I was originally going to title this review, Stargate Universe – The good, the bad and the god awful. However after much thinking I decided that such a title would be misleading to anybody who read this review. Simply because there is absolutely nothing good about this show. Saying this show has any good elements too it is like saying you could build a new Eiffel tower to scale of the current one using nothing but buckets of diarrhea. Well thats not really fair either, I mean its possible to build an object using nothing but feces.
The reason I dislike this show so much is because in the series premier alone we saw them take pre-established cannon and science of the show and squeeze it through a colon and dump it into the toilet alongside Rick Berman and Brannon Braga's vision of Star Trek, or, lack there of. For those of you that understand that reference let me go into a little more detail.
Stargate had a formula which it followed quite successfully from television into movies. It was written in an episodic style where a problem would occur and everything would be wrapped up in a nice neat little package at the end of the show. Basically they told a story in forty five minutes but they also added overarching plots that (in the case of Stargate SG-1) lasted seasons in length. Stargate Universe however was simply written by Brad Wright and Robert Cooper to take advantage of the popularity of Battlestar Galactica.
Now I'm not going to start in on Battlestar Galactica because thats shaking ground for me. I was never really a fan of the series, never really watched it so I can't judge it. However the general feeling I get from BSG is that it is heavy on drama and Soap Opera-esque type stories with episodes regularly leaving you hanging for an answer in the next episode and the next episode, etc, etc. Now I have no problems with the serial writing style because there are instances where it can work without coming off too teen soapy and some instances where it just fails. SGU being an instance where it fails.
Alot of the stories in Stargate Universe rely on you being invested in the characters and too be brutally honest after one season of this show I am just not that emotionally invested in any of the characters enough to sit through forty five minutes of stories driven by one dimensional caricatures of your average stereotypes (Eli as your fat computer nerd, Chloe as the space whore, Rush as the jerk who's not really a jerk.)
Let's circle back to my Berman/Braga remark so that I can expand on that. Those of you who are readers and Star Trek fans know what I am talking about when I say this but for the benefit of all possible readers I will expand on this a little more. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga pretty much took over Star Trek after Gene passed away. Now these two had pretty much full creative control over Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise and they managed to take Star Trek and grind it down to its superficial traits by the time they were done with the Star Trek franchise. They declawed the Borg, turned Q into a joke and got Voyager stuck in the Delta Quadrant for the stupidest reasons known to man. On Enterprise they had the most stupid storylines, their Captain was a lunatic and their Vulcan's had more in come with Agent Smith from the original Matrix movie then Vulcans from prior shows. In the end the series was left with nothing but stereotypes fueling its scripts...which just made the shows plain and awful.
My fear is that we are beginning to see those first steps taken with StarGate Universe. Now I want to make this clear so nobody says things like “Don't watch it if you don't like it.†I want to like this show. I want to like it badly because of how much of a fan I was of SG-1 and SG:A but I just don't see it as holding anything remotely similar to those two shows except the most baseline and stereotypical traits.
In the first episode of the SGU series we see pretty much all the science regarding the stargate and its operation get blatantly assassinated in favor of plot conviences. This starts in the form of the address dialed to reach Destiny. The address dialed to reach destiny is refered to as a 'code' and this code uses the point of origin symbol of the earth gate. In the episode they change the point of orgin symbol in order to match the planet that they are on but in the end the dial the earth point of orgin and gain a connection. Now this is so screwed up I don't even know where to start. Point of Orgin symbols are unique to each gate. That means that the point of orgin symbol on the Earth gate cannot be dialed on another gate, its just not possible because the DHD doesn't have that symbol. You can contrive an explanation for this by saying that they had a dialing computer hooked up to the DHD but it still doesn't make sense. If an address is dialed with the earth point of orgin then logic would dictate that the wormhole would connect between destiny and the dialed point of orgin or in this case, Earth.
We further see the science of the stargate pretty much crapped on in the pilot when people go running through one end of the gate and go flying out the other end. I know that this particular gripe is really just knit picking but it really does bother me. Although an explanation can be contrived for this too (the planet was in the process of blowing up.)
Beyond that each episode that passes by we don't really get the Stargate feel. There isn't alot of exploring done the only episode where the stargate is prominent is the pilot and a few others but mostly the series just takes place on the ship, which I admit wouldn't really bother me except for the fact that all the characters are boring and stereotypical.
