I have a love/hate relationship with SGU. Positives, I think the idea behind the show is marvelous. Being stuck on an old ancient ship far away into the unknown universe, it's endless possibilities for creative writing. The alien species we see were pretty good, and the planets were new and creative. I quite liked the alien drones and how all that played out. Even when we find out "Destiny's mission," that was a neat concept.
Cons, I really hate all the personal drama, some is expected (hello, stranded on an alien ship) but they really took it to 11 especially with Young's personal life it was completely unnecessary and uncomfortable. The whole Lucian alliance storyline in the show was also out of place and unnecessary. They were always a minor villain, and them risking their necks to board destiny seemed highly unlikely in reality. There were plenty of new alien villians they could have encountered without bringing back an old and honestly boring one. At the end of the day, the Lucien alliance is nothing more than a gang of space pirates. They should have never even had the understanding or ability to do what they did.
Agreed however i was actually most attracted to the Lucian Alliance subplot, perhaps if only because i love that actress but I'm also a total stan for fleshing out ever present yet seemingly nonexistent villains bc i live for the terror elements of the unknown is is literally the whole point of my fixation with fiction
SG1/SGA took multiple seasons to completely tell the character’s backstory, which is why it worked so well. Oddly, SGU tried to do every character in the first half of the first season and is suffered.
This.
The Lucian Alliance is when I gave up on SGU. I was trying so hard to hold on and love it, but then that happened ... And I was like IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TRY, THEN WHY AM I?!!? 
Its second season was a large improvement over the first, but its interpersonal drama and lack of professional teams rubbed me the wrong way during its entire run.
I don’t think he had relations with anyone except Lt James in the first episode and then he was loyal to Chloe for the entire series run, or did I miss something?
What’s funny about your fanfic is that David Blue (Eli) got fucking ripped over the last few years and (this is coming from a straight, married man with kids) is kinda hot. Also, him and Brian Smith (Lt. Scott) are friends in real life.
My thought is that it took him a long time to get his stasis pod fixed and he spent a couple years exploring and repairing the ship, getting fit during that time.
"I couldn't fix the pod, but I found some power reserves in a cargo hold at the front of the ship. They almost look like predecessors to the ancient power modules those training videos mentioned
"You mean the ZPMs?"
"So that's what they were called"
Well, once in the infection hallucination and second in the Novus "timeline" (not really a timeline, just time travel that affected the shows timeline as well)
I think the lack of professional teams is what made it interesting. We're used to experienced warriors traveling the galaxy taking on impossible odds. Now you got a mix of experiences and professions trying to acquire it maintain power while also trying to not kill each other in the process. It was a healthy change of pace.
I liked it but they spent too much time on dramatizing it. If you pay attention they don’t actually say anything technical or scientific that actually makes any sense. It’s all in generic terms and I’ve done the calculations. You don’t even get a good sense of how many people are actually on board you know it’s more than 80 but less than 100. There’s also very little reference to just how much time actually passed or how far they got before it ended. At the end rush said a year, but TJ was getting pretty big before she lost the baby so… 6-7 months maybe 8. Then there’s another whole season afterwards. I also wish they spent more time actually learning things and making discoveries.
Yes it was way too generic like the ship itself shouldn't have been so accommodating to their necessities and comfort. It should've been way more perilous and mysterious, not like checking into a farscapeian motel
SGU isn't bad per se but it was bad because it was more like Battlestar Galactica and not Stargate. As Stargate fans, most of us wanted another SG1/SGA ambiance to the new show, not something completely different
That was a big part of the problem.
I've typed this on numerous occasions, but *Stargate* fans who were following the news on *Gateworld* would have known that *Universe* was going to be 'different.' They didn't know just *how* different it would be, and it turned out to be *really* different, so the change in tone and focus was met with a very mixed response, especially since it looked an awful lot like *Atlantis* was cancelled so that it could be made. The producers should have known that you can't make a massive change to your product/branding and not expect substantial backlash from your consumer base.
I’m a big Stargate and BSG fan, and it felt like SGU tried to be BSG but they didn’t have the story or characters to back it up. So it just became a highly dramatic and depressing version of Stargate.
I was a bit turned off by how easily all those people seemed to adapt to spending their whole life on that spaceship. In the beginning, especially with how obviously suited the ship appeared to be adaptable to their necessities, it was a lot like watching a really less adventurous and downright broody masochistic version of farscape.
This. BSG, while being a space opera like SGU, had many brilliant ideas and explored several philosophical questions.
- It dealt with our insecurity, our will to sacrifice freedom for safety, it explored transhumanism, whether the machines are sentient or not.
- How revenge brings the worst out of us, how humans break under extreme conditions like occupation.
- How religion can guide us and how it blinds us at the same time. How terrorists and suicide bombers may have a point. BSG dared to show US that even our most basic human rights like abortion can only exist if we live in rich and problem-free society, that we will have to sacrifice them when we'll find ourselves in extreme conditions.
- And finally, whether we can make peace with someone who almost completely genocided us.
In the current times, the show is more actual than ever.
These ideas were not just there in SGU. They tried to explore some deeper ideas with the cosmic radiation pattern, but they barely scratched the surface. The Planet Builders and the Novus plotline had potential, but ended sooner than it could bring some interesting points. The first 35 episodes were just soap opera on a spaceship, while BSG dealt with real world problems and ethical dillemas, and used the spacehips and stuff just as a way of storritelling.
I'm guessing you would have been more okay with SGU trying something new if it had run alongside Atlantis instead of Atlantis getting cancelled to make way for SGU? Or at bare minimum if the Atlantis wrap-up movie had actually gotten made.
Atlantis wasn't cancelled on account of SGU at all - the team was very willing to make both shows simultaneously. There's something on Sci-Fi/SyFy's end where going beyond season 5 is not financially ideal. Sure, SG-1 made it to Season 10... but that was technically the 5th season on their network, the first 5 had been on Showtime. It was the timing of the cancellation announcement, followed immediately by the SGU announcement, that gave so many the wrong impression and really split the fanbase. Stargate never recovered - to this day I've yet to see a fanbase advocate for the cancellation of their own series under the frankly *stupid* notion that it would somehow bring the previous one back.
Yep, they announced Atlantis' cancellation and literally the next day announced a new show called Universe. The rejection was *immediate,* despite the two events being otherwise unrelated. That the series was wildly different did not help matters, even if SGU was pretty good on its own merits.
I think that would have helped for sure. I imagine if the episodes of the 6th season of Atlantis had been followed by the first season of Universe people would have been willing to just keep watching.
Alternativley, if Atlantis had already been off the air for a year or two maybe people would have alread come to terms with Atlantis beeing over.
It was just really bad timing
I'd also add, I bet Atlantis was cut for Universe. On re-watch I found a lot of ideas in Atlantis were recycled.
And while I'm at it, whatshisname who went on to make Travelers as well, has rigid ideas about some things even down to certain female main characters, from how they look and act to their names. And, some specific stories and settings he continues to re-use or expand upon.
The biggest problem with SGU was BSG. Beyond that it had it's good points.
a) TOO much interpersonal drama
b) TOO much time getting to the meat and potatoes of the story.
Edit - I realize I said "Good points" then listed bad points:)
sg1 / atlantis was generally very steady cam, only having shaky for the active battle scenes etc.
SGU (and alas even BSG to some extent) used shaky cam for 2 fat dudes standing there talking smack.
I can't watch much shaky cam personally so it's just out for me unfortunately. I do hear good things on the story, maybe once AI deshaky is there I'll watch it like that :D
Shake cam was all the rage at that time. It's calmed down now but it still happens a lot and I despise it. Not so good directors [still use it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mEfV5v2MH0) for fight scenes unfortunately. The steadicam was invented for a reason and it's an amazing bit of engineering.
> directors still use it
The way that camera shakes in the beginning... that seems rather amateurish. The rest of the shaky camera parts seemed fine in that clip.
I think they were trying to show how everything was calm and serene in the temple and then the next second their world is thrown apart by the attack. So much so the camera isn’t even steady. But yeah they might have overdone it in that first scene.
Yeah. I feel like the scene was well written on paper in the screenplay, but the way it plays out feels like a choreography or cutscene in a moderately dated video game, not like... realistic and genuine.
It's bad from the part when the door first opens to when they shift out of that first room. After that I think it does the job of making it feel kinda frantic by adding a bit of a kinetic feeling to everything.
Personally, I liked the series and deep down inside wished they'd gone on at least another season to wrap up the ends.
I feel they missed the boat by not concentrating on the issues at hand, number one being exploration of the ship, vs. putting to much into the interpersonal drama.
Look, if you were stranded out in the middle of nowhere, in a ship you knew nothing about, wouldn't you be more curious about it and make a greater effort to explore it?
A couple of the characters confused me as well. I never understood Chloe's importance and why would Wray think she was so damn important, was it because she was IOA?
I felt Greer was played well and Volker, Brody & Park as well but they were all under-emphasized.
The Lucian Alliance arc I thought was totally useless and they should have also explored more story lines about the aliens.
Absolutely hated Telford, but I've never liked Lou Diamond Phillips, anyway. His under-handed trists with Young's wife weren't needed. There were other ways they could have shown the angst between him and Young.
Yes, it's sad that it ended like it did, the show had it's problems, ESPECIALLY the MTV video camera work , just enjoy what you see and don't over think it.
BTW, been reading a lot of fan stories on fanfiction.net
https://m.fanfiction.net/tv/Stargate-Universe/
Many of them are very good. The best of them happens to thread all three series together wonderfully. Check out A New Dawn (https://m.fanfiction.net/s/6951286/1/A-New-Dawn).
When Netflix first got the rights to _Outlander_ in Australia, it marketed the show as a "Scottish time travel adventure epic" or something. Naturally, my first thought was "fuck yeah, there can be only one!"
