The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough

Yes, the ship is of Ancient design. But there is a lot more to it.

Yes but also

Spoiler

Destiny recharges itself by directly scooping up stellar matter from a star. I thought that was amazing. And the visuals are breathtaking.

 

I think I might have stopped watching Universe right as it started to get good, because I think I stopped right around Episode 5 or 6. I can't remember if I stopped because I didn't like or if I just lost track and was never able to get caught up. There have been a lot of shows I liked, but ended up losing track of and by the time I decided to get back to it, the episodes had been pulled and I wasn't able to continue.

 

I liked parts of most of the preceding episodes, but I think "Time" was SGU's first great episode. That was episode #8.

 

Yeah, it gets really good after episode 6.

 

I didn't see any comparisons to ronald D moore's Battlestar Galactica with its more raw and hand held camera approach. Thats what SGU was trying to emulate. This was when Scifi shows wanted to be "Anti Voyager"

You could also say that "Atlantis" was the "Voyager" equivalent

Just like BSG "Universe" wanted to make things hard for the characters. Food is scare. Basic essentials like water and air are in short supply. T&A was also ramped up.

Some joke that the parody in Stargate SG-1's "200" where it's a bunch of young and emotional SG-1 members is basically SG:U




I only remember a handful of episodes. Mainly "Epilogue"

 

I can't remember, did we ever get a canon look at the Furlings? I know they were Ewok lookalikes in 200, but that was just a joke scene, so I assume that's not necessarily what they actually look like.

 

Nope. Personally, I subscribe to the theory that the Giant Aliens from "Crystal Skull" were Furlings, but the writers have rejected that theory, so I suppose it depends on which one of us writes more Stargate first.

There were a few near-misses with clues about the Furlings' appearance that they decided not to use. A skeleton nearly appeared in their outpost in "Paradise Lost," and the "Stargate Worlds" MMORPG would've included a corrupted version of the Furlings as an enemy. Speaking of "Stargate Worlds," continuing the trend of Stargate jinxing it's own video games by featuring them in the show, was the video game Eli was playing that had the power distribution problem hidden in it. There was going to be some kind of ARG tie-in with the game and the premiere of SGU, but when the game didn't come out, that was scrapped.

 

Is it opposite day? Is 'really good' actually mean really bad?

My least favorite thing. Not the characters I didn't care about or the acting mostly being sub par or

Spoiler

the damn gaould or the stupid stones and the sci-fi rape

, it's the stupid ass camera.

 

No. I genuinely think SGU had some really good episodes.

 

Air (Part 2)

I liked that episode more than episode 1. We spent the entire episode on the ship, and they officially gave it the name, Destiny. I really liked the scenes about the moral quandry about letting someone sacrifice themselves to give the expedition more time. The scene with Chloe watching her father die and then the emotional reactions after that were extremely effective. I especially liked the scene when Scott (I think, I'm still trying to put names to the crew) was talking to Chloe asking her to explain her father some more. Then we got to the end where they try dialing the gate and the ship drops out of the FTL. That's pretty cool, that the ship has a little bit of a mind of it's own and can plot a course to a planet with a Stargate to allow the crew to complete the mission. Of course that was all speculative and we'll find out more in the third part, but I'm liking this introduction so far.

This series does feel more in line with BSG than Voyager, but I never saw Atlantis like Voyager. I guess you had your episodic episodes and arc episodes, but Atlantis still had a communication to earth, and as we saw in the last episode, they even got enough power from the ZPM to fly to earth.

 

IMO, SGU is definitely more like BSG.

 

There was a scene early on which convinced me of that. It was Rush and the other guy competing for leadership. I still think Rush was lying when he said he had the ancient stones and was able to talk to General O'Neill. I hope that gets confirmed sometime moving forward, even though it's probably too simple of a plot point to bring up again.

I think SGU on Amazon Prime might be edited for time. I was reading the synopsis on this episode from the Gate Wiki page and there are scenes that were deleted. For one, the Wiki says that Eli asked Rush about the Lucian Alliance. I checked the episode and they were not brought up. Evidently I might be missing some chunks of information. Were these episodes edited together in a 2 hour movie?

 

Air (Part 3)

This was a very good start to this series. It does feel more drama/adult oriented than the others but maybe it's because it just is more serious. This episode highlighted Lt. Matthew Scott the most and I really liked the bookend of his story when he was talking with Chloe at the end about things you just can never get over. It also looks like those Ancient stones will be a big contributor to this series because that's the Destiny's only outlet to Earth.

I will say I feel like the cast might be a little too big. There is just so many characters right now and it is hard to know which one is which so if I mess up on names I apologize in advance. I know the main ones seem to be Eli, Rush, Colonel Young, Greer, Scott, and Chloe. TJ is probably the defacto Doctor on this series and I'm not entirely sure who Ming-Na (Speaking of Agents of Shield) is yet. Hopefully now that the three part premiere is done it might be easier to tell who is who.

 

I can't remember how it originally aired, but on DVD/Blu-Ray, all three parts of "Air" are available edited into one long movie (alongside each episode individually), with about seven minutes of additional footage. That could be where the extra scene is from.

 

I'm pretty sure "Air" Part 1 and Part 2 was originally aired as a two hour pilot, with Part 3 airing the week later.

I always felt it should have had all 3 parts in one sitting, but I can understand why it wasn't done this way. I'm not sure if ANY series ever did a THREE hour pilot. (The days of two hour pilots... I actually miss those.)

 

With streaming I'm surprised they haven't made a comeback. I guess not having commercials is a plus but you can at least do 90 minutes.

 

Darkness

@Samurai8472 posted a clip of the younger edgier teen gate parody up thread and after watching this episode, that's basically what SGU is so far. All these guys are pretty young, ranging from the late 20s to early 30s in age. I appreciated the talk into the Kino so we can know who is who. So far I really like Tamara Johanson, but she is a Doctor and I'm worried about her already. I'm glad Rush just had a nervous breakdown and isn't turning into an unlikable dick because that wouldn't have been good. It's also interesting that while they got the air, they lost the power. This is a very serialized show so far which is pretty good. Considering I've been watching Stargate for the last 2+ month, this show feels like a nice change of pace, even though it still carries the Stargate name. It wasn't my favorite episode so far (Still liked Air II the best), but I think it was necessary to really meet the crew and realize this will not be like SG-1 or Atlantis.

 

Spoiler

SGU even did the pregnant storyline similar to the "200" parody.

 

Pity SGU was cancelled when it was. It was just finding its feet in season 2. Had they cut back on the pretentious, self serious BS in season 1 and not tried so hard to be BSG 2.0 they mightn't have seen ratings collapse and long time Stargate fans desert it.

 

The cut of all three parts of Air edited together as one movie that was available on the DVD, shows Rush's stone trip to Earth and does confirm that yes, he did indeed talk to O'Neill. Though Rush's claim that O'Neill placed him in charge is more Rush taking a selective interpretation of the conversation. Basically, O'Neill tells Rush "you got them over there, it's up to you to get them home." Which Rush chooses to interpret as meaning he's in charge.

The scene with Eli and Rush discussing the Lucian Alliance was also part of the movie cut included on the DVD.