Stargate Blues

Oh dear.

I have had nothing but respect for the many and various writers, producers, directors, lighting and camera visionaries involved with the Stargate franchise over the years, from the early shows right through to the final splashdown of Atlantis. I could (and should) dedicate a whole hub to the music of Joel Goldsmith (stirring, moving, poignant, but which could also be funny--and it is the most difficult act of composition there is, to write music that not only suits a mood but goes so far as to extend the joke, as in "Avenger 2.0").

Or I could write extensively about the surprisingly complex development of the Unas -- complete with rudimentary language system -- that Peter deLuise concocted; or the overarching mythology of the Gou'ald, for which Brad Wright and Rob Cooper should take full credit; or how all anyone had to do was shine a little light on Amanda Tapping's face and be garranteed an exquisite shot in any weather, setting, or color scheme.

Stargate Atlantis began to unravel just a little, however, when moral dilemma (which SG-1 alternated with lighter episodes and an overall delight in the inherent humor of any situation, be it human, alien, or android) was replaced with shoot-em-up action introduced by interminably, babblingly bad exposition written for McKay's character. [Of course, having said that, one of the best Atlantis episodes highlighted the ethical implications of "curing" Michael into human form, although that was soon replaced by his later two-dimensional villainy.]

But this Hub is supposed to be about Stargate Universe, where it can be seen that it takes more than merely dimming the lights to make a drama "darker."

The Stargate Universe series takes place mostly in the dark. This has many advantages, but mainly making the superb computer graphics the focus of attention (and perhaps keeping the sets at a more reasonable temperature for the actors, or maybe even stopping us from noticing that the corridors in the Destiny are recycled from Atlantis and SG-1?).

But Season One so far has not lived up to expectations, despite how much it has going for it: great ensemble acting, great lighting (I'm only partly joking about the darkness throughout), great new aliens and great CGI generally, a potentially great rift between civilian and military passengers. And yet it just isn't quite in its stride yet. So far, the only really exciting moment was when Young decked Rush and left him to die on that sandy planet with the crashed alien craft.

Why isn't it as interesting to watch as its Stargate predecessors?

It would almost seem as if the show was trying to do too much: build on the original franchise; introduce the main characters to the audience with episodes containing lengthy back stories (hey, it worked in Lost ); use current songs with lyrics to get the young folks' attention (I guess?) instead of the excellent incidental music by Joel Goldsmith mentioned above (hey, it worked in Life and Defying Gravity , to name just two shows able to find the perfect cutting-edge songs for the mood and storyline, not the twang-doleful cuts used in Universe ); and introduce tensions onboard the ship with the division among the passengers, against the tension created by the aliens persuing them and the Aleutian Alliance (cheaper and less time-consuming to produce than the aliens?) trying to take over the craft.

What happened is that the first several shows lost a lot of viewers because of the focus on either "visits home" through the "stones" (that allow an individual consciousness to switch with another person millions of light years away) or on back stories (again, on Earth) that were only mildly interesting and that would work well as character backstory for the actors' benefit, rather than footage that should have made it into the episodes without major cuts.

The result is a formless and scattered mish-mash of stories that are not as engaging as early stand-alones in SG-1 or Atlantis, and that also lack a base of operations as focused and recognizable as the earlier shows (the SGC and the Earth gate in the first, and Atlantis itself in the second). The most recent episodes have had to rely on O'Neill grit-wit for any traction at all. 

It's surprising.

The writers are better than that -- Cooper, Wright, Mallozi, Mullie, Binder, Gero -- all have written great stuff in the past. So are the directors -- Mikita, Waring, DeLuise, Cooper -- all Stargate veterans. And again, the actors are really great (Robert Carlyle and Justin Louis as Dr. Rush and Colonel Young are indeed excellent, as are Jamil Walker Smith as Greer and Alaina Huffman as Lt. Tamara Johansen, to mention just two of the other outstanding ensemble cast members).

I've continued watching (although not very attentively) because I keep expecting it all to establish some kind of base line from which to mete out the different stories. But most of the story-arcs in individual episodes are under developed and not exactly riveting. I don't need to be entertained by flash-bang wallop special effects every four minutes or explosively soap-operatic plot devices; I'm British -- I can accept slow and detailed. But not slow and boring, or slow and pointless.

I hesitate to be so negative, because I don't have any real suggestions to make that would improve the show. I'd certainly lose the lame attempts to find songs and lyrics to accompany the quiet montage moments (that are great visually). But apart from that?

What would have been really interesting would have been if, when Rush was left behind, he got to know the aliens who picked him up and tried to pickle him, and traveled with them for a while voluntarily, learning why they wanted to capture the Destiny for their own purposes and maybe even bringing them on board the ship as additional crew, to the annoyance of Young and Wray (Ming-Na as galactic bureaucrat brat). But the show's creators painted themselves into a corner by having the aliens be such wonderful CGI.

Have any suggestions about improving the series? Enter them below!