Stargate Universe

With 19 episodes remaining in this season, there's plenty of time for all this drama to intensify and the characters to sort themselves out as good and not-so-good.

Stargate Universe isn’t quite so ambitious [as "Lost"], but it’s intriguing in its way, down to the ship, bathed in blue light, that emerges as a character in its own right. The ship is more interesting thus far, alas, than any of the female characters, but perhaps that will change over time.

Hopefully the story itself, which finds a band of alien-attack victims jumping blindly through a Stargate and landing on a mysterious spaceship billions of light years from Earth, will eventually transcend this premiere's BSG-lite-ness.

Given time, Stargate Universe may become worth watching if it develops its characters and continues to mine its premise for stories. Just hope they avoid more desert planets.

Now it's a little bit "Lost" meets "Star Trek: Voyager." Why are we here? How do we get home? Stay tuned, if it's your thing.

Stories aren't particularly dense or surprising, and some of the conflict feels quite contrived

In its final season, this is one space opera that deserves to be put out of its misery. [11 Mar 2011, p.70]

Il aura fallu 15 saisons (!) pour que la saga Stargate arrive enfin à maturité et propose contre toute attente (enfin) une série à la hauteur de ses ambitions (trop souvent contrariées) mais mieux vaut **** que jamais comme on dit !… Avec Stargate Universe en tout cas, la distribution a entièrement été revue avec en tête d’affiche l’excellent Robert Carlyle épaulé par une galerie de seconds couteaux qui ne déméritent pas.D’ailleurs, si les filles sont très jolies, elles restent loin de servir de pots de fleurs. L’étude de caractères est plutôt soignée : on la sent nettement inspirée de Battlestar Galactica 2003 (ce qui est bien entendu un compliment) y compris dans la capacité de restituer une ambiance crédible voire assez réaliste.Deux bonnes saisons donc après les 15 calamités précédentes (10 pour Stargate SG-1 et 5 pour Stargate Atlantis… putain !) et il n’y en aura pas d’autres, les producteurs en ayant décidé ainsi. Et pour une fois, je suis d’accord avec eux : si la seconde saison est globalement bien faite, elle replonge dans sa dernière partie dans les travers coutumiers de la saga : niaiserie absolue (le petit Stargate dans la prairie), incohérence de l’écriture et débilité inquiétante des situations. Mais globalement, rien d’alarmant, le bilan reste largement satisfaisant, SGU est à recommander sans crainte !

It started getting okay (not good, never good) right when they canceled it. Honestly there's no reason to watch this unless you've finished both SG-1 and Atlantis and are DESPERATE for more, regardless of quality. You still will not enjoy it. It's more battlestar galactica-esque ship drama than stargate shoot-the-bad-aliens fun times.

The second Stargate spin off. I like the premise and ideas but the rest of the show could not fully win me over. The cast is a bit unremarkable in comparison to “Stargate” and “Stargate Atlantis” and lacks the chemistry those characters had. To be fair it got a lot better in season 2 but this was too late for the show. The other aspect was that season 1 had not many great episode. Again season 2 improved. While I see no true garbage episodes there it is in general meritocracy. Some say that “Mediocre is worse than bad” in our times and here I have to reluctantly agree with season 1 (Would disagree in general). The premise of the show is solving the 9th chevron riddle. The Stargates operate by using chevrons. With 7 you can travel inside the galaxy to another Stargate and an 8th chevron is used for a Stargate in another galaxy (Much more energy consumption!). What the 9th does is unclear as the Ancients (Stargate builders / Precursor race with technology that was incredibly advanced) information is not understood. Dr. Rush the leading scientist creates a puzzle based on Ancients algorithms in a multiplayer RPG videogame to find young brilliant minds for the project. I first found this unbelievable stupid but after some thoughts it is a really good idea. No risk of giving away hidden information, huge group you can reach, easy to track and it cost you nothing in comparison. The young genius Eli was able to solve the puzzle and was surprised when the government wants to hire him. He is brought to the Icarus base via Stargate to help solve the issue. After some developments I wont spoil they land in a spaceship called Destiny so far away that even with the best faster than light engines it is not possible to retrieve them (by far!). The Ancients want to solve a riddle as there were inconsistencies in the development of the young universe that cant be explained (Which says something given their advance). This is the set up for the show. Like I said it is on paper far better than in reality. Season 1 is too boring and I asked myself “When did it get good” or “When did it become as enjoyable as Stargate / Stargate Atlantis”. While season 2 improved it is also nowhere near the other 2 shows. The characters are decent but did not work as good as in the previous shows. Many shows have this weakness in season 1 but both Stargate series did it better so I anticipated this also to be true here. I have to repeat it got better in season 2 but the show was already doomed. To be fair I blame no one here while I read complaints by others that they want to chase trends or to be more like other shows (Battlestar Galactica is mentioned a lot but I do not see this). The special effects are as always really good and I have nothing to criticize. However the sets are a bit dark and monotonous in some parts. Overall this while not being bad was a disappointment. I would not recommend it and it is the one (reality) Stargate show that is least talked about not without a reason.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

-10 if i could. Awful show which buried the excellent Stargate franchise under a steaming pile of shame. They tried the 'zero-script' procedural modern format, putting a bunch of sexy teens into a closed space. Plus a useless Eli to please the producers and a good actor to babysit them. Still, Bobby is just an actor, he can't save an empty show. Coz that's what it is, nothing. No script, no story, nothing happening. Unwatchable