Every week I subject myself to the mental and psychological torture that is Stargate Universe. How is it torture you might ask? Well, for one, I’m still waiting on the writers to do something original. I know that from the beginning that there were going to be comparisons to other shows, but our hope was that they would give us at least a fresh take. I’m still waiting. The show is now a mash up of Star Trek 5 The Final Frontier, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: DS9, and various other space faring television shows. Sci-fi fans are used to shows and movies borrowing, sometimes heavily, from other shows and movies. However, SGU seems to have taken this to a whole new level. Every week’s show echoes some other plot from another show or movie. My issue as far as this goes is that the writers don’t seem to take the care to at least change it up a little or add their own take on an story idea. But this isn’t a rant article. I’m going to explain why I’m still watching it despite all it’s problems.
1. I am a huge Stargate Fan. I’ve watched every episode of every series including the movies since SG1 started on Showtime before it was picked up by the then Si-Fi Channel. I love the mythology of the franchise and how they worked in Earth’s mythology. Since I have all that time invested in the franchise, I can’t find any reason to stop now no matter how redundant or bad it gets.
2. There aren’t any new shows taking place in space currently airing on television. I really like sci-fi and I’m not going to avoid the show, since it is a story about a group of people on a ship in space going somewhere. They give us aliens, space battles, and exotic planets, everything you expect from a show like this one.
3. The characters are interesting in one way or another. Col. Young is the guy you hate to hate. He seems to have every good intention, but just seems to bungle along the way. He has the air of a person who knows he doesn’t know what he’s doing and is relying on the chain of command and military might to maintain so semblance of order. Dr. Rush is the guy you hate to love. He is the only one who has common sense, but is sometimes blinded or misguided, by his own agenda. Eli….I can do without. One recent episode has Dr. Rush trying to get Eli to get it together and live up to his potential, but Eli still looks and acts like he should be somewhere playing first person shooters. How else would you explain his infatuation with the kinos? A way for him to participate in the action, without actually being there. Master Sergeant Greer is the best character. To me he is the one character who has true reactions to every situation. And it’s always good to have a character that states the obvious whether it’s good or bad.
4. The set design and effects are pretty. There is a lot of production quality put
into this show. Having the majority of show filmed on one set is probably why the production quality on the effects is so high. I really enjoy watching the show every week. There are all the little details in the set that are quite appealing. The effects are definitely first rate for a weekly sci-fi show.
I am not under any illusion that this show may not be cancelled. There is a possibility. I would hope not cause that would be the end of space shows on television. I do hope that the story line moves forward, right now the writers seem to be content to be stuck in regurgitating old story ideas. Let’s move the show forward and make some progress.
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Posted under Articles, Television
This post was written by Bedlam on December 8, 2010
