A few years ago, I wrote an article entitled ‘Why Stargate Universe Is Destined To Flop‘. I was right, it did. But not for the reasons I predicted.
Stargate Universe was actually a pretty decent show. I’d go so far to say a very good show. I didn’t think it would be. I predicted it being a slightly darker Atlantis, when it actual fact, it was much, much darker.
Therein lay part of the problem.
Stargate Universe was simply too dark for the Stargate franchise. SG-1 and Atlantis were quirky shows, full of humour and heroic characters who saved the day. Universe told the story of humans; flawed, emotional humans put in a situation where they were, genuinely, stranded on the other side of the universe. In some ways, it had a lot of what Star Trek: Voyager should have had. Harry Kim would have been an infinitely better character had he been more like Eli Wallace. But that just didn’t fit in the Stargate realm. Stargate was never so much an exploration of humanity as a good old, exciting adventure. Three years ago, I predicted Universe was destined to fail for similar reasons as Atlantis: inevitable cross-overs, miraculous escapes and dull characters.
Yes, Universe had cross-overs (handled much more sensitively and intelligently, I felt) and the odd miraculous escape, and some people did indeed find the characters dull (but more because they were too realistic and emotional than their compatriots on previous shows). Instead of being formulaic and predictable for the franchise, Universe simply went too far in the opposite direction.
One of the criticisms levelled at SGU was that not enough happened. “The pacing was tedious and the plot-lines too uneventful.” Similar criticisms were levelled at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and both shows share a certain propensity for thoughtful plot arcs that span many episodes, along with character development that is multi-faceted and can carry developments for several characters each week rather than “This is a Teyla episode” or “This is a Carter episode.” The truth is that, again, this was not the type of story-telling Stargate had ever promoted in the past. Deep Space Nine is surely the least well-known Star Trek today. Upon further inspection, it’s probably the best in many ways. Yet it took four years to really flourish. Universe never had that chance, in an evermore ruthless television world. Nor did it have the same core audience blessed upon Star Trek to keep the endeavour sustainable, even if it was less popular.
The show was said to be too depressing, and again, in comparison to its predecessors, it was! Could one pick a more opposed character to O’Neill and Sheppard than Colonel Young? Young was far more Kurt Russell’s Jack O’Neil than Richard Dean Anderson’s Jack O’Neill, and even then Young’s weaknesses were more explicitly exposed than Kurt Russell’s in the film. Young was a great character, as was Jack O’Neill. The problem was that within the same franchise, the two were so diametrically opposed that it was difficult to reconcile that difference for an established audience demographic. Fans of the first two shows enjoyed the humour and the pacing and the brilliant silliness that comes with SG-1 and Atlantis, whereas new viewers were put off by the Stargate which suggested silly sci-fi. The viewers that did enjoy the show were either those who happened to come across it, or those few SG-1 and Atlantis fans who held an appreciation for both types of show – such as myself.
Criticisms were inevitably drawn for the show being too akin to nu-Battlestar Galactica, but aside from the darker ambience of the show, political in-fighting and the ‘one ship against many’ factor, it doesn’t seem to hold much weight as a comparison. Universe was completely devoid of the religious undertones, the mythological sub-plots and the Perhaps it was simply too soon after Battlestar for a show that was, I suppose, a bit similar, to air.
I became a fan of Stargate Universe. I recently re-watched the finale, and smiled along with Eli as he stared into the racing cosmos. It had been fun, it had been worth the adventure, even if this was the end. Stargate Universe, had it launched outside the Stargate universe as it were, may have done better. It would have needed better advertising, and probably to be carried on a channel like Showtime, but it could have succeeded. Yet, without Stargate preceding it, it would probably never have been made in any form. The name ‘Stargate‘ ultimately proved to be both its inception and its demise, and while there was a certain inevitability that the show would not enjoy the sustained longevity of SG-1, I’m glad to came to be, albeit briefly.
