Stargate: Universe

[Agraza]

The same shit happens on Law & Order. 2 detectives, 2 attorneys, their bosses, and the criminals on every single show. By comparison The Wire expanded all over the spectrum of rich and poor, famous and unknown. The SG shows just aren't that good. Among sci-fi shows they're like a 7 or 8, but against everything else they're barely a 4.

[Lefazz]

Originally Posted by Agraza

The same shit happens on Law & Order. 2 detectives, 2 attorneys, their bosses, and the criminals on every single show. By comparison The Wire expanded all over the spectrum of rich and poor, famous and unknown. The SG shows just aren't that good. Among sci-fi shows they're like a 7 or 8, but against everything else they're barely a 4.

You have to take into account that the viewership for a science fiction show is going to be much, much less than something with a wider appeal like a crime drama. Fewer resources to spend on talented writers, actors, sets, etc.

The Stargates pulled in barely over what? 4 million people (if that) per ep during it's entire run.

[Wolfen]

The SG's usually pulled a 1.2 rating. SGU pulled a 1.7. That is a tiny number compared to many ABC/NBC/CBS shows, but for the Syfy channel, that's actually a very good number. I think 1.7 is the highest rated SG show in the past 4 years.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Well, common sense has always been ridiculously lacking on any of the stargate shows. One of the first things I would have done was commission a device to remotely dial the gate when you're off world. Just stick it to the inside of the DHD once you go through and bam, that's like 7 episodes that would have been over in about 3 minutes.

"OH NOES THEY R GUARDING THE GATE!"

Dial home, "Hey, you know those missiles we installed back in season 2 but never used again ever? Yeah, need you to nuke some faggots."

Anyways...

SG:U was pretty much what I expected it to be. Will I watch it? Yeah sure. For lack of good science fiction TV these days I'll settle for adequate. I always watched the show more to go "Oh come on...really?" then to be actually entertained.

It's a shame Atlantis died when it did, it had just started to get interesting. Too bad the first 4 seasons sucked balls.

It seems my original timetable was off though. I expected it to take at least a few episodes before they figured out how to communicate with home. I think SG:U is going to suffer from not knowing what it really wants to be. It's 90% dark and edgy and okay I could probably get behind that but then they whip out the Comic Relief kid every few minutes and just blow any atmosphere they had set.

[Qhue]

Its a good use of the SG1 Ori-galaxy communication plot device I will grant them that. It also allows for cameo appearances without having to resort to the Reg Barclay episode schtick that Voyager used.

Im not holding up much hope for "repairing the Destiny" subplot they seem to set up in the first episode. Despite having 5 years in the city of Atlantis they never really managed to do much with this massive city other than discover hidden ancient lab X that holds doomsday scenario of the week.

When Atlantis debuted I envisioned by year 3 they would have a few hundred thousand people living and working in Atlantis as a fully functional city that evoked some Macross-type dynamic... only to be stuck with a couple hundred people hunkered down in the central spire for years.

[Caliane]

Originally Posted by Faille

I think they did a pretty good job of showing that there were other SG teams doing things and what not. Obviously the show is always going to be about the main cast though.

You missed my point.
The show was about the team. Ok. thats great. But the story lines branched out.
They were about taking over worlds, fighting intergalactic powers, etc.
Why is a single recon team the ONLY ones involved with fighting the Ori across hundreds of worlds and spaceships?
The recon team turned into the Justice league by the end of the show.
And the only time other teams were mentioned was when they were in trouble and the Justice league needed to come in and save them.
Sg:1 was a first contact recon team.

I don't like Star trek, but even I have to admit, the writers there did a good job of setting up Starfleet and other ships as being capable in their own rights, even if the Enterprise was god mode, and the center of the universe as well.

[Caliane]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

Well, common sense has always been ridiculously lacking on any of the stargate shows. One of the first things I would have done was commission a device to remotely dial the gate when you're off world. Just stick it to the inside of the DHD once you go through and bam, that's like 7 episodes that would have been over in about 3 minutes.

