Title:
Stargate Universe Series Premiere
Stars:
Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips, Ming-Na, David Blue, Alaina Huffman, Louis
Ferreira, Jamil Walker Smith, Elyse Levesque, and Brian J. Smith
Guest
Stars: Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks, and Gary Jones
Director/Producer:
Andy Mikita
Co-Creators/Executive
Producers: Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper
Executive
Producers: Carl Binder and N. John Smith
Running
Time: 120 minutes with commercials
Media:
SyFy (NTSC DVD Screener)
Series
Premiere Friday, October 2, 2009, at 9pm (ET/PT)/8 (CT)
Network:
SyFy (Check your local cable/satellite listings for channel)
TV
Rating: Not Available At The Time Of Review
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
During
the time that Star Trek has been off the air with any first run episodes
from any of it’s incarnations, the Stargate franchise has filled in the
void a bit for viewers that want something a little more fantasy oriented and
had more predictable heroes and villains and over the course of ten seasons for Stargate:
SG-1 and five seasons for Stargate: Atlantis the franchise began to
adapt terminology that is straight out of Star Trek like beaming and so
forth. With a universe and fan base firmly established on SyFy, the series
Creators and Executive Producers are taking fans on a very different kind of
adventure with Stargate Universe, which is far more serious and adult in
tone and is kind of like a version of Stargate for the fans of the
reimagined Battlestar Galactica with characters doing things like messing
around hot and heavy in an empty corridor of the humongous ancient starship they
find themselves stuck aboard following a hasty evacuation through a stargate
after an attack occurs on an alien world with archeological artifacts that could
be as groundbreaking and important as the discovery of the first Stargate
fifteen years earlier.
The show
is meant to appeal to a more diverse group and is edgier in tone. The premiere
was lensed by Rohn Schmidt, whose credits include Stephen King’s The Mist
and the television series The Shield and the overall tone of the
interiors of the starship the characters find themselves on is dark with minimal
lighting. The problems faced by the crew come down to the basic elements of
necessity before they can even begin to explore the vessel and try and figure
out how it works and why it is stuck on an ever-changing course where even the
frequency of the ships transitions to normal space are not constant. Thus people
can easily find themselves stranded on an alien world if they can’t get back
to the ship in a timely manner. Basic needs include air, water, food, first aid,
and hope.
Unlike
previous incarnations of Stargate this show is not filled with gung-ho
heroes, but rather flawed human beings, most not even officially military
trained and even some of the soldiers seem a lot less enthusiastic than one may
expect. In fact for the most part I found Stargate Universe to be so
different from it’s predecessors that it might turn away some old fans so my
advice for anyone tuning in is not to put any expectations on the show itself,
but rather take it at face value and ease into it. Robert Carlyle is terrific as
always as the brooding lead for the show, but time will tell who the heroes and
villains will be aboard the ancient starship and that combined with new
possibilities hinted at in the episodes I screened give Stargate Universe
some real potential to be a great space opera, but time will tell. Stargate
Universe premieres on Friday, October 2, 2009, at 9pm (ET/PT)/8 (CT) on SyFy.
©
Copyright 2009 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.