SGU - The Verdict! Have your say! *spoilers*

[Colonel_Carter]

So, it's aired. What did everyone thing about it?

Personally, I was pleasantly surprised. The characters all seem to be ones that I'm going to form a bond with (some quicker than others) but it's really got a good dynamic so far.

The evil Dr Rush (there was a surprise for a start!), I really quite like. I've not seen a lot of Robert Carlylse (no pun intended - Full Monty etc) but he played the part well.

Eli ... haha, what a brilliant way to get a 'civilian' into the show!! And that game looked cool - can I have a copy?

The military, I'm going to group them all together. Was that it for Lou Diamond Phillips? Wow!!! The guy in charge does remind me vocally of Colm Meaney, but he's pretty good.

As for the ship ... wow! We've not seen anything ancient like this before and I love the fact that it's sooo big and it's sooo falling apart!! I do like the idea that it has its own intelligence and will find Stargates for stuff they need. Nice idea. Though the ticking clock bit ... a bit reminscent of the 'clock' idea in Lost (just saying).

Well that's me getting the discussion going ...

[SG1Niner]

"We'll beam you to our spaceship" - just HAD to get my Jack line in there!

It's like Stargate kinda meets Quantum Leap. I love the design of the ship...I wonder if we'll find any other Ancient ships along the way! The characters have a good foundation. I'm now waiting for "next Friday" for the next part already!!!

I have not seen Robert Carlyle sporting the Full Monty, naked, in the buff, shall we say NUDE! LOL...I do remember him from the James Bond - The World Is Not Enough as Renard...what a bad guy!

Col Young - yeah Carter he does sound like Colm Meaney.

Ming Na as Camile Wray from the IOA...well I like Ming, just not a fan of the IOA...I bet she will bring some good old Earth politics and tension to the group!

Kinda disappointed in LDP's part...I thought he'd be one of the characters as a mainstay to the show.

VERY much liked the GEORGE HAMMOND that Sam was in command of. A VERY NICE tip of the hat to Don S Davis [RIP].

Yeah, the clock...I hope they don't over abuse the focus on that...it would be a little draining, don't you think?

Is it Friday yet?

[Colonel_Carter]

You know what the weirdest part is ... they didn't need Carter/O'Neill/Jackson to be in there at all - it really stood its ground on its own!

I've never seen Carlyle (I will learn how to spell that LOL) in Monty, but thanks for the reminder about the Bond villain! That has obviously paid off.

I think the worse thing about LDP's character was, that because of the way he died ... well for a while, I didn't even realise it was him!!! It was "where is he?" oh he must've been that guy ... - disappointing. No wonder he was able to spend so much time in the jungle this summer

They did mention the George Hammond (in Continuum I think, or was it Atlantis??) but it does look good

Definitely want it to be Friday (or in my case Saturday *download!!*) ... Sanctuary premiere follows SGU next week *grin*

[Umbra117]

LDP's character Telford is slated for a handful of episodes. He recovered to the Hammond along with the remaining 302 pilots and presumably returned to Earth. Curious to see how he's worked into the upcoming episodes.

[Colonel_Carter]

Ah,thanks for that info on Telford ... I must've blinked and missed that in the excitement of it all

[cosmicgateriderthefirst]

What can you say?The Gate continues.Sweeeeet.One thing that is constant....change.I am the Gaterider!!!!!! Hang on for a great ride.Cake for everyone

[SG1Niner]

Well...interesting how they brought LDP into the episode...nice to see an old prop being re-used!


"Bowling league, Thursday nights? You got game, son."

[Gmechanic]

I thought the pilot was good. I wish it had been more straight-forward and had laid the backdrop before getting into the SGU storyline, but as it was, I think they did a good job including a good amount of the original cast members to indroduce the show as well as the new ones. Already, I was sensing a big change getting through that episode. I felt out of place and unfamiliar to what was going on and where. Maybe that's how they wanted it? Well, at least it was a change, and as I have just watched Air part 3, I'm starting to like the relationships between the characters already.

I'm super excited about seeing ming na do her stuff, as well as LDP Big fans of both of them. I really hope they become a more central part of the group. Among the rest of the cast, Jamil Smith is my fav. lol as Gateworld said, "he's Ford done right" and I agree. Not crazy about Brian, but it's apparent he's good at what he does too. I think I just need to be more comfortable with his character -he hasn't really set in for me yet.

Can't wait for this friday's ep, darkness!!

[Colonel_Carter]

I have to agree with you about Jamil Smith - I can see Ford in him so much, but yes - more crazy and less angsty!

Brian? You mean 'Scott'? I can actually see a very young Jack O'Neill in him ... hopefully he'll fulfil that potential.

