Octoblog: Stargate Universe
SPOILERS!!!
Okay so, who saw the premiere of this last night? I never realy thought I was a big Stargate fan but, I guess I have seen all the episodes heh.. so my thoughts:
Generally, it was okay. Not stellar. Not terrible. Yes, they tried to make it more Battlestar Galactica-ish. But actually not as much as the commercials make you think, and I think most of that dark stuff is only in this first episode. Looks like the show will be pretty standard Stargate stuff from here on. Though the camera work needs to improve… hold still dangit!!
Other thoughts
-After just saying the show is not too BSG-ish, I do have to say main character Dr. Rush is so far just a slightly less evil Gaius Baltar, he looks like him, he sounds like him, and he does selfish Baltar things. Actually I think that’s why everyone is so suspicious of him…maybe they’re all BSG fans.
-There is a HUGE plot hole in the first episode. Basically they need to close off a door on their space ship, or else they will lose all their air and die. Problem - the button is on the other side of the door, so whoever pushes it will die on the other side. So the Senator heroically gives his life to do this. Why is this a problem? Because they set up earlier in the episode the fact that they happen to have a massive supply of baseball-sized remote-control flying camera-balls on board! Could THAT not push the button? HELLO!? It wasn’t even that urgent a problem, they had hours to at least try it out!
-The one actor I recognize from another show (Christopher McDonald as the Senator, from Star Trek TNG episode Yesterday’s Enterprise) gets killed, boo!
-Sex scene for no reason. it was useless, added nothing, you don’t need to waste time with this crap in Stargate (we don’t need in in Star Trek either, but that’s another discussion)
- Also overall, I felt there was about 1 hour of material stretch out across two hour here. easily could have gotten all this done in hour one, and spent hour two actually doing some Stargateting.
So, even after all that, the experience was not terrible enough to stop watching YET. As long as they fun it up some in coming episodes, and people stop fighting all the time for no reason, it could turn out okay. And there seems to be more Richard Dean Anderson next ep. So yay!
October 4th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Gott nothing to add coz I reckon you nailed it all right there.
October 5th, 2009 at 3:29 am
I watch it with a friend.. I must say, the information in your blog… EVERY SINGLE LITTLE BIT was said verbatim by my friend and I. We will have to see what happens in the future…
October 5th, 2009 at 4:53 am
The way they skipped around time-frame wise was really annoying as well, really killed any suspense that would have occurred otherwise.
As for the sex scene, I think they were just using it to show a connection to that woman, since he was acting like he didn’t know her later. They could have done it better though yeah.
October 5th, 2009 at 7:51 am
didnt the Goa’uld get beaten to the point where they wasnt a threat anymore, why are mother ships attacking the base?
October 5th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I agree on every point save the one about hitting the button with the Kino. I didn’t get a clear look at the panels, but it could probably be explained away with some sort of touch-screen interface. A floating metal ball could be too imprecise or not have the right capacitance to activate the panel. It’s a reach, I know. They really just needed a way to kill of President Adar… I mean… the senator…
October 5th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
The actual reason why they can’t use a kino is explained in the dialogue. There was a safety mechanism to re-open the door if there wasn’t anyone inside. They mention that they wedged the door open to give time for someone to push the button and run out but the door just opened again when the person left. They DID have to leave someone in there. I thought it was gonna be Col. Young.
In regards to the Go’uld motherships, they were controlled by the Lucian alliance who filled much of the power vacuum left by the defeat of the Go’uld. They were a common enemy in the last few seasons of SG-1. They’re kinda like the Geni for the earth teams: Human enemies.
My main question is: what happened to Lou Diamond Phillips? Was he killed when the Lucian alliance attacked or what? I thought he’d be around for longer.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Lou was in a shot in the end I think, he was wounded during the Lucian attack so didn’t get much screen time.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:39 am
Main characters will die in this series. So expect more than the Senator. I think in all the rush of considering options, the Kino didn’t come to them. When you’re scared and frantic, it can happen. There’s probably going to be more boneheaded actions. Why not? We’re human. We make mistakes. People ARE scared.
