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Stargate Universe
Last night I finally scraped together the two hours to watch the premiere of Stargate Universe. Since the last two series really ran their course and deserved to end, I was skeptical. At first blush it appears that the show is just Atlantis + Voyager, shot in the documentary style that practically every sci-fi show since Firefly uses. But I enjoyed it, and figured we should have a place to discuss it. The TV landscape needs more real, good sci-fi: there's not a lot of it left, even on the moronically renamed Syfy channel. But maybe this one will have a solid season. I just hope that future episodes don't have so many commercials. I couldn't believe how many ads appeared during this thing.
Firefly wasn't shot documentary style, the special effects had some panning and zooming that first started in star wars episode II
One way to get rid of many of the advertisements is to watch it on Hulu. Granted you have to wait before episoded become available and the entire season of a given show isn't always available, but in general it's a lot better than sitting through lots of useless advertisements.
Justify my text? I'm sorry, but it has no excuse.
I liked the show... but they they still need some thinking writers. Why not use a "Keno" to close the hatch?!
As in most religions, it's the followers that turn people off to the religion. And Mac users are the worst.
The death of the California senator was utterly pointless. They should have taped a pen to a camera droid and had it push the airlock button on the shuttle.
Stargate: Why simply beat a dead horse where it lay, when you can transport it anywhere in the universe?
I'm done with sigs. Sigs are lame.
I'd still like to see a B5 feature film. Too bad that JMS hasn't been up to it since the passing of Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs. I still think that B5 is rather underrated/unknown in the general population (although it has a large following here on /.) and suspect that it could do very well at the box office with the right storyline.
I've watched a lot of Sci-Fi but I always wind up coming back to B5. It's the only series that I care enough about to invest the money to buy up all the DVDs. I can still pick up new things when I re-watch the series. How do you go wrong with characters like Londo, G'Kar and Garibaldi?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I have to say it kept me on edge of seat grinning, the detail and visuals were stunning, the music was very very well done!
As for the characters, the acting was quite good, i can see some of them growin
Im delighted to have a new Stargate to watch, and this new direction
lets be honest SG1 last seasons and SGA got very tired and boring
Thats what i love about this, I dont feel like im watchin yet another McGuiver episode or can predict the ending by watching the first few minutes
Stargate Universe has what was lost about Season 2 of SG1, not knowing what happens when you step thru the gate! last few seasons of Atlantis were diabolical imho
Its different and i like the new direction :)
Who still wastes their time watching commercials?
Dr. Nicholas Rush seems to just be playing the part of D. Zachary Smith from Lost in Space.
... and in the DRM, bind them.
Watch it online to avoid the long commercial breaks.
I couldn't believe how many ads appeared during this thing.
Yeah really, luckily I watched it via DVR after it had started recording for at least 40 minutes before I began watching it. I haven't seen so many badly (and annoying) placed commercial breaks in a pilot airing since the Star Trek: Enterprise premier. After getting a 720p torrent of the show and then watching it again, it is far more enjoyable (Thanks SiTV!).
This space is not for rent.
I liked the Stargate movie alright. I have never watched a single episode of the TV series. Is it actually worthwhile? Looked kind of stupid to me.
It's taken alot of stuff from Battlestar Galactica and Lost - not nescesarilly a bad thing - The previous series rather relaxed attitude to Sci-fi is still there, albeit reigned back slightly in favour of what seems to be a more character-oriented series. Notably the lack of any 'big bad' in the first episode bodes well for the focus being on internal struggle rather than on any kind of external threat.
One of my biggest gripes with the final series of SG-1 (and most of Atlantis) was the reliance on Deus Ex Machina to save the day (Especially in the closing episode of Atlantis) and the constant ressurection of characters through various means, Dr Beckett's clone, Dr Wier's seemingly endless robot clones and Daniel Jackson's repeated Ascensions/Falls.
Stargate's been one of my favourite series since I was a teenager (I've been watching SG-1 since series 3, and having watched Series 1 and 2 on repeats) - The audience has grown up, but the show really hasn't. SGU will hopefully fulfil that role, without alienating any newcomers
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
I don't get why Firefly was canceled. It was popular among geeks and trend-setting. It even had the potential to be the next Star Trek-like franchise. I suppose bean-counting overrode "buzz". They didn't give it time. Shame
Table-ized A.I.
Just started watching SG-1 for the first time on Hulu. About mid-way through season 5.
Is there any reason I should I finish out SG-1 before watching this?
and mindless.
Another season long running episode in x parts. Who has the time to see every single episode. And, with this quality, why would I want to.
For quite a few years now, I've waited until the show is on DVD. Then I can watch at my own pace. And if it never shows up on DVD, it most likely sucked anyway. I stopped watching Lost and Heros as they both really started to suck after the first season. And God forbid you missed an episode. Sheesh. TV is supposed to be an escape, not a way of life.
I think the new series started very well, though I don't know how long they will last with the good plots.
The Keno is cool, but if this is really Ancient ancient technology, why haven't they showed up in some other ancient places , like atlantis.
All the contrived, pointless tropes of Stargate with none of the cheeky self-deprecating humor.
Also, Gaius Baltar has no place in the Stargate Universe. Honestly, practically every sentence that came out of Robert Carlyle's mouth it felt like he was being fed his lines by an invisible woman in a red dress. Only he wasn't. His character just has zero definition, and there's no way to sympathize with him.
Sadly, it's all we have.
What commercials? I didn't have any in mine....
oogly boogly!
I thought the show was OK, and the concept reminded me a Star Trek Voyager, which was one of my favorite shows.
The only thing I didn't like was the amount of commercials. It made it unbearable to watch. I know they spent a lot of money promoting it and wanted to soak up as much advertising money as they could, but DAMN! I actually took out a timer and found that there was a repeating pattern of about 5 minutes of show followed by about 4 minutes of commercials.
It the real show has that many commercials, I'll be watching it on bittorent.
I have to say i enjoyed it as well. Although since i watched it online i got to play Discover Card memory game...which in of itself is ultimately lame. I'm very excited to see the direction they take. The one part i'm not happy about is the "humanized" long range communications device so earth knows where they are and can stay in regular contact. It seems to me the show would be more edgy if everyone on earth thought they were dead. I also have to say that Dr. Nicholas Rush is the equiv of Baltar from BSG, although so far he hasn't done anything outrageous (unless he contacted the Lucian Alliance to force everyone into the gate. ???)
Only occasionally watched the other Stargate series (loved the movie though) and am only partly familiar with the storylines. So, I guess I'd be less likely to be bored of the franchise. I thought it was decent, though they'll have to work to keep it from being a Voyager knockoff. Admittedly, at first I was watching just because the congressdude's daughter is sort of cute, but the story has potential if the writers can inject some originality. Otherwise I suspect it'll linger like even bad shows seem to on SciFi (I refuse to use the retarded new channel name).