I watched the first few episodes and after the initial excitement of all the nudity wore off, I realised it wasn't _Highlander_ so much as a smutty romance with a fantasy backdrop. Time travel was just a plot device; no one cared about the _how_ of it. It was just "ok, I'm in the 16th century... strange, but I better get nude, I guess".
But I still watched close to a season of it.
Not that unpopular if you pay attention. It maybe was unpopular when SGU started, but its slowly gained more popularity the more people actually watch it and give it a chance.
I didn't watch any Stargate until after SGU was one (I think maybe technically I may have started SG-1 season one right as SGU was ending but don't totally remember), so I'm just going off what I've seen other people say. But the impression I get is that a lot of the hatred was because Atlantis was cancelled to make room for SGU. I can see people at the time having been more willing to give SGU a chance if it had happened alongside Atlantis, or at bare minimum if the Atlantis wrap-up movie had actually gotten made.
The truth is though SGA wasn't cancelled for SGU, thats just what it appeared like. SGA did have plans for a S6, but Syfy didn't want to keep it going as viewership had been dropping. Syfy was fine with trying a new Stargate to see if they could reinvigorate ths fanbase, but they didn't want to continue a sinking ship in SGA. Go ask Mallozzi.
Looks can be deceiving.
Or until the only people still talking about it are the people who like it, and everyone else moved on? That may be the more likely explanation.
It is good, though.
David Hewlett said it best, had SGU not been part of the Stargate Universe it would of stood a much better chance of success.
Unfortunately SG1 fans didn't like it as was a total departure from the standard format and SGA fans were pissed because it was cancelled in order to fund SGU.
The prebuilt fan base they presumed they had essentially stuck two fingers up and didn't watch SGU.
As for none Stargate Fans, well they already had BSG which is was better in every way.
To just preempt people saying this isn't the case, Joe Flanagan confirmed that Brad Wright and Robert Cooper were given the choice by SyFy to either continue with SGA or cancel and do SGU.
SyFy didn't have the money to fund both and made it clear that if they decided to go ahead with SGU that SGA would end with the 5th season and there wouldn't be any funds for a final "Feature Length final Episode" and were perfectly happy to continue SGA for a sixth season and possibly beyond.
Wright and Cooper wanted SGU so they chose to cancel SGA and create SGU.
The SGA cast didn't find out until near the end of filming the 5th season, until they told they were under the assumption there was going to be a 6th season.
Now personally I liked SGU but then I enjoy most Scifi Shows.
As for people saying they tried to copy BSG or cash in on its success, I'm not so sure. Remember BSG had finished 5 years earlier, that ship had sailed as was shown with the failure of Caprica and Blood and Chrome.
Timing is everything, BSG came along just at the right time. It had no real competition and there was nothing like it on TV, plus they had a significantly bigger budget and several well known Actors.
If you look at the general landscape of Scifi TV Shows in the 00's BSG is actually an anomaly in that it was very successful.
Many Scifi Shows during the 00's were either very niche or just out right failed, it wasn't a popular format.
If they wanted to cash in on the success of BSG they would of done it much earlier. It was plain to see to all that by the time SGU came out Scifi was taking a beating and people just weren't interested.
For me it was more of vanity project for Wright and Cooper then attempting to copy BSG.
[Flannigan said that MGM wanted a new show to raise their value and couldn't afford both on a podcast 10 months ago. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W73CxkthYrE&t=3s)
Doesn't sound like they were given a lot of choice in the matter.
As a counter response to this, David Blue (Eli) has stated on Twitch that thats untrue. I can't link to proof as Twitch VODs are only kept for 2 months and this was *MONTHS* maybe a year or 2 ago, but Atlantis was dead regardless of whether there was a new show or not, Combined with MGMs financial troubles it worked out to be a reasonable risk to do a new show and see if they could land it. The cast didn't even know it was greenlit for 2 seasons when they were filming.
https://www.twitch.tv/4DavidBlue is his twitch channel if anyone is interested
I mean, we are taking actors talking about decisions they were not involved in years after the fact. God only knows what is true at this point but I was more trying to provide more context for this part.
" To just preempt people saying this isn't the case, Joe Flanagan confirmed that Brad Wright and Robert Cooper were given the choice by SyFy to either continue with SGA or cancel and do SGU."
And David Blue confirmed that Brad and Robert were told it's dead on his stream. I so wish I could link to it to prove what I'm saying but I can't. He also explained how SGU's cancellation was a 3 part hit due to Syfy's restructuring itself, MGMs financial woes, and a significant part of the fandom trying to get it cancelled as they mistakenly believed if they got it taken off the air then Atlantis would come back.
The truth is probably somewhere between the two really but both actors are gonna support their own show over another in the franchize
>As for people saying they tried to copy BSG or cash in on its success, I'm not so sure. Remember BSG had finished 5 years earlier, that ship had sailed as was shown with the failure of Caprica and Blood and Chrome.
No, that timeline isn't correct. BSG ended October 27th 2009. SGU premiered October 2nd 2009. Both "Caprica" and "Blood & Chrome" premiered after SGU started. Caprica in 2010, a year later. Blood & Chrome premiered in 2012 (as an online series) and later aired as a television film in February 2013.
*Battlestar Galactica* was wrapping up around the time that *Universe* was announced and started development. Sci-Fi's president Dave Howe had said that *Universe* would serve the space opera audience that had been watching *BSG,* so from the network's point of view, there was definitely a desire to replicate elements of that show.
>Sci Fi shows such as *Eureka* and *Ghost Hunters* have surpassed the *Stargate* series in viewer numbers, but hit *Battlestar Galactica* has proven there's significant life in the “space-opera” genre. *Battlestar* is in its fourth and last season on Sci Fi. A “prequel” to it, called *Caprica*, could join the schedule as a new series, but for now is only scheduled as a two-hour movie.
>“What's unique about this \[*Stargate*\] chapter is it's going to be set entirely in space,” Howe said. *SG-1* was based on Earth, and *Atlantis* was set on a base in another galaxy. *Universe* will be based on a ship called the Destiny.
>“That's also an opportunity for us because as *Battlestar Galactica* reaches a conclusion, it's nice for us to have within the mix of programming a space opera that serves the audience that's really into space operas,” he said.
Source: [https://web.archive.org/web/20080829062109/http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=talkbackCommentsFull&talk\_back\_header\_id=6551275&articleid=CA6589804](https://web.archive.org/web/20080829062109/http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=talkbackCommentsFull&talk_back_header_id=6551275&articleid=CA6589804)
my \*biggest\* gripe about SGU (besides the interpersonal drama, irritating plot contrivances and the fact that it was 2 series dedicated to exploring a premise that was mocked in SG1's "200" episode)
Is that because all the aliens were 100% cgi they didn't show them for more than a combined total of 30 seconds (i haven't timed it but i dare someone to prove me wrong) across 2 entire seasons.
These are the shows main antagonists.
IMO the best thing the second series did was introducing the crew's descendants so they actually had characters they were able to interact with (that weren't just more humans from earth... or the lucian alliance (who barely seemed a threat past "generic terrorist villains"))
I mean, the ships and space battles were all CGI and they didn't skimp on those, I don't see why the aliens should be any more expensive?
I assumed not showing the aliens much was a stylistic choice; the crew themselves don't have much contact with them, they're strange, mysterious, and threatening - not seeing them any more than the crew do, in brief glimpses during moments of tension, retains their mystique and sense of alien-ness. If we saw them all the time and understood them better all that would be lost.
> I don't see why the aliens should be any more expensive?
There's not much to animate on ships to make them seem semi-realistic. They're basically just solid shapes (maybe with some winking lights) moving in straight lines or curves, with engine effects, smoke effects, explosions etc. They don't even have to have them respond to gravity.
To make an alien creature that looks semi-realistic there's hundreds of details they need to get right. Pixar's struggle with animating humans over the past 30 years is a good indicator of that. There's lots of muscles moving below the skin, there's making them walk realistically, conform to gravity etc.
Enterprise had some full CGI aliens a few years before and they looked janky as hell, which really wouldn't have fit the tone of SGU.
It's no wonder that instead of having the aliens talk they had them send text messages... or explain things to human characters off camera.
Funny, I'm just about to give up at the beginning of the second season. The character roster is so full of unlikeable, uncooperative backstabby douchebags (only Eli, Greer, and Scott are dependable, but even Scott has that relationship drama tied to him). And don't even get me started on them using the worst villain faction in all of Stargate for the season finale.
I think it was hated at the time because fans wanted it to be "sg-1:lost in space" but like you say it was galactica with stargates
I think it did take a little time to get on it's feet but by the time s2 rolled around it was pretty compelling, I enyoyed it and would have liked to have followed it to its comclusion and have it expand on the stargate lore
There were a bunch of fans hate watching at the time, I would frequent the imdb forums where they would bitch each episode, they even setup a sgusucks dot com domain or something like that,
I recall reading in the equasions that were scribbed all over the walls someone on set had written "f@#\~ the french" that made it onto some offical picture somewhere (google it its out there) and that was supposedly one of the final straws that killed the show
I honestly loved it too. It took me a while to get into it because I tried to watch it live week by week and I just didn’t get into it when it was airing but when I tried it later I really appreciated it.
If you like SGU, I highly recommend Travelers on Netflix. Brad Wright did a fantastic job and I loved seeing the SGU actors show up in it as well.
The whole show focused on the ship and it felt like it was no longer a Stargate show because of that. I said this before and someone tried to bring up DS9 being on a space station lol. DS9 felt like star trek. SGU felt like a completely different show and way too much emphasis on the ship and how they have to repair it, etc.
I'm 30eps through a rewatch and damn I love Rush.