[Gmechanic]

What did you guys think about the gate puddle being silvery? I liked the blue color that it used to be...And I really don't like them being stuck on a ship. It's been overdone. I don't see how that could last very long as far as storyline goes, so I hope the ship leads them to some new planet or something and they could set-up a base somewhere. But, the hard part with a story like this is that since it's less plot-driven and more character-based, the writers are gonna have to really make sure the characters have something to do each week to keep us tuned in. We'll see how it goes as the "drama" unfolds as they say. lol hopefully it's not as heavy as a serial drama and still keeps its stargate humor.

[SG1Niner]

I too like the blue color...

if the ship is falling apart...since it's what, at least 100,000 years old...would the ancients have had a "starbase" that it could go to for repairs??? Could we find a city like "Atlantis" in space? I think there are possibilities...I agree, they have to have good writers to keep us tuning in week to week.

So far I'm interested...let's hope we can keep travelling through that old orifice - the gate!

[brainshatterer]

I'd doubt the repair base in space as the ship's course, shown by Carlyle seemed to be in a straight line, not zig zagging back over its own course, and its WAY out there, so I'd think the ancients didn't make a repair depot that far out. I wouldn't be surprised to see some people get stranded, and then later find a way onto one of the other stargate making ships and get back into the action, but I'm sure that'll be later if at all. I'm pretty surprised to see how bad the ship is in terms of shape, the ancients that were flying the Aurora class battle cruiser were heading at FTL for like 12000 years or so in the nothingness between Pegasus and Milky Way right? And they said about maybe 12 years had passed for them, then by that train of thought, maybe 100 years or so should have passed for this unmanned ship, stuff should be functioning a bit better than it seems to be. Ship needs an upgrade to hyperdrive
Show seems worthy of a shot, so far seems like it will be nice. My fiancee isn't really interested in it, she missed the old characters, poor Atlantis

[Colonel_Carter]

If I was watching closely enough last week, we have already lost 2 members of the expedition (the ones that ventured through the gate and left Eli behind). I agree what you said about doubting there's a repair station anywhere along the way. But then that's what will make the adventure all the more fun - having to repair as they go. That way there's always some major disaster to overcome.

I too miss Atlantis (as I did SG-1 when Atlantis started) but I just watch the DVDs instead

[brainshatterer]

They mentioned sending them a dialing device after, there was several hours lag time when Eli stayed on the planet to wait. Probably got them back to the ship in the remaining hours, I can't see them getting to return to the planet to help after the stunt they pulled.

[Gmechanic]

Well, if anyones seen Darkness yet, I have only good thoughts about it...and not alot went on, but still we see a very nice balance of cast members interacting with each other most of the time.

The only one who was left out was Greer -which I imagined he would have had a bigger part to play in this one, but not so I guess. Usually when there's darkness or a power outage going on we have lots of security around, telling people what to do and what's going on, and I partly imagined him that way.

Also it was really cool seeing the back-and-forths between Col. Young and Dr. Rush lol, interesting.

Overall, they've got a good balance of everything in the show, I'd just like to see more happenings in general. I mean this ep. could be summed up in a handful of words. Maybe it'll speed up a little more as the show continues.

I like it so far though. They've kept some humor I see, and the personalities are really strong, really starting to come out.

[brainshatterer]

Saw it, my fiancee watched a few minutes, didn't like the shaky camera style. Kind of a bummer that the whole show went to BSG style everything.

[Colonel_Carter]

Saw it, my fiancee watched a few minutes, didn't like the shaky camera style. Kind of a bummer that the whole show went to BSG style everything.

Your fiancee not a big SG fan then? I have to admit the shakey camera style was a little annoying at first, but I can see why they did it - it added to the whole 'roughing it' feel that they have on board the Destiny. I hope that's not going to be a continuing trend, and maybe more that it just added to the whole scenario of that episode.

I'm loving how Telford is trying to undermine Young everytime they switch bodies.

And biggest laugh of the show ... Peter DeLuise!!! How blatant is he getting being in scenes now! Loved it

[Gmechanic]

Kind of a bummer that the whole show went to BSG style everything.

I wouldn't say everything. There are some stylistic differences between the two, and more in terms of story and mood but, I still see the show as having it's own stargate flavor. I do agree that the close camera shots and sweeping capture styles were used in classic bsg/firefly fashion. Personally, I think it's not as asthetically pleasing as people make it out to be and I don't know if this style of cinematics belong in stargate because I'm used to seeing a steady sg ship flying in space, that's not being followed around by a shaky camera. lol Anyway, I can't really complain about how cool the other special effects look.