I thought the visuals were good, I liked the 'ancient' star ship and the way it was rendered. It's nice to see something the ancients made that isn't 'pretty'. I didn't really care for the actors but I may grow to like them, the shaky camera stuff was really annoying though and irked me. The sex scene was just randomly thrown in and made me roll my eyes, it was a pointless grab for the crotch thinking audience. A few concerns is how they are going to butcher ancient tech. There is a lot of opportunity to expand on the story of the ancients, but with that huge opportunity is a massive chance they are going to kill it. I'm hopeful it will be a good addition to the Stargate series.
Nothing new, just a couple old plot devices shaken together. Still might be worth the watch; we'll just have to wait and see.
It was typical for a spin off series. Lay down the ground work for the viewers new to the series, throw in some background on the individuals, add cameos for the stars from the previous series and hint at whats to come. Most importantly don't mess with the formula.
As for the episode. It still amazes me how the writers handle "The Ancients". Come on. Someone sends out a robot spaceship for a indefinitely long journey and it doesn't have a way to repair itself? "The Ancients" are so omnipotent that they don't need spacesuits, supplies or tools to make repairs, but they do need spaceships? Either "The Ancients" are so overrated or the writers need to think before they write. Oops. I forgot we were talking about Hollywood.
"The TV Landscape needs more real, good sci-fi: there's not a lot of it left, even on the moronically renamed Syfy channel." You can argue "real" and "good" if you want, but there's more new sci-fi television coming out now than there probably ever has been. I'd call both Lost and Heroes sci-fi. And they're both major shows on network television. Also, on the other side of the pond Doctor Who has had a revival in a very big way. It's on hiatus for now but will be back on or near December. But the two spin-offs are both airing new shows. There's a BSG spin-off. Dollhouse survived another year. The V revival is coming. The aforementioned Stargate... The biggest dearth of Sci-Fi television right now comes from the channel that used to be devoted to it.
Ghost hunting is my interest.
Using a flashback for things further in the past, sure, but stuff that happened two days ago? Give me a break. I'm sure the writers (or network) want to get on with the action, but is a linear story so bad, especially in the premiere episode?
I think I would have enjoyed a little more foreplay before the real action started...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I didn't like it. Seemed as if they rounded up the disfunctional people; from military personnel with discipline issues to an MMO geek who's living with his mom (who seems like a Wesley Crusher stand in for the show), and decided they'd be an exciting group of people to sail across the universe on a ship that's about as functional as its crew. I find the makeup of the "crew" absurd, and expect they'll spend the time SG-1 would have used to explore the galaxy, make friends, and fight bad guys to backstab each other and generally angst their way across the universe. Say what you will, but with Jack, Sam, Teal'c and Daniel doing their job, I felt like the people of their universe could at least know they had quality people on the line. Even the Atlantis group seemed to be made of folks with extraoridinary levels of competency in their fields. These guys...well...these guys open sealed doors with flashing red lights on busted up spaceships.
Moderation : -1 Conservative Viewpoint
introducing a great concept for a new show, letting it get popular, then letting it wither, then killing it before its time.
This has happened before and this will happen again.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
This is yet another "sci fi" show that's just a soap opera that happens to take place in space. The people behind the show said it themselves, they're trying to make it into a show that's more interesting to everyone, not just sci fi geeks. They're lowing the sci fi content and focusing on inter-character relationships and drama. Just looking at the future previews in the commercials, it's obvious it's going to be like Battlestar Galactica x 100 when it comes to over the top drama and it's going to have a hell of a lot lower sci fi content. They might as well have named it Dawson's Creek in space or The Hills in space because that's what it is.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Personally I look forward to every episode in the stargate series. I was a big fan of SG1 for a while, and while I didn't like atlantis at first, I eventually did- realizing that it was its own thing.
At first I was kind of scared with the direction they were taking it with stargate universe. I don't like watching drama shows. I thought back to the new battlestar galactica- which was okay- but honestly not my favorite series.
I just hope they don't try too hard to copy what battlestar galactica did. I kind of have the feeling that they want to- given the similarities of characters- Nicholas Rush is a over emotional long haired scientist guy who is possibly evil possibly insane- just like gaius baltar. I have a feeling that they're trying to adama-fy Col. Everett Young- but that wont work. Edward James Olmos defined that character. They cant duplicate him.
What i'm hoping is that they will realize they're going to fail if they copy another series, and they warp the characters a bit so that they're not the same. I'm hoping that once they do that- i'll lose the sour taste in my mouth.
Anyway- I do like the gamer dude- Eli Wallace- but I feel like it was kind of an obvious ploy of them to put him in- they know most of the people who watch the show are fat male gamers who went to college (like myself). Regardless- that should inject some humor into the series- and that is the main reason I loved the series- because of the witty comic relief- like when Jack O'neal made some wise crack at the big scary aliens- or when Rodney Mckay yelled at the other characters for forgetting something that was blatently obvious to the viewer- but would've been left in the background in any "first generation" sci fi series - like startrek and such.
Anyway- I feel like i've geeked out enough for one blurb, I may as well be the fat comic book guy at this point- so i'll cut my blurb short.
Will we ever see an episode where the SG team visit Brown's Orthopedic Supplies I wonder?
/.ers, you can listen again That Mitchell and Webb Sound on iPlayer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Mitchell_and_Webb_Sound
For UK
That about sums it up.
I'll keep watching for now.
In case you missed the final reference ... compare SG:U ship to Not of This World album cover.
Oh, also, with all the kids in SG:U, I keep wanting to call it "Stargate University."
1. Scientists are evil scheming power hungry liars that screw everything up.
2. Politicians are selfless and caring human beings who will gladly give up their lives for you.
3. Thirty year old gamers living with their mom are solving for the Grand Unified Theory by playing Warcraft 18 hours a day.
Well, at least they didn't leave out the patronization.
*sigh* to me it feels like the era of good science fiction is over.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." George HW Bush
Yeah seriously, I wiped Syfylis from my Tivo.. They can keep their ECW and stupid "haunting" show crap..
Sorry, but being able to create a channel brand by fiat is something they should have done EARLIER. What it was, is largely irrelevant.
Stargate worked because of Macgyver. His wry humor made it easy to take the logic faults of the show. Tilc also evolved into a very interesting character.
But in the end, it was Macgyver who made Stargate. If Lou Diamond Phillips doesn't end up being as wooden as Edward James Olmos, I'll be (pleasantly) shocked. The good space shows need to have an actor who can portray inspirational leadership. People would follow Macgyver, Kirk, Picard, or Janeway anywhere. Avery Brooks and Scott Bakula, not so much.