I agree, Chris. Although “Atlantis” is my favorite SG series (and I’ve watched every episode of every series at least once), I thoroughly enjoyed “Universe.” I think the pacing was more of an issue than the dark tone, although having a character battle a terrible, real disease (ALS) may have been a step too far towards realism.
For me, the episode revealing the civilization founded by SGU crew (with the brilliant and hilarious birth-scene montage) is right up there with the most inspirational and enjoyable sci-fi episodes of any series, ever.
Hi Alexander,
I found the pacing a refreshing change from the episodic nature of previous Stargates and other shows, if I’m honest. But I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
I’ll definitely miss the show, because it did have moments of brilliance, like you say.
Chris
I think the key to keeping a season-long story arc interesting is keeping the goal firmly in mind. On SGU, there were aliens to avoid, there was a conspiracy on Earth to expose, there were sick and depressed crew members to deal with, there were very soap-opera-ish relationship dynamics (that dragged on endlessly), there was a search for God, there was a constant struggle for survival … All interesting elements, but all explored at such a meandering pace that, ultimately, most viewers concluded that the writers of SGU – like the crew of Destiny itself – didn’t know where they were going, and were making it up as they went along.
Very good point.
There was a certain discontinuity attached to the show’s direction, which was a shame, because they were very close to a winning formula but sadly just fell a little short.
Recently my partner and I re-watched the entire Stargate series (SG1, SGA and SGU). We absolutely loved watching SG1 and SGA again but were utterly appalled with SGU. I really hoped (after so long) I could finish watching this series but it was even worse than what I remembered.
I really wanted to like SGU. It had unlimited potential, with an eager sci-fi audience demanding more. I am a massive Stargate fan but after watching season 1 again the level of disappointment was just overwhelming, absolutely nothing happened! It’s so far from SG1 and SGA that it was unrecognisable and all the characters were just awful. I don’t think there was a single character in SGU that anyone
can relate too. I ended up thinking after season 1: “Who seriously cares about
these characters?” Some called SGU “dark” and “depressing” at the time but I
think it all came back to bad writing. The space-ship Destiny was boring, the plot was dull and unimaginative, the level of alien technology was nil and I absolutely hated those Ancient communication stones! I found communicating with Earth completely ridicules because it defeated the whole purpose of “being out there alone.” The concept was lost.
I remember when this show was first released, I so desperately wanted SGU to be a success; and I’d wager it was the same for so many Stargate fans. I watched SGU week after week hoping it would improve but it never did. I don’t know how Syfy were seriously expecting to attract more fans to SGU when they were alienating their more devout Stargate followers. The series had no protagonist, no enemies, no direction, and the characters were unlikable. I was like watching a random episode of Lost in Space. Like Chris McQuillan said, Stargate Universe was simply too dark for the Stargate franchise. SG1 and SGA were quirky shows, full of humour and heroic characters who saved the day. Stargate fans loved the humour and brilliant silliness that came with them, whereas SGU was much too depressing.
Characters: Mathew Scott, who was the equivalent of Jack O’Neill and John Sheppard, was a man whor*. In the first episode his having se* with Vanessa James and in the next his sleeping with Chloe Armstrong; and when we look into his past we find he fathered a child through wedlock. For a character raised by a Catholic priest, there was something immoral to be said here?
