I have two new favourite TV shows.
One of them caught me completely by surprise.
The unsurprising one is Caprica. That was never going to surprise me. They had me, all the way, by the fact that it was the prequel to my favourite television show of all time. Caprica could have been Eastenders in space (“yor a cyclon? You’re ‘avin a larf, inchyer?”) and I would have found a place in my heart for it. Thankfully, it’s edgy, uncompromising and bleak, and very endearingly it doesn’t feel like a graceless knock-off of Galactica. In short, it has personality. Nothing more important for a spin-off.
It’s also a different story. Galactica’s focus was clinging to the tattered remnants of civilization and making a run for the stars. Caprica is that civilization in full swing – a society struggling to adjust to the moral, political and religious implications of colossal leaps in artificial intelligence technology. As we know, it fails.
The acting is solid, often outstanding (Eric Stoltz is terrific). It feels grounded, and what kinks there were in the pilot seem to be the kind that time will iron out on its own.
In short – I feel unembarassed at being a fan before I ever saw it.
Now here’s something I am a little embarassed about.
A new Stargate show, you say?
Riiiight.
Oh, sure, absolutely. Hit me with more. Give me it, fresh and steaming. Because what we need is yet another branch of the franchise that refuses to grow old. As in “grow up“. Yes yes yes, I know, it’s adventure-scifi, it’s meant to be a bit of fun. Space-Egyptians flying around in big laser-shooting pyramids – MacGyver in well-tailored uniforms padding out his gruff-but-twinkly orders with lame quips that rival the worst excesses of Fringe‘s Peter Bishop – lots of alien names with eccentric uses of apostrophes – bucketloads of generic plotting (“grizzled enemy warrior turns traitor on his own kind and sacrifices himself so SG-1/Atlantis can escape; unconvincing historical-analogue community on planet welcomes SG-1/Atlantis but has Dark Secret; one of team has Alien Menace attached to his/her face/back/arse /other” etc.). Yes. Because if there’s one thing that the last decade of that kind of nonsense has taught us, it’s that we need more of it.
I’ll…I’ll be ok. Just give me a minute.
Right.
Stargate has always been part of the unholy trinity of superpopular science fiction: Star Wars, Star Trek and Stargate. As a lover of scifi I have deep, deep issues with them all. No, really. Don’t make me go there. I get ugly.
So, a TV show with Stargate in the title? Me, watch it on a regular basis? Don’t make me laugh. Never gonna happen. Deal with it, move on, because we’re done here.
It’s got who in it?
So here’s why Stargate Universe is worth watching, and showing signs that somewhere down the line, it could give Galactica a run for its money. (There, I said it).
1) It’s got Hamish Macbeth in it. And he’s still allowed to be Scottish.
2) Furthermore, he’s playing a gem of a character – the show’s mad professor, Dr Rush. This is someone you probably don’t want around, but probably need around. He’s dangerous for everyone, and also part of the reason everyone is still alive. He’s one part savior to two parts bastard, and he’s usually right in what he suggests, even when it’s unpalatable. He’s ruthless and manipulative and tortured and obsessive. He’s a problem, and he has his own agenda (hence the problem thing).
3) He’s not the only actor that impresses. Far from. Take his foil, Colonel Young, played by Louis Ferreira in a beautifully balanced performance that suggests a man clinging to appearances to hide his inner turmoil resulting from…ooh, you name it – a mad Scotsman heading the scientific team, severe marital issues back on Earth, a bunch of trigger-happy soldiers facing down increasingly desperate civilians, and so on. Midway through season 1 (that’s where we are – the show is on hiatus until April), Colonel Young snaps and does something ruthless, unexpected and absolutely right for such an internally conflicted character. And Ferreira nails it. (His enthusiasm for the role is on display here).
4) The writers are taking time to flesh out the characters. Things are left unexplained until later. There are plot threads winding right through the season. It’s complex and dense. They’ve thrown the Stargate plotting stylesheet out the window, and about time too. (This stylesheet, by the way, reads “bad Star Trek with more sand”).
