Saturday, October 24, 2009

Stargate Universe Is Sort Of...Boring, Time To Cancel

When it was announced that Stargate would have a new series out this year, the sci-fi community let out a collectively nerdy 'hoo-rah!' A show that promised the action and fun of Stargate SG1, the escapism of Atlantis and tied it up with the space faring voyages of Star Trek and BSG...what more could we want?

Well it turns out, quite a lot more. So far, Stargate Universe has been very slow. Verrrry slow. This is surprising, considering the set of the show is supposedly upon an ancient space ship that can travel faster than the speed of light. I'm sure Einstein would chime in about relativity around this point, and he'd be spot on.

From the seat of whoever watches this show, it's pretty slow-moving and boring. The characters are not very endearing, at least yet, and as some potential fans have mentioned seemed to be based on characters from past sci-fi space adventure shows. The plot of being stranded out in space and wanting to get home seems not so unique either, but then again what's new?

As mentioned, the main problem with Stargate Universe is pace. The little video recordings the characters do into the ancient ball of archives get tedious and boring (yes, they are introductory and may serve a deeper purpose) and so far, the plot has been quite predictable, down to the ambigous nature of the doctor.

Pacing. Action points. Character development. These things will be crucial to keep Stargate Universe open for business. Also, we are still lacking external antagonists or the sense of exploration that seem to be popular in a good space set series. So let's hope the ship literally turns around for this show, or Atlantis may no longer have the ranking of worst Stargate franchise ever.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a big fan of SG-1 and Atlantis and can't believe Atlantic was cancelled and this was put in its place. I'll give it a few more episodes but then I'll save my time and watch paint dry instead.

It's a real shame as I think the actors are great, casting is good but the writers need to stop trying to mimic LOST or HEROES and get on with it.

We need pace, action, comedy and interesting encounters with whatever is out there in the other end of the universe - NOT pointless love scenes, so called "tension" between characters and the trials and tribulations using communication stones.

Unknown said...

Agreed, I have a very clear picture of what the Stargate franchise should be, and Universe ain't it. Last episode ("Life"), I just had the episode running in the background while I was doing stuff around my apartment. That has never happened with any other Stargate series before, as every episode of SG-1 and SG:A managed to hold my interest. I'm sure some out there finds the new series rewarding, but after 9 episodes, my hopes for myself are dwindling.

sml said...

the cast is not bad, but the story is just awful. Whoever decided that putting in the communication stones into the mix was a good idea, killed this show's chances of succeeding entirely. The flashbacks are trying to mimick the success of the first few seasons of Lost, however the personal stories are not exactly relevant or interesting in all their bulk. They have the communication stones, so why not get some super geniuses like McKay and Carter to get the ship up and running?
They should have started off the show with even more confusion and a bullet in Dr. Rush's head. They could have had a basic hologram computer activate and welcome the arrivals as "ancients" with some hints for Eli to go on. The other technical crew are portrayed as total imbeciles and are useless. Atlantis had SEVERAL interesting and relevant characters. This show has failed and will not pick up the drama that Battlestar did. With the communication stones there is no sense of "Lost in Space". It's like picking up a phone and complaining to mommy how much you miss being home. Also: telling every relative on earth about the Stargate Program? Seriously? Didn't SG1 have several episodes on keeping that shit secret? Very disappointing.

Unknown said...

Gotta say as a fan of the sg series this isnt cutting it. I mean damn its boring in my house all of us watched stargate every week. this one however lost 3 out of four people and soon to be four out of four. Whoever thought mimicing sp? bsg was a good idea seemed to have missed one minor point. the original bsg hadn't been on in 20 plus years when they decided to redo it. Stargate hasn't had that luxury so it is going to fail badly unless something changes.
I'm not saying this as a bitter fan im simply saying it from everything i been hearing on it
from other fans. Which are saying what i was thinking.
This isn't a small group either.
The problem lies in 3 sections which are the main points old joe seems to like best.
One, the charaters save eli are boring as hell
two, we get it already they are shagging on the ship let it go already and move on.
Three, Enough of the flashbacks, camera jerkiness shit and quit imitating BSG and move the story along.

My son already commented on it and left with these words. Why don't they just kill themselves and be done with it. Which was a good point i thought since they all seem one step "minus eli" away from suicide as it is.

He quit watching after epi.3 lost the wife at 4. my little girl was gone in 1, and im holding on for dear life solely for the guys running the show since i listened to ever single commentary on every dvd up to the end of season five of atlantis.
But you are losing me and losing me quick guys.
if for no other reason than this.
Im an ex vet and there is no way in hell these guys would act this way if this was a real situation. Sure they may note the hot chix and may on occasion take part but number one on the list would be survival and getting the ship running and getting it and themselves back home.

They would not be running around like a bunch of suicidal misfits. Yes i agree with my son on his observation and quite proud of how accurate that actually was.

This better improve a hell of alot after the mid season break or i fear it is done.


There got that off my back i feel better now.
Carry on.

Malligan said...

