Stargate Universe (This thread will have spoilers!)

This was a satisfying ending. I think the previous episode where they found their alt-selves living out their lives as settlers was another stab at it and as much as I'm weary of alternate-timeline schenanigans that deux-ex-machina writers out of making difficult choices, I have to admit that I liked the Epilogue episode where they saw the kino recordings of how the crew fared as settlers.

A great article on the whole cancel situation over at Gateworld

Ah well. I finally got around to watching the last half-season of this on my DVR and was surprisingly bummed out by it. I mean, I expected the disappointment of a series ending before its time, just as it was starting to ramp up in quality (same with Caprica). And I expected a bit of a downer, cliffhanger ending (although yes, it was much better closure than could be hoped for).

What I didn't expect was to feel so sad that the Stargate franchise seems to be over. It was never really one of my favorites... never appointment viewing like say Lost or BSG was. But that said, it never really disappointed me either. Always reliable for an hour of fairly decent science fiction entertainment. And I've been watching them for over 10 years, which is over half of my adult life. Guess I always took it for granted and now it's gone.

And of course there are the further questions about whether this kind of science fiction has a future on TV at all.

So anyway, RIP Stargate. I'm sure I'll be seeing you again in 30 years or so when I'm old, retired, bored and trying to relive something from my youth... just like my grandparents are doing with their incessant Gunsmoke-watching now.

Started season two this week via Netflix
I really enjoyed the 1st season! I think I'll go spelunking in this topic to see what I missed by not watching it first run.

Don't think you really missed anything. Now you can watch all 10 seasons and then venture to the Atlantis Series. Lots of fun in store for you.

Atlantis isn't on Netflix Instant Watch at the moment, but it is still on Amazon's Prime Instant Videos.

Yes it is. I just watched a week or two ago.

Grenn wrote:

Yes it is. I just watched a week or two ago.

I assumed it was, too, because we had watched it recently. But a quick search of Netflix shows it is gone right now.

That said, I found the orignal SG-1 series to be kind of terrible, in a didn't age well kind of way. We ended up going to season 7 or so, and starting from there. After watching SGU, we just wanted to see the introduction of the Lucian Alliance.

We watch both SG-1 and SG-Atlantis from time to time, but SGU is much more up our ally. I think you could enjoy SGU for the two seasons we got, and never fel a strong need to go back to the original series. Checking out the film it was based on would not be a bad idea, though.

Damn it. I checked on instantwatcher and its gone. I was finally through the boring parts of season 1. Just after that excellent 2 parter where the Genai take over during a hurricane.

I clicked twice in anger! I'm sorry!

The first season or so of Stargate SG-1 have a very "Star Trek the Original Series" feel to them, just exploring different planets with weird low budget alien life that looks absolutely terrible and is incredibly cheesy. If you skip all the way to season 7, though, you're going to miss some of the better seasons. I'm pretty sure the whole Anubis arc wasn't until season...God, it's been so long I can't even remember. Ultimately he was my favorite villain throughout all of SG-1, though.

Then they ended the Gouauldadskfsdlf;kjasdfl; arc and started with Space Catholics 2.0 and I was just sick of it. I only watched one of the made for DVD movies, but evidently the other one or two were pretty damn terrible.

I loved the first season of Atlantis. Then it went downhill.

I've been re-watching SG-1 for the last month or so. I am in the middle of the 3rd season now, and I believe the early seasons are somewhat unfairly maligned. It is true that there are probably more stand-alone, one-off episodes than in the later seasons, but I think the show is still pretty solid so far and a lot of fun to watch.

They do a great job of creating a consistent universe full of different factions with interesting motivations, even from the beginning. By the end of season 2 you've met a few system lords, the Asgard, the Tok'ra, the Tollen, the Nox, etc. I definitely wouldn't recommend skipping ahead.

It is certainly not a deep show, full of existential ruminations on the meaning of life, but it has enjoyable characters and fun lore and technobabble. That is enough for me.

Well, I forgot that Showtime had the first few seasons of SG-1. That was a lot of bewbs for the first episode.

EriktheRed wrote:

I've been re-watching SG-1 for the last month or so.

They do a great job of creating a consistent universe full of different factions with interesting motivations, even from the beginning. By the end of season 2 you've met a few system lords, the Asgard, the Tok'ra, the Tollen, the Nox, etc. I definitely wouldn't recommend skipping ahead.

My wife told me the other day that she wants to watch SG-1! Yay.

I would agree on not skipping to later seasons. Personally I prefered the first 2 seasons over the long story arc's of the later seasons.

I recently started watching SG-1 for the first time, and I'm also partway through season 3. There have definitely been some crappy episodes, and a lot of the special effects haven't aged well, but overall it's still pretty entertaining.

Mostly I've been impressed with a lot of the episodes that focus on some particular aspect of the Stargate itself: what happens if you overcharge it, or if two gates exist at the same address, or if the gate connects a planet being sucked into a black hole, or if an enemy launches a denial-of-service attack by constantly dialing in. I like it when sci-fi shows take the time to examine all the possible applications and ramifications of a piece of technology instead of just using for a specific purpose and ignoring all other possibilities.

I never really got into SG-1 or Atlantis, but I'm really enjoying Universe.