Everett Young, who was the equivalent of George Hammond and Elizabeth Weir, was a terrible character when measured against his predecessors; and there was even something to be said about his mental installability as well. Everett Young had an affair with Tamara Johansen prior to episode 1, resulting in her pregnancy, and he barely shows her any respect or affection during the series (she serviced as nothing more than a reminder of his betrayal). His only focus in the show was getting his wife back, which while honourable, who really cares? Furthermore, when his child dies on Destiny he shows little to no emotion… I mean seriously, how could anyone like a character like this? There was even one scene in season 1, when Everett Young was making love with his wife (using the Ancient communication stones) in David Telford’s body and signal was cutting in and out. What are viewers (possibly, young-teens) suppose to do with a scene like this? We would like to watch a show with family and friends without feeling creeped out… and the fun didn’t stop there: Ronald Greer has rage and anger issues, Eli Wallace’s mother was infected with HIV and his father abounded him as a child, Camile Wray was fighting against all odds to maintain her romantic relationship with her girlfriend Sharon Walker, other Stargate personal were on drugs, another commits suicide and there was constant political in-fighting on the ship. Are we watching a sci-fi series here or a soup opera? We learnt more about the characters in SGU in one season than we did about SG1 in ten! The writers were trying so hard to make us like these characters and al we did was hate them!
Plot: I found the writers focused too much on character drama, and didn’t move the plot forward fast enough. Furthermore, I thought the series was too simular to BSG, and not in a positive way. They spent 10 episodes gathering supplies like air and water, which got tiresome very quickly. I don’t remember SGA facing these same issues. SGA worked everything out in the first 2 episodes and were out exploring the Pegasus Galaxy the next.
The thing that bugs me the most is SGU had unlimited potential. They could have made the ship absolutely amazing, a much darker (or cooler) version of SGA, filling with amazing alien technology. Instead all we found was empty rooms; bedrooms, bathrooms and 2 shuttles, and even they were dull and boring. Why didn’t we encounter any human civilizations in universe? These planets could have just as easily been seeded with life by the Ancient space-ships traveling ahead of Destiny. Instead, all we visited were barren wastelands. Moreover, the show didn’t have any direction or a real villain.
The first real plot element that was introduced was the Blueberry aliens; and even they didn’t make much scene. Both the Goa’uld and the Wraith were straight forward villains. The Blueberries however: “We think they might be after Destiny, maybe… probably…We don’t know why they want it, they just do,” and let’s not forget that SGU didn’t even name these aliens. They look like the Protoss from Starcraft if you ask me. Now fast-forward 20 episodes to season 2, SGU encountered another group of strange (non-English speaking) aliens who are just as equally vague. “We are at war with drone-fighters that are controlled by a mother-ship (or something), can you please help us destroy it?” Perhaps the
writer could have provided with a little more information here?
I also thought the writers sabotaged to many of there own ideas. For example, I
thought the episode 13 “Faith” was an amazing episode. SGU discovers an uncharted alien planet capable of supporting human life. Nicholas Rush
however was hard-pressed to explain how it could be there. The Ancient ships
traveling ahead of Destiny found no star or no planet in this region of space before. Yet here it is. Nicholas Rush believes an advanced alien civilization created the star and the planet after the Ancients space-ships passed through, possibly for the purpose of helping them. In time a few members of the SGU decide to stay on the planet before Destiny moves on. Throughout the series the these members occasionally visit Destiny’s crew in dreams providing them with hope and comfort in hard times. There was even a hint that Tamara’s and Everett’s child was sent there after
his death; that he is now in the care of these God-like aliens. I was very disappointed to see this story was cut short in season 2. These aliens could have even tied into Destiny’s purpose; to chase a strange pattern in the cosmic background radiation, “the meaning of life stuff” as Daniel Jackson puts it.
Furthermore, at one time, the only thing that keep me interested in the show was Eli’s relationship with Ginn, and when they killed her off in the next episode I lost all interest in the show. It was like the writers were doing everything in their power to sabotage the series or completely crush souls of their characters; forgetting there needs to be some fun and excitement in there too :( it sucks this series was such a disappointment! I would have loved to see more Stargate.
I see your point and now that you made it, I can agree with you. But when the show was airing, My short attention span was not always kept focused. However, someone else on here mentioned that 10 years from now people will look back the the universe of stargates and SGU will be the most watchable. I think that will be true because SGU wasn’t created to satiate the viewer. Rather it asked for better viewers to satiate it. And that is the direction i see entertainment going.
