Join In On The Action "Register Here" To View The Forums

Already a Member Login Here

Board index Forum Index
User avatar
Dignitary
 
Posts: 5456
Joined: 07 Mar 2005, 9:12 am

Post 16 Jan 2011, 10:29 pm

I was no great fan of the original Stargate film, and I don't think I watched a full episode of the other SG TV series, but SG:U has me hooked. I think it was purely Robert Carlyle that enticed me to tune in to the pilot, but the character-driven storyline has been very rewarding for 1.5 seasons so far. It's the closest I've come to discovering a Lost-type sci-fi drama, at least insofar as the character treatment is about as important as the far-out storytelling.

Anyone else given it a look?
User avatar
Ambassador
 
Posts: 1375
Joined: 01 Oct 2001, 7:56 am

Post 17 Jan 2011, 4:16 am

Watched every episode and I'm not at all impressed. It's nowhere near as good as SG-1 or Atlantis, its predecessor shows, and failed to get me hooked because the characters are so unlikeable. As loyal as I am to the Stargate franchise I find I just don't care what happens to this lot. If they wanted to create diverse characters who had different worldviews and were often in conflict but you still liked them all, they should have looked to Firefly for inspiration. Instead they took all the worst bits of BSG as inspiration and created a mess.

As a result it never took off, never appealed to the majority of Stargate fans nor enticed new viewers, and has thus been cancelled. The rest of season 2 will be produced and shown, then it's game over. Ordinarily leaving stories unfinished like this annoys me more than most other things in the world - I am a writer, after all, and it offends my sensibilities. That in this case I just don't care is really saying something.
User avatar
Dignitary
 
Posts: 5456
Joined: 07 Mar 2005, 9:12 am

Post 17 Jan 2011, 5:54 am

Funny that you disliked it so strongly, while I couldn't make it through a full episode of either of the other two series. Guess that says something...although I suspect we might disagree as to what exactly. ;)
User avatar
Ambassador
 
Posts: 1375
Joined: 01 Oct 2001, 7:56 am

Post 17 Jan 2011, 8:57 am

I watch a lot of Sci-Fi: Stargate Sg1 & Atlantis, all 5 Star Trek series, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, Firefly, Doctor Who, Torchwood etc. Of all of them SGU is by far the weakest show, with the possible exception of Andromeda and ST Voyager. Its premise is great, production values sound, and the probable story arc quite interesting. The problem is in its characters - too many of them are eminently forgettable, and/or are so pathetic that I couldn't care less what happens to them. If there's no emotional hook, no empathy between audience and characters, then the show will fall flat no matter what else it does right. There's Rush, and then who else? That certainly seems to be the verdict of other Sci-fi fans I've talked to about it, and I've yet to meet anyone who's upset that it got cancelled. Just compare that to what happened when Firefly got the axe...
User avatar
Dignitary
 
Posts: 5456
Joined: 07 Mar 2005, 9:12 am

Post 17 Jan 2011, 2:33 pm

All I can say is that you seem to have been watching a completely different show. Character is at the top of my list of reasons why I will miss it.
User avatar
Ambassador
 
Posts: 884
Joined: 18 Sep 2001, 10:08 am

Post 18 Jan 2011, 2:34 am

Stargate Universe was good Season 1.

The Season finale had some awesome buildup......

Then they dropped the ball with Season 2, but it has had its moments.

All in all stargate is pretty cool.
User avatar
Ambassador
 
Posts: 1375
Joined: 01 Oct 2001, 7:56 am

Post 18 Jan 2011, 3:42 am

Been thinking a bit about this as it has been bugging me, and I've worked out what it is about the characters that irritates me so much. Ordinarily in Sci-Fi, and probably in other genres too, the key characters are pretty interesting and exceptional people. Perhaps the circumstances of the show gives them the chance to shine that they didn't have before and they rise to the challenge, or perhaps they always were that formidable.

SGU, by contrast, made a conscious decision not to do this. Instead the people on Destiny are pretty much a random and assorted bunch, as ordinary as they can be under the circumstances. Arguably this makes their response to what happens to them more realistic, and their via the communication stones their pining for home can be shown in vivid detail.

However, I work as a cocktail bartender. I see ordinary people screwing up their ordinary lives all the time - making mistakes that seem obvious to me yet to which they are oblivious. Turn on the TV and see guys out in space screwing up in the exact same way in SGU. Sure, might be more "realistic" (as far as Sci-Fi allows), but why would I want to watch that? What is it about this bunch of misfits and losers that causes me to actually care about them? The answer is nothing, which is why it left me cold.

Certainly SGU can be given good marks for adopting this premise of thrusting relatively ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances and telling their resposes realistically. They did what they set out to do, and I have to assume that this is what you like about the show so much. By contrast it's what bores me about the show, and I'm far from alone in that assessment.
User avatar
Ambassador
 
Posts: 884
Joined: 18 Sep 2001, 10:08 am

Post 26 Jan 2011, 7:12 am

Spartacus Blood and sand would be more up your alley then hey? more like the bar at closing time?
User avatar
Emissary
 
Posts: 3405
Joined: 12 Jun 2006, 2:01 am

Post 27 Jan 2011, 12:47 pm

I don't think I've ever seen SF done well on TV. I read a lot of it so you'd think I'd be a fan, but pretty much everything I've seen on TV has been pretty terrible. I never saw Firefly and I have heard good things about it, so maybe this is the exception, but then again maybe not. The best of the SF series I've seen was probably Babylon 5, which had interesting characterisation and a nice in-depth story arc that spanned several series, but this was also a weakness because if you didn't catch it at the beginning and stay with it till the end (which I didn't) then you always got the feeling that you were missing out on half the fun.
User avatar
Administrator
 
Posts: 3673
Joined: 01 Feb 2001, 7:30 am

Post 28 Jan 2011, 11:59 pm

Sassenach wrote:I don't think I've ever seen SF done well on TV.


No two TV shows impacted my life - with the exception of Sesame Street when I was a toddler - indelibly dazzled my mind more than The Twilight Zone (Original Series) and Star Trek (Original Series). I'm not saying they were perfect: there were some absolutely TERRIBLE episodes in each series, but the good ones I'll NEVER forget and those shows irrevocably fired my imagination. After that, I was a horror/science-fiction addict and still am today (as even the website evinces).
User avatar
Dignitary
 
Posts: 347
Joined: 14 Apr 2007, 5:56 am

Post 02 Feb 2011, 6:56 pm

No Farscape shippers out there? It had possibly my favourite episode of any Sci-Fi TV series ("Unrealized Reality" from season 3).

I watched SG-1 religiously until the end, followed MOST of Atlantis, but Universe does not appeal to me for more than one episode. I blame the absence of Jack O'Neills and Sam Carters and Teal'cs and Daniel Jacksons. Although, Claudia Black and Ben Browder, after my Farscape frenzy, were quite sufficient for season 9 and 10. =P