Memes

So here's the thing about Stargate canon:

There was the movie. Roland Emmerich planned to make a couple of sequels turning it into a trilogy, but that never happened. Bill McCay wrote a short series of novels based on the premise of those sequels through the late 90's.

The TV series Stargate SG-1 treats the movie as like 96.7% canon. There are some very minor things directly retconned, for example in the movie the nameless planet they go to is said to be in the "Kaliem galaxy" where in the show the same place is named Abydos and is located in the Milky Way galaxy, but beyond a few details like that it is treated as established fact.

TV show picks up from where the movie left off, then takes a 27° right turn and heads off in its own direction compared to where the books went. It kind of feels like the writers were given nothing but the theatrical cut of the movie to study with no other context or creators' notes or anything, and then told to make a TV show out of it. And then they did a very good job with this assignment.

You know how some shows have a first season problem? Like, Babylon 5's first season is a little rough and it really gets good in Season 2, or how you should introduce someone to Star Trek TNG at Season 3? SG-1 has some early installment weirdness in the first six episodes or so but they're watchable, and then by mid-season 1 it finds its groove.

The shows are the best part.

The movie was meh as far as I'm concerned. Neat but meh. I was pretty young when it came out and only saw it with my dad many years later.

SG1 is where it's at. 10 seasons and 3 movies of fantastic TV.

Atlantis is even better for the action-lovers, I feel like it was much more action-packed. That's partly just because both shows are products of their times, SG1 started when TV shows were much slower paced, but picks it up as the years pass. Very different first seasons.

Universe is unlike either of the other two, and if you approach it expecting more SG1/Atlantis you will be disappointed, and likely not finish the series. It's far more focused on drama, I think. Recently someone compared it to Lost, and honestly I can see the influence. The whole "mystery" aspect, having no idea where the story will go next... It's a totally different show that you might not like even if you loved the other two.

I'd say watch a few episodes from like season 6 or 7, and decide if you want to see more. It is a product of its time and the first season of any show can be hard to get through, 90s shows especially.