"OH NOES THEY R GUARDING THE GATE!"

Dial home, "Hey, you know those missiles we installed back in season 2 but never used again ever? Yeah, need you to nuke some faggots."

Anyways...

SG:U was pretty much what I expected it to be. Will I watch it? Yeah sure. For lack of good science fiction TV these days I'll settle for adequate. I always watched the show more to go "Oh come on...really?" then to be actually entertained.

It's a shame Atlantis died when it did, it had just started to get interesting. Too bad the first 4 seasons sucked balls.

It seems my original timetable was off though. I expected it to take at least a few episodes before they figured out how to communicate with home. I think SG:U is going to suffer from not knowing what it really wants to be. It's 90% dark and edgy and okay I could probably get behind that but then they whip out the Comic Relief kid every few minutes and just blow any atmosphere they had set.

Yeah.
Also, with the fairly set in stone cast. I'm a little concerned none of the characters seem all that particularly interesting yet. Maybe they don't want it to be a character drama I guess.

[chthonic-anemos]

What was up with the comical gate pile-up at the beginning? They filmed it like every person was being tossed through on the other side but when they flash back to the evacuation, those people were just walking through the gate.

Anyways, I was bored as hell waiting for anything of interest to happen.

[Cybsled]

What was up with the comical gate pile-up at the beginning?

Maybe they got confused and thought the Stargate was the dimensional rip from Sliders?

[spronk]

I think its supposed to be a side effect of the gate residing on a ship which is traveling FTL - the whole thing doesn't make much sense anyways, since many many episodes ago they did all this hand-waving about having to adjust stargate parameters for stellar drift and crap like that, and suddenly you can beam across to a gate that is moving at multiple times the speed of light?

I just kinda ignore that part though and just assume "chevron 9 = magic stuff happens!"

I just recently watched an episode of Tripping the Rift (awesome show btw, get it if you've never seen it) and I really wish someone would make a sci-fi comedy, ala Galaxy Quest.

[Wolfen]

Well, fuck, so much for original story lines:

GateWorld » Rhona Mitra cast in recurring SGU role

[DJk_zero]

As long as they don't ruin it like they did turning SG1 into Farscapegate, I'll give it a shot.

Tho Robert Carlyle... I just can't stand him.

[Torrid]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

Well, common sense has always been ridiculously lacking on any of the stargate shows.

You mean science fiction in general. TNG may be my favorite show of all time, but I could make a long list for Star Trek too.

Science fiction on television is just very soft. I don't understand why shows don't put much more effort into constructing their universes before they write a single script. It just appears as if one or two writers with no expertise beyond writing just sit down an shit out a script and sort of wing it for the entire series.

Then after you get these writers that just invent extremely powerful technologies on a whim (like the transporter) to solve the "we can't afford shuttlecraft props"-like issues, they don't fully consider all the possible applications of such technology.

Hard science fiction is just as exotic. If they are too lazy to consult actual physicists, then they should copy people who do.

[Rewen]

I didn't really care for it that much.

The whole thing just didnt feel like Stargate. I know they're going for a BSG-ish, "darker" show this time, but they didnt really pull it off. They went overboard with everything being dark and bleak all the time. It felt like they wanted to convey the "anyone can die, THIS IS SRS U GUYS" with the senator dying, but it failed because I didnt give a shit about him or his crying daughter ("He wanted you to go on"? Gimme a break). In fact, I disliked almost all the characters, except maybe Rush and Young.

I'd much rather have Atlantis back... but that's not gonna happen so I guess I'll keep watching this and hope it improves.

[Qhue]

Wasn't Stargate Worlds supposed to be tied closely into this show? I recall reading that a long time ago, but that predated the real development of the show.

I have a sneaking suspicion that what started out as a highly complex multimedia merging of game and show decayed rapidly to "Eli is playing Stargate Worlds for 20 seconds in episode 1"