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    Season 1 (first time viewer)

    I was going to watch Star Trek: Voyager tonight, but then I thought... why not Stargate: Universe? I don't want to be half way through the series and then it poof away. When I first saw "Air," Parts 1&2 were shown as a TV movie, concluded with Part 3. Netflix has Parts 1&2 split up as two episodes. Am I going to be missing scenes? If so, fill me in, folks. I'll check back after I see the episodes. Does Part 3 end on a cliffhanger? I can't remember.

    #2
    I've never watched the ones on Netflix, but I'm pretty sure they should be the same as the ones that were originally aired on Syfy. And, no, part three doesn't end on a cliffhanger, although it does plant seeds for future episodes.
    Meh...

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      #3
      Originally posted by Livestick View Post
      I've never watched the ones on Netflix, but I'm pretty sure they should be the same as the ones that were originally aired on Syfy.
      I doubt it as the episodes are probably the rerun edit. I once saw Star Trek: Voyager's first episode (90 minutes) on TV as a two-parter, and there were several edits. I'd estimate maybe two or three minutes were cut from the show.

      Originally posted by Livestick View Post
      And, no, part three doesn't end on a cliffhanger, although it does plant seeds for future episodes.
      Thanks. As for future episodes... SPOILERS!

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        #4
        It's not really a spoiler. Once you see the end it will be very obvious that it's something they intend to follow up on later.
        Meh...

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          #5
          ^ I agree. each episode sets up the next one but aren't necessarily cliffhangers. that is not a spoiler but the format of the show.

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            #6
            Due to veterinary emergencies, I haven't had time to sit down and start the show. Hopefully, I'll have time this weekend.

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              #7
              Don't be too excited about season1, it's not great and if I'm honest I fell asleep on the sofa a few times. The first 3 are ok (Air 1,2,3) and Light is pretty good (5) but 4 and the others could be a bit of a drag. Nothing like Stargate SG1 or Atlantis.

              Season 1 pretty much just sets up the show, the characters background etc. It doesn't really get going until season 2.. unfortunately by that point the viewers had voted with their feet and season 3 never happened. Season 2 however was superior to season 1 with a lot more excitement and gripping viewing.

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                #8
                An entire season to set up the show? What happened to simply setting everything up in the first episode? That has worked for every show I've watched thus far. I mean, three episodes (Air) should give me all the setup I need. I'm starting the show now. I'll let you know what I think later tonight.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                  An entire season to set up the show?
                  That or they really wanted to turn SG into a drama. I've got to be honest I found it hard to stay with it (I did though out of loyalty) but I didn't really enjoy it until the later episodes of S1 and then S2.

                  By the time you get towards the end of S2 its just started to get really good. They had many possibilities for future scripts, ideas that could have been revisited, technology that could have been used for alternate things etc. Cancelling the show really trashed a lot of future enjoyment for everyone.

                  I blame Brad Wright and Jo Mallozi for deciding to do their own artistic thing to satisfy their own desire to pat themselves on the back for doing something different. They already had a winning formula with SG but they decided to turn that on its head and wrecked it in the process.

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                    #10
                    I just finished "Air, Part 1." I did not like the nonlinear storytelling. Will that continue into Part 2, or was it merely limited to this first episode? Is the whole show going to be a flashback frenzy, or are they just using flashbacks to get the ball rolling? It was nice to open the show with everyone arriving on Destiny, but couldn't they have just stayed in the flashback until the show caught up to Destiny? Bouncing back and forth was really annoying. Everyone seems interesting so far. After perfect Carter and terrified-selfish-narcissistic McKay, we've got a different kind of scientist. Rush seems to care about no one but himself. He's going to Destiny, and he's willing to sacrifice people to get there. Then there's Scott who can't keep his pants zipped. Was a gratuitous sex scene really necessary in a family show? I fast forwarded. I do like the Destiny, and I do like how everyone evacuated to Destiny instead of the Alpha Site. I hope there will be major consequences for what Rush has done. Eli Wallace seems like a pointless character. He's an unemployed college-dropout gamer who solved a puzzle. OK... Why is he there again? In my experience, gamers aren't all that bright as they spend all of their time playing video games rather than reading and learning. Knowledge is acquired, and you don't acquire it playing video games all day. If the show drops the flashbacks, I'll watch at least four more episodes. I want to see where "Air" goes, and the "Darkness"/"Light" two-parter seems interesting.

