Stargate


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Kojiro
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Re: Stargate

Post by Kojiro »

Well, having now watched a number of episodes of SGU in syndication, I have to say... I LOVE IT. It's actually a nice change of pace for the franchise, as you can only carry the highly trained superteam formula only so far before it gets stale. Spinoffs should not always be direct clones of the original, and that's why Deep Space Nine was such a great Star Trek property and Voyager a lackluster, meandering piece of crap that featured an impervious starship. Don't get me started on the abortion that was Enterprise.

Like Deep Space Nine did for Star Trek, Stargate Universe did for Stargate. They broke their franchise standard formulas. DS9 had the cast all on a station taken away from the Cardassian Federation and struggling against Cardassian politicking as opposed to wandering through the galaxy aimlessly like TOS and TNG already did. Voyager; however, while originally having an interesting premise for a very dark series decided to go for the TNG expy route, where all the characters and plots became clones of earlier Star Trek characters and plots. Voyager, the ship itself, was inexplicably impervious to all damage to the point of absurdity. You never felt concerned for the characters because everyone had impenetrable plot armor.

SGU has dumped the trained superteam of Stargate formula where they go in and shoot everything up and save the day, however implausible it may occasionally seem. Instead, SGU has characters entirely unprepared for their situation and trying their best to make do. They're stuck with other people they're not overly fond of and there's a sense of struggling hope among the expedition that something, someday can free them from the ship that's become a sort of prison to them. The aliens hardly seem boring. In fact, they seem actually more... ALIEN than most other aliens from Stargate's past episodes.
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Omphalos
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Re: Stargate

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Lawliet wrote:
Omphalos wrote:I thought Stargate Universe was the only good thing the had ever done. :lol:
It's slow and boring, boring aliens , no interesting planets, no humor, no likeable characters, no enemies, almost no action nor adventure, there were none of the things that made previous Stargate shows great. Too much forced drama. The only character that was worth watching was Rush, Robert Carlyle is a great actor.
Excellent points, Kojiro. I agree wholeheartedly, especially now that I am in the midst of watching much of DS9 for the first time (I'm on the season three episodes where Tom Riker steals the Defiant ATM).

IMHO there was very little in the other shows to "make them great," save for the fact that they came from a good film. Crappy acting and cardboard archetype characters (and painfully obvious opposites) aside, they were way too regimented in their march from beginning of an episode to the end. Once you saw one episode, you saw them all, and none of the characters or actors matured during their entire, what, ten years of production?
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Lawliet
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Re: Stargate

Post by Lawliet »

Kojiro wrote:Well, having now watched a number of episodes of SGU in syndication, I have to say... I LOVE IT. It's actually a nice change of pace for the franchise, as you can only carry the highly trained superteam formula only so far before it gets stale. Spinoffs should not always be direct clones of the original, and that's why Deep Space Nine was such a great Star Trek property and Voyager a lackluster, meandering piece of crap that featured an impervious starship. Don't get me started on the abortion that was Enterprise.

Like Deep Space Nine did for Star Trek, Stargate Universe did for Stargate. They broke their franchise standard formulas. DS9 had the cast all on a station taken away from the Cardassian Federation and struggling against Cardassian politicking as opposed to wandering through the galaxy aimlessly like TOS and TNG already did. Voyager; however, while originally having an interesting premise for a very dark series decided to go for the TNG expy route, where all the characters and plots became clones of earlier Star Trek characters and plots. Voyager, the ship itself, was inexplicably impervious to all damage to the point of absurdity. You never felt concerned for the characters because everyone had impenetrable plot armor.

SGU has dumped the trained superteam of Stargate formula where they go in and shoot everything up and save the day, however implausible it may occasionally seem. Instead, SGU has characters entirely unprepared for their situation and trying their best to make do. They're stuck with other people they're not overly fond of and there's a sense of struggling hope among the expedition that something, someday can free them from the ship that's become a sort of prison to them. The aliens hardly seem boring. In fact, they seem actually more... ALIEN than most other aliens from Stargate's past episodes.
Ok, i have to agree here, and the idea of Stargate Universe was good, but it was sooooo boring...i couldn't watch 20 minutes of an episode without falling asleep. I praise the show for breaking the "standard formula" of Stargate, but i wasn't hooked in. Sure, SGU is grittier, darker and psychologically deeper than previous versions. But it's also a lot less fun.
Also...i can kill you with my brain. - River Tam

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Lawliet
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Re: Stargate

Post by Lawliet »

Omphalos wrote:
Lawliet wrote:
Omphalos wrote:I thought Stargate Universe was the only good thing the had ever done. :lol:
It's slow and boring, boring aliens , no interesting planets, no humor, no likeable characters, no enemies, almost no action nor adventure, there were none of the things that made previous Stargate shows great. Too much forced drama. The only character that was worth watching was Rush, Robert Carlyle is a great actor.
Excellent points, Kojiro. I agree wholeheartedly, especially now that I am in the midst of watching much of DS9 for the first time (I'm on the season three episodes where Tom Riker steals the Defiant ATM).

IMHO there was very little in the other shows to "make them great," save for the fact that they came from a good film. Crappy acting and cardboard archetype characters (and painfully obvious opposites) aside, they were way too regimented in their march from beginning of an episode to the end. Once you saw one episode, you saw them all, and none of the characters or actors matured during their entire, what, ten years of production?
None of the characters of SG1 or Atlantis changed much over the years, i agree. But they were always entertaining shows. I, like many Stargate fans, don't like SGU at all. It changed so much from previous shows that it doesn't feel like a Stargate show to me. But if you hated the previous shows, you'll probably like Universe.
Also...i can kill you with my brain. - River Tam

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Kojiro
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Re: Stargate

Post by Kojiro »

Lawliet wrote: Ok, i have to agree here, and the idea of Stargate Universe was good, but it was sooooo boring...i couldn't watch 20 minutes of an episode without falling asleep. I praise the show for breaking the "standard formula" of Stargate, but i wasn't hooked in. Sure, SGU is grittier, darker and psychologically deeper than previous versions. But it's also a lot less fun.
Well, then that's your opinion. I don't find Universe to be boring at all, but then it seems to match most of my preferences. Don't get me wrong, I liked SG-1 and Atlantis too, but I was rather fond of their edgier episodes rather than the lighthearted ones.
Has not religion claimed a patent on creation for all of these millennia?
-The Tleilaxu Question,
from Muad'dib Speaks
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