It's screening in US.
I hear there is a Summer Glau clone in it

I watched it. It was alright. Will watch again.

Does it have the eye glowing badies or the wrath?

I've been really looking forward to it. will be watching it tomorow.

Watching, watching...
Man, MacGuyver has put on a lot of weight, what a chubby face!

Note 2: Robert Carlisle is awesome.

last edited by Raven at 19:19:42 03/Oct/09

Wasn't a hugely strong opening, but will definately keep watching.

Not enough Lou Diamond Phillips, and Shooter is already dead :( Still, it was pretty cool, better than I thought it'd be, I'll keep watching it. Wasn't expecting Robert Carlisle's character to be such a c***, I figured he'd be the squeeky clean Daniel Jackson type scientist, so that was a nice change.

haha yeah shooter mcgavin! There were a few shifty characters. Should be an interesting show.

I just can't help but think of it as star trek voyager or that lost in space movie. Bunch of people tossed across the universe trying to get home. Also the scene with RDA on the SGU website is incredibly lame, so lame at first I thought it was a home made job some fan had made.

So overall consensus? Should I bother to add to the list of things to watch? It seems that most here say it wasn't a strong opening, so why continue to watch?

Its stargate, if you like stargate, you'll probably like it

I loved stargate SG-1, hated atlantis. Just because you like one part of a franchise you don't have to like them all. That's like saying just because you like the first terminator movie you also like t3 or the same for the matrix trilogy.

Except this is STARGATE!!!!

Definitly more lke atlantis than sg-1. sg-1 had a lot more indiana jones style elements, and because it was based on an Earth team it had the potential for stories very close to home, and a lot of the mythology they built up related to Earth.

The Universe pilot also reminded me of Lost - it starts with a devasting scene of people hurt as they get stranded somewhere, there are flashbacks to what happened, and power struggles, the long haired scottish guy that pines for his long-lost love whilst staring at a portrait photo of himself with her, and the convict that is now free because of the disaster. And they have revealed no aliens or anything like that - my guess is that the show will move very slowly as well, and I bet there were will be episodes where we think a particular character is overly shifty but then we see it from their point of view.

I thought it was pretty good for a first episode. Shows promise, I will keep watching.

still undecided about it, will wait a few more episodes to see if i get hooked

While I'll probably still watch it - found it very boring.

I will keep watching it. The Stargate series has always been a little too corny for me, like Dr Who with Stargates. So hopefully this will keep my attention.

Yeah the original SG-1 actors were a bunch of clowns, particulary MacGyver, then they started hiring a lot of 'comedy' actors to play the aliens. I just watched the first 3 seasons of SG-1, that is some tight stargate right there.

I read an interview with a producer/writer of those first 3 seasons, Johnathan Glassner, he talked about how Showtime would pressure them into making 'sexy' episodes and have more sexy characters. They objected to Amanda Tapping being cast because she wasn't the bimbo they wanted. Was a very interesting read, on gateworld.net somewhere.

loved it. wish they showed all 3 parts of "air".

yeah, it was a bit weird how it ended like that, I thought I was missing an episode.

Just watched it, I thought it was pretty cool. I'm glad they killed off Shooter McGavin though, he was just another annoying politician character. Eli seemed to settle into the whole "I'm travelling through space in a wormhole" lifestyle a little fast, but other than that, I liked it. No doubt the 12-hour limit is going to be used as a tension point a number of times through the series, but it looks like it has promise.

Waiting for the episode where they miss the 12 hour limit and get stranded on a planet and have to work together to get the gate on the planet to dial into the one on the ship, while at the same time getting to know each other better and learn what it means to be a team.

Haha, yeah, and no doubt it'll happen in the first season as well.

Enjoyed first episodes....will watch again. Not sure if the story can have longevity.

Well, if they're smart about it, they'll do what Battlestar did and end the series when they find Earth again.

i have never been a massive stargate fan, i found the series to be boring and repitive... whilst the mythology behind the show was fantastic the filler eps were just to much for me to be bothered to watch the whole series...

sgu on the other hand has proven to be an interesting take on what i considered a dried up story, looking very forward to watching the rest.

