Stargate Universe
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:10 am
I could ask people what they think about the new series, Stargate Universe (SGU), but let me first present my own opinion about the new show, what I felt looked promising, what I disliked and what, most of all, was rather good.
There are, and actually were tons of things to say about Stargate Universe, its premise, its idea and how it was presented.
We have been exiting the short lived era of a struggling bleached series called Stargate Atlantis, which got canceled like its sister series, after exploiting a recipe which had never properly worked to boot, stopping the embarrassing beating of a dead horse, a story of incredible potential ran into the ground by a bunch of two hacks, whose prodigious failure was as exemplary as Bermaga's, with the slight difference that with a smaller fan base, this largely got unnoticed. And yet the similarities are numerous! Like how they found themselves at the helm of that new series because of the good and bad stories they wrote when they were under the supervision of more qualified people, and that it was better to keep people in house for the legacy. But when you try not taking risks, you are actually taking the biggest one: being lazy, being unimaginative, thinking you have nothing to prove, just getting paid, and becoming condescending regarding the fan base that loves the shit you make: cue the "Lemmings" episode.
SGA was a show pretending to be dark. Actually, it truly was immature in many regards. It's a show I literally loved to criticize towards its mid-life, when later on I would simply skip entire episodes, a self preservation reflex temporarily suspended from time to time by gems in an ocean of turd such as Common Ground, possibly one of the best, if not THE best Atlantis episode (the kind TNG and DS9 has in spades), and a series of episodes involving McKay's sister because of the more serious plot and great exchanges and ranges of emotions which didn't seem forced, both Hewletts being brother and sister in real life and really gifted.
I'm convinced that the scriptwriting was always of greater caliber because Mullozie wouldn't dare to serve Miss Hewlett the same crap they served the regular cast for four years. For those who count, that means I always leave the first season of SGA out, since to me it's the only one to be DVD worthy.
Now the SGA movie in is limbo, probably because the show actually didn't have the strength to go to the DVD racks without a total upheaval of the directing and writing staff.
Not surprising.
Flanigan could barely mask his disappointment and barely managed to remain civil enough to say what is in essence a call to cut the bullshit.
I'm a Gater of the old Showtime era, with its different style and its awesome strength, which meticulously shrunk like a snowball in hell since the transfer to SciFi, to the point where even a new cast and pseudo new main arc (the Ori one) didn't even save the series living on a past glory.
I was hungry, lost with those fond memories of the epic and unmatched movie and fantastic stand alone episodes.
So we get to SGU, speculating about its plots and charms, ready to pounce at the slightest clue of a typical fan pandering, fully knowing the mechanics of the writing process as employed during the last years of the franchise.
It's both a new beginning and the same old people trying Stargate, again.
The question, right there, would be is it better than Stargate Atlantis?
There are many criticisms to make about SGU, so I probably better start there.
Characters
First off, the cast. It's the backbone of a show. The quality of the dialogue, the effective lines, the relations, that's what drives a show.
But let's remember the way the cast was presented, each character role's skimmed, each profile roughly brushed. It really smelled like 90210, SG-1's spoof episode 200 becoming true. You had producers saying they were looking for younger demographics. So after seven episodes, how has this changed?
Well, there are the obvious appeals in each proper category.
Let's start with the ladies. There are four "main" profiles, really.
Two Caucasian brunettes, one blond and Ming-na, the oldest Chinese woman. Two of them are in the army.
Well, the Chloé chick, first brunette, daughter of a political dude who sacrifices himself heroically, is the 90210 touch in the show, that's all there is to her thus far. She shows her booty lips, swings her nipples and butts in Alteran showers, she cries, she gets cuddled left and right, and it's a miracle if by the end of the second season, she's not been visited by half the male crew (including hosted personalities... something else to talk about that I'll leave for a later comment).
Well, anyway, that cute face is just there for the sex, apparently the "mature" part of it.
The other brunette is some other random female soldier, most recently exposed for that advantageous pair of milk-machines that will prove useful when deeply engaged in the heat of combat, and which totally warrant the nickname Miss Bikino, all of which was ungraciously evidenced in the most "in your face" way in date, so that no doubt would remain about what her role is on the ship. She got banged by the pretty male boy in the first quarter of the episode, and is jealous that the whiny Chloé chick trampled her on the dude's shag list.
Johansen is the blond lady, a doc who assumes leadership of the military crew, from time to time, when the colonel is on mission. There's nothing much to say thus far. She doesn't trust Greer.
Finally, the Asian chick represents the IOA I think. There's been nothing much to say about here, but it's probable that her duty will become an obvious source of bureaucratic wrenches.
Now, onto the male side of things!
It is where, imho, there's the best to find.
Doctor Nicholas Rush truly lives through the talent of Robert Carlyle. I like the way they made him a dedicated man, who seems to know always a bit more about the ship than he shows, but he's not bad, certainly not. He's perhaps a tad too asocial. This is misunderstood by Young, and Rush's biggest error may have been to prioritize the disclosing of the Ninth chevron's purpose than the lives of all the people on the base. That's his main flaw.
