Stargate Universe A Good Concept?

[Colonel_Ez]

Honestly, based on what is known so far - i dont like the idea at all

However, i felt the same about Enterprise and ended up quite liking that overall

I will of course watch before i decide but im not sold on the idea, i dont like the idea of aiming it at a younger audience

Just for right now, i have a big issue with the leaps and bounds taken with ancient tech in the last few years of SG-1 and all of Atlantis - we suddenly decide to send people to an ancient ship who cant figure out how to make it stop, or turn around...

And how exactly would a 9th chevron help us get to a moving ship... it kind of goes against what we know about stargate addresses and wormhole physics

And, upon realising your stuck - why wouldnt you take a ZPM from the ship down to a gate at any of the planets its apparently going to stop at - and use it to gate back to Earth/Atlantis - Pegasus or the Milky Way at least

Finally, would the ancients just assume millions of years ago that planets are not only going to remain unpopulated but that no advanced (or even Earth level tech) species is going to evolve/populate a planet that might object to the placement of alien technology on their soil

[ciannwn]

And, upon realising your stuck - why wouldnt you take a ZPM from the ship down to a gate at any of the planets its apparently going to stop at - and use it to gate back to Earth/Atlantis - Pegasus or the Milky Way at least

If this ship has been on the move for millions of years it can't be powered by ZPMs because they don't last that long. If it's the exploration ship which has been sitting around in a shipyard waiting for a crew to come on board it could have a fully charged ZPM but then, why can't the crew use it to get back home?

I'm really baffled by something in this report -

http://www.gateworld.net/news/2008/0...has_a_go.shtml

Challenges will arise though as the ship comes into range of Stargates placed centuries ahead of the Destiny and the crew is unable to control the ship's navigational schedule.

Why? I can understand the idea of challenges arising when they go down to unknown planets in order to find more food and water etc. but what's going to happen just by the Destiny coming into range of a Stargate?

[Lt.Col.Errandboy]

I feel like if that were the case, they would have said "new" fans instead of "younger." In what I've seen of TV parlance, "younger" usually means "edgy & twentysomething."

ergh, and doesn't that sound like enough to gag a maggot...

[Colonel_Ez]

If this ship has been on the move for millions of years it can't be powered by ZPMs because they don't last that long. If it's the exploration ship which has been sitting around in a shipyard waiting for a crew to come on board it could have a fully charged ZPM but then, why can't the crew use it to get back home?

I'm really baffled by something in this report -

http://www.gateworld.net/news/2008/0...has_a_go.shtml

Challenges will arise though as the ship comes into range of Stargates placed centuries ahead of the Destiny and the crew is unable to control the ship's navigational schedule.

Why? I can understand the idea of challenges arising when they go down to unknown planets in order to find more food and water etc. but what's going to happen just by the Destiny coming into range of a Stargate?

If its an automated ship it could be programmed to swap out depleated ZPM's for new ones?

If its powered by something else then thats cool, but what exactly? if the ships powersource predates ZPM's and is capable of lasting longer than them - why create a ZPM

Until we know the deal on exactly how many millions of years its been out there - we dont know - it could be as old as proclarush taonas, but not as old as Terra Atlantus....

[Miroslav]

The Rodney hate was downright childish.

Rodney-haters are mostly gays. I can't imagine how anyone can hate the best SG:A character.

[ciannwn]

If its an automated ship it could be programmed to swap out depleated ZPM's for new ones?

The Atlantis ZPMs were on their last legs after maintaining a shield for 10,000 years. The expedition died originally because of this as we learned in 'Before I Sleep'. We've been told that the Destiny project was abandoned because the Ancients turned their attention to ascension so there wouldn't have been anyone supplying the ship with new ZPMs since then. Millions of years would require a mind boggling number of ZPMs to be on board in readyness to be exchanged for depleted ones

If its powered by something else then thats cool, but what exactly? if the ships powersource predates ZPM's and is capable of lasting longer than them - why create a ZPM

Maybe the ship is equipped with something like a Bussard ramjet -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet

Some of the free fuel is then converted so it can power the ship's systems by a process which the Earth humans can't understand.

Until we know the deal on exactly how many millions of years its been out there - we dont know - it could be as old as proclarush taonas, but not as old as Terra Atlantus....

Something like Bussard ramjets wouldn't be much use for cities based on planets so that could be why ZPMs were invented. Once the Ancients had ZPMs, all Ancient ships were designed to run on them. It would have been a horrendously complicated job to convert the Destiny (whether it's the Stargate seeding ship or the exploration one) and why bother anyway if the old technology was still doing what it was supposed to.

