My thoughts on SGU

[StarshipDefiant]

I've watched the first...six or seven episodes (I think it was seven), and there's several things that I like and dislike about it. I do like the plotlines simply being about survival, and I like the pacing of the show, several episodes being within days of each other (or hours) instead of the usual weeks to months or whatever., and the music seems pretty chilling at times. I am also rather fond of the fact they don't understand the technology so well, and that it's pretty much trial and error on what does and does not what, and what does what.

I'm not to overly fond (mind you, I am only six or seven episodes in, seven actually) of the Chloe/Scott pairing, for some reason that just doesn't sit right with me. Especially the triangle going on with Eli (who is just awesome, but I felt he was better, dunno why), even more so, I thought there was something going on between Scott and Vanessa James? Anyhoo, the hole thing there, and the whole "We have five unnoticed minutes, lets make out and then get pissy when we're caught and told to do our jobs!" bah.

I also don't like the shakey cam/documentary thing, I hate that to begin with, but yet another Sci-Fi/space show doing that? Come on... Maybe it's just me, becuase I know there's some people out there that eat that up (along with camera flares), but I just don't like it.

Overall though, I like it and will continue to watch it.

 

[The Wormhole]

I thought there was something going on between Scott and Vanessa James?

In case you haven't figured out by now, Lt. Scott can't keep his pants on and will bang anything female that just happens to be in the vicinity.

Anyway, to be honest, I'm somewhat disappointed with SGU, so far. The only episodes I really enjoyed were the pilot Air and the episode Life. Mind you, Air is only really entertaining until they show the evacuation from Icarus base. And although Life is pretty average, there's just something about it that makes that I can't put my finger on that makes it entertaining.

The other episodes are just bland and dull, and in the case of Time, terrible. Seriously, as a reset button episode, what did it contribute to the series? And they couldn't even be bothered to show us the reset, just end it with half the cast dead or dying, and then have everyone alive and fine the next week. The only thing we learned that has any significance is what mysterious mdeical condition Eli's mother has, but that could have easily been inserted in any episode.

But, yeah, for the most part SGU is bland and uninteresting. I compliment the fact that they were willing to try something different, but this doesn't really seem the right direction for a Stargate series. I'm not saying Stargate has to be an SG team running through Vancouver's pine forest firing P-90s with the leader making sarcastic quips, the brains figuring out a complex technical solution to the situation and the stoic alien warrior grunting or saying "indeed" while kicking bad guy's ass. But that was entertaining, and a formula which worked. The formula of Stargate was never the problem, just the fact that as time went on, they were running out of ideas.

 

[Danny99]

The biggest problem with SGU I find is that they tried to change the formula too drastically. It could be different from pine trees, sarcastic quips, and religiously based bad guys, but it went too far.

It also doesn't help that it's hard to visualize any of these people outside of Greer actually being in the military.

 

[Harvey]

I just can't stand how inconsistent the characters are, especially Rush. Colonel Young is a total idiot (his actions in the midseason finale are beyond senseless and would have serious consequences if we could believe for a second the writers would allow for such a thing). Mostly, I don't like how their very survival is being dramatized. There's a water shortage, yet the men are always shaved and the women are always beautiful. They only took what they had with them, yet there's an awful lot of rather large basestations for their ipods lying around.

It has a great look, a decent cast, serious aims, and a sizeable budget. But it's just not very good at all.

 

[Caliburn24]

Richard Dean Anderson, back years ago when he enjoyed being on Stargate said in an interview something along the lines that the Stargate itself was a great story telling device because it can take you anywhere and have you meet anyone.

To me that is the core of the Stargate franchise and why it works and yet that is largely ignored in SGU for ship and Earth based drama that are by a long way the weakest parts of the show. And also why I hate the premise of SGU with a passion, being able to stop only briefly at a planet and not revisit it later sets huge restrictions on the stories you can tell.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I also don't like the shakey cam/documentary thing, I hate that to begin with, but yet another Sci-Fi/space show doing that? Come on...