Lou Diamond was rescued I believe by Sam’s ship. He’s back at home base and probably will appear in flashbacks. Least that’s the impression I got from wikipedia.
There isn’t going to be any BIG BAD SINGLE alien species like the Go’uld or Wraith. It’ll be different aliens based on that episode’s adventure. They’ll be visiting planets with vastly limited resources. Waiting for the deaths b/c their best medic isn’t as experienced compared to other medics/doctors in the prior seasons.
I see potential but I honestly want Atlantis back.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I liked SG:1 and A better too.
You’re right- that could’ve been 1 hour just fine.
The sex scene added nothing, and I hope they aren’t (especially the guy, Scott?) supposed to be the token attractive people of the show or something cuz… they aren’t.
My “plot hole” was- the planet’s about to blow up. I know the 9th Chevron is important but, not enough to kill a bunch of people over. Since the explosion didn’t blow up the ship via energy through the wormhole/gate, it wouldn’t have blown up earth either, they could’ve shut down the wormhole. Or go somewhere else! So, as interesting as the discovery was, you don’t in an emergency gate off to who knows where without checking if you’re going to go jumping into space, when you can use the gate to go to any number of safe, habitable planets. That’s dumber than even -panicked-human-dumb.
October 6th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Most ancient tech needs a human to interface with it to work, therefor a person had to press the button in order for the button to work and the doors to close.
The sex scene set up that those two are in a relationship of some sort, which is frowned upon in the military. Think Jack and Sam. Notice the look that was given by Greer when LT Scott put her on his search party team. Then there were the hints peppered into the previews for the season and in those first two episode; Of possible chemistry between Scott and both Chloe and Tamara. They are laying the foundation for the season.
And finally Rush wanted to see where the ninth chevron took them, so he grabbed his last chance. The feedback through the gate and destroy Earth excuse works because it was plausible enough. If the blast had translated through the gate, wherever they went those in the base would have died. Rush gambled that the blast wouldn’t. If it did then it doesn’t take out the Earth, just where ever the ninth chevron takes them. In Rush’s mind it was a gamble. They dialed the ninth and afterwards couldn’t shut it down and dial another address, the system wouldn’t let them. Rush was grasping his last chance to go. And took it, forcing everyones hand.
October 7th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
To Unicron Supreme, it didn’t reopen because no one was in there, they said they tried to wedge the door open to give someone time to run out but it just opened again in reaction to the wedge, like an elevator door reacts to an obstruction. They even said “elevator door”. I don’t think a kino would have worked in the same way you can’t use a pen or stick to operate the touchpad on a laptop; or maybe the radius of the kino was just too big to pinpoint that small control.
My gripe was the game/puzzle “algorithm” crap. So they program this computer game with the same algorithm to run the power to the 9th chevron. So the computer game needs to know in advance what the correct answer is, or at least have the capability to compute the correct answer, otherwise how would it know who got it right? So…why not just ask the game the answer? Rush couldn’t solve this for months??
October 8th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
to JJ: Yeah I guess that makes sense also, but the wording was a bit ambiguous.
As for the puzzle, it didn’t really have to know what the right answer is, just have the capability to record the user input. Whoever set up that problem (presumably Dr. Rush) was probably monitoring the answers provided by the players.
October 13th, 2009 at 3:46 am
boo hoo have a cry ,wuss
October 15th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
……………or we could just watch BSG again.
We have OPTIONS!
October 26th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
You make some good points with the premiere. I’ve been watching the episodes so far and am starting to wonder where they’re going with it. It’s got a mix between BSG and any of a plethora of sci-fi movies that dwell on the majesty of space, I think. While not being able to nail down the motivations of Rush is intriguing to a point, it’s also getting a little irritating. Production values, however, are pretty good.
October 27th, 2009 at 2:01 am
i personally dub this new series “Stargate: Angst”
it was good, but not as good as i hoped it would be
as well as this, it reminds me FAR too much of startrek voyager
you make some good points
December 19th, 2009 at 8:12 am
A friend showed me this site, really well done, I love it and i need to learn about stargate universe too!