We're making a bit of a directional change at the site, and I wanted to let you, dear reader, in on it: Starting last week, we will no longer be publishing episode reviews at GateWorld.

A couple of weeks ago I started a blog entry titled "Why We Post Negative Reviews," which never got finished. But here is the jist of it: Believe it or not, we have published negative reviews of our two favorite shows because we love Stargate.

I believe that no reasoned and thoughtfully articulated opinions should be silenced. Even when I have loved an episode, if the fan we've picked to write a review comes back hating it, we ran the piece. This doesn't mean that GateWorld hated the episode, but that we chose to give space to someone who had something very strong to say. (Such was the case with the recent review of "The Tower.")

Second, we have published negative reviews because we believe it ultimately serves the site, the audience and, in a sense, the show. For the site, it makes it clear that we are not a PR machine resting comfortably in the pockets of the show's owners or producers, despite the fact that we do get a lot of love from them. For the audience, they get to discuss, argue, and debate the finer points of every episode -- love it or hate it -- when a review brings up challenging points. (This continues to take place each and every day at GateWorld Forum.)

And for the show ... well, we hope and pray that constructive criticism is a valuable thing, especially when it is coming from the show's core fan base. It's easy to brush off a negative review from the New York Times, where the writer may have only seen a half-dozen episodes in nine years and is still looking for Richard Dean Anderson so that he can make the requisite MacGyver reference.

Yes, fans can criticize a show that they still fundamentally love, in the hopes of getting the attention of the producers and maybe, just maybe, making a positive difference. That's certainly true at GateWorld, a site the producers regularly visit.

Nevertheless, we've decided to get out of the reviews business for the foreseeable future. It's become clear that "the GateWorld review" cannot be separated from "the GateWorld position" -- that because of how reviews have been layed out and incorporated into the site, they look like the site's official statement about the episode rather than the point of view of one fan (or, in some cases, two dueling fans) that we published for the sake of discussion.

GateWorld's editors chatted behind the scenes about this misperception, and finally decided that the only way we could continue to publish reviews in this manner would be to write them all ourselves, or to endorse them all, neither of which we have the time or desire to do right now. Otherwise, we would be forever looking over our shoulders, wondering if something that someone else said will be taken the wrong way and attributed to us.

Our new staff blogs -- soon, we hope, to be enriched by blogs from other Stargate fans, as well -- offset this editorial loss with more bare-naked opinion than you can shake a staff weapon at. Blogs are the author's own personal space, and should in no way be taken as GateWorld's "official" stand on a topic -- even this blog. Here, I'll start now: I loved "Off the Grid," but I thought "Critical Mass" was a mess.

Deep breath.

So farewell, sweet reviews section. This will also free up my time a bit each week to concentrate on things like the episode analyses, which are more central to what GateWorld is about and which have fallen by the wayside in recent years. I think the formal reviwes won't be missed, because GateWorld Forum is jam-packed with thousands of fans who offer their own takes on every episode -- starting within moments of it airing. And isn't that a thousand times better?

Maybe I'm a Neanderthal, but I just don't see it. Critics and fans are praising the new Battlestar Galactica, which it's plain to see is one of the best shows on television. It has been many years since a science fiction show has come along that is so compelling. But amidst the steady stream of critical praise comes the constant statements that the original Galactica was so obviously a "'Star Wars' rip-off" when it aired in 1979.

I just don't see it.

This is the same logic that says that "Star Wars" and Star Trek are pretty much the same, or that Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine were copying one another because they both took place on space stations. It's painting the entire genre with such a broad brush as to be embarrassing. Might as well call Lost a rip-off of NYPD Blue because they are both dramas.

Take, for example, a recent review at Blogcritics.org:

"I speak as one who remembers the original 1978 cheesefest quite well. It goes without saying that the show was a slavish Star Wars knockoff, with only a fleeting trace of originality -- the idea that the characters were searching for the mythic cradle of their race, Planet Earth. ... But as a worthwile show in its own right -- oy, it was yet another demonstration of why people who've never read anything from the genre should be legally barred from ever writing SF."