Stargate universe was a complete departure from the other Stargate franchise. It was just wrong and I couldn’t sit down to watch it.
Initially the scenes were too dark/as-in-too-badly-lit/bad-lighting/poor-filiming-technique for my tastes. However, I’ve become accustomed to it. Still though not my favorite camera style. “Lights Camera Action” SGU skips the lights.
It is now 7 years in the future, and Stargate Universe still sucks.
Stargate: SG1 is still fantastic.
I seriously doubt anything will change in 3 years.
reason of fail, is more simple :
others better series with common problems.
No problems, from guys of nowhere.
Like stargate.
I’m not going to argue about this in detail, but there was a constant “Christians are great” feel from the moment go in SG:U. They even had an episode that said “yknow that theme we’ve had, the one where we’ve said that the universe is pretty much a sciency place and evil aliens manipulated our poor reasoning to control us? Good, well we want you to forget all that, there is a god, he saved a group of us who were freezing and, the best part-there’s proof there’s a god because this ancien-Ancient ship has evidence of a design to the universe”
Now I’m not saying its proof, but this stuff came out after the big todo with the Ori and the message the show had then.
Oh the creators blaiming the fans-kinda like what you’re doing here-didnt make them endeared to the story either.
This is super vague. I’m not saying I don’t I agree with you. I think I do…but it’s hard when your referencing, “sciency” “a group of us” “big todo” “message the show had then” “kind-like what you’re doing here”
So you start off pretty clear though the “Christians are great” took more than a glance to understand. Then you slowly get more and more and more vague and completely lose me in the final paragraph.
I think evil is a “Christiany” word (to use your vernacular) However, they have ALWAYS wrestled with the concept of God in Stargate. Usually the concept of God is fraught with posers. The Gou’ld are obvious posers. The ascended beings are essentially Gods for a minute, then slowly you see some mistakes….they allowed Anubis to half ascend to punish Oma Desala. That’s petty and crosses the line so we can see that they’re God-like but they don’t quite fulfill the role. Then wait a minute, they leave us to choose for ourselves which plays into the role of God. Following that line is the sudden contrast between them and the Ori (obvious posers). Now the ascended beings are back in God role. Then Merlin reminds us that they have a chinese-wall of inaction for our behalf and they are nothing more than pacifist poser Gods. It’s a constant perspective change that slowly lets the viewer realize they aren’t God; they are just operating on a different playing field than us. Makes us re-ask the question to ourselves, “Who(/what) is (a) God?”
SGU had the opportunity to do the same thing. To paint some power up as a benevolent all-powerful being, then slowly strip away the romance in a two steps, one step back, two more steps manner.
In retrospect if you started to believe that the show was pulling a overly Christian vibe, then you failed to see the greater arc.
I like what you had to say. The truth is however that i loved the show. I loved Atlantis and SG-1 too. They are all awesome. I watched Universe for the second time and just finished the finale as well. I cant tell you the deep feeling of depression that i have now that the show is done. I hate the fact that shows are based off of ratings. If you have something good you should stick with it. I would sell my soul to have them do like another 3 seasons.
A company named Kickstarter had the innovative idea that people could fund their own entertainment. Get enough fans and get something going. There’s another one called Subbable for youtube. I think things are SLOWLY changing from rating based funding to consumer choice based funding.
I’m on the same page with you about SGU. I loved it despite the flaws or maybe because of the flaws. I wish we could do a few more seasons. I would sign up for a monthly 60$. If get couple hundred thousand more like us and (minus however much your soul is worth) and we might could get it rolling again.
Does anyone know if there was a book written or anything to finish the series?
It had potential, but sadly i don’t think they realised that potential, certainly in time to save it, and while it had that potential, just wasn’t good enough in the two series it had to get renewed. Like someone else said, the drone enemy aspect could hsve been an interesting premise, who did they belong to, why they attacking the Destiny and other aliens, but instead of follwing up on something that could have been interesting, they just left them behind, which is kind od symbolic of the whole show, wasted potential, i think anyway.
