteration of Stargate for them, Amazon have remembered they’ve got all the money in the world and absolutely none of the spine.  Variety report: “according to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Amazon execs were concerned that Gero’s take on the series would not have broad appeal beyond the franchise’s already dedicated fanbase.”

There are several ways in which this is the worst possible decision delivered in the worst possible way.

The first and most obvious is that they hired a former writer on the show, because he was a former writer on the show, to develop a new version of the franchise for the existing fans and new ones. This is what Gero said in November of last year: “For those who’ve kept the gate active through conventions, rewatches, and unwavering faith—this one’s for you. And for those that are new to our world—I promise you’re in for something extraordinary.”

Turning around at this point smacks, to borrow the old line, of ordering a mint choc chip ice cream and demanding to know why it’s green and what all the little brown bits are. This was a two year development progress. A 20 week writer’s room. It was on the launch ramp.  Deadline confirm this is yet another example of the ancient bugbear of genre TV: executive change. The two people who’d championed the project have moved on and rather than not burn time, money and good will the new people in the department have decided to start over.

That by itself? is bad. The fact that former showrunner Joseph Mallozzi has now pushed back the reason for the cancellation is also bad.

Everything else here is worse.

Let’s start with that quote from Gero. Stargate Universe’s final episode aired in 2011. Even considering the multiple cancelled TV movies that followed, this franchise hasn’t been a thing for a decade but its fandom is so dedicated they’ve kept it alive to the point where Hank Scorpio, or whoever’s running the Amazon ziggurat this financial quarter, decided to bring it back. That’s incredible. It’s the sort of fandom achievement that the original Star Trek letter writing campaign was. It’s one of those examples of fandom being what it thinks it is, not the performative hate parade that dominates so many online space, rallying under their terrible cry of ‘If the writing was better’ as they race across the Moors, looking for another YouTube reaction video to performatively like.

That isn’t to say Stargate fandom was united. It wasn’t, none are and it’s had its fair share of controversies especially around Stargate Universe. But a choice like this enables every single worst element of any fandom. I’m already seeing people saying, with their whole chests, ‘well trying to appeal to new people was the mistake Star Trek and Star Wars made’ and do they HEAR themselves?

What sort of fan gatekeeps?

What sort of fan decides who gets to be a fan?

Bullies.

The joy of sharing something we love with new people is one of the best things about being a fan. We love what we love and every time we introduce it to other people, some of them will love it too. All stories must end, but no story has to be unread, or unwatched and if you think the streaming figures Stargate has got are all established fans then I’ve got an exciting NFT opportunity for you and some GREAT news about vaccines.

I’m so tired. I’m so tired of this race to blame people who haven’t been in fandom for decades for mistakes made by rich sociopaths. It perpetuates the worst, most bigoted, gate-keeping elements of fandom and if you want to see what that looks like, look at Star Wars and Lucasfilm’s inability to pull the trigger on the Rey movie, and abandonment of multiple non straight white male stars to harassment. Look at Star Trek, where the author of the biggest movie on the planet felt emboldened enough to go on an at LEAST right-wing adjacent podcast to crow about Starfleet Academy being cancelled because he thinks Star Trek should just be about Starfleet and the Romulans shooting at each other. Look at Who fandom, at the initial responses to Jodie Whittaker’s casting, at Ncuti Gatwa’s.  At the number of times the Wilderness Years are invoked when a sizable portion of Who fandom wasn’t born then.

Fandom should be friends. It should be family. It should be the shared joy of stories we love. And every time boneheaded, morally vacuous choices like this are made all it does is make walls higher and puts more locks on the gates. No dial home device. No chevrons encoded. Just a fandom suspended in amber, fracturing because the people who hold the chequebooks lack every conviction but Line Go Up.

Perhaps the final sting in all this is this mealy-mouthed corporate nonsense:

“Although Gero’s series will not proceed, Amazon is still exploring new ways to further the franchise.”

Brilliant. I hope they realise they’ve ensured any project they launch after this will arrive in a pre-emptively hostile environment. Just like every other major IP now.

There are no lessons here because the people in these jobs don’t learn, they just react. But there is something we can do. Be better than this. Go read or watch or play or listen to something you love and tell someone about it. Be a fan. Help make other fans. Don’t let this empty mind set win yet again.