As at episode 9 of Season 1, the controversy is raging across the internets as to whether Universe is a good or bad series. Personally I’m torn: I’m loving the depiction of certain characters (Rush, Young and Greer in particular), and some of the storylines are fantastic, but there are some aspects (especially the long-range communication stones) that I just can’t abide. I was just reading the latest comments on Yahoo’s “SG1-Spoilergate” community and saw the following letter from someone called catbyte. I’m reproducing a large portion of their comment below, because it sums up my opinions perfectly:
quote:I’ve made excuses for [Brad Wright and Joe Mallozzi] in the past, but the way they have acted about this show has actually shocked me. All they want to hear is sucking up. If you don’t like the show, you’re wrong and stupid and don’t get it. They can’t seem to get it that there are people shocked and dismayed to the core about the things they’re doing on the show. But they don’t want any criticism of their shiny new toy. Ok, I get that. But what they have said to and about fans has gone way too far.
The way they have denigrated the previous shows really makes me angry; they’re all but saying that they produced bad shows and that we’re fools for watching them.
I also don’t really believe that they honestly believe some of the cr*p they’ve spewed. The stupidist thing that has been said so far has been about the concept of sexual consent and those stupid communication stones: Joe went so far as to say that we should assume that consent was given because that was the most logical alternative. Well, I suppose that might be believable, if you don’t want to deal with the idiocy of people who WOULD actually consent.
quote:I think what really happened is that the controversy over ‘Sabotage’ blew up in their faces, they didn’t know what to do, so they came up with this idiotic assumed consent stupidity. The thing about that, though, is that the only fans who are going to accept that are the ones that are in agreement with them now; I can’t see people who have a problem with the way those stones are being used actually believing that ‘reasoning.’
In their overwhelming efforts to pound into our heads that ‘these people are the wrong people and shouldn’t be there’ they have completely forgotten what we’ve been told about the SGC and the Air Force from day one of SG1: the people chosen for that program were carefully chosen and vetted, carefully and extensively trained, and had psych evals. Yet the people on Icarus base were somehow completely undisciplined, ignorant morons who did a lot of whining and who know next to nothing about everything. Their underlying premise is completely untenable and unbelieable in the context of their show and the history of the Stargate program.
I’d have an easier time accepting this ship of fools had they just been ‘accidentally’ beamed off the Earth and stuffed onto that ship.
Even worse, while there are lots of stupid, idiotic, selfish, creepy people on this planet, my own experience with people in the last 55 years has been that most are good and decent and will sacrifice for others. When faced with utter calamity, they will work together for the common good. There are many who won’t, but life is filled with stories of people who do what they can to help each other and hang together to solve problems of survival. People are indeed complex, but for the people running this show, complexity in humanity is shown by stupid sexual behavior and really bad judgment, with almost no one making good decisions.
I also agree 100% [with what’s been said] about edginess and sex; for these writers, edginess is all about sex. Sex isn’t edgy, and on tv, it’s not all that interesting when you’re dealing with it being done in a 90210 fashion. It’s been done to death, and soap operas do it better. If they want edgy, yeah, they’d go some of the places you suggest. But for them, character based drama means no story, complexity means utter selfishness and stupidity, and edginess means sex. Stupid sex at that. They think they’re cutting edge with the camera work and the darkness. All they do is give me a stomach ache and eyestrain.
I resent the fact that this is where Stargate has gone. I’ll live with that, just as I lived with my disappointment over Enterprise.
I can't find anything that I disagree with in that review. I was looking forward to Universe and its unique view on Stargate, which is more than I can say about Enterprise when it premiered. I especially agree with the "wrong people" thing. How in the world did Sgt. Greer ever get there? How about Col. Young? You would think that if these people were serving on a military base on another planet when the series began, then they would have some idea of the risks.
In all honesty, I don't think Universe is a good series right now, but a lot of series aren't that good at the beginning. Heck, if I had started watching SG-1 during season 1 rather than season 9, I would have shut it off and never looked back. I'm willing to give it time.
The producers are getting a little defensive. Maybe they don't like the ratings (Air got half as many viewers as SGA's "Rising"), or maybe they're just not used to so much criticism from their fans.