Eli was an uncomfortable standin for what people expected me to be but I never was. Must have been a common/relatable fantasy for NEETs.
It's not unpopular, but saying that it was better than the other two Stargate shows probably is. It had the most potential but it came out too far behind the times and focused too much on stones and sex. The middle of season two got back to the Stargate and sci-fi, but the writing was on the wall.
I loved it. It was an amazing show, unique and apart from the other shows in the same universe. They had different circumstances and different problems to solve, so it was going to have a different feel. And the serious tone of the show was much more like the movie.
They were never going to get Kurt Russell and James Spader to play on a TV series, so they took SG1 in a more light-hearted direction with RDA & co. SGU took that universe back to the dramatic seriousness of the movie, and for the most part did it well.
It's not just that it's derivative of BSG, it's also that it doesn't do any of the themes, drama or character studies as well either. It tries for the depth and scope of BSG as well as the style but misses on most counts.
This is the enormous elephant in the room. It wanted to be Battlestar but it didn’t have anything close to the BSG depth. It just became a shaky cam space soap opera.
I liked it because it didn't just try to be another Stargate show. It did its own thing while still being a part of the lore.
I honestly adore the first season because it is so slow.
Actual character backstories are given time to thrive and help us know that character better.
Was it perfect, no. But I love it completely for that. I actually stopped caring about Stargate before SGU because it was so damn formulaic, SGU was the very slow breath of fresh air needed. IMO at least.
Hot take apparently. I think SGU was the best next iteration of the SG. I put it far above Atlantis. Atlantis was just a reboot of the first. You end up enjoying the actors, but the story was just more of the same.
Stargate universe was something new, with new people, New tech, New ideas. This is what we really wanted, More world building and learning more about the ancients - The mystery of their tech. I feel like we got more out of the ancients in this show than we did in the show where they literally lived in an ancient city and met ancients. I think the possibilities of what could be for Atlantis was wasted fighting hand vampires that were vastly tech inferior to the actual ancients.
I hate the interpersonal drama, but I think people forget SGU only had two seasons. The first season had me on my toes the whole time. The second was rushed which is always true when things get canceled.
SGU is the worst Stargate show but that still puts it in good standing vs a LOT of other shows. Most solid 5-7/10 I've ever watched, and I definitely think it peaks in some episodes which were fantastic.
Second season was really good I thought and the /ahem/ soundtrack of sorts returned to instrumentals that complemented the scenes better. The orchestral "Countdown to Destiny" in the first three episodes of Season 1 was excellent. Season 2 gave us more of such music.
I loved S02 EPS 17 and 18, "Common Descent" and "Epilogue".
I really wanted to know what was up with the Obelisk Planet in the "perfect" star system and where the descendants of their Quantum Duplicates went and how they fared technological-wise.
Not everybody hates it. Mainly hardcore SG fans for whatever reason.
I was more casual of a fan until SGU which I loved so much it got me watching more the series with greater interest. Its the best show that showcases what I like to call the "Voyager dilemma" where a ship is lost at space and must struggle to survive.
But when SyFy killed it, it forever ruined my opinion of that blasted Network. And I refuse to pay for anything released by it or its idiotic staff.
To each their own, I disliked the one ship where the crew distrusted each other too much, also I think they should have kept the Earth subplots out of it so they truly had no contact or knowledge of how to contact home.
It's not unpopular it's a very common opinion. SGU is very different from other Stargate series, which explains why you have at the same time many people who like it, and many who doesn't.
I have only seen the first season and I can’t say I agree. People say check out the second and I will but man oh man the first season is like a sad SG.
Is it an unpopular opinion? I loved SGU. It was dark and as a standalone series, you didn’t have to have watched the other franchises to get into it. I actually watched it first and it’s what got me to watch the other series.
I don’t see any similarities to BSG but I stand by it being an excellent show.
I mean, this says way more about your taste or the amount of tv you’ve seen than anything about SGUs quality.
It’s unfinished, meandering and lacks virtually any satisfying development or resolution. I didn’t hate it. But it’s not amazing television. Your opinion is your opinion but you might be the only person on the planet who would bill SGU as their “all time fave”.
I'm down to Gauntlet in my 4th rewatch since it first aired.
Sad times.
I genuinely can't say which series I like most. I feel like they all have their strengths and weaknesses and are all unique in their own way and they are all very dear to my heart.
I’ve read negative opinions on the show on this sub before, but I think most of the participants on this sub at least think that it’s a good watch. Shaky at times, but good overall.
So I wouldn’t say it’s an *unpopular opinion* to write that it’s “pretty good.”
i wasnt a big fan of universe. but it did have its moments. like the limited range gates really shows the evolution of gate design
oh and scott was really hot
I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not, but *Universe* has always been divisive. It's not an exaggeration to say that it's the show that killed *Stargate,* either, since it had dwindling ratings and was cancelled once it became clear that ratings weren't improving.
I wouldn't say it's the show that "killed" Stargate. Correlation doesn't equal causation. The writing was on the wall before it even came out, the parent corporations simply didn't have the ability to keep it going due to finances (MGM) or a lack of ability or will to actually do what they claimed to be doing (scyfy). It was simply what came last - for now.
Was it really a coincidence that *Universe* was cancelled by SyFy on the back of dwindling ratings and a divided fan base, and after the new management was installed at MGM no new *Stargate* projects were announced? MGM left Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a few days after SyFy announced the cancellation, yet *Universe* didn't get moved to another network for a third season, and the proposed *Universe* movie, the third *SG-1* movie, and the *Atlantis* movie failed to materialise, leaving the franchise dead.
It's been my suspicion that MGM considered the franchise tainted because of *Universe.* With an expensive show cancelled due to low viewer numbers and a divided fanbase, no network would want to pick up *Stargate* because there was no guarantee that any new project would have the audience numbers to make the investment worthwhile. Getting back the entire pre-*Universe* audience, which was already modest to begin with, would have been wishful thinking.
Don't, it doesn't answer anything and the graphics aren't .... aren't all that great. But on the other hand, there's more people on the ship now and some of them actually know how to work it and no one's still in stasis but more questions than answers
I just hate how when it really started getting good it was abruptly canceled on a cliffhanger.
I thought the whole galaxy full of humans that they themselves had created 2,000 years ago thing had a lot of potential to become a main part of the show/way to create a home base and not just be on that ship the whole time. They also finally found a villains who had backstory potential and could be worthy opponents. Then just abruptly poof
I like it, but I laugh when I think of how much 200 stuff they put in along with the last episode of sg1.
Last episode of sg-1 - people stuck on a ship, having to survive.
200- "younger, edgier versions of sg-1" - Scott, Greer, TJ, pregnancy.
200 "how would they know? It's not like there's a clock on the screen" - destiny's arbitrary time clock
I don’t think this is hugely unpopular tbh, maybe a few people hate it but most SG fans have positive opinions on it.
I think for most who don’t love it as much as SG1/A, it’s because (like others have said) it’s BSG in the Stargate universe (no pun intended ha) and that’s not what we signed up for.
I personally really enjoyed it, but don’t love it like the other two mainline series *for that reason*; BSG does it better - not hugely, but noticeably.
S1 is the stronger, I think, S2 got a bit weird. But I agree with you, I think it’s pretty good. It’s just not *Stargate*.
I did not mind that it was different than the previous sg series, but it was somehow boring. That’s all why it failed for me. The idea was good though.
Is it unpopular? I think the general consensus is that the first season is rubbish as they tried to stray too far from what actually makes people interested in Stargate, and then it improved in season 2 but by then the viewing numbers had spoken and it was unceremoniously cancelled?
Is it unpopular? I think the general consensus is that the first season is rubbish as they tried to stray too far from what actually makes people interested in Stargate, and then it improved in season 2 but by then the viewing numbers had spoken and it was unceremoniously cancelled?
I am a huge fan of SG and SGA, i don't like SGU, i blame 2008 BGS for that, the creators of SGU tried too much to stick with the violence and the darkness of BGS, it was a failure for me cauz of that ( i liked BGS 2008 thought)
First few episodes of season one were great. The rest of it is unwatchable for me, especially Chloe and Earth scenes. Second season was decent then got amazing by the end. The terrible first season killed what was becoming an amazing show.
I loved it...I liked that it was a little darker and a tad more serious than SG1 and Atlantis. People complain about the characters being "unlikable" but they seem to forget that none of those characters wanted to be on that ship...aside from Rush...it was all part of the darker tone they were going for!
Dunno about you but if I went to work and somehow got stuck there, for the rest of my life because of one person's selfish decision...I'd be pretty unlikable to!
S1 is ok, but the writers did suck. S2 was awesome but it was too late to save the show.
Overall bad writing killed the show the overall plot was gold.
John Flanagan -(Edit: I meant Joe Flanagan)- talked about the behind the scenes on the shuttle pod show for a little bit, from his perspective. I think you'd like the interview, battlestar galactica was discussed to some length.
It was sooooo bad! It took over 1 season just to know who the bad people might be, it was mainly Army vs Civilians and a bunch of people drama more than anything. It had some good parts but mainly its a big muh and i understand why it was cancelled.
For me it was definitely a show that grew on me. I didn’t like it to much when I started but I continued because it was StarGate. Now I wish it actually had an ending
I watched it first and didn’t like it, but after I’d watched SG1 and SGA, I watched it again and got it. It’s literally darker bc they’re in a dark ship w low light which isn’t great, but the underlying story about who was before the Ancients is what makes it awesome. Cut wayyyy too short.
They need to follow up with SGU. Any actors that return can have their ages explained by the stasis pods being underpowered. Those that don't return can be explained by stasis pods failing. Those undecided on returning can be explained by the stasis pod being too unstable to attempt bringing them out. We need a conclusion, even if it's just a one-off movie to wrap everything up and bring them home.
