So I watched the Stargate: Universe pilot.
I have a few thoughts. Bullet point thoughts.
- Through a lot of the episode I was stuck by how much Dr. Rush reminded me of Daniel. Not because of his personality, but because of their desired to gain knowledge. It feels like Dr. Rush is Daniel sans compassion (and ethics). Not that Rush is lacking that, but he's clearly willing to gain his knowledge at the expense of others where Daniel is not. In the "The Torment of Tantalus" Daniel's willing to give up everything for the knowledge there even though he'd never be able to share it with others. He only leaves once Jack makes it clear that either they're both leaving or neither of them are. Rush makes the opposite choice for eighty other people in this episode.
- There were a few things that stuck me as utterly ridiculous. Some they explained, others they kinda explained and other they didn't explain at all. They explained the puzzle in the video game, but I still think it sounds more like "The Last Starfighter" than Stargate. (On a related side note, I do like the fact that the kid isn't a 'kid genius'.) They also explained the point or origin, (and I'm only kinda accepting it) but I spent a few minutes going "did you forget what the last point means?" They didn't, however, explain how they were able to gate to a moving gate. This new gate must be very different because the addresses were never gate specific. I hope they explain that. Another problem I had with the gate was the fact that no one seemed to find it odd that they were trying to dial out with in hyperspace. It doesn't work. Of course, this gate could really be super special. The training vid was also stupid, but I'll get to that more later.
- I liked most of the guest stars. It was nice to see Jack and Sam and a nice surprise to see Walter and Dr. Lee. It really connected this show to the Stargate-verse. It made sense that these old characters weren't given anything meaningful to do. They weren't the focus of the show, but at the same time it was nice to have a little glimpse of their lives post series. I feel they completely wasted Daniel though. Why did they even have him guest star if he didn't do anything. There's no amount of fanwanking that can make me think that Daniel doing a training vid makes any sense at all. (OK, so maybe some fanwanking. In my brain Daniel had to do it because he lost a bet. Vala found it hilarious.)
- I think that I was unfortunately right about this being SyFy's new BSG. Down to the music. Hopefully the shock value moments will dim once the show has marked its territory and doesn't have to work so hard to prove that it's 'a new kind of Stargate'.
- On a similar note, the term is "hyperspace" not "FTL". I get what FTL stands for so in a sense it's correct, but Stargate has never used that term before, why are they starting now?
- I'm all for dark and gritty sci-fi with characters that are far from perfect, but it would have been nice for there to be any that I liked enough to have any interest in.
- I find it interesting how in SG-1 the team SG-1 was presented as 'the best of the best'. The SCG has grown to the point where not everyone is that good.
- They talked about ascension fairly quickly. I think that either the plan on having it come up again (which wouldn't surprise me, they are dealing with an Ancients ship after all) or it's considered basic knowledge of the Stargate-verse. I find the second option assuming considering how slowly we learned about them in SG-1. It took us three seasons to meet an ascended being and three more to learn that they were once the Ancients. I do hope it comes back again because that was always an aspect of the verse that I was interested in.
- I expect I'll keep watching it unless it starts doing things that I really don't like, but it's going to have to draw me in a lot more before I get fannish over it.
- Through a lot of the episode I was stuck by how much Dr. Rush reminded me of Daniel. Not because of his personality, but because of their desired to gain knowledge. It feels like Dr. Rush is Daniel sans compassion (and ethics). Not that Rush is lacking that, but he's clearly willing to gain his knowledge at the expense of others where Daniel is not. In the "The Torment of Tantalus" Daniel's willing to give up everything for the knowledge there even though he'd never be able to share it with others. He only leaves once Jack makes it clear that either they're both leaving or neither of them are. Rush makes the opposite choice for eighty other people in this episode.
- There were a few things that stuck me as utterly ridiculous. Some they explained, others they kinda explained and other they didn't explain at all. They explained the puzzle in the video game, but I still think it sounds more like "The Last Starfighter" than Stargate. (On a related side note, I do like the fact that the kid isn't a 'kid genius'.) They also explained the point or origin, (and I'm only kinda accepting it) but I spent a few minutes going "did you forget what the last point means?" They didn't, however, explain how they were able to gate to a moving gate. This new gate must be very different because the addresses were never gate specific. I hope they explain that. Another problem I had with the gate was the fact that no one seemed to find it odd that they were trying to dial out with in hyperspace. It doesn't work. Of course, this gate could really be super special. The training vid was also stupid, but I'll get to that more later.
- I liked most of the guest stars. It was nice to see Jack and Sam and a nice surprise to see Walter and Dr. Lee. It really connected this show to the Stargate-verse. It made sense that these old characters weren't given anything meaningful to do. They weren't the focus of the show, but at the same time it was nice to have a little glimpse of their lives post series. I feel they completely wasted Daniel though. Why did they even have him guest star if he didn't do anything. There's no amount of fanwanking that can make me think that Daniel doing a training vid makes any sense at all. (OK, so maybe some fanwanking. In my brain Daniel had to do it because he lost a bet. Vala found it hilarious.)
- I think that I was unfortunately right about this being SyFy's new BSG. Down to the music. Hopefully the shock value moments will dim once the show has marked its territory and doesn't have to work so hard to prove that it's 'a new kind of Stargate'.
- On a similar note, the term is "hyperspace" not "FTL". I get what FTL stands for so in a sense it's correct, but Stargate has never used that term before, why are they starting now?
- I'm all for dark and gritty sci-fi with characters that are far from perfect, but it would have been nice for there to be any that I liked enough to have any interest in.
- I find it interesting how in SG-1 the team SG-1 was presented as 'the best of the best'. The SCG has grown to the point where not everyone is that good.
- They talked about ascension fairly quickly. I think that either the plan on having it come up again (which wouldn't surprise me, they are dealing with an Ancients ship after all) or it's considered basic knowledge of the Stargate-verse. I find the second option assuming considering how slowly we learned about them in SG-1. It took us three seasons to meet an ascended being and three more to learn that they were once the Ancients. I do hope it comes back again because that was always an aspect of the verse that I was interested in.
- I expect I'll keep watching it unless it starts doing things that I really don't like, but it's going to have to draw me in a lot more before I get fannish over it.