At this point my review and opinions are beginning to circle so I'll just close it off by saying that I had high hopes for this series and it had good things going for it, like Doctor Rush. But as you would expect from Berman/Braga style management, they crapped on that too. Seriously though...are they getting their ideas for George Lucas' morning BM doodle pad? That's a serious question. Brad if you're reading this PM me the answer.
The reason I dislike this show so much is because in the series premier alone we saw them take pre-established cannon and science of the show and squeeze it through a colon and dump it into the toilet alongside Rick Berman and Brannon Braga's vision of Star Trek, or, lack there of. For those of you that understand that reference let me go into a little more detail.
Stargate had a formula which it followed quite successfully from television into movies. It was written in an episodic style where a problem would occur and everything would be wrapped up in a nice neat little package at the end of the show. Basically they told a story in forty five minutes but they also added overarching plots that (in the case of Stargate SG-1) lasted seasons in length. Stargate Universe however was simply written by Brad Wright and Robert Cooper to take advantage of the popularity of Battlestar Galactica.
Now I'm not going to start in on Battlestar Galactica because thats shaking ground for me. I was never really a fan of the series, never really watched it so I can't judge it. However the general feeling I get from BSG is that it is heavy on drama and Soap Opera-esque type stories with episodes regularly leaving you hanging for an answer in the next episode and the next episode, etc, etc. Now I have no problems with the serial writing style because there are instances where it can work without coming off too teen soapy and some instances where it just fails. SGU being an instance where it fails.
Alot of the stories in Stargate Universe rely on you being invested in the characters and too be brutally honest after one season of this show I am just not that emotionally invested in any of the characters enough to sit through forty five minutes of stories driven by one dimensional caricatures of your average stereotypes (Eli as your fat computer nerd, Chloe as the space whore, Rush as the jerk who's not really a jerk.)
Let's circle back to my Berman/Braga remark so that I can expand on that. Those of you who are readers and Star Trek fans know what I am talking about when I say this but for the benefit of all possible readers I will expand on this a little more. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga pretty much took over Star Trek after Gene passed away. Now these two had pretty much full creative control over Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise and they managed to take Star Trek and grind it down to its superficial traits by the time they were done with the Star Trek franchise. They declawed the Borg, turned Q into a joke and got Voyager stuck in the Delta Quadrant for the stupidest reasons known to man. On Enterprise they had the most stupid storylines, their Captain was a lunatic and their Vulcan's had more in come with Agent Smith from the original Matrix movie then Vulcans from prior shows. In the end the series was left with nothing but stereotypes fueling its scripts...which just made the shows plain and awful.
My fear is that we are beginning to see those first steps taken with StarGate Universe. Now I want to make this clear so nobody says things like “Don't watch it if you don't like it.†I want to like this show. I want to like it badly because of how much of a fan I was of SG-1 and SG:A but I just don't see it as holding anything remotely similar to those two shows except the most baseline and stereotypical traits.
In the first episode of the SGU series we see pretty much all the science regarding the stargate and its operation get blatantly assassinated in favor of plot conviences. This starts in the form of the address dialed to reach Destiny. The address dialed to reach destiny is refered to as a 'code' and this code uses the point of origin symbol of the earth gate. In the episode they change the point of orgin symbol in order to match the planet that they are on but in the end the dial the earth point of orgin and gain a connection. Now this is so screwed up I don't even know where to start. Point of Orgin symbols are unique to each gate. That means that the point of orgin symbol on the Earth gate cannot be dialed on another gate, its just not possible because the DHD doesn't have that symbol. You can contrive an explanation for this by saying that they had a dialing computer hooked up to the DHD but it still doesn't make sense. If an address is dialed with the earth point of orgin then logic would dictate that the wormhole would connect between destiny and the dialed point of orgin or in this case, Earth.
We further see the science of the stargate pretty much crapped on in the pilot when people go running through one end of the gate and go flying out the other end. I know that this particular gripe is really just knit picking but it really does bother me. Although an explanation can be contrived for this too (the planet was in the process of blowing up.)
Beyond that each episode that passes by we don't really get the Stargate feel. There isn't alot of exploring done the only episode where the stargate is prominent is the pilot and a few others but mostly the series just takes place on the ship, which I admit wouldn't really bother me except for the fact that all the characters are boring and stereotypical.
At this point my review and opinions are beginning to circle so I'll just close it off by saying that I had high hopes for this series and it had good things going for it, like Doctor Rush. But as you would expect from Berman/Braga style management, they crapped on that too. Seriously though...are they getting their ideas for George Lucas' morning BM doodle pad? That's a serious question. Brad if you're reading this PM me the answer.
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