It’s compelling drama, and the stories aren’t neatly tied up with a bow at the end of the hour. You really should be watching it if you like character-driven stories, that develop in surprising ways, that aren’t telegraphed in the first ten minutes.
SGU follows a band of soldiers, scientists and civilians, who must fend for themselves as they are forced through a Stargate when their hidden base comes under attack. The desperate survivors emerge aboard an ancient ship, which is locked on an unknown course and unable to return to Earth. Faced with meeting the most basic needs of food, water and air, the group must unlock the secrets of the ship’s Stargate to survive. The danger, adventure and hope they find on board the Destiny will reveal the heroes and villains among them.
via Official Stargate Website: Series: Stargate Universe.
A lot of science fiction fans are talking about Stargate: Universe. It has its detractors, sure. A lot of fans of the previous show in the franchise, Atlantis, are still pretty gruntled over the cancellation of that series in favor of this one. Frankly, at first I was angry too, but I wanted to give the new show a chance as much as I wanted to see more of Shepard, McKay, and Ronan.
Many complain that SGU is too dark, literally – it’s set on a spooky near-derelict spaceship and the lighting is deliberately moody. But more importantly, the storylines are dark, full of interpersonal conflict between different groups on board the Destiny, and between individuals. Not only that, major characters are quite often flawed, and depicted as dealing (or not dealing) with those flaws in different ways.
A lot of the storylines deal with these interpersonal conflicts, but fortunately it doesn’t devolve into a soap opera in space; there’s too much at stake. People stranded on the ship have lives back home on Earth that aren’t just on hold; they have the ability, in a clever plot device, to transfer their consciousness to someone else on Earth temporarily, so they can visit family or consult with Stargate Command.
One of the most moving recent episodes involved Eli, aka Mathboy. His mother is HIV+ (she’s a nurse, contracted via needle stick I think) and she wasn’t doing very well, so Eli got the alien mind-transfer version of a compassionate leave home. For various reasons, it was some of the best drama I’d seen on TV this season. There’s some fan chatter going around that the show might not get renewed, which would be a terrible thing; just as the story has ramped up it would be a shame to abandon ship now.
SGU is on tonight and we’ll be watching. Why don’t you join us?