5) They’re working hard to get a Galactica vibe – from the shakycam effects to the lack of “good” or “bad” characters. They’re learned lessons, and they’re applying. It’s dark and edgy and not a lttle claustrophobic.
6) MacGyver’s back – except this O’Neill is an unsympathetic bureaucrat. This is similar to what they did with Captain Picard in the pilot of ST:Deep Space Nine. It worked then, and it works now.
7) It’s the anti ST:Voyager. In that show, a group of wildly disparate people was stranded far from home in an untested spacecraft. They immediately cracked open a few beers and got chummy – a kind of Cheers in space. SGU starts with exactly the same premise, and is wise enough to realise that everything will immediately turn to shit. These people struggle to even survive, let alone have a good old interstellar knees-up. The first few episodes consist of a fairly desperate struggle to find the basic supplies to ensure short-term survival: air, food, water, power. Barring an underwhelming jaunt through a desert in episode 2 (enough with the sand, ‘kay?), it’s excitingly different territory for the franchise. Even the inevitable standalone episodes are riddled with the ongoing character and plot arcs.
So I’m watching Stargate. (Yes, I know. Stargate!).
The future’s bright this year.
Well, you’ve done it, Mike. You’ve got me watching sci-fi. I hope you’re proud of yourself.
I’ve watched the first 4 episodes of Stargate: Universe and am thoroughly enjoying it so far. Sure, there are great gaping holes in logic (how come, if the Stargate takes such a giant load of power that it can drain an enormous spaceship almost dry in a day, another one can run quite happily plonked in the middle of a desert?), but the general *feel* of it is great. Robert Carlyle’s portrayal of someone who can’t bear to delegate, and who gets angry and lashes out rather than show he’s scared is – well – almost too close to home for comfort. Let’s gloss over that one, though. I’m also thoroughly enjoying David Blue’s happy-go-lucky Eli, and am *fascinated* to see where the writers are going to take Greer, as it seems there’s a great goldmine of character background just waiting to be tapped there.
Do you like fantasy, or is it really only sci-fi that powers your spaceship (so to speak)? The other one I’m hooked on at the moment is Legend of the Seeker. It’s made by the same team that made Xena: Warrior Princess and I can’t get enough of it. Craig Horner, in the lead role of Richard Cypher, is a rotten actor, but the rest of the team around him more than make up for that (and he’s very easy on the eye, so he’s forgiven.
) Craig Parker puts in a stellar performance as the evil megalomaniac dictator Darken Rahl, and Bridget Regan as Kahlen Amnel, the Seeker’s wise advisor, is also fabulous. And beautiful. I think you’d like her.
You know how to make a grown man happy, Katja.
Er. Or something phrased slightly less lewdy. Um.
Yes, there are a few things in there I’d like explaining a bit better because they don’t (yet) make a lot of sense. However, from what I read on some fanpage a while back (because this question bugged me a bit too)…
…the Stargate thing apparently works like caller-collect: the isolated ones waiting on planets don’t hold much power in themselves (which is a bit silly, they’re sat there for years – why not have solar panels or a wind turbine mopping up power on the drip? Evidently the Ancients could learn a lot from Obama’s clean energy programme).
So when a connection is formed, the planetbound gates draw their power from the other end of the connection. So when the shipboard team dial a planet with a Stargate, the ship pays – and when they dial back to the ship, the ship pays. (The lesson: It’s a bugger being a ship).
I could be wrong on this. In which case, you’re right, it’s a gaping plot hole.
All the characters feel three-dimensional – it’s a real gift from a popular scifi show. And they’re all in conflict with each other: not in the violence sense (although hey, that too). Take Rush and Eli. Eli’s the genius and Rush knows it, and it eats at him that he has to rely on this cheeky, questioning, wisecracking nerdboy. Eli wants to admire Rush because scientifically they have so much in common, but Rush is clearly a sporran short of a kilt and not to be trusted….
