I’ve come up with 5 things that Stargate Universe must do in order to avoid disappointment.

1. Don’t become a Stargate meets Battlestar Galactica series. I very much appreciate the sentiment to make Stargate Universe a fresh spin on an old franchise, so don’t ruin it by becoming a Battlestar Galactica clone.  Already they’ve adopted the “lost in somewhere in the universe trying to find our way home” theme from Galactica, and when combined with many of the same lighting and camera shooting techniques as Galactica, it looks less original.  I would like to think that part of the reason that Battlestar Galactica was so good and popular (at times) was that it was a very fresh Sci-Fi show.  Copying something that was fresh doesn’t mean that it still is.  Stargate Universe must be its own show if it wants to succeed.

2. Don’t forget the Science in Science-Fiction. Although you air on a network which changed its name to SyFy, it doesn’t mean the science is gone from science fiction.  One of the things I really liked about Stargate SG-1 was that I felt that I could relate to it because it was set in present-time.  A problem for Stargate Atlantis was that the setting was to alien, and hard to relate to.  Too many times, including in the finale, Atlantis presented some miracle tech to save the day at the last moment.  Keep the Stargate Universe tech and science to a reasonable level that the audience can more easily relate to.

At the same time, don’t leave out the science and tech by making the series all character based.  I think audiences like feeling like they are learning, even if they aren’t learning anything real.  The first Jurassic Park movie was entertaining because they explained the whole cloning thing, while the sequels were just dinosaurs eating people.  Keep enough science involved so that people feel they are being educated a little bit.

3. Give the audience a hero. What made Stargate SG-1 fantastic, was Richard Dean Anderson’s role as Jack O’Neill, as well as the rest of the SG-1 team.  I believe that audiences want to cheer their hero on every week, although sometimes their hero wins or looses.  However, the hero shouldn’t betray his audience.

Stargate Universe characters need fans, just like athletic stars and Facebook.  Create characters worthy of having fans.

4. Don’t be depressing. I watched every episode of Battlestar Galactica right up to the point where I recognized that the show was making me depressed.  I talked to other former Galactica fans, who said they also stopped watching because the show got to dark and depressing.  Don’t let Stargate Universe find the same fate.

I feel this could be especially a trap for this show.  If too many characters become obsessed with, “We will never make it home, what is there worth living for?” the audience will adopt those sentiments with “What is there worth watching for?”

Relatedly, turn on the lights.  If the setting is always too dark, such as on your ship with little lighting, then it will feel more depressing.  Also, dark scenes don’t look as great when viewed on a low-cost home projector.

5. Give it a little humor. Stargate SG-1 was packed full of little humorisms.  I could feel that the actors really enjoyed the show.  Their enjoyment, when combined with little facts (Teal’c’s favorite movie is Star Wars) make the show very enjoyable to watch. 

Bonus.  Keep the camera shots stable. No one likes getting motion sick from a show where they couldn’t keep the camera still.

After just two weeks of tuning into Stargate Universe, I can’t quite claim that it is a winner.  I’ll keep tuning in, unless, of course, I feel like the show had betrawed my many years of Stargate fan-dom.

Stargate Universe airs Friday evenings on the SyFy channel.  (I still think the renaming of Sci-Fi channel to SyFy was dumb).

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Source: Wikipedia

Sci-Fi show, Stargate Atlantis, endured 5 seasons before it was canceled. While I felt slightly empty after its predecessor, Stargate SG-1, got canceled after 10 seasons, my reaction to the end of Atlantis was much more subdued. I never felt like Atlantis really got going as an excellent Sci-Fi series.

Much of the problems behind the show’s failure was that it seemed like the producers were trying to follow a Sci-Fi formula rather than breaking free and creating something original. I believe originality and exploration of new ideas is one of the attractive features drawing fans to Science-Fiction television. With various technologies, episode plots, and series developments, Stargate Atlantis followed more than it lead.

Another major problem was an inconsistency of cast. Of the 10 main characters listed on Wikipedia, only 3 of which were cast for all 5 seasons. The series saw two doctors, three commanders, and a replacement of one of the main military guys. Such cast turnover prevented fans from building a long relationship with the characters. Additionally, a few of the characters who transferred to Atlantis after the SG-1 series was canceled had major personality changes–again causing character inconsistencies.

Stargate Atlantis at times seemed to be “Science-Fiction, minus the Science.” One of Sci-Fi’s appeals is that it allows writers and viewers to imaginatively explore new ideas and concepts by setting the show in some technologically advanced state. Atlantis disappointed in this respect because rather than reasonably using technology to explore new ideas, the writers simply invented new technology or unrealistic events simply because they thought it would make the plot more interesting. For example, in the very last episode, the crew used a never-aforementioned “Wormhole Drive” to jump across the galaxy in a second to save the day

Stargate Atlantis, while at times was interesting and many episodes illustrated great Sci-Fi drama, the series as a whole slowly failed itself into cancellation because they forgot what it takes to be a great TV show, and what it takes to be a great Sci-Fi series.

Clarification: Some point out that a show that makes it 5 seasons isn’t a failure, which is probably right. I should have said something like, “Stargate Atlantis failed to make my list of all-time great Sci-Fi shows,” or “Stargate Atlantis failed to be as great as Stargate SG-1.”

You can buy the second, third, or fourth seasons on DVD at the Square Galaxy Store.

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Please take a look at Google’s blog post to see more and what you can do about this issue.

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Stargate SG1 didn’t meet my expectations. Its almost like a brand new series, and most scifi series aren’t very good for the first couple seasons.

Lt. Col. Mitchell is a nice character, and I think that once he gets some rhythm with the other characters that he will be great. I think that his relationship with the other characters needs to be established more. The new General is pretty good. He seems to have more depth and action that Gen. Hammond did. The Vala character unnerves me. She seems too preoccupied with lust which is distracting for the show and makes me uncomfortable. Its almost like the writers are trying too hard to put some appeal for hormone driven males.

The storyline for the first episode was also disappointing. A treasure hunt is not the most exciting thing and didn’t seem very original. I was also hoping for more explanation why all of a sudden everything has changed. Why did O’Neil quit all of a sudden, and weren’t him and Carter getting together?

Ahh! Transition woes. Perhaps after all the excitement the last 5 episodes of last season, the new season seems kind of dull.

Stargate Atlantis Tonight’s episode was great. Although I’m a little disappointed to find out that their cliff-hanger of last season was solved simply by a sudden arrival of the starship from Earth. I mean, it was kind of predictable, I was hoping for something a little more surprising. But that is about my only complaint.

The whole Lt. Ford deal going bad was a great twist. Having the captain of the Starship seems like a great character, and I hope they keep him around. New characters seem like they will do well with the series, the story plot of tonight’s episode was great and exciting. I hope that this season will be full of adventure and not full of some alien power fog.

Battlestar Galactica. I was glad that finally Number Six’s role was family appropriate. And I just saw that there is a director’s commentary downloadable through a podcast, so I might actually watch the episode again tonight.

Tonight’s episode picked right up where we left off. It was a normal level of excitement, pretty good stuff. I wanted to see a little bit more time spent on Starbuck’s adventures on Caprica. Overall, a pretty good episode, better than most, but not anything I would write home about.

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