You forgot Eureka! If genre mixing shows like Lost and Dollhouse get included as sci-fi, then so should Eureka.
Lots of likenesses being thrown around here and elsewhere, but nobody seems to be mentioning Sliders, what with the limited time on each world before the get whisked off automatically, opening up countless opportunities for team members to get stuck in stupid places and risk being left behind... remember Sliders? No?
I real look forward to seeing how the develop the story line and characters, but it does seam like a stargate version of Voyager. I am wanting the rest of Defying Gravity to Air soon, I think it is the best new original show on any of the big 4 broadcast networks,(FOX CBS ABC NBC)
there are 10 types of people in this world, those who read binary and those who don't. which are you!
Troll? For defending the honor of geekdom? You fanboys are more uptight than the Teal'c at the Vagina Monologues.
The Wikipedia article on SG:U seems to imply that, whilst they're stuck on a starship they can't actually drive the thing where they want to go and are restricted to hopping on and off via its onboard stargate when they get near interesting things. So it's a bit like Voyager but somebody stole their steering wheel.
Space: 1999, a British sci-fi (60s or 70s, I'd guess) had a similar setup but it was based on the slightly more bonkers-sounding premise that the crew were stuck on a moonbase and that the entire moon had been catapulted across the galaxy. When the moon went through an interesting neighbourhood they'd sometimes hop off and take a look around, then they'd jump back on again before it left. Surreal stuff! Despite the dodgy science and costumes they actually had some quite good episodes with interesting plot ideas.
As an SG1 fan, I'd just like to say "Please let it be good! Please let it be good!". That is all.
There are many things that make B5 awesome, but the single most compelling reason for its awesomeness is the cohesive storyline. It is the only video (tv/movie) that feels like you are watching a book. Great arc episodes, fantastic writing of dialog, and growth of characters that you have never seen before make it unique and memorable in TV history.
The StarGate Universe however has always felt like a high-school writing class in comparison. SG:U could develop into a good show, and as my TV sci-fi choices are limited I will watch it.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
The Lost Room was left wide open for a regular series (or sequel). The movie sets the stage for a complex, intertwined plot, and one that doesn't rely on cheesy effects to make it work.
All the guys fall out of the spaceship and the rest of the show is about all the girls living it up on the planets surface. Maybe they'll find Scotty's whip?
or Stargate Galacitica, Seems that it's Stargate meets Galactica, all with an old ship that people are fighting for survival on. Personally I'll keep watching, but if it becomes more like BSG, then its only going to be a poor re-hash, as it could never out do BSG.
Literally.
The character was so absent from the 2 hour premiere you are unable to compare it.
Stan Lee has played bigger roles in the Spiderman movies than Lou Diamond Phillips played in the SGU pilot.
Is this really necessary?!?!
... if this is what your are going to offer, just shut it off. Either that or get some better writers that don't have to fall back to flashing trash because they can't fill a complete 45 minutes with quality writing...
You know, one of the things I really enjoyed about about the SG series was the fact that I was NOT subjected to the gratuitous sex scene of some skank getting porked in the nearest mop closet. These scenes have absolutely no relevance to the show and really show the writers lack of ability to write a dramatic sci-fi without degrading the entire series... just another smut show.
Writer: Scene opens... great story ensues... cant quite fill the entire time slot.... uh... hmm... oh, I know... skank in mop closet.... ya.
Thoughts to self..."Man I am such a great writer... I hope they don't catch on."
SG-U
There's something to be said for a crew on a space ship traveling aimlessly in space.
Since Star Trek has all but died, it is up to more or less blatant Star Trek clones to carry on the torch, and since they have been running somewhat scarce the last few years, SG:U is just in time.
It may not realize it yet, but it must become Star Trek. The Star Gate franchise has already stolen basically all of the Star Trek technology* without as much as lamp shading the fact, it is my hope that this will subtly influence them into becoming Star Trek. Someone's ears will over time grow pointy, and the women will have a sudden urge to wear mini skirts. Mark my word!
* They have different names, but it's basically the same. Almost in a federation starship has an equivalent in a Star Gate starship.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
I have yet to find any of these shows in this franchise watchable in the slightest... And I can happily watch pretty much any other science fiction series happily...
That's not the SG:U ship, that's the Hammond (Or any other ship in the same class). This is the SG:U Ship a sort of bastard child of the Millennium Falcon and that ship from Crusade.
That scene was pure genius. I thought my daughter was going to die laughing.
I'm guessing you didn't watch the premier for the current season of heroes then. I have never seen so many fricking commercials in my life. The two hours could likely have gone down under one if they'd been cut out.
Directtv views don't comcast take this away by buying nbc.
It would suck to have torrent this with comcarp takes it away.
The same can be said for any channel. Or movie producer. Or music label. If you want to avoid giving money to hucksters in suits who hold you in contempt, you're doomed to a mass media free existence.
The cake is a pie
One based on Academy life, like in the most recent movie. Roddenberry had proposed such, but never implmented it.
Real home theaters have a 120" plasma. Only the poor people or wanna-be's use a projector. Stop trying to act like you have money. you just look silly when you cant do it right. Bet you don't even have any Crestron gear in your home.
I agree. I loved SG-1. I was skeptical of Atlantis until I watched it; and then loved it. I was skeptical of Universe but willing to give it a chance. After watching the opener of SGU I am extremely disappointed. I nearly fell asleep in the middle out of boredom. If it was bad but tolerable I would still watch it, but its not even tolerable. The problem is that its not Stargate. The show is obviously designed for a different demographic. To accomplish that they took everything about stargate that I like out and put everything about tv that I hate in. The biggest draw of Stargate was adventure and discovery. All SGU seems to have is forced angst. I don't get it. If they wanted another BSG why not just make another BSG? No need to drag stargate into this mess.
Oh yeah, you're right. I just picked the first image I found. That's the one.
Looks like a guitar to me.
You need to get yourself a girlfriend.
My wife and I watched the first episode - we're both fans of SG-1 and Atlantis. Neither of us particularly liked this first episode of SG-U. I know I quickly tired of the "let's have every single person be involved in at least one interpersonal conflict" writing style, and the repeated use of "the more quick camera cuts centered on a single event, the better" direction. Oh, and that opening scene just dragged on and on and on... I found myself talking back to the TV "All right, we GET it already!".
We'll probably watch one or two more, but based on that first episode... I'm afraid they realized going into this new series that they had no new ideas at all. Faux-gritty writing and direction rarely end up producing good television. Can it be popular? Obviously - just look at 2/3 of what comes out of the big three networks anymore. But after a while all that sameness blends together and is eminently forgettable.
It's too bad, because the concept itself seems like it could be interesting - in more skilled hands...
