Am I the only one who loves SGU?

[CorporalCaptain]

I was unable to make it past five minutes of the pilot. I was literally starting to convulse. So, no SGU for me.

[Xerxus]

Are you kidding? The whole Destiny-waking-up wormhole activation was probably the best start of a Stargate series.

[Gary7]

Gary Mitchell wrote:

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I didn't like it at first since I didn't like any of the characters but I kept watching it because it was Stargate and it really grew on me. It was really disappointing when it was cancelled.

+1 This. I definitely enjoyed SG-1. I really didn't get into SG-A. It was OK. I liked a few of the characters. But it kind of let me slip out of watching Stargate. Then SG-U changed everything.

At first I found it depressing. They just kept struggling, a constant test of survival. Nobody really had any chance to relax and enjoy the thrill of exploring the alien ship and the journey it was on. But then... my perspective shifted. This series felt more REAL than any other sci-fi series I've seen in a long while. Yeah, there were some dud episodes, but most were very good. This show had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. At the end of Season Two, I was so geared up for several developments. I figured that eventually they'd find recordings of the ancients and finally get to see what these people looked like, what their concerns were, and perhaps glimpses of their developmental stage just prior to ascension (assuming that's what happened to them).

In reality, the team returning to Earth would find many years gone by with loved ones gone. They would be aliens to their own home. So, in all likelihood, a good number of them would stay on the team, continuing the adventure of Destiny even after establishing a wormhole connection back to Earth, or an SG-1 outpost on another planet.

I really wish there was something that could have been done to keep it alive. No way could you get the full original cast to return. My hope would be that SyFy would revive the franchise yet again, and find a way to pick-up where SG-U left off. Maybe at some point during the journey, several of the crew mysteriously vanish, kidnapped by aliens that managed to visit the vessel while everyone was in stasis, or perhaps some anomaly triggered some sort of teleportation.

Anyway... yeah. Count this guy here as still really sad SG-U suffered an untimely end.

[Kelthaz]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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It was unwatchable garbage. If they wanted to jettison the silly-nonsense tone of Stargate, that's fine, but they do need to replace it with something good instead. They were trying to ape the gritty realism of nuBSG, and they failed. Utterly.

That about sums it up for me.

[SG-17]

I enjoyed it, season 2 especially. The first half of season 1 however makes Emancipation look only mediocre.

[46379.1]

CorporalCaptain wrote:

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I was unable to make it past five minutes of the pilot. I was literally starting to convulse. So, no SGU for me.

What?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJp59o72d8w

I love the show, from the first episode. From the very first scene to the last.

[AJ86]

Gary7 wrote:

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I figured that eventually they'd find recordings of the ancients and finally get to see what these people looked like, what their concerns were, and perhaps glimpses of their developmental stage just prior to ascension (assuming that's what happened to them).

According to Mallozzi they had indeed toyed with that idea. One of the crew finding either a Kino or something in the database with footage of the Destiny being built, the launch, the Ancients who built her, etc. It's a nice idea, but I image they would have been saving it for a time when it wouldn't be giving too much away.

[TiberiusMaximus]

CorporalCaptain wrote:

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I was unable to make it past five minutes of the pilot. I was literally starting to convulse. So, no SGU for me.

Literally, eh? If a TV show makes you literally convulse, you either need to take TV less seriously or consult a physician. Or both.

Or you could just use the word literally properly.

TemisTheVorta wrote:

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It was unwatchable garbage. If they wanted to jettison the silly-nonsense tone of Stargate, that's fine, but they do need to replace it with something good instead. They were trying to ape the gritty realism of nuBSG, and they failed. Utterly.
...this isn't a forum for Jersey Shore, so that's not the show being bashed to shreds here.

At first, you're absolutely right, they tried way too hard to be dark and gritty and failed. But the show did find it's footing and was certainly not unwatchable garbage by the second season.

And SGU is definitely not being bashed to shreds here. More of the comments in this thread have been positive than negative.

[CorporalCaptain]

TiberiusMaximus wrote:

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Literally, eh? If a TV show makes you literally convulse, you either need to take TV less seriously or consult a physician. Or both.

Or you could just use the word literally properly.