They’re all getting bound together, but not in a necessarily good way. Hence – gripping.
And I *loved* the part of the fact that the reason the mad scientist was being so cranky and enraged and generally off his trolley was…nicotine and caffeine withdrawal. Beautifully real.
Okay, I’ll stop now. Ahem. *puts pompoms away*
I’ll check out Legend Of The Seeker pronto: interesting to see it’s based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword Of Truth series. Never read them, but I’ve seen them umpteen times in Borders. Ten books in the series (I think), so there’s plenty of material for the show to draw on. I’ll grab it pronto.
And yes, I like fantasy. Because I’m firmly of the belief that fantasy is scifi – same way that stuff like Day Of the Triffids and 1984 is scifi. And Carnivale, too.
Which is why I’ve regarded you as a scifi fans for a few years now….
…and (to extend this massive comment even further)….
…I’ve suspected you’ve been of the opinion that “scifi” is something that has spaceships in it. This is one of my big problems with TV scifi. This is part of my grievance with Star Trek and Star Wars.
When word started getting out about how unexpectedly gritty Galactica was, a common statement was along the lines of “Oh, it’s so dark and nasty and political – I mean, it’s not really scifi, is it? It’s more like The West Wing / The Sopranos / Band Of Brothers etc.”.
Le sigh.
‘Kay, I’m done.
Ah, I’d disagree that fantasy is a form of sci-fi. Sci-fi, to me, has to have some form of actual *science* in it. Yes, it may be way beyond our current scientific capabilities, but it *could* theoretically be possible, given some genius minds and a bit of human endeavour. Fantasy, on the other hand, is about *magic*. And the thing about magic is that it’s not humanly possible to create. It’s either granted or it’s not. I mean, I’d *love* to be able to shoot flames from my fingers and cast spells, but there ain’t no way it’s ever going to be possible. Whereas I *could* build a Stargate.
Well, all right, maybe *I* couldn’t, but I know some clever people that theoretically could. Hush now.
Carnivale was a bit of a weird bridge between the two, which is what I loved about it (well, season 1, anyway. Season 2 lost me somewhat.). Real-life mysticism and things that we just can’t quite explain. I really must watch it again …
Oh, speaking of Carnivale, I’m quite embarrassed that I still have your season 2 DVDs. Ditto your copy of ‘Out of a Clear Sky’. (Hello Sally, if you’re reading – I enjoyed it very much, by the way.) They’re safely in London, which isn’t much good to you, but you will get them back at some point. Just not any time before the summer. Ahem.
Hopefully I’m not poking my nose in where it’s not wanted, but a mate of mine who’s been watching said that Legend of the Seeker starts getting away from The Sword of Truth in the second series. Seems odd when there’s that much material to play with, but I can’t comment on whether The Sword of Truth series is any good to start with.
Rob, I haven’t read the books, so can’t judge on how faithful the series is to them, but there is a different feel to the second series. There are fewer epic battles (mainly because the evil dictator has been dethroned), and more of a love story going on. Craig Horner’s acting has also become about as wooden as a table leg. I’m *sure* it wasn’t quite this bad in the first series. Or maybe he just took his shirt off more and distracted me. Yes, that could well be it.
Thank you god. That’s the “real” god, you understand. I’m not actually accusing Mr Mike A of being god. But I have to thank someone. Having finally reached the end of Battlestar Galactica – and not even being disappointed by the ending, that’s how much of a fan I am – I need something. I’ve tried Dollhouse – the first couple of episodes anyway, and so far I’m not hooked. I lapped up Firefly and Serenity, and will again, multiple times. But I am starting to feel that there must be more. BS can’t just have – finished. Surely.
And apparently not. Goody.