#DeleteChrome
At least there is one SciFi sort-of space type show on TV... That's about it... no other reason to watch it... It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great... I'll watch because there is nothing else on...
Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
How original and fresh are the writers using such a time worn premise....
really, that's the only way you can bring the slob/couch potato/ipod lover into the story line....
>Sadly, it's all we have.
True. But that's the kind of talk that allowed Enterprise to last through 4 sorry seasons..
I want Carlyle to stand out (i wished he was the next Doctor) but the material is awful and cliched beyong belief (and not the good Dr Who kind).
I dont want soap opera in space but sadly we have mediocre acting being upstaged by even more mediocre writing.
Please kill E-lie.
Have him lose his bodily functions like Pike and just get him to stfu.
its simple.. in atlantis they travel from one galaxy to the next within about 2 months.
The "course" shown on the pilot indicates this "amazing new wonder" the ancients created was in fact defective by design.
by all rights, even if it crossed half the universe, this spaceship should have only taken a couple decades, not several hundred thousand years.
Welcome to the world of gross continuity errors! For other examples see this parody of the crappy 09 star trek movie.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Dr. Rush: should learn to submit the hysterical Chloe, maybe learn a choke hold or two.
Matthew Scott: I see we're going to have several episodes of him goofing things up ... sigh.
Eli Wallace: "The holographic doctor", without the humor.
Ronald Greer: somebody please blow this homicidal maniac out the airlock already, before he blows up the ship.
Is SG:U available anywhere in 1080p? I've seen it in 720p, but I want all the eye candy.
Making the pilot itself a cliffhanger? Edgy. But this one seems to push all the envelopes, now doesn't it? Main characters that aren't good have not been a staple of the Stargate series, and I'm just not getting into it. They say that people are going to get left behind on this show? Dr. Rush and Sgt. Greer need to be the first ones.
(It's never too late to join the Renaissance)
I don't think implementation was Roddenberry's forté. He had a large number of rather vague and disconnected ideas about things.
I think Star Trek on television is pretty much dead. For all its cheeziness, DS9 was a real step forward, having embraced the concept of long story arcs. Enterprise just took things backwards and nosedived. The writers seemed to resent the idea of long story arcs or consistency. They constantly gravitated towards the episodic and attempts at striking moments.
yes yes please! more fodder!
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Dollhouse is worse than fail. I've given it two honest chances, but it just plain sucks.
Eureka is lighthearted and fun.
The premise of the entire series is the search for these over-grown AA batteries they called zpm's.
They had one at half capacity, and they had a machine that could xerox any object!
I have a book and a xerox machine, but no pens! I think i'll go to the store for some pens so i can copy the book by hand!!
of all the stupidity....
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
"Since the last two series' really ran their course and deserved to end"
Why so? OK, SG-1 kept re-inventing new villains often enough it did give the impression they were trying a bit too hard to keep an old series new. Still, there barely even started to explore the Lucian Alliance. And as for Atlantis, that ended with pretty much nothing resolved. OK, so they are supposed to come out with movies. Still, their movies seem to be little more than a season's worth of episodes condensed into a single show. I'd rather watch the show.
As someone else mentioned, way too much interpersonal conflict. So far there is no character I can really like. Eli is too much of a mama's boy. He was beamed into a spaceship and looking down on earth all he wanted to do was call mommy. Come on! Dr. Rush is an @ss and I can't figure out if the military people are too whiny about it or not angry enough given the situation. I think they should either congratulate Dr. Rush for figuring it out (he did do all the groundwork, even if Eli put in the last piece or two) or shoot him for pretty much eliminating all chance they will see their families again. The whiny bs just isn't a good fit for soldiers. I guess this is all part of the remake for a younger audience. Does this just indicate we have a generation of whiny mamas boys reaching the age where they watch ads and buy stuff?
I'll watch a while longer. It isn't nearly as bad as I'd feared and it will probably get better when they actually get off the ship and do something. Speaking of which I was rather disappointed that in an hour they never really got beyond setting up the plot we all knew was coming a year ago. Very slow start.
Between my experiences with Extron/AMX and Crestron at work, I can tell you that Crestron will *never* have any gear in my home -- ever.
To tell a guy that just spent thousands on automation gear that he can't have the software because he's "just an end user" is crazy. I bought the hardware. I'm not leasing it. There was no "license" for how I can use the hardware. It's *MINE*. If you're not going to let me have the software to program it, you're also not going to get any cash from me.
bork bork bork!
I found it to be predicable and boring at best. As far as I am concerned, it was a remake of Battle Star with a Stargate. Poor lost humans looking for earth. I'll give it 3 more runs but I don't expect it to get any better. Don't get me wrong, Battle Star was the bomb. We don't need another rehash of an all ready played out story line. I mean really, the uniforms even have the same style!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Wait for someone to re-edit it into chronological sequence and download it off the 'nets.
Jumping back and forth with the flashbacks was annoying as hell.
A girlfriend with a MythTV box.
Hey, as long as we're fantasizing here, might as well go for broke...
I've pretty much given up on watching series on TV because of the commercials making it a so hard to enjoy. If I want to see a series I generally now just wait until it comes out on DVD or Blu-Ray and rent it on Netflix.
No commercials, watch it at my convenience, no cable TV glitches, and in the case of Blu-Ray, higher quality picture.
Real home theaters have a 240" OLED. Only people who don't go golfing with the CEO of Sony use plasma. Stop trying to act like you aren't nouveau riche. You just look like a yuppie when you don't have connections. Bet you don't even have HDMI 2 in your home yet.
... and in the DRM, bind them.
Anyways, I enjoyed the cast, I enjoyed the unknown, I like that no one knows much about anything and they get to ride this ship on the other side of the universe. I just don't want the cheese. I don't want to see Mr. McBigHead Egyptian guy. I don't want to see much of McGyver. I just want to see a solid cast explore the unknown that I can grow to love. Maybe they'll find an android somewhere along the way....
Contrary to the prevailing opinion here I actually really enjoyed this premiere. For starters I bought the season on iTunes so I didn't have to put up with the commercials that many people did, commercial breaks every ten seconds would have pissed me off too. It seems this season there's several high budget shows premiering and the networks are trying to make all of their money on the first few episodes in case the viewership wanes later in the season. Unfortunately that tactic is likely to backfire and cause a drop-off in live viewers because no one wants to be assaults by dozens of super loud commercials over the course of an hour. Way to shoot yourself in the foot Syfy, if that's even your real name!
On to the show itself, I enjoyed the premise and I think the show will be done well. SGU is obviously influenced by shows like Lost and Battlestar Galactica and that is fine with me, I like BSG though I have never gotten into Lost I have seen a few episodes. Stargate needed a little more creative camera work and less stable/professional characters. The SG-1 team were all highly trained experts in their fields and that made sense since they were usually the first group of people to go through a particular Stargate. Atlantis was meant from the get-go to be an expedition where they knew they would be out of contact with Earth for a long time.
