Why Stargate Universe is destined to flop

[Admiral Buzzkill]

That was a remarkably superficial column, pretty much devoid of insight. It read like a high school student was assigned to write an essay of a certain length on a certain topic - you know, typing out a paragraph, counting the words up, launching into an "on the other hand" follow-up paragraph after realizing that they still have 500 words to go.

 

[Barbados Slim]

The only thing that has me worried is that it does seem like it's trying to capture the look and feel of BSG and the dark & brooding TV series is passe now that The Shield and BSG and The Wire are over. I wish the writers would've went the other way and said "Universe is going to be more lighthearted and fun than Atlantis" and challenge themselves that way. But the writers are already starting out the series behind the times. It's like they're bragging about how they'll have a new My Space page soon.

What's the signs that lighthearted entertainment is now on the way in?

Well there's the new Star Trek movie making an assload of money.

Yeah, Star Trek, Iron Man on TV Burn Notice, True Blood. The crowd pleasers have the heavy subject matter and character stakes but are also full of great humor and fun characters. Stargate should remember that it was doing this a decade ago. They need to modernize their story structure and character arcs, SG-1 and Atlantis were written like 90s television and they skipped the post 9/11 television writing (BSG, The Wire, Six Feet Under).

 

[cylkoth]

The author of the blog and some friends discuss the blog, with the co host challenging his friend's concerns...
http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=99329

 

[Hyperspace05]

I listened to it... A pretty decent conversation.

But I have to side mostly with the pessimistic viewpoint. I think the well has run dry for the current Stargate creative team. But I would love to be proven wrong.

 

[Jax]

I have to question MGM's lack of attempt to put new blood into the creative department for SG and this is coming from a fan of SG-1/SG-A. I just don't feel too excited abut SG-U and thats probably cause I know we will get shafted with a no end story like SG-1/SG-A.

4 years tops is still my projected best case and then SG needs a rest and maybe all that could be left is a reboot maybe we could try it on the bigscreen like ST.

 

[Peter the Younger]

I'd like to hope that they can break out of the old pattern, but it's tough, and not just because of writing. There is a certain inertia that takes over when you have a long-running production team, a look and feel and way of doing things that colors everything from the sets and locations, to the costumes, to the fight choreography. It's tough to overcome, the showrunners would need to make a strong effort to say "no, we did this before!" many times per day, at least at first.

Also, there are some changes that would be too expensive. Let's take the location of the production, for instance. I can't help but think that this far-flung ship is going to be encountering a lot of planets that look like the Pacific Northwest, yet again, and is going to be meeting a lot of primitive human cultures, yet again. How do you break out of this? Well, you can move the production to some other geographic location, or build lots of sets and CGI backdrops, or declare "on this show the crew will not be encountering any human-looking civilizations; it's aliens or nothing!" All of which would shake things up - and be prohibitively expensive.

 

[DWF]

I have to question MGM's lack of attempt to put new blood into the creative department for SG and this is coming from a fan of SG-1/SG-A. I just don't feel too excited abut SG-U and thats probably cause I know we will get shafted with a no end story like SG-1/SG-A.

4 years tops is still my projected best case and then SG needs a rest and maybe all that could be left is a reboot maybe we could try it on the bigscreen like ST.

Niether SG1 nor Atlantis were failures and Cooper and Wright have a good track record. Brad Wright is the co-creator of the entire television franchise I can't imagine MGM getting rid of him for no good reason.

 

[bigdaddy]

I just don't feel too excited abut SG-U and thats probably cause I know we will get shafted with a no end story like SG-1/SG-A.

You know that? Really? What will be the MegaBucks numbers for tomorrow?

 

[Harvey]

[Neither] SG1 nor Atlantis were failures and Cooper and Wright have a good track record. Brad Wright is the co-creator of the entire television franchise I can't imagine MGM getting rid of him for no good reason.