I thought it failed because there was no discernable bad guy. No main boss like the gou’ld or wraith it was more infighting. We saw glimpses of bad guys but they weren’t on the same scale as previous.
I didn’t really think about that, but a very good point.
I agree with your assessment. I never really got into the Stargate universe, but I really liked Stargate Universe! :P
It had none of the stuff that didnt appeal to me in the other Stargate shows, and as I was watching it I feared it might suffer for it. Fans of the previous Stargates wouldnt necessarily care for it, and people who werent fans of the previous shows might not even give it a chance!
And it appears thats what happened. Really a shame. As I said, the only Stargate show that I actually really liked (not that the others are bad! They just arent my jam)
(Forgive my lack of apostrophes, my keyboard is acting up atm -__-)
Atlantis ages terribly. SG-1 holds up better, but I think Universe will be the most watchable in ten years time.
I disagree. Atlantis is far away the most balanced of the three and has seemed more timeless (since I’m replying from the future :). The annoying adoration of Samantha on SG1 and the irritating David Blue character on SGU make me more than biased.
I loved the series. I think that they could have kept the dark themes without actually making the film literally darker. Less is more. Light is important to filming technique. I prefer shows that are well lit. I’m just saying.
Comedic relief is also lacking. Don’t get me wrong I get a kick out of the jabs, muttered remarks, and character micromanners but the humor is too subtle……..not too subtle to be good……too subtle to be the whole of the humor the show can offer.
Overall, too much focus on the basics and not enough focus on the main themes. Basically too slow to really hook people. People want a plot they can sink their teeth into, a plot they can mentally spin multiple different ways. This show had the beginnings of too many of those kind of plots without any of them ever putting a foot on solid ground. Interesting plots were ignored, cast aside, or forgotten for new ones without ever becoming concrete enough to give the viewer something to spin.
I agree with the whole of the comment made by Alexander Fox in which he says, “the writers of SGU–like the crew of Destiny itself–didn’t know where they were going, and were making it up as they went along”
They started into explore lesbinism and femisim too much that alwasy leads to downfall!
The only person that is spot it why the show failed woke ideologies bs
Too dark, sappy music montages, too much blatant sex, too much christianity.
I just tried to rewatch the series on Amazon and I could’nt get through it a second time. It is just to dark and dreary. I never understood the desire to watch “political infighting” as entertainment. There is enough political BS going on in RL why would I want to watch more of it in a show? They where doomed to failure once they forgot what Stargate fans loved.
To me, it failed because the tone just didn’t fit with the rest of the Statgate ethos, as the article says, because i thought all the characters were pretty dull with the slight exception of Eli, and ultimately there was nothing really exciting to get your teeth into. As one other commenter astutely pointed out, there was no bad guys as such either, no real tangible danger beyong getting hungry and getting back to fhe ship before it jumped out, which got old pretty fast when its that same clock watching danger every time.. its about as exciting as keeping an eye on when your parking ticket is due to expire..lol
Couldn’t disagree more! SGU was a show made for adults but unfortunately mainly only kids or Big Bang Theory type adults tried and failed to watch it. Of course these viewers liked Ely, he was the kid with the child humour which they missed so much from the other SG’s. Same ones that just loved tuning in to see the good ‘ole wraith or Ori in every episode… saves having to think. Nevermind that THAT is the thinnest type of plot possible.
From what I read here I think that SGU was too complex for the type of mind that needs explosions and lasers to enjoy a series.
There is a lot of outright inaccuracies and pretentiousness in your comment. You imply imply that SG1 and SGA was made for kids, but the fact is, there was a very broad range of viewers of those those shows that if anything was probably more mature viewers than young. I find your insinuation that viewers of those series are somehow immature, easily pleased to downright unintelligent and lowbrow because ‘they like explosions and the same ol enemy’s’ inaccurate and full of unjustifiable unjustifiable condescension, and i find your insinuation that adults don’t like some action and other interesting things happening, and only kids do, to be ridiculous.