Now, I don't know if this changeover is all part of the company upping its production value (obviously they spent a lot of money on the look and feel of this world, and its characters) and expanding on its advertising to appeal to newer audiences, ultimately to surpass any associations with the geeky-nerdy part of sci-fi television but if it is, I think it's the wrong way to go about it.

In the past, they have always recognized that by sticking to what they know best, they will recieve the most positive feedback. With this show being shiny and new, they have a chance to gain more viewers, so it's possible they are trying to help that gain along as much as they can -including trendy shooting styles, the popular character-drama format, and shady marketing perks (if you've seen Steppin Out magazinethis month). Hopefully, they don't overdue these changes before they get wrapped up in it and the show becomes like any other show on tv.

[brainshatterer]

I agree with you Gmechanic, its not all BSG, but plenty seems that way. I laughed with the music playing every time it shows the ship. I'm used to hearing engine noise. Hopefully they will return to the typical SG style after a bit. I just saw the magazine on ebay a minute ago, seems like they are really trying to sex the show up a lot. I'm all for new stuff and all, but I just hope they don't forget where it all started from.

[Qetesh]

So, I'm just gonna go right out and say it... Where did they put Stargate and what is this crap? It's like I'm watching an episode of Lost or something.

It's just cliffhangers every episode with no action, just a bunch of random crap drama between characters, and random deaths. At least in SG-1/A if someone died it was to a Goa'uld, Jaffa, Ori, Wraith or something exciting... about the only thing that even makes this thing Stargate is that it has a Stargate.

Other then that, it doesn't even remotely have the feel of SG-1 or even SG-A.

I'm going to keep watching it only because I'm a huge fan of the Stargate franchise, in the hopes that it picks up and turns into something at least somewhat decent.

They needa get the ship powered up and start fighting some aliens for some random reason in my opinion. I don't know about all this ship constantly falling apart and super high character drama stuff. Doesn't feel like Stargate at all to me.

[Gmechanic]

brainshatterer, I hated that they didn't have a solid theme and intro like they did in SGA and SG-1. Hopefully they come up with something soon. I really wanted there to be a new theme song that I could compare with the other two.


Qetesh,
The show is supposed to be more about the people on the ship and their experiences together. It's the same format that Star Trek was doing, and is more about what happens to the characters instead of what they actually do. Like in the pilot ep, Icarus base gets attacked and people are forced to evac to the Destiny -there's no concern in who is attacking (in the ep. they even say they don't know) and instead they focus on the characters. So, I kind of see it as stargate but in a startek format...not necessarily having the feel/mood of sg-1 or sga, but still being true to what stargate is all about.

Also, the timer on the ship won't be part of the story for very long. They don't want that to be the main focus of the story, otherwise it would be repetitive. The idea is that one season of the show will account for one galaxy that they pass through. So, I'm assuming that they'll find a way to fix it to prevent sudden, unwanted jumps into FTL. As for the aliens, they haven't met any yet.. maybe later on, but as for right now, they are mainly concerned with fixing up the ship.

The character drama may be something we're not used to, but the technology going wrong and things falling apart aspects were seen in Atlantis a lot, so that's where I get some of the SGA influence coming in. Also, I think the characters in SGU have a natural chemistry together on screen, like they had in SG-1, whereas the teams that Atlantis had seemed to be less natural of a bond. My opinion though...

One of the problems I think that comes up in SGU is that stargate is supposed to be a fun, light-hearted, action/adventure -or at least it started that way. With Atlantis, we were able to explore another galaxy, with new technology, but also got a little more serious. Now, with SGU being a darker, more emotionally invested show -that kinda changes the definition of what stargate is for me, so can we really count SGU as being partly stargate, if at all? I mean it seems like every show is getting a little darker, a little more serious -and it seems like this series is really gunning for it, but, it still feels like a stargate show to me despite all of that I don't exactly know what it is.

[Qetesh]

It really doesn't feel like Stargate at all for me. I'm keeping up with it and all, just...... there's like, zero action. It's more like a glorified soap opera. I'm really hoping it picks up soon!

[Gmechanic]

Woah! anyone see the latest epp? That scene with the communication stones...awkward!

[Qetesh]

Yeah... what about the end?

...I wonder what he's going to do.

Try to pretend to be him to get some "revenge" since he tried to get him kicked out?

[Colonel_Carter]

Yeah... what about the end?

...I wonder what he's going to do.

Try to pretend to be him to get some "revenge" since he tried to get him kicked out?

I think it's pretty clear what Telford is going to do. I have to admit that whole scene with Young/Telford and Young's 'wife' was exceedingly awkward to watch, and the end scene totally creeped me out.

For me personally, it crossed a line that I'm not comfortable with. I know SGU is meant to more 'adult' now but even so.