Waiting for the episode where they miss the 12 hour limit and get stranded on a planet and have to work together to get the gate on the planet to dial into the one on the ship, while at the same time getting to know each other better and learn what it means to be a team.

theres 3 eps this season i can see this happening in. only the titles have been released so far. the titles are "time", "divided" and "lost"

I enjoyed it. It has a huge potential to do well.

I loved the Stargate movie. I watched the first couple of seasons of SG1 and liked it. Watched S1 of Atlantis, really didn't like the characters. Do I need to watch all of it (or at least Atlantis) as a prerequisite to SGU?

oh man, i have to wait till tomorrow or the next day for the next one...damn.

no parabol, but there are some galaxy travelling references

last edited by Spock at 18:05:20 08/Oct/09

Yeah, when they made Stargate Universe they intentionally made it so it has very little link to the existing Stargate stuff. The only bit of background info you might want to read up on was who the Ancients are, but wikipedia can tell you that.

Atlantis gets ok parabol, I liked it, but I can see why some others may not...

They do get rid of some s*** characters and get some better ones...

yay, next one is 'out'

Yep, watched the double-ep and I actually liked it. They seem to have Star-trek teleporters and Battlestar-style epileptic camera zoom/shake in the spacecraft scenes. Nice mix.

Was it suppose to end with the scene of them entering the gate on the ship to search for some material to fuel the system that cleans the carbon dioxide out of the air?

Is that how far we have got so far?

That aside - I enjoyed the show and am looking forward to the next episode. It sure does have a different feel to SG1 and atlantis. That said i liked SG1 and hated atlantis.

yeah tiny - that was the end of the premier

but i just watched the second one and it seems to get even better - much more dramatic.

Hmm it has about 0 feel from the original Sg1 and SG:A, although that could be because there hasn't been enough time to warm to the characters yet. So far to me it feels like a completely different show

yeah, same, which is probably good seeing as 15 seasons (including atlantis) was getting a bit stale

As a huge fan of SG1 and Alantis, 9 epps in this has just been boring as hell tbh. No action, next to no missions through the star gate, those lame orbs transfering consciousness with people back on earth. Anyone actually liking it? I'll give it til the end of the season I guess but it needs to improve A LOT.

yeah there is a lot I hate about it, but there have been a couple good eps
the writers/producers are being c***s about all the criticism
http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/october-31-2009-that-long-overdue-rant-and-a-behind-the-scenes-vid-from-water/
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/11/stargate-universe-syfy-.html

it feels like I'm watching Lost.. a show that seriously f***s (in a bad way) with my natural curiosity


I like watching an entire season of lost in one hit at the end of the season - because I get to skip all the character dev bulls***.


this will be the same

Basically, if this wasn't stargate branded no one would be watching it.

Yea, i have no problem with the characters or acting, rather the writing / eppisodes are just boring. I think the fact they have no real enemy that has always been a theme in Stargate is what's turning me off. No Gua'uld / Replicators / Ori / Wraith... After nine epps i expected some sort of story to be happening rather than... yep we're still stuck on this ship borefest.

Ori sucked terribly. Glad there ain't no Ori. Goa'uld and the Ancients were the winners.

Yea, i have no problem with the characters or acting, rather the writing / eppisodes are just boring.

this is what confuses me atm :/

is this written for the 13-25 female demographic or something ?

im loving the show. not finding it boring at all. last weeks ep was pretty cool for a time travel ep.

Yeah, I'm loving it, absolutely fantastic. And most people I've shown it too have likewise thought it absolutely fantastic. I'm glad they didn't just cop out and give us another show which is just more of the same (and it reminds me of BSG in a bit, in a good way).

Basically, if this wasn't stargate branded no one would be watching it.

I'd still be watching it, its hardly got anything to do with Stargate anyway so I'm sure it'd be just as equally awesome if it was Stargate branded or not. I think if anything, the opposite of what you said would be true, if it wasn't Stargate branded maybe people would be more willing to enjoy it, instead of going in with false expectations. If it was more of the same, I doubt I'd be bothering to watch it, I'm pretty sick of the tired old SG-1 or Atlantis formulas.

last edited by Khel at 22:53:58 21/Nov/09

Liking it so far, hope to see more of the main story arc develop and a bit more of the so-far unexplored characters.

