Stargate Universe (3rd stargate series!) - Page 2

The canceled Atlantis and green-lit Universe, but those two actions may not have anything to do with each other.



The problem in the movie was that the military folks never figured out they needed a point of origin at the end, and didn't understand why it wouldn't work with six symbols. Of course, there's much about that particular subject that doesn't really make sense in the movie - for instance, once they find the six symbol address to Earth, Daniel insists he can't make it work without the point of origin. But why not? They already had the address, and there's 39(?) symbols on the gate. Take away the six used in the address, and they would have been able to get a lock within 33 tries.

They lucked out on Abydos.  And, that was it for a long time, until they reinstated the Stargate program and went back to Abydos and found the chamber with all of the gate addresses.  Besides having a ton of addresses off the bat, they began to understand the gate system better.  And, they had a better computer program that could dial infinite combinations and eliminate dead ends.  Finally, they were often able to pick up new addresses when they went through the gate.


Pretty bold statement after seeing just 2/3 of an episode.

I thought that it was interesting so far.  Some of the whimsy and fun from SG1/SGA wasn't there, but from what I've read, it will return later in the season.

It was a bit darker, leaning toward the tendencies of SciFi shows that have started since SG1 (eg Lost, BSG, etc), with no obvious heroes or villains, just a bunch of somewhat flawed characters.

The gf (who has never seen a minute of SG stuff since the original movie) quite enjoyed it and was able to pick up what was going on fairly quickly.

Verdict so far?  Still out, but doesn't suck. :)

I'm not too fond of stereotypical plot points. A professor who only thinks of himself and his personal goals above all else, a rogue soldier who might blow up at any time, a weak subordinate required to take charge during a crisis, the sacrificial lamb...

This better improve. Give me some creative writing like we had with BSG. That show changed its storyline so often, sometimes during the same episode, it never got boring!

I don't think we've seen anywhere near enough of the characters yet to decide they're "stereotypes"

FYI, the show is also on Hulu.

It's also currently free on iTunes.

With no captions.

Along with that, they realized that they needed to compensate for the universe expanding - 'spatial drift'.  The DHDs were able to automatically compensate for it.  Abydos, being the closest to Earth, had very little drift and that's why they were able to dial it in. 

It was an interesting start; I'll certainly continue watching.  It hasn't 'wowed' me yet, but it doesn't suck, either.

I finally saw the premiere of Stargate Voyager last night.  I've only seen the first few seasons of SG1 (and one of these days I'll get around to watching more) and just a couple of episodes of SG Atlantis.  Anyway, this new series was an interesting start.  One large outstanding question remains about the attack on the base - was there a traitor on the base?  I somehow feel that Dr. Rush has more skeletons in his closet.  I thought that the commander was going to sacrifice himself even before he volunteered to do it, but was surprised that the senator did so.  After all that bluster, showing a politician in very good light there.  I'll be following along.

I'm sure he does, but I doubt he or anyone else involved in the Stargate program would sell out to the Lucian Alliance (if they were indeed the attackers. They are the most likely suspects, but we'll probably never know for sure and it doesn't really matter). Also, he barely got away alive himself. I don't think it's in his best interest to die by way planet sized explosion.

Did the ending of this week's episode look like a mix of Stargate:Firefly and Stargate:BSG? 

If so, that's a good barrel to pull from.

I held off on watching the pilot so I could watch all 3 parts at once. For those who loved everything about SG-1 and Atlantis, I'd suspect it's a more difficult show to get into. I love that there isn't the attempt to interject humor every 15 seconds. All in all, I like the artistic choices they've made with this one and I can't see not following it on a weekly basis. If there's the intent to bring more humor to the series, I hope it's the mature humor of, say, BSG, and not the almost-pratfall humor of SG-1.

I'm always a fan of the casting following the story needs and not vice versa, but I missed seeing Teal'c along with the rest of the original team. It was also interesting to watch Samantha Carter, then see Dr. Helen Magnus on Sanctuary right afterwards. She has changed quite a bit over the years.

If it had been me, instead of trying to work in a long Planet of the Apes gag, I would have bent down and pretended to pick something up and said, "Look, sir!  Droids!" 

What do we think about the shuttle launch?  Was it a funeral for the senator that we didn't see, or was it an automated launch?  Did the ship "know" to send a shuttle to the alternate planet for the two errant crewmen, or did it sense a dead guy inside and say, "Ew, gross!"  I'd have to guess against a funeral, because why would you waste a shuttle that might prove repairable and important?  And, I doubt if the ship would care if a dead guy was in there.

On the DVDs, do you think Air will be one big three-hour episode?  I think it's a safe assumption.

Meh...It seems to be a massive mishmash of every sci fi show of the past 20 years. 

When we got to the "Martian Chronicles" flashback I knew they were reaching  :)

Show needs to be about an hour longer to move things along faster.

Friday's was still part of the pilot, so let's wait and see what a regular hour is like with this show.  I don't have a clue yet, but I would guess there will be a number of "the ship has detected another planet, let's explore it" episodes.

That's the thing that struck me about this pilot. Even now that it's over, I have no idea what this series is going to be. I mean, the pilot was all about the life support issues - now fixed, at least for now - and there hasn't really been any obvious setup for whatever is going to happen between now and when the series ends. I suppose that may be a good thing, though.

Firefly, I would agree.  BSG, I would not. 

