SG-U – Air I and II (1x01/02) - (Discuss – Grade | SPOILERS)

[Othello]

I enjoyed the hell out of the premiere. I'm looking forward to seeing where this show will go to be sure. My only worry si that I won't find a Daniel Jackson or Rodney McKay to really stand out and make me enjoy the show.

 

[Brent]

Eli !

 

[Tom]

The rest of the cast has failed to impress me. The Senator's Aide (and daughter) manages to overact when he dies a completely contrived death (but who can afford Christopher McDonald on a weekly basis, anyway?).

Why could'nt they afford him, besides guest spots in shows (like L&O) what major things has he done in the past 10 years??

 

[Othello]

Eli !

Possibly but I didn't instantly take to him like I did McKay and Jackson.

 

[Bluesteel]

I got news everyone. The ratings are in.

New York, NY – October 3, 2009 – Following record ratings forWarehouse 13,Eureka,Ghost Hunters andDestination Truth during its most-watched third quarter ever,Syfy’s viewership surge since the July 7 brand evolution continued on Friday, October 2, whenStargate Universe premiered to the best franchise premiere performance in four years, drawing more than 2.3 million viewers – and besting FOX’sDollhouse at 9PM (ET/PT).
Stargate Universe, which stars Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na, grabbed 2.35 million total viewers along with a 1.7 HH rating, 1.32 million Adults 25-54, and 1.12 million Adults 18-49 during its two-hour debut episode from 9-11PM (ET/PT).

For reference. When Atlantis aired on Sci-Fi. It's HH rating was 3.2 with 4.2 million viewers a record unbeaten for 5 years until Warehouse 13 came along and broke it last month. If my memory serves. SG-1 in it's early days on Sci-Fi had something around 2-3 HH.

The question for me is this. Can SGU survive? By that I mean at least give me a good 7 years of episodes at best 5 to beat Atlantis. If rumors of a new Trek tv show is true. I want to watch Stargate and Trek in my next 5 years of Uni.

According to Carlyle (a fantastic actor. A catch for the Stargate guys) each episode cost $2 million. I'm not sure about Atlantis episode cost but the show barely survived hovering at 0.9 to 1.5 before MGM killed it.

Oh well. Much luck. Even though I've already seen it. I'm going to watch its UK premiere on SkyOne on HD TV.

So I'm not used to following sci-fi shows. How long should it take for ratings numbers to start popping up and what exactly are we hoping for here? 2+ million or so?

If you were hoping for that. You got it.... barely.


Edit: I forgot to mention. According to Gateworld the rating number will probably increase once they add the DVR people into in 3 weeks.

 

[Brent]

^ you can make that its own separate thread if you want, since this one is so big, to discuss the ratings so no one misses it

 

[sportzkid]

Although Bluesteel already posted ratings information, in case any one is interested Gateworld also has a story up on the overnight ratings. Stargate universe premiere ratings.

As Gateworld talks about a little as with quote below, the overnight ratings is not the whole story. Also factors are the DVR or live plus + 7 below and how much it is viewed on hulu.com or syfy.com and itunes downloads. The two hour pilot is free on itunes if any one wants it.

The initial ratings data includes those who watched the show live, or DVR-delayed within 3 hours of broadcast. Complete “Live + 7 days” data — accounting for those who recorded the episode on DVR and watched later in the week — will be available in about three weeks.

See that bluesteel edited his while I was writing and now mentioned gateworld

 

[Yoda]

The cast is a very mixed bag. I was excited to have Lou Diamond Phillips onboard, but it's clear from these two episodes that his role will be very minimal, and his performance and character weren't anything of interest here.

Wait... I thought Lou Diamond Philips died in the premiere? Did I make that up? I though I saw his character kick the bucket fairly early on, but I wasn't sure... then he didn't show up again for the rest of the episode. If he was there wouldn't he be in charge over Mr Wannabe Teen Hearthrob?

 

[Bluesteel]

The cast is a very mixed bag. I was excited to have Lou Diamond Phillips onboard, but it's clear from these two episodes that his role will be very minimal, and his performance and character weren't anything of interest here.