                    Originally posted by Energizer_Vs_ZPM View Post
                    That or they really wanted to turn SG into a drama.
                    This. It's not just space shows that are gone from TV, it's the action-adventure ones too. Everything has to be a darkly lit drama with angry characters who whisper or yell all the time. Guess who jumped on the band wagon?

                    I've got to be honest I found it hard to stay with it (I did though out of loyalty) but I didn't really enjoy it until the later episodes of S1 and then S2.
                    That's probably why the show got cancelled. It lost it's audience over the coarse of the first season. Nonfans do not watch out of loyalty, they watch because the show is entertaining. If it's boring, they change the channel.

                    Originally posted by Energizer_Vs_ZPM View Post
                    By the time you get towards the end of S2 its just started to get really good. They had many possibilities for future scripts, ideas that could have been revisited, technology that could have been used for alternate things etc. Cancelling the show really trashed a lot of future enjoyment for everyone.
                    A show has to be good right out of the gate. If you're taking an entire year to set things up, you're pacing must be horrifically slow. Cancelling the show didn't trash future enjoyment for everyone. Painfully slow pacing did.

                    Originally posted by Energizer_Vs_ZPM View Post
                    I blame Brad Wright and Jo Mallozi for deciding to do their own artistic thing to satisfy their own desire to pat themselves on the back for doing something different. They already had a winning formula with SG but they decided to turn that on its head and wrecked it in the process.
                    Their attitude to the fans was outright offense. "Our show was cancelled, because ya'll didn't like it replacing SGA." Uh... no. The show was cancelled, because it failed to capture an audience. SGA fans boycotting wouldn't have made a difference, because casual viewers wouldn't have cared. Changing the formula didn't kill the show, I think it was the new formula. Had the show been an action-adventure-mystery, it could have soared. As a emo drama in space, it failed. I can't comment more as I've just watched one episode.

                    I'll post more once I've seen "Air, Part 2."