I think that many of the problems with Universe come from the fact that it lacks new writers. The same people who have given us 15 seasons of "fluff" sci-fi action (not my description--that was lifted verbatim from one of the writers in an SGA DVD commentary) are suddenly going to start writing drama?
I agree too, the stones were a bad idea, plain and simple. "Let's just go and grab someone else's body. They won't mind." How would you know?
Also, with all the sex going on, (yes, Chloe and Scott, I'm talking about you), one has to wonder if either has any, ah, protection. Did Scott think to bring along a supply of condoms? Did Chloe have a handy supply of the pill. If not, well, will Destiny be hearing the pitter patter of little feat? Will Chloe ask Tamara to perform an abortion (like they'd be stupid enough to whack that hornet's nest)? Having endless sex when the nearest contraceptives are on the other side of the universe is NOT a good idea, people!
Its hard to imagine a group of real, mature people acting less like the characters on Universe. In fact, the closest think I can compare the Destiny to is a college dorm. We have characters getting naked in front of each other (Chloe's shower in front of Eli), stealing from each other, guys secretly recording girls, wild, random, unprotected sex, and even a by-the-book dean (Telford), who pops in every once in a while to straighten things up.
Sounds like Animal House in space. At least we don't have Eli running around in a toga
Ewwww! Now I have to get that image out of my mind!
Callie!!! Where's the nishta????
The difference is that Animal House in Space would be funny, not sad & pathetic like Universe.
Each episode starts off with the description of Destiny, but most of the episodes are either on some one biome planet we'll never see again or back on Earth because of those stupid stones. The one time we actually saw people examining the cool ship they got shut down by Rush because of the power consumption.
You had the nishta supplies, Scott - I just kept getting zapped by the stuff!
Here, have this sledgehammer instead - it'll probably do the job just as well. Aim it towards your head ;-)
I really want the series to succeed because it does have promise. It's so frustrating that the producers still seem to have the sense of humour of young teenagers. David's comment about the need for new writers who understand how to write drama is absolutely right.
Another reviewer agrees with us: http://www.cinemaspy.com/article.php?id=3600
Its amazing that every review says the same things: characters are uninspiring and have no direction, Rush is the villain, but still the only interesting and sensible character, the stones add nothing to the show, etc.
I'm starting to get a little worried, as we've heard nothing about whether the show will get renewed. We usually know around episode 6 or 7. I hope it gets at least one more season. Given that most of the season was produced before the reviews began flooding in, I'd like to give the producers the benefit of the doubt and see what they do to address the criticism in season 2.
So at the risk of spoilers, who exactly is going to get to sit in the Chair, that could be either a defence drone control device from Season 8 of Stargate:SG-1, or a earlier version of the "Infodump machine", from a earlier season Of Stargate:SG-1, that was discovered in this week's episode (Justice)...?
There's no episode tonight; and the final episode before the hiatus will be next Friday. After that we have to wait until March, I believe, for the second half of the season. In view of a large number of people's opinions about the series, if ever there was a time when they shouldn't be having a hiatus, it's now, because I imagine that a significant majority of viewers just won't come back next year. It's a shame they hadn't got the same arrangements as with the last series of Atlantis which ran all 20 episodes pretty much non-stop.
I didn't read all the comments below the article which David linked to above, but the majority seemed to agree with the author, and the most interesting one I saw asked why they called it a Stargate series. If, instead, they'd said it was "by the makers of SG-1 and Atlantis", it would have got the same viewers but people wouldn't have expected the series to be a Stargate clone and therefore wouldn't be so disappointed by it.
I believe that they will learn in December whether or not they'll get a second season.
I've not seen any spoilers about who - if anyone - sits in the Chair. I wonder if it might be linked with the potential suicide that Robert Carlyle had been talking about before the season had finished filming (though it's also possible that the producers eventually decided not to use that idea).