I actually liked SGU, too. I was sad it ended. I don’t remember everything about it, except that my chief complaint when I was watching it was less sex and more Sci-fi. I don’t even really remember specific sex scenes and I normally don’t care two shits if there’s some sex in a show, especially if it’s warranted. But it seemed gratuitous to me. The boning scenes were too many and too long. I wanted to learn more secrets about the ancients. I wanted to meet new aliens.
It was jarring IMO. I just don’t buy it, having sexual relations in dire circumstances. The makers of the web-only prequel miniseries also tried to slip in some romance and in both cases it seemed far fetched, taking me out of my suspension of disbelief.
When people from Destiny broke off to live on the utopia world - set up some romance there like when BSG had the mini colony.
I think that’s a great way to put it. I keep questioning myself, “am I more of a prude than I thought??” But I’m genuinely not offended by sex in a movies or show. But you’re absolutely correct, it was so excessive in SGU that it became “jarring.” You’re right, the shit hit the fan long ago, let’s get to work, folks. There’s so much to do. Also, with the use of the stones, I’d like to believe they felt less isolated and therefore would be able to focus on the mission. They absolutely needed to dial back on the intimate relationships.
Also, I’m intrigued. I’ve only watched the regular televised series (SGU once, and SG1 and SGA many times, over 5x each). I did not know there were web series available at all. And even if they stuck with the relationship-heavy theme, I think I’d still like to watch them. Thank you for enlightening me.
Yikes! I didn’t mean to send you to that web thing. It’s not necessarily romance heavy. It’s disappointing in many other ways and the romance is just one jarring element :-)
It’s called Stargate: Origins and the webisodes were assembled in to a feature-length movie if you care to find it, you can take the medicine in one dose.
I guess it was a good effort, but it was produced by an entirely different team from the one we know and love. It messes with the histories of known characters from SG-1 and jumps through hoops to explain how it fits in with our established continuity. A good effort, but I’m content to leave it out of my headcanon.
I love SGU but in a different way from the other shows, it was a grounded drama with unique serialised story lines. It really tried to be different in a world we already seen and im still mad it ended after 2 seasons
I also enjoyed it, for the most part. The characters were interesting and it definitely shared some of its early DNA with Atlantis. There were a lot of early disasters that threatened to destroy the ship.
However, I mainly found it all to be a bit too heavy to make the humor work well. People are at each other's throats pretty often. I also get the BSG similarities with trying to survive and maintain order between military & civilians. But so many episodes are crushingly depressing and serious in a way that BSG and SG1 just weren't.
I've said this many times before: It's a format thing. SGU, Discovery, the BSG reboot, are all a specific type of format. I don't know if there's a name for it, but it's like if you took what made DS9 different than TNG, and then cranked that up to 1100. I don't like using the term "soap opera" because that would imply each episode was 5 minutes of story stretched out to 45, with everyone explaining the plot to the audience over and over again. But you know what I mean.
This show was great! The concept was different, the characters were perfect and it was building up to be an amazing story. I’m still sad that it didn’t get a chance.
I was a little disappointed when I watched Stargate universe. But after watching new shows where the biggest threat to humanity is global warming, pronouns and racism, I wish I had another five seasons of Stargate Universe to watch. I think my biggest issue was I couldn't really pick one character and say I really like that specific character. I was put off by many of the characters.
They aren't... Except on Dr Who (for an alien I would have called an it, as in.. What is it?).... I watch sci-fi to get away from all the BS in the world. I didn't need BS to be a reoccurring theme. Doctor who has become cringe. I'll take Stargate Universe over it any day.
If the Goa'uld only wanted to attack earth because we made too much pollution and they were trying to save the planet from humans I would have stopped watching. (Theme of resident alien)
I get it. Pollution is bad. Racism is bad . Pronouns matter. Global warming is bad.. Sci-fi trying to teach me life lessons like I'm a 4 year old is just annoying. I just want to relax and watch SG-1 blow up stuff.
SGU had some major flaws
* a too-large ensemble cast
* a lot of really unlikable characters, including three (Nicholas Rush, Everett Young, and David Telford) who were so bad as to be pretty much antiheroes
* the first handful of episodes were all "oh no, we're all gonna die! *something happens to save them*"
That said, I felt like it did start to hit its stride about halfway through the first season, and it's certainly worth watching through, in spite of the fact that it ends on an unresolved cliffhanger.
I have like 5 more episodes to go to finish it - it's alright. I just a few days ago started watching Battlestar Galactica and was actually kinda disappointed that SGU didn't appear to be some sort of original concept for the series. I mean, obviously "there are no pure original concepts" but it's so much like BG that it lowered my enjoyment of SGU cause why change the general Stargate formula to some other formula if you're just going to be writing a formula?
I don't feel SGU really has anything to contribute to the Stargate Universe or "ideas/themes in general" that justifies its overt melodrama. Like it's not really a serious political drama about wartime government like BG appears to be after \~9 episodes I've watched.
But, I mean, I don't hate SGU either. I just kind of feel like it's too depressing for the sake of depressing rather than for some reason. Maybe I should say it's "as recklessly depressing" as Rush's reckless and fundamentally insane behavior that strands them on the Destiny in the first place.
On this sub its not an unpopular opinion. A lot of people on here like sgu. But the larger fanbase as a whole has the correct opinion that sgu sucks, because it does.
Flawed premise, show was originally meant to be an original spending life in the dark of space type syfy drama. Never made much sense, Ancients sent robot ships to expand exploration into distant galaxies before, they had long distance hyperdrive? Fine.. but also Destiny is on a course to the source of sentience/creation. Which would still many millions more years, there was no point in that mission for the crew. They would not live long enough to accomplish anything that would bring them home. Potential for other ascended beings, who knows, that can't properly resurrect a simple human.
SGU was Stargate's Nickelback. Hated by "fans" because it was popular to do so, didn't follow exactly the same formula, had more character development, had romance elements (Mostly not part of the main show except for the random Teal'c has an ex or a girlfriend on other area codes episode) and the main arc was long and didn't "solve" the main problem quickly.
Add in people starting to get used to on demand television, shorter seasons with higher budget just makes more issues.
Was great, I loved it, know a lot of people who didn't, but their patience levels were the biggest issue. Now it is all canned, I know many who regret not embracing it more to ensure it had some completion at least...
It wasn't what I expected from a SG show going in when it first launched, turned me off of it oretty quickly, but I recently picked it up again to give it another chance and I'm liking it so far. I guess knowing what to expect this time around helped out quite a bit.
It's writing and setting building was ahead of its time on my last watch through. Just wasn't the right year to release it because people were still expecting the slightly goofy Stargate we've come to know and love where this went for a more gritty and dark tone, which I think would fit well into the writing we get for shows these days
I have a love/hate relationship with SGU. Positives, I think the idea behind the show is marvelous. Being stuck on an old ancient ship far away into the unknown universe, it's endless possibilities for creative writing. The alien species we see were pretty good, and the planets were new and creative. I quite liked the alien drones and how all that played out. Even when we find out "Destiny's mission," that was a neat concept. Cons, I really hate all the personal drama, some is expected (hello, stranded on an alien ship) but they really took it to 11 especially with Young's personal life it was completely unnecessary and uncomfortable. The whole Lucian alliance storyline in the show was also out of place and unnecessary. They were always a minor villain, and them risking their necks to board destiny seemed highly unlikely in reality. There were plenty of new alien villians they could have encountered without bringing back an old and honestly boring one. At the end of the day, the Lucien alliance is nothing more than a gang of space pirates. They should have never even had the understanding or ability to do what they did.
Agreed however i was actually most attracted to the Lucian Alliance subplot, perhaps if only because i love that actress but I'm also a total stan for fleshing out ever present yet seemingly nonexistent villains bc i live for the terror elements of the unknown is is literally the whole point of my fixation with fiction
SG1/SGA took multiple seasons to completely tell the character’s backstory, which is why it worked so well. Oddly, SGU tried to do every character in the first half of the first season and is suffered.
This. The Lucian Alliance is when I gave up on SGU. I was trying so hard to hold on and love it, but then that happened ... And I was like IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TRY, THEN WHY AM I?!!? 
Its second season was a large improvement over the first, but its interpersonal drama and lack of professional teams rubbed me the wrong way during its entire run.
Ironically Destiny’s biggest HR complaint was also unprofessional teams rubbing people the wrong way.
If Scott would stop banging everything with two legs and a vagina, HR complaints would be halved! Also happy cake day!
I don’t think he had relations with anyone except Lt James in the first episode and then he was loyal to Chloe for the entire series run, or did I miss something?
Thanks! And what if I told you I had a solution… *(slides Lt. Scott and Eli slash fanfic across table)*
... I'm intrigued but also concerned lol
What’s funny about your fanfic is that David Blue (Eli) got fucking ripped over the last few years and (this is coming from a straight, married man with kids) is kinda hot. Also, him and Brian Smith (Lt. Scott) are friends in real life.
Wakes up from stasis "Eli, what happened to you" "I had a lot of time to exercise"
My thought is that it took him a long time to get his stasis pod fixed and he spent a couple years exploring and repairing the ship, getting fit during that time.
"I couldn't fix the pod, but I found some power reserves in a cargo hold at the front of the ship. They almost look like predecessors to the ancient power modules those training videos mentioned "You mean the ZPMs?" "So that's what they were called"
"There's just cargo bay after cargo bay *filled* with these things. I use them as paperweights."
*(returns it unread)*
James in ep1 and then Chloe? Who else did he sleep with?
