wraithfodder | Stargate Universe (comments on spoiler review from Futon Critic)

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stargate universe

Stargate Universe (comments on spoiler review from Futon Critic)

Hmm.... I dare say I do believe my LJ will always be focused on Stargate Atlantis, since the characters just caught my imagination and heart. THe writing wasn't always the best, but Flanigan and Hewlett and the rest made me tune in no matter what.

Anyway, Futon Critic just did a review of Stargate Universe, and it voiced a lot of my...c oncerns? fears? For spoilerphobes, don't click on the cut, otherwise proceed...

Futon Critic review: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/rant.aspx?id=20090910_sgu

You can read the review at the link above for plot details, but here's the stuff I"m going to discuss:

What doesn't: ...the show inevitably decides to sidestep following through on them in the name of having an easy out. In other words, nobody dies because of the decisions of others - the deus ex machina of the plot actually frees them from doing so. Both cases expose the inherent flaw of the show: it's more than willing to walk up to the precipice of truly shaking things up, it's just not willing to make the leap. Said aspect bleeds into other aspects of the show as well. The Destiny crew for instance isn't actually on their own: several just-so-happened-to-make-the-trip alien devices will allow them to trade consciousness with folks back on Earth, meaning everybody they've ever known is still a phone call away.

More troubling however is that the characters don't really seem to solve their problems, they just luck their way into solutions - week two in particular ends in a "whaaa???" fashion that's more than frustrating (for reasons which I won't spoil here). All of the above certainly blunts the overall excitement of the show - for all the refreshing aspects it's just unfortunate to see the franchise fall back on old habits so quickly. That's not to say there's not a lot to like, or look forward to, in this incarnation, it's just it could have been a home run...

.Okay, for lack of a better word, this is what i've bitched about. They're falling back on stuff they already used on both Stargate shows, and worse, they're doing to SGU what they did to Atlantis: that damned 'we're lost in space but look, we can dial home and chat with family/friends.'

I think what I find dismaying about the review is that this is not a fan reviewing the show, but a critic (and I've already heard from another critic who has yet to post their review that the show isn't up to snuff.

If SGA hadn't bitten the dust 24 hours before SGu was announced, it probably wouldn't be so bad. I would have preferred just one more year of SGA, let them explore the city, etc. than the quick end and pollyana finale they tacked on. Yeah, it's beating a dead horse, but it's my horse and I can beat it ;) Feel free to add comments below but please don't stick in any really bad language - I'll delete. I know lots of fans are still ticked off, to be polite, at the cancellation.

However, all said, I'll watch the pilot, because I want to see just what the heck is going on, then I'll write my review ;)

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SGA had the potential to be a great show if they kept Atlantis cut off from earth and didn't rehash old SG1 stories.

I see them doing the same thing with SGU as they did with SGA, just showing that these idiots never learn from their mistakes.

If they'd never gotten contact back with Earth, or had it sooo minimal (very rare) the show could have been so much better. However, SGu, heck, from what I'm reading it seems they have a party line back to Earth.

Yeah, SGA seems to be aimed at a younger audience, so maybe they're banking on "kids" not being as smart. What they fail to see is that scifi nerds are generally smarter than your average viewer.

Well, in a few weeks we'll see what happens...

SGU would have had to be the "home run" to justify the cancellation of Atlantis. If they are not going to be innovative there was no point to all the upset they caused their fans. A lateral move just wasn't worth it. In the past, they way they handled SG1 gave me the confidence to start watching Atlantis b/c they demonstrated that they were not going to leave fans hanging, if it was within their power. But the way they handled the end of Atlantis has left me with no such confidence. I'm reluctant to start a new series if it may be abandoned before it's natural end just b/c they have tired of it.

Yeah, that's something I've seen other fans mention.

Sounds to me like what I've always thought of the show -- they wanted to keep the name recognition of over a decade of Stargate, yet do a new "style" (aka "We kinda look like BSG). Unfortunately, using a lot of the same plot devices and deux ex machina pretty much negates any difference in style.

Just as "we're all alone!!!11!!!" is negated by being able to phone home. If you're going to the cliff, you have to be fully prepared to jump off to be really edgy and different, because a lot of shows have been to that very same cliff. Turning around and ignoring the cliff altogether is what TPTB have years of experience with doing.