[Colonel_Ez]

The Atlantis ZPMs were on their last legs after maintaining a shield for 10,000 years. The expedition died originally because of this as we learned in 'Before I Sleep'. We've been told that the Destiny project was abandoned because the Ancients turned their attention to ascension so there wouldn't have been anyone supplying the ship with new ZPMs since then. Millions of years would require a mind boggling number of ZPMs to be on board in readyness to be exchanged for depleted ones



Maybe the ship is equipped with something like a Bussard ramjet -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet

Some of the free fuel is then converted so it can power the ship's systems by a process which the Earth humans can't understand.



Something like Bussard ramjets wouldn't be much use for cities based on planets so that could be why ZPMs were invented. Once the Ancients had ZPMs, all Ancient ships were designed to run on them. It would have been a horrendously complicated job to convert the Destiny (whether it's the Stargate seeding ship or the exploration one) and why bother anyway if the old technology was still doing what it was supposed to.

Im sure thats probably how it will be dealt with, a powersource from before the time of ZPM's - however to me it just strikes me as being a bit "meh"

Still have to wonder why you would use ZPM's that expire after thousands of years to replace power sources that last millions of years especially given the Ancients habit of leaving ships lying around the galaxy

I suppose my general sweeping point is that i have more problems with the idea of SGU than i do interest in how its going to be handed

And even though i will certainly watch the show, i have a gut feeling that its gonna suck which i havent had with stargate before (apart from the light of course lol)

[jrd231]

You also have to realize that emotions are running high considering Atlantis was just canceled and now SGU has been given the green light. It seems like SGA has been replaced with SGU. Even though that may or may not be the case, it sure feels like peoples favorite show has just been replaced by something else, and when that happens people get upset and overreact. Remember when Michael Shanks left and Corin Nemic came on?

Case in point.

[ciannwn]

Still have to wonder why you would use ZPM's that expire after thousands of years to replace power sources that last millions of years especially given the Ancients habit of leaving ships lying around the galaxy

A power source which lasted thousands of years would be suitable for ships which weren't expected to be away for millions of years. Maybe Ancients already had ZPM's but decided that ships which would be travelling across umpteen galaxies would be more efficient if they had self renewing power sources.

[Colonel_Ez]

A power source which lasted thousands of years would be suitable for ships which weren't expected to be away for millions of years. Maybe Ancients already had ZPM's but decided that ships which would be travelling across umpteen galaxies would be more efficient if they had self renewing power sources.

Thats just what you think though isnt it?, by your own argument you said they wouldnt replace old tech that was still doing its job so why would they choose to replace the MPD (Mythical Power Drive - since we dont know what it is if not a ZPM cluster) with ZPM's on some ships and not others.

I can already think of a number of possible answers so im not asking you to tell me why you think (ZPM's are possibly less costly or easier to produce ect), im just saying that i feel its out of convenience more than anything else - My feeling is, that any reason given for replacing a superior power supply with a technically inferiour one will to me, seem lame

[ciannwn]

Thats just what you think though isnt it?, by your own argument you said they wouldnt replace old tech that was still doing its job so why would they choose to replace the MPD (Mythical Power Drive - since we dont know what it is if not a ZPM cluster) with ZPM's on some ships and not others.

I love your idea of a Mythical Power Drive (MPD) so I'm going to adopt it for this post. I just feel like rambling on for the fun of it.

The only MPD ships which have survived all these millions of years are the Destiny or the exploration ship if that's the one the Earth humans are going to end up on. After all, it's not like the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies are full of Ancient ships from different periods of their history.

I can already think of a number of possible answers so im not asking you to tell me why you think (ZPM's are possibly less costly or easier to produce ect), im just saying that i feel its out of convenience more than anything else

A major plot element of SGA was never having any fully charged ZPMs available when the characters needed them. This included the Wraith because Todd had to be very sneaky in order to grab 3 from the Asurans so he could power the Wraith Cloning facility dating from the Lantean War. As the Destiny is supposed to be millions of years older than Atlantis it can't really be equipped with a super-duper ZPM which the Ancients had forgotten how to make by the time they set of for Pegasus.

The other thing to consider is that spare ZPMs on board with an automated replacement system could make life too easy for the Earth crew. (The alien weapon they need only has enough power for one shot but this doesn't matter because they've got a ZPM with them) Being down to the last, nearly depleted ZPM would mean the Earth crew wouldn't be going very far before the ship ran out of power and came to a stop, though. This would effect their life support system so they'd have to settle on a planet.

