Cancel SGU: Bad Series, Blame Network or All the Above?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Gormagon,

I should have added that it had an entirely different aura that did not feel much like SG. To dark, constantly. To me anyway. And it had to much relationship/people stuff. I do not do well with the people stuff. I do much better with science. It should have been more towards the aliens, meeting them, fighting them, interaction and tech then it was towards the people.

To much people drama, to much "dark" in the time allotted for each episode.

And that darker more dramatic feel is why I liked this show and watched it regularly when I never watched SG-1 and only occasinally watched SGA. I liked the more mature realistic nature of the show as opposed to the more cartoony feel of SG-1 and SGA.

[garhkal]

I enjoyed SGU despite its bumps (Life, Cloverdale) I would have loved to see where it was going in a third season. I still hope someone will revive it.

So do i.. Even some of their bad eps were to me still good to watch as they still did something needed.. whether advance the plot a little, further the interaction with the crew, or make us know a little more about one of the characters.

I have only watched half of the first season but it's problems were evident. The people behind Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis had no idea on how to do the character drama they wanted and that shows in the episodes themselves. You may not notice it from watching it but a majority of the characters are unrelatable, many of them have stuff that detracts from them (Young and her wife for example.) and you only care for like three characters in the end. I've watched the majority of the series and I can't remember these character's names; only Young, Rush, Eli, Chloe, TJ and maybe Scott... The fact that I don't know these character's names proves that they're unrelatable.

I disagree. i find more in relation with many of the crew of SGU than i ever did with SG1/SGA. None are the best and brightest, none are masters of a new form of alien tech just like that (which sga seemed to do a lot more than SG1).. They are flawed, they are human, they are a lot more relatable to us 'peons' than any of the other shows had.
Though i do wish they had a little more names for some of the dozens of other 'faces' we saw..

So who's fault is it?. I think everyone - the producers, writers, MGM, SyFy - they all had high expectations for the show, threw a lot of money behind it expecting really big things that unfortunately did not materialize. But for fans of the show it was perfect and that is the hard thing about TV - the fan is the biggest loser when the show they love is cancelled.

I might also add in the fans were partially to blame. WE came in to it with high expectations from the other 2 SG shows, and as we were felt let down, we decided to go away rather than try and keep our minds open that this show would be good on its own two feet.

When I think of "Star Trek: TNG" and "Deep Space Nine", then their first two seasons were much, much worse than the two seasons of SGU, and only from their third seasons did each start getting on track. So this somehow shows how impatient networks sometimes are, clamoring for insta-gratification.

I think that is part of society as a whole than just the networks.. We have cause of the internet, cell phones etc, become an instant gratification society and as such are all impatient.

A big problem with that kind of thinking is that SGU probably would have had lower ratings on a preminum channel purely because a lot less people have preminium TV versus the basic cable that SyFy consisted of

True.. i know many who do watch Sifi but not any of the premiums (cause they don't want to pony up the 30 a month extra..)..

[python490]

And porn.


Back to SGU the point is there clearly was a serious misjudgement about the type of audience that existed on syfy. Brad Wright and Robert C Cooper mistook the critical buzz about BSG and forgot that while it had that, it really struggled in the ratings. And BSG was still at times quite an action packed show. SGU was a slow paced drama, it was not going to do well on syfy because there isn't the audience for that type of show there.

If you wanted to make drama's viable on syfy you needed a few more drama's like BSG first, that still have plenty of action, before putting in a show like SGU. If you want to change the style of show on a channel, then that necessitates a careful balance with the audience of attracting new people who like that style of show, while trying to make sure your current audience don't all leave but rather convince them to stay.

I had forgotten how poor the ratings were for BSG. Even though it was a good show, but people want a bit of action and adventure since it is Sci-Fi. SGU was trying something pretty new for its time, but could still end up being the future of Sci-Fi maybe there needs to be more drama type shows. Perhaps it was also bad luck people weren't ready for the franchise to go in a different direction yet. I personally at the time wanted more Atlantis.