There's a show called Travelers made by Brad Wright that features a few actors from SG-1 and Universe. It lasted 3 seasons (the first 2 were the best from what i remember) and is worth the watch if you haven't seen it already.
@@tim2024-df5fu Yeah, that was its one redeeming quality. And even that was very... poorly managed, let's say. I wish we had something like this back. For now we at least have the Farscape forever-a-thon on YT. :) I hope some company like Shout can buy the Stargate franchise and set up something similar.
Every time I watch Universe and reach the halfway point of the second season, I'm so happy because that's where the show has found its perfect flow and feeling and at the same time I'm so sad that I only have a few episodes left until it's over again.
@@metalandwheel season 2 is some of the best star gate and hard sci fi ideas. Walking out of a gate and seeing a human city? And it's a Colony of the post twin destinies Novans!?!?! That's a roll back on the couch kick your feet in the air moment.
A pattern in the cosmic background radiation? So many stories to tell with that. SGU is my favorite of the series. I agree with Rowan’s assessment of the gratuitous content, but they toned that down by the end.
@@alphadawg81 it was stargate. They went on missions through a stargate and explored planets. If they got stuck on destiny and everyone was joking around like atlantis it would be very weird.
I just wish they released an official soundtrack so I could mod it into Stellaris. The series had many, MANY flaws, but the music was never one of them. Goldsmith delivered hit after hit without fail.
I've heard it said that people often complain about A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin and/or the Game of Thrones creators, but no one complains about soundtrack composer Ramin Djawadi. Similarly, one could argue that while there's plenty about SGU to complain about, the soundtrack is not one of them.
I loved SGU , it was differently different but was very much closer to what could happen. SGU was human maybe seeing that and all our ugly emotions and anger is what people didn't like. To me this showed that even with all that they would keep coming back to each other to work the problem. To me this showed us that no matter each person short comings there another person can pick up that load. Just like it is in real life here. Non of us can do everything so we must let those that can take that part of the pie and run with it. I wish they would pull this series off the shelf, dust it off and bring it back. I want to see what is at the end of the line. Thanks doing all these , you did a great job.
Yes, Stargate Universe is better. It started out bumpy but there is nothing on Enterprise that can touch the storytelling of the twin Destinies arc. The episode itself is a BANGER on its own, but then the revelation that the second Destiny crew founded an entire civilization-incredible! And I *like* Enterprise! But the tightness of the plotting and character work in season 2 of SGU is a bar that Enterprise never reaches.
34:37 Something about Eli you may have overlooked, he didn't have that status on earth. Yes he was smarter than Rush but he wasn't really applying himself, he wasn't being proactive, he wasn't socially popular. On Icarus, and moreso on Destiny, he found his place on the world, he rose to the challenge.
The creators didn’t merely draw “inspiration” from Battlestar Galactica; they essentially lifted almost everything intact, except possibly for season 2. The parallels are so striking that they often leave you astounded-like when the “crew” found themselves embroiled in their own internal conflict or when they were framed as a “ragtag” group on a perilous quest for survival. And let’s not overlook the characters themselves; the ship commanders were nearly identical, but the original from BSG was unforgettable and carried a weight that the other lacked. Even the melodrama felt recycled; while BSG incorporated emotional moments seamlessly, often bringing me to tears, this iteration felt like a mere imitation. I want to clarify that I am an ardent Stargate fan-it's my all-time favorite show. I only discovered it during the lockdown in 2020, and I fell head over heels for it. I’m not influenced by the behind-the-scenes political drama that might skew my opinions. After Stargate Atlantis, I was eager to see what came next, even though I hadn’t yet watched BSG. While I do believe that the series could have been more grounded and gritty, particularly toward its conclusion, I saw the potential in its concepts, especially the idea that these characters were the original humans who evolved into the Ancients. However, it felt like episode 200 of SG1 was making light of the situation, opting for a younger cast filled with teenage drama and romantic escapades. The introduction of the Lucian Alliance as villains felt somewhat forced, as if saying, “These are our antagonists now.” After binge-watching the entire franchise (and continuing to rewatch it annually, sometimes even twice a year 😂😂), I finally gave Battlestar Galactica a chance despite my initial reservations about its title. To my surprise, I discovered a genuine space opera that stirred emotions in me that few shows manage to evoke. Yet, during my next rewatch of Stargate, it struck me just how eerily similar SGU was to BSG. At first, I was convinced that BSG was the one copying, until I checked their release dates and was shocked to realize that Stargate's team had blatantly borrowed from BSG. It felt like an unfortunate decision driven by studio pressure, and I couldn’t help but think it was lazy given that they had their own unique concepts and themes. I’m not claiming to outright dislike SGU; rather, I think it had the potential to succeed. What made Stargate special was its quirky charm, something that’s rarely captured in sci-fi. BSG and Stargate were distinct entities, occupying entirely different realms-more than just alternate universes or dimensions. There was no need to merge the two. Ultimately, they could have grounded SGU more effectively, as its conceptual theories had the potential to explore profound existential questions, just as SG did. It could have delved into groundbreaking themes. Instead, they opted to undermine their established audience by borrowing heavily from a successful show, leaving Stargate to conclude on such a un graceful note.
Lots of great cast members, but man the writing in the first half of the first season was painful at times. And the whole season finale invasion thing just did not help things. Near the end of season 2 it finally started to get its legs under it. But by then it was too late.
@@nitehawk86 Whilst the Lucian Alliance wasnt the most compelling or threatening of villains, I think it helped continuity to include them in such a massive way. Having a familiar villain next to the blue aliens who for once didnt talk english. The S1 cliffhanger was one of the most tense in all of the shows, and it had lasting consequences. Also shoutout to Jonas' world Langara in S2, which also brought in McKay to the story.
Really? Robert Carlyle? His performance is so bad... I think it's one of the reasons this show was cancelled. There's a reason he never got another meaningful role ;)
I am watching SGU for the first time and I'm loving it! I've gotten mostly through season 1. I've always been a huge fan of Stargate, and I hope you keep making content for it! It's hard to find good Stargate content unfortunately, so that is why I love your channel!! 😉
In addition to being great, SGU also highlights just how exceptional the heroes of the other two shows are. After a while, we take the SG teams for granted that they are all Supermen and superwomen. Seeing the crew of Destiny struggling just to get air or water without murdering each other gives you a little better perspective on the effectiveness of the SG teams.
There are lots of SG teams, staffed by intelligent professionals. It's shocking that people as incompetent, short-sighted, and unprofessional as the cast of SGU were ever let in on the secret of the Stargate in the first place; you'd think they'd fail the necessary background checks.
I think SGU is my favorite series from the Stargate franchise. Such a great cast in a wildly different situation. I have no doubt that Eli will find a solution while traveling between the galaxies.
Only mentioning Ming-Na's voice work for projects prior to SGU is understating her career up to this point. Having been among the cast of one of the biggest TV dramas of the late 90s/early 00s with ER since season 6 definitely made her a well known face of TV viewers.
I remember seeing a behind the scenes bit for SGU where they were talking about the character for Dr Rush. Robert Carlyle was told that he was to be an unlikable man, and boy did Carlyle ever hit that nail on the head. He is an amazing actor, and I have found that I have enjoyed his other work too. I really liked SGU and it is sad that we never got to see more of it.
I admit, I wasn't a fan of Stargate Universe when it first came out. While I enjoyed Carlyle's performance, it was just too different from what came before. However, when I got older I re-watched the show and found a much greater appreciation for it's darker themes.
@@Sci-Fi-Mike You are exactly right. They realized towards the end of season 1 the tone needed to be softened and they dropped those absolutely atrocious music montages to cap off the end of episodes which they 100% lifted from BSG. I love the show, but I despise those self important montages. They do not fit in SG, and they wore out their welcome in BSG.
I know I definitely had the same experience, I watched the show as a kid, and I think going from SG-1 and SGA... It's just so dark in tone in comparaison. It was only when I rewatched it that I really gained an appreication for it, and I think that was because I gave it, it's own space. Rather then always compairing to the shows before it. I think it would have been a big hit (like The Expanse really gives me similar vibes) had it been a show that wasn't called Stargate or had been realsed in 2015 rather then 2009. Which isn't to say that I think it's not 'real stargate'. Just that comparison is the thief of joy.
Everyone compares this show to 2004 Galactica, but it also reminded me a lot of Space: 1999. A crew trapped, unable to steer, hurtling across the universe, and running into one menace after another each episode.
Watching SGU is the first time I heard Flogging Molly. I later learned my best friend's cousin is Nathan Maxwell. Later that year he took me to the a concert and I got to meet his cousin and half the band. Gotta thank SGU's music choices for a new favorite band.
dude. THIS. loved og Stargate movie but never watched the shows UNTIL my roomie one day said, "Wanna get stoned & watch something trippy?" I watched the ep Time & immediately became hooked. thanks man! great review!