Spoiler:
The fallout from Rush's latest shenanigans should be good, people were starting to crack.


Very happy that the show isn't blatantly episodic like most SG stuff. I like my TV not to need 'to be continued' alerts when the story arc runs for more than a single ep.

I'd still be watching it, its hardly got anything to do with Stargate anyway so I'm sure it'd be just as equally awesome if it was Stargate branded or not. I think if anything, the opposite of what you said would be true, if it wasn't Stargate branded maybe people would be more willing to enjoy it, instead of going in with false expectations. If it was more of the same, I doubt I'd be bothering to watch it, I'm pretty sick of the tired old SG-1 or Atlantis formulas.

I pretty much disagree with almost everything you say. If it didn't have stargate branding it would be on at 5pm in the afternoon with neighbours or whatever other pure drama with 0 sci fi element garbage is showing. They have copped out after seeing BSGs success and attempted a drama/scifi/shakycamera hybrid in the stargate universe and it really isn't working all that great.

Don't get me wrong, it's good they've taken a different path to the aging stargate shows however it's so generic, so boring for most of the shows and the characters are so lackluster and shallow it's not funny. Sure, you've got mr rush playing a great role and the 'math' dropout kid managing to solve some puzzle and magically know all this ancient stuff in pretty much next to no time as the only real stand out to that at the moment. I wouldn't be able actually name anyone else in the show by their characters name they're that bland, and you know it because you can describe them to anyone by saying "she's a medic" "he's a soldier" "hes just a random faceless scientist background filler" and they'll instantly identify.

Yes, they had a good episode last week, however stooping to time travel this early is a really bad sign from the old stargate ways. IIRC, they didn't touch on much time travel in stargate basically because it almost nullifies any story element with the whole 'we can just go back and do it again/fix it/whatever'. It's like writing a book and then going "... and then he/she woke up and it was all a dream!" The rest of the show (ie, the drama) really doesnt have much going for it with the spontaneous sex scenes and random relationships out of nowhere just seems so ... I'm not sure, it's almost like they really are trying to attract the 13-25 year old female demographic into "syfy".

Again, don't get me wrong, there is some very minor character development that isn't all that bad happening (ie, this weeks episode with that guys wife) but it's very stereotypical and again, fairly generic, but with the gimmicky and random token stargate things like the intergalactic communicators - geez, might as well just put them all on earth, f*** the spaceship and call it stargate: days of our lives.

The only reason I am even considering watching further, and does seem to be the general consensus, is mostly because it is stargate and does have a few good moments. Without that stargate bit, those few good moments wouldn't even be worth bothering with the other 90% of the show.

Also, ffs the opening is annoying. We kinda know you're on a ship called destiny and that you're trapped except you can call earth, we don't need a whole backstory every time.

I'm just glad it's set on a ship billions of light years away because it gets away from the whole "ooh lets just phone up the asgard or the tok'ra or ascended daniel jackson to get us out of the s*** we got ourselves into this week" plot resolution.

The characters actually have to think for themselves and work together to get anywhere rather than Sam Carter figuring out that they just need to reverse the matter stream polarity 10 microns from the gate event horizon.

Completely agree, they've seen a few other s***bag shows make a bit of money and have stolen a few ideas. The overuse of shaky camera just s***s me, and the characters bother me too - I've seen this same mistake on other shows where they try to do way too much heavy s*** early on with characters, like the sex and the angst, before we get to know the character well so we can't really appreciate what is going on and probably will resent the character too.
The communication stones are annoying, I find it a bit hard to follow too because of the unfamiliarity with the characters. It was easy on SG-1, Daniel would be in the body of some unknown guy, so it was obvious. Here we have unknowns in other unknowns. We know f*** all about these characters.
But yeah I will continue to watch it because it is stargate and fat jack is in it sometimes. The time travel kino ep was indeed a ray of hope.
The opening does suck, get a theme song or something.

and does seem to be the general consensus

The general consensus amongst who? Forums full of Stargate fans who are pissed off its not like other Stargate series? Cos like I said, the "general consensus" amongst people I've shown it to or people who've watched it themselves is that its awesome and they love it.