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      I just finished "Air, Part 1." I did not like the nonlinear storytelling.
                      Nope, neither did I or my partner who watched it with me to see if it was any good.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      Will that continue into Part 2, or was it merely limited to this first episode?
                      Can't remember but I think it continues to part 4 and maybe even 5. After that I have limited knowledge as some of the shows were so slow and boring I fell asleep trying to watch them.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      Is the whole show going to be a flashback frenzy, or are they just using flashbacks to get the ball rolling?
                      It does go away eventually and when it does the shows quality improves. I read a comment somewhere that they had basically tried to copy the Battlestar Galactica way of production but I've never seen that so can't comment. I did however see the BG movie and that was 3 hours of my life I'll never get back and yes from vague memory it was similar to the way SGU works in the early episodes.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      It was nice to open the show with everyone arriving on Destiny, but couldn't they have just stayed in the flashback until the show caught up to Destiny? Bouncing back and forth was really annoying.
                      I thought the opening was fantastic too! It was dark, mysterious yet magical and friendly when we see the gate starting to spin on what is clearly an abandoned ship. Plus all the engine sounds etc in the background as we wander around the corridors.. it was truly a spectacular opening. Unfortunately they had to ruin it with the flashbacks that you mentioned. Now, had they just have done one big 10 minute flashback to setup the scene as to how Eli was recruited, and they dialled destiny etc then that I could have coped with but no, they had do to flashbacks for everyone for every little thing. It became too much, to confusing and too hard to follow. Interest was lost pretty quickly. As with SG-1 and SGA they end up on planets running around woods shooting at shadows etc in quite a few episodes - not a great deal of alien tech to play with until S2.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      Everyone seems interesting so far. After perfect Carter and terrified-selfish-narcissistic McKay, we've got a different kind of scientist. Rush seems to care about no one but himself. He's going to Destiny, and he's willing to sacrifice people to get there.
                      You see I saw a different side to him than most and how the shows characters try to portray him (and I was right when I found the deleted scene on youtube showing him using the stones to talk to O'Neill on earth). He dials the 9th chevron knowing that this could be their only chance - the planet is unstable and the amount of money it's cost to setup this program won't be repeated so it really is now or never. I can understand that. When they get to destiny he pretty soon realises that they're in a fix and his attention turns away from going home because he knows he can't do that - yet. For the time being he must concentrate on keeping the ship going so that the crew can continue to survive UNTIL they can find a way back. All the other characters however just see it as Rush not wanting to go home - it doesn't matter that the ship doesn't have enough power to dial and that it's power storage capacity is so knackered it couldn't hold the charge anyway. They just see him as not wanting to dial home at all. The opposite is true (as you'll see later). He does in fact want to dial earth but only when it's safe to try because he actually wants to repair the ship and he can't do that without supplies from earth. Again, everyone has been very quick to judge Rush including Colonel Young and that puts Rush under a lot of pressure. When everyone is accusing you of being like that eventually you stop caring and just go along with it to keep them happy. You'll see this as the show goes on but for now, just look at it logically. The ship is knackered and he has no physical way to make it dial earth and the ship can barely sustain life. If you were in that situation, what would you do knowing you couldn't dial home? - Try to ensure survival or just let everyone die? - You'll soon realise Rush isn't such a bad guy but just misunderstoo

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      Then there's Scott who can't keep his pants zipped. Was a gratuitous sex scene really necessary in a family show? I fast forwarded.
                      In fairness to him Vanessa James (the girl he has against the wall in the broom closet) is a babe! It doesn't take him long to forget about her though.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      I do like the Destiny, and I do like how everyone evacuated to Destiny instead of the Alpha Site. I hope there will be major consequences for what Rush has done.
                      Oh yes, including Mutiny on the ship! Young suffers a breakdown and so does the ship.. which literally decides it doesn't want to go on with its mission for no apparent reason. Locked out of the bridge and unable to control the ship or find anything wrong they're stumped! You'll learn a lot about the ship and it's artificial intelligence in that episode!

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      Eli Wallace seems like a pointless character. He's an unemployed college-dropout gamer who solved a puzzle. OK... Why is he there again? In my experience, gamers aren't all that bright as they spend all of their time playing video games rather than reading and learning. Knowledge is acquired, and you don't acquire it playing video games all day.
                      He's supposed to be the thoughtful considerate one like Daniel Jackson. Rush is kind of like the mixture of Carter and McKay who has his feet kept on the ground by Eli. As you also saw, despite cracking a puzzle on a computer game, Rush still couldn't get the gate to dial the 9th Chevron and Eli solved that too. In essence at that point they could have dropped the character but think about it.. the planet was about to blow so they had to take him too. Also the show (being sci-fi) needs to attract a younger audience. Geeks always love the thought of the young being smart and ultra intelligent and I suppose Eli was there to try and provide that.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      If the show drops the flashbacks, I'll watch at least four more episodes. I want to see where "Air" goes, and the "Darkness"/"Light" two-parter seems interesting.
                      They do disappear but I can't remember when. Mid way through S1 the producers were told it was being canned after S2 so they bucked up their attitude a bit and started to get on with it instead of playing around.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      This. It's not just space shows that are gone from TV, it's the action-adventure ones too. Everything has to be a darkly lit drama with angry characters who whisper or yell all the time. Guess who jumped on the band wagon?
                      Yup. As much as I loved the show because she was a stunner, I blame Buffy the Vampire Slayer for it. Why? Because it set that dark underworld mystical magical thing that every other show has tried to copy since. You you have so many witch craft / magical hocus pocus shows out there that sci-fi action shows are in essence being killed off. Not to mention action shows are expensive to make whereas these cheesy magical shows are cheap.