Stargate and atlantis have foremost and always have been dating back to the original movie a family show. its space opera at its best. and what that entails is great loveable characters, ur main story line with little bits spanning off now and again. But universe im afraid to say doesnt give us stargate fans what we want. It's taken the premise of stargate, and thrown it into "lost" in space (no pun intended). theres to much trying to be deep in the emotion an termoil of characters we really couldnt give a crap about, we havent been able to sympothise with them, felt no real bond or connection with them and they havent given us any reason to love them. all except robert carlyle who seems to be the best damn thing in it.

this is what i think the show needs. more focus on the ship and the ancients, an actual villain, altho i heard rumours about lucien alliance (hmmm) and realy just some good episodes with these characters instead of just putting in a sex scene jus to fill time, cos people theres alot of time to fill in this show right now and stargate has never been about sex. so come on put the roots back into the show.
decemeber 1st 2009.

TCR said...

Agreed, this show is the pit's. I would put money on it that it won't be picked up for season 2. Too bad it could have been a decent premise if they hadn't tried to make it a cross between BSG and Survivor with a little L in S and Temptation Is. thrown in.
No plot, no excitment, no goal means no interest!
Besides,in SGA "episode 9 season 2 Aurora" the ancients ships look more like a ship from ST or SW. So why is this massive ship which is supposed to have been built by an advanced race of ancients, where they intended to travel too, so cold and uninviting with no life support equipment (food, water, galley, showers, toilets, infirmiry etc. or even space suits)? The ship is huge built for thousands, couldn't they have at least stocked it with the necessities.
It's like a prison ship. No wonder they never went to it.

Unknown said...

I'm from Holland ... just finished watching episode 10 !!!! I consider myself a diehard Sci-fi fan. I've seen all the Stargate episodes .. and was very dissapointed when they cancelled Atlantis. Personally I favoured Atlantis above SG1 ... for the simple fact : more Sci-fi-ie ....
Universe should have all the ingredients of being a good show ( even though the idea isn't original ) ... boy I'm dissapointed .... with every new episode I hope ..... it will get better .... but it doesn't ...
Ít's so boring ... the story is too much about the caracter's
Hello ? we are Sci-fi fans .... we like it mixed: a little drama,action,comedy .......
still wonderin' why they cancelled Atlantis for this ???
Hope te creators wake up ... and remember what their audience is about ... if we want drama ... we watched gossip girl or 90210 !!!

Greetz from Holland

Arwood said...

Miss Stargate Atlantis! SG1 was getting old but there was still a lot of life left in SGA. Stargate Universe is a stupid show, slow and full of meaningless, boring, sex scenes.
Hopefully SU will be cancelled and something similar to SGA will take it place with comedy, likable characters, and scifi action.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with most of you, this Stargate Universe stinks. I too keep hoping the writers will do a 360 and get back into the actions. They need to explore new worlds, make new alies. So far I've seen 2 new alien races which are easily forgotten, as only one showed any sign of intelligence. The history is lost, I loved how daniel referred back to ancient civilizations as to further understand the alien races. I mean I understand how being as far out as they're supposed to be, there wouldn't be any ancestry that originated from earth. But anywho the Show in my opinion Lacks so Much when compared to SG1 who went 10 Seasons Strong!

Unknown said...

NBC put Jay Leno in prime time, SYFY cancelled SGA for SGU...two monumental mistakes in TVland.
NBC faced the music and put Jay Leno back where he belongs (Sorry, Conan). Why can't the whiz kids at SYFY do likewise? SG1 and SGA gave us everything that is good about good science fiction... especially heroes. We don't see enough heroes anywhere, but especially on SGU, which is an aimless mishmash of characters who are impossible to care about.

NuShrike said...

I have to say Sanctuary is some of the best Stargate episodes yet!

Anonymous said...

There's so many holes in this plot, and what's worse, they don't seem to care...

What captured me the most about the Stargate franchise was that EVERYTIME I thought of a better way to do things, they'd at LEAST address that as a possibility (often disproven) but it engaged me, and I found myself troubleshooting the conflicts as they were presented... and I LOVED it...

In Stargate universe it's like logic is no longer a factor... which normally is like ONE of the key components in a sci-fi...

What kind of an audience are they trying to cater to?? cuz the smart geeky ones like myself and other SG fans don't like being patronized with poorly written plots...

I just want to know why... you know?...

I think what ticks us off the MOST is we don't have anybody to blame for this... I mean... you can SAY that it's the director or the writers... but..... we really have no clue it could be some dumb ass in upper management pushing some change...

The only thing more frustrating than being a fan of a franchise and seeing it fall like this... is possibly being a writer for the franchise that is falling like this... helpless to do anything...

IDK... but what do we know, right?

This just has the fingerprints of some form of a arrogant manager that got in the way of an artist all over it...

I'd HATE to be that artist...

Unknown said...

you've got to be kidding me sgu is the best sg since the original sga was like one of those cheaply made scifi shows like the one with that guy that played hercules. sgu rules

Unknown said...

SGU sucks. SG-1 and SGA were way better. All they did with SGU is make Melrose Place on a Spaceship. It's all about who's doing who, who hates who, and how they're getting back at eachother. I think whoever suggested this series was lost in space. They were trying to bring in more ratings at the expense of the rating they already had. This show is worse than an MTV reality tv series.