The first season did have some interesting things going on, but it was brutal to get through especially because all the bad soap opera stuff. The final 10 or so episodes of Universe were incredible. Some of my favorite science fiction of all time. It is so disappointing that the show got cancelled when it was finally getting good.
I think you're right about the bad soap opera elements being a turn off. I recently checked out Universe having heard all the debate surrounding it. I couldn't get through Season 1 because of the bad soap opera.
When I was watching season 1 it turned me off because there was a lot of arguing for the sake of arguing and not for the sake of anything not contrived. I don't know what a soap opera is but it was just a lot of "You are slightly mean even though you're trying to help people But therefore you're the bad guy"
@@Lakilazur713 in this case by soap opera stuff I mostly mean, overly exaggerated and petty interpersonal conflict. I expect a group of mostly strangers with different backgrounds, interests, and morals to have some conflicts in an unknown environment involving lots of high stress situations, but crises usually bring people together and tamp down interpersonal conflict as people prioritize cohesion for the sake of survival. Instead there was a ton of backstabbing, cheating, awkward love triangles, lying, random violence, attempted murders, scheming etc.
Well said. Stargate had and still has so much potantial to be written about. I hope Amazon doesnt throw away the whole lore. Thank you for this whole retrospective.
@@dffndjdjd in Star Trek Universe, whenever UFP or Starfleet is on good standing, there is always an another villain or group that threans the status quo. And Earth in Stargate isint even close to Federation's status in the galaxy There can always be threats. Either internal or external.
I was one of those that was sad when Universe was cancelled. I like to think that Elie is still out there, trying to get that last stasis chamber repaired and working.
This was my favourite Stargate show from day one. Loved the set design, the cast, the design choices, the overall atmosphere... and my god, that soundtrack was a strike of genius! Still listening to it when I work to get into flow... a true shame it ended to quickly 😞
You're spoiling us with this release schedule, thank you. I think the problem with Universe is that it was so different tonally to what existing fans were expecting, it alienated the original fan base. It was only on subsequent watches that I was able to appreciate the merits of the series myself. I strongly suspect if it hadn't been a Stargate IP there may well have been a market for it.
@@champlooism , Jeez, I’d forgotten about that…it wasn’t what I was referring to, but it’s such a heartwarming moment I’m surprised it didn’t come to mind.
Thank you for this great retrospective of this franchise i grew up with. Stargate had its ups and downs but I loved all the main shows/movies and I was heartbroken back when SGU got canceled right as it became, for me at least, on par with the previous two shows. You put my feelings it to words very well at the end of the Video. The show does feel like it ended to early, sometimes i even get jealous for the other 2 star franchises which have gotten more love from big studios for better or for worse. I just hope that we will one day get to see at least one more adventure through the old orifice.
That was a very good video Rowan. Your retrospectives on the Stargate franchise have been second to none. I look foward to more down the line. Thank you.
In my mind the reason why Stargate felt both extremely long and yet fresh boils down to the fact that each of the show had the courage to change the premise and, yet, the internal logic and continuity of the narrative universe was very strict. Moreover, both SG1 and Atlantis benefited from being military shows, with a crapton of potential new character just a "transfer order" away, meaning that (like Babylon 5 did) one could change large swat of the main cast whenever needed. In comparison (and despite my love for the franchise), most of Star Trek has a much more "set in stone" premise. I feel that DS9 was the only earnest attempt to break the mold of "to bodly go", but even so the core cast was pretty much a constant.
That's not necessarily a bad thing in DS9's case. The plan was for Babylon 5 to have a core cast as well, but the show had to adapt to the actors for major characters leaving with mixed results. In the case of Sinclair to Sheridan it worked but something like Lyta to Talia back to Lyta ended up gutting the plotline they were associated with. DS9 is a lot cleaner in character development for not having to deal with that.
Enterprise was, especially 3 and 4 s seasons are underated, an season 3 is a really good star trek take on the 9/11 atmosphere without downplaying the trauma.
And just like how I felt knowing Stargate was over. I now feel, knowing that your work on it is done. Thanks for reminding me how much I love this world.
Favorite comic moments of SGU, which a lot of people complain that there were too little: Eli's invocation of Planet of the Apes and Volker needling Brody about a future version of Brody naming a city Futura (from the Novus arc). What really cracked me up was during one of these exchanges when Volker says he thinks Futura is a font. And Park just struts by saying, "It's a font."
SGU was always my favorite of the Stargate shows, but it didn't take off because it only appealed to people who A) wanted something dramatically different from a Stargate series and B) were already familiar with the decade+ of Stargate lore that it's based on. I feely admit we are a niche audience.
It is rather unfortunate that to really appreciate the prototype versions of golden age Ancient technology, you have to see their finished equivalents in Atlantis. Plus, you have the Lucian Alliance baggage from SG-1.
SGU was my favorite iteration of Stargate and I was excited for the direction it was taking the series. I was saddened that it didn’t pick up like the past two series :(
Joe Flannigan (Actor who played Shepard) said the Producers of Stargate were jealous of Battlestar Galactica, and wanted to prove they could write award winning successful scifi dramas too. . . . . They failed.
Stargate Universe became great as soon as the writing started focusing more on plot and story vs interpersonal drama. Sy-Fy should have let them write the show the show they wanted to write from the beginning.
ah of course, the tale as old as time, try and immitate something with arrogance and then wonder why you fail, whilst also cancelling something truly successfull with a clear fanbase and footing.
Take a drink every time he says the word 'Stargate'. You'll be on the floor within a minute and a half. "Stargate" easily uttered 300 times. Easily. Stargate.
The episode of having founded a colony civilization from having been thrown into the past, was the exact same idea/trope as what was done in a Star Trek DS9 episode years earlier.
I was one of those original fans. I just didn't like it at all, it replaced the fun, the optimism, and interesting characters with melodrama, angst, and unlikeable characters. I've watched it through twice since it came out hoping time would mellow my opinion but it hasn't I still don't like it and it's not a part of my annual rewatches.
@@centy64 Yeah. The more i learned about rush ability to operate the ship being hidden from the crew the more inwas asking like peter griffen "oh my god. Who cares." They had the chance of haveing star trek in star gate with gilligans island and monster of the week style stories that expanded the charecters and allowed for and broke up the drama. BSG worked csuse it was based of established tone. And we all knew what tonexpect. Sgu had the tone but couldnt decide what itnwanted to be... adventure series, or, drama. And didn't know it could be both.
@@centy64 Yeah, god forbid they try something else instead of just regurgitating the same shit we've already watched for the past 15 years right? Its because of people like you that the show was cancelled. Did you ever think that maybe this show wasnt meant for YOU? I also loved SG1 and Atlantis but after 9 seasons of SG1 and 5 seasons of Atlantis i was just getting fatigued of the franchise, and Universe was a breath of fresh air.
@@fedord01 I never said they should redo what was done, putting words in my mouth doesn't help your case it just makes you seem like an unhinged fanboy. If SGU was canceled because people like me didn't like it and it couldn't get anyone new in then who was it for? By the same token I could say if you were tired of the series as it was then why didn't you take your own advice and say this isn't for me and watch something else why is the onus on traditional SG fans to be the ones to be quiet. Lol honeslty this pathetic kind of comment is the least constructive thing on offer. Not that it matters both of us had our SG series canceled anyway.
@24:40 it's said that Syfy changed SGU's timeslot from Friday to Tuesday in an effort to boost the ratings. I remember that very differently. Syfy did very well on Friday nights. For a long, long time it was Stargate night and also the night for other original programming. They also aired original series on those Friday nights outside the broadcast season (September to December and February/March to May), avoiding the competition broadcast networks posed much, much more in those days. For some reason Syfy wanted to compete anyhow, having Stargate Atlantis air Season 4 and 5 (partly) during the broadcast season. What I remember is that this did hurt ratings, but with Fridays being a weak night for broadcast ratings and they therefore didn't program much, it was the night where genre TV could thrive. (Fringe survived for five seasons on Fox because of this and WB giving a good deal to make the profitable money in syndication (basically the whole corporate strategy of their co-op with CBS, The CW)). SGU wasn't moved to Tuesday because that suddenly was a better night. Heck, ABC's ten o'clock slot was a programming death sentence for years. It was quite a competitive night. No, Syfy had obtained a new darling in their programming: show wrestling. And it was live. On Friday nights. That was the true reason SGU and basically every other show got moved to another night. It didn't do those shows any favours, especially not when airing during broadcast season in which the competition was way higher.
This^ Syfy canceled SGU (and by extension the stargate franchise) primarily to make room for what it thought would be a saving grace with wrestling. It didn't just cancel Stargate thought, it nearly completely dropped every scifi show it had going at the time. Battlestar galatica, Red Faction, Sanctuary, Alphas, Warehouse 13, Caprica, they were all thrown out for wrestling and stupid paranormal shows. 2012 and 2013 especially saw the rise of a huge slew of god awful reality shows.
in my eyes what killed SGU was the the fact that it took them a year and a half to drop the parts of the show that weren't working and finally get good, leaving us with only ten episodes not tainted by melodrama and infighting across two seasons.