Firstly, the Ori only appeared in the last two series of a total of ten series, so i find it strange that you say every episode was about them, and even in that series, many of those episodes did not feature the Ori, in fact they featured in 18 of the 40 episodes of series 9 and 10 lol you didn’t even mention the gua’uld, Replicators, super soldiers, evil ancients and other back ground adversaries such as the re’tu and Geni, so your claims are more than slightly exaggerated, as were your claims that the Wraith are in every episode of Atlantis, ignoring the fact that they are the primary bad guys in the series just as the Gua’uld were in SG1, and in SG1 they were not in many episodes and there were various other regular enemy’s and various one off episodes featuring none of the regular enemies.
you talk about SGU like it was something great and high brow, just because not a lot happens in it, but that by default doesn’t make it adult and certainly doesn’t make it great by default. At least the enemies in SG1 and SGA were genuinely interesting and the story lines varied, unlike the ones in SGU which were bland to borderline forgettable, much like its characters, and if you think episodes about running out of air on one show and water the next is something that ‘makes you think’ i’d say you have set the bar pretty low for what makes a show interesting and intellectual lol
If SGU was truely as great as you claim, the right people would have cottoned on to it and watched it, just like other truly intelligent series have, ‘if you build it they will come’ but SGU didn’t, and unlike those series, appealed to hardly anyone and there was very good reasons for that. Those reasons were the dull, bland, uninteresting, cut and paste one dimensional characters and going nowhere and dull as dishwater so-called story lines. Funnily enough the series is like you in some ways, in that it takes itself way too seriously all the time and seems to have delusions of grandeur when it really isn’t as great as it likes to think it is lol. As i say, the two series it managed to get out before being axed featured poor and extremely dull plots about nothing particularly interesting featuring forgettable characters, story lines and enemies. None of the characters were particularly likeable either, which means there was no-one to root for or get behind or empathise with, and that is a huge mistake to make with a Tv show, and it’s these reasons is exactly why it failed and failed so quickly, and by that i mean it was struggling and in trouble almost straight away, but if there was something else great about it to make up for all these shortcomings to say about it, then it would have had it’s fans for what it was, that appreciated it for what it was, and it would have lasted, but where were those people, those people simply did not exist in large numbers, they were a small minority not enough to warrant justification to keep making more, and that lack of viewers from anywhere, pretty much says it all in itself.
The show makers didn’t even seem to know what to do with the show and the premise, and the Destiny itself was an unfortunately ironic metaphor for the show, in that it was without direction and they didn’t seem to know where it was going or what do do with it..lol and if you think liking such a show makes you sum how superior and highbrow, then i will have to whole heartedly agree to disagree with you on that one.
The problems with SGU were evident most in season 2. Things actually started happening; the drone enemy stuff was the only part of the series that wasn’t overwrought and tedious. Not for the action, but for the questions of who built these things and why were the other aliens fighting them? Or the idea of an enemy that could take on the Ancients (well, their ship, piloted by their human cousins/descendants) and all their tech. Then their series finale solution was to skip to the next galaxy and who cares about any of the background stuff. Nothing ever got answered, it was 2 seasons of aimless meandering. Maybe it could have become the next DS9, which also had two early seasons of tedious meandering, but it had even further to climb to get there, and no character to get behind because for a supposedly “adult” show almost every single character reminded me of the banal, immature drama of a high school. They’re on a ship sent out to find a signal of meaning from the literal beginning of the universe, and yet nobody can keep their junk in their pants for five minutes? Snore. There are plenty of shows that do complex personal drama and issues, and manage to do it without those characters randomly hooking up every other episode (Saul and Carrie on Homeland, Garak or Quark and almost anyone on DS9, even the main cast of Burn Notice!)