I'll agree with you that the characters need a bit more development yet, but its early days, Atlantis was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse in its first season and had way, way worse characters. Even after a whole season I couldn't remember half their names cos they were so forgettable.

IIRC, they didn't touch on much time travel in stargate

Well, they've used the "Wormhole through a sun/solar flare" thing often enough that I guessed thats what it was pretty early on in the episode, its pretty well established in the Stargate mythos. They even made an entire movie based around the concept. If they had invented it for SG:U I might agree with you that they're going crazy a bit early on, but all they're doing is leveraging existing Stargate stuff, isn't that what die-hard Stargate fans wanted more of?


last edited by Khel at 01:49:47 22/Nov/09

But yeah I will continue to watch it because it is stargate and fat jack is in it sometimes. The time travel kino ep was indeed a ray of hope.

100% agreed

The interpersonal melrose place in space is f***ing me off, also sit in the f***ing chair already, and would someone for the love of god kill young.

I'm sick of these scifi shows that completely ignore the realm of reality. I don't care what universe you are in there is no way that a troll like Young would have a hot wife like that AND be able to get in the pants of the hot medic chick.

f*** this show.

I've seen the movie and every ep of stagate throughout the franchises... i've been following SG:U but I fuking hate how its a be dramatised show.

It's like a common theme ever since lost that you only give 5-10mins of real storyline/action and then you spend the rest looking back into peoples past, showing random s*** that no longer is relivant to the current situation.

There was one episode where literally the entire fuking thing was just fatmathskid following people around with kenos and filming them.

I've loved every stargate up until now, fuk even atlantis had some major plot lines developing within the first 9 episodes. What do they have? Oh thats right they finally opened their first door on the ship /yay

Seriously I dont care that the asian bitch is a carpet muncher... i dont care that the fat maths guy's mother has AIDS or HIV or whatever or that SUPRISE SUPRISE that asian body that the guy in charge took over and had the stones fuk up on him is now having an affair with his wife!

After all... I know if I could swap bodies with people I know the first thing I would do is go fuk my wife using some randoms body!!! WOULDNT YOU?!?! Cmon people. These stones are a really fuking s*** excuse to waiste 20mins of episode time each week.

Fuking hell I hate how this bulls*** has moved into the stargate franchise, one of the few that I actually still liked... up there with xfiles, fringe, legend of the seeker etc etc.

Nothing I can do about it I suppose... so whatever.

Not a normal Stargate fan, but this is pretty good.

Enjoying it

New ep is out... Opening now...

Fuking hell I hate how this bulls*** has moved into the stargate franchise, one of the few that I actually still liked... up there with xfiles, fringe, legend of the seeker etc etc.

Nothing I can do about it I suppose... so whatever.

Actually one of the things I disliked about those shows was their episodic nature - most of the eps are a contained little story bubble with minimal development of the main plot arc. Stargate in particular is really evil at this, delivering 20 episode+ series with a few boundary eps at each end.

Seeker gets a pass because they tended to tie those mini arcs into the main story later.

LOST (and lately Heroes) takes persistent storytelling too far and it becomes a drain where the watcher is never actually presented with story milestones. For me, they've hit a sweet spot so far between the two extremes in SGU.

There's been a few largely self-contained eps (time travel, ice world, desert world) but for the most part it didn't feel too contrived while generally delivering a sense of completion or at least a firm outcome to each episode.

last edited by Hogfather at 13:34:28 22/Nov/09

When you watch 40 minutes of basically dialogue and emotional expressions you want a massive payoff at the end of that 40 minutes for paying attention the whole time.
Some of those one-off stories set on some unreal planet in SG-1 were the most interesting episodes, even if they had bugger all to do with stargate. The story itself has to be intriguing and rewarding. And fresh too, you can't just have the cheeky scottish guy bulls***ting everyone in every episodes.

When you watch 40 minutes of basically dialogue and emotional expressions you want a massive payoff at the end of that 40 minutes for paying attention the whole time.