I really liked the whole "building a society out of a random collection of people". I would have liked more of that and less interference from back home. No stones and instead maybe something like the "letters from pegasus" they had in Atlantis.
@@chromesucks5299 yeah, the looser aliance are filler villans in their native series, trying to upgrade them to proper antagonists in SGU was one of those non-working bits i mentioned.
I just finished rewatching Universe for the first time since it originally aired. I still like it! I think part of what appeals to me is how much it has of what Star Trek Voyager *should* have had: actual stakes and long-term consequences. Perhaps it was a bit too dour for Stargate, but I'd love to see another season or a movie some day.
Stargate Universe was wonderful. It was different, and yes, it tried to model the grittiness of Battlestar Galactica. But it did it well. It is a shame it did not continue.
When it was cancelled I had to come up with my own head canon. Eli is unable to fix the stasis pod, and resolves himself to die. At the last moment he has an idea on how to survive, put 2 years worth of supplies in a shuttle which has independent power and use it as a life raft. Since it's at the last moment, he is in a rush, and he's agonizing with the thought that he took too long trying to save himself and therefore doomed everyone. The rest of the crew come out of stasis two years later, and see the empty pod and think Eli must have died. But they discover him in the shuttle, having lost a heap of weight from rationing, and gone nuts from the isolation and the guilt of thinking he killed all his friends. The start of season three is helping him recuperate and deal with hallucinations.
Call me crazy, but I'm probably one of the few who preferred Stargate Universe to the other Stargate series. And I was really sad when the show wasn't renewed - it did have plenty of potential to continue. When you've mentioned music - the most memorable moment will be probably always the scene in Episode 3 in Season 2 when Fink's 'Sort of Revolution' plays. Miss the show a lot. Thank you for the great review!
I've really come to love this show. At first, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but I watched it again some years later and enjoyed it a lot more, and really appreciated what they were trying to do. Upon managing to find both seasons on Blu-ray (finally!), I watched it a third time and enjoyed it even more. Making its ending very frustrating. I'd dearly love to see it continue, even though it's virtually impossible now...
SGU was completely underrated, it should have gotten a better chance. Fascinating setting, and I always wondered what they had planned later on down the road.
Man, I remember when Stargate Universe came on in America and there were signs that it was doomed from the get-go - for that was the year SciFi Channel was renamed Syfy and for a while tried to do anything else besides good science-fiction (and cheaper too). When it moved to Tuesdays at 10PM for Season 2, I remember having a harder time tuning in. Tuesdays were school nights and I just starting High School. So I wasn’t always able to stay up and watch it. Then midseason it moved to Mondays, adding salt to the wound. And when we found out it was cancelled, it was like, “Why even bother finishing this up?” I always blamed it on Syfy going through a rebrand at the time that totally disrespected its core audience. But I suppose even if it was the old SciFi Channel, the problems with the studio would have continuing the show impossible. Damn shame. SGU deserved better. Stargate in general deserves better.
My biggest problem is growing up as a kid, I didn't watch much tv. If I was only able to catch an occasional episode of original show, it was because I had a life that didn't allow for much idleness. That changed when I went to Iraq. When I came back, BSG had just wrapped, and I had to wait for the last season to come out on DVD, so I turned to SG1. Didn't know the order of the movies, so when Jack left, I was confused. Didn't care much about Atlantis, and didn't know about this series either. Looks like I know what i'm going to be watching for the next few weeks.
Roman mate I hope am early enough in the comments for you to see this. After over 20 years my mum still slags me coz every time she sees me I’m watching Stargate. Any of it, all of it. I keep watching it over and over again. It’s my absolute favourite form of entertainment ever created. I will only watch Star Trek as well. Everything else is utter crap, in my opinion. I’ve watched Universe twice through now and I can honestly say that I am one of those idiots who didn’t appreciate first time round. I’m a good few beers in by now tonight so this may be me rambling utter tosh, but I still typing and forget how this sentence started. Your videos are exceptionally good. Keep going. Mon eh Scotland. Good lad
I was never a fan of any of the other Stargate series, but SGU really grabbed me with it's first few episodes. To me SGU delivered on what Voyager promised years before. As you point out, not all of it was great, but overall I really enjoyed it. The season 2 cliffhanger is one of the great endings in TV and I wish we got to see it resolved, though it's has undoubtedly provided many fans with an excellent exercise in building their own head canon about what happened to Eli...
I've been waiting for this. So i'll be honest, i never liked SG-1the couple of times i caught an episode, i thought it seemed far too silly and then it just went on forever. When SGU came out and i heard Robert Carlye was in the show, i thought i'd watch it and see what it was like. I ended up loving both seasons and was gutted when it was cancelled, so much of the show seemed grounded and full of real characters. Set to this back drop of the mysterious ship and it's almost mythic journey. It reminds me of the giant golden Condor in the cartoon 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold' and how at times the lead characters had no control on where they went next. Soundtrack in the show was also really good as noted in the video. A follow up on the limbo of the franchise overall and rights holders would be really interesting.
I only got around to watching SGU about 3 years ago. First part of first season was a struggle for me but by second half of first season I was intrigued. By middle of second season I was hooked. I really liked the huge mysteries around the alien ships and worlds they discovered, complex characters and slowly understanding the ship they were on. Casting and acting was really good. When I got to end of second season and realized it was cancelled, I was sooooo sad and disappointed more than any other early cancellation. I really liked that it was different than SG1 and SGA though I really still like them too. The negative is I still cannot let my kids watch SGU.
37:59 Honestly, in todays age of cinematic universe and where so many shows just feel like content, I think one more trip through the Stargate may end up feeling refreshing.
I've just re-watched part 4, 3 days ago as I calculated that soon you just be posting part 5 based on your download pattern. I'm so happy I was right I love your videos and Stargate is my favourite series out of all si -fi series so I especially appreciate that series.
Ask yourself one simple question: Would this show have been as successful without having the Stargate name behind it? . . . . Imagine if this show was just called "Destiny" and was about a crew trying to survive on an alien ship. Without Stargate fans supporting it, would the show have many people watching it?
It would have probably done better without the Stargate name behind it. Most of the reason fans didnt watch is because they were mad about Atlantis being cancelled and the tone shift. Normies didnt watch becasue it was Stargate, and if you didnt like the other two Stargate shows why would they watch the third. Stargate Universe is a good show and had the potential to be a great show, unfortunately it was snuffed out too soon.
One thing I never understood, why did they keep trying to use the flying into the star to power the stargate plan? They tried twice, if I remember. However, there was another option that no one ever brought up, the Priors. At the end of Ark of Truth, the Priors were remorseful for what they had done. They could have asked the Priors for help. How you ask? By building a new super gate. It occurred to me that Destiny would catalog an 8 symbol address for every galaxy it visited. The drones destroyed most life in the last galaxy, so they'd have their choice of planets to convert into a singularity. The drones attacking the shield around the gate would provide the energy for the process. The gate forms, and out comes a combined Prior and Tau'ri fleet, destroying the remaining drone ships. Destiny is returned to earth, repaired, and sent back with a proper crew. The end.
I think one problem with the tone of SGU is one we've been seeing again in recent years: it's not that they're trying to replicate the Battlestar Galactica remake/reboot - it's that they were trying to replicate that after that show had already run its course, trying to hit on an outdated zeitgeist. We've been seeing this problem in the last decade as a bunch of shows were attempts to be "the new Game of Thrones" (or "the new Sopranos" or "the new Breaking Bad"), usually failing to really work because that's not what we want/need anymore. The idea that it was supposed to be Stargate without what had become signature Stargate style was always going to be polarizing, too, something we've since seen in attempts to "bring Star Trek into the new era" or even with Star Wars, etc.
One other thing I noticed is that, they even tried to replicate Firefly by cramming in too many main characters in the show. It's really hard in my experience with the show, to acclimate to the characters since there are so many of them. I then began to care less about their backstories.
I have only watched the Stargate movie(which i love to this day) and nothing more Stargate, but i happily watch all your videos on the subject and enjoy them immensely. Well done and thank you.
I remember watching this with my dad, we had always watched Stsrgate together. And although it was so different it was my favourite stargate show. I have rewatched it several times. From it I watched things that Callum Blue and Robert Carlyle had done. There are flaws but this show was brilliant
Hi Rowan, I'm looking forward to more Stargate videos. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and I agree that it took a while for SGU to hit its stride. It's a shame it ended as it really started getting good.
