I think I know why I loved SG1 but find Universe fairly tedious. I think it’s because Si fi wants to involve, a bit like fashion or car design or even music. People look to their peers and they think some other studio is doing something good (whether they are is a moot point) and then they copy in some small detail or in a big way. So if any of us think Universe is banal its perhaps because sci fi is in a completely different groove of its own choosing.
I think the latest discuss thread in Life seemed to capture the polarisation of opinion based on the major evolution of sci fi.
I think the massive series Battlestar Galactica changed the sci fi fashion scene away from humour/good aliens/bad aliens like Star Trek, Star Wars and SG1. So, just as Atlantis was a darker often gloomier version of SG1, Universe had to take this further and now we have the gloom but also the negative pregnant moments perhaps leading nowhere - shades of a series written in a world recession.
This is because it’s just our luck that at this time, in the evolution of space sci fi, we have a bunch of people on a space ship that can’t or won’t or are fearful of using technology that also won’t achieve what they want because they have to be stranded and can’t get back to Earth. Is that not heavy and gloomy? The stones are a red herring and should be thrown into space. It’s all rather like what Steve McQueen must have felt when he was cooped up in “The Cooler” in the Great Escape.
I think there are those of us out there that grew up with the likes of Star Trek with the "Beam me up Scotty" humour, the early Star Wars, which had lots of humour plus a big up and coming star like Harrison Ford, who coincidentally as an actor is very like Richard Dean Anderson if only because of both their ability to grab everything by the scruff of the neck and add humour where many actors couldn't. Correct me if I am wrong but no such actor exists in any of the new space sif fi series.
If the 70s was early day in the 80s we moved on to the shocking Red Dwarf series (which had humour that turned sci fi on its head) it was SG1 that managed to capture the best of both worlds (to use a Star Trek title) using humour, aggression, sadness and plenty of space villains/allies in nearly all episodes.
Am I right in my thinking above? Also where will sci fi go next?
I think the latest discuss thread in Life seemed to capture the polarisation of opinion based on the major evolution of sci fi.
I think the massive series Battlestar Galactica changed the sci fi fashion scene away from humour/good aliens/bad aliens like Star Trek, Star Wars and SG1. So, just as Atlantis was a darker often gloomier version of SG1, Universe had to take this further and now we have the gloom but also the negative pregnant moments perhaps leading nowhere - shades of a series written in a world recession.
This is because it’s just our luck that at this time, in the evolution of space sci fi, we have a bunch of people on a space ship that can’t or won’t or are fearful of using technology that also won’t achieve what they want because they have to be stranded and can’t get back to Earth. Is that not heavy and gloomy? The stones are a red herring and should be thrown into space. It’s all rather like what Steve McQueen must have felt when he was cooped up in “The Cooler” in the Great Escape.
I think there are those of us out there that grew up with the likes of Star Trek with the "Beam me up Scotty" humour, the early Star Wars, which had lots of humour plus a big up and coming star like Harrison Ford, who coincidentally as an actor is very like Richard Dean Anderson if only because of both their ability to grab everything by the scruff of the neck and add humour where many actors couldn't. Correct me if I am wrong but no such actor exists in any of the new space sif fi series.
If the 70s was early day in the 80s we moved on to the shocking Red Dwarf series (which had humour that turned sci fi on its head) it was SG1 that managed to capture the best of both worlds (to use a Star Trek title) using humour, aggression, sadness and plenty of space villains/allies in nearly all episodes.
Am I right in my thinking above? Also where will sci fi go next?