Both SG-1 and the Atlantis teams were meant to be self sufficient A-teams. The personnel of Icarus Base were third stringers on garrison duty or scientists/civilians with rudimentary if any survival and combat training. They were also not prepared to be self sufficient or separated from logistical support for any period of time. It'll be interesting to see this group survive and how well they do so, they have a fairly large cast of extras so they can potentially mow through bodies before getting to the title cast.
The camera work I didn't really mind as it gave Stargate a different look. Both SG-1 and Atlantis were very bright and often had unobstructed camera views while SGU went for more obstructed views and a darker overall look. I think this works because they're supposed to be on a ship that is millennia old and is slowly breaking down. To me the odd camera angles and focal lengths of BSG gave a better illusion of size. Even though the set might have been forty feet across the short focal distance made the blurred background look farther away and provided the illusion of space. The darker set also helped out in this illusion. I think SGU using this technique will help make the ship look more realistic as Atlantis looked like painted wood paneling as did every planet SG-1 visited except some parts of their base.
I think Atlantis missed the opportunity to use the darker broken down look, Atlantis like the Destiny was supposed to be old and busted it shouldn't have looked freshly painted and unworn. I hope SGU stays with the old and busted look for the Destiny. Planets they go to can look new and maintained but I'd like to see them come back to their worn down rust bucket ship at the end of the episode. This like the untrained crew could also make for some good episodes, marginally habitable planets might look pretty good to the crew compared to their broken down ship but then they have to consider they'll be stranded on that planet forever as the Destiny isn't going to be coming back for them.
I also didn't mind the minor plot holes in the episode because they at least threw a line in afterward to give an explanation for them. Some things just have to move the story along. The Senator with a heart condition and badly broken ribs who was dying anyways decided to press the button and save everyone. I don't know why people have a problem with that. Unlike SG-1 and Atlantis there's no central decision making group (yet) that vets all solutions before deciding on one.
I think they went to great lengths to show that the civilian and military leadership were not a unitary body and that some groups were acting with semi-autonomy from the others.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Stargate worked because of Richard Dean Anderson. His wry humor made it easy to take the logic faults of the show. Tilc also evolved into a very interesting character.
But in the end, it was Richard Dean Anderson who made Stargate. If Lou Diamond Phillips doesn't end up being as wooden as Edward James Olmos, I'll be (pleasantly) shocked. The good space shows need to have an actor who can portray inspirational leadership. People would follow Macgyver, Kirk, Picard, or Janeway anywhere. Avery Brooks and Scott Bakula, not so much.
Fixed it for you! Seriously, IMHO if you enjoy and respect the guy's work so much isn't it worth a minute to find-out his real name? Oh and I left the last "Macgyver" intentionally, because that sentence was clearly about fictional characters.
I am not American you Insensitive Clod!
Yes I am aware you can hide your country of origin by various means to get around this, I just can't be bothered. I will just torrent it anyway.
And here I was gonna go for bastard child of the Millenium Falcon and the Valdore from Star Trek: Nemesis.
I watched it without reading a single review or press release. I had no expectations of what was to come. Warning some vague spoilers may be below.
Within 5 minutes it is clear that this is an attempt to graft BSG onto SG and in an attempt to milk both fan bases for the combined monetary gain. No doubt this idea seems brilliant in the board room.
But the execution is the worse of both worlds. It sucks all the fun, and chemistry among lovable characters out of Stargate and replaces it with a superficial BSG veneer of angry distrust and melodrama. Nothing is left of Stargate, but the gate mechanism and some tired cameos.
The have nothing of BSG world that made it great. Instead they assume dark, dire, angry, whiny = deep. It doesn't. It just equals annoying.
This seems like what you would get if your made your writers watch a few episodes of BSG and make a list of BSG items. Then crib the ones you can get away with (IE nothing to do with Cylons).
So we get dark dingy sets, angry distrusting characters, angry mob scenes, obligatory pointless sex scene, heavy flashback, heavy melodrama. None of the the heart and soul from either show.
After seeing this appear to be a cheap BSG knockoff a quick bit of googling revealed that they at least admit this is what they were trying to do.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/08/tca-press-tour-stargate-universe-producers-aiming-for-battlestar-galacticalevel-quality.html
"creators of "Stargate Universe," the upcoming spinoff of the long-running "Stargate SG-1," took the stage today, panelists promised a fresh, more "Battlestar"-like take on the space opera."
I am annoyed by the cynicism and lack of originality in trying to give Stargate a BSG makeover and by the end result which felt like punishment to watch.
YMMV of course. Some people apparently loved it.
They said it wasn't going through hyperspace so maybe it was a lot slower?
The magic of Star Trek, the original Battlestar Galactica, Bab 5, the successful SG series, and the like is the ability of people to empathise with the characters. The harmony of the Enterprise Bridge Crew, the loyalty of the Bab 5 command crew, the sacrifices of the SG1 and SG:A teams for each other. People watch because they want to belong, to respect, and admire honorable and respectable characters striving together, an escape from a real world where slimey lawyer tricks, grasping politicians, and all too many strangers would kill and/or take all you have if they thought they could get away from it. This is where the new Battlestar missed with most of the fans from the original, and why I hope to hell thas SG:U doesnt turn into a bunch of venal characters trying to survive a slow motion train wreck. Unless these characters pull together and fight what the Universe throws at them, it will crash and burn slowly, riding on the fading embers of fan loyalty.
Remakes are tough. The remake of Battlestar was a good story, but it would have been just as good if it hadnt desecrated the original. This remake of Stargate, if it goes for all the quick cheap and easy plots based on internal conflict and human character flaws instead of true science fiction, might as well be another soap opera.
I think I just expected a little more. Hopefully it gets better as the season goes on.
Oh Crap, I'm an optimist.....
I have recently gotten into the TV show Fringe. There is good science fiction out there if you look. It is hard to find and doesn't come around very often but it is out there.
Not all of it involves spaceships and wormholes. If you are looking for specifically for spaceships and wormholes you will fall into one of two categories (unless a third gets created), that of star trek, and that of star gate. If and when a new one is created everyone will complain that it is too much like the two prior universes dispite this being the reason why people want to watch it anyway.
Dollhouse is another that isn't bad that is new. There is of course the last season of LOST also.
I love a good space opera just as much as the next geek, but there is more out there than just that. Having said all that I think we are ripe for a new one, Trek is gone, Star gate is gone, Scrabblestar Metallica is gone, people fondly remember Firefly, I think we are ready for the next big thing. crosses fingers.