SG1 and SGA might have churned out some clunker episides, sure, and neither had a particularly great finale episode, but they have lots of episides I will still watch to this day. SGU, I find a five minute clip and rewatch and think, jeez, even the action scenes were often dull as dirt. I think SGU could have been good but it was empty, soulless, and too far up its own butt with “realism” (which wasn’t, unless you think every last human is a self involved narcissistic a-hole) to get anywhere close to good.
Well said, and your right about the series being so dull that i don’t think that there is a single memorable episode of SGU.
Spot on. Couldn’t agree more. Some people appear to be seeing something that wasn’t there to make themselves seem above everyone else in the intellect stakes.
You must hang about with some pretty boring adults. The rest of your comment is really pretentious.
The problem of SGU is staring everyone in the face: it was too plodding, not enough plot.
Young and Rush were really good characters. It doesn’t matter that Young was unlike O’Neill, or that the show was darker than SG1.
I actually applaud the fact that the producers tried something different. Unfortunately, it did not work. The jittery camerawork was annoying, and there was too much emotionalism. Too many acoustic guitar songs. Let’s have one acoustic guitar song to convey the fact they’re all humans trying to get by all alone; and then move on to the science fiction elements which is, after all, what a science fiction series is supposed to be about.
I loved the original SG series – but I’ve over seen them for now. I didn’t want to watch any sequels though. I was happy to watch reruns of SG. I caught the odd random episode of SGA and SGU over the years but had never watched each of those series from their starts. Belatedly I watched all of SGA on Pick TV and loved it. A fair while after that I watched all of SGU on Pick from the start and loved that seemingly as much if not more. They are all brilliant series. But I really feel that there is so much more of SGU still to come. And I feel sad, angry and cheated that SGU has only had 2 series because it is brilliant and so very thought provoking. People need to be exposed to both SGA and SGU to see how good they actually are.
I think the final failure was an example of the ol’ “don’t kill the Golden Goose;” when you cut open the goose to get the gold, you kill the goose and you get nothing. The Goose was the franchise, and the cutting included literal fracas with fans by the production team, canceling Atlantis in such a manner that it reinforced the idea that Universe killed the older series, and possibly going in a darker direction without the bridge of the other series to help along those who were more used to the more traditional SG tone.
Hm…being flawed is one thing (all of us are in one way or another, hell even the SG-1 cast was flawed! Sam has some daddy issues and something to prove, Daniel also has issues with his parents (they after all died when he wasn’t all that old) not to mention with his wife being abducted and Jack has all that baggage with his son etc.), but not letting it rule your life is another!
None of the SGU-Crew were able to! Colonel Young was the worst offender, he has a temper he’s unable to control, he has virtually no leadership ability or charisma and he is unable to control his urges to sleep around (something I always admired Jack and Sam for! They liked each other but accepted that the SGC was more important than that! Hell, they could have probably gotten away with it if they were discrete and made sure that they firstly used birthcontrol and were prepared to have any child (if BC were to fail!) aborted…fact is however: They didn’t try, they kept their urges in check – unlike a certain Colonel!), basically: That man isn’t just flawed, he’s so flawed that he should not have been anywhere near the SGC!
Not that his subordinates are any better! His sergeant has an even worse temper, he’s trigger happe and has a short fuse and his second in command is a non-personality (he’s boring!)!
The civilians weren’t any better however! Power plays when their lives are in danger? Damned, those people are all despicable! I don’t expect everybody to be as great as SG-1 (especially not the civilians who weren’t part of the SGC like the Senator’s daughter!), but they reached new levels of BAD constantly….it was torture to watch season 1!
Yes, season 2 was better, but they pulled the plug when there was light at the end of a very long and very dark tunnel! I don’t know if that’s good (nobody ever told us what the plans for season 3 were after all!) or bad…
But I know what pissed me off the most: They AXED Stargate Atlantis FOR THIS CRAP and not only that:
The poor performance of this killed all the Stargate Movies they had planned and thus the story with the Wraith was never wrapped up etc.