Whoa!!!! No thanks.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/convulse:
2. (transitive) To create great laughter.

Seems literally correct to me.

[TiberiusMaximus]

CorporalCaptain wrote:

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Whoa!!!! No thanks.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/convulse:
2. (transitive) To create great laughter.

Seems literally correct to me.

Ah, my mistake, I was thinking of definition 1...as in, seizures. My bad.

[poundpuppy29]

I loved it and I loved SG-1 and SGA

[MPH]

TiberiusMaximus wrote:

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Literally, eh? If a TV show makes you literally convulse, you either need to take TV less seriously or consult a physician. Or both.

Or you could just use the word literally properly.

At first, you're absolutely right, they tried way too hard to be dark and gritty and failed. But the show did find it's footing and was certainly not unwatchable garbage by the second season.

And SGU is definitely not being bashed to shreds here. More of the comments in this thread have been positive than negative.

If I recall Temis only watched the first hour of the pilot or something like that, which is like saying the TNG is absolute garbage after just watching Encounter at Farpoint.

There where a few ropey episodes in s1 like when they used them damn stones but it really started to find its feet in S2 and is a great shame it was cancelled although ironicaly it did have a great ending to the show and to the franchise itself.

[bullethead]

The first season was pretty much a waste of time because of the writing and overdone low-key lighting. Aside from Robert Carlyle, who managed to do a lot with what he was given, everyone on the cast struggled with their fairly inconsistent roles. It didn't help that the writers' idea of arcs was to eschew having episodes that told a story that would progress a larger narrative in favor of stretching out stories over a few episodes for no real reason.

The first half of season 2 was just as bad as season 1, but they did more with secondary characters that were actually likable and managed to rehab Greer a bit. The actual story was still crap, but they managed to not make it as intolerable. Plus I think they upped the lighting a bit.

The last half of the season was fairly good, but they still had some problems with how poorly fleshed out the characters were and how one dimensional the bad guys were. The ending was kind of lame, because it reemphaiszed the whole "Eli is the character SG fans are supposed to associate with" thing that really irritated people back when the show began.

[Gary7]

I do agree that the "Golly gee brilliant whiz kid" angle was a bit trite. "The Last Starfighter", take II. And I didn't like how much they milked it in the beginning. But then, they backed off enough that it became easier to tolerate Eli.

Definitely, the "bad guys" were very one dimensional. At first. When some of them got to join the crew, that opened up things a bit. I don't recall the guy's name, but the one who got the most time was a pretty likable/relate-able character.

I don't think the 1st season was quite so bad. They kind of captured what people would feel like in such a situation. The complete disorientation of being on an alien ship, faced with immediate challenges that you aren't quite sure how to fix. By the 2nd half of the 1st season, I felt the series was starting to improve, and then got reasonably good in season 2. ALL sci-fi series face great challenges in the first couple of seasons, as writers figure out what works and what doesn't and actors find their footing. I actually think SG-U did better than Atlantis in this regard. It took a while longer for SG-A to get going. In the beginning, it felt so much like a "lesser" SG-1.

The ending was not lame, IMHO. Eli is a genius. He has some kind of savant quality about him, that even he didn't quite realize until his involvement with the Stargate command. He still felt so inadequate for quite a long while. It wasn't until towards the end of season 2 that he started to acknowledge his gift... that he really has the stuff. Dr. Rush confirmed that as well in conversations with Colonel Young.

Anyway, the thing is... we really don't quite know if Eli DOES know how to fix the chamber. That's what's so great about the ending. There's this uncertainty... did he really believe he could do it, or... did he sacrifice himself so that no one else would have to?

[Robert Maxwell]

I loved SG-1 and thought SG:A was pretty meh. I appreciate what they were trying to do with SGU, they just did it really poorly. The show had a lot of good qualities and a lot of bad qualities. It was a weird mix. There was the nonsense with the stones, which took up way too much of season 1 (especially the first half.) There was also the power struggle between Rush and Young, which got way out of hand to the point of becoming unbelievable.

Some of the relationships on the show were handled reasonably well, although most of them (like Scott and Chloe) were badly mishandled.

I don't think the show was a total disaster, but on the whole it was pretty damn mediocre, and that just doesn't cut it in today's TV landscape.