- My feeling is, that any reason given for replacing a superior power supply with a technically inferiour one will to me, seem lame

Seeing as the 9th chevron is involved it suggests that the Earth crew get on the Destiny via a Stargate. I'm just wondering how we'll be given a 'convincing explanation' for why they can't get back.

1: Not enough power to dial home. Not enough power to keep the Destiny flying for much longer either, then.

2: No DHD because it's been damaged beyond repair. For some reason it will have to be impossible for them to take a DHD from a seeded Stargate back to the Destiny and use that. It must also be impossible for anyone to use the following solution -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau%27r...lling_Computer

By the time of season 10 the dialing program and SGC understanding of the Ancient technology inside a Stargate has evolved to the point that a modern laptop computer in the field is capable of being loaded with the dialing program and, in the absence of a DHD, dialing a Stargate so long as a power supply is on hand (such as a portable Naquadah reactor).

3: They've got the power and DHD but not a special security code which is required for dialling home. The security code is there just in case some alien baddies took over the ship and tried to use its Stargate to invade whatever galaxy the Ancients were living it at the time the Destiny took off. (Presumably the Milky Way). The security code is also needed in order to do anything with the navigational program. The Earth tech expert discovers that attempts to override this code will result in the ship blowing up. The MPD which can't be removed ensures that no planet based Stargate can be used to dial another galaxy. Um... why didn't the Lanteans set up a similar security system for the Atlantis gate? Were they 100% certain that the Wraith would never beam into the city and use the Stargate to follow them? After all, there must have been some fully charged ZPMs in Pegasus at the time the Lanteans evacuated to Earth.

None of my 'explanations' convince me so I can't see them convincing anyone else. I hope TPTB have a better idea.

[Colonel_Ez]

I love your idea of a Mythical Power Drive (MPD) so I'm going to adopt it for this post. I just feel like rambling on for the fun of it.

The only MPD ships which have survived all these millions of years are the Destiny or the exploration ship if that's the one the Earth humans are going to end up on. After all, it's not like the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies are full of Ancient ships from different periods of their history.



A major plot element of SGA was never having any fully charged ZPMs available when the characters needed them. This included the Wraith because Todd had to be very sneaky in order to grab 3 from the Asurans so he could power the Wraith Cloning facility dating from the Lantean War. As the Destiny is supposed to be millions of years older than Atlantis it can't really be equipped with a super-duper ZPM which the Ancients had forgotten how to make by the time they set of for Pegasus.

The other thing to consider is that spare ZPMs on board with an automated replacement system could make life too easy for the Earth crew. (The alien weapon they need only has enough power for one shot but this doesn't matter because they've got a ZPM with them) Being down to the last, nearly depleted ZPM would mean the Earth crew wouldn't be going very far before the ship ran out of power and came to a stop, though. This would effect their life support system so they'd have to settle on a planet.



Seeing as the 9th chevron is involved it suggests that the Earth crew get on the Destiny via a Stargate. I'm just wondering how we'll be given a 'convincing explanation' for why they can't get back.

1: Not enough power to dial home. Not enough power to keep the Destiny flying for much longer either, then.

2: No DHD because it's been damaged beyond repair. For some reason it will have to be impossible for them to take a DHD from a seeded Stargate back to the Destiny and use that. It must also be impossible for anyone to use the following solution -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau%27r...lling_Computer

By the time of season 10 the dialing program and SGC understanding of the Ancient technology inside a Stargate has evolved to the point that a modern laptop computer in the field is capable of being loaded with the dialing program and, in the absence of a DHD, dialing a Stargate so long as a power supply is on hand (such as a portable Naquadah reactor).

3: They've got the power and DHD but not a special security code which is required for dialling home. The security code is there just in case some alien baddies took over the ship and tried to use its Stargate to invade whatever galaxy the Ancients were living it at the time the Destiny took off. (Presumably the Milky Way). The security code is also needed in order to do anything with the navigational program. The Earth tech expert discovers that attempts to override this code will result in the ship blowing up. The MPD which can't be removed ensures that no planet based Stargate can be used to dial another galaxy. Um... why didn't the Lanteans set up a similar security system for the Atlantis gate? Were they 100% certain that the Wraith would never beam into the city and use the Stargate to follow them? After all, there must have been some fully charged ZPMs in Pegasus at the time the Lanteans evacuated to Earth.

None of my 'explanations' convince me so I can't see them convincing anyone else. I hope TPTB have a better idea.

Yup, these are my problems and then some lol, we should maybe get together and pitch a few SGU scripts to tptb - sure we could come up with a couple of "disaster with the gate/ship/experiemt" scripts haha

[theheartsofatlantis]

It sounds like a good thing, I wish we had more information on it.