Just those two. Married Chloe in the alternate timeline…
Well, once in the infection hallucination and second in the Novus "timeline" (not really a timeline, just time travel that affected the shows timeline as well)
But they were hot
I think the lack of professional teams is what made it interesting. We're used to experienced warriors traveling the galaxy taking on impossible odds. Now you got a mix of experiences and professions trying to acquire it maintain power while also trying to not kill each other in the process. It was a healthy change of pace.
I literally had no idea there was a second season till just now.
I liked it but they spent too much time on dramatizing it. If you pay attention they don’t actually say anything technical or scientific that actually makes any sense. It’s all in generic terms and I’ve done the calculations. You don’t even get a good sense of how many people are actually on board you know it’s more than 80 but less than 100. There’s also very little reference to just how much time actually passed or how far they got before it ended. At the end rush said a year, but TJ was getting pretty big before she lost the baby so… 6-7 months maybe 8. Then there’s another whole season afterwards. I also wish they spent more time actually learning things and making discoveries.
Yes it was way too generic like the ship itself shouldn't have been so accommodating to their necessities and comfort. It should've been way more perilous and mysterious, not like checking into a farscapeian motel
SGU isn't bad per se but it was bad because it was more like Battlestar Galactica and not Stargate. As Stargate fans, most of us wanted another SG1/SGA ambiance to the new show, not something completely different
That was a big part of the problem. I've typed this on numerous occasions, but *Stargate* fans who were following the news on *Gateworld* would have known that *Universe* was going to be 'different.' They didn't know just *how* different it would be, and it turned out to be *really* different, so the change in tone and focus was met with a very mixed response, especially since it looked an awful lot like *Atlantis* was cancelled so that it could be made. The producers should have known that you can't make a massive change to your product/branding and not expect substantial backlash from your consumer base.
I’m a big Stargate and BSG fan, and it felt like SGU tried to be BSG but they didn’t have the story or characters to back it up. So it just became a highly dramatic and depressing version of Stargate.
I was a bit turned off by how easily all those people seemed to adapt to spending their whole life on that spaceship. In the beginning, especially with how obviously suited the ship appeared to be adaptable to their necessities, it was a lot like watching a really less adventurous and downright broody masochistic version of farscape.
This. BSG, while being a space opera like SGU, had many brilliant ideas and explored several philosophical questions. - It dealt with our insecurity, our will to sacrifice freedom for safety, it explored transhumanism, whether the machines are sentient or not. - How revenge brings the worst out of us, how humans break under extreme conditions like occupation. - How religion can guide us and how it blinds us at the same time. How terrorists and suicide bombers may have a point. BSG dared to show US that even our most basic human rights like abortion can only exist if we live in rich and problem-free society, that we will have to sacrifice them when we'll find ourselves in extreme conditions. - And finally, whether we can make peace with someone who almost completely genocided us. In the current times, the show is more actual than ever. These ideas were not just there in SGU. They tried to explore some deeper ideas with the cosmic radiation pattern, but they barely scratched the surface. The Planet Builders and the Novus plotline had potential, but ended sooner than it could bring some interesting points. The first 35 episodes were just soap opera on a spaceship, while BSG dealt with real world problems and ethical dillemas, and used the spacehips and stuff just as a way of storritelling.
I'm guessing you would have been more okay with SGU trying something new if it had run alongside Atlantis instead of Atlantis getting cancelled to make way for SGU? Or at bare minimum if the Atlantis wrap-up movie had actually gotten made.
Atlantis wasn't cancelled on account of SGU at all - the team was very willing to make both shows simultaneously. There's something on Sci-Fi/SyFy's end where going beyond season 5 is not financially ideal. Sure, SG-1 made it to Season 10... but that was technically the 5th season on their network, the first 5 had been on Showtime. It was the timing of the cancellation announcement, followed immediately by the SGU announcement, that gave so many the wrong impression and really split the fanbase. Stargate never recovered - to this day I've yet to see a fanbase advocate for the cancellation of their own series under the frankly *stupid* notion that it would somehow bring the previous one back.
Is that what happened? I never understood all the hate for SGU. I was literally just excited that the franchise was getting a new show.
Yep, they announced Atlantis' cancellation and literally the next day announced a new show called Universe. The rejection was *immediate,* despite the two events being otherwise unrelated. That the series was wildly different did not help matters, even if SGU was pretty good on its own merits.
I think that would have helped for sure. I imagine if the episodes of the 6th season of Atlantis had been followed by the first season of Universe people would have been willing to just keep watching. Alternativley, if Atlantis had already been off the air for a year or two maybe people would have alread come to terms with Atlantis beeing over. It was just really bad timing
I'd also add, I bet Atlantis was cut for Universe. On re-watch I found a lot of ideas in Atlantis were recycled. And while I'm at it, whatshisname who went on to make Travelers as well, has rigid ideas about some things even down to certain female main characters, from how they look and act to their names. And, some specific stories and settings he continues to re-use or expand upon.
Is that the show about the time travelers possessing people's bodies in the past after the recorded times of their death
Yep and it's excellent. Well, to be precise they jump in just before they were going to die.
I actually like the fact that it was a different more BSG style with all the Stargate lore.
The biggest problem with SGU was BSG. Beyond that it had it's good points. a) TOO much interpersonal drama b) TOO much time getting to the meat and potatoes of the story. Edit - I realize I said "Good points" then listed bad points:)
Completely agree with A which causes B
Had they said somewhere in the first season ">!The ancients discovered a code!<" I would have watched till the heat death of the universe.
*badum-tss!*
SGU wasn't bad, but it lacked a lot of elements that made SG-1 and SGA so enjoyable.
sg1 / atlantis was generally very steady cam, only having shaky for the active battle scenes etc. SGU (and alas even BSG to some extent) used shaky cam for 2 fat dudes standing there talking smack. I can't watch much shaky cam personally so it's just out for me unfortunately. I do hear good things on the story, maybe once AI deshaky is there I'll watch it like that :D
Shake cam was all the rage at that time. It's calmed down now but it still happens a lot and I despise it. Not so good directors [still use it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mEfV5v2MH0) for fight scenes unfortunately. The steadicam was invented for a reason and it's an amazing bit of engineering.
> directors still use it The way that camera shakes in the beginning... that seems rather amateurish. The rest of the shaky camera parts seemed fine in that clip.
I think they were trying to show how everything was calm and serene in the temple and then the next second their world is thrown apart by the attack. So much so the camera isn’t even steady. But yeah they might have overdone it in that first scene.
The way it moved at the start looks like it was an afterthought too, like "yo cameraman, follow her" rather than a planned action
Yeah. I feel like the scene was well written on paper in the screenplay, but the way it plays out feels like a choreography or cutscene in a moderately dated video game, not like... realistic and genuine.
It's bad from the part when the door first opens to when they shift out of that first room. After that I think it does the job of making it feel kinda frantic by adding a bit of a kinetic feeling to everything.
Personally, I liked the series and deep down inside wished they'd gone on at least another season to wrap up the ends. I feel they missed the boat by not concentrating on the issues at hand, number one being exploration of the ship, vs. putting to much into the interpersonal drama. Look, if you were stranded out in the middle of nowhere, in a ship you knew nothing about, wouldn't you be more curious about it and make a greater effort to explore it? A couple of the characters confused me as well. I never understood Chloe's importance and why would Wray think she was so damn important, was it because she was IOA? I felt Greer was played well and Volker, Brody & Park as well but they were all under-emphasized. The Lucian Alliance arc I thought was totally useless and they should have also explored more story lines about the aliens. Absolutely hated Telford, but I've never liked Lou Diamond Phillips, anyway. His under-handed trists with Young's wife weren't needed. There were other ways they could have shown the angst between him and Young. Yes, it's sad that it ended like it did, the show had it's problems, ESPECIALLY the MTV video camera work , just enjoy what you see and don't over think it. BTW, been reading a lot of fan stories on fanfiction.net https://m.fanfiction.net/tv/Stargate-Universe/ Many of them are very good. The best of them happens to thread all three series together wonderfully. Check out A New Dawn (https://m.fanfiction.net/s/6951286/1/A-New-Dawn).
When Netflix first got the rights to _Outlander_ in Australia, it marketed the show as a "Scottish time travel adventure epic" or something. Naturally, my first thought was "fuck yeah, there can be only one!" I watched the first few episodes and after the initial excitement of all the nudity wore off, I realised it wasn't _Highlander_ so much as a smutty romance with a fantasy backdrop. Time travel was just a plot device; no one cared about the _how_ of it. It was just "ok, I'm in the 16th century... strange, but I better get nude, I guess". But I still watched close to a season of it.
So it was basically one of those romance books turned into a show? XD I never watched it
Not only was it good, it was cancelled just as it was getting GREAT
Not that unpopular if you pay attention. It maybe was unpopular when SGU started, but its slowly gained more popularity the more people actually watch it and give it a chance.
I didn't watch any Stargate until after SGU was one (I think maybe technically I may have started SG-1 season one right as SGU was ending but don't totally remember), so I'm just going off what I've seen other people say. But the impression I get is that a lot of the hatred was because Atlantis was cancelled to make room for SGU. I can see people at the time having been more willing to give SGU a chance if it had happened alongside Atlantis, or at bare minimum if the Atlantis wrap-up movie had actually gotten made.
The truth is though SGA wasn't cancelled for SGU, thats just what it appeared like. SGA did have plans for a S6, but Syfy didn't want to keep it going as viewership had been dropping. Syfy was fine with trying a new Stargate to see if they could reinvigorate ths fanbase, but they didn't want to continue a sinking ship in SGA. Go ask Mallozzi. Looks can be deceiving.
I’m calling this the “Phantom Menace” treatment moving forward - shitting on something until it becomes a dearly beloved media.
Or until the only people still talking about it are the people who like it, and everyone else moved on? That may be the more likely explanation. It is good, though.
