SGU (with a grain of salt)
I really do understand why some fandom folk are choosing not to watch SGU, and I appreciate their concerns over the various issues that have been brought up, but I felt that I needed to see it for myself before making a judgment call on whether or not it was offensive or good or worth watching.
Being the big geeks that we are, Julian and our other geeky sci-fi friends decided to plan a geeky Stargate party for the premiere, complete with costumes/SG t-shirts, stargate-themed food (Salisbury Steak, tater tots and blue jello, along with lemon chicken and lemonade just for Rodney and Guinness to drink) and general geekery. We even watched "Window of Opportunity," the awesome groundhog-day episode of SG-1 before the premiere started.
I'll admit, I was more excited than wary, but I want to have faith in the Stargate franchise because it hasn't failed me yet (barring the untimely demise of Atlantis). But, I did make sure not to let my excitement cloud my judgment.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It's almost not a Stargate series, because the feel of it is so different. The whole feel of the show is darker, less happy action-adventure-y that SG-1 or Atlantis, and the set and the handheld camera-work really play to that. It opens with a bang, literally, with injured refugees flying through the Stargate into a dark, unfamiliar location, all panic and confusion and no answers, which start to come as the episode goes on.
The ship is pretty neat, although not shiny and beautiful like Atlantis or the Asgaard ships, and it's largely a mystery. It's very battlestar-esque in that the ship is old and falling apart and barely able to support life, which I'm sure will create lots of plotlines for future episodes.
I think the most interesting thing about the series is the characters. Yes, some of them are young and attractive, but so was Sam Carter in the first season of SG-1, and look how she developed as a character. I think a lot of the characters have some great potential for development, and I hope they get it as the series goes on. It doesn't seem like SG:90210 yet, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.
I like Lt. Scott right off the bat, and I think he has some interesting growth ahead of him, as a green soldier thrust into a leadership position. Johannsen, the medic, is interesting too. I'm intrigued to see how they deal with the relationship between her and Ming Na's IOA committee member. I hope, in future episodes, we'll get to see a lot more development from Ming-Na's character. She's such an awesome actress, and has potential to be great.
The moral ambiguity of some characters is kind of awesome, too. Dr. Rush is like no one we've seen on Stargate, yet. He clearly has his own motives, and really only cares about the science,the discovery, about proving that he is right, but without him, the stranded Icarus Base crew is without an expert. Greer is problematic to me, though. I'm interested in his backstory, but really, did they have to make the one black dude the crazy possibly homicidal guy?
Now, I've seen next week's episode because my darling Fiance, who writes reviews on Lunch.com and managed to wrangle a press kit from NBC Universal last week, which included the premiere and next week's as well as a really awesome shiny book with actor bios and a light-up stargate on the cover. :D
Scroll down if you want to see a short and not-very spoilery opinion about some technology.
spoiler
ahead
it's
coming
any
line
now
here
it
comes
You get to see the body-swapping in this ep, and I honestly think it was handled well. It's clearly only people who are consenting to be swapped so far, and there is even discussion of being careful when using someone else's bodies. We'll see how it goes in the future, but so far, I'm not unsettled by it.
Also, I'm intrigued with the idea of characters who will exist on the Destiny only through their use of body-swapping.
All I'll say about it
Being the big geeks that we are, Julian and our other geeky sci-fi friends decided to plan a geeky Stargate party for the premiere, complete with costumes/SG t-shirts, stargate-themed food (Salisbury Steak, tater tots and blue jello, along with lemon chicken and lemonade just for Rodney and Guinness to drink) and general geekery. We even watched "Window of Opportunity," the awesome groundhog-day episode of SG-1 before the premiere started.
I'll admit, I was more excited than wary, but I want to have faith in the Stargate franchise because it hasn't failed me yet (barring the untimely demise of Atlantis). But, I did make sure not to let my excitement cloud my judgment.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It's almost not a Stargate series, because the feel of it is so different. The whole feel of the show is darker, less happy action-adventure-y that SG-1 or Atlantis, and the set and the handheld camera-work really play to that. It opens with a bang, literally, with injured refugees flying through the Stargate into a dark, unfamiliar location, all panic and confusion and no answers, which start to come as the episode goes on.
The ship is pretty neat, although not shiny and beautiful like Atlantis or the Asgaard ships, and it's largely a mystery. It's very battlestar-esque in that the ship is old and falling apart and barely able to support life, which I'm sure will create lots of plotlines for future episodes.
I think the most interesting thing about the series is the characters. Yes, some of them are young and attractive, but so was Sam Carter in the first season of SG-1, and look how she developed as a character. I think a lot of the characters have some great potential for development, and I hope they get it as the series goes on. It doesn't seem like SG:90210 yet, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.
I like Lt. Scott right off the bat, and I think he has some interesting growth ahead of him, as a green soldier thrust into a leadership position. Johannsen, the medic, is interesting too. I'm intrigued to see how they deal with the relationship between her and Ming Na's IOA committee member. I hope, in future episodes, we'll get to see a lot more development from Ming-Na's character. She's such an awesome actress, and has potential to be great.
The moral ambiguity of some characters is kind of awesome, too. Dr. Rush is like no one we've seen on Stargate, yet. He clearly has his own motives, and really only cares about the science,the discovery, about proving that he is right, but without him, the stranded Icarus Base crew is without an expert. Greer is problematic to me, though. I'm interested in his backstory, but really, did they have to make the one black dude the crazy possibly homicidal guy?
Now, I've seen next week's episode because my darling Fiance, who writes reviews on Lunch.com and managed to wrangle a press kit from NBC Universal last week, which included the premiere and next week's as well as a really awesome shiny book with actor bios and a light-up stargate on the cover. :D
Scroll down if you want to see a short and not-very spoilery opinion about some technology.
spoiler
ahead
it's
coming
any
line
now
here
it
comes
You get to see the body-swapping in this ep, and I honestly think it was handled well. It's clearly only people who are consenting to be swapped so far, and there is even discussion of being careful when using someone else's bodies. We'll see how it goes in the future, but so far, I'm not unsettled by it.
Also, I'm intrigued with the idea of characters who will exist on the Destiny only through their use of body-swapping.
All I'll say about it