The previous shows had the same problem with follow through as well, and I didn't really expect that to change with the same people in charge.

ETA: Just read the full review. Eli's recruitment scenario and the use of handheld camera are enough to send me in the opposite direction. The former is silly, the latter is nauseating. Good thing I wasn't going to reward TPTB for past bad behavior anyway. *g*

Edited 2009-09-10 14:01 (UTC)

Eli's recruitment scene smacks of "The Last Starfighter." I mean, some of us who saw it aren't dead yet ;)

TPTB: It's an homage, dammit!

I'm sure they keep saying that ;)

They keep saying that word. I don't think it means what they think it means. *g*

I fully agree with you. My concerns were also, that they only throw away SGA, because they would catch some of the sucess BSG had in the last of its seasons.
And that the new show will only be a clone of the other two shows imitating BSG. Because they are still the same writers and producers, and they cannot jump over their own shadows.

It will not bring back SGA but I still hope that they will fall on their nose with their "oh-so-awsome-inovative" SGU.

And I still think too, that it was a big tactical error from Wright and Co. to announce SGU only 24 hours after the cancellation of SGA. I would have accepted the show more if SGA would have had the same chance as SGA.

But so ... sigh. I will watch some episodes too, but I do not think that it will win me like SGA did only with the pilot.

SyFy, or MGM, or Bridge, or whoever, seems to show a consistent lack of intelligence when it comes to dealing with fans...

I didn't believe tptb when they said SGU was going to be dark and edgy and this seems to confirm it. Take a running jump off the cliff, not find the edge and take a couple large steps back from it. If they'd truly gone dark - completely cut off from Earth, people dying because of others' mistakes (which would haunt characters for at least several episodes), and trying to deal with technology that they truly can't completely understand, I at least would have them some respect and tried to watch.

I was right about the lightbulbs though. Sure is dark, visually. ;)

Funny how they were willing to jump off the cliff and kill off well-loved characters like Carson and Elizabeth, but they're too chicken to kill off those we don't even know in the SGU pilot. But then, they haven't had time enough to get pissed off at the actors yet and to pay them back by offing their characters.

Having read the full text of the review, can I just say, "Marty Sue" Eli? Good lord, could he be any MORE of a Mary Sue? I think the fans will go for that just about as well as they did "I-can-fix-anything" Wesley Crusher.

I sure hope Eli isn't a Welsey Crusher type...

HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't want to be the one to say it but I will
TOLD YOU SO!!!
Just because you slap STARGATE on a project, does not
mean it will sell.
Na na na na..........
You made my day............and believe me today
it is going to take a lot to do that.
Thank you...........

I can't even bring myself to turn on Syfy. I used to watch Ghost Hunters from time-to-time but no more. And I'll wait for Eureka to come out on DVD.

I haven't watch Skiffy since about mid-season three of Atlantis. There's just not all that much there, and what little there is I'm perfectly fine watching DVDs that don't have those awful pop-up ads.

If they had been smart they would have continued SGA for a year while running this new show at the same time. They might not have angered the fanbase for one, meaning that more people would be willing to give it a try, but because they didn't and they effectively pushed SGA out of the way to make this that hasn't happned.

I would rather have had one more year of Atlantis and like you say, they blow up Atlantis and kill (Dare i say it) Sheppard off and at least leave us with a season that maybe tied together loose ends, built on our characters and give them the farewell they deserved - rather than the lame "We're home!" looking out at San Francisco - which totally wasn't how i wanted it to end.

Typing this out seriously makes me angry and i don't feel bad in saying i hope SGU pans so badly they think cancelling SGA wasn't such a good idea. They bought SG1 back for another long run, don't see why they couldn't so the same with SGA. They'd at least have a fanbase to rely on.

Hey, why do you kill off Sheppard?

I was just using it as an extreme example to say i would have prefered good story telling with an end i might not have liked to the end we got in SGA. Of course i wouldn't really want Sheppard killed off! HA!

Thanks for info I won't be able to watch live so I will wait for fandom to tell me should be fun to watch the fandom :) :P;)

I expect fandom to go up into a huge conflagaration.