We can only hope he'll always get good texts.
Colonel Everett Young. He plays out naturally, he's quite a good man, and Louis Ferreira doesn't overact. I like the character, but they're writing him a bit too confident, despite his situation and grade. He hasn't accepted Rush's decision, and is slightly paranoiac when it comes to Rush.
The relation Rush/Young is what holds the series for the moment, as far as I can tell on the scope of characterization.
Ronald Greer is a character who has been written to really be loathed to some degree, simply because of his demeanor. He acts in ways which would remind you of Ronan, but only superficially, and this time with substance. His styles gets on my nerves, but that's the point I guess, and he's actually one of the most reliable people with a gun, although he was jailed in the base on that other planet, at the beginning of the show.
Unless I missed it, we don't know why he was put there, but Young let him out when the Lucians attacked.
Well, Johasen clearly told him that she doesn't trust him, so it's a very miserable other source of tension you have here, perhaps forced.
Then you have Taylord, played by Lou Diamond Phillips. I don't like LDP. He always acts the same way no matter the character. Always the same gimmicks and faces, no matter the decade or TV movie. He's a sort of Tom Cruise who never made it to the big screen. However, despite these big flaws, he's given a role which will surely be a source of problems. He's not on the ship per se, but thanks to the body swapping machines built by the Tau'ri, he assumes the body of Young when the time comes, and clearly doesn't dig the way Young runs the show. We don't know why he's so pesky and incisive, but it's a source of trouble in some way or another.
There's also a math boy, Eli, who is a pure geek in power who plays MMOs and has no job, and wears some T-shirt I cannot read what's written on it (but I heard it's some Obama bullcrap, dunno), he's relatively convincing in his role, but the protracted way he was brought into the show, because he solved a puzzle included inside a Stargate MMO game, still leaves me breathless as to how sucky it is. The selection method, say, could be logical, but really...
Considering the MMO Stargate game in prep, he's obviously the channel for the teenagers to befriend that character, and not to forgot to BUY the STARGATE MMO game when it comes out.
All in all, he's not bad, but lacks maturity in certain ways, which is an aspect of his personality that's revealed in a few occasions to raise tension.
And then Scott, again too confident despite the extraordinary situation, assuming duties and responsibilities without a second thought. He bangs girls, he's young and handsome, and that's all.
Unless he snaps, does something wrong, nukes half a city full of people or something, he's probably going to be the most boring character of the main male cast.
Then there's an ensemble of second roles, and only time will tell if they get more developed and prove more interesting and mature in their writing than the main cast. That's quite what happened for SGA. Mind you, with characterization abysses that Ronan and Teyla were, there clearly was a need to look elsewhere to get some people to appreciate or dislike.
We have to remember that we'll need a full season to have all characters fleshed out, but least that can be said is that we're often miles above anything pulled off for SGA. We were spared the missed O'neill clone, I have yet to see an obvious Teal'c with a different skin. Eli knows some stuff, but the Carter/McKay would be Rush, safe that he's played soberly, and keeps the technobabble to himself.
The question is how will these characters evolve if the isolation continues. Will some of them go crazy?
Try to split the crew? We'll see.
That was for the people.
The Stargate & DHD
That's the crucial element of the show. It ain't Stargate without, duh, a stargate.
It had to feel both retro and new, and I think they stroke the right balance here. First, it has white lights, which contrasts rather well with the rather dark hues of the whole ring.
A welcome change from the redish orange and turquoise.
The details on the inner and outer rings, notably the repeating arch pattern of the trim, completely fit with the Alteran style, which could still be found in bits in the very industrial style of the Lantean civilization, bringing together the sensation of mass and grace. Everything is rounded in this one, from the "chevrons" to the locking apparatus.
Considering that the stargate dialing has always been likened to the dialing on rotary dial telephones, the artists pushed the concept to its limits, both by literally making the stargate spin in order to present each correct symbol below the bulb (a sort of abstract finger stop), and by adding another steampunk/outdated touch with the pistons releasing steam once the dialing is complete.
The dialing console itself is elevated, all about round buttons, curves and thick brass edges, which completes the system.
The ship
It's a bottle show. A crew stuck on a ship. We knew this would happen sooner or later anyway. The worst that could happen was if the ship itself sucked.
Well, good news, the design is actually gorgeous. If you love steampunk style mixed to shades of art nouveau, applied to sets that came straight out of the ALIEN series and EVENT HORIZON, the Destiny is for you.
Its anchor/axe crescent shaped silhouette with a pyramid on top will probably remind people of Warhammer 40,000's Necron Tombship, with an array of main thrusters borrowed from the Millenium Falcon. Judge by yourself.
In-universe wise, it's closer to Star Wars than Star Trek, in that's rather raw in its strength, not filled with technobabble at every corner.
Her best performance thus far has been taking a bath into a photosphere to recharge her batteries.
