Stargate Universe

Oct 8

The first two episodes of the new Stargate spinoff aired this week, and I must admit, I was very impressed by it. Obviously the creative team have decided to give the franchise a shot in the arm before it gets stale by shaking things up and going for a different feel to the previous two series.

Borrowing a lot from the Battlestar Galactica remake in terms of tone and visual style, this new series follows a group of survivors from the Icarus Project. The project’s intention was to unlock the 9th chevron in the Stargate and access an address stored in their databases. To do this though, there was only one power source available, and they were tapping the core of a planet to power the gate. However when the Lucian Alliance (as seen in the later seasons of SG-1) attack the planet, the crew of the base are forced to flee, and when Dr Rush (Robert Carlyle) ceases the opportunity to dial the 9 chevron address, they find themselves trapped, galaxies from home on the far side of the universe, onboard the Destiny, and automated ship that’s ancient, even by Ancient standards.

The other obvious comparison in terms of shows is Star Trek: Voyager, which similarly found a mismatched crew trapped far from home. However that show always drew criticism for magically dodging the realism of the situation. The kitchen was always well-stocked and the ship in tip-top condition even after 7 years stranded. Fortunately more recent shows have ensured to learn from Voyager’s mistakes, and SGU is no exception. The Destiny is an old, old ship and as such is riddled with hull breaches and a knackered air filtration system, so no sooner have the crew arrived than they’re immediately facing the issue of dying of oxygen starvation.

Comparisons can also be drawn with the opening of Stargate Atlantis with the team finding the lost City and immediately being trapped with the city under water and the power to the shields running out (easily solved when a failsafe kicks in and raises the city). However in this case, the Destiny seems more alien and perhaps even a more hostile environment than Atlantis (which felt very cosy and safe almost immediately) was.

Another thing I loved was the way the show is tackling the usual cliches. Early on, there’s a need for someone to sacrifice themselves, sealing off a damaged shuttle that’s leaking air. The Colonel has been badly injured, and is still laid up despite slowly healing, so obviously I jumped to the conclusion that he was going to nobly sacrifice himself for the good of the men under his command.

However he doesn’t get the chance. As the senator that was with the group, and who is also badly injured (with very ropey chances of survival) gets to the shuttle first. Stargate (and Sci-Fi in general) has a long history of politicians being untrustworthy, self-serving types, so to see that turned on its head was a really nice surprise.

Another Stargate staple is that the main cast are by and large a trustworthy heroic lot. Not so much here. Robert Carlyle’s Dr Rush comes across quite ambiguous in these first two episodes, and you’re left feeling unsure as to just whether or not he can be trusted. His actions maroon the crew on the Destiny when he refuses to dial Earth (or some other appropriate planet) to escape on Icarus base, instead driven to take his last opportunity to dial the 9 chevron address. He’s quick to make off with the ancient communications device, the crew’s only link to Earth, and despite saying he’s been put in charge, there is a question mark over whether or not he did actually contact home.

There also seems to be a hint of a mystery in the pilot. Although its not really touched upon, it does seem a bit of a surprise that the Lucian Alliance managed to locate Project Icarus. I can’t help but think this is something that’s going to come up again as the series goes on, and I suspect someone in the crew may have sold them out.

All in all, a very solid launch indeed. There seems to be a fair amount of stuff setup between the age and unreliability of the Destiny, the crew’s various secrets and perhaps some broader plot elements as well (the idea of there being further automated ships sent ahead of the Destiny for example).

Roll on next week, and the third part of the opening story. I’m very intrigued by how the ticking clock element will affect things as the crew have to be back to the Destiny before it heads off again to the next stop on its journey.

Robert Carlyle, Stargate, Television, Universe

Comments

Pie Man 70

October 11th, 2009 at 4:50 AM

Agree with most stuff you said. teh BSG elements are very keenly felt, indeed, the first story is called Air, because they’re needing to repair the life support system, and IIRC BSG did a similar idea but with locating water.

Rush definitely is hiding something. For starters I reckon his reason not to dial earth from Icarus was made up, he just didn’t want to miss his chance to dial the 9th cheveron, I expect a big blowout when this is found out in the future. So far, coudl be very interesting indeed. In fact, another good point is that so far we have no big bad. I just hope we have no replicators.
Alan

October 12th, 2009 at 12:26 PM

I don’t know. I think Rush was genuine about taking his last opportunity to dial the 9th chevron. It was completely the wrong thing to do, but I saw it as setting him up as one of those “do anything for my project and damn the rest” overly-driven scientists.

At least, that’s my reading. This project’s his life, so he’s not going to let anyone muck it up. Similar to his (presumed) fibbing about contacting Earth. He was trying to remain in charge of what he sees as “his” project.
Pie Man 70

October 13th, 2009 at 11:08 AM

Oh, I think he was just using hsi last chance, and it will remain to be seen how many chances to return to earth he sabotages, but didn’t he say something like “We can’t dial earth because the explosion coudl feed down teh wormhole and do bad things” I think that was made up.
Alan

October 13th, 2009 at 3:04 PM

Nah, I figured that was probably genuine, but a convenient excuse. He could’ve easily dialled any other world in the Gate network in our galaxy.

Like the idea that he’ll sabotage any other attempts to contact Earth. You have to wonder how easily he’s going to let them at those communication devices if he was fibbing.
Pie Man 70

October 14th, 2009 at 9:35 AM

Well, we found out in Air part 3. What interested me was the side of rush when he really thought tehy were all doomed, guilt perhaps? His interplay with the other guy (violent psycho guy) was good. Also think the commander on earth interfearing coudl make for an interesting dynamic, him trying to micromanage hsi team from earth.
Pie Man 70

October 14th, 2009 at 9:36 AM

I do wonde rone thing, trapped on an ancient space ship with only robert carlyle and Eli as experts, surely someone ha sthought of bringing in Daniel or Rodney on the ancient device
Alan

October 14th, 2009 at 10:09 AM

Yeah. Some very interesting stuff last night, that really got me thinking about that communications device. Got a follow-up post brewing I’ll probably work on over lunch.

In fairness though, Rush does seem to be pretty well versed in Ancient tech. He’s started sussing out the Destiny pretty quickly, and the implication does seem to be that its much older than anything else we’re used to, so McKay and Daniel perhaps wouldn’t be much better with it (although things do seem to be confused at the moment, as the age of the ship would make it a heck of a lot newer than Atlantis, which it sure doesn’t look).
Pie Man 70

October 15th, 2009 at 8:42 AM

I took it that it was older, I was actually running with a personal theory that the destiny gates were oldest, and the destiny pre-dated atlantis. I’m sure it was mentioned that pegasus gates were newer and that was why they superceded an earth type gate if used at the same time. I took it as Destiny type gates Mk 1, Milky way style Mk 2, pegasus Style Mk 3.

Of course, at the moment there’s a good chance they don’t know.
Alan

October 15th, 2009 at 8:50 AM

Must admit, I’m currently assuming the same. Destiny just looks so much older than Atlantis did (despite Atlantis being millions of years old, versus the Destiny’s hundreds of thousands). I guess its possible though that Atlantis was more or less completely rebuilt at somepoint to explain it looking more flashy, but the timeline’s not quite clicking for me at the moment. It just makes more sense that the Destiny predates Atlantis.

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