Thank you very much for doing this. Both the SGU review and the franchise as a whole. I think Stargate is far and away the best American television, Science Fiction franchise, and also the most unique, and also oddly the least respected. So anybody treating it seriously such as you have done automatically earns my appreciation and respect. Of course you already had that anyway, but consider it doubled now. :) I desperately want Stargate to return, I am fearful of it as well. I think the possibility of them simply rebooting everything and jettisoning 350 hours of television is pretty high. I also think that the current streaming environment is not conducive to making it a good show. I feel like six episodes every two or three years Would really ruin things. And I also fear how current sensibilities might wreck the core of the franchise, much the same way that the recent revival of quantum Leap, utterly destroyed that, or the way the endless new Star Wars shows further evaluate that franchise, or you know even the modern Star Trek shows which… Well, I’ll leave that alone.
From photography to costumes to makeup to score, SGU immediately struck me as "trying too hard to be BSG" which turned me off it hard - even though I was a huge fan of both. But after so many seasons of the dour moodiness of BSG, I was worn out, and I was not exactly excited at the idea of getting more from my fun adventure series of all places.
I just re-watched this series and I really enjoyed it. It was great because I hadn't watched it since it first aired, so I had forgotten most of it. I was disappointed when it was canceled, as it was the only good weekly sci fi show I knew of at the time. It's funny that I never thought of the Battlestar Galactica connection when I first watched the show, as it was very obvious the second time around.
Here I am remembering watching SGU each week and liking it more than SGA. And that was saying a lot. But damn, the "fans" were brutal everywhere about SGU not being another SG1 clone. The show barely got into its stride before it was canned.
Hot take: Stargate Universe at its best was better than Atlantis at its best and I will die on that hill 😤 The problem with SGU was how long it took to get to that point. Also that it want given a chance to continue building on its amazing second season.
I don't even agree there. The problem is that it was uneven. A lot of season 1 episodes still hold up: Water, Time, Space, Human, and Pain (in spite of its terrible first three minutes) just to name some of the top of my head. Others like Earth feel like a bunch of pointless melodrama and Justice just doesn't make a lot of sense. Then you have episodes like Darkness, Light, and Sabotage where the characters are waiting for stuff to happen which is fine, but not the kind of pacing one expects for a Stargate show. It's a mixed bag.
6 месяцев назад+1
Good job on the video, it made me happy to watch new content about the show. What hooked me in was the music, some tracks sounded nigh divine. Where did you find the music?
It's sad that the longer it goes on without having been rebooted, the less likely that the original actors for the characters in Stargate Universe would be able to reprise their roles,.. so perhaps less likely those who were fans of it, to be less interested due to the need to have someone else entirely in each of the main & secondary character roles..thus losing the magic in what made SGU so interesting, in each of the stories told in the episodes seen so far..
I've been waiting for this video! This was the only TV series in the Stargate franchise that I really enjoyed. I was bummed they didn't get a third season for it.
I didnt have the automatic hate for Universe that older and more community orientated fans apparantly did, but all the same after watching the pilot and the first few episodes the shift in tone and the anti-hero crew hit me like a truck. Much like Star Trek : Discovery, it just doesnt feel like the show, the universe that i loved. I continued to watch the rest of season 1 but when season 2 came I just didnt care enough to tune in. From this video it sounds like the show had a lot of good story ideas but the way it told them was very alien and off putting to me. When I choose to watch Stargate I dont expect to get Battlestar Galactica, a show much like this one that I just couldnt get into, Ultimately Universe should be a cautionary tale for those rights holders that ignoring the reasons the property was loved in the first place by existing fans and chasing current trends in the hopes of gaining new ones is a fools errand and you end up just fracturing the existing fanbase.
I completely agree with you. SGU tried too hard to be different to the point of renouncing what made SG-1 and SGA so fun and unique. When I watch Staragte, I expect Stargate, not BSG.
If you can stomach slogging through season 1, season 2 actually gets pretty good. It's as if SGU suddenly remembered it was a Stargate show, while retaining its own strengths. Seasons 3 onwards probably would've continued the upward trend in quality, but that disaster of a first season killed the show.
I love SG1 and Atlantis, but I stopped with SGU after half of the first season. I missed humor, and the story line was for me so confusing that I didn't knew what is happening. I couldn't even remember half of the team.
Took me a few tries to get into Universe. When i finally managed to get into it, it was over. Season 2 is where it actually started to be good. I really hope they make a feature film just to give me closure.
I always thought SGU was massively underappreciated. Now that Amazon owns MGM, I would love to see this series revived on Prime, but I'm unsure if they would be able to continue it with the same cast seeing as so much time has passed. Stasis pods would be a bit crap if the people still aged while inside. Edit: I just want to add that I have thoroughly enjoyed this retrospective series on Stargate. It's made me want to go back to watch it all again, and introduce my son to the series if I can
4:18 Just to add, Carlyle was also in zombie horror flick 28 Weeks Later. Universe struck me as an attempt to duplicate the BSG reboot series, which had just concluded. I think that fell flat, it certainly did with me. I was like "This isn't Stargate universe, this is a really poor attempt to duplicate BSG."
"It's hard to see what justified the documentary filming style" Because it came out soon after Battlestar Galactica, and this show was still surfing the strong stylistic wave that it sent through genre TV
I can see carlyle being a way better baltar, because he isnt a horrible person per se, just slightly crazy. and bounces off eli, but damn it got better the more away from that melodrama else it got.
Yeah, you watch a lot mid-2000s American TV besides BSG - such as THE SHIELD, SONS OF ANARCHY, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, and so forth - you can see that handheld/shaky cam was definitely the trend and SGU certainly dates itself with that. I’d say that BSG looked much better with its style than SGU because of what Rowan said with its directors. BSG assembled a crew exclusively for itself that formed a style of cinematography AND directing that fit together seemlessly. Whereas SGU inherited a crew that was used to doing things a certain way yet had to adapt shooting wise, and thus it comes off like tedious imitation.
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There's a show called Travelers made by Brad Wright that features a few actors from SG-1 and Universe. It lasted 3 seasons (the first 2 were the best from what i remember) and is worth the watch if you haven't seen it already.
@@tim2024-df5fu Yeah, that was its one redeeming quality. And even that was very... poorly managed, let's say. I wish we had something like this back. For now we at least have the Farscape forever-a-thon on YT. :) I hope some company like Shout can buy the Stargate franchise and set up something similar.
Every time I watch Universe and reach the halfway point of the second season, I'm so happy because that's where the show has found its perfect flow and feeling and at the same time I'm so sad that I only have a few episodes left until it's over again.
same....very very same :/
we were loving SG-U but they show us middle finger sad for fan
Yep. It's so annoying it took them that long to stop trying to be "BSG-lite" and just be "Stargate, but more serious".
I was really sad that Universe didn't get more seasons. Such a beautiful setting. felt it got better and better during its run.
@@metalandwheel season 2 is some of the best star gate and hard sci fi ideas. Walking out of a gate and seeing a human city? And it's a Colony of the post twin destinies Novans!?!?! That's a roll back on the couch kick your feet in the air moment.
A pattern in the cosmic background radiation? So many stories to tell with that.
SGU is my favorite of the series. I agree with Rowan’s assessment of the gratuitous content, but they toned that down by the end.
Wholly agree!
...but it simply wasn't Stargate anymore. I had turned into a space soap opera.
@@alphadawg81 it was stargate. They went on missions through a stargate and explored planets.
If they got stuck on destiny and everyone was joking around like atlantis it would be very weird.
The music in SGU is some of my favourite sci-fi music ever. It's critically underrated.
I just wish they released an official soundtrack so I could mod it into Stellaris. The series had many, MANY flaws, but the music was never one of them. Goldsmith delivered hit after hit without fail.
I've heard it said that people often complain about A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin and/or the Game of Thrones creators, but no one complains about soundtrack composer Ramin Djawadi. Similarly, one could argue that while there's plenty about SGU to complain about, the soundtrack is not one of them.
@@jaffarebellion292 Can't you use the unofficial soundtrack?
@@Matt42MSG I could, but that has a bunch of audio from the show that the software couldn't quite scrub.
@@jaffarebellion292 Like the sound of things coming through the gate, and the gate cycling? I've just considered that to be part of the music.
To state the obvious: Your video reviews are of the highest quality
I loved SGU , it was differently different but was very much closer to what could happen. SGU was human maybe seeing that and all our ugly emotions and anger is what people didn't like. To me this showed that even with all that they would keep coming back to each other to work the problem. To me this showed us that no matter each person short comings there another person can pick up that load. Just like it is in real life here. Non of us can do everything so we must let those that can take that part of the pie and run with it. I wish they would pull this series off the shelf, dust it off and bring it back. I want to see what is at the end of the line. Thanks doing all these , you did a great job.
i’m always out here just loving Stargate Universe and Star Trek Enterprise like i’ve never heard of a fandom.
Enterprise is an excellent show, but Stargate Universe doesn't belong in the same category with it.
@@schroecat1 i assume the irony is intentional
It really reminds me of enterprise that got way better becoming his own thing.
You are not alone in your love of SGU and Enterprise, I too love those shows.
Yes, Stargate Universe is better.