Thank you Mike, for finding me reasons to keep on watching DVDs. I owe you part of my sanity.
cj
You won’t be disappointed by Caprica. That’s my guarantee and I give it unreservedly since I know you’re a fan of its predecessor. Same gritty feel, same strength of character, same reluctance to take short-cuts with the big philosophical questions, same “wow” acting – and yet it’s very much its own show. You’ll like.
I hear ya with Dollhouse. I’ve seen both seasons (ie. all of it, since it’s now cancelled) and….
Argh.
If you stick with each season, you’re rewarded each time. The back half of each season is worth waiting for, and thanks to those episodes, the whole thing hangs together, barring a few plotting absurdities.
But there’s disappointment in there too. And I don’t understand how. How can Firefly be so effortlessly hitchlessly brilliant from one episode to the next, and Dollhouse lurch from dazzling to formulaic from week to week?
I was ready to blame Joss Whedon. I admit it.
But then I read this interview with him.
Please, Joss, please. Next time. Go with HBO. Go with cable. Please. They’ll let you do the show you intend to make. Please.
Please.
Hoo-wee. ‘Kay, so I’ve just watched episode 10 of SG:U. Oh. My. God. And it’s on hiatus until when? April? Aargh!
I’m afraid so.
So you liked how Colonel Young wigged out on Rush? I did. I knew something was coming, but…not that.
I love the unstated “Hell, he’s a pain in the ass, but we need this guy” turning into a thoroughly human “f*** it, we’re done here”.
Impulsive. Selfish. Understandable. Human.
Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Although I don’t think it was all that impulsive. That had been growing for a while. I’m intrigued to know what was on that kino. Why did Young ask if Rush had seen it, before asking Eli to download it all to his (ridiculously innocuous looking) USB drive? I love that juxtaposition of current and space-age technology, and the way they play around with it. For instance Eli joking that the spaceship’s computers don’t have iMovie.
Oh, and what was that time travel episode all about? I’m hoping that’s going to come up again and be explained, because it’s frustratingly unfinished at the moment.
I thought it was Young asking Eli if Scott seen it (!) – and I was presuming he was taking it away to cover the evidence for his motivation in kicking the shit out of Rush and leaving him to die.
From what Rush and Young were talking about down on the planet, the footage on the Kino was Rush coming in and discovering Spencer dead, then faking up the evidence to make it look like Young. And if anyone sees that footage, there’s suddenly a good reason for Young leaving Rush behind. So Young takes the only copy, and hides it, and theoretically he’s safe from the pointed finger of blame.
Except he isn’t. It’s too good an opportunity for the writers to miss.
The mix of hi-tec and low-tec is a lot of fun, definitely – and works perfectly because this is meant to be somewhere near the present day, so they’d *have* all this stuff.
The time travel episode….
Yes, bewildering at first. But I watched it twice, and the ending does self-contain everything (just). The suggestion is that the loop that everyone is in at the end of the episode isn’t the loop where everyone survives – because that one is the next loop along.
So the people you see at the episode closes are leaving a message on the abandoned Kino for the *next* time-loop of people to find and watch and understand – so the next lot can develop an antidote in time without any deaths.
And so, the suggestion is, in the next cycle of events, they can finally escape from this nasty little trap, only aware of how horrible it was from watching a short video on a Kino they’ve found abandoned.
Very dense, very clever plotting. Very scifi. Made my head spin at first. Uncompromising. And brilliant.
Den of Geek:
“In the final few moments of the episode, you would expect everything to die down as the storyline comes to an end and we see the characters return to their quarters, weary from the day, as we have seen in a good few of the previous instalments. Instead, the action and story is ramped up, and the end leaves you with almost no resolution of the plot, leaving you to work it out for yourself.”
Yes, if Young was asking if Scott had seen it then that makes perfect sense. And that’s what I expected him to ask, so when I heard Rush it threw me somewhat. Clearly I need to rewire my ears’ connection to my brain.
