Stargate Universe

Though the 1994 movie Stargate wasn’t a great success (turning a mere 16 million profit in the USA), it spawned a hugely successful television franchise spanning 17 seasons and 2 direct-to-DVD movies across 3 shows. Stargate Universe, though arguably better then it’s two predecessors, got cancelled after two seasons of disappointing ratings. So why did this supposedly superior show fail to live up to its hugely successful brothers? Let’s compare the shows and analyse.

Ever since the first few episodes of Stargate SG1 launched in 1997 the franchise has held to a familiar concept. Stargate Atlantis wasn’t just a spin off show, it was a clear intellectual and spiritual successor to SG1’s legacy. Atlantis was set up for success before the show began. Throughout several seasons of SG1 hints had already been dropped about the mythical city of Atlantis and it being an Ancient outpost. Dr. Daniel Jackson and co. have tried to find on more than one occasion and so anyone who casually watched SG1 knew about the Atlantis and was curious to see if it would live up to Jackson’s hopes and wishes. So when Atlantis was launched in conjunction with several SG1 crossover shows, it was hard to miss for any Stargate fan, and naturally SG1 viewers became Atlantis viewers. This was aided by making the Atlantis show as similar to SG1 as they could.

Both shows have a relatively safe and secret home base where they can relax, be themselves and where we get to see a lot of character interaction and emotional development. Both shows are centred around this base using the Stargate to help secure their own safety, the safety of humans in the rest of the galaxy, find new technology, learn new cultures, and fight an enemy superior in technology and numbers but, not being American, doomed to fail anyway. Both shows feature a coherent team who trust in each other and their fair leader (General George Hammond, Dr. Elizabeth Weir). The teams, or at least the primary team is led by an anti-authoritarian air-force officer with a sense of humour who kicks large amounts of ass (Col. Jack O’Neill, Col. Cameron Mitchell, Col. John Sheppard). The other members are the big, strong and silent military elite who’s not from Earth (Teal’c, Ronon Dex), the super scientist who puts Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein to shame (Captain/Major/Col. Samantha Carter, Dr. Rodney McKay) and the moral and ethic consciousness of the team who’s knowledge of culture allows them to be the diplomat of the team (Dr. Daniel Jackson, Teyla Emmagan). At least one person on the team is a woman who can kick ass as much as the next guy (Captain/Major/Col. Samantha Carter, Teyla Emmagan) and a civilian scientist who starts out uncomfortable with weapons but ends up being pretty good at using them (Dr. Daniel Jackson, Dr. Rodney McKay) and eventually becomes the best friend of their team-leader with whom they are so often in conflict (Col Jack O’Neill and Col. John Sheppard respectively). Both shows even sport other incredibly smart scientists who are continually overshadowed by the super scientist, despite said super being off-world for long periods of time (Dr. Bill Lee, Dr. Radek Zelenka).

On the other hand, the concept of Stargate Universe was to be rid off all that familiarity and thrust a group of people who hardly know each other, without any proper training, into a situation far from Earth without means to get back. They will have to depend on each other even though some of them have proven more than once they can’t be trusted all that much (Dr. Nicolas Rush).

Where Stargate Atlantis was engineered to feel familiar to SG1 viewers and the transition between series was done slowly through several cross-over shows, Stargate Universe was engineered to make the viewer feel the same anxiety as it’s characters. They got a send-off from SG1 giants General Jack O’Neill, Dr. Daniel Jackson and Col. Samantha Carter in their first episode, but after that the Universe crew is mostly on their own. Their one tie to familiarity to the previous shows being the Communication Stones, allowing them to occasionally discuss matters with General O’Neill, but these are often more cameo’s than actual cross-over events.

The concept of Stargate Universe feels particularly off, considering that the Stargate is a huge McGuffin, designed to transport you to where-ever you need your characters. The idea that the gate on Destiny can only ever reach a handful of gates at a time, whereas the gate on Earth managed to dial the entire galaxy and a special power source even enabled them to contact different galaxies. The ship is then revealed to be powered by flying into suns and scooping up some matter throws things even further for a loop. Apparently Destiny’s shields are stronger than we have seen before while it’s gate is more primitive than the ones we’re familiar with.

After seeing SG1 and Atlantis, all these things make Universe more than just unfamiliar, it makes it feel uncomfortable. Pair this with the bleak tone of the show, their dark surroundings and their constant struggle to survive without any clear indication any kind of bad guy and you have a show that makes people feel ill at ease.

Last, but not least, SG1 and Atlantis used an episodic approach to their story telling. Even though a general story led throughout their running times, a person could watch these episodes out of order without being afraid of missing too much. Any time an episode would rely heavily on earlier events a ‘previously on…’ section is shown before the intro rolls. Universe never mentions the words previously on, because their entire into section IS the previously on… section. Every single episode ties in heavily with the ones that went before it, and watching the episodes out of order can make you miss big parts of the ongoing story. If you missed an episode, the rest of the season and indeed the show might stop making sense and confuses viewers, no matter how well the characters are written.

Personally, I love it exactly for those reasons. It was a daring show, with a story beyond the general good vs. evil we’re so often drenched with. Personal story arcs have always interested me more than epic battles to save the world and or universe and SGU delivers just that. From Eli growing up, to Dr. Rush becoming slightly less selfish, to Col. Young and Camille Wray’s struggle for power before working together. Every character has a journey of self-discovery and has to learn to live with their fellow ship-mates.