Stargate Universe, continued

People are actually reading my blog, this is a surprise to me. Mostly though these people are commenting on my Opinion of Stargate Universe, disagreeing with me and telling me it was quite good once you got into it.

You know what, thank you. It's always good to hear others opinions and see the discussion form another point of view. Honestly that's why I started this blog and that people are willing to hammer it out with me is fantastic.

So, I'm going to outline my problems with SGU and the things I liked about it and I invite anyone commenting to tackle me head on. Please, I want to like Science Fiction. I'm not some hate filled bitter fool that only rants about bad things because I hate everything.

Alright so first I'll go over the good points, as I see them:-

• Fresh outlook. After ten years of the original SG-1 it was time for a change. The actors knew it, the crew knew it and so did the studio. It was an impressive feat that the show made it that far. Lets be honest, the first couple of years was mediocre at best. By the end we had a well developed mythology, interesting and diverse characters and finally a sense of achievement and wonder at a new universe that was wide open to us. That's where Universe came in and it was a bold move. One I can respect and admire.
• The cast. The cast sold the situation to me. They could act and their attitude, even in the smallest part, carried the loneliness and homesick desperation that they had to be feeling. Some were a bit ropey at the start, but that was because they were still finding their legs and the writers were pining down their personality.
• The set. Destiny, as a ship, wasn't that original but it was an impressive set. It felt like an ancient derelict, held together with bailing wire and hope. The numerous malfunctions and lack of maintenance added an atmosphere of desperation that worked for the show. It wasn't the old star trek painted boards and gizmos with flashing lights. It felt real, almost as good as Serenity back on Firefly (I say almost because that was impossible to beat, it wasn't a set they built the whole damn ship!)
• The aliens. They really were alien, in motivation action and appearance. They even had their own language, one that we never understood. After the first year of SG-1 every world spoke english. Perfect english. Occasionally there was an obscure written language but the Ancient intergalactic race just happened to speak our language was a little too convenient. Much like the effort that went into the Wraith of Atlantis the creators spent a lot of time creating these creatures and did a very good job.

So that's what I liked about the show. It had a great overall atmosphere, had all the potential to be a really fantastic show. So why did I celebrate the fact it was cancelled? Well on to the bad and I'll show you.

• Copying from Battlestar Galactica. I despise the 2003 remake of BSG. I mean hate it, with every fibre of my being. It based it's whole appeal on the arc plot and overall story line and did everything wrong with it. This isn't the place to go into that, but I want to point out it was successful. Stargate Universe had already taken a lot of risks, alienating a good portion of its fan base by "Replacing" Atlantis hadn't helped (the truth is MGM canned Atlantis thanks to falling viewers and the success of the SG-1 TV movies meant taking the show in another direction, but the popular opinion was that Universe replaced Atlantis) These risks meant they had to guarantee enough viewers to make it profitable for the almost bankrupt MGM. So we got a derivative of Battlestar instead of a new Stargate. Unlikeable characters, soap opera like developments, stupidity for the sake of creating conflict, relationships that had no point in the overall plot, plot developments coming out of the blue and overly convenient resolutions producing plot holes the size of the grand canyon.
• Convenience. How do you effectively nuke any tension or sense of abandonment? "Hey what about those communication stones we brought with us?" Within two episodes they had to pull that out of their backside. Now Atlantis did it right, having the city cut off from Earth without a hope of contact. Lost and alone. Now yes doing that would have been too much like the first spin off, but that should have been a warning sign on just how short the legs for the concept were. The communication stones weren't the only culprit, the ship itself was the largest deux ex machina I've seen in years. "We're running out of water! Oh wait, the ships found some", "We need power! No, sorry the ships found that too.", "Food? Good thing we're suddenly heading to a jungle planet." Then there's the episode 'Time', where the only cure from alien parasites in the crew's blood is the venom from flying squid monsters that just happen to be on this planet. The only way to know this? A handy dandy Time travel accident, that magically happens. There's suspension of disbelief and then there's asking us to ignore common sense in favour of bullshit. By the end there's no tension in the show because you know the writers will pull ANY crap they can.

Still not finished.

• Predictable developments. In the very first episode we were introduced to a state senator (I think he was at least) and his hot daughter. When it was obvious that two of the lead Characters liked her we knew what was going to happen. A dead senator, a devastated young woman and a love triangle in which she'll make the wrong move. It was played by the numbers soap opera. When they abandoned Rush on an alien planet, next to a crashed ship no less, you just new he'd return. Almost everything that happened, without any tension to speak of, was played by the numbers. When it wasn't it the whole plot thread came out of nowhere. No development or structure. Just dropped out of no where. The trick is to find a balance between the two, to have us asking questions or defying expectations. Not leaving us 95% bored and 5% confused.

Alright, now I admit I'm being hard with these bad points, and the show did improve during the second year. It improved a lot, but it had already lost me as a viewer. I agree that after dawdling along in first gear it finally stepped up to second and occasionally third as the axe fell, but that didn't help. Not when you need to be a race car. This show had potential, and yes some good moments, but that doesn't make it good. Just watchable. It needed a lot more time than it had to get good.

The reason I was happy after hearing it had cancelled however comes mostly from the first bad point. I carried a lot of my dislike of BSG over to this show that, at times, felt like a carbon copy. I was very much afraid that we were seeing a new trend in Sci-Fi, fortunately, with the loss of SGU, this is looking less and less likely. From what I can tell in the second year it started to shake off the BSG connection and get back to it's roots, adding more humour and positive developments. All good things but too little, far to late.

Alright on to a point made in the comments of What happened to Stargate Universe:- The rumour that the BBC was behind nixing SGU for religious beliefs, where did you hear that? The BBC has been actively looking for gritty Science fiction and various dramas for years. Defying Gravity, the Survivors remake and Outcast to name three high profile ones off the top of my head. Those three were abject failures. On the other hand Merlin, Life on Mars and Doctor Who (and spin offs) have been massive successes. I'm fairly sure, if they had the money, the BBC would have snapped up the show. They didn't because BSkyB (if they are still called that) poached it and then realised they had a stinker. If any single broadcaster is responsible it's SyFy for being incompetent tossers and chopping its science fiction output in favour of professional wrestling and bad TV movies.

Finally, it's true that SGU was making money, as far as I can tell. It was quite profitable, and was getting better as time went on. But again SyFy wanted to change it's direction and MGM's books were so bad they're now selling off the film rights to James Bond! SyFy squeezed MGM until they had to pull out of production.

So that's SGU Autopsy. A show with potential. It was struggling, after a lot of trouble, to reach the right level only to get cut off at the knees.