Well, let's see: Both "Star Wars" (which, in 1979, had only seen the release of the original film) and the original Galactica had space ships in outer space. Both had single-pilot fighter craft with pointy noses (the X-Wing and the Viper). Both had sweeping, orchestral scores. Both had brash, handsome, hot-shot pilots with long hair (hey, it was the 70s). Both had bad guys with big, outer space bases (the Imperial Death Star and the Cylon Base Star).

And that Muffit thing? Obviously a low-budget Chewbacca rip-off. Those Cylon robots? Just R2-D2 and C3PO gone bad.

Really, the similarities between the two shows are common to the genre, and in some cases virtually archetypal (the handsome young space hero with a ray gun). The real question is: What are these two stories about?

One is about a misfit kid learning that he has a destiny as part of the greater universe; the other is about a genocidal attack on all of humankind by an old enemy. One is about new friendships forged through adversity, rescuing a princess and destroying a new weapon that threatens the galaxy. The other is about surviving a decimating attack and fleeing into deep space in the hope of saving the human race -- and finding its roots.

The new Battlestar Galactica is terrific television -- and the original series was, too, for what it was (something very different than its grown-up sister). But "Star Wars" they ain't. Please, reviews writers, get your heads out of the 1979 press archives and go look for yourself.

And no, Lost isn't a cheap Gilligan's Island knock-off, either.

Maintaining a large Web site like GateWorld brings with it a certain measure of loss, especially considering the types of things we've chosen to publish (such as episode spoilers, photos, and exhaustive, scene-by-scene analysis). Friday nights are still a highlight of my week, as after literally months of preparing for a new episode to arrive it finally airs. Two of 'em.

But my Friday nights are also exhausting. If GateWorld were a "job," Friday nights would be that big push you make before a deadline when everyone in your department works late and orders pizza. It's the most intense few hours of the week -- every week, 10 weeks in a row.

Here's what my Friday night looks like during new episodes:

5 p.m. - The work day winds down, and I begin to fidget over the episodes that I finally get to see ... and the impending work to be done.

6 p.m. - Get home from work (on a good night) and try to line up dinner before the show starts. I live in Central Time, so that's 7 o'clock. And on a work day it comes mighty early.

6:45 p.m. - Dinner is cooking, and the baby is changed and eating. I've managed to get my computer turned on.

7 p.m. - Dinner is ready! But first we have to get Baby Boy (GateWorld's unofficial mascot, my now 8-week-old son) situated, open up a few Wordpad windows for editing, and launch my FTP client for the imminent publishing.

7:01 p.m. - Thank God for TiVo! We got it last summer, and I can't imagine going back. Unfortunately I'm probably going to have to become a slave to start times and commercials again, since we're moving this summer to a place where it's likely not going to be feasible.

7:20 p.m. - I've prepped a document for typing notes on tonight's episodes as I watch, as well as prepared to swap out the GateWorld polls for this week's episodes. I've also cleaned up the two episode pages for the SG-1 and Atlantis episode, adding the poll, deleting the spoilers, and copying all the cast and crew quotes that will still be interesting for years to come down into the "Production" section of the episode analysis. Let the games begin!

Thank goodness we have so many months between the major spoiler reports and the episode's airing. By the time I sit down to watch it, I've usually forgotten many of the details.

8:10 p.m. - I've taken a first pass of notes on SG-1, including all the guest cast, a list of everything mentioned that is already in the Omnipedia, everything new that David will be adding to the Omnipedia, all previous episodes referenced, and details that will later fall into the episode's "Analysis," "Notes," "Character Development," and "Unanswered Questions" slots. Publish the SG-1 poll and revised episode page.

8:15 p.m. - After I polish that off (thanks, Pause!) it's time to start the Atlantis episode. The baby is fussing. But I'll do the same first pass of notes there.

9 p.m. - Ah, I've caught up to the broadcast point on TiVo just in time to kick back and watch Battlestar Galactica in all its commercial glory. First I publish the Atlantis episode page and its poll. The brief respite also gives me a chance to check my e-mail and peek in on the forum.