As far as I know, BSG and SGU are the only scifi shows in history to do this. It's not common. Caprica also came to mind, but it looks like they dialed it back for that show.

The other episodes are just bland and dull, and in the case of Time, terrible. Seriously, as a reset button episode, what did it contribute to the series? And they couldn't even be bothered to show us the reset, just end it with half the cast dead or dying, and then have everyone alive and fine the next week.

I thought that was a brilliant move. Actually showing everyone getting well at the end would have been boring and typical. Ending the story with a last ditch effort that we know will ultimately work had a certain dramatic effect that we wouldn't have gotten had they gone further.

 

[The Wormhole]

I just can't stand how inconsistent the characters are, especially Rush.

The problem I have with Rush is that we're obviously supposed to view him as a shady weasel that can't be trusted, yet whenever they try to show this it just looks like they're grasping at straws. Best example, the end of Light when Colonel Young puts forward the idea that Rush knew all along the ship wasn't in danger, based on the fact that Rush took his name out of the evacuation lottery. Yet, aside from this, which can be explained away as Rush's already shown depressing hopelessness, there is no indication he knew. Indeed, we see him in private when the ship powers up again, and he seemed genuinely surprised.

The character is definately rude, has any number of personality issues and obviously has weak morals (as evidenced by him framing Young for murder) but I don't see any strong evidence that he is not working in the best interests and trying to get everyone home.

I don't like how their very survival is being dramatized. There's a water shortage, yet the men are always shaved and the women are always beautiful. They only took what they had with them, yet there's an awful lot of rather large basestations for their ipods lying around.

Aside from razors, makeup and basestations for their ipods we see that in a hurried evacuation they took time to bring changes of clothes. Civilians seem to have field gear they wear when the go off-world, everyone has athletic clothes (t-shirts, shorts and sneakers) and Chloe has at leat two outfits. And they even have a body bag. I can just picture the conversation in the gateroom over that. "Do we take food and water or the body bag?" "The body bag. When people start dying we'll need something to put them in. Besides, it's lighter than the food and water."

 

[David cgc]

The way I rationalized it was that they realized that if and when they got a connection, they'd probably have to be ready to send another permanent group through, a la the Atlantis Expedition, so they already had a bunch of stuff ready near the gateroom, including odds and ends like body bags.

If they were just shoving through crates and bags without really caring what exactly was in them, it makes more sense that they'd end up with stuff like that.

 

[bullethead]

I just can't stand how inconsistent the characters are, especially Rush.

The problem I have with Rush is that we're obviously supposed to view him as a shady weasel that can't be trusted, yet whenever they try to show this it just looks like they're srasping at straws. Best example, the end of Light when Colonel Young puts forward the idea that Rush knew all along the ship wasn't in danger, based on the fact that Rush took his name out of the evacuation lottery. Yet, aside from this, which can be explained away as Rush's already shown depressing hopelessness, there is no indication he knew. Indeed, we see him in private when the ship powers up again, and he seemed genuinely surprised.

The character is definately rude, has any number of personality issues and obviously has weak morals (as evidenced by him framing Young for murder) but I don't see any strong evidence that he is not working in the best interests and trying to get everyone home.

The problem here is a cognitive dissonance. We know all these things about Rush, but no one else on the show see these moments. And so when Young starts getting paranoid about Rush, we see it as totally illogical, because we have the whole picture while all Young has is a bunch of sketchy encounters with Rush. It's just like in real life: you base your reactions to certain people on what you've observed of their behavior. Just because we know all these things about the characters doesn't mean the other characters know these things too.

 

[John200]

Tried to get into this show ,but just couldn't.

Just a wanna be BSG.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

While it's clear that it won't exactly become a classic of the genre, I like it enough to continue watching.

I appreciate that they try to go into a different (and darker) direction instead of producing just another show in the mold of SG-1 or Atlantis. Parallels to nuBSG are pretty obvious though. And I wish there would be a little bit more humour on the show. It's possible that a show is dark and funny at the same time... as it was proven by Firefly or nuWho/Torchwood.


