THE GIRLIE SHOW:

Warning: frank discussion of male totty ahead! yeah I know it's sexist' n all but sometimes a girl's just gotta go with her guts. Or, um, something like that....anyway this all stems from a nice letter written by Lucy Elmer which appeared in SFX 131. y'see Lucy mentioned that she loves SF and is a big stargate fan. And it got me thinking - why is it that most of the stargate fans I meet are women? Obviously its hard to know exact figures but stargate does seem to be a show with a predominantly female audience. How come? It's a military series, full of guns, explosions, aliens, chains of command and lots of boring guff about weapons and technology. So why can't women get enough of it?

Its not hard to suss it out: stargate's stuffed full of hot guys. Unashamedly stuffed full of hot guys, to be precise.

There's only one cast member that keeps the flame burning for male viewers and- as anyone who has met the radiant Amanda Tapping will tell you she looks a dang sight better out of those green fatigues and in normal clothes. Which must meen that colonel carter isn't there for the men to ogle at, if she was they'd find an excuse to get her half naked every week. She's there so us women can watch the show and put ourselves in her place- smart, funny capable- and best of all surrounded by a stellar cast of scrummy males. The lucky bint!

Just take a look at them; Richard Dean Anderson's grumpy O'neill might be getting on a little in years, but wer'e betting he's still fitter than the average 30 yr old in the sack (I can't believe I just wrote that- sorry mum) O'neill has a rugged honest charm to him- you'd know exactly where you stood with a fella like that. Unless of course he'd just been taken over by an alien or you were dealing with his evil double. It happens.

Christopher Judge, for his part has been flawlessly playing the "strong silent type" for years now, and he's much better looking sans the eyeshadow that dogged his early days. You just know that a date with Teal'c would involve the lighting of candles, some seriuos kel'nor'eem and many excuses to yell the word "kree!" Glad he has gotten rid of his worm though.

Then there's Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson, who has mutated over the years from a floppy haired archeologist who tended to blub a lot (all the more reason to give him a big hug eh girls?) to pumped up, no nonsense anti-geek. This is certainly character development to be proud of, though some of us still miss those days when he didn't know which end of a weapon was which. We reckon Jack must have shown him on quiet sundays at the SGC.

And, as if all that wasn't enough to be going on with, next season sees Farscape's improbably sexy Ben Browder joining the cast as Colonel Mitchell. Helllooo, nurse!
Plus we haven;t even scratched the surface of the supporting characters. I know several women who swoon over Apopohis, Martouf, Skaara- Sgt Siler even has his fasn, which is good for a guy who gets about ten seconds of screen time every year.

Not to be outdone, Stargate Atlantis has got in on the action too, following SG-1's lead by casting pretty Rachel Luttrell as Teyla (then sticking her in an unflattering wig) and the lovely Torri Higginson as Weir (then giving her an icy personality) while loading up on the male eye candy. Just look at the men on that show! Sheppard, Beckett, Ford, McKay (yeah, he;s a twit, but still an attractive twit) talk about spoiling us.

This is all horribly sexist, isn't it? No other TV show has scrumptiously aimed at the greedy eyes of women. Alright, so the Whedonverse has Spike and Angel. The X-files had Mulder and Krycek. Various Star Treks had variuos gentlemen of varied appeal. However Stargate by its very nature should be a show for guys, that only guys like. The fact that women find it tottyliciuos is either a happy accident or an extremely cunning plan. Cold shower anyone?

by Jane Dearsley

To be fair, this season they have Claudia Black back for five episodes, and in those she appears to be sporting some bondage gear - so there's something for me to look forward to, although she did look better in Farscape. Because from what I'm reading regarding storylines this season - it looks to be slim pickens for things to get excited about.