There were a number of issues in the way the show was written and produced that alienated the fans. I've already talked about the shortcomings of a few of the characters, so now I'm going to mention some of the storytelling, production, and business issues.
Storytelling: Imbalance of Elements
Storytelling: Imbalance of Elements
- Where's Our Stuff?: The opening episodes of the series raised some concerns about the show's format, specifically all the "supply episodes" that were aired in a row. Now, I knew this trend wouldn't hold forever, since there were only so many things they could run out of, but some people no doubt thought the show would be about the characters constantly going searching for some vital supply. Since this isn't very exciting, and a bit repetitive, it cost the show some viewers. A simple solution would have been to scatter these episodes throughout the entire season rather than concentrating them in the first half. (See Air pt. 1-3, Darkness, Light, Water, Time).
- Body Switching: This has been commented on a lot, so I'm just gonna say it was cool idea at first, but there were too many episodes that had it as a major plot point. It was enough for us to know the crew could communicate freely with Earth, and wasn't necessary to beat us over the head about them being in someone's body. It was used too often as an excuse for superfluous drama. (See Air pt. 3, Darkness, Earth, Life, Space, Sabotage, Subversion, Pathogen, The Greater Good, Alliances, and Seizure)
- Crew of Destiny watches SGU: While the writers of SGU were smart enough to avoid clean reset buttons between episodes, they fell into an unfortunate habit of overusing alternate versions of the crew. The crew of Destiny spent an alarming amount of time watching themselves on TV, or hearing about themselves second hand. Too much time, so that the characters watched things that didn't happen to them and had little effect. What's worse, a lot of great character moments happened to the alternate crew rather than the real one. I admit, this isn't a new concept to Stargate. There have been other realities, clones, hallucinations, and robots. The fundamental difference with SGU is that the crew never interacted with their counterparts, save once. So, the audience is essentially watching the characters on the show watching the show. This creates a certain detachment for the audience as we're watching something that doesn't really matter. (See Time, Cloverdale, Trial and Error, Twin Destinies, Common Descent, and Epilogue)
- Too Many Stories: This was a problem that cropped a little bit in Season 1, and was a major issue in early Season 2. Some episodes like Life and Pathogen had as many as five stories going on in a single episode. There was no focus for these episodes and some of the stories didn't really have a point. In addition, during the first half of Season 2, there too many story arcs happening for any particular one to get well developed. During the first 11 episodes, we saw the following: the Lucian Alliance trying to integrate with the crew, Rush hiding on the bridge and secretly messing with Destiny, Young drinking and becoming unstable, Chloe's transforming from her alien infection, and the introduction of the Ursini. This was a lot happening in such a short amount of time, so much that the writers didn't really know what to focus on. More focus should have been given to the Lucian Alliance arc, while the Chloe and Young stories could have been cut.
- Chronically Missed Opportunities: Now that I've mentioned what was done too much, let me touch on what the writers missed out on. I've already mentioned the James/Scott/Chloe and Young/TJ/Varro triangles that were glazed over and neglected. The Lucian Alliance was mostly booted off the ship and were underused. Chloe didn't seem to care much about Scott having a kid. And what happened between Greer and Telford? We don't know. How did the Varro, Simeon and the other Lucians react when they found out Telford killed Kiva? We don't know. How did TJ and Young get into an affair in the first place? We don't know. Greer and Simeon seemed ready to stir the pot a bit, but that didn't last long. All were opportunities for great, and relevant, drama that were missed or underplayed.
- Blueberry Fields Forever: For those who don't know, the blue aliens encountered in Space were referred to by the producers as "the Blueberry aliens." To save some effort, I'm just going to call them Blues. Now the Blues had a pretty good start. They were created to be a race that addressed all the issues with previous alien villains. They had no relation to humans whatsoever and didn't speak any English. In the end though, they weren't much more than that. They turned into cliche Roswell aliens that either abducted the crew or just shot at them; they had no development. They're behavior didn't change at all and they became very boring very fast.