It started out bumpy but there is nothing on Enterprise that can touch the storytelling of the twin Destinies arc. The episode itself is a BANGER on its own, but then the revelation that the second Destiny crew founded an entire civilization-incredible!
And I *like* Enterprise! But the tightness of the plotting and character work in season 2 of SGU is a bar that Enterprise never reaches.
34:37 Something about Eli you may have overlooked, he didn't have that status on earth. Yes he was smarter than Rush but he wasn't really applying himself, he wasn't being proactive, he wasn't socially popular. On Icarus, and moreso on Destiny, he found his place on the world, he rose to the challenge.
The creators didn’t merely draw “inspiration” from Battlestar Galactica; they essentially lifted almost everything intact, except possibly for season 2. The parallels are so striking that they often leave you astounded-like when the “crew” found themselves embroiled in their own internal conflict or when they were framed as a “ragtag” group on a perilous quest for survival. And let’s not overlook the characters themselves; the ship commanders were nearly identical, but the original from BSG was unforgettable and carried a weight that the other lacked. Even the melodrama felt recycled; while BSG incorporated emotional moments seamlessly, often bringing me to tears, this iteration felt like a mere imitation.
I want to clarify that I am an ardent Stargate fan-it's my all-time favorite show. I only discovered it during the lockdown in 2020, and I fell head over heels for it. I’m not influenced by the behind-the-scenes political drama that might skew my opinions. After Stargate Atlantis, I was eager to see what came next, even though I hadn’t yet watched BSG.
While I do believe that the series could have been more grounded and gritty, particularly toward its conclusion, I saw the potential in its concepts, especially the idea that these characters were the original humans who evolved into the Ancients. However, it felt like episode 200 of SG1 was making light of the situation, opting for a younger cast filled with teenage drama and romantic escapades. The introduction of the Lucian Alliance as villains felt somewhat forced, as if saying, “These are our antagonists now.”
After binge-watching the entire franchise (and continuing to rewatch it annually, sometimes even twice a year 😂😂), I finally gave Battlestar Galactica a chance despite my initial reservations about its title. To my surprise, I discovered a genuine space opera that stirred emotions in me that few shows manage to evoke. Yet, during my next rewatch of Stargate, it struck me just how eerily similar SGU was to BSG. At first, I was convinced that BSG was the one copying, until I checked their release dates and was shocked to realize that Stargate's team had blatantly borrowed from BSG. It felt like an unfortunate decision driven by studio pressure, and I couldn’t help but think it was lazy given that they had their own unique concepts and themes.
I’m not claiming to outright dislike SGU; rather, I think it had the potential to succeed. What made Stargate special was its quirky charm, something that’s rarely captured in sci-fi. BSG and Stargate were distinct entities, occupying entirely different realms-more than just alternate universes or dimensions. There was no need to merge the two.
Ultimately, they could have grounded SGU more effectively, as its conceptual theories had the potential to explore profound existential questions, just as SG did. It could have delved into groundbreaking themes. Instead, they opted to undermine their established audience by borrowing heavily from a successful show, leaving Stargate to conclude on such a un graceful note.
Always got to love Robert Carlyle, and Elyse Levesque & Alaina Huffman are underrated and always enjoyable
Lots of great cast members, but man the writing in the first half of the first season was painful at times. And the whole season finale invasion thing just did not help things. Near the end of season 2 it finally started to get its legs under it. But by then it was too late.
@@nitehawk86 Whilst the Lucian Alliance wasnt the most compelling or threatening of villains, I think it helped continuity to include them in such a massive way. Having a familiar villain next to the blue aliens who for once didnt talk english. The S1 cliffhanger was one of the most tense in all of the shows, and it had lasting consequences.
Also shoutout to Jonas' world Langara in S2, which also brought in McKay to the story.
Really? Robert Carlyle? His performance is so bad... I think it's one of the reasons this show was cancelled. There's a reason he never got another meaningful role ;)
I am watching SGU for the first time and I'm loving it! I've gotten mostly through season 1. I've always been a huge fan of Stargate, and I hope you keep making content for it! It's hard to find good Stargate content unfortunately, so that is why I love your channel!! 😉
In addition to being great, SGU also highlights just how exceptional the heroes of the other two shows are. After a while, we take the SG teams for granted that they are all Supermen and superwomen. Seeing the crew of Destiny struggling just to get air or water without murdering each other gives you a little better perspective on the effectiveness of the SG teams.
There are lots of SG teams, staffed by intelligent professionals. It's shocking that people as incompetent, short-sighted, and unprofessional as the cast of SGU were ever let in on the secret of the Stargate in the first place; you'd think they'd fail the necessary background checks.
@@Matt42MSG Its also far more beliveable as scope of operations expands more usual people get involved.
I think SGU is my favorite series from the Stargate franchise. Such a great cast in a wildly different situation. I have no doubt that Eli will find a solution while traveling between the galaxies.
Only mentioning Ming-Na's voice work for projects prior to SGU is understating her career up to this point. Having been among the cast of one of the biggest TV dramas of the late 90s/early 00s with ER since season 6 definitely made her a well known face of TV viewers.
I first remember seeing her in a sitcom called The Single Guy.
ER never seen it.
@@TempoLOOKINGyou should, it’s great
She was also very good in Agents of Shield IMO.
@@Whitespliff Yeah but that came afterwards.
I remember seeing a behind the scenes bit for SGU where they were talking about the character for Dr Rush. Robert Carlyle was told that he was to be an unlikable man, and boy did Carlyle ever hit that nail on the head. He is an amazing actor, and I have found that I have enjoyed his other work too.
I really liked SGU and it is sad that we never got to see more of it.
I admit, I wasn't a fan of Stargate Universe when it first came out. While I enjoyed Carlyle's performance, it was just too different from what came before. However, when I got older I re-watched the show and found a much greater appreciation for it's darker themes.
It improved starting near the end of Season 1. I didn't care for the soap opera drama of the first 2/3 of the season.
@@Sci-Fi-Mike You are exactly right. They realized towards the end of season 1 the tone needed to be softened and they dropped those absolutely atrocious music montages to cap off the end of episodes which they 100% lifted from BSG. I love the show, but I despise those self important montages. They do not fit in SG, and they wore out their welcome in BSG.
@@ctmmckinney6219 those music montages were awful.
I know I definitely had the same experience, I watched the show as a kid, and I think going from SG-1 and SGA... It's just so dark in tone in comparaison. It was only when I rewatched it that I really gained an appreication for it, and I think that was because I gave it, it's own space. Rather then always compairing to the shows before it. I think it would have been a big hit (like The Expanse really gives me similar vibes) had it been a show that wasn't called Stargate or had been realsed in 2015 rather then 2009.
Which isn't to say that I think it's not 'real stargate'. Just that comparison is the thief of joy.
Light is still one of my favorite episodes in TV history. It was an experience of its own.
Sometimes when I'm having a hard day I'll watch the first "sun dive" sequence from that episode, I have it bookmarked on RUclips.
It’s really incredible how well some of the CGI in SGU has held up.
Scenes of Destiny in flight remain as breathtaking as ever.
@@illyth63 ha! love that!
Everyone compares this show to 2004 Galactica, but it also reminded me a lot of Space: 1999.
A crew trapped, unable to steer, hurtling across the universe, and running into one menace after another each episode.
I can see that.
Watching SGU is the first time I heard Flogging Molly. I later learned my best friend's cousin is Nathan Maxwell. Later that year he took me to the a concert and I got to meet his cousin and half the band. Gotta thank SGU's music choices for a new favorite band.
dude. THIS. loved og Stargate movie but never watched the shows UNTIL my roomie one day said, "Wanna get stoned & watch something trippy?" I watched the ep Time & immediately became hooked. thanks man! great review!
The first season did have some interesting things going on, but it was brutal to get through especially because all the bad soap opera stuff. The final 10 or so episodes of Universe were incredible. Some of my favorite science fiction of all time. It is so disappointing that the show got cancelled when it was finally getting good.
I think you're right about the bad soap opera elements being a turn off.
I recently checked out Universe having heard all the debate surrounding it. I couldn't get through Season 1 because of the bad soap opera.
When I was watching season 1 it turned me off because there was a lot of arguing for the sake of arguing and not for the sake of anything not contrived.
I don't know what a soap opera is but it was just a lot of "You are slightly mean even though you're trying to help people But therefore you're the bad guy"
@@Lakilazur713 in this case by soap opera stuff I mostly mean, overly exaggerated and petty interpersonal conflict. I expect a group of mostly strangers with different backgrounds, interests, and morals to have some conflicts in an unknown environment involving lots of high stress situations, but crises usually bring people together and tamp down interpersonal conflict as people prioritize cohesion for the sake of survival. Instead there was a ton of backstabbing, cheating, awkward love triangles, lying, random violence, attempted murders, scheming etc.
I just wanted to say thank you, Stargate is my favorite science fiction show and it doesn't get enough love or attention.