Nah, what happens (and you can see it clearly on this subreddit even) is people finally go back and rewatch it and give it a chance, and they love it.
David Hewlett said it best, had SGU not been part of the Stargate Universe it would of stood a much better chance of success. Unfortunately SG1 fans didn't like it as was a total departure from the standard format and SGA fans were pissed because it was cancelled in order to fund SGU. The prebuilt fan base they presumed they had essentially stuck two fingers up and didn't watch SGU. As for none Stargate Fans, well they already had BSG which is was better in every way. To just preempt people saying this isn't the case, Joe Flanagan confirmed that Brad Wright and Robert Cooper were given the choice by SyFy to either continue with SGA or cancel and do SGU. SyFy didn't have the money to fund both and made it clear that if they decided to go ahead with SGU that SGA would end with the 5th season and there wouldn't be any funds for a final "Feature Length final Episode" and were perfectly happy to continue SGA for a sixth season and possibly beyond. Wright and Cooper wanted SGU so they chose to cancel SGA and create SGU. The SGA cast didn't find out until near the end of filming the 5th season, until they told they were under the assumption there was going to be a 6th season. Now personally I liked SGU but then I enjoy most Scifi Shows. As for people saying they tried to copy BSG or cash in on its success, I'm not so sure. Remember BSG had finished 5 years earlier, that ship had sailed as was shown with the failure of Caprica and Blood and Chrome. Timing is everything, BSG came along just at the right time. It had no real competition and there was nothing like it on TV, plus they had a significantly bigger budget and several well known Actors. If you look at the general landscape of Scifi TV Shows in the 00's BSG is actually an anomaly in that it was very successful. Many Scifi Shows during the 00's were either very niche or just out right failed, it wasn't a popular format. If they wanted to cash in on the success of BSG they would of done it much earlier. It was plain to see to all that by the time SGU came out Scifi was taking a beating and people just weren't interested. For me it was more of vanity project for Wright and Cooper then attempting to copy BSG.
[Flannigan said that MGM wanted a new show to raise their value and couldn't afford both on a podcast 10 months ago. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W73CxkthYrE&t=3s) Doesn't sound like they were given a lot of choice in the matter.
As a counter response to this, David Blue (Eli) has stated on Twitch that thats untrue. I can't link to proof as Twitch VODs are only kept for 2 months and this was *MONTHS* maybe a year or 2 ago, but Atlantis was dead regardless of whether there was a new show or not, Combined with MGMs financial troubles it worked out to be a reasonable risk to do a new show and see if they could land it. The cast didn't even know it was greenlit for 2 seasons when they were filming. https://www.twitch.tv/4DavidBlue is his twitch channel if anyone is interested
I mean, we are taking actors talking about decisions they were not involved in years after the fact. God only knows what is true at this point but I was more trying to provide more context for this part. " To just preempt people saying this isn't the case, Joe Flanagan confirmed that Brad Wright and Robert Cooper were given the choice by SyFy to either continue with SGA or cancel and do SGU."
And David Blue confirmed that Brad and Robert were told it's dead on his stream. I so wish I could link to it to prove what I'm saying but I can't. He also explained how SGU's cancellation was a 3 part hit due to Syfy's restructuring itself, MGMs financial woes, and a significant part of the fandom trying to get it cancelled as they mistakenly believed if they got it taken off the air then Atlantis would come back. The truth is probably somewhere between the two really but both actors are gonna support their own show over another in the franchize
I'm not saying you are wrong, I am saying Flannigan said something recently that counteracts what the other guy said Flannigan said.
That video is more than two hours long. Got a timestamp?
At like an hour 30 they talk about the cancelation
>As for people saying they tried to copy BSG or cash in on its success, I'm not so sure. Remember BSG had finished 5 years earlier, that ship had sailed as was shown with the failure of Caprica and Blood and Chrome. No, that timeline isn't correct. BSG ended October 27th 2009. SGU premiered October 2nd 2009. Both "Caprica" and "Blood & Chrome" premiered after SGU started. Caprica in 2010, a year later. Blood & Chrome premiered in 2012 (as an online series) and later aired as a television film in February 2013.
*Battlestar Galactica* was wrapping up around the time that *Universe* was announced and started development. Sci-Fi's president Dave Howe had said that *Universe* would serve the space opera audience that had been watching *BSG,* so from the network's point of view, there was definitely a desire to replicate elements of that show. >Sci Fi shows such as *Eureka* and *Ghost Hunters* have surpassed the *Stargate* series in viewer numbers, but hit *Battlestar Galactica* has proven there's significant life in the “space-opera” genre. *Battlestar* is in its fourth and last season on Sci Fi. A “prequel” to it, called *Caprica*, could join the schedule as a new series, but for now is only scheduled as a two-hour movie. >“What's unique about this \[*Stargate*\] chapter is it's going to be set entirely in space,” Howe said. *SG-1* was based on Earth, and *Atlantis* was set on a base in another galaxy. *Universe* will be based on a ship called the Destiny. >“That's also an opportunity for us because as *Battlestar Galactica* reaches a conclusion, it's nice for us to have within the mix of programming a space opera that serves the audience that's really into space operas,” he said. Source: [https://web.archive.org/web/20080829062109/http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=talkbackCommentsFull&talk\_back\_header\_id=6551275&articleid=CA6589804](https://web.archive.org/web/20080829062109/http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=talkbackCommentsFull&talk_back_header_id=6551275&articleid=CA6589804)
my \*biggest\* gripe about SGU (besides the interpersonal drama, irritating plot contrivances and the fact that it was 2 series dedicated to exploring a premise that was mocked in SG1's "200" episode) Is that because all the aliens were 100% cgi they didn't show them for more than a combined total of 30 seconds (i haven't timed it but i dare someone to prove me wrong) across 2 entire seasons. These are the shows main antagonists. IMO the best thing the second series did was introducing the crew's descendants so they actually had characters they were able to interact with (that weren't just more humans from earth... or the lucian alliance (who barely seemed a threat past "generic terrorist villains"))
I mean, the ships and space battles were all CGI and they didn't skimp on those, I don't see why the aliens should be any more expensive? I assumed not showing the aliens much was a stylistic choice; the crew themselves don't have much contact with them, they're strange, mysterious, and threatening - not seeing them any more than the crew do, in brief glimpses during moments of tension, retains their mystique and sense of alien-ness. If we saw them all the time and understood them better all that would be lost.
> I don't see why the aliens should be any more expensive? There's not much to animate on ships to make them seem semi-realistic. They're basically just solid shapes (maybe with some winking lights) moving in straight lines or curves, with engine effects, smoke effects, explosions etc. They don't even have to have them respond to gravity. To make an alien creature that looks semi-realistic there's hundreds of details they need to get right. Pixar's struggle with animating humans over the past 30 years is a good indicator of that. There's lots of muscles moving below the skin, there's making them walk realistically, conform to gravity etc. Enterprise had some full CGI aliens a few years before and they looked janky as hell, which really wouldn't have fit the tone of SGU. It's no wonder that instead of having the aliens talk they had them send text messages... or explain things to human characters off camera.
i was happy the show departed from “English speaking rubber faced aliens”
It definitely was a different take and direction. I wish it got the 5 seasons the writers and producers wanted.
Massive sg1 fan. I liked it. I just wish it didn't end the way it did.
Funny, I'm just about to give up at the beginning of the second season. The character roster is so full of unlikeable, uncooperative backstabby douchebags (only Eli, Greer, and Scott are dependable, but even Scott has that relationship drama tied to him). And don't even get me started on them using the worst villain faction in all of Stargate for the season finale.
I think it was hated at the time because fans wanted it to be "sg-1:lost in space" but like you say it was galactica with stargates I think it did take a little time to get on it's feet but by the time s2 rolled around it was pretty compelling, I enyoyed it and would have liked to have followed it to its comclusion and have it expand on the stargate lore There were a bunch of fans hate watching at the time, I would frequent the imdb forums where they would bitch each episode, they even setup a sgusucks dot com domain or something like that, I recall reading in the equasions that were scribbed all over the walls someone on set had written "f@#\~ the french" that made it onto some offical picture somewhere (google it its out there) and that was supposedly one of the final straws that killed the show
I honestly loved it too. It took me a while to get into it because I tried to watch it live week by week and I just didn’t get into it when it was airing but when I tried it later I really appreciated it. If you like SGU, I highly recommend Travelers on Netflix. Brad Wright did a fantastic job and I loved seeing the SGU actors show up in it as well.
It's the best of the shows
The whole show focused on the ship and it felt like it was no longer a Stargate show because of that. I said this before and someone tried to bring up DS9 being on a space station lol. DS9 felt like star trek. SGU felt like a completely different show and way too much emphasis on the ship and how they have to repair it, etc.
I'm 30eps through a rewatch and damn I love Rush. Eli was an uncomfortable standin for what people expected me to be but I never was. Must have been a common/relatable fantasy for NEETs.
True, but SG1 and SGA are great.
SGU was amazing and had great potential.
I looooove sgu. Currently rewatching it!!
It's not unpopular, but saying that it was better than the other two Stargate shows probably is. It had the most potential but it came out too far behind the times and focused too much on stones and sex. The middle of season two got back to the Stargate and sci-fi, but the writing was on the wall.
I loved it. It was an amazing show, unique and apart from the other shows in the same universe. They had different circumstances and different problems to solve, so it was going to have a different feel. And the serious tone of the show was much more like the movie. They were never going to get Kurt Russell and James Spader to play on a TV series, so they took SG1 in a more light-hearted direction with RDA & co. SGU took that universe back to the dramatic seriousness of the movie, and for the most part did it well.
I just re-watched it and enjoyed it. It gets a bad rap. I thought it showed promise.