- Kiva, Simeon, Varro: I actually think these were all great villains, but they were underused. Kiva died after three episodes. Varro went turncoat rather fast so he could get into TJ's pants. Simeon was the most promising, and while his episode Malice was among the best, there was a poor buildup for it over the previous episodes.
- The Ursini: These were probably the most interesting of the aliens. They weren't an overtly malevolent force like the Blues, but they clearly had their own agenda that they put first. It's unfortunate that their story was ended so abruptly and they were replaced by the...
- Drones, By Your Command: The drones have the advantage in that they carried much of the space action for the show, but that doesn't change the fact that they themselves weren't very deep or complex. Like the 1978 Cylons, they just hate humanity (and everything else) and so all they did was show up and shoot things; very one dimensional. Their behavior never changed, they had no room to grow or develop, and there was no exploration of their origins (unlike the more popular Replicators). It might have been more interesting if the Drones were attached to some other race, like the Blues.
Production: The Last Battlestar... Destiny
It was painfully obvious that the style of SGU was strongly influenced by the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica in style and character design (Rush as Baltar, Young as Adama, Camille as Roslin etc.) While I admire the producers' taste, I don't agree with their blatant copy-catting. First of all, BSG struggled with ratings for its entire run, so even if SGU was as good as BSG (which, sadly, it wasn't) there would still be a struggle for ratings. Second, the fan bases of the two series are not equal or exactly the same. By emulating BSG, the producers inadvertently alienated a part of their fan base who found it too serious, and then failed attract many BSG fans to replace them.
- SyFy Channel: SyFy has started to distance itself from its traditional sci-fi programming. Its desire to be a primetime network has resulted in an expansion of programming that includes reality TV and wrestling. Unfortunately, this approach has resulted in a mismanagement of their fictional programming. In the past, SyFy (then Sci Fi) ran a counter-programming approach that aired their shows during the off-seasons of the other networks (like the summer and winter). Since competition was lower, the ratings were higher. Recently, some shows have been put in the fall and spring seasons, and during the primetime hours like Monday nights where the competition is much higher. SGU, Caprica, and Sanctuary all suffered ratings drops when they bumped against more popular shows like Glee, House, and American Idol. Meanwhile shows like Warehouse 13 and Eureka have stayed strong when running in the summer. If this trend continues, SyFy will decide their more traditional sci-fi shows aren't worth having and will continue to favor "wider programming." I would be surprised if the network eventually changed its name to just "SF Channel" so it can be as ambiguous as it wants to be.
- MGM: MGM's financial crash didn't affect SGU directly since SyFy was the one fronting the money, but it did cut off any further support from the franchise. Without anymore SG-1 or SGA films, there was no backup for the show. SGU was left holding the Stargate flag on its own, and when it didn't succeed, it meant a death sentence for the franchise. I believe that had there been more Stargate projects in the works, there would have been more fan awareness and interest in SGU.
- The Internet: This technology is affecting all areas of film and television production. For SGU, it meant more people waited to watch the show on Hulu or just pirated the episodes right out. This obviously meant lower live ratings, which is where the primary advertising revenue is. The problem got so bad that Brad Wright had to issue a statement to fans begging them to watch the show live, to little avail. SG-1 and Atlantis never had this problem until the end of their runs, so they were able to run longer.
Final Thoughts
What saddens me most about the cancellation of Stargate Universe is what kind of end it spelled for the franchise. The Star Trek television franchise died a slow, and painful death because the same ideas were used over and over again until it got old. In contrast, Stargate tried something new and different, but died quickly, not quite reaching that blaze of glory. What's more, the show was starting to get past its "awkward first seasons" phase that most shows go through. In the final few episodes, there was more action, less Chloe, and good storytelling. Most of the characters had started to even out, including Young, and we had some old generation ones stopping by. I absolutely loved the final episode. In some ways, it's a microcosm for the franchise itself. It's lost in space, with little hope of return. Most of the future is "in storage," with the only hope being kept alive by those at home. The last thing we see is the most recent addition to the team sailing off. It's the kind of ending that leaves the rest to the viewer in the best kind of way.
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