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.

Comments

Potential

[Canazza]

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

Re:Potential

[dargon]

Blame fan support for Danial Jacksons repeated reincarnations, if I remember correctly they originally didn't plan to bring him back after his first "death" but a large percentage of fans kinda freaked out.

Re:SPOILER!!!!!!

[Barny]

Call me out of touch, but this is actually the first stargate thing I have seen since the original movie.

So it transports matter well, I get that (humans and objects can move through), but what about air? Couldn't they just open the new gate to any planet with a good atmosphere and just top up the ship with breathable air?

The people I was roped into watching this with kept shouting at me to stop picking on it, but I want to know how they are limiting this thing...

"oh yes you can put any matter you want though it so long as it is solid or liquid" but then how do their bodies get through it when all the air is displaced out of their lungs?

Re:Firefly

[Attila Dimedici]

From what I have read, I am pretty sure that someone at the network didn't want Firefly to succeed. I don't know why, but showing the episodes out of sequence and pre-empting it for special events are a pretty dependable way to ensure that a show will be a failure. I don't have any idea if the show would have been a success if they had broadcast it in order and with a regular schedule, but I am sure that someone at Fox wanted it to fail. I loved the show, but I never even heard of it until after it was canceled. The first I heard of it was when the movie was released, but then the only network shows I watch are sports.