BadKen wrote:

I never really got into SG-1 or Atlantis, but I'm really enjoying Universe.

That was pretty much where I fell. SGU did a good job of raising the production standards to a BSG level, including better acting.

Jayhawker wrote:
BadKen wrote:

I never really got into SG-1 or Atlantis, but I'm really enjoying Universe.

That was pretty much where I fell. SGU did a good job of raising the production standards to a BSG level, including better acting.

Which basically turned it into a character drama, with the intent of nearly every character having some aspect of them being an asshole so there could be RAWR DRAMATIC CONFLICT.

Not that I'm saying that's a bad thing. Stories need conflict, and characters are more memorable with it. But it was also a very different goal, and in my case a bit too much of playing "me too!" by trying to imitate what other popular television shows at the time were doing. It was like when comics saw Watchmen and said "Clearly we need boobs and blood in order to be mature and adult!"

I much prefer the swashbuckling adventure of the original series. But then again, Star Trek The Original Series is also my preferred Star Trek, so considering my earlier comparison...

It's totally fair to prefer the original series over SGU, because they seem to be very different shows, even though they exist in the same universe. SGU aped BSG in all the right ways, as far as I am concerned. And in many ways, they did it better.

I'll agree with that at least. By the second season of BSG I didn't have any clue why I was still watching. I still wanted to watch SGU, but at some point I just didn't care to schedule my life around it.

Then it got canned (which I think helped my decision not to schedule my life around it).

ccesarano wrote:

I'll agree with that at least. By the second season of BSG I didn't have any clue why I was still watching. I still wanted to watch SGU, but at some point I just didn't care to schedule my life around it.

Then it got canned (which I think helped my decision not to schedule my life around it).

If only there was some way to timeshift airings so you could watch them at your leisure.

*runs to the patent office*

LiquidMantis wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

I'll agree with that at least. By the second season of BSG I didn't have any clue why I was still watching. I still wanted to watch SGU, but at some point I just didn't care to schedule my life around it.

Then it got canned (which I think helped my decision not to schedule my life around it).

If only there was some way to timeshift airings so you could watch them at your leisure.

*runs to the patent office*

We were cableless at the time, but Netflix ran the series a few weeks behind the TV schedule. We were able to fit into our busy schedule.

I was definitely sad it got canned, and held out some hope Netflix might step in to save it.

Watched SGU recently. I never liked anything I saw of SG-1 so I never bothered watching anything else Stargate.

Man, Universe is fantastic. I'm sorry it was cancelled and the movie never happened.

The third season of SG1 had some of my favorite episodes.

I absolutely loved SG-1 and Atlantis. The only reason I watched SGU was cos I'm so familiar with the universe already and occasional cameos. But over all I was really disappointed in it. Way too much angst and no sense of direction in plot.

For me SG-1 (at least the first 6 seasons) enhanced and expanded on the groundbreaking Stargate movie. Building the world, and camaraderie between a group of people.

SGU really did appeal to a very different fan based compared to SG-1/Atlantis. For me I want my Sci-fi shows to be about wonder and exploring. Human drama in space is just that, Human drama, I get enough of that on earth.

emyln wrote:

For me I want my Sci-fi shows to be about wonder and exploring. Human drama in space is just that, Human drama, I get enough of that on earth.

Yeah, that's what bugged me about SGU too. Oh, you're having relationship problems? Excuse me if I'm just a little bit more preoccupied by the fact that you're on an ANCIENT INTERGALACTIC SPACE SHIP.

SGU plays better when each episode isn't separated by a week (or months) in viewer time.

I definitely found that to be the case. When I was ill for a couple of months earlier this year, I discovered a channel over here was running 2 eps back to back every day at an inhumane time of the day, and enjoyed the show far more.

What I didn't like was the use of the magic body swap pebbles so that the characters could continue their human dramas on Earth. That's what soap operas are for.

spider_j wrote:

I definitely found that to be the case. When I was ill for a couple of months earlier this year, I discovered a channel over here was running 2 eps back to back every day at an inhumane time of the day, and enjoyed the show far more.

What I didn't like was the use of the magic body swap pebbles so that the characters could continue their human dramas on Earth. That's what soap operas are for.

Yup the pebbles were the worst part of the show. It's hard as an audience member to feel the characters longing for home when the magic pebbles take us back there every week. Terrible plot device.

I still think it was the best SG show, and was pretty exciting near the end of it's run.

Gaald wrote:
spider_j wrote:

I definitely found that to be the case. When I was ill for a couple of months earlier this year, I discovered a channel over here was running 2 eps back to back every day at an inhumane time of the day, and enjoyed the show far more.

What I didn't like was the use of the magic body swap pebbles so that the characters could continue their human dramas on Earth. That's what soap operas are for.

Yup the pebbles were the worst part of the show. It's hard as an audience member to feel the characters longing for home when the magic pebbles take us back there every week. Terrible plot device.

That was pretty much my feelings when Season Two of Atlantis gave the characters a way to communicate with Earth regularly, destroying a whole bunch of what made the first season so interesting and gave it so much potential.

Then they brought back replicators and I was like "f*ckIN' c*cks!" and flipped a table.