At least SGA furthered the Stargate story line in general, SGU has no hope of doing anything like that. I hope they cancel it and find something better.

Unknown said...

John said:

"you've got to be kidding me sgu is the best sg since the original sga was like one of those cheaply made scifi shows like the one with that guy that played hercules. sgu rules"

Hah. That show is called Andromeda, and you know it. Andromeda is sci-fi at it's best. It's a Gene Rodenberry, you tool. It has all the sci-fi elements that made Star Trek endure through the years. SG-1 and SGA share some of this glory as well.

Most episodes of Andromeda felt like mini movies. Each episode can stand by itself.

Even though SG-1 where knee-deep with the Ori, you can still tune in and enjoy the episode without understanding the whole story arc.

The problem with soaps and drama based shows like "Universe", is that they come up with these cheesy last minute twists as a feeble attempt to ensure that you tune in next week.

That's what soap is.

The Rodenberry equation however, keeps you wanting more out of sheer excitment, story resolution, action, character development, good values, heroes vs vilans, SCIENCE, FICTION ... etc etc.

The show is called Andromeda, and the actor is called Kevin Sorbo. Both are brilliant.

Go watch General Hospital if you want drama.

Anonymous said...

its too quiet for a scifi show ..same with battlestr galacitica and caprica i thought capricxa would sort of be kewl liked the ound of it now dissopointed ,lost interest
comestargate you can do a lot better than this trash

Unknown said...

I can to this day watch reruns of Atlantis and SG-1 and still be wow-ed by the plotlines and brilliant writing. This Universe rubbish is boring me to tears- I'd rather watch Spongebob in its place since that show's writing is definitely better than Universe too. Caprica bores me to tears too. What's going on with new sci-fi writing- just boring plodding along plots now.

Unknown said...

I agree SGU is very different to SGA and SG1, it's defo more in the direction of BSG with more focus on the characters, but thats to be expected with a new show.

I love both SG1 and SGA, but to say they had original storylines isn't quite true. They followed the same formula over and over. IE - who's the next bad guy coming to destroy earth.

With SGU it's more REAL, gritty. And the last bunch of episodes have been much, much better imo. I think in season 2 we will start to see more of the traditional alien encounters etc, but this first season is all about bedding us in.

Semius said...

Do you remember episodes of SG-1 with IOA ? Some smartass people were trying to take control of the SGC.They even could managed it somehow but they eventually messed up everything and let the control back to experts.

This time is real, I feel that about SGU.I think some smartass people at the top, only looking charts, ignoring advices etc.

By the way, BSG was my favourite too but it isn't sci-fi.It has sci-fi elements over drama.That's why I watched it, because of the sci-fi crema.But I couldn't watch it with additional 5.season unlike SG series.I can watch 20 seasons or more of old SG series because they have endless possibilities.

This one has an old rusty ship going for it's own to keep the things simple, no sci-fi at all sometimes and lower cost to production.
Unfortunatelly, Lost has more sci-fi than SGU has and It's genuine.

Unknown said...

Stargate Universe is too much like Battle Star Galactica (the new one) or Farscape or Babylon 5 for my taste. I viewed each of those other series for several episodes before I decided that I did not like anything about the series. When they canceled Farscape and brought Ben Browder and Claudia Black into SG-1, I almost quit watching. The change was so bad.

I hope they try to hire some of the writers from Stargate SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis. Either would be preferrable.

Also, light up the darn set. It's too hard to see.

Unknown said...

Stargate SG-1 was very good from being egypty to the faith in the gods. That was where they were going. From History to Religion. It had it’s moments. I loved the show when it first aired and to even when it cancelled. I still watch numerous re-run episodes. I own atlantis box set except for season 5. I enjoy Stargate Universe. I am a loyal Stargate fan, no matter where they take the show to. Even watched the cartoon version. I loved that too. What they are trying to do is change it up from the usual and open up to some new viewers. It is a change from the usual monster shows that are actually crap. To something that could be happening now without our knowledge. I tune in every week to watch whatever comes for Stargate, and when I am not available, I record it and watch it later on my TiVo. It is like Firefly. They start good shows, alot of people hate it and don’t watch it, so viewers go down and they cancel the show. What should be cancelled is Simpsons. It is stupid and idiotic. I will not even let my kids watch that. But I would let them watch that over South Park. I will defenitely introduce my kids into Stargate. It is still interesting, even though it is re-run and I have seen them over and over. Unless they invent a Stargate show so stupid and idiotic that it will utterly disgust me and make me vomit. They have yet to do that

Norman Allen said...

Ok for starters, I did think SG*U started off slow, and seemed to be like BSG, but it struck a solid cord with me, even though I didnt like the fact the characters were going back with the stones and getting laid or whatever, that was kinda dumb, but by the time season 1 ended I was hooked. I really liked Season 2 and I am sad they are canceling it. True Atlantis was better, but I think they could still fix some things here, and get Universe going somewhere really cool. They shouldn't be so quick to scrap something. I think some fine tuning and possibly not having wrestling as a higher priority might make all the difference.

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