The more I hear about SGU, the less I like it.

I think the Destiny is gonna have to be renamed the Titanic. O_o

I am excited for SGU still, but not for the writing or the plots. If I analyze either too much, I go crazy (I'm a former English/physics major...). I'm in it for the acting, which ought to be awesome given the caliber of the actors they managed to rope in! I'm worried about the lighting/camera styles though. The previews were all shaky and I cannot stand shows shot like that (The Office gave me a headache). I hope that the whole show isn't shot like that!

**Spoilers for SGA season 5 finale**

I'm holding out for at least some reference to SGA in SGU: They'll *have* to address the whole two-Stargates-on-earth thing if they are going to be dialing earth at all (or earth dialing out) during SGU, so they either need to reference that fact, or have the SGA cast guest on SGU to explain that. The Atlantis gate has a DHD, so it's dominant now, soooooo either they are going to hafta ignore/reject established cannon or they've got some 'splainin to do!!!

If they shoot the entire show with 'shaky' cams and dark mood lighting, that will lose me quicker than bad writing.

I wasn't going to reward 'bad behavior' but the more I read and hear about the new show the happier I am that I'm not going to watch this 'reboot'. You know what really annoys me? The various critics (including TPTB oddly) who point to the prior two shows and all the faults and issues and talk about the prior shows as if they were done by somebody else. You know the old 'SGA had non realistic characters and deux ex machina fixes and no consequences', not to mention the whole 'rubber faced alien' comment and now we're going to fix that with this new show. It's like some sort of weird disconnect. But guys, you did everything you say you're going to 'fix' with SGU but apparently not, considering the review. It is nice to have an actual critical review saying good and not so good things; at least it's an attempt to be balanced.

I do have to say that I understand why they didn't run this side by side with SGA. I mean, especially since they've been kind of trash talking their own prior show; it's a little in your face if you have your past 'mistakes' right there up against your 'second chance' although considering that SGA was supposed to do a lot of what they say SGU is going to do (according to their old interviews I read before they started SGA) this would actually be thier 'third chance' wouldn't it?

ITA

The various critics (including TPTB oddly) who point to the prior two shows and all the faults and issues and talk about the prior shows as if they were done by somebody else.

Yes, this. It especially bothers me when TPTB do it, because they're talking about SGU as if it's going to be this vastly superior show to SGA and SG-1, yet it's being created and written pretty much by the same group of people who worked on SGA and SG-1. If that group of people were capable of the cutting-edge brilliance they're ascribing to SGU, why didn't we see signs of it on the other shows? What were they holding themselves back for?

The short answer, of course, is that they weren't. We've seen the best they have to offer, and if they want something better than that, then they need to hire some new people to get it.

I really dislike how TPTB put down their past shows ("Oh, no more rubber faced aliens!") as though they were, well, bad. Gee, sure kept them employed, didn't it? it took till SGA was near done for them to give us a great episode like "Vegas"...

And yes, if you have the same people writing the show, they will undoubtedly fall into the same pattern.

I got to to say that I pretty much agree with everybody’s comments here. I find the whole thing just stupid now, axing SGA an then giving us this!! Ok I can understand that they wanted to go in a new direction "blah blah" that’s fine, but why at the expense of SGA, that’s the bit I don’t get. But the sad fact is they haven’t really, just replaced with a shaky cam, songs an body swapping sex stories!!!!!!!!

I also don’t get the fascination about the casting of Robert Carlyle im in the UK an really he isn’t that big of a actor, he's average, he's hardly ever on main stream TV, not that I go out of my way to look, not saying he's bad but he is no way the draw that PTB seem to think he is. I honestly don’t know one single person that would tune in just to see him NOT ONE. But that’s a whole other issue I guess.