People say SGU is edgy. So having a lot of sex, always being depressed, bad lighting, and whining is considered an adult show? I bailed after the third episode because of all that. Also Ely joined the team because of a PC game? How does that make it a mature show?
I don’t mind sex in shows but when I saw the first sex scene I realized the writers idea of an adult show was just showing a bunch of stuff you wouldn’t show to a ten year old. For some reason people think they are an adult because of shows like that.
SG-1 and SGA succeeded because they had good narration and story pacing. They intricately developed the story. Unfortunately Syfy pulled the plug too soon otherwise the Ori and Wreith storylines might have ended properly.
I’m okay with a dark TV series. SGA had an episode where Dr. McKay was infected with a parasite. The show was dark and was good Stargate. Going further than that just made the show dreary.
just watched the entire series again, and I couldn’t stand to watch this show again, it was so horrible, just a bad battlestar knock off with pointless drama, way too many stone episodes, stupid sound effects and camera filters. I kept tuning out
It was a more ‘realistic’ sci-fi adventure than the 2 previous series – which had plenty of their own sci-fi, but were more campy, relying on humor, and battling the ‘bad guys’ in episodic, and overarching story lines. SGU had a dark, gritty, much more ‘serious tone’ if you will, with the crew stranded in whatever-the-hell galaxies they traveled through …… which is why I liked SGU so much, and probably also why I find it hard to sit through any episodes of SG1 or Atlantis, even though I have tried to enjoy them.
I agree that it had a somewhat Battlestar Galactica (new series) feel to it and I believe that’s what drew me in …. I love BSG. The premise of these shows was very different, but the gritty, dark reality (both literally, with very little light shown on camera, and metaphorically of course) of being space explorers/scientists/cowboys/ordinary people, stranded in the cosmos, draws some parallels to BSG. It also had a little bit of a Star Trek Voyager feel as well – for what are pretty obvious reasons I’d imagine.
In the end, SGU was definitely not like the previous 2 shows and I can understand why fans of those shows had a hard time getting into SGU – it’s nothing like it’s predecessors save for the name and the fact that they used Stargate’s to move around some of the time. It failed to carry over much audience from its successful two previous shows and did not find enough of an audience of its own in enough time to save itself, which is unfortunate for those of us who loved the show, and hoped for a solid 5+ season run.
What I looked forward to on SGU was the continued advancements of control over Destiny by the crew, section by section, of the enormous, mostly still unexplored ship. By season 2 they’d managed to gain control of much of the ships expected capabilities via finding its bridge (how was this not found within the first part of season 1?!), which I thought pushed the series forward nicely. I wanted to see them experiment with the ship, come across new (or existing) races to fight or befriend, explore awesome new worlds, and eventually find a way to send the ship, or at least it’s crew, back to earth in the series finale some day.
It failed because it was boring as Hell. Characters no-one cared about, risible dialogue, stories that didn’t actually achieve anything or go anywhere and a pacing so nauseatingly slow – even the actors looked bored. And all this talk about “dark themes” is laughable. What dark themes? Oh, people must be talking about the lighting. From an idea that must have seemed really good over a pint to a production about as successful as Harsh Realm.
Just finished episode 8. I’m done. Endless scenes of everyone arguing, Senator’s daughter constantly whining, and that smart-mouth math whiz-kid that looks like a thirty-year-old.
It’s just garbage.
I made it to episode 7 of season 1 on a streaming service. I tried to like it. I just can’t stomach anymore. It feels like I’m watching episodes of Lost or Yellowstone. A modern soap opera. I loved SG1, Stargate Atlantis, and all of the movies. This though; I’ve found myself fast forwarding through the “touching” scenes of intimacy between characters, and the trading roles using the stones just irritates the hell out of me. They never seemed to get on with the story. Plenty of potential plot lines from the central premise but, instead, the writing was consistently terrible.