To play devil's advocate here, in the past three years, both Stargate Atlantis and Stargate SG-1 have seen their ratings steadily drop to the point that both were prematurely cancelled by the network. Yes, a 10 and a 5 year run are both quite respectable in the world of television, but the fact remains both series were cancelled expecting renewal for at least one further season. Critical attention has been non-existent. At Metacritic, there are no entries for the series or the DVD movies; at Rotten Tomatoes the number of reviews is paltry at best. The Stargate Atlantis: Extinction straight to DVD movie has been put on hold, possibly indefinitely. And MGM has made it clear that it will not be releasing Blu-Ray versions of season box sets due to weak sales, instead only releasing ‘Best of’ sets, which have themselves been cut down to single disc releases due to weak sales.

And this is a Franchise SyFy gobbled up over critical success Farscape, amongst other properties, six years ago.

The best thing Brad Wright and the franchise he's led have on the horizon is a series that's been repeatedly blasted by fans before they'd even seen a foot of film, and trailers have done little to alleviate those concerns.

I wouldn't wish the guy fired just yet--his writing is often the best work on the series--but if he isn't feeling the flames at this point the powers that be must be doing a pretty awful job managing things.

 

[SG-17]

There is a chance that Universe could become the Voyager of Srargate. I pray that it doesn't, but the series has been lacking the past few years. I think that SG-1 should have ended with Season 8 and Stargate Command take up with what is now Seasons 9 and 10.

 

[DWF]

[Neither] SG1 nor Atlantis were failures and Cooper and Wright have a good track record. Brad Wright is the co-creator of the entire television franchise I can't imagine MGM getting rid of him for no good reason.

To play devil's advocate here, in the past three years, both Stargate Atlantis and Stargate SG-1 have seen their ratings steadily drop to the point that both were prematurely cancelled by the network. Yes, a 10 and a 5 year run are both quite respectable in the world of television, but the fact remains both series were cancelled expecting renewal for at least one further season. Critical attention has been non-existent. At Metacritic, there are no entries for the series or the DVD movies; at Rotten Tomatoes the number of reviews is paltry at best. The Stargate Atlantis: Extinction straight to DVD movie has been put on hold, possibly indefinitely. And MGM has made it clear that it will not be releasing Blu-Ray versions of season box sets due to weak sales, instead only releasing ‘Best of’ sets, which have themselves been cut down to single disc releases due to weak sales.

And this is a Franchise SyFy gobbled up over critical success Farscape, amongst other properties, six years ago.

The best thing Brad Wright and the franchise he's led have on the horizon is a series that's been repeatedly blasted by fans before they'd even seen a foot of film, and trailers have done little to alleviate those concerns.

I wouldn't wish the guy fired just yet--his writing is often the best work on the series--but if he isn't feeling the flames at this point the powers that be must be doing a pretty awful job managing things.

Critical attention means nothing the Stargate franchise was never a critical hit. The truth is and it hit MGM alittle late was that SG1 was a world wide hit and they want to continue with it. And the 10 seasons of SG1 and 5 of Atlantis is nothing to sneeze. But the fans wanted somethng different and so did Brad Wright and Robert C Cooper and now's the chance for them to give us something different. I'm willing to wait and see what they're going to give us first before I make any judgements about it.

 

[bigdaddy]

There is a chance that Universe could become the Voyager of Srargate. I pray that it doesn't, but the series has been lacking the past few years. I think that SG-1 should have ended with Season 8 and Stargate Command take up with what is now Seasons 9 and 10.

I make fun of the writers all the time, and they deserve it, however that is exactly what they wanted to do! Sci-fi didn't want that, they wanted the longest running American sci-fi show.

I would have ended the show after 6 years, done some movies, launch Atlantis from the movies, and after that finished do "Stargate: TNG".

 

[Broccoli]

There is a chance that Universe could become the Voyager of Srargate. I pray that it doesn't, but the series has been lacking the past few years. I think that SG-1 should have ended with Season 8 and Stargate Command take up with what is now Seasons 9 and 10.

I make fun of the writers all the time, and they deserve it, however that is exactly what they wanted to do! Sci-fi didn't want that, they wanted the longest running American sci-fi show.