Also why do they think that everyone wants the darker type stuff, I mean look how well WH13 is doing in the US, we have just got it here so it’s a wait an see sort of thing. An the whole targeting a particular demographic again makes not sense, if it’s a good show what ever the show, people will watch an enjoy regardless wont they??? The more reviews an general info I have read about SGU the more I know this is not what I want to spend my spare time watching. The fact is now I have little if no curiosity towards SGU, an don’t go actively out of my way to read stuff, its only if browsing SGA/SG1 that I see things like this an then decided to have a quick peak, as there is always the chance something will jump out an say watch me! That has not yet happen, so far I really don’t think I will be missing anything. But this reviewer did at least seem unbiased with the pros & cons which is in its self refreshing.

I'm always afraid by the superlatives. So when I read and listened what all TPTB, BW and co, MS or GW said about SGU since August 08, amazing fresh new creative exiting and stand alone show I wondered why SGA was considered so bad by their own producers when this show had just won people choice award 08.As for SGA cost a lot to produce when BW and RC announced at comic con they got 1m$ beyond per eps. TPTB considered they didn't get their return on investment when I saw the DVD sales for 5th season( best sales when we consider all season SG1 and SGA included). So when I heard all these superlatives I avoid it in general. when I watched the teasers and trailers I didn't see any originality so claimed by TPTB, BW. When I saw the cast hired I got more worries. Sorry but I gave a try to R. Carlyle and I don't understand what he said.

I followed SGA coz the cast, great cast by the way.

And now I read this entire critic and it becomes obvious they keep the old habits and put on the side their great declarations at the beginning and it would seem we feel there is something missing at the each end. So what is new in this toy? So they axed SGA for making the same with some more"flaws" in the end. So they turn their back to SGA so quickly for this as they turn their back to their audience and SGA fans. So they put SGA in a trash for a show that looks similar shooting differently( this way give me headache)and similar to BSG hoping to appeal their viewers.
They have a successful show in their hand and they are not sure to earn the same success with their new toy.
How can we trust producers who put so quickly their former show and treat so badly their cast putting them in the trash.
Sadly all my fears would seem justified and confirmed.
So I told you.
In addition there will not other show on air to compare. They eliminated all competition( no more BSG no more SGA except rerun) Hopefully for them SGA won't be on air at the same time coz I wonder which show would get the best rates?
I watched SGA coz the cast and I will not watch SGU coz Stargate name is in the title.

I've had to not watch the video interviews, etc.... there is such an incredible build-up to how fantastic the show is going to be that it cannot live up to the high expectations being bandied all around, so I'll pass on the interviews, and maybe watch them later...

I'll check out the SGU pilot, to see what it's about, but don't know if it can hold me for a series.

canceled SGA and announce SGU, bad decision from TPTB! Than mess with the promised SGA movie, grap decision and finally a few snarky comments from Joseph Malozzi about Joe F., bad decision!

As a fan of all things Stargate I was hugely disappointed. There was very little connecting Universe to SG-1 and Atlantis the cameos of SG-1 stars notwithstanding. This would not have been so bad if the premiere had been any good. But to be frank it was slow and boring.

The show was titled "Air" and there was very little tension over the lack of air on the Ancient spaceship. People complained about bad smelling air which gave them headaches but nobody had any real trouble breathing or collapsed except for the Senator who had badly bruised ribs and a heart condition. Even (spoiler alert) the Senator's sacrifice lacked drama in spite of the histrionics of his daughter.

As for action and drama there was very little. We had an attack on the base and that was it. For drama all we have right now is a misguided scientist and a rundown badly leaking ship that looks more like a dirty World War 2 cargo ship than a cool intergalactic spaceship. There are no aliens and no new civilizations friendly or hostile. There is hardly any cool sci-fi tech. All we got was a floating movable camera! That was it! Whoopee! Heck, we never even saw a bedroom or a bathroom! And you can actually ask the ship for help but it can't provide a map of its interior. What's up with that?

They tried to give us dark and edgy but what we got was dull and pedantic. I will keep watching in the hope of improvement but I am not optimistic.

Makes me feel really happy *evil grin* I didn't want to watch SGU and the more I read the better I feel.

PS: If you are seeing all these comments from me it's because I have a couple of days off and only three days of class to go. I'm finally catching up with all your posts!

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Stargate Universe (comments on spoiler review from Futon Critic)

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spoilers for SGA finale below sorry!

Re: spoilers for SGA finale below sorry!

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Very sad :-(

critics

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stargate universe

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