Demiurgic

As promised I am going to talk about Stargate: Universe in this post. It’s what I said I’d do yesterday after realising that J-to-the-T practically challenged me to do it. I would like to point out that if you like SGU feel free to voice an opinion in the comments. But please don’t try and intentionally start an argument because I’ve had them all. And to be quite honest I am sick to death of them.

I didn’t really like the first season of SGU. I thought it got better in its second half with episodes like “Human” and “Lost” but all in all it just wasn’t doing anything for me. But I thought I’d stick with it because it’s not like SG-1 was that good in its first season, plus Brad Wright, Rob Cooper and the rest were making noises about how they had listened to the criticisms of the show. And then the second season started. And to be honest it does seem like they listened to the criticisms for the show, but then decided to antagonize those that made them further. (I should point out that I have watched up to “Cloverdale” at this point, and am planning on watching “Trial and Error” later)

During the weeks leading up to season two I found myself with a lot of free time. I decided to re-watch the ninth and tenth seasons of Stargate: SG-1. I know that a lot of people don’t like them, but season nine was what drew me back to the show after losing track of it after season five. And I really, really like both seasons. A lot. There was also another reason I watched episodes of SG-1, but that’s a secretwritingthingy. I really couldn’t believe how much better SG-1 was than SGU. Now I get why they changed things so dramatically, it’s the nature of things. It worked for Star Trek’s third series. It worked for the Battlestar reboot. But it really didn’t work for SGU. If I had been in the minority with this opinion then I would have just said fair enough and figured that SGU just wasn’t for me. But there are a lot of Stargate fans that, like myself, have been with the show since it began. So I started trying to figure out why SGU wasn’t working for me.

This led to a brilliantly long rant aimed at J-to-the-T after we were discussing a line about SGU in Day Job. The whole thing made for a long, long e-mail.

I largely ignored fandom arguments during season one of SGU, because I was trying to form my own opinion on the series. But after the first season ended I dove into the Internet and read what everyone else was saying, good and bad. And I have to say that some of the arguments made my blood boil over. The first things that I read up on were remarks by the producers of the show, mainly Brad Wright.

Let’s not forget that SGU was commissioned as Stargate: Atlantis was cancelled. That was a kick in itself because Atlantis was having a really, really good year (“The Daedalus Variations”, “The Shrine”, “First Contact”, “Vegas”). It was also commissioned with the promise of an Atlantis movie. A movie which has never come to pass. I was looking forward to the next chapter in the Stargate franchise, though I was sad to see Atlantis go. So Mr. Wright and co. bigged up the show and I took it all in while I waited for the series premiere (a three part episode!?!). When it came I found I quite enjoyed “Air” though I did find it a little slow at times, I figured it was the new direction that SGU was taking and thought I’d get accustomed to it. And then “Darkness” happened. Then came “Light” and “Earth”. And I was starting to get a bit worried. By the time it ended for it’s mid-season break I didn’t like what I had watched at all.

The characters were getting on my nerves (except Greer) and I wasn’t connecting with a single one of them (except Greer). At some point Brad Wright came out fighting, telling everyone that SGU was the way it was and it wasn’t going to change. Though it was going to get more exciting with faster paced storytelling and it was always planned like that. And to their credit the show did improve after it’s break. But it was season two where the wheels started falling off big time. Plus Brad Wright came out with one of the most ill-advised comments he’s ever likely to make.

If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.

That’s funny, because that’s exactly what people did. Now he’s been quoted as saying this.

Please watch our show.

The problems with SGU numerous. They’re trying to make it a character drama with characters that are as appealing as a cup of coffee made from cow pat (except Greer, he’s awesome). The storylines are dull and lifeless. The plot holes are many and they seem to have forgotten that this is part of the Stargate franchise (except when they want to boost ratings by trotting out a cast member of one of the previous series’).

*Why wouldn’t they be able to dial Destiny with the still working, still in one piece Supergate the Ori left behind in the Milky Way?
*Couldn’t Jackson, Carter and McKay figure out exactly how to make the whole ship work in a matter of hours? Don’t we still have the entire knowledge base of the pre-Ascension Ancients AND the Asgard?
*Why have teams not been organised to search Destiny from stem to stern? Surely if you were going to have to be living there, you’d want to know what was what?
*Young is being portrayed as suspicious of Rush’s constant disappearances, so why hasn’t he had him followed?
*In “Awakening” why was more time not given to the AMAZING DISCOVERY that was the STARGATE PRODUCTION FACILITY?
*Why does almost every episode end with a terrible musical montage?

But it’s the fans that are turning me away from this show. One of the major pro-SGU arguments is that the show is more mature and it is a character based drama and (it’s implied that) SG-1 and SG:A were light-hearted fluff shows that were all about action and sarcasm. I’m sorry, were we watching the same series? “The Shrine” is a stand-out, heartbreaking episode. It was better than anything that SGU, a show that is ALL ABOUT character drama and interactions, has managed to produce. Let’s also look at “Window of Opportunity”, the funniest episode of them all (except maybe “200″). Except right at the end watch Richard Dean Anderson’s performance and the writing as he convinces the dude to stop the time loop.

Jack O’Neill: Listen to me I know what it’s like.
Malikai: You can’t!
Jack O’Neill: I LOST MY SON!… I KNOW!… AND AS MUCH AS I – I could NEVER relive that again! Could you?
Malikai: …No.
Jack O’Neill: Let her go.

Anyone who wants to kid themselves and decide that SG-1 was fun, funny and that’s all is kidding themselves. That series was a science-fiction/action/comedy series at its core, but in amongst those sci-fi/action/comedy moments were these amazing character moments. Because Jack, Teal’c, Jackson, Sam, Mitchell, Vala, Hammond (R.I.P. Don S. Davis), Landry, Lam, Fraiser…they were all memorable characters. If you stopped watching SGU for a year how many characters would you be able to name? How many iconic quotes would you spout? And how many of those so-called amazing character drama moments would you be able to remember?

And how many of those things can you remember from SG-1/SG:A?

I’m posting a link to a clip from Ark of Truth next. It’s one of the defining character moments of the entire series of SG-1 and it still sometimes gives me goosebumps. Some would say it’s a little unfair to use a clip from the film the came after ten seasons of the show, but even if SGU ran for twenty seasons it would never have a moment as deep, powerful or memorable as this:

And now one of the funniest, just because…

Oh and as for the “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it” argument, people have been doing just that. And now everyone is worried there won’t be a third season of SGU without those people watching the show. It turns out that if you antagonise a group of people just for being fans of the work that came before, and just for not liking what’s come next, they get mad. And then they abandon you.