                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      That's probably why the show got cancelled. It lost it's audience over the coarse of the first season. Nonfans do not watch out of loyalty, they watch because the show is entertaining. If it's boring, they change the channel.
                      You're right. It was in the middle of S1 that the producers were told they were being canned. They still can't understand why and on Mallozis blog he openly states they were all in shock - because he clearly believes they were all doing a wonderful job and they were all working hard patting themselves on the back. I've said this many times: They didn't kill the Stargate franchise, they assasinated it with a sniper rifle on purpose. The changes they made to SGU that were so different to SG1 nd SGA were no accident. They deliberately set a darkened tone and made it into a drama yet blamed the fans for not liking their artistic "It's wonderful WE love it" piece of work. At the point the SG franchise was canned they started selling off the props from SGA and SG1 so that when SGU finished there could literally be no return. No magical return to the SGC for the crew because there is no SGC left - the props are gone! No rescue by Atlantis.. everything there is gone too! If you search google images you'll see bits of the SGA gate on someones wall.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      A show has to be good right out of the gate. If you're taking an entire year to set things up, you're pacing must be horrifically slow. Cancelling the show didn't trash future enjoyment for everyone. Painfully slow pacing did.
                      Both points are correct though. In season 2 the show picks up and becomes more like the stargate you know and love. You'll actually really enjoy S2 - I did and found I couldn't miss an episode at all. Cancelling the show ruined it for us all. Audiences are known to come back if you make the right changes but the rate of return will be slower than the rate of abandonment because it takes a while for the word to get around that its got better. If they wanted to really save the show, the producers would have issued a statement to the fans saying that they had listened to feedback and realised they had made mistakes etc. They would have gained immediate attention and the fans would have given it a second chance. Instead they just stayed silent about it and gave up.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      Their attitude to the fans was outright offense. "Our show was cancelled, because ya'll didn't like it replacing SGA." Uh... no. The show was cancelled, because it failed to capture an audience. SGA fans boycotting wouldn't have made a difference, because casual viewers wouldn't have cared. Changing the formula didn't kill the show, I think it was the new formula. Had the show been an action-adventure-mystery, it could have soared. As a emo drama in space, it failed. I can't comment more as I've just watched one episode.
                      You've hit the nail on the head I'm afraid. They couldn't publicly accept that they cocked it up. Instead they blamed the fans and destroyed a show that had a lot of potential. To them it's just business but in business you can't admit you made a cockup because then you loose your credibility. Instead it's easier to blame the users / customers (in this case your viewers) for not liking what you offer and that is what they did here.

                      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                      I'll post more once I've seen "Air, Part 2."
                      You probably won't like it much but it offers more action than many of the other S1 episodes.

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                        #12
                        Why are you even watching the show? You clearly don't like serialized storytelling and probably need every episode to have a self-contained story and a nice wrap-up in the end.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Energizer_Vs_ZPM View Post
                          Can't remember but I think it continues to part 4 and maybe even 5. After that I have limited knowledge as some of the shows were so slow and boring I fell asleep trying to watch them.
                          Wrong

                          They do disappear but I can't remember when. Mid way through S1 the producers were told it was being canned after S2 so they bucked up their attitude a bit and started to get on with it instead of playing around.
                          Wrong

                          At the point the SG franchise was canned they started selling off the props from SGA and SG1 so that when SGU finished there could literally be no return. No magical return to the SGC for the crew because there is no SGC left - the props are gone! No rescue by Atlantis.. everything there is gone too! If you search google images you'll see bits of the SGA gate on someones wall.
                          Maybe it's time to take off that tin foil hat you're wearing?