I have to agree with you on that being the reason SG-1 was canned (or kept getting renewed). I have no proof, obviously, just a suspicion stemming from the fact that they announced the cancellation the day after "200".

 

[Harvey]

It was certainly strange when the series was renewed after the final episodes of season eight served as a grand send-off and Richard Dean Anderson said he was finished with the series. His name was above the title! Were the ratings that good in season eight?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I have to question MGM's lack of attempt to put new blood into the creative department for SG and this is coming from a fan of SG-1/SG-A.

Isn't Stargate doing well for them financially? That would be the reason not to change much. If something is working (and overall, many TV shows are having a hard time lately), then to change anything, even an "improvement," runs the risk of destroying whatever it is that's working.

I have little respect for Stargate other than its ability to hire hot actors but if I were in charge, I'd think twice before killing the golden goose. There's a market for mediocrity, in many businesses including TV.

A better approach would be to roll the dice on an original sci fi franchise, which starts off with a much gutsier philosophy than Stargate has ever had. I was hoping Revolution might be that show, but I'm always hoping for something else. I don't mind Stargate as dull comfort food, what really rankles me is the lack of any other options.

 

[DWF]

It was certainly strange when the series was renewed after the final episodes of season eight served as a grand send-off and Richard Dean Anderson said he was finished with the series. His name was above the title! Were the ratings that good in season eight?

Yes the ratings for season eight were that high, I'd say they were the highest ratings SG1 ever had on Sci-Fi.

http://www.gateworld.net/sg1/s8/ratings.shtml

And here's season's six and seven's ratings.

http://www.gateworld.net/sg1/s6/ratings.shtml

http://www.gateworld.net/sg1/s7/ratings.shtml

 

[darkwing_duck1]

I'd like to hope that they can break out of the old pattern, but it's tough, and not just because of writing. There is a certain inertia that takes over when you have a long-running production team, a look and feel and way of doing things that colors everything from the sets and locations, to the costumes, to the fight choreography. It's tough to overcome, the showrunners would need to make a strong effort to say "no, we did this before!" many times per day, at least at first.

Also, there are some changes that would be too expensive. Let's take the location of the production, for instance. I can't help but think that this far-flung ship is going to be encountering a lot of planets that look like the Pacific Northwest, yet again, and is going to be meeting a lot of primitive human cultures, yet again. How do you break out of this? Well, you can move the production to some other geographic location, or build lots of sets and CGI backdrops, or declare "on this show the crew will not be encountering any human-looking civilizations; it's aliens or nothing!" All of which would shake things up - and be prohibitively expensive.

Yeah, which is why they'll never do it.

I read the premise and went "meh". The trailer I've seen hasn't changed my opinion.

 

[sidious618]

I just don't feel too excited abut SG-U and thats probably cause I know we will get shafted with a no end story like SG-1/SG-A.

You know that? Really? What will be the MegaBucks numbers for tomorrow?

I'd say it's a good probability. Both SG-1 and Atlantis had no endings and the writers don't seem to want to give them one so they're just pointlessly pushing the story forward with DVD films. Stories need endings.

 

[bigdaddy]

Umm.... SG-1 ended the G'ou'al'ldd (I'll spell it really bad as a joke.)storyline, and the DVD movie completed the bad Ori storyline. What exactly are you looking for? Would you like the earth to be blown up so therefore the story would end? That's the only way to have the story end.

One of my favorite finales is of The West Wing, it ended the storylines but opened up so much more to the story of a show you will never see. Nothing ever has an ending ending, unless all the characters are dead.

 

[Corran Horn]

Umm.... SG-1 ended the G'ou'al'ldd (I'll spell it really bad as a joke.)storyline, and the DVD movie completed the bad Ori storyline. What exactly are you looking for? Would you like the earth to be blown up so therefore the story would end? That's the only way to have the story end.

I agree. I prefer to think of them (SG-1) as still going out there, exploring, etc. I don't really want a true 'ending' where somebody dies, somebody retires, somebody goes off to teach, etc.