Well said. Stargate had and still has so much potantial to be written about. I hope Amazon doesnt throw away the whole lore. Thank you for this whole retrospective.
Funny hoping Amazon gives a damn about any lore when Rings of Power exists.
@@dffndjdjd in Star Trek Universe, whenever UFP or Starfleet is on good standing, there is always an another villain or group that threans the status quo. And Earth in Stargate isint even close to Federation's status in the galaxy
There can always be threats. Either internal or external.
@@Grivehn More like wishing...
@Omerrhon I disagree, Stargate had run it's course in the mid 2000s. They did everything they could with it to the point of exhaustion.
@@jonathancurran5366 Agreed to disagree then.
I was one of those that was sad when Universe was cancelled. I like to think that Elie is still out there, trying to get that last stasis chamber repaired and working.
I ADORED this show. The actors, story, characters, effects and music were just fantastic and ahead of its time.
This was my favourite Stargate show from day one. Loved the set design, the cast, the design choices, the overall atmosphere... and my god, that soundtrack was a strike of genius! Still listening to it when I work to get into flow... a true shame it ended to quickly 😞
You're spoiling us with this release schedule, thank you. I think the problem with Universe is that it was so different tonally to what existing fans were expecting, it alienated the original fan base. It was only on subsequent watches that I was able to appreciate the merits of the series myself. I strongly suspect if it hadn't been a Stargate IP there may well have been a market for it.
Probably would have done worse... sci fi shows weren't doing well during that time.
I really enjoyed Universe, and find the last few minutes of the final episode almost hauntingly beautiful.
I always cry 😭
ya when Eli goes in for a handshake & Young pulls him in for a hug 😢😢😢😢
@@champlooism ,
Jeez, I’d forgotten about that…it wasn’t what I was referring to, but it’s such a heartwarming moment I’m surprised it didn’t come to mind.
Thank you for this great retrospective of this franchise i grew up with.
Stargate had its ups and downs but I loved all the main shows/movies and I was heartbroken back when SGU got canceled right as it became, for me at least, on par with the previous two shows.
You put my feelings it to words very well at the end of the Video.
The show does feel like it ended to early, sometimes i even get jealous for the other 2 star franchises which have gotten more love from big studios for better or for worse.
I just hope that we will one day get to see at least one more adventure through the old orifice.
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed the video :)
14:26 "Truly alien", while showing an upright bipedal species with one head, two forward facing eyes, two arms and five fingers.
Compared to the snakeheads, the HR Giger toy factory, the evil jedi imperium, and the space death metal band, SGU's antagonists do feel quite alien.
Robert Carlyle is one of my favorite actors - absolute legend!
Off course he is dearie😅❤
Loved SGU it became my favorite SG series.
That was a very good video Rowan. Your retrospectives on the Stargate franchise have been second to none. I look foward to more down the line. Thank you.
In my mind the reason why Stargate felt both extremely long and yet fresh boils down to the fact that each of the show had the courage to change the premise and, yet, the internal logic and continuity of the narrative universe was very strict. Moreover, both SG1 and Atlantis benefited from being military shows, with a crapton of potential new character just a "transfer order" away, meaning that (like Babylon 5 did) one could change large swat of the main cast whenever needed.
In comparison (and despite my love for the franchise), most of Star Trek has a much more "set in stone" premise. I feel that DS9 was the only earnest attempt to break the mold of "to bodly go", but even so the core cast was pretty much a constant.
That's not necessarily a bad thing in DS9's case. The plan was for Babylon 5 to have a core cast as well, but the show had to adapt to the actors for major characters leaving with mixed results. In the case of Sinclair to Sheridan it worked but something like Lyta to Talia back to Lyta ended up gutting the plotline they were associated with. DS9 is a lot cleaner in character development for not having to deal with that.
@@ManOutofTime913 it's not a bad thing at all, but I believe it might contribute to hold back a show from renovating itself.
Enterprise was, especially 3 and 4 s seasons are underated, an season 3 is a really good star trek take on the 9/11 atmosphere without downplaying the trauma.
@@marocat4749 absolutely.
And just like how I felt knowing Stargate was over. I now feel, knowing that your work on it is done. Thanks for reminding me how much I love this world.
get over yourself.
Favorite comic moments of SGU, which a lot of people complain that there were too little: Eli's invocation of Planet of the Apes and Volker needling Brody about a future version of Brody naming a city Futura (from the Novus arc). What really cracked me up was during one of these exchanges when Volker says he thinks Futura is a font. And Park just struts by saying, "It's a font."
with this being my favourite franchise it saddens me to think we may not get any more of it but one can hope
SGU was always my favorite of the Stargate shows, but it didn't take off because it only appealed to people who A) wanted something dramatically different from a Stargate series and B) were already familiar with the decade+ of Stargate lore that it's based on. I feely admit we are a niche audience.
It is rather unfortunate that to really appreciate the prototype versions of golden age Ancient technology, you have to see their finished equivalents in Atlantis. Plus, you have the Lucian Alliance baggage from SG-1.
Now all that's left is Wormhole X-treme, and the retrospective will be complete.
SGU was my favorite iteration of Stargate and I was excited for the direction it was taking the series. I was saddened that it didn’t pick up like the past two series :(
Joe Flannigan (Actor who played Shepard) said the Producers of Stargate were jealous of Battlestar Galactica, and wanted to prove they could write award winning successful scifi dramas too.
.
.
.
.
They failed.
They shouldn't have been as BSG spent its last two seasons narratively self-immolating.
it only works if you have a powerhouse like carlyle bouncing of eli really
Stargate Universe became great as soon as the writing started focusing more on plot and story vs interpersonal drama.
Sy-Fy should have let them write the show the show they wanted to write from the beginning.
ah of course, the tale as old as time, try and immitate something with arrogance and then wonder why you fail, whilst also cancelling something truly successfull with a clear fanbase and footing.
Take a drink every time he says the word 'Stargate'. You'll be on the floor within a minute and a half. "Stargate" easily uttered 300 times. Easily. Stargate.
The episode of having founded a colony civilization from having been thrown into the past, was the exact same idea/trope as what was done in a Star Trek DS9 episode years earlier.
The problem with SGU was that it lost a lot of the original fans, and didn't bring in the BSG/younger fanbase they wanted.
I was one of those original fans. I just didn't like it at all, it replaced the fun, the optimism, and interesting characters with melodrama, angst, and unlikeable characters. I've watched it through twice since it came out hoping time would mellow my opinion but it hasn't I still don't like it and it's not a part of my annual rewatches.
@@centy64
Yeah. The more i learned about rush ability to operate the ship being hidden from the crew the more inwas asking like peter griffen "oh my god. Who cares."
They had the chance of haveing star trek in star gate with gilligans island and monster of the week style stories that expanded the charecters and allowed for and broke up the drama.
BSG worked csuse it was based of established tone. And we all knew what tonexpect.
Sgu had the tone but couldnt decide what itnwanted to be... adventure series, or, drama. And didn't know it could be both.
@@centy64and pushed already woke degeneracy.
@@centy64 Yeah, god forbid they try something else instead of just regurgitating the same shit we've already watched for the past 15 years right? Its because of people like you that the show was cancelled. Did you ever think that maybe this show wasnt meant for YOU? I also loved SG1 and Atlantis but after 9 seasons of SG1 and 5 seasons of Atlantis i was just getting fatigued of the franchise, and Universe was a breath of fresh air.
@@fedord01 I never said they should redo what was done, putting words in my mouth doesn't help your case it just makes you seem like an unhinged fanboy. If SGU was canceled because people like me didn't like it and it couldn't get anyone new in then who was it for? By the same token I could say if you were tired of the series as it was then why didn't you take your own advice and say this isn't for me and watch something else why is the onus on traditional SG fans to be the ones to be quiet. Lol honeslty this pathetic kind of comment is the least constructive thing on offer. Not that it matters both of us had our SG series canceled anyway.
@24:40 it's said that Syfy changed SGU's timeslot from Friday to Tuesday in an effort to boost the ratings. I remember that very differently.
Syfy did very well on Friday nights. For a long, long time it was Stargate night and also the night for other original programming. They also aired original series on those Friday nights outside the broadcast season (September to December and February/March to May), avoiding the competition broadcast networks posed much, much more in those days. For some reason Syfy wanted to compete anyhow, having Stargate Atlantis air Season 4 and 5 (partly) during the broadcast season. What I remember is that this did hurt ratings, but with Fridays being a weak night for broadcast ratings and they therefore didn't program much, it was the night where genre TV could thrive. (Fringe survived for five seasons on Fox because of this and WB giving a good deal to make the profitable money in syndication (basically the whole corporate strategy of their co-op with CBS, The CW)).
SGU wasn't moved to Tuesday because that suddenly was a better night. Heck, ABC's ten o'clock slot was a programming death sentence for years. It was quite a competitive night. No, Syfy had obtained a new darling in their programming: show wrestling. And it was live. On Friday nights. That was the true reason SGU and basically every other show got moved to another night. It didn't do those shows any favours, especially not when airing during broadcast season in which the competition was way higher.