The basic concept - send out a starship on a very long voyage of discovery with a "transmat" / "teleporter" / "stargate" on it so you can beam in and out - I vaguely remembered when I watched the pilot. That concept is the basis for the book "The Enemy Stars", by Poul Anderson (copyright 1958), and the ship's name in the book was the "Southern Cross". (My fragile paperback copy says it cost $0.50US back in 1968 or so.) Would have been a nice tribute if this ship had been given the same name (since it originated on Earth, the Southern Cross constellation would have been visible to the ancients that launched it). Don't know about the intellectual property situation, however.
Yes, there are elements of BSG, SG-Atlantis, ST-Voyager (except this ship is heading outbound), and even ST-DS9 (since this is an alien ship that is somewhat trashed / remember the first episode of DS9?). At least this time the Colonel didn't die like he did in SG Atlantis 1-1, and leave the mission to the "young hotshot". Also, you know the rules of pilots - the B-list actor with a recognizable face gets the ax, right? Finally, the Senator would have been S-O-L once his pills ran out, so I think he made the smart move in saving his daughter's life.
The cast has promise, they appear to be reusing lots of SG1 concepts effectively, and it is at least newish (if you can ignore that ST-TNG episode when the "Traveler" took them to the edge of reality / the first "Wesley is **really** special episode). Hey, being 7 BILLION lightyears from Earth is a bit farther away than the Pegasus galaxy.
What else can I say? I liked what the SG Production Team did with Atlantis (died two years early in my opinion), and how the DVD movies wrapped up both the Ori and Baal story lines for SG1. It's not yet another teen vampire show, and I like the Eli character (again, his role shows their humor, using a game to find him - like "Last StarFighter" - then beaming him out of his own house to grab him).
So SGU production team - please steal as much as you can from "classic" SciFi; we will all be thankful.
Other random comments:
- B5 was great, mainly because of the people. What other US SciFi show lets people have drinks, sit around in their rooms, cry like they mean it, and try to live real lives? DS9 did a lot of the same things, but B5 still seems more likable (and I liked DS9; but I own B5). Still, as much as I liked B5, I can't see it continuing without G'Kar; it just wouldn't be the same.
- Sliders / more stealing from my favorite books; this time from Keith Laumer's "Imperium" stories (except his device was the size of a 1950's phone booth or bigger, not a handheld remote control).
- Everyone steals, so why not SGU? / remember the ST-Enterprise episode with the derelict timeship that was "bigger on the inside than the outside"? (Someone should have just said: Q. "What model is it? A. Type 40!")
- Dollhouse / I hate to say it, but as much as I enjoy the hell out of it, I just know Fox is going to kill it as soon as they can. Why can't they sell this kind of show to NewsCorp / SkyNET (perhaps they do, but it may not be enough). While it is still a fairly original show (relatively / not about space, time travel, or robots), it is likely too expensive for its own good (**cough** Farscape **cough**).
- Someone find Claudia Black and Ben Browder some new work. I suggest Robert Heinlein's "The Glory Road". Read it and see what I mean.
= = = = = = = = = = ...
dave | i-can-feel-my-mind-going
Notice a lot of BSG crewin the Mix- UNEmpoyment Line must have been near the SGU cattle call, Lets hope this is not Just a show Bootie Sci-fi. Remake of BSG with atlantis tech. Bootie Soap with high tech Shoots and Ladders.
There's an excellent blog (disclaimer: Author is a friend of mine) that details the journey of someone who has never seen Babylon 5 before (a B5 "virgin").
She writes a blog entry for every episode of all 5 seasons. Excellent read, and made me want to watch it all again from the start.
Babylon Five Virgin
Frog
I really think they are that shallow.
I watched the first hour and a half. By then I actually was too bored to finish it. It didn't seem to offer anything new. The characters were so bland it was hard to tell which would really be the main characters as the show continues. I don't think the plot would have made much sense to anyone who had not previously watched sg1 and atlantis. Overall I'm disappointed, but not surprised.
... I watched its series premiere, and wasn't impressed. It felt like Star Trek (spaceships), Battlestar Galactica, etc. but worse. I still prefer SG-1. Atlanta wasn't that good either.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I thought the phrase was "Keyhole". As in the spy satellites that the US uses (used?).
[spoiler] I can't be unique in being annoyed by "drama" involving characters I barely know. Unfortunately SC Universe insisted that someone had to play the tragic hero and die in the first 50 minutes. The next 10 minutes were, surprise, filled with a hysteric woman, related to the dead "hero", crying, screaming, yelling and waxing nostalgically. I fucking hate that. Why do writers think they need these cliches and emotional breakdowns to give their story meat? Is this really what they think the audience had in mind when they turned on science fiction? [/spoiler]
___
No power in the 'verse can stop me
I've not seen it yet, but another comment mentioned that the ship had been seeding planets with stargates. If that's the case then it would have spent most of its time in galaxies, doing short hyperspace jumps between star systems, which would explain a relatively small total distance travelled.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I couldn't believe how many ads appeared during this thing.
Unlike Taco, I would be very happy to see ridiculous numbers of adds during every episode of SGU. The reason is quite simple. Adds pay for TV. The shows exist as a way to get people to watch adds.
This means that a show on Network TV or "Basic Cable" will survive as long as it attracts enough adds to cover the cost of production and give the station a tidy profit. So I want adds on all the shows I love. Lots and lots of adds.
PS: This is true, even if I don't actually watch those adds.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Sorry about your penis.
As a whole I think that the premise of the show has real promise, but original premises isn't what made the other Stargate shows a hit. The situations that they where in and the solutions weren't original in the least. What made those shows where the characters and character development. So far there isn't a single character on the show that I really could get behind. As a rule I will give a new show at least 3 episodes to get established before passing judgement but unless they can do some character development to make at least one character likable. The closest they got was Eli and he was more pity then like for me. The other concern for me is if they are traveling through out the universe with a FTL drive randomly jumping here and there, there is a real danger that it become a planet of the week show not really having anything to tie the entire show together. The other Stargates have had a 'big bad' to tie things together I can't see how they can do this randomly jumping in and out of FTL travel all the time.
They claim early on in the show that they are doing, "Faster than light travel, but not though hyperspace."
The ship has been traveling for 100,000 years, so you have to use Ancient technology from Atlantis minus 90,000 years. So, that's the equivalent of pushing the human race from space-flight back to before the Clovis Point culture.
So, it's entirely likely that this ship is not the "latest and greatest" intergalactic hyperspace super-cruiser capable of the Kessel run in under 5 parsecs. (Sorry, mixing metaphors.)
