Sounds crazy, but the more I look into it, seems that the powers that be made SGU to make up for the mistakes they made with SGA. Originally the idea with SGA was to have this expedition in a foreign part of the universe with no way to reach home. The show was suppose to be more edgier than SG1. That failed in many ways. So what happened? they were out of contact of Earth for just one season, then, not only were they able to communicate with Earth. but get back and forth and even have a few Earth based adventures (since SG1 was now out of the way) . The tone of the series was pretty light with wise cracking Shepard and goofy McKay. The show became rather Star Trek'ish. They also lost alot of there main cast with the replacements (Carter, Woosly, Keller) not being as good as who they replaced. the show lost its way.. At this point ,TPTB said screw it, we will scrap the show and do it in the way we originaly wanted it. This time we will go further out into the Universe and be on a ship rather than a City ship and we will try to maintain a darker tone and be more like BSG.
That's certainly a good theory, but it sounds like that ship has regular contact with Earth from the beginning, and somehow they can have visitors from Earth.
^^ Spoiler: Plot detail They have visitors thanks the the Ancient communications device that incorporates body swap, like what Daniel and Vala used to discover the Ori galaxy.
That's good as it is an already established Stargate technology. Atlantis failed by trying to be SG1 in another galaxy. Unfortunately, SGU seems to be BSG in another universe.
In other words, it IS a reboot of Atlantis, done in Galactica style. Everything ATL should have done, but didn't, due to the studio and network exesc wanting SG1 jr. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Universe (note-spoilers present, be careful reading the page) Stargate Atlantis follows the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team on board the Ancient cityship Atlantis. Transported to Atlantis in a distant corner of the universe and unable to return to Earth, members of the team are forced to remain in the city and fend for themselves.
They'll succeed if they actually improve on mistakes in the past... DS9 did it with Jake Sisko being an improvement on Wesley (i.e. actually being a child when he started, actually acting like a teenage male, having a REAL relationship with his parent) Atlantis failed by not having arcs for each of their characters....i mentioned it in another ancient (pun intended) thread, but Lt. Ford SHOULD have been a Stargate "vet" (the way he was comfortable diving into the gate, while Sheppard looked scared), and could have balanced that out with Sheppard being the CO. Teyla and then Ronan should have had some development, and especially Teyla needing definition of her character (was she like Teal'C or Neelix or what?). Hopefully, we'll have it for the characters...
Except that, they inteded to go to Altantis and the team was well prepared, that's not the case here. And they're following a different mission as well. I think the comparisons are only skin deep so to speak.
The team wasn't well prepared to land in the middle of a galactic warzone against space vampires, onto a city where most things didn't work, and to have their military commander be killed and replaced by Shep, who had no Gate experience and barely knew about the program.
Atlantis wasn't about having no way home, just no guaranties but they knew exactly where it was and they knew that all they needed was a ZPM. The overall lighter feel of the show was planned from the beginning with the choice of charaters like McKay and Beckett providing comical relief. Universe seems truly no way home, with indeed a much darker theme with people dying left and right and conspiracy. I guess the recent commercial success of BSG is indeed responsible for this new direction.
Problem is that in the Stargate universe, anything can happen, so the sense that they will never get home won't be there . Look at SG1, they start by going to new worlds then they all but defeat the Gould then Ori and 9 years after the begining have uber powerful ships that can travel between galaxies (heck Star Trek can't even do that). There is was a massive leap of what we could not do to what they can now in there. So to say they are stuck on a ship across the universe with no way home does not feel real. Who knows what technology they will find to get them back.
There no current war until Shep woke up the wraith and they were part of the military and expected to expect the unexpected. And for that matter it was Shep who killed their military commander and the only reason why Shep went was because he had the ancient gene. Half of whatever went was his fault in the first place and McKay didn't help matters. Still I think we're looking at a different situation here, Rush has own agenda and there's plenty of conflict between the millitary and civilian groups.
This has me thinking, they should have done an alternate reality episode where we see Atlantis without Sheppard ever having arrived. After all, had he not found Teyla's locket, activated it with his Ancient gene, the Wraith would never have gone to Athos, and the events which led to their awakening would not have occurred. It could have been interesting.
Indeed, I was thinking about that. Who knows, maybe Sumner was still alive and in command at Atlantis. Of course, at least as far as Vegas was concerned it would seem even without Sheppard around the Atlantis team still awoke the Wraith.
Well it is kind of hard to find a way home when you don't really know where you are in the first place.
Summer could have landed on another planet with Wraith caretakers. If you think about it, it all falls on Peter, the guy that died at the end of season 1. He choose the gate address.
I don't think its a reboot. I do agree with your theory about the TPTB's decision to scrap atlantis. I read on the gateworld site that there are no bad guys introduced in the first few episodes, its all about exploring the characters and their immediate survival. Sounds like Posiedon in space with the cast of sunset beach. I really want Universe to work. Reviews I have read suggest that its tries to be BSG but fails. A show like BSG can only be done once. The grittyness and dark side of the show was unique to sci fi and to copy it won't work. Its been done already. The producers say the story builds throughout the season right to the last episode. Whilst I prefer multi arc story lines to one off shows like TNG did I expect to be pulled in from the first episode. I just can't see how surviving on an alien ship is going to be as exciting as waking the Wraith. The first season of Atlantis was absolutely amazing and I watched the whole season in one sitting. It went a bit poo after the 3rd season. I don't really want to judge without having seen it. I can only hope the producers know what they are doing and get it right
Actually the Stargate universe could use a bit of a shake up and be a bit more dark and gritty. I once had hopes that VOY would be to a degree what nuBSG brought to the table. Or more to the point after a few seasons of heroically battleing it out the ship would look like it did in 'The Year of hell" or Ransom's ship...but without the genocide My only fear is that the show will fall back to its previous methods. Getting lighter and not maintaining a realistic edge between light and dark. Guest stars from earlier shows popping in and out of the ship once they once more regain contact in say S2 or S3...that kinda stuff. and lord please no reset buttons. If anything B5 and nuBSG showed you do not need to do that and still can have a successful show. I have hopes for this and will most likely watch it as I did SGU (all the way back to its showtime days) and SGA. Here is to hoping Vons