Another thing that's not working is these one word episode titles. Especially if they do get a second season, how many people are going to be able to say, "Ooh, remember when they said such-and-such in Life?" They're just not memorable enough. Obviously we'll remember the plot of Water, but titles like Divided and Subversion are never going to stick in people's memories, even if the episodes are great. We'll be more likely to say, "Ooh, remember when they said such-and-such in the episode when such-and-such happened?" or - perhaps easier - "Ooh, remember when they said such-and-such last year?"!
I'm afraid I agree with the reviewer DavidH linked to. I have "Time" and "Life" both recorded and just can't make myself watch them. It was a push to get through "Earth."
Too bad!
Callie, isn't that why "Friend" titled all their episodes as "The one with.... "
I have yet to actually see a title appear on the screen at the beginning of any episode. The only reason I know there is a title is from this forum and then I scroll down to where the last updated thread is.
"After that we have to wait until March, I believe, for the second half of the season."
Well that's stupid. Why not air the whole season now. I thought this premise of splitting a show in two like this was abandoned after what happened three years ago. Shows like Jericho started strong, but then they went away for three months, and when they came back, the audience didn't.
What is wrong with the morons at the Sci-Fi Channel (or syfy as they insist on calling it now)? Do they WANT to get this show cancelled!?
I don't think the idiots in charge want the show to be canceled, but considering that they actually believed that changing the name to Syfy was a good idea, they are just too stupid to be in charge of anything.
Maybe they'll insist that the show change it's name to Stargayt Yooniverse to boost ratings? ;-)
"More stoned trips! More wild sex! All the stuff the Internet has been buzzing about!"
Don't put ideas in their heads like that, Keith!!
The TV Tropes listing for this show mentions the Kino webisodes.
Should there be a page for these webisodes?
Yes, there should, and now there is! I've put it in the Universe sub-directory. Now I need to find time to watch them ...
On a more important note, Universe has been renewed for a second season. The link also shows an interview with Robert Cooper who says that the latter half of Season 1 will have less Earthcentric moments.
"the latter half of Season 1 will have less Earthcentric moments."
That's good to know.
I wonder, however, whether Coop said that to try and lure the viewers back. The season was pretty much complete by the time the complaints started about all the Earth stuff, so unless they've managed to re-edit the latter half of the season and add in new footage, I'm not totally convinced.
There's a poll on Gateworld at present asking which character you like the most. I don't know how long the poll has been running or how much longer it has to run, but currently Nicholas Rush and Eli Wallace are romping away with the votes, having about 33-34% each. No one else has got more than 10% (Everett Young is in third place at present, with Ronald Greer in fourth).
I suppose Chloe must be the most hated.
Amazingly, Camille's getting less votes than Chloe - Chloe's in double figures while currently Camille hasn't even reached 50 yet!
Possibly because everyone knows for sure who Chloe is, while there's still a moment of "Camille? Who's she?"
I think the idea that these guys are the wrong people isn't so outlandish the colonel was originally going to go to the destiny but had requested reasignment and Telford was going to take his place, the civilians are scientists and so are selected for their minds not their calmness under pressure and other than Rush they might not have been going to go, the carefully vetted and trained soldiers are doing reasonably well but they still had going to the destiny forced onto them with no recon and limited suplies.
No one was "going to go to the Destiny". They were all on the planet doing their prescribed assignments when the attack occurred and they ran through the Gate to........where? Rush dialed the extra chevron but had no idea where it would lead; they could have wound up on something like the ice planet or into a bunch of nasty aliens that would have killed them all on the spot. It was sheer happenstance that put them onto an actual ship.
Bizarrely, after all the product placement for iPhone, iPod, iMovie etc, Universe has featured briefly in an advert for Windows 7!! The scene is the explosion of the Icarus planet and the destruction of the Lucian Alliance fleet.
At last the REAL reason for the big gap in the middle of the season is being revealed. MGM/SciFi are releasing the DVD box set of the first half of the season only, then releasing the second half later. In this way, they believe that they can scam the public into spending much more money - in the UK the first ten episodes (due for release in July) are currently priced at nearly £45; the US version is due out on 9 February at a cost of $28.
I can't speak for America, but for £45 I would expect all 20 episodes, not just 10. This is a huge con, and I hope the viewers let MGM or SciFi - or whoever is screwing the fans like this - know exactly what they think of them.