Time travel always messes with my head. After writing my comment last night I thought about that episode some more and worked it out, but it took me a while. I had scenarios of them going back to the Icarus planet and taking a different batch of water and all sorts going through my head. I think that was my problem with that episode: there were just so many variables.
I did like Greer’s throwaway line to Eli, early in the episode: ‘I’m checking aliens don’t go up your ass. Haven’t you seen Alien?”, before introducing aliens that do the whole gruesome chest-burrowing-and-consequent-explosion from human body thing. Most amusing.
Katja:
Yes, very nice, the Alien reference.
And they can do that. They can litter it with sly popular culture references because it features characters from our time. Blank cheque. Lucky devils.
That was the trickiest time travel ep I’ve seen on TV. Very demanding on the viewer – but rightly so, because this particular concept is meant to be painfully baffling. It’s a trap for the brain as well as in time. I’ve seen other shows aim for it but fail miserably on the last few hurdles, making everyone smugly self-congratulatory and getting on with mundane things, which feels like a bit of a let-down even though it’s making a point.
But this one ended it with everything still resolving. Brave stuff.
Eager to see what else they have planned, if they’re doing such a good job of reworking hackneyed scifi cliches so far.
First off, I do enjoy both shows. This article explained why very well. However, I would have to question this persons distate of all things Star-related.
Star Wars is probably the most world reknown science fiction saga there is. It propelled many into science fiction when shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers and V were hanging in on the fringes. Granted George Lucas really left the feel of the original Star Wars with his pre-quels. Though I will grant that it enthused a new generation into a love of Sci-Fi.
Star Trek is one of the LONGEST running generes. It’s multiple spin-offs and movies are proof of it’s popularity. It was a vision of Gene Roddenberry’s future and one that offered hope. I am not a Trekkie, I do not dress up and go to conventions. The fact that there is a long standing Star Trek convention that even non sci-fi fans know about (and yes make fun of) is further proof of its strength in Sci-Fi. I am afraid I have never heard of a BSG convention (Oh people dress up at Comicon or other conventions).
Stargate ran for 10 seasons, with a spin off that ran for 5 and a second spin-off already slated to run 20 episodes into a 2nd season. That says something for a Sci-Fi franchise (One of my favorites Firefly didnt make it past season 1 (Though they did get a movie!)). You ridicule Richard Dean Anderson for his quips in the show. Yet that is what was so endearing about him and made it fun! Not everything has to be dark and edgy (Are you just in need of being depressed or feel it is not sci-fi unless everyone is dark, mysterious and filled with drama?)
Now you are entitled to your opinion and it’s fine if you did not enjoy all things Star-related. I do not want to try and change your mind or convince you otherwise. However, you may get ugly all you like. It does not change the success these franchise’s have seen, which speaks for itself about its popularity as Sci-fi franchises. How many seasons did BSG last? 4 (SG-1 had 10). Now, maybe you want to pad your numbers and count the original BSG (Same storyline). However, look what they needed to do to BSG in order to make it succesful, unlike the original (The original Star Trek did more for Sci-Fi then the original BSG). They needed to make BSG dark, edgy and filled with drama. Did it work? Yes! I enjoyed BSG (Well until the end when it started to get confusing and never really satisfied me with answers). Caprica is an awesome spin-off and I am enjoying that as well. So do not think I am bashing your favorite Sci-fi franchise. Just because you have a distate for the other Sci-Fi franchises does not make them any less popular Science Fiction and can not discount the impact it has in bringing new generations into the love of Sci-Fi. they did it MUCH more then BSG ever did.