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
                            An entire season to set up the show? What happened to simply setting everything up in the first episode?
                            The setup is "This is the wrong people in the wrong place. We need to get this people home"

                            Just because you don't like the setup doesn't mean they failed to include it.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by OutandAboot View Post
                              Why are you even watching the show? You clearly don't like serialized storytelling and probably need every episode to have a self-contained story and a nice wrap-up in the end.
                              I don't think the reason is serialized storytelling, keep in mind that I disliked Season 1 and I like serialized storytelling. The problem with is was that the characters were generally uninteresting and there was barely anything going on; I couldn't remember anything about what had happened or what type of character they were establishing; all I could get was that TJ was some sort of nurse who became a doctor but had a hard edge, Scott was this kid who was in the military but didn't have the experience and had demons regarding sexual and emotional tribulations and Brodie... I don't know about him; the only three that got good development was Young, Rush and Eli. Young being the sort of commander who wanted to do the best that he could for his people but failing to keep it together or make the right choices now and then. Rush being the person who's malicious but only because he's in tune with the Destiny and in tune with the type of things he neglected, things such as his wife, his life and his inner self and Eli being the type of scientist who's a bit happy-go-lucky but living with a mom who has HIV and isn't afraid to get tough when the tough gets going, such as helping out emotionally, utilizing his technical know how or just being there as a friend.

                              Compare this to Season 1 of Lost which managed to perfectly capture the characters mainly because of the situation they were in, it was commonplace in that they were trying to survive on the island but it gave them so many ways to express it, the marital issues, the faith issues, the dependency issues and the moral issues; in fact it was those issues that allowed the characters to grow and to hook an audience. SGU didn't fare well in that most of it's action took place on a ship which only led to a few things; mutiny, survival, command issues and of course, the requisite sci-fi action. It was the lack of focus on matters pertaining to life and just letting the characters do their thing that hindered the characters, there were so many characters that had potential but instead they consistently played up the Young v. Rush elements and the "we're not supposed to be here" card at every moment. Additionally; the edge, sex and insistence of change all served to drive viewers away... These moments were easily fixable (and they're mostly gone by Season 2) but for some reason they're included in Season 1 and they really bring the season down.

                              Originally posted by OutandAboot View Post
                              The setup is "This is the wrong people in the wrong place. We need to get this people home"

                              Just because you don't like the setup doesn't mean they failed to include it.
                              This is not exactly the setup, if it was than the show would simply be inconsequential in terms of the plot; the ending of it would simply take the easy way out in the story like BSG, it wouldn't answer the world or the mission or even justify what they've went through; it would just present itself as a "this was a show about the characters, the inner workings of them and how they bonded together to become friends." which to me seems like a copout.

                              There are many fans out there who do predict this as the ending, some even draw it out just to get to this moment. The many fans believe that there is a right crew, a more stable group of people who can fulfill it's mission but answer me this; are the wrong people really wrong, did Rush dial the Destiny because he wanted to prove it worked, or did he do it because the ship was calling him? To me the setup is the mission, the attempt to find out the message in the background radiation. It's interesting to me because it's like an experiment, a group of people who have nothing in common, personal flaws but a specific skillset learning to work together for the greater good, to find a common ground and put the past behind them; each person serving as a cog and the subsequent cogs eventually finding out what lies beneath the radiation. This is the ultimate character study, to see a group of people faced with a mission, whether to accept it or to still call Earth their home. It's that dilemma, that ultimate purpose that makes it so compelling and if the show focused on that than it would of been successful (heck, introducing it in the first season would draw viewers and keep them in) but alas, it didn't get expanded on.

                              Also Snowman37: Episodes you should be watching out for are "Life" and "Human", both are episodes which dive deep into their characters, represent the mood of the show as a whole and generally represent the best of SGU. "Life" being sort of a snapshot of what happens on the Destiny everyday and "Human" being a door opener for Rush showcasing all of the interactions/flaws that will make you doubt who Rush really is.
                              Back from the grave.

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