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The Show:
The first half of Stargate Universe
showed a lot of promise. The show was
having a bit of trouble finding
its own voice and style, but there was a lot of potential there to
expand the
franchise in new and exciting ways. The
Syfy Channel (I hate that name) aired the first ten episodes of the
season in 2009
and then took a four month break before returning with an additional 10
episodes in 2010. This second half of
the season, released as Stargate
Universe 1.5, shows that the writers are still struggling with
the whole
concept. While they make some missteps,
there is some movement in the right direction.
Series background:
If you've never seen any of the previous Stargate series or the
movie,
you might be a little lost at first but if you're vaguely familiar with
the
franchise you won't have any trouble following the story. As you
may
recall from the movie and SG-1, a Stargate uses a seven 'chevron'
address to
dial other Stargates in the Milky Way. It was discovered that the
device
would accept an 8 chevron address, but to dial it would take an
enormous amount
of energy only an ancient 'zero-point module' could generate. A
ZPM was
hooked up, and it dialed an address in another galaxy. (Those
adventures
are chronicled in Stargate Atlantis.) A nine chevron
address was
discovered, but to generate the unimaginable power needed to dial such
an
address would entail tapping the core of a special type of
planet. That
problem has just about been solved as this current series opens.
Yes, Earth scientists lead by Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) and
aided by
gamer geek Eli Wallace (David Blue) have broken the codes, solved the
engineering problems, and just about overcome the final hurdles to
dialing the
nine symbol address. Unfortunately the base is attacked before
they can
dial and 60 or so people are trapped in the gate room when a corridor
collapses. Realizing that it's a now-or-never situation, Dr. Rush
punches
in the nine chevron code instead of dialing Earth and saving
everyone.
The gate opens, and left with no choice the 60 or so trapped people
grab as
many supplies as they can and walk through.
No one expected what they would find. Instead of landing on a
planet,
they emerged onto a huge space ship. The ship, unbelievably old,
was
built by the Ancients, the race that built the Stargates. Given
the name
Destiny, it's been traveling across the Cosmos for hundreds of
thousands of
years or more and it's now a billion light years from Earth.
Lacking the
power to dial back to Earth, the survivors, half military personnel and
half
civilians, have to discover how to live on this gigantic ship that, due
to the
ravages of time, is falling apart.
While the people on Destiny can't dial home, they aren't
totally cut off. Communication with
Earth has been established via an Ancient artifact. While that is
mainly
a good thing, as they now have access to Earth's experts and
scientists, the
meddling from various military and civilian organizations only serve to
cause
strife on the ship.
In addition to Dr. Rush and Eli, the crew of the Destiny, as they
discover the
ship has been named, include the ranking military officer Col. Everet
Young
(Louis Ferreira) who has a even temper but isn't sure if he's up for
the job,
his right hand man First Lieutenant Matthew Scott (Brian J. Smith), and
HR
officer Camile Wray (Ming-Na) who is often caught in between the
arguing Rush
and Young.
This set:
The first set of episodes ended with a surprising
development. Col. Young had been framed
for murder by Dr. Rush and while the two were on a desert planet along
Young
knocked Rush out and left him to die along while Destiny jumped to FTL
flight
immobilizing the stargate. It was a
gutsy move, to kill off a major character, and at the time I thought
that if
they really had removed him from the show I would have been impressed. Well, with Robert Carlyle's face boldly
planted on the front cover it will come as no surprise that Dr. Rush is
not
dead. That was a disappointing, though
not unexpected development, but he was brought back in a creative way
that wasn't
cheap and silly (like when Starbuck was stranded on an alien planet in
the first season of Battlestar
Galactica.)
Part of the problem in the first half was the constant
bickering between the civilians and the military leadership with each
side
vying for control. That's carried over
to the beginning of this set too, unfortunately, with Dr. Rush and Ms.
Wray
instigating a mutiny. This subplot drags
the action to a halt every time it rears its ugly head and consists of
various
characters spouting their ideas about who should be in charge (with the
same
points often repeated between episodes).
Hopefully we've seen the last of those dull ennui inducing
episodes, but
I wouldn't bet on it.
They do make some improvements to the show luckily.
With the addition of an alien race that has
been tracking, and trying to capture, Destiny since long before the new
inhabitants arrived the series finally has an external enemy to make
thing
interesting. They haven't given these
aliens a name, which is a mistake, but they are advanced and make
formidable
foes. There's also an earth-born threat
that crops up in the latter episodes.
When the stories feature either of these two forces the show is
pretty
good.
On the down side the program features a lot of amazing
coincidences and some hand-waving explanations for some of the dues ex
machina rescues. What even worse is that
some of the amazing
feats that occur aren't even explained.