This^
Syfy canceled SGU (and by extension the stargate franchise) primarily to make room for what it thought would be a saving grace with wrestling. It didn't just cancel Stargate thought, it nearly completely dropped every scifi show it had going at the time. Battlestar galatica, Red Faction, Sanctuary, Alphas, Warehouse 13, Caprica, they were all thrown out for wrestling and stupid paranormal shows.
2012 and 2013 especially saw the rise of a huge slew of god awful reality shows.
You've been on fire with the pace of these uploads.
in my eyes what killed SGU was the the fact that it took them a year and a half to drop the parts of the show that weren't working and finally get good, leaving us with only ten episodes not tainted by melodrama and infighting across two seasons.
Couldn't indeed more even if I wanted to.
I really liked the whole "building a society out of a random collection of people". I would have liked more of that and less interference from back home. No stones and instead maybe something like the "letters from pegasus" they had in Atlantis.
@@alexanderhetzel8271 That would've certainly cut down the melodrama.
throwing in the useless lucian alliance was the worst stargate season finale ever
@@chromesucks5299 yeah, the looser aliance are filler villans in their native series, trying to upgrade them to proper antagonists in SGU was one of those non-working bits i mentioned.
I loved this show. Have rewatched it multiple times.
I just finished rewatching Universe for the first time since it originally aired. I still like it! I think part of what appeals to me is how much it has of what Star Trek Voyager *should* have had: actual stakes and long-term consequences. Perhaps it was a bit too dour for Stargate, but I'd love to see another season or a movie some day.
Stargate Universe was wonderful. It was different, and yes, it tried to model the grittiness of Battlestar Galactica. But it did it well. It is a shame it did not continue.
I always tought that Eli Wallace going though an Ascension would not be be the worst ending.
It may have been a great and interesting next step for the series!
When it was cancelled I had to come up with my own head canon.
Eli is unable to fix the stasis pod, and resolves himself to die. At the last moment he has an idea on how to survive, put 2 years worth of supplies in a shuttle which has independent power and use it as a life raft. Since it's at the last moment, he is in a rush, and he's agonizing with the thought that he took too long trying to save himself and therefore doomed everyone.
The rest of the crew come out of stasis two years later, and see the empty pod and think Eli must have died. But they discover him in the shuttle, having lost a heap of weight from rationing, and gone nuts from the isolation and the guilt of thinking he killed all his friends. The start of season three is helping him recuperate and deal with hallucinations.
@@Doug-89I love this
@@Doug-89 I only wonder if Destiny could contact him due to the lack of proximity to the planet where Eli was dropped off. I love the premise, though!
@@Sci-Fi-Mike dropped off? Re read what his headcanon is, eli stayed on the attached shuttle to destiny. There is no planets between galaxies.
I loved this show and was very upset that it was cancelled without a satisfying ending
Call me crazy, but I'm probably one of the few who preferred Stargate Universe to the other Stargate series. And I was really sad when the show wasn't renewed - it did have plenty of potential to continue. When you've mentioned music - the most memorable moment will be probably always the scene in Episode 3 in Season 2 when Fink's 'Sort of Revolution' plays. Miss the show a lot.
Thank you for the great review!
I loved SGU when it aired and was heart-broken when it was cancelled on a cliffhanger. Thanks for this. Very well done.
I've really come to love this show.
At first, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but I watched it again some years later and enjoyed it a lot more, and really appreciated what they were trying to do.
Upon managing to find both seasons on Blu-ray (finally!), I watched it a third time and enjoyed it even more. Making its ending very frustrating.
I'd dearly love to see it continue, even though it's virtually impossible now...
SGU was completely underrated, it should have gotten a better chance. Fascinating setting, and I always wondered what they had planned later on down the road.
I adored this show, completely gutted when it wasn't renewed
Man, I remember when Stargate Universe came on in America and there were signs that it was doomed from the get-go - for that was the year SciFi Channel was renamed Syfy and for a while tried to do anything else besides good science-fiction (and cheaper too).
When it moved to Tuesdays at 10PM for Season 2, I remember having a harder time tuning in. Tuesdays were school nights and I just starting High School. So I wasn’t always able to stay up and watch it. Then midseason it moved to Mondays, adding salt to the wound. And when we found out it was cancelled, it was like, “Why even bother finishing this up?”
I always blamed it on Syfy going through a rebrand at the time that totally disrespected its core audience. But I suppose even if it was the old SciFi Channel, the problems with the studio would have continuing the show impossible. Damn shame. SGU deserved better. Stargate in general deserves better.
I enjoyed SGU for the fact that it was so different than the other series; rather than a rehash / new spin that SGA was.
as short as it was SGU was my favourite of all the shows
I showed my gf SGU and she watched it all and wanted to keep watching. She's not a scifi fan...
My biggest problem is growing up as a kid, I didn't watch much tv. If I was only able to catch an occasional episode of original show, it was because I had a life that didn't allow for much idleness. That changed when I went to Iraq. When I came back, BSG had just wrapped, and I had to wait for the last season to come out on DVD, so I turned to SG1. Didn't know the order of the movies, so when Jack left, I was confused. Didn't care much about Atlantis, and didn't know about this series either. Looks like I know what i'm going to be watching for the next few weeks.
Roman mate I hope am early enough in the comments for you to see this. After over 20 years my mum still slags me coz every time she sees me I’m watching Stargate. Any of it, all of it. I keep watching it over and over again. It’s my absolute favourite form of entertainment ever created. I will only watch Star Trek as well. Everything else is utter crap, in my opinion. I’ve watched Universe twice through now and I can honestly say that I am one of those idiots who didn’t appreciate first time round. I’m a good few beers in by now tonight so this may be me rambling utter tosh, but I still typing and forget how this sentence started. Your videos are exceptionally good. Keep going. Mon eh Scotland. Good lad
the intro music still gives me all the feels. i really miss the show
Big Stargate fan. The biggest problem I had with Universe was I never felt invested in what happens to any of the characters.
This was the best sg show for me. Sad it stopped
The only good thing about SGU's cancellation is that it made Robert Carlysle available for Once Upon a Time.
Everything has a price , deary!
I was never a fan of any of the other Stargate series, but SGU really grabbed me with it's first few episodes. To me SGU delivered on what Voyager promised years before. As you point out, not all of it was great, but overall I really enjoyed it. The season 2 cliffhanger is one of the great endings in TV and I wish we got to see it resolved, though it's has undoubtedly provided many fans with an excellent exercise in building their own head canon about what happened to Eli...
I've been waiting for this.
So i'll be honest, i never liked SG-1the couple of times i caught an episode, i thought it seemed far too silly and then it just went on forever. When SGU came out and i heard Robert Carlye was in the show, i thought i'd watch it and see what it was like. I ended up loving both seasons and was gutted when it was cancelled, so much of the show seemed grounded and full of real characters. Set to this back drop of the mysterious ship and it's almost mythic journey. It reminds me of the giant golden Condor in the cartoon 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold' and how at times the lead characters had no control on where they went next. Soundtrack in the show was also really good as noted in the video. A follow up on the limbo of the franchise overall and rights holders would be really interesting.
I only got around to watching SGU about 3 years ago. First part of first season was a struggle for me but by second half of first season I was intrigued. By middle of second season I was hooked. I really liked the huge mysteries around the alien ships and worlds they discovered, complex characters and slowly understanding the ship they were on. Casting and acting was really good. When I got to end of second season and realized it was cancelled, I was sooooo sad and disappointed more than any other early cancellation. I really liked that it was different than SG1 and SGA though I really still like them too. The negative is I still cannot let my kids watch SGU.
37:59 Honestly, in todays age of cinematic universe and where so many shows just feel like content, I think one more trip through the Stargate may end up feeling refreshing.
I've just re-watched part 4, 3 days ago as I calculated that soon you just be posting part 5 based on your download pattern. I'm so happy I was right I love your videos and Stargate is my favourite series out of all si -fi series so I especially appreciate that series.
Ask yourself one simple question: Would this show have been as successful without having the Stargate name behind it?
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Imagine if this show was just called "Destiny" and was about a crew trying to survive on an alien ship. Without Stargate fans supporting it, would the show have many people watching it?
No, it failed because it was poorly written. Because its creators couldn't figure out what they were trying to make before the plug got pulled.
@@blshouseseason 2 was amazing. Twin destinies is peak scifi
Yes, absolutely.
It would have probably done better without the Stargate name behind it. Most of the reason fans didnt watch is because they were mad about Atlantis being cancelled and the tone shift. Normies didnt watch becasue it was Stargate, and if you didnt like the other two Stargate shows why would they watch the third. Stargate Universe is a good show and had the potential to be a great show, unfortunately it was snuffed out too soon.