10 p.m. - The baby is ready to go to bed, and I've (hopefully) managed to catch up on some e-mail while enjoying a fine hour of television. But there is no rest for the weary: Stargate is on again. I'll watch both shows the second time through with closed captions now on, following along in my notes and making corrections to exact terminology and spelling, and filling in what I missed before.

12 a.m. - Stargate is done for the night. I wish I could say I was going to bed, but with my 30th birthday rapidly approaching I refuse to be that responsible just yet. If there is breaking news or new episode photos (which there is far too often at midnight on Friday), I'll make sure it gets online.

12:15 a.m. - I've sorted through my notes and pulled out a list of new Omnipedia entries and updates to existing entries for tonight's two episodes, and sent them to David. I've filled in the guest cast, writers, and directors, and made sure their IMDb links work. (We're going to launch our own cast and crew database down the road, which will replace our IMDb links.)

Next I'll calculate the Fan Poll results from last week's episodes and publish its final score, and give last week's shows my own 4-star rating. I don't like to publish my rating while everyone is still voting, and I also like to watch it at least twice and digest it for a few days. That, and reading other fans' thoughts at the forum, has helped some 2-star episodes get to two and a half or three, and some episodes bump down from three stars to a more realistic rating.

I wish I could say that my notes were ready for publication, but they still need some work. I'll digest the episode for a few days and think about some of the broader implications (e.g. How do Gerak's actions reflect on the Jaffa people's desire to live free from false gods?) -- to get my head above the basic facts and figures that came out explicitly in dialogue. I'll also look for insights on the forum's episode discussion threads, and do a final editing pass where I make sure everything is in complete sentences, has all the right hyperlinks, and is sorted into Analysis, Notes, Character Development, Unanswered Questions, and Production. If I'm lucky, I'll get one of the two 100 percent complete and published before next week's episodes. (The rest will have to wait until rerun season, or until I'm inspired to do several in a week.)

Most episodes for this season don't have their complete analysis published yet. But for the most recent example of the final results, check out SG-1 Season Nine's "Ripple Effect."

That's it for my night! My crack team of content creators will round out the episode content over the next few days, with David writing and publishing the Omnipedia updates, Sharon and Livi writing episode summaries and reviews, and Callie and Jane (our newest addition) even writing complete transcripts.

As for me, it's off to dream of Hak'tyl and fast ships.

Hey there! This week we're kicking off our first set of GateWorld fan blogs. Now daring readers will be exposed to the horror that is the deepest inner mind of GateWorld's own editors and forum moderators.

Most of the work that we do on the site -- news stories, episode summaries and reviews, feature articles and interviews -- are somewhat formal in nature. The goal of the blogs section is to give us space to speak more casually, more off-the-cuff. Each blog is the author's very own place to play -- no pesky editors (like me) to get in their way. Their views are their own, and yep, we'll be opining on Stargate, fandom, and the color of the grass every now and then.

"So who the frak are you," you ask? "Why the frell should I read a fan blog?" Well, we'll try to keep it entertaining, but I imagine not every blog will suit every taste. My posts will usually be Stargate-related and/or GateWorld-related, so there -- we've got something in common.

I'm GateWorld.net's owner and managing editor. That means I pays the bills and calls the shots. Here stops the buck. Everything you hate about the site, you can blame on me.

Everything you love about the site ... was probably created by somebody else.

Despite all that, the blog is my playroom. Don't consider it GateWorld's "official" stand or view on any issue or episode. I love Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, and our site maintains positive relationships with the shows' creators -- but even I have quibbles. Here's where you'll find all those things I mutter to myself but keep off the rest of the site ... or many of them, anyway.

Last, but not least, what I hope this blog will do is give our loyal readers a peek behind the curtain of GateWorld's day-to-day operations. Some will find my views of editorial policy, forum management, and that section I'd love to do but don't have the time quite dull. For the rest ... open the iris!

Blogs are the author's personal space and represent solely the views of the author, and not necessary those of GateWorld.net and its owner. Entries are not edited or reviewed by GateWorld before publication.