1994
My interest in Stargate starts from the original movie. More than anything else, it was the idea of a portal to other worlds that not only caught my interest, but also went on to inspire creativity in my arting for the following years to one level or another (and continues even now!)

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1997
I totally looked forward to the debut of the SG-1 TV series. My brother and I sat down to watch it, and I was blown away by the opening sequence. It had all the good elements from the movie, and... my brother promptly changed the channel.

His reasoning being something about the snake-head masks not being able to hold a candle to the CG helmet morphing effects in the movie. When pressed, he responded with, "I won't watch anything that costs less than a million an episode!" or something along those lines. It's a shame, as SG-1 only got better and better.

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2004
After moving to Japan, I started to catch an episode of SG-1 here and there on cable, and it looked awesome. When we moved the following year, we couldn't get cable in the new place. Some time later, I caught Arnold's "The 6th Day" on the weekly Friday night movie show on broadcast TV. I was blown away by how they had used the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library in the movie.

As I had lived in Vancouver for a couple of years, and was a regular in that branch, it was extremely nostalgic. I became quite nostalgic for things Canada, and started to look for something to give me a window back home. I knew SG-1 was filmed in Vancouver, so I thought I should give it another try. I figured that if I was bored by it, at the very least I could still try to guess where they had filmed the outdoor shots.

Within the first episode, I was hooked. The characterizations, the chemistry between the actors, and the humour are major reasons why. But above all else, it is the writing, and how the writers keep things fresh, creative, and evolving in interesting new directions and complications that not only made me continue watching all of SG-1 and its spin-offs, but makes me want to continue rewatching the shows!

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Wait a sec... aren't you mainly a Macross fan?
The Stargate shows and movies are actually quite similar to Macross—especially the earlier Macross series. In both, you have modern humans being introduced to advanced alien technology, taking control of that technology, and exploiting it to explore the universe. Both shows have an ancient alien race (or two) that threatens to destroy the galaxy. How they go about presenting their stories is different, but they share the element of modern humans reacting to the fantastic worlds that they find themselves in.

Also, the two shows complement each other—in that Stargate provides a general idea of how mankind made its first steps into the galaxy (helping to fill in the 'Great Blank Space' in Macross lore). Just like how Macross provides an idea of where mankind will end up going after the end of the Stargate series (colonizing planets, and dispatching Emigrant Fleets in an effort to protect the human race from being snuffed out in a concentrated attack on Earth).

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So, why Stargate?
It's fun. The kind of fun that's like hanging out with your best friends and goofing off. But with machine guns and explosions.