Quick Review: Stargate Universe

Syfy has seen fit to continue the expansion of the Stargate franchise with a new show called Stargate Universe. The story revolves around a scientist, Dr. Rush played brilliantly by Robert Carlyle, who is trying to dial the ninth chevron on a newly discovered Stargate. I can’t say that the show was great, but I can’t say that it was bad either. It was good enough to give me hope that the show is going to get better. There is a lot of potential. It isn’t as dark as Battlestar Galactica, but it does have that same gritty feel. It isn’t as clean and happy as SG-1 or Atlantis. It isn’t even as much like Voyager as I though it would be, though some of it felt familiar. Oh, and why do black men in Syfy have to be so angry and angst ridden? Read the rest of my review after the break.

For those of you late to the game, a Stargate is a device created by an ancient race known as the Ancients. These Stargates were distributed around the universe as a means to travel from one place to another using a wormhole. In Stargate the Movie, Daniel Jackson in a matter of minutes figured out what the military had been working on for years. Seven chevrons, based on constellations, need to be dialed to operate the Stargate, You need 6 reference points and a point of origin. In that case it was Earth. Confused? It gets better.

In Stargate Atlantis, they discovered that dialing an 8th chevron can dial a gate in another galaxy, there it was the Pegasus Galaxy. That took a ZPM to create a tremendous amount of energy. Which brings us to SGU. Dr. Rush is trying to dial the 9th chevron on a gate they found which is powered by the core of a planet. When i heard this a couple of things came to mind. If the gate requires the energy of a planet, doesn’t that mean its going to send you very far away? Its obvious to me that the gate was experimental, why isn’t it obvious to the characters in the show? Why is the one black character on the show an angry black man? It would have been much batter to switch his character with that of Scott. Let him be Young’s second in command. That would make up for the travesty that was done with the craziness they did to Rainbow Franks’ character on Stargate Atlantis.

I know I wasn’t the only one who thought the ship looked like a Wraith ship. Also, I need for Eli to do more than just be a guy who solved a puzzle in a computer game. He needs to do a “Carter” pretty soon. I do like the fact that they will have only 12 hrs when the ship stops and dials a gate before it continues on. Even though that reminded me of the Battlestar Galactica premiere episode “33”. But it wasn’t half as good as that.

All that being said, it was a half-way decent episode of SGU, especially since it was a pilot. There is a lot of potential to the show, and I’m pretty sure that the writers will hit their stride fairly quickly.

I’ll reserve my rating till i see a few more episodes. At least we don’t have to worry about Syfy cancelling it too soon.

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