Stargate Universe- My favorite SG Series

This blog isn’t going to win me any friends in the Stargate Fandom world. In fact, as the case may be, it could get me chased down with pitchforks and torches by some people. But that’s okay. I’ve never been one to be afraid. What am I going to confess? That Stargate Universe is my favorite of the SG franchise. It is. No, honestly. I’m not making that up. SGU is my favorite Stargate series.

I’ve been a fan of Stargate since the early years of SG-1. I have always been a sci-fi nut. I grew up watching Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, and old school Battlestar Galactica. It’s always been a favorite genre of mine. I even remember seeing the original Stargate movie. Was it a little hokey? Well, yeah. Did I like it? Of course. So when I heard there was going to be a series based off of it, I started flipping channels anxiously. I guess I really got into SG-1 in about 2000 or so. Star Trek: Voyager was ending and I was looking for a show to fill my weekly need for sci-fi. I just kind of fell into SG-1. That was during the third season (I was a year behind because I could only watch in syndication because my family didn’t have cable). I liked it but it took me a while for it to become a must see every weekend show (It aired Saturday nights at 10:30pm). However, the fourth season got me hooked. Ever since then, I’ve had the Stargate fever. I liked the humor, sure. The handsome guys who paraded across the screen didn’t hurt either. I loved the character of Carter because she saved the day just as much as any of the guys. It was pretty damn awesome. I watched it until it ended in 2007 and I am the proud owner of the entire series and the two dvd movies. It is one of my favorite shows of all time.

Atlantis, though, was never my thing. I love David Hewlett and his character of Rodney McKay, certainly but as a whole, I was never a huge fan of SGA. I don’t dislike it but I’m not a fan either. I don’t like Sheppard. I don’t like Ronon. Teyla evokes only feelings of meh in me. The only reason I tuned into a few episodes of the last season was for Robert Picardo’s Richard Woolsey. I tried to like it. I swear I did. Hell, I recently received the first season of the show as a gift and rewatched all the episodes just to try and give it another shot. I still just can’t seem to get into it. It’s not my thing.

However, from the first minute of Stargate Universe, I was hooked. I loved the darker feel, the darker characters who didn’t always do the right thing. I loved that Colonel Young was not as emotionally stable as he should have been. I love that he beat the fool out of Dr. Rush on a number of occasions. I know I would have. I love the fact that one of the scientists (my personal favorite, Adam Brody) created a distillery. I simply loved everything about the show from the moment the series premiere started to the end credits of the series finale. I loved every moment of it in a way that I never quite loved SG-1.

Too many times on SG-1, the stories didn’t go far enough for me. They were entertaining, certainly, but few of SG-1’s plot lines ever really pushed the limits and really made people think about real life issues. And that’s fine. It was television escapism. It was terrific escapism. SGU was different, though. It was nasty, gritty, and showed a set of heroes that weren’t always heroes. That’s what I always wanted from SG-1. I wanted to see one of them make a mistake that showed them to be human. I wanted Daniel to fail, Jack to do something morally ambiguous, Carter to not have the answer in her hat. On SGU, yeah, the characters did the right thing most of the time, but they also did the wrong thing several times too. My favorite storyline on SGU was the Young/TJ romance. I love that they had the affair and had to deal with the consequences. That is a very human thing that happens every day with people across the world. I loved watching TJ and Young struggle to come to terms with her pregnancy then the loss of their child. On SG-1, Jack would have never compromised his values. He was a pillar of moral fortitude. Young was a man who made a mistake and was doing everything he could to make it right. Honestly, I have more affection for Young than I ever did for Jack because of his flaws.

Another thing that makes SGU my favorite of the franchise is the fact that there was such an expanded cast. On SG-1 and SGA, it was just four or five people that we saw every week with different background players and extras. On SGU, yes there was a main cast that we followed primarily but the supporting cast members were there, dealing with the exact same scenario as our main guys. My favorite character of the show  was one of these supporting characters, that of Adam Brody portrayed by Peter Kelamis. Brody made a still, stood up to both Young and Rush when necessary, helped maintain Destiny, and was terrific at lightening the moment when it needed it. I’m not even going to go into all the other guest stars/supporting cast members and how they added to the show. But they all did add something. None of the characters could have ever been replaced by another, at least not in my eyes. On SG-1, the only four characters that really mattered were the members of SG-1. Everyone else could and did change. Was it bad that the show was so focused on the leads? Maybe. But I still love the show. SGU was different and I certainly appreciated that.

Stargate Universe was different than either of its predecessors. It is that difference that has secured the show as my favorite of the three series. This does not mean that SGU is better than SG-1 or SGA. It was new. It took chances, perhaps too many for the Stargate fandom to be comfortable. But I loved every second of that wild ride. I just wish we’d gotten more. For now, I’ll be happy with the two seasons that I got. I’ll rewatch them like I rewatch the old seasons of SG-1. I’d love nothing more than to see the lights on the Destiny come to life again but that is not likely to happen so I’ll be content with the forty episodes I have. May the franchise find life again one day.

Advertisement

~ by conniepoint on May 31, 2011.