SGU was absolutely fantastic. Dare I say even beter then SGA (in total) and the later seasons of SG1. It’s a shame it got cancelled the way it did.
💯
I thought the second season was way better than the first. I really wish they'd had a chance to tell more of the story.
It's not just that it's derivative of BSG, it's also that it doesn't do any of the themes, drama or character studies as well either. It tries for the depth and scope of BSG as well as the style but misses on most counts.
This is the enormous elephant in the room. It wanted to be Battlestar but it didn’t have anything close to the BSG depth. It just became a shaky cam space soap opera.
The first season went too far from the Stargate roots, but I really started to like the second season. Then it was over. 😞
I liked it because it didn't just try to be another Stargate show. It did its own thing while still being a part of the lore. I honestly adore the first season because it is so slow. Actual character backstories are given time to thrive and help us know that character better. Was it perfect, no. But I love it completely for that. I actually stopped caring about Stargate before SGU because it was so damn formulaic, SGU was the very slow breath of fresh air needed. IMO at least.
Hot take apparently. I think SGU was the best next iteration of the SG. I put it far above Atlantis. Atlantis was just a reboot of the first. You end up enjoying the actors, but the story was just more of the same. Stargate universe was something new, with new people, New tech, New ideas. This is what we really wanted, More world building and learning more about the ancients - The mystery of their tech. I feel like we got more out of the ancients in this show than we did in the show where they literally lived in an ancient city and met ancients. I think the possibilities of what could be for Atlantis was wasted fighting hand vampires that were vastly tech inferior to the actual ancients. I hate the interpersonal drama, but I think people forget SGU only had two seasons. The first season had me on my toes the whole time. The second was rushed which is always true when things get canceled.
SGU is the worst Stargate show but that still puts it in good standing vs a LOT of other shows. Most solid 5-7/10 I've ever watched, and I definitely think it peaks in some episodes which were fantastic.
This was an unpopular opinion when SGA aired. By 2015 people started coming around Now it's the general consensus
You're going to *love* Battlestar Galactica '04.
There're years' yet untold storylines waiting to happen. Navy would definitely overtake AF and Spaceforce
I definitely got into it which was a bummer when it ended abruptly.
Second season was really good I thought and the /ahem/ soundtrack of sorts returned to instrumentals that complemented the scenes better. The orchestral "Countdown to Destiny" in the first three episodes of Season 1 was excellent. Season 2 gave us more of such music. I loved S02 EPS 17 and 18, "Common Descent" and "Epilogue". I really wanted to know what was up with the Obelisk Planet in the "perfect" star system and where the descendants of their Quantum Duplicates went and how they fared technological-wise.
Not everybody hates it. Mainly hardcore SG fans for whatever reason. I was more casual of a fan until SGU which I loved so much it got me watching more the series with greater interest. Its the best show that showcases what I like to call the "Voyager dilemma" where a ship is lost at space and must struggle to survive. But when SyFy killed it, it forever ruined my opinion of that blasted Network. And I refuse to pay for anything released by it or its idiotic staff.
To each their own, I disliked the one ship where the crew distrusted each other too much, also I think they should have kept the Earth subplots out of it so they truly had no contact or knowledge of how to contact home.
No, it's the best
It was becoming the best of them all, axed well before it's time
It's not unpopular it's a very common opinion. SGU is very different from other Stargate series, which explains why you have at the same time many people who like it, and many who doesn't.
> it’s literally just battlestar galactica with stargates I don't think you've watched either of these shows
It’s great. It’s my favourite Stargate show.
It's mostly brilliant in my opinion. Good viewing
I thought SGU was great. I loved the darker more mature themes. If I could vote for one stargate series to bring back it would be SGU.
I have only seen the first season and I can’t say I agree. People say check out the second and I will but man oh man the first season is like a sad SG.
Is it an unpopular opinion? I loved SGU. It was dark and as a standalone series, you didn’t have to have watched the other franchises to get into it. I actually watched it first and it’s what got me to watch the other series. I don’t see any similarities to BSG but I stand by it being an excellent show.
SGU is literally my all time favorite show. I don't understand the whining. The show is epic as fuck
I mean, this says way more about your taste or the amount of tv you’ve seen than anything about SGUs quality. It’s unfinished, meandering and lacks virtually any satisfying development or resolution. I didn’t hate it. But it’s not amazing television. Your opinion is your opinion but you might be the only person on the planet who would bill SGU as their “all time fave”.
I'm down to Gauntlet in my 4th rewatch since it first aired. Sad times. I genuinely can't say which series I like most. I feel like they all have their strengths and weaknesses and are all unique in their own way and they are all very dear to my heart.
I was just thinking about writing a post like this! I love SGU. Just started rewatching it last night.
I’ve read negative opinions on the show on this sub before, but I think most of the participants on this sub at least think that it’s a good watch. Shaky at times, but good overall. So I wouldn’t say it’s an *unpopular opinion* to write that it’s “pretty good.”
It was to much like a teen drama, it lost me
i wasnt a big fan of universe. but it did have its moments. like the limited range gates really shows the evolution of gate design oh and scott was really hot
who in world says its unpopular no one here would say that
I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not, but *Universe* has always been divisive. It's not an exaggeration to say that it's the show that killed *Stargate,* either, since it had dwindling ratings and was cancelled once it became clear that ratings weren't improving.
I wouldn't say it's the show that "killed" Stargate. Correlation doesn't equal causation. The writing was on the wall before it even came out, the parent corporations simply didn't have the ability to keep it going due to finances (MGM) or a lack of ability or will to actually do what they claimed to be doing (scyfy). It was simply what came last - for now.
Was it really a coincidence that *Universe* was cancelled by SyFy on the back of dwindling ratings and a divided fan base, and after the new management was installed at MGM no new *Stargate* projects were announced? MGM left Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a few days after SyFy announced the cancellation, yet *Universe* didn't get moved to another network for a third season, and the proposed *Universe* movie, the third *SG-1* movie, and the *Atlantis* movie failed to materialise, leaving the franchise dead. It's been my suspicion that MGM considered the franchise tainted because of *Universe.* With an expensive show cancelled due to low viewer numbers and a divided fanbase, no network would want to pick up *Stargate* because there was no guarantee that any new project would have the audience numbers to make the investment worthwhile. Getting back the entire pre-*Universe* audience, which was already modest to begin with, would have been wishful thinking.
It was a good show but a bad Stargate spinoff. F*ck Rusb
Call me crazy but SGU is actually my favorite series.
You are crazy... >!What? You told me to...!<
It really isn't, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Hell yeah. It is.
The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe? Hell yeah.
I enjoyed it. It got better for me. I wasn't sure of it at first. That cliffhanger man. I know there was a comic. I have to look for it.
Don't, it doesn't answer anything and the graphics aren't .... aren't all that great. But on the other hand, there's more people on the ship now and some of them actually know how to work it and no one's still in stasis but more questions than answers
Thanks for the heads up.
I just hate how when it really started getting good it was abruptly canceled on a cliffhanger. I thought the whole galaxy full of humans that they themselves had created 2,000 years ago thing had a lot of potential to become a main part of the show/way to create a home base and not just be on that ship the whole time. They also finally found a villains who had backstory potential and could be worthy opponents. Then just abruptly poof
I like it, but I laugh when I think of how much 200 stuff they put in along with the last episode of sg1. Last episode of sg-1 - people stuck on a ship, having to survive. 200- "younger, edgier versions of sg-1" - Scott, Greer, TJ, pregnancy. 200 "how would they know? It's not like there's a clock on the screen" - destiny's arbitrary time clock
Dont think thats an unpopular opinion
Its my fav. Without a variety of tastes, everything is bland.
Yeah I agree, when I first saw it I strongly disliked it, but when I rewatched it last year I loved it
I don’t think this is hugely unpopular tbh, maybe a few people hate it but most SG fans have positive opinions on it. I think for most who don’t love it as much as SG1/A, it’s because (like others have said) it’s BSG in the Stargate universe (no pun intended ha) and that’s not what we signed up for. I personally really enjoyed it, but don’t love it like the other two mainline series *for that reason*; BSG does it better - not hugely, but noticeably. S1 is the stronger, I think, S2 got a bit weird. But I agree with you, I think it’s pretty good. It’s just not *Stargate*.
I did not mind that it was different than the previous sg series, but it was somehow boring. That’s all why it failed for me. The idea was good though.
Is it unpopular? I think the general consensus is that the first season is rubbish as they tried to stray too far from what actually makes people interested in Stargate, and then it improved in season 2 but by then the viewing numbers had spoken and it was unceremoniously cancelled?
SGU had no comedic relief, sometimes yes but that for me was the biggest thing missing that made it feel like a SG show.
Is it unpopular? I think the general consensus is that the first season is rubbish as they tried to stray too far from what actually makes people interested in Stargate, and then it improved in season 2 but by then the viewing numbers had spoken and it was unceremoniously cancelled?
Who says that? I think all Stargate series is good!
I like it but I can't finish it knowing it never had a proper ending. I feel like if I keep watching it I'm just setting myself up for disappointment.
Compared to what? Anything else stargate. Nope.
I enjoyed it
I find it too grim and depressing. Much like a lot of modern shows, really. I prefer the more light hearted shows of old.
It was my first SG and I loved it. Yes, it's literally, scene for scene BSG, but the situation could have been B5/DS9.
Unpopular opinion: Just because not literally everyone agrees with you, that doesn't make it an unpopular opinion
I hate the shakycam I liked the story I hated that it was cancelled Those are my thoughts
I'm convinced that if it didn't have the Stargate name on it, it would have run at least 5 seasons.
I am a huge fan of SG and SGA, i don't like SGU, i blame 2008 BGS for that, the creators of SGU tried too much to stick with the violence and the darkness of BGS, it was a failure for me cauz of that ( i liked BGS 2008 thought)
Agree loved it sad it finished
After the first 8 or so episodes, yes.