Edit: according to some websites, the UK version might be the full 20 episodes. It's only the US that will sell the series in two separate boxes. This seems odd to me - I would have expected the same arrangements around the world.
There's concern that the US will go one step even worse, releasing episodes 1-10 in a single boxset, then releasing the full season later, with no option of a boxset containing only episodes 11-20. We'll have to wait and see.
What a bunch of greedy morons. Why not air the whole season and release the whole thing on DVD later. Makes much more sense to me. Of course, logic is a totally foreign concept to many a TV exec.
I saw the box set of episodes 1-10 at Best Buy here in Calgary last week. It was selling for $34.99. I did not buy it. I do not like this show enough to buy the DVDs. I have all of SG-1 and Atlantis but will be skipping this series.
I also noticed that there are SGI books out as well but will not be purchasing them either. Just Atlantis and now SG-1.
SGI?? Do you mean there are books for the Infinity series, Beth, or was that a mis-type and you meant SGU?
*hides under the bedcovers whimpering "Please don't let there be SGI books."*
Well, at least with SGI books we wouldn't have to listen to the lousy theme song. ;-)
Incidentally, after being dragged into the 21st century and finally getting a digital television, I have now caught some repeats of Universe episodes and so have finally heard the closing theme tune. I'm particularly delighted that most of it is the same tune that drove me to tears in Light, though I was kind of surprised when - after all the criticism that the show is a rip-off of (/homage to) Battlestar Galactica, the theme tune has similar prominent drumming to BSG incidental music.
Sorry, I meant SGU That was a typo.
That's OK, Beth. I've only been having nightmares for a week. ;-)
SGI?
Stargate Infinity, the godsawful animated series which was so bad that, despite over 20 episodes being made, only 6 were aired and the rest went straight to (very cheap) DVD. There's a topic about it in this Stargate section of Nitcentral if you want to see what people thought of it.
Ah, thanks Callie.
Trailer for the second half of the season - or, as they will insist on calling it, Season 1.5. The page takes an age to load, but the video does make the rest of the season look pretty exciting.
Let's hope they didn't use all of the exciting stuff in that clip. ;-)
The second half of season one starts in Canada next Friday night.
And in America. It re-starts in Australia on 9 April, and in the UK on 13 April.
More news on the DVD releases. The second half of Season 1 will be released in the US in July, shortly after the end of the season; then a complete Season 1 (20 episodes) will come out some time next year.
In view of its lack of popularity, I imagine that the costs of producing three different box sets will be greater than the number of sets they actually sell!
Meanwhile in the UK there will definitely be only a single 20-episode boxset, due out in July. I've already pre-ordered mine!
An alternate ending to Universe.
Oh, that is hilarious!!
Ouch, I'd hate to be the one that had to clean up that mess
I don't know how important the Leo Awards are in the scheme of things, but Universe has just won six of them, including Best Dramatic Series. Not bad for a series that has been dissed by so many - including me! - during its tenure thus far.
Never heard of them before. Did a websearch & find they are a British Columbian outfit that gives awards to Candian programming.
Guess there weren't that many other shows filmed in BC this year? ;-)
I wonder if forests can win awards for playing "other planets"?
It's over, the show is cancelled.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/12/syfy-cancels-stargate-universe/
The final ten episodes begin on Syfy on Monday 7 March. This is an earlier resumption than last year when the latter half of the season didn't start until April. It'll be interesting to see whether moving out of the Tuesday night graveyard will raise the viewing figures at all - not that it'll make any difference now.
In Canada, Space will broadcast the following day, i.e. on Tuesdays. No news yet of Sky 1 in the UK. I'm guessing that they too will stick to Tuesdays, but I don't know whether they'll be able to broadcast the same week or a week later.
The show resumes here in Canada on Space on March 8. So it is moving to Tuesday nights. Not that it matters much now, of course.
The bad news just keeps coming.
http://www.gateworld.net/news/2011/04/wright-sgu-continuation-other-movies-dead-for-now/
Looks like Stargate is where Star Trek was in 2005, cancelled with the future looking grim.