At one point it's been established that a planet is too far away
to
reach by stargate, but the gate opens anyway and people are rescued. Someone asked how it happened and no one has
an explanation. Hopefully they'll
address that in a future episode, but I doubt it.
Another down side to this character-driven show is that
unlike Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis,
most of the main
characters are jerks. Dr. Rush brash and
elitists (but not in a humorous way like Rodney on Atlantis)
and framed Col. Young for murder because they didn't see
eye-to-eye. Young is no better,
basically acting as judge, jury, and executioner once he discovered
that Rush
framed him (not to mention that he was unfaithful to his wife before he
left
Earth), and the civilian leader, Wray, is duplicitous and conniving. Some of the secondary characters are better,
including Lt. Scott who has been regulated to second banana, but
they're not
the stars. Who wants to watch a bunch of
assholes bicker?
Like the first half, this set of shows has a claustrophobic
and oppressive feel. Because of the
darker tone, much of the humor that marked the two earlier series (I
refuse to
acknowledge the cartoon) is missing. Even Eli has stopped being
the comic
relief. They still throw in a reference to
other SF movies and shows now and again, always very obvious ones that
everyone
will get, but these aren't funny and don't lighten the show at all.
The Blu-ray set:
The last ten episodes of the first season are presented on two Blu-ray
discs
that arrive in a single width case.
Audio:
The show comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that
is
really outstanding. The whole soundstage is used to get effect,
not only
in the action sequences, but in the more mundane parts of the show
too.
The directionality is excellent with sounds moving around the room with
great precision.
It holds up well during the more sonically actives scenes too.
The
various sounds never merge into a wall of noise, but rather stay as
separate
pieces that really places the viewer in the middle of the action.
The
dialog is clean and clear and very muddled.
Video:
The 1.78:1 AVC encoded disc looked very good too. The show was
filmed in
HD, which means that they had to redo a lot of the stock special
effects
especially the "whoosh" as a Stargate opens. These look very
impressive
in HD, especially when compared to their SD counterparts. The
interior of
the ship is darkly lit, so the image doesn't jump off the screen like
some
Blu-rays, but once they leave the ship and travel to a well lit planet,
like
the desert world in an early episode, the image really comes alive.
The colors are nice, with fleshtones being realistic and blacks being
deep but
not compressed. The level of detail is fine but not exceptional
for a HD
disc. Overall this is a nice looking show that should please
fans.
Extras:
I was hoping for a bit more in the extras department, but what's there
is nice.
First off there are commentary tracks on every episode by various
members of
the cast and crew. As happened with the first set, I didn't have
time to
listen to all of them (damned deadlines!) but I did spot-check several
and what
I heard seemed about average for a commentary track. They joke
around and
tell anecdotes about filming without just describing the on-screen
action. (I hate when they do that.)
There's also a Destiny Starmap Log on each disc, which is a
gimmick to
make this bonus feature look more impressive than it really is.
An image
of a galaxy has several stars circled. Highlighting any one of
them
reveals a short clip. These include interviews with the actors
(in SGU
costume naturally) about their roles, directors discussing their
episodes,
tidbits about the special effects etc. Luckily there is a 'play
all'
option, which makes these much more fun to watch.
All three discs also feature a set of Kino Video Diaries, a
series of
messages that people aboard the Destiny recorded on small flying camera
that
are aboard the ship. Some of these are humorous short pieces,
others
expand on footage shown in the show. It's a nice addition.
Remember when DVDs first arrived and they promised to have
video games on the discs too? Remember
how lame all those games were? Well
they've
included on with this set, SGU:
Survival Instinct. Basically you
watch a video clip from an
episode included on the previous set, and at random points you have to
make a
decision on what to do with your remote.
There are only two choices, and there is no logic involved. You're basically guessing.
Who do you send for water, Chole or Eli? The
right answer sends you to the next clip,
while the wrong one sends you back to an earlier point.
This was so dull I couldn't play it for more
than a couple of minutes.
Wrapped with the Blu-ray disc, at least with the initial
shipments, is a cool extra that I was happy to see:
a folded slipcase that holds both halves of
season one. That's a nice thing to give
to fans that supported the initial release.
Final Thoughts:
It's a mixed bag so far. While I loved the other Stargate
series I'm not 100% sold on this series yet.
The lead characters aren't nearly as appealing as those in the
previous
shows, and the writing is a little sloppy.
The series is darker and has lost the humor that previously ran
through
Stargate shows too. I'm still recommending
this one, there are some
spots that are really good and the show does have a lot of potential,
but it's
a light recommendation. |
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