Stargate Universe – Mid Season Critique

Stargate Universe is a curious beast.

The latest in the line of Stargate shows, it goes against formula of the previous shows and aims to try and be something different. In the process it creates a curious drama, on the other it can often infuriate and test the patience of the viewer that is constantly teased with higher-concept science fiction when clashed with character drama.

What do I mean?

Well let’s go through the first half of the first season…

So there’s a project to determine the mysterious “Ninth Chevron” of the Stargates (intergalactic portals) and when an outpost is attacked by a mysterious enemy over a hundred people are sent through the Stargate to a ship that’s got a mind of it’s own. Now they are trapped with each other with no way of getting back to Earth. There’s some conflict between military and civilians as well as a shady scientist in charge of the original project with his own agenda…

All this character ensemble drama is good and all, and it gives a very different dynamic that SG-1 and Atlantis did – but the Stargate Universe is much more vast, more dense and richly open to a lot more science-fiction that this feels a little…reserved. There’s definitely something more ‘alien’ to the mysterious elements and races that aren’t fully explored, but it just doesn’t feel as if they’re tapping into things yet.

I think the main reason for this, is the jaunts back to Earth with the aid of ‘communication stones’ seen in SG-1 which allows for the consciousness of people to be sent across the Universe. Now this allows for more guest stars in the SGC, but it does seem to fill the stories with some unnecessary character-fleshing which on one hand does make them more like people…on the other – it’s the freaking Stargate Universe! I’m personally counting on those stones being destroyed and cutting them off from civilisation.

The characters though are warming up quickly, despite the distracting Earth jaunts of soapyness. The big buzz was about Robert Carlyle playing Dr Nicholas Rush, who does play a morally dubious role and is a really interesting and hard-to-read guy. He clashes with Colonel Young quite often, and the scenes between them are really dynamic and add a new kind of relationship in a Stargate show. The previous shows had a similar structure in the cast, and whilst Atlantis was beginning to mix it up this ensemble does work. Some of the supporting cast aren’t as interesting, like the medic and Matthew Scott.

The real star in all this is though is David Blue as tech-geek Eli Wallace. In a world he really doesn’t understand (yet) he provides light relief and is quite likable compared to some of the sour grapes in the cast. Someone to root for and someone to hopefully develop into their own as the show begins to continue to go on.

All-in-all, the show is a good watch. There’s not much Sci-Fi wise and at the moment if the genre needs a flagship show then this could definitely be it (Fringe is just…nyeh). It brings something new to a Franchise that needed it, but at the same time it doesn’t really give much of what the universe is fully capable of.

Plus it has Robert Carlyle in it. You may not have heard that.