The ancients were sending these ships out to other galaxies because it was prohibitive for them to make the journey in ships, that would indicate years, decades, or centuries to do inter-galactic travel. The course they showed on the monitor -- "Billions of light years" -- took 100,000 years, that's a speed roughly 10,000 times the speed of light. That sounds fast, but still represents a 3.4 hour trip from Earth to Proxima Centauri (3.8 light years). Fast enough for interstellar travel, but nothing like what you'd need to hop galaxies.
So, just like we send unmanned probes out to Pluto (New Horizons), the ancients sent an un-manned vessel to other galaxies. Then, if it takes 50 years, who cares? It's not like anyone has to ride it.
Life, the Universe, and Everything... in my image.
Ironically, I find the plot device more interesting the actual show.
The scene with the lushen alliance using guo-uld motherships had more potential than the broken down lost in space plot they are rolling with.
Yeah, but wait...There are rings ahead of them. That means either: - The ship has reached it's "destination", in the galaxy where the ring builder ships were programming to start building rings, in which case, you would expect the ancients to have built the ship to survive at least long enough to get to its planned destination in good shape, OR - the ring builder ships have been building rings in all the galaxies along the way, in which case, you would expect the ancients should just have programmed the ring builder ships to build galaxy rings, and then jumped directly to the galaxies, rather than jumping to the ship. They would have hopped from one galaxy to the next to catch up to the ring building ships, kind of like the inter-galaxy ring bridge in SG:A. Or, the ship was in a battle, which was suggested in the show at one point. And what about the CO2 scrubbers? Why would the ship have had any atmosphere at all in transit? It would make much more sense to fill the ship with atmosphere just before the ancients jumped to it, not to have been maintaining atmosphere for 1000s of years for no reason. I mean, they didn't have the lights on that whole time, we saw the ship turning them on because of the incoming worm hole, wouldn't the air work the same way?
With all the talk of bittorrent and avoiding ads from it's core audience group it seems that their isn't any profit in sci-fi anymore.
Real home theaters involve a large stage and having the program's actors re-enact the show you're trying to watch. Sometimes they only require a fee to do it, sometimes you have to kidnap them. I have a list of impersonators in case something I'm watching involves somebody who's passed on.
Ever since I upgraded to this system, even my porn collection is considered high art.
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
So, why don't the human engineers/scientists realize this and ask what else has been respiring on the ship?
Sounds like an episode 7 or so.
Lost was merely philosophical douchebaggery. Heroes is crap because none of the good guys has ever come up with the solution of blow the bad guy's head off from 100 yards away. Dollhouse could actually be quite good, except Dushku, while a good actor for certain roles, isn't all that great at the ever-changing personality of her character.
"Why would the ship have had any atmosphere at all in transit?"
Who's to say it didn't? It could have been a vacuum until it's gate got dialed and then filled up the cabin really quickly. The CO2 scrubbers could have just failed right when life support came back on. The crew could have just been wrong about it operating all this time. It's not like they know enough about the tech to make it themselves.
That, or maybe the ancients just had the ability to make stuff that lasted really long and didn't worry to much about it. The ship is already operating a thousand years longer than was originally intended, after all.
1. Wrong name - should have called it "Lost Battlegate Atlantica's Anatomy Voyager".
2. Confusing - Scrambled the sequence with unnecessary flashbacks and cause confusion, this only works if there is a big mystery, not the 15 minutes tiny mystery in SGU (Trying to copy Lost)
3. Lacks originality - Tried too hard to please everyone and ended up being a pile of nothing. As if the writers are beginners writing their first show, copying a little bit from every popular shows out there and calls it a day.
4. Trying too hard - Unnecessary sex scene which had nothing to do with anything else and screams "me-too", to think we'll buy this crap just because you put it there is quiet insulting (Trying to copy Galatica)
5. Annoying - Way too much arguments, yes tension is needed between characters, but some idi0t decided it'd interesting for us to see people argue every step of the way (over common sense) from beginning to the end. Dude, just STFU and move on already.
6. Boring - Characters don't stick, because they're all average losers and a loud mouth, everyone hates loud mouths.
7. Shaky cameras - Dude, stay the **** still.
8. Careless - With plot holes the size of Texas.
9. Too greedy - Crossed the fine line between bravery and stupidity, introducing new stuff to reach wider audience is understandable, ditching everything that was good and piss off loyal fans to the brand itself is just plain stupid.
10. Bad acting - Soulless characters, cardboard acting, but what can you expect from a pilot with a lame script.
Obviously the guys running this project has the same mentality as the guys who renamed SciFi to Syfy (Syphilis) just to get paid.
Syfy, have fun shooting yourself in the foot.
Yep, that is what it looked like to me. A tired attempt to graft the emoting and darkness of BSG onto the Stargate universe that totally failed. Seems the writers are having a hard time coming up with ideas. I confess that I watched part of it and was bored after about 5 minutes (of show, not commercials -- of which there were many). I am expecting this one to fade as fast as that other new turkey -- Defying Gravity. Instead, I am going to watch my collection of Babylon 5 DVDs.
Seemed more like an adaption of Space 1999 to me. The radioactive power of the planet throws them into a situation where they are traveling to star systems without much control or permanence. Let's hope it doesn't suck as bad.
for scenes with low movement, a 1080i stream will approach a 1080p in actual resolution, while for a stream with high movement inside of it, it will tend towards 540 lines of actual resolution.
Under this definition, anything shot on film has "low movement" because film runs at 24 fps, which less than half the 60 Hz field rate.
I saw the dollhouse DVD only episode and that was actually very good. It made the whole first season worth it. But I doubt it'll get past the bad filler episodes quick enough to allow the show to last.
You're right about Eureka - it's one of the few original shows made by Sci Fi that has lasted well. Fun hero saves the day type of geeky fun.
Battlestargate Galactiverse. `Nuff said.
In all honesty aside from the Senator being selfless and a few random scenes that were not quite nessiary it was not bad.
What really got to me was the shaky camera effects and horrible placement of the camera. Behind a wall, a box, a person, etc.
Where did the quality go from filming? Not everything has to be a documentary when its fiction in the first place... Good well designed shots go a long way.
Ah, yes it's so good to see an original Sci-Fi idea. Not. Corny as they were I enjoyed Star Trek. Why, because it was upbeat, funny and new (well in respect to TV). Now Sci FI TV and movies is mostly Crush, Kill, Destroy. Death, Kill, Death Death, Kill Kill Death. At least this one added sex. What I wouldn't give for a Sci Fi show that wasn't all about Death, War, Killing and Hate. God, if I want that all I need to do is turn on the freaking news. At least there's a lot more originality with real killers. Which is kind of sad, considering these artists are supposed to be like creative geniuses. I guess schizophrenia beats genius everytime.