You make it sound like someone strapped you into the chair, Clockwork Orange style?

protip: don't watch TV you don't like.

but it's stargate

Hogfather, I want to agree with you, I really do, but the story telling *so far* is basically non-existant. It's all basic and not that interesting character 'development'. And by development, I mean using these stones to go back to earth. That's it. They are a) still trapped on a ship and b) still have no real goal apart from the scientist being dodgy (yes we get it, he's dodgy already) and everyone else having issues that come out of left field.

How are these people eating and drinking? Are we supposed to believe they can find so many habitable planets with food edible by humans and working stargate without any life? Or even breathing clean air still? Surely the 'sand' they found barely works compared to whatever the ancients actually used. Hell, why is this ship so massive and habitable if all it does is seed stargates. Has it seeded any stargates yet?

Actually one of the things I disliked about those shows was their episodic nature - most of the eps are a contained little story bubble with minimal development of the main plot arc. Stargate in particular is really evil at this, delivering 20 episode+ series with a few boundary eps at each end.

How is that different to what's showing now? But instead of fighting the goa'uld and then tiny tidbits on characters, it's 90210 "omg you had a baby and didnt tell me" and then tiny tidbits on being lost in space (but not really lost we know where we are).

How is that different to what's showing now? But instead of fighting the goa'uld and then tiny tidbits on characters, it's 90210 "omg you had a baby and didnt tell me" and then tiny tidbits on being lost in space (but not really lost we know where we are).

Again, all I can suggest is that you turn off .. err, no longer access it ... if it doesn't appeal.

I get why you don't like it. Some people will appreciate the show, some won't, neither can be universally true as its just opinions and taste. I've explained what appeals to me but that's entirely subjective.

Reiterating and expanding on what I've already said won't convince you to suddenly like the show, will it?

I didn't ask you to convince me to like it, nice defense by attack though. Reiterating and expanding won't convince me to like it, but it might convince me you aren't arrogant and condescending, and to give a bit more importance to what you say.

I didn't ask you to convince me to like it, nice defense by attack though. Reiterating and expanding won't convince me to like it, but it might convince me you aren't arrogant and condescending, and to give a bit more importance to what you say.

He wasn't attacking you at all. I find it funny you are accusing him of being arrogant when you are the one who is coming in here forcing your opinions on everyone.

The show does have a few holes in it but who cares. It is entertaining for alot of reasons and exactly like the hogfather is suggesting, it is a matter of taste. Just like alot of TV is.

edit: Just take a chill pill Isaac

last edited by Tiny at 14:57:08 22/Nov/09

Most of the eps have been s*** boring due to all the emotional crap about characters that we don't have any emotional link with yet.

Not sure what the whinging about the time travel ep is about, I liked it. Especially with the first person view, thermal (Doom invulnerability inverted B&W) view, watching themselves die, failing twice, etc.

Though overall it could do without overuse of the stones and all the crying.

I didn't ask you to convince me to like it, nice defense by attack though. Reiterating and expanding won't convince me to like it, but it might convince me you aren't arrogant and condescending, and to give a bit more importance to what you say.

Chill mate I wasn't having a go at you, or trying to be condescending. I've been working all day so maybe the language is a bit formal, sorry to s*** on your Sunday.

I just don't have time today to write essays on why I think Stargate Universe is a good TV show.

last edited by Hogfather at 15:04:17 22/Nov/09

Hell, why is this ship so massive and habitable if all it does is seed stargates. Has it seeded any stargates yet?

Wasn't it another ship that preceded this one that seeded all the StarGates?

The 90210 'bits' (90% of the eps) are pretty gay, but i'll probably keep watching it. They do need more explosions and gun battles though.

Wasn't it another ship that preceded this one that seeded all the StarGates?

Yes, it has been stated several times, most recently in the latest episode when Rush managed to contact the other ship(s), that it/they are seeding the Stargates with Destiny travelling behind it/them.

Needs more stargate spoot,
http://www.twotalkingmonkeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/alaina-huffman-elyse-levesque-stargate-universe-steppin-out.jpg