Lt. Boobs...heh

Stargate: Universe: update

Well, we’re nearly halfway through the first season of Stargate: Universe and I thought I’d do an update before the mid-season cliff-hanger, which frankly will probably make or break this show for me

The latest episode, Life, has salvaged it somewhat for me – I’ve seen a bit of negativity out there about it, but I found it to be a decent filler episode, focusing mainly on the everyday lives of the ‘crew’ while advancing some character plots at the same time

But that’s just it – filler, this is the sort of episode that should’ve been in Atlantis to keep it a bit more interesting, but you can’t drive a whole show with an episode that’s little more than vaguely interesting, this is a sci-fi show about being lost in space, not a soap opera set in space – there’s supposed to be some sense of purpose here, and if they don’t have one then people are going to get bored

I shouldn’t really badmouth the episode itself, like I said, it’s reasonable, but ultimately a filler – there’s a nice catchy soundtrack which sets the mood nicely and some good scenes showcasing life on board the ship, albeit they are a bit twee, so what we should focus on is everything else before that

Take the much-hyped episode beforehand, Time, or as it’s colloquially known: ‘the jungle one’ – it was in fact quite good, there were even aliens and lots of mystery, and the kino-filmed opening was pretty decent too, people started dying and the acting was pretty good - but then the whole thing was ruined when the audience realised about ten minutes from the end that it’s going to be a Deus ex Machina – seriously, didn’t your English teacher tell you never to end a story with ‘I woke up and it was all just a dream’? – It completely nullifies the whole story and is very infuriating

Then, in the aforementioned Life, they kill the plot off right at the end – it is discovered during the sub-plot (or is it ‘co-plot’) that Rush has found a planet capable of dialling Earth, it’ll take a mere year to get there – everybody goes ‘yay’ and finally there’s some sort of purpose to this whole show, but oh no right at the end we find out that Rush faked the whole thing to motivate the crew – naughty Rush, while I admit it was a nice piece of scheming, it really did feel like we were being dicked around – they could have at least left it a few episodes (part of me thinks they fear viewer backlash if they string us along too much)

To me it felt like the writers were trying to say ‘ha ha, we’re not doing what you expected!’ – yeah, well it’s true that you’re not; you’re just making a fairly boring soap opera instead and toying with us

Listen, I know you think you’re being edgy and a bit out there, but you’re really not – this latest episode felt a lot like it could’ve been the crew on Battlestar Galactica, and could’ve been one of their many filler episodes – but the difference between that show and this is that THERE WAS A DRIVING PURPOSE in BSG, there were bad guys, a logistical aim, it wasn’t just ‘we’re stuck, me sad’

This is sci-fi, not drama, particularly when the drama isn’t *that* good, the fans come expecting a degree of adventure and you cannot blame them for that and say they just ‘don’t get it’ – they do get it, Lost is sci-fi, it’s also high-end drama and very character-focused with little actual science-fiction, that works, we like it – Joseph Mallozzi wrote a very unhelpful rant back in October that basically said' you all just want a rehash of SG-1'

No we don’t – I’ll take anything I can get that’s good quite frankly, do what you want with the actual stargate, but don’t just stick the Stargate name onto a show that really has very little to do with the series or science-fiction in general, and then don’t tell me it’s completely different while trying to tie in links to the original show by giving RDA a guest spot…

And don’t act all offended when viewers start calling Lt. James ‘Lt. Boobs’ when her whole exposure has been a crudely-introduced sex scene in the premiere, and a very obvious close up of her gigantic chest – yes, I’m sure that was accidental, if you’re only going to use her as a prop and make us focus on those aspects then what do you expect – it’s not the viewer who’s sexist for noticing what the producers have focused on in what is a very one-dimensional character (well...maybe not one dimensional)

The fact is, when I go to watch this show, it’s more like I’m thinking ‘what will the characters do today?’ – this is what we call a ‘soap opera’, only set in space, you can keep the character development, and unpredictable plots, we don’t want big nasty aliens to shoot at us from their spaceships, but we do want something to happen!

Quite frankly, this spin-off is pretty boring and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, they seem to have completely neglected the action/adventure of the show – and that does not mean I want SG-1 back, it means that when there has been action like in ‘Water’, or ‘Air’, it’s been cumbersome and boring – I have in fact praised the drama bits more than the action – but you simply cannot take a show aimed at sci-fi fans and take out everything – it’d be like a star trek movie without spaceships, and it’s just patronising to suggest it’s the audience’s fault for not embracing what you’ve made because you reckon it’s good – I like to watch many different things, good drama included, what entertains me stays, what doesn’t – goes

If anything the Stargate name is making me stay rather than give up…

(apologies for formatting - it's a stupid Word thing)