Exploration & landscapes
Wait, you thought the Milky Way and its endless pine woods were boring? I guess you never tried Pegasus. For SGA, if there is one thing where you know money never went, it's in the creation of breathtaking planetary sets. Not even a decent CGI or matte painting. There has never been a single landscape worth remembering. Simply none. Zero, nada. Zip. Just woods, recycled medieval sets shared with SG-1, and that is all. How bloody sad.
But the producers said it's time to give the franchise the cash it deserves and so badly needs to leave planet Boredom and its Woods of Infinite Pine Trees, and it seems that cash flew.
After discovering that planet Earth is not limited to Vancouver, the producers probably Googled around, bought a few tourist guides, clicked on some Internet maps, and realized that there were many fantastic places where to shoot your show at. So they booked trips to some place here and there, cameras, seats, mikes, make up and solar cream all packed up.
And frankly, it was effin' long overdue!
With, thus far, a good balance of visual special effects and exotic landscapes, we got in seven episodes more variety than in all SGA.
They skim gas giants and suns, visit hot and arid deserts and icy worlds, lush jungles and there's probably more to come.
With such efforts, you realize that it would take actually very little, like a two-parter episode, to be carried away far, far away in the span of half an hour, in a fashion not so dissimilar to how we traveled to a distant dune planet back in 1994.
So, at least, on the side of epic exploration, we can hope that the show will deliver. Now, the whole question is once they'll have trodden the typical video game level themes, will they be able to actually think of some mind boggling places and think a bit more, even if it requires adding artificial structures, for example structures of long gone civilizations of giants or dwarfs?
We'll see.
I still have a bad feeling about that one though.
Music & mood
It looks like someone decided to put an end to the trippy upbeat and frantic themes of SG-1 and SGA altogether, as well as the bland background elevator melodies, and instead decided to go with a range of themes that would suit a show that needs to take its time, intersected by a healthy dose of edge-of-your-seat moments.
So the themes are closer to harder SF than ever. We're getting closer to Vangelis than Bruckheimer. Which is probably a good thing, since the last best Stargate tune was the Lantean outpost/Atlantis one and its variations.
It also helps establish a mood which SGA crucially lacked and which takes us back to the first years of SG-1, with episodes such as Torment of Tantalus, Fire and Water or The Light.
Themes & style
Obviously, as the show attempts to prove it can act as a grown-up as much as nBSG succeed in doing it, Stargate Universe wants to tackle certain topics with, say, a mature approach. Would it feel forced is the whole question. Knowing the past pedigree of the staff that's behind this, I wouldn't expect them to be inventing anything new, and that has been pretty much a given, notably in how they planned to shoot episodes. Still, I'm all for experimentation. That's what a spin off is for after all. That said thus far their experimentation is basically limited to copying the zooms and isometric external views from nBSG as far as showing starships are concerned, and shoulder/steady cam for the inside shots.
The backbone of any show is about character chemistry, and how their feelings, motives and beliefs mesh together... or not.
This, borrowed from themes which will allow the construction of several interactions. Isolation, mystery, fear, jealousy, compassion, curiosity, friendship are typical themes. Some of them were yet to be properly explored. In many way, SGU is another go at the failure that SGA was regarding the concept of being stuck in an alien city, in a different galaxy.
Although once again the computers are rather friendly - but this time, there's little to no USB and we can excuse this by the years of interaction with scavenged Lantean/Alteran tech - the Destiny is a beautiful ship which should provide matter to all of those ideas, if everything locks into place.
Most prevalent in some episodes is perhaps the rather tactless introduction of the religious aspect, with thus far Christianity primly featured. Thus far, it really feels out of place, as it doesn't seem to have any purpose other than say "me too!", because nBSG did it.
The other "intruder" is love. That's it. The writers have been clear about it. If you don't dig being served love, sex and probably soon, spades of suggested innuendo (which was really getting tiring with SG-1's Vala), this may not be a show for you. But sorry, I'm being negative here. Frankly, the amount has been rather limited and sequences were short. But no place is left to doubt.
Finally, as far as violence is concerned, besides the plot that dictacted the course of action taken by the characters that led to the actually situation, violence has been rather tame. Surely, when there's neither glowing eyes nor sharp fangs to shoot at, the next potential target become humans. Mind you, it didn't take more than Air to see a human take a bullet. But that was for good, and didn't count as a kill.
Bizarrely, a surprising side effect of this is that violence is less prevalent than sex, which is barely erotic at all, and more halfway between Playboyish and BSG's rough rides. You probably shouldn't count on full nudity either.
Conclusion
With more episodes coming, which I'm yet to watch, I truly hope that, within the limitations of what Stargate can be with the current staff I practically hate for the lards they became, SGU will be able to be more than a bottle show with each episode being more than the crew trying to solve mechanical problems one after another.
This will partially be defined by the decision to introduce more external elements to the microcosm of the ship than just humans stuck in a crippled anchor-looking tin can.