To certain writers on SyFy.....
Although I don't think I've mentioned this before, I am a fan of the Stargate franchise. I started watching some of the later season of SG-1, and fell in love with it even when they changed some of the cast. I watched Stargate: Atlantis from it's premier to it's ending. My Mother and my little sister were fans of the franchise too, although it was more of a causal thing with my sister. When we found out there was going to be another Stargate series, we we all excited by it though. The premis sounding intresting and exciting! ....Then the trailers hit. It was not what we were expecting at all. Still, there were a few funny bits and we decided it couldn't be that bad...right?
Now, fast foward a couple seasons and we're still watching...but only out of habit and the faint hope that one day a new team of writers will we take over and things will get better. Does this mean the writers that the show has now are bad? Well, not really. It can be summed up by my little sisters reaction to it:
I mentioned before that she was a fan of the series but only a causal fan. She'd watched some of the end of SG-1, watched a few episodes of SG:A but hadn't seen any episodes of SGU before this Tuesday. Not even fifteen minuets into watching it she suddenly says '...Did anyone from Battlestar: Galatica work on this?' She had only seen a couple of episodes of Battlestar Galatica but even she could tell exactly what was wrong.
SGU isn't Stargate. It's a Battlestar Galatica that they've thrown a few names and concepts into to try and convince us that it really is Stargate. Now, not that Battlestar Galatica was a bad show, but you can't deny that it had a very, very different feel that any of the Stargate series ever had. Battlestar was grim, gritting, dark, and focused more on internal struggles and politics. Stargate was a much more light hearted series that was always more about fighting aliens and saving the universe. Trying to combine the two does not work well, particularly for fans of Stargate. I never watched Battlestar since I'm not a fan of that kind of show. Having Stargate, a show I was a fan of, being turned into that other show is honestly disheartening and annoying.
I'm not sure exactly how many people from Battlestar transferred over to SGU but it's clear it's people with a lot of decision making power. Even the lighting and way the film the show has changed to be something almost identical what was featured on Battlestar. The lighting and scenes are all done in a very dark, grungy styles while the scenes in the other Stargate series were much brighter and more colorful. The whole tone of the show has changed to be closer to what you would expect from Battlestar.
The tone on the other Stargate shows, even at the darkest parts, was one of triumph and hope. It was about adventure and heroes. SGU on the other hand is more about struggle, internal strife and the moral grey area that people run into during crises. It focuses much less on the 'adventures in space' part we knew from Stargate and more on the internal struggles that are happening on board the ship. There's the his aura of helplessness around the whole to Destiny that makes the whole show depressing. It's as if they're trying to show our faces in how much grittier and darker SGU is. Nothing good ever seems to really happen to the characters. There are no light hearted or funny moments. The few that are included seem forced and against the tone of the show. We've watched all the main characters, the characters we actually care about be slaughtered twice in the same show, had a pregnant woman lose her baby because she was shot, had to watch as the commander suffocated one of his men...it's far different than of the other Stargate shows and not really in a good way.
Even large parts of established Stargate lore that should be important is either ignored or glossed over. The entire show takes place on an Ancient ship, amongst Ancient technology yet no one seems to pay much attention to this fact. Rush makes a comment about wanting to ascend, but just what Ascension is, what the Ancients are and what they did are glossed over. The Ancient Gene, which was important in the first two series, seems to have been forgotten entirely. Does everyone who ended up on the ship happen to have the gene or received the treatment for it? Why? The also seem to be bringing elemants over from Battlestar. As my sister pointed out there is a crazy man who keeps hallucinating a woman in Battlestar...something this is startling similar to what is happening to Rush. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other elements from the characters in Battlestar poping up in the equivalent characters in SGU.
The people who transferred over for Battlestar are not bad writers or producers. They just don't seem to have realized that the tone of the Stargate franchise is far different from the show they used to work on. They want to create another dark, edgy series and that does not fit with Stargate.
As I said before, Stargate has stopped being Stargate. Now instead of a new Stargate series, we have a new Battlestar Galatica series set in the Stargate universe. And frankly, as a fan of the franchise, this isn't something I appreciate.
Now, fast foward a couple seasons and we're still watching...but only out of habit and the faint hope that one day a new team of writers will we take over and things will get better. Does this mean the writers that the show has now are bad? Well, not really. It can be summed up by my little sisters reaction to it:
I mentioned before that she was a fan of the series but only a causal fan. She'd watched some of the end of SG-1, watched a few episodes of SG:A but hadn't seen any episodes of SGU before this Tuesday. Not even fifteen minuets into watching it she suddenly says '...Did anyone from Battlestar: Galatica work on this?' She had only seen a couple of episodes of Battlestar Galatica but even she could tell exactly what was wrong.
SGU isn't Stargate. It's a Battlestar Galatica that they've thrown a few names and concepts into to try and convince us that it really is Stargate. Now, not that Battlestar Galatica was a bad show, but you can't deny that it had a very, very different feel that any of the Stargate series ever had. Battlestar was grim, gritting, dark, and focused more on internal struggles and politics. Stargate was a much more light hearted series that was always more about fighting aliens and saving the universe. Trying to combine the two does not work well, particularly for fans of Stargate. I never watched Battlestar since I'm not a fan of that kind of show. Having Stargate, a show I was a fan of, being turned into that other show is honestly disheartening and annoying.
I'm not sure exactly how many people from Battlestar transferred over to SGU but it's clear it's people with a lot of decision making power. Even the lighting and way the film the show has changed to be something almost identical what was featured on Battlestar. The lighting and scenes are all done in a very dark, grungy styles while the scenes in the other Stargate series were much brighter and more colorful. The whole tone of the show has changed to be closer to what you would expect from Battlestar.
The tone on the other Stargate shows, even at the darkest parts, was one of triumph and hope. It was about adventure and heroes. SGU on the other hand is more about struggle, internal strife and the moral grey area that people run into during crises. It focuses much less on the 'adventures in space' part we knew from Stargate and more on the internal struggles that are happening on board the ship. There's the his aura of helplessness around the whole to Destiny that makes the whole show depressing. It's as if they're trying to show our faces in how much grittier and darker SGU is. Nothing good ever seems to really happen to the characters. There are no light hearted or funny moments. The few that are included seem forced and against the tone of the show. We've watched all the main characters, the characters we actually care about be slaughtered twice in the same show, had a pregnant woman lose her baby because she was shot, had to watch as the commander suffocated one of his men...it's far different than of the other Stargate shows and not really in a good way.
Even large parts of established Stargate lore that should be important is either ignored or glossed over. The entire show takes place on an Ancient ship, amongst Ancient technology yet no one seems to pay much attention to this fact. Rush makes a comment about wanting to ascend, but just what Ascension is, what the Ancients are and what they did are glossed over. The Ancient Gene, which was important in the first two series, seems to have been forgotten entirely. Does everyone who ended up on the ship happen to have the gene or received the treatment for it? Why? The also seem to be bringing elemants over from Battlestar. As my sister pointed out there is a crazy man who keeps hallucinating a woman in Battlestar...something this is startling similar to what is happening to Rush. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other elements from the characters in Battlestar poping up in the equivalent characters in SGU.
The people who transferred over for Battlestar are not bad writers or producers. They just don't seem to have realized that the tone of the Stargate franchise is far different from the show they used to work on. They want to create another dark, edgy series and that does not fit with Stargate.
As I said before, Stargate has stopped being Stargate. Now instead of a new Stargate series, we have a new Battlestar Galatica series set in the Stargate universe. And frankly, as a fan of the franchise, this isn't something I appreciate.