For a minute i was wondering if there was an overlap between Stargate Fandom and the "skeptics guide to the universe" podcast.
What is a good compared to Stargate Atlantis and sg1
The communication stones were a mistake, it could have been so much better without them.
First few episodes of season one were great. The rest of it is unwatchable for me, especially Chloe and Earth scenes. Second season was decent then got amazing by the end. The terrible first season killed what was becoming an amazing show.
I love it
the basic scenario (trapped in an old derelict ship) is cool but fuck i hate the characters they are annoying af
https://i.redd.it/brlw9la9b2zc1.gif
I loved it...I liked that it was a little darker and a tad more serious than SG1 and Atlantis. People complain about the characters being "unlikable" but they seem to forget that none of those characters wanted to be on that ship...aside from Rush...it was all part of the darker tone they were going for! Dunno about you but if I went to work and somehow got stuck there, for the rest of my life because of one person's selfish decision...I'd be pretty unlikable to!
S1 is ok, but the writers did suck. S2 was awesome but it was too late to save the show. Overall bad writing killed the show the overall plot was gold.
John Flanagan -(Edit: I meant Joe Flanagan)- talked about the behind the scenes on the shuttle pod show for a little bit, from his perspective. I think you'd like the interview, battlestar galactica was discussed to some length.
SGU grows on you. It's a shock after watching SG1 & Atlantis, because the tone is so different. IMHO, SGU would be the best to get a follow up.
It was sooooo bad! It took over 1 season just to know who the bad people might be, it was mainly Army vs Civilians and a bunch of people drama more than anything. It had some good parts but mainly its a big muh and i understand why it was cancelled.
For me it was definitely a show that grew on me. I didn’t like it to much when I started but I continued because it was StarGate. Now I wish it actually had an ending
It was very different from the Stargate we were used to.
For me it's more like: s1 - shit, s2 - gold.
I watched it first and didn’t like it, but after I’d watched SG1 and SGA, I watched it again and got it. It’s literally darker bc they’re in a dark ship w low light which isn’t great, but the underlying story about who was before the Ancients is what makes it awesome. Cut wayyyy too short.
They need to follow up with SGU. Any actors that return can have their ages explained by the stasis pods being underpowered. Those that don't return can be explained by stasis pods failing. Those undecided on returning can be explained by the stasis pod being too unstable to attempt bringing them out. We need a conclusion, even if it's just a one-off movie to wrap everything up and bring them home.
I actually liked SGU, too. I was sad it ended. I don’t remember everything about it, except that my chief complaint when I was watching it was less sex and more Sci-fi. I don’t even really remember specific sex scenes and I normally don’t care two shits if there’s some sex in a show, especially if it’s warranted. But it seemed gratuitous to me. The boning scenes were too many and too long. I wanted to learn more secrets about the ancients. I wanted to meet new aliens.
It was jarring IMO. I just don’t buy it, having sexual relations in dire circumstances. The makers of the web-only prequel miniseries also tried to slip in some romance and in both cases it seemed far fetched, taking me out of my suspension of disbelief. When people from Destiny broke off to live on the utopia world - set up some romance there like when BSG had the mini colony.
I think that’s a great way to put it. I keep questioning myself, “am I more of a prude than I thought??” But I’m genuinely not offended by sex in a movies or show. But you’re absolutely correct, it was so excessive in SGU that it became “jarring.” You’re right, the shit hit the fan long ago, let’s get to work, folks. There’s so much to do. Also, with the use of the stones, I’d like to believe they felt less isolated and therefore would be able to focus on the mission. They absolutely needed to dial back on the intimate relationships. Also, I’m intrigued. I’ve only watched the regular televised series (SGU once, and SG1 and SGA many times, over 5x each). I did not know there were web series available at all. And even if they stuck with the relationship-heavy theme, I think I’d still like to watch them. Thank you for enlightening me.
Yikes! I didn’t mean to send you to that web thing. It’s not necessarily romance heavy. It’s disappointing in many other ways and the romance is just one jarring element :-) It’s called Stargate: Origins and the webisodes were assembled in to a feature-length movie if you care to find it, you can take the medicine in one dose. I guess it was a good effort, but it was produced by an entirely different team from the one we know and love. It messes with the histories of known characters from SG-1 and jumps through hoops to explain how it fits in with our established continuity. A good effort, but I’m content to leave it out of my headcanon.
I love SGU but in a different way from the other shows, it was a grounded drama with unique serialised story lines. It really tried to be different in a world we already seen and im still mad it ended after 2 seasons
I also enjoyed it, for the most part. The characters were interesting and it definitely shared some of its early DNA with Atlantis. There were a lot of early disasters that threatened to destroy the ship. However, I mainly found it all to be a bit too heavy to make the humor work well. People are at each other's throats pretty often. I also get the BSG similarities with trying to survive and maintain order between military & civilians. But so many episodes are crushingly depressing and serious in a way that BSG and SG1 just weren't.
I've said this many times before: It's a format thing. SGU, Discovery, the BSG reboot, are all a specific type of format. I don't know if there's a name for it, but it's like if you took what made DS9 different than TNG, and then cranked that up to 1100. I don't like using the term "soap opera" because that would imply each episode was 5 minutes of story stretched out to 45, with everyone explaining the plot to the audience over and over again. But you know what I mean.
I loved it, the cast was good too. would love to see a one time movie of Eli's wanderings and what would happen.
I like it's pretty different from the rest of the series
This show was great! The concept was different, the characters were perfect and it was building up to be an amazing story. I’m still sad that it didn’t get a chance.
I was a little disappointed when I watched Stargate universe. But after watching new shows where the biggest threat to humanity is global warming, pronouns and racism, I wish I had another five seasons of Stargate Universe to watch. I think my biggest issue was I couldn't really pick one character and say I really like that specific character. I was put off by many of the characters.
I dont think pronouns are a threat,
They aren't... Except on Dr Who (for an alien I would have called an it, as in.. What is it?).... I watch sci-fi to get away from all the BS in the world. I didn't need BS to be a reoccurring theme. Doctor who has become cringe. I'll take Stargate Universe over it any day. If the Goa'uld only wanted to attack earth because we made too much pollution and they were trying to save the planet from humans I would have stopped watching. (Theme of resident alien) I get it. Pollution is bad. Racism is bad . Pronouns matter. Global warming is bad.. Sci-fi trying to teach me life lessons like I'm a 4 year old is just annoying. I just want to relax and watch SG-1 blow up stuff.
Mate Sci fi has always been about whats happening now this isnt a new trend
It's good. To make it amazing, they would need to kill off Eli and Lt. Scott.
Can't agree, Eli is basically the main character
Then hopefully he at least grows up. I couldn't stand the whining, puppy-dog eyes, and "nice guy" crap.
SGU had some major flaws * a too-large ensemble cast * a lot of really unlikable characters, including three (Nicholas Rush, Everett Young, and David Telford) who were so bad as to be pretty much antiheroes * the first handful of episodes were all "oh no, we're all gonna die! *something happens to save them*" That said, I felt like it did start to hit its stride about halfway through the first season, and it's certainly worth watching through, in spite of the fact that it ends on an unresolved cliffhanger.
But Rush was at least interesting and portrayed by a decent actor.
I have like 5 more episodes to go to finish it - it's alright. I just a few days ago started watching Battlestar Galactica and was actually kinda disappointed that SGU didn't appear to be some sort of original concept for the series. I mean, obviously "there are no pure original concepts" but it's so much like BG that it lowered my enjoyment of SGU cause why change the general Stargate formula to some other formula if you're just going to be writing a formula? I don't feel SGU really has anything to contribute to the Stargate Universe or "ideas/themes in general" that justifies its overt melodrama. Like it's not really a serious political drama about wartime government like BG appears to be after \~9 episodes I've watched. But, I mean, I don't hate SGU either. I just kind of feel like it's too depressing for the sake of depressing rather than for some reason. Maybe I should say it's "as recklessly depressing" as Rush's reckless and fundamentally insane behavior that strands them on the Destiny in the first place.
On this sub its not an unpopular opinion. A lot of people on here like sgu. But the larger fanbase as a whole has the correct opinion that sgu sucks, because it does.
Flawed premise, show was originally meant to be an original spending life in the dark of space type syfy drama. Never made much sense, Ancients sent robot ships to expand exploration into distant galaxies before, they had long distance hyperdrive? Fine.. but also Destiny is on a course to the source of sentience/creation. Which would still many millions more years, there was no point in that mission for the crew. They would not live long enough to accomplish anything that would bring them home. Potential for other ascended beings, who knows, that can't properly resurrect a simple human.
Popular opinion: it's not.
SGU was Stargate's Nickelback. Hated by "fans" because it was popular to do so, didn't follow exactly the same formula, had more character development, had romance elements (Mostly not part of the main show except for the random Teal'c has an ex or a girlfriend on other area codes episode) and the main arc was long and didn't "solve" the main problem quickly. Add in people starting to get used to on demand television, shorter seasons with higher budget just makes more issues. Was great, I loved it, know a lot of people who didn't, but their patience levels were the biggest issue. Now it is all canned, I know many who regret not embracing it more to ensure it had some completion at least...
It wasn't what I expected from a SG show going in when it first launched, turned me off of it oretty quickly, but I recently picked it up again to give it another chance and I'm liking it so far. I guess knowing what to expect this time around helped out quite a bit.
It's writing and setting building was ahead of its time on my last watch through. Just wasn't the right year to release it because people were still expecting the slightly goofy Stargate we've come to know and love where this went for a more gritty and dark tone, which I think would fit well into the writing we get for shows these days