Movie and Television Reviews

Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper discuss Battlestar Galactica in 2006:

"How come they get to be on the cover of 'Entertainment Weekly'

"Why don't people write learned, intellectual articles about Atlantis?"

"We can write deep sci-fi if we wanted to."

Jealousy.

Stargate Universe.

Stargate Universe feels deeper. Nobody makes jokes and the camera cuts are "artistic." People argue more. Although I can't put my finger on anything the characters say that's really smart, they angrily, emotionally, philosophize over weighty issues such as death (in a secular way): "Politicians ask soldiers to sacrifice themselves all of the time." Well, not suicide missions exactly, but OK- not a bad point.

The scientist-leader (modern philosopher-king), Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle), is more complex in that he may have some bad motivations and serious character flaws instead of merely being annoying like Rodney McKay in Stargate Atlantis or grumpy like General Hammond.

Another sign that this Stargate is different is that crew members have sex. (Or, that we actually see them having sex. We know that Teyla from Stargate Atlantis had sex because she was pregnant, but we didn’t witness the act. If Teyla and her husband were in Stargate Universe, we would have seen how Athosians get it on.).

I don’t like this development: It adds nothing to the show either intellectually or in plot development and prevents me from watching it with my son, who’s a big fan of Stargate. Whether the number of people who will tune in specifically to watch outer-reaches lovemaking exceeds that of those turned off by this distraction remains to be seen.

The greatest strength of the Stargate franchise is its fantastic concept- a series of gates to other worlds- that has led to 15 seasons of adventure and will apparently generate several more.

The Stargate notion survives here in modified form: When the Lucian Alliance (SG creators finally make good use of that plot thread) attacks an SG research facility, some of the base personnel escape by boarding a huge Ancient starship which served the Ancients as a scout ship until they learned to ascend and didn't need it.

The crew members have no hope of returning to earth (and I don't anticipate them stepping on terra firma for a hundred episodes or so). Lost in space, the earthlings wander the universe, surviving, striving for earth.

Such a diverse group- scientists, military people, politicians- will no doubt have many conflicts, both ideological and inter-personal. Hopefully, these stresses won't devolve into obvious allegories of contemporary political issues like the worst Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica episodes. Romance will loom large, I'm sure. In the other Stargate series, romance is serious at times, but tame and temporary, more often humorous, as with McKay.

The writers include a neat little adventure generator: The ship automatically activates its gate when it needs something from a planet with a stargate. In the second episode, for example, they will have to find something to clean the air.

Rush has some long-distance communication eggs that allow the writers to cheat when needing to involve some of the people on earth.

Two characters stand out: Rush is brave and scientifically ambitious. The well-being of the crew doesn't seem to be his first priority.

Eli Wallace (David Blue) is an overweight geek. Needless to say, he will provide comic relief (does Battlestar Galactica have any humor at all?). How funny is he? Eh, so far.

The most clever part of the first two episodes is the introduction of Wallace. Rush wrote a nearly unbreakable code into an online game. Shortly after super-geek Wallace cracks the conundrum, Rush and General McNeil show up at his house to recruit him.

The worst scene is the ending. Chloe Armstrong loses her senator dad after he heroically sacrifices himself to save the rest of the crew (I liked this plot element. It's also unusual for Stargate to have such a high opinion of politicians: think of the IOC officials and Senator Kinsey in SG-1) and cries her remembrances of him to young lieutenant Matthew Scott. Any guy knows that he's just listening to increase his chances of a deep-space booty call: "Even though we all just crashed onto a space ship with no chance of getting home, I want to hear more about how your dad would always listen to you even if you were being a brat." Yet, he seems sincere. Very odd.

I doubt this cast will approach the sheer likability of the excellent Stargate Atlantis group, with Sheppard, McKay, Teyla, Dr. Beckett, and Dr. Keller (Jewel Staite).

General O'Neill, Colonel Carter, and Daniel Jackson were in the pilot. Nice to see them.