Now for those of you that are questioning some of the science fiction and how things work in Stargate (Power consumption and such). GET OVER IT! BSG doesn’t even try to explain their technology or how systems work. It just exsits. As for the power of Stargates in the middle of no-where. If you actually ever watched the entire franchise, it is explained. The DHD devices hold a tremendous amount of power, but it is finite. Smanatha Carter explains how the DHD found in Antartica could not be used, because they could not power it up. But the power does last for hundreds of millions of years. Does it have to explain how? NO this is SCIENCE FICTION! If it was not fiction and could be explained then we could build it and it would not be Fiction. Stargate does at least TRY and use existing theories and such to give a reason for how things work. Again, I never saw them do that in BSG. As for the Stargates in the middle of no where on SGU. THEY ARE NEW! Did you not pay attention to the show? There is a ship flying ahead of Destiny SEEDING planets with Stargates. Thuse those Stargates power supply will be fresh and will last for millenia. It also is explained that Stargates are huge Superconducters and have been known to draw power from other sources. Before you start complaining about the FICTION in a Science Fiction, perhaps you should watch ALL of the series.
Furthermore, the person talking about only Desert scenes for Stargate. You obviously did not watch the series either. There were FAR more planets with trees and other vegetation, then there were without. Before you question why, it is explained that many worlds were teraformed by the Goa’uld for the pupose of transporting human slaves to them (Also explainining why humans are found on most other planets). The use of desert worlds was actually far mor infrequent then you seem to think and even when they were used, it was often cause they were RE-VISITING a planet. Such as Abydos.
Now, even I had questions about some things in all the shows. Most notably was in Stargate most everyone spoke english. However I SUSPENDED MY BELIEF, for a SCIENCE FICTION! Why you ask? Because I knew that the franchise could force their writers to have to put something in about language barriers everytime and would just come up with the Star Trel like Universal Translator. Star Trek Enterprise made the language barrier a theme throughout its production (Remember Hoshi). Stargate made the decision just to skip having to explain it everytime and make everyone speak english. It did focus some episodes on Daniel Jackson having to try and communicate outside of English (Mostly though he just had to translate writing). My point is THIS IS SCIENCE FICTION! It is meant to be entertaining and move a story along. Yes in REAL LIFE we would have to deal with things like language and maybe we would need solar collectors if we ever designed a ring that could create stable worm holes to other planets. But, until we do have such technology, take these shows for what they are and once again, GET OVER IT!
To sum up. Caprica and SGU are fantastic shows and I hope they last for some time. Though it seems the BSG and Caprica series are not meant for long term (eventually Caprica is going to hit where BSG starts). Perhaps that is a new format science fiction is trying to take. 4-5 seasons then a spin-off. It certainly seems like the traditional way of producing a season is no longer in use. Caprica only has 10 episodes and was started in Nov 2009 (they like to make us wait now). I do agree with the writer of this article. The way they made SGU more dark and edgy is awesome. Stargate Atlantis had continued the easy going camp Cololnel O’neill attitude and while fun. It would not have worked for SGU. The conflict between the civillians and millitary is great for the story and adds drama. It also is more realistic for this type of scenario. These were not the people who were SUPPOSED to go to Destiny. Unlike Atlantis where it was the team chosen by it’s leaders and thus would be more cooperational, disciplined and optimistic. The lives on SGU’s Destiny were thrown into their circumstances and thus the conflict and lack of discipline is something you would expect. Kudos for the writers and producers recognizing this. It makes them all seem a little more human (not super-human). I think BSG is the series that started this kind of edgy space drama and they continue it with Caprica. One of the things I like about Caprica is that humans still have their vices. Drugs and alcohol. Shoot even smoking cigarettes was a big theme of the Caprica series (Don’t most shows shy away from showing cigarettes or smoking in their shows now a days?). We are humans we have vices and for those vices to show up in a show, brings them a little closer to reality. But never forget this is SCIENCE FICTION. So do not expect tecnical schematics and accurate physics to line ever piece of technology the writers introduce (Come on stones that transfer consciousness across galaxies? A phone booth that travles through time and dimensions?). It is those items that stretch our imagination though that make shows endearing and make us ask the question….is it possible?
Thank you for reading this, though you may not all agree with my statements and comments. It shows the power of these shows, when it can engage us and opens up such discussions between us. So for now…Na-Nu Na-Nu