@@divinestrike00x78The melodrama of the show is what killed it. Towards the end as the infighting decreased, the quality of the show rose sharply.
One thing I never understood, why did they keep trying to use the flying into the star to power the stargate plan? They tried twice, if I remember. However, there was another option that no one ever brought up, the Priors. At the end of Ark of Truth, the Priors were remorseful for what they had done. They could have asked the Priors for help. How you ask? By building a new super gate. It occurred to me that Destiny would catalog an 8 symbol address for every galaxy it visited. The drones destroyed most life in the last galaxy, so they'd have their choice of planets to convert into a singularity. The drones attacking the shield around the gate would provide the energy for the process. The gate forms, and out comes a combined Prior and Tau'ri fleet, destroying the remaining drone ships. Destiny is returned to earth, repaired, and sent back with a proper crew. The end.
Great to see Eli's actor slimmed down, he looked much healthier in that more recent clip of him on a talk show.
I think one problem with the tone of SGU is one we've been seeing again in recent years: it's not that they're trying to replicate the Battlestar Galactica remake/reboot - it's that they were trying to replicate that after that show had already run its course, trying to hit on an outdated zeitgeist. We've been seeing this problem in the last decade as a bunch of shows were attempts to be "the new Game of Thrones" (or "the new Sopranos" or "the new Breaking Bad"), usually failing to really work because that's not what we want/need anymore. The idea that it was supposed to be Stargate without what had become signature Stargate style was always going to be polarizing, too, something we've since seen in attempts to "bring Star Trek into the new era" or even with Star Wars, etc.
One other thing I noticed is that, they even tried to replicate Firefly by cramming in too many main characters in the show. It's really hard in my experience with the show, to acclimate to the characters since there are so many of them. I then began to care less about their backstories.
I have only watched the Stargate movie(which i love to this day) and nothing more Stargate, but i happily watch all your videos on the subject and enjoy them immensely. Well done and thank you.
you are missing on 17 seasons of great scifi
I enjoyed SG1 and Atlantis, but this was the only Stargate show i was genuinely excited to watch every week. I absolutely loved it.
I remember watching this with my dad, we had always watched Stsrgate together. And although it was so different it was my favourite stargate show. I have rewatched it several times. From it I watched things that Callum Blue and Robert Carlyle had done.
There are flaws but this show was brilliant
I agree with like 95% of your review. For one the Season 1 finale was fairly exciting to me personally.
I was a fan of SG1, but I really like SGUs darker tone. I ended up liking it more than the original series. Too bad it was cut short
Hi Rowan, I'm looking forward to more Stargate videos. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and I agree that it took a while for SGU to hit its stride. It's a shame it ended as it really started getting good.
Thank you very much for doing this. Both the SGU review and the franchise as a whole. I think Stargate is far and away the best American television, Science Fiction franchise, and also the most unique, and also oddly the least respected. So anybody treating it seriously such as you have done automatically earns my appreciation and respect. Of course you already had that anyway, but consider it doubled now. :)
I desperately want Stargate to return, I am fearful of it as well. I think the possibility of them simply rebooting everything and jettisoning 350 hours of television is pretty high. I also think that the current streaming environment is not conducive to making it a good show. I feel like six episodes every two or three years Would really ruin things. And I also fear how current sensibilities might wreck the core of the franchise, much the same way that the recent revival of quantum Leap, utterly destroyed that, or the way the endless new Star Wars shows further evaluate that franchise, or you know even the modern Star Trek shows which… Well, I’ll leave that alone.
Still just one line I can't get out of my head whenever anyone mentions Richard Dean Anderson.
hard Dean Anders.
From photography to costumes to makeup to score, SGU immediately struck me as "trying too hard to be BSG" which turned me off it hard - even though I was a huge fan of both. But after so many seasons of the dour moodiness of BSG, I was worn out, and I was not exactly excited at the idea of getting more from my fun adventure series of all places.
I just re-watched this series and I really enjoyed it. It was great because I hadn't watched it since it first aired, so I had forgotten most of it. I was disappointed when it was canceled, as it was the only good weekly sci fi show I knew of at the time. It's funny that I never thought of the Battlestar Galactica connection when I first watched the show, as it was very obvious the second time around.
Here I am remembering watching SGU each week and liking it more than SGA.
And that was saying a lot.
But damn, the "fans" were brutal everywhere about SGU not being another SG1 clone.
The show barely got into its stride before it was canned.
As with many things this is a show that got better when you grew up and expreianced more in life.
Hot take: Stargate Universe at its best was better than Atlantis at its best and I will die on that hill 😤
The problem with SGU was how long it took to get to that point.
Also that it want given a chance to continue building on its amazing second season.
I don't even agree there. The problem is that it was uneven. A lot of season 1 episodes still hold up: Water, Time, Space, Human, and Pain (in spite of its terrible first three minutes) just to name some of the top of my head. Others like Earth feel like a bunch of pointless melodrama and Justice just doesn't make a lot of sense. Then you have episodes like Darkness, Light, and Sabotage where the characters are waiting for stuff to happen which is fine, but not the kind of pacing one expects for a Stargate show. It's a mixed bag.
Good job on the video, it made me happy to watch new content about the show. What hooked me in was the music, some tracks sounded nigh divine. Where did you find the music?
It's sad that the longer it goes on without having been rebooted, the less likely that the original actors for the characters in Stargate Universe would be able to reprise their roles,.. so perhaps less likely those who were fans of it, to be less interested due to the need to have someone else entirely in each of the main & secondary character roles..thus losing the magic in what made SGU so interesting, in each of the stories told in the episodes seen so far..
It was really hitting it's stride in the second and final season
I've been waiting for this video! This was the only TV series in the Stargate franchise that I really enjoyed. I was bummed they didn't get a third season for it.
Ookay. I'm have to rewatch the entirety of SG at some point.
I didnt have the automatic hate for Universe that older and more community orientated fans apparantly did, but all the same after watching the pilot and the first few episodes the shift in tone and the anti-hero crew hit me like a truck. Much like Star Trek : Discovery, it just doesnt feel like the show, the universe that i loved. I continued to watch the rest of season 1 but when season 2 came I just didnt care enough to tune in. From this video it sounds like the show had a lot of good story ideas but the way it told them was very alien and off putting to me. When I choose to watch Stargate I dont expect to get Battlestar Galactica, a show much like this one that I just couldnt get into, Ultimately Universe should be a cautionary tale for those rights holders that ignoring the reasons the property was loved in the first place by existing fans and chasing current trends in the hopes of gaining new ones is a fools errand and you end up just fracturing the existing fanbase.
I completely agree with you. SGU tried too hard to be different to the point of renouncing what made SG-1 and SGA so fun and unique. When I watch Staragte, I expect Stargate, not BSG.
If you can stomach slogging through season 1, season 2 actually gets pretty good. It's as if SGU suddenly remembered it was a Stargate show, while retaining its own strengths. Seasons 3 onwards probably would've continued the upward trend in quality, but that disaster of a first season killed the show.
I love SG1 and Atlantis, but I stopped with SGU after half of the first season. I missed humor, and the story line was for me so confusing that I didn't knew what is happening. I couldn't even remember half of the team.
Took me a few tries to get into Universe. When i finally managed to get into it, it was over. Season 2 is where it actually started to be good. I really hope they make a feature film just to give me closure.
I thought it took a while to find its feet, but I really enjoyed it.
Absolutely loved the soundtrack. Still pissed off they never released it to buy.
I always thought SGU was massively underappreciated. Now that Amazon owns MGM, I would love to see this series revived on Prime, but I'm unsure if they would be able to continue it with the same cast seeing as so much time has passed. Stasis pods would be a bit crap if the people still aged while inside.
Edit: I just want to add that I have thoroughly enjoyed this retrospective series on Stargate. It's made me want to go back to watch it all again, and introduce my son to the series if I can
4:18 Just to add, Carlyle was also in zombie horror flick 28 Weeks Later.
Universe struck me as an attempt to duplicate the BSG reboot series, which had just concluded. I think that fell flat, it certainly did with me. I was like "This isn't Stargate universe, this is a really poor attempt to duplicate BSG."
"It's hard to see what justified the documentary filming style" Because it came out soon after Battlestar Galactica, and this show was still surfing the strong stylistic wave that it sent through genre TV
I can see carlyle being a way better baltar, because he isnt a horrible person per se, just slightly crazy. and bounces off eli, but damn it got better the more away from that melodrama else it got.
Yeah, you watch a lot mid-2000s American TV besides BSG - such as THE SHIELD, SONS OF ANARCHY, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, and so forth - you can see that handheld/shaky cam was definitely the trend and SGU certainly dates itself with that.
I’d say that BSG looked much better with its style than SGU because of what Rowan said with its directors. BSG assembled a crew exclusively for itself that formed a style of cinematography AND directing that fit together seemlessly. Whereas SGU inherited a crew that was used to doing things a certain way yet had to adapt shooting wise, and thus it comes off like tedious imitation.