 

While I like "the look" of SGU, I hope they quickly move away from the limited resources and "everyone's whiny and angry and fighting everyone else" storylines and move more to what Stargate is - exploration and hope.

 

That's not to say that they should all agree all the time (ala Star Trek) but it shouldn't dominate the show, like it did on BSG.  Right now there's very little to like about any of these characters - other than perhaps the computer genius and the soldier who found the lime.  I think the creators watched BSG and thought "Oh, that's why no one's watching Atlantis - we need a bunch of characters that no one likes all fighting each other.  That's what we'll make!"  (It wasn't the reason.)

 

What made the first 4 or 5 seasons of SG1 special was not knowing what was on the other side of the gate and going with a team that you liked every member of to see what was on the other side; and when times got hard or dark - the characters you cared about always carried a sense of hope.

 

And that's why if they need a model they should model Firefly, and not BSG.  The big difference between the two was with Firefly, there was a sense of hope; there was no such hope from BSG.
 

Another difference is BSG made it through 74 episodes, and Firefly didn't even get to air the 15 that were produced. I get that they were on different networks with different expectations, but still. I don't agree that BSG didn't have characters you could root for. What BSG didn't have were pristine characters. It had characters who tried to do the right things under difficult circumstances, and sometimes the right thing was ambiguous. It was also often the lesser of two evils.

So yeah, if SG:U deviates from the simplistic whimsical model of characterization exhibited by SG-1 and Atlantis, I've no problem with that. If such a deviation occurs, there's no reason the sense of wonder and exploration must be casualties.

Does anyone really think that if the situation was flipped and that BSG actually aired on a major network (like Fox) that it would have made more than 15 episodes and that Firefly wouldn't make 74 on SciFi?  A quick scan shows that BSG's episode on 1/16/09 garnered around 2.1 million viewers.  Firefly's premiere had somewhere around 4.9 - 5.1 million.

That's close to 250% more viewership.  

BSG characters were beyond complex; they were morose and unredeemable.  And while the characters on Firefly were in hard times, you had a sense they were looking to better days, and better ways. 

 

So, I for one, do have a problem if TPTB want to create Stargate:BSG.  Having unlikeable characters fighting with each other doesn't automatically make for good drama.  If that's your cup of tea, fine - watch Caprica.  It's not what SGU should aspire to. 

I will watch Caprica, but I hope it's OK with you if I watch Stargate:Universe as well. At the end of the day, it's the writers who determine what the show should aspire to. Some people will find it acceptable. Some won't. I could just as easily say that based on the movie, the SG-1 and Atlantis TV shows shouldn't have aspired to be Sci-Fi Light. Instead, I approached the shows for what they were, not what I hoped (expected?) them to be. I'll do the same for Stargate:Universe.

That out of the way... I'll forgo any discussion as to whether there were any redeemable characters on BSG, but unlikeable? I read through the thread of every season of BSG and I saw plenty of affection for the characters over the years. Some people loved Starbuck. Apollo was generally a boy scout...
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
I "liked" Adama right through to the end. Did I agree with everything he did? No way, no how. But I still liked him.

It's OK if you watched BSG and decided you didn't like anything about any of the characters, but I don't think that's the general concensus amongst fans of the show. Likewise, as time goes on, we'll get to know the characters on Stargate:Universe and I'm sure there will be heroic actions, adventure, intelligence, and humanity. If it's a little more serious in tone, that's just  fine by me.
Edited by Mikah Cerucco - 10/15/09 at 5:29am

agreed.

one of the reasons that i couldn't really get into any of the previous sg series was because of how hard they tried to be comical or tried to be star trek.

Can we please stop the Battlestar Galactica discussion please? I'm only midway through season 2 and am very annoyed that I'm reading spoilers in a Stargate thread.

What exactly was spoiled?

I've edited my post to put the BSG spoiler in spoiler tags. My apologies Mark. I actually can't believe I did that, as that's against the spirit of what we try to do in these threads, and I've been here long enough to know better. Brain fart. Rest assured that you still don't know what will happen based on what I said, but that's besides the point.

The issue is one of degree.  I would say you are right and have no problem if SGU is a little more serious in tone.  BSG goes way beyond that.  What bothers me is that BSG is too often being held up as the new standard on how sci-fi should be, and it shouldn't.  SG1 proved that it had a successful model - action, adventure, and the ability to be both humorous and light, and yet serious in tone, as well.  It irritates me when it seems like people are try to paint BSG as being the only way to do drama in sci-fi and that SG1 is somehow of lesser quality because it's not 'dark' like BSG.  Early SG1 did just fine portraying moral delemmas.

 

But you're right - ultimately the writers and creators will determine the tone of the show.  I'm just saying that trying to be Stargate:BSG would be ill advised.  Stargate, at it's core, is one of exploration and wonder. 

Don't worry about it.  It happens to all of us from time to time.

The good news is I stopped reading as soon as I realized I shouldn't be reading it and have already forgotten what I read.

I have to admit the aerobraking maneuver with the big blue gas giant was kind of cool.  So far I'm still liking the show but I'm not quite sure I know where they are going with it.

not knowing where they are going with this is i think a plus.
Better than falling into predictability

Honestly, I think everyone would be better off without that crazy professor. His arrogance, ego and selfishness is what put everyone in that mess in the first place, and now he's pissed off that he can't solve the problem by himself?

Screw him!