Some thoughts about some of the characters:

- Rush: Earlier comparisons to Dr. Baltar don't hold much water IMO. Baltar was a selfish coward. I don't think that Rush is that much of a coward. And he's only selfish in the sense that finding more about the ship and alien technology is more important to him than anything else in a somewhat obsessive way. Baltar's top priority was saving his own neck.

- Young: The later episodes made it clear that the guy has serious anger management problems. If someone really pisses him off, he can become pretty vile. In "Life", he poses as Dr. Volker just so he can use the communication stones to get back to Earth and beat the crap out of Telford. He almost punches Sergeant Spencer in the same episode. And we all know what what happened to Rush in the mid-season finale.
Agree or not agree?: Had Armand Assante and Aidan Quinn ever a child together, it would look exactly look like Louis Ferreira? Just some similarities I noticed.

 

[DevilEyes]

^ Agree. I don't get the Baltar/Rush comparisons, they are very, very different. It really seems like some people are just trying to find similarities with BSG even when there are none (as if the look and idea of the show isn't enough - that was so obviously inspired by BSG) and "Oh look, here's another morally ambiguous scientist character... and he has a long hair!"

 

[Danny99]

Young's attitude makes me wonder how he ever became a Colonel. He couldn't have been a pencil pusher for all of his career. And even RDA as Jack O'Neill, being irreverent and sometimes downright rude, exuded more of a command presence than Young.

 

[The Wormhole]

The impression I get is that Young is supposed to be burnt out. Back in the day, he may have been the model military officer and climbed the ranks appropriately, but now he's just worn out and wants to leave it all behind.

 

[Yoda]

I have zero interest in burnt out Young, since RDA gave us burnt out actor O'Neil for so many years.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

The impression I get is that Young is supposed to be burnt out. Back in the day, he may have been the model military officer and climbed the ranks appropriately, but now he's just worn out and wants to leave it all behind.

Funny, I figured that Young must be some kind of control freak. Add to that the large amounts of stress he's suffering from as commander of the Destiny expedition. Every time he thinks that he loses control of a situation, he snaps and becomes aggressive. He was afraid that Telford might sabotage his attempts to save his own marriage. Spencer threatened morale and "unit cohesion" on the ship. And Rush was constantly undermining Young's command.

 

[bullethead]

The impression I get is that Young is supposed to be burnt out. Back in the day, he may have been the model military officer and climbed the ranks appropriately, but now he's just worn out and wants to leave it all behind.

Funny, I figured that Young must be some kind of control freak. Add to that the large amounts of stress he's suffering from as commander of the Destiny expedition. Every time he thinks that he loses control of a situation, he snaps and becomes aggressive. He was afraid that Telford might sabotage his attempts to save his own marriage. Spencer threatened morale and "unit cohesion" on the ship. And Rush was constantly undermining Young's command.

Nah, Young said in one of the early episodes he was going to retire to his wife I think. I figure that after ~20 years (or however long it takes to become a colonel), he finally got tired of all the political BS and incompetence that's spreading throughout the US armed forces and wanted out. He's been seeing basically everything he's spent most of his adult life on turn to shit while he couldn't do anything about it, so he just quietly fumed and when he got stuck on the Destiny, where the consequences of his actions become less relevant, that anger started coming out.

 

[The Wormhole]

I primarily based my burnt out comment on the fact that he was considering retirement, and the conversation him and O'Neill had in Earth, where O'Neill says "you were my first choice to lead the expedition, and when I offered it to you, you said 'I don't think it's in me anymore, sir.'"

 

[hyzmarca]

I like the show, it's what Stargate Atlantis should have been. But it really needs a giant alien robot voiced by Kelsey Grammer.

 

[Star Wolf]

Nah, Young said in one of the early episodes he was going to retire to his wife I think. I figure that after ~20 years (or however long it takes to become a colonel),

About 22 years give or take. As a base commander he probably has about 25 years active service