As I tweeted recently (as I'm sure you are all avid followers of my twitter account @RealJacobQuinn) I finished watching the entire series of Stargate: SGU a week or so back and since I am attempting to word out a writers block on a script what better time to launch into my review of the series.
Let's talk about about Stargate, since I'm sure there are at least a couple of you that clicked into this without really knowing what you were getting into. Stargate started as a less-than-spectacularly received feature film staring Kurt Russel and James Spader with Rolland Emmerich directing. The plot of the film is simple enough; technology unlike any the world had ever seen was unearthed at a dig site in Egypt in the early 1920's. Of course it's an American archeological team and of course the government takes it and hides it away. After decades they get far enough to realize that it's a device that can potentially open a wormhole to another planet, solar system, galaxy, universe...dimension? The possibilities are endless.
James Spader's character is a down-on-his-luck scientist who has a valuable understanding of ancient Egypt. He's approached to work on the project to help them read and translate the symbols on the gate. It takes Spader's character to get them there. In the end they open a wormhole, go through to a planet that is reminiscent of our Egypt. They fight an alien creature who had possessed a native of that planet and end up destroying his ship; thus freeing the locals. Spader stays behind to live with the woman he's come to love. He buries the stargate on his end and the American program is "shut down".
We then move on to Stargate SG1 where we learn that there are stargates all over the galaxy and each can be "dialed" using various combinations of the 36 symbols on the stargate. It takes 7 symbols to dial another planet, 8 to dial another galaxy and 9 to dial an unknown address hidden in the gate by The Ancients.
Enter, Stargate SGU.
Much like the original Stargate film, SGU involves a young, brilliant (unwittingly and uselessly) slacker named Eli Wallave, who discovers the 9th symbol needed to dial Destiny, The Ancients vessel of discovery. In an obvious attempt to be hip the show uses gaming as the seed through which the 9th symbol is discovered. The villain turned hero (sortofnotreallykindabutstillnotreally) is Dr. Rush played by Robert Carlyle; by far the most accomplished and well known actor of the cast.
The inaugural episode is filled with frontwards and backwards jump cuts in time setting up the events that transpired to get them to the ship. Once there they are forced to deal with two facts: the ship, being incredibly ancient is on the verge of falling apart at any moment and is unable to truly support the amount of people currently residing within her and the fact that they are billions upon billions of light years from Earth. Now you're probably wondering, "how can this show be any good when none of the original cast of SG1 is involved and they're just stuck on this old ship with no possible help from earth?" Nifty trick...they have these stones which allow people to transfer their consciousness into someone else's body, regardless of distance (or the fact that they're traveling at Faster than Light speed).
Besides some of the obvious plot holes and "quick fix" writer's tricks to try and get around some of the potential pit-falls that exist in so many sci-fi series, Stargate Universe (SGU) is a pretty solid show. Once they got past the constant, "we're all going to die at any moment because we have no food or the ship is flying into a star" type story lines they really opened up the potential for what this show could really be. They dip into the idea of "seed ships" which were sent ahead of Destiny by The Ancients to plant stargates on any viable world to work as a stopping points to replenish stores of food, water, etc. along the way as Destiny made it's hundred thousand year journey.
I feel compelled at this point to say that, I really did enjoy this show. It's fun and engaging and overall very entertaining. Can't ask for much more than that in series, but there are a lot of short-comings that invariably distract from the enjoyment of the show. Such as; a plot line of several episodes involving aliens who kidnap a member of the crew and alter her. They play that part of the story out, but they end up just jumping galaxies as the ship leaves one for the next, leaving those aliens behind. One alien race is traded for another, this one is mechanized drones programed by a long-extinct race to destroy any technology foreign to their own.
There are several very cool time-travel related episodes. One, for instance, involves the entire crew being cast thousands of years into the past when they think they've discovered a way to dial home using the power of a star to amp-up the gate, but a solar flare sends them astray. Their "other selves" found a colony on the planet and that small colony thrives into a society that spans generations. Leaving behind an amazing history behind, which many of the crew watches and sees their "other selves" living full lives filled with pain, suffering, love, friendship, family and amazing accomplishments.
It's through this and many other episodes that you, as the viewer, really begin to like and connect with the characters; not something common for me. As the series wound down the crew was faced with an impossible situation: the drones were bent on Destiny's destruction and had staked a foothold in every solar system with a star that was viable for Destiny to use to recharge it's batteries. So they decide to go into a hypersleep state and make the long jump to the next galaxy. But they're desperately low on power and if they're calculations are off by even a decimal they will run out of power in the void between galaxies and drift for a thousand years.
The final episode is a touching memorial of the main cast preparing to to into their sleep chambers and await the future they may never see (much like the show itself which was cancelled after just two short seasons and a total of 40 episodes). Tragically leaving so much unknown and unexplored, but that's what fanfic is for...right?
Like almost any show SGU could have been better in certain ways. I didn't appreciate they annoyingly predictable situations where the ship was either going to blow up or they were all going to die from lack of food or air or flying into a star (all plot lines from various episodes). Because they were boring and predictable. It was a nice change of pace to see characters actually die (since it almost never really happens) though I don't want to give them too much credit, it's none of the real main characters.
I would have liked to see what the team could have done with a third season. The ship, itself, is never really explored due to a lack of hull integrity and sheer size. They uncover random pieces of ancient technology that never really gets any screen time. It's things like that that disappointment me. Potential, wasted either due to a lack of vision or time.
Overall I would grade Stargate Universe - SGU a solid B+ for interesting plots, solid stories and overall concept. It would have been an A if it didn't have so many of the small negative points against it.
I hope you all enjoyed this review of the SGU television series.
Tb
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