Wait... I thought Lou Diamond Philips died in the premiere? Did I make that up? I though I saw his character kick the bucket fairly early on, but I wasn't sure... then he didn't show up again for the rest of the episode. If he was there wouldn't he be in charge over Mr Wannabe Teen Hearthrob?

No he didn't die. He's set to appear for 6 episodes this season. I think your thinking of the East asian doctor who died. In the online clip I thought it was Lou injured but in the pilot it was clearly a doctor that was higher ranked then the medic.

 

[sportzkid]

Tellford was in the fighters fighting off the enemy attack and his fighter group went up to the U.S.S. General Hammond and escaped that way.

 

[Peter the Younger]

Tellford was in the fighters fighting off the enemy attack and his fighter group went up to the U.S.S. General Hammond and escaped that way.

Yes, it looks like LDP will be their contact back home, talking to whomever connects to the stones.

 

[Harvey]

The rest of the cast has failed to impress me. The Senator's Aide (and daughter) manages to overact when he dies a completely contrived death (but who can afford Christopher McDonald on a weekly basis, anyway?).

Why could'nt they afford him, besides guest spots in shows (like L&O) what major things has he done in the past 10 years??

In ten years, he's appeared in sixty-five different television shows and movies. On several of those television shows he made multiple appearances (around 100 episodes total). On Universe he was notable enough to earn the "with" guest star credit. He'd definitely be earning more than the younger, far cheaper members of the cast. He'd also have to relocate to Vancouver, which would limit his other work and likely cause his pay to be bumped up even further. The show is already holding onto one fading male guest star with Lou Diamond Phillips, and his character can fill a more important role than McDonald's politician, who was basically dead weight dramatically the moment he stepped through the gate.

 

[Brent]

I'm surprised at the positive grading, no one has given it an F yet lol, that's gotta mean somethin!

 

[bigdaddy]

I'm surprised at the positive grading, no one has given it an F yet lol, that's gotta mean somethin!

Yeah it's not HORRIBLE like the last few seasons and movies of Stargate have been.

 

[Mr Light]

While I applaud the new cinematic gritification of the SG brand, I found the actual story and characters to be completely uninteresting. And it's the exact same damn premise of Atlantis so far; group of newbie gate travelers get stranded on Ancient city-ship far away from home with no hope of aid. Still, I'll have to stick with it just to see how good/bad the villains will be, since there were no baddies in the first two hours aside from an off-screen unnamed Gou'ald spaceship attack. And wow were there a lot of characters introduced! Which makes it look like this will be an eternal bottle show like BSG without aliens of the week (I know nothing about the show beforehand).

 

[Lindley]

So far my only observation is about Chloe: She'd better not become anyone's love interest too fast. She's the sort of character whom you expect that from, and I'm really hoping they find something more interesting to do with her.

 

[Bluesteel]

While I applaud the new cinematic gritification of the SG brand, I found the actual story and characters to be completely uninteresting. And it's the exact same damn premise of Atlantis so far; group of newbie gate travelers get stranded on Ancient city-ship far away from home with no hope of aid. Still, I'll have to stick with it just to see how good/bad the villains will be, since there were no baddies in the first two hours aside from an off-screen unnamed Gou'ald spaceship attack. And wow were there a lot of characters introduced! Which makes it look like this will be an eternal bottle show like BSG without aliens of the week (I know nothing about the show beforehand).

Thats what they are planning so far. They are going to meet aliens but not recurring bad guys like Goa'uld or Wraith.

 

[Jerikka Dawn]

If I was Col. Young, first thing after I was able to stand:

Col. Young: "Ya, communication stones please."
Rush: But they put me in ch--
(Col. Young cocks gun): "Communication stones please, k? Tnx."

WTF?

 

[Brent]

I was also hoping Col. Young would force the issue and hold Rush captive to grab the stones and go find out what is going on. That would have made it a little more believable, I can't believe they gave into Rush like that.

 

[Hyperspace05]

But what are they going to do - Rush is probably the most knowledgeable about fixing the ship, and just as committed to surviving as everyone else. Once they have resolved this immediate air problem, I'm sure a proper authority structure will be established.

And is Rush really lying? It would make some sense to make him the leader for now, since at the time for all they knew Young was laying there dying. Lt?/Sgt? Scott was just a newbie to the project. And the IOC would need several committee meetings to decide anything.