Trapped impossibly far from home. A bloody ticking clock and a new world that you can explore up until the timer expires. They even called it a wormhole back then too. Haha.
Now I love SG1 and SGA, and I hope this show turns out to have some interesting stories, just it doesn't seem to have any original bones in its body to start. Not an auspicious beginning.
Im going to guess that the 8th Chevron is the "Galaxy" code. That is why it worked on that planet, but still needed Earth's point of origin. Maybe each galaxy has a home planet that servers as that galaxies symbol.
I just can't get by the feeling the show was cheap. It looked like it was more CG than built sets, which results in a cheap cartoonish look that I just can't stomach. SG1 was getting cheap looking in it's last season, as if they had a $25,000 budget for each episode. They probably make $100,000 a week selling the DVDs if not more.
Sorry to say but ABC's FlashForward looks like they spend a million dollars more per episode than this Stargate disaster.
Seriously, I am not looking for high brow entertainment. Budget special effects, plot holes are all part of it. -- (of course he needed to close the door manually and die -- same as with my iPhone, touch screen them pencils don't work either)
Stargate is on TV, and that is enough to satisfy my craving for galactic exploration.
1) Why embed a MATHEMATICAL puzzle into a game when the sgc has access to not only the computer on board atlantis but also the Asgard computer core? Surely the combined computing power of some Cray IIs and all those should be able to solve pretty much any straight maths problem.
2) When leaving the ship by gate to visit a planet, how do they get back to it if there was only one known gate capable of the 9 chevron address. If it has a 7 chevron address while in a galaxy then how do they know what the address is?
3) What are they going to do about the now dead Shooter MacGavin inside one of the shuttles that is still attached to the ship
4) Why can't the ancient ship be reached from Atlantis? Surely now they have 3 fully charged ZPMs on board they should be able to generate enough power needed for the wormhole, the Ancients wouldn't have made it inaccessible from their own outpost especially since they would have still been living there when the ship was launched.
All this aside, I thought it was pretty good! Looking forward to seeing the story develop beyond the obligatory "introduce the characters and situation" show.
The ship has been traveling for 100,000 years, so you have to use Ancient technology from Atlantis minus 90,000 years. So, that's the equivalent of pushing the human race from space-flight back to before the Clovis Point culture.
So it's Ancient tech, but to compensate it's also ancient...this series is gonna be confusing :/
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
That's true, but the other side of the coin is, when the original image is shaky/blurry, you can use lower resolution CG on it and most people will never know the difference. Shaking makes good CG harder and cheap CG easier. Unless your CG really stands out from the original image, the eye interprets the deficiencies of detail and proper tracking in the CG as results of the camera's movement. Sounds backwards, but the brain doesn't always interpret visual data like we think it should.
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
Yup, I don't remember a single long episode arc in Enterprise...
Oh wait, the entire bloody third season!!
(which all sucked, btw) The 4th season two-parters were much better.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
None of the characters especially captivates me. Torture a few. Kill off a few. It's all the same to me like playing with plastic soldiers. On the bright side, it's an opportunity to do Stargate as Battlestar Galactica.
Seriously, it's been so long ago, I can't begin to recall my first impressions of the original cast, but I see some problems with Universe if the 2-hour premiere didn't make me care about what happens to the characters. Similar to, but considerably worse than, Enterprise.
This show is basically TV's Sliders (Before the prof character was killed) where you have X hours here and then you have to leave or get stuck there ... in combination with a mix of Voyager (far from home in a spaceship) and SG Atlantis (stuck in a ancient structure falling apart).
I hope they take the "repairs" much slower in this series then they did in Atlantis. Seems like in Atlantis it went from "this machine doesn't work!" to ... "We just don't have enough power to run it right now." The entire series went from finding information/material to fix things to searching for ZPM's.
I also pray they don't turn into lost with these darn flashbacks.
I watched the premerie and the flashbacks with a "airplane full" of people game me the Lost feeling. Each week they can draw in a new character that has yet to be introduced.
Unfortunately is appears to be something fluffy on the order of Sanctuary. Only instead of the mutants being caged by humans, the humans are caged by the aliens. Ugh. They should let Sanctuary be the "feel good" show and turn this show into death, mayhem and destruction. I'm with you on that.
Let's see from how many other movies or shows they have stolen ideas:
1) The Last Starfighter [video game prowess leads to gig as savior of the universe].
2) Voyager [stuck in the middle of nowhere, limited supplies, trying to get home].
3) Wagon Train [stuck in the middle of nowhere, limited supplies, trying to get home].
4) Sliders [time limit on stay in any one location] [stuck in the middle of nowhere, limited supplies, trying to get home].
5) Battlestar Galactica [Rush ~= Baltar] [stuck in the middle of nowhere, limited supplies, trying to get home].
6) Lost In Space [scientist with sometimes questionable ethics at odds with military command].
7) Red Dwarf [stuck in the middle of nowhere, limited supplies, trying to get home].
I have to say that I didn't like the concept and was (still am a bit) of the opinion that the series is doomed if they don't bring someone or multiple people from SG-1 or Atlantis into the mix to get the series started (kinda like with Atlantis, where we all knew Dr King already). I do think several caracters are seriously miscast. The leading scientist genious caracter is just wrong, not only have I never liked that actor, but his acting style, accent and looks are more suitable for a crazy MD, history professor or classic english professor. Not the science type. For the "geek" they just choose a goofy looking fat bloke, rather then a geek/nerd. I personally don't know a single geek or nerd that looks even remotely like that guy, most of them are actually skinny or well built. None of them are fat retards. The main soldier is cast ok, the military head isn't. I do however like that they put the military commanders wife in the mix, so we'll see a softer kind of military man. I think we should see where the series takes us and if it picks up as well as Atlantis did after a few episodes, I'm sure we'll be seeing at least 5 seasons of this. With an entire universe opening up, there's plenty of stories to tell. I also hope that they brainstorm seriously about all the kinds of biological and non-biological life forms the universe could theoretically produce, so that we can be wowed about the wonders of the universe, instead of being stuck with more Grey Aliens, Insectoids, snakelike parasites and killer androids. Oh, yeah, lets not forget energy beings ....
I do have 1 question about the concept of the series.
Is the stargate on the Universe ship bi-directional?
The gate dials automatically and disengages at a certain time.
How are the ones that go trough supposed to come back?
And if the gate disengages, how are the ones that went trough supposed to know what adres to dial to get connected to the ship?
MythTV is great for the WAF.
Loads of capacity and easy expandability.
Automatic tagging and skipping of commercials.
The ability to have her favorite show all online.
A client-server architecture that allows you to play anything anywhere and pick up where you left off.
Good WAF with the MythTV led to me getting carte blanche on computing purchases. ...bought 3 minis without any need to ask permission or forgiveness.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.