Stargate Universe really is an odd duck. It’s dark and gritty like Battlestar Galactica, yet set in the traditionally fun and quirky Stargate (ahem) universe. Not only is SGU a new take on the fictional world, but the show is also a departure from the established cast of characters the franchise is known for.
Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis focused on small groups of soldiers and scientists doing their thing and exploring calculated lists of worlds. Both SG-1 and SGA had larger groups of ancillary characters, but primarily dealt in depth with 4-6 characters. Stargate Universe, however, tries to pull a LOST—throw a diverse group of characters into an isolated environment and focus on all of them in due course—and fails, according to a few tweets I’ve seen recently.
Most of the tweets deal with the show’s characters and how hard it is to relate to them, which makes the aired episodes seem disjointed and directionless at worst and slow and plodding at best. I said the same thing based on the two-hour pilot episode:
There are too many annoying and/or forgettable characters. The senator and his obnoxious “I wish I were Summer Glau” daughter, for instance, make me want to scream when they’re on camera. I never felt the emotional resonance the characters should have imparted because I cannot see the senator as a good guy; he will always and forever be Shooter McGavin from Happy Gilmore to me. The rest of the crew, save Eli and Dr. Rush, are fairly generic and easily forgettable. I can’t even remember anyone else’s name. I’m sure that will change as the series moves into a few more episodes and the ensemble gels, but as for now, if any one of them were to die in the next episode, I would have a hard time caring.
Which is honestly a shame because I’ve seen tweeters and bloggers complain about that as a major downfall for SGU, even past the pilot. They feel disconnected not only by the overwhelming number of characters in the show but also by their presentation. The show tries to make the whole ensemble seem important, but in doing so, relegates the characters to basic, archetypal stock roles that limit audience perceptions and emotional connections.
Eli seems “too young” for the post-30 crowd. Rush is “too big a jerk” to care about. Colonel Young is the quintessential military lifer with a heart of gold. TJ the medic is just kind of there. Chloe Armstrong is too whiny and vapid (hint: Stargate Universe viewers do not overlap with The Hills’ audience). Matthew Scott almost dies every episode; we get it.
In the beginning, there was nothing that really made me want to keep watching any of these particular characters. I continued watching almost solely because of my loyalty to the Stargate franchise. After a few episodes, though, I was able to latch onto Eli Wallace and see him as a proxy for my own personality and ambition—the slacker smart kid who just kind of fell into a “dream job.” As an avid MMO player and gamer fresh out of college and grad school, Eli is targeted directly at me my demographic.
Despite the slow start, my ability to relate to Eli 
made the show relevant. I was connected to a character, and I cared whether he lived or died. I could care less about the lottery winners having to live on Hoth; I was too busy hoping that Eli didn’t burn up in the sun!
And that’s my advice to anyone who thinks that Stargate Universe has been slow to start. Let 99% of the ensemble exist on the periphery. Sure, you watch them when they’re on-screen, but when they’re off, do you really care? Find that one character who you really want to know about what’s going on off-screen and allow that relationship to develop. Then, the events that befalls the Destiny’s crew won’t fall on uncaring hearts; there will exist the necessary emotional resonance to actually feel the tension in the situations, making the slow, plodding plot a thing of the past.
Syfy Photo: Art Streiber
14. November 2009 at 9:21 pm
I stopped watching ! This show lack any entertainment value! It just “Suck” big time!, and Wright lost his creative touch and gave us this pile of garbage! I hope all the advertisers pull all their adds from this show because viewers are tunning off one by one. They shouldn’t waste perfectly good advertising money on a show this crappy!
14. November 2009 at 10:17 pm
Well, I really suggest you give it another shot. Like you, I was kind of put off by the slow start, but really found out that by the time “Time” aired, I was fully invested in what happened to Eli (and later on Scott and Young, much to my surprise). I don’t think Wright lost his creative touch at all because the show is doing just what it was meant to do: take the time necessary to establish the characters as real people instead of archetypes, which was, sadly, the only weak part of the ensemble in SG-1 and Atlantis.
If you haven’t been watching lately, I really think you should give it another shot. It really opened up around episode 6 for me.
16. November 2009 at 11:59 am
I will take Rush for 500 Alex…
I mean, really…people may hate him, but his motives and intentions are the true reason to watch. THIS character truly will shock us all with whats in store I think.
Young is awesome, and yes, Eli is the guy we all will like as he really is the everybody here..
The rest? I see some deaths down the road…please?
16. November 2009 at 11:53 pm
@Openedge1: I hope you’re right. There are the core characters, and then there are those on the fringes. Those peripheral characters should be able to be killed sometime this season to both weed out the ensemble to a manageable number as well as give the show some actual resonance and never get to the point where situations lose tension because no one ever dies.
I don’t hate Rush; I just don’t really care about him. He’s intriguing in a way, but on the other side of that coin, he’s also a character I’ve seen before in Gaius Baltar (although Rush has more confidence and bravado than Baltar ever dreamed of). I am waiting for something to make him human, then I’ll join the fanclub. The scene with him finishing his mediocre novel almost did it, but not quite.
19. November 2009 at 10:57 am
@Openedge1: I come from the church of Stargate Universe where even the “unlikeably” characters like McKay are likeable. He had the mania of Rush, but there was also something endearing about him. I don’t know if that would work on a darker show like Universe, but I miss that kind of character.
2. December 2009 at 11:17 am
I found this website by searching for someplace relevant, to bitch about the show. Not that this place is relevant but it is the first site in my search.
I am a fan of Stargate. I like SG1, and SGA very much. The organization and professionalism of the fictional teams, story lines, effects, acting, dialog between characters, everything. This show lacks all of that except for maybe the special effects. The basic premise is very good but the show is poorly executed. Had it been a professional SG team on this ship, then I am sure it would be as exciting as all of the other SG shows. Minus all of the fluff of course. I do not watch this show live as I prefer to view it from a HD capture, downloaded from my favorite Cap’ers groups. Just as well though because this is the only show that I have ever watched with a finger on the fast-forward button. This is so lame and stupid that it should make any fan of the franchise enraged that these so called produces would shovel this drivel off as a SG show. Eli? His type of character and acting is symptomatic of a really bad SciFi show. All of the most terrible SCI Fi shows of the past, had a fat stupid looking idiot with nothing to say, like Eli. This is the kind of show that warrants a character like Vahla (sp nut-job on last season of SG1), another typically useless character portrayed by poor acting and nothing to say. During the last episode, the producers felt the need to inject a completely unnecessary scene of degenerate lesbo behavior. There is a place for this kind of trash. The place is called the Gutter-channel and SGU or any other good SCI-FI show isn’t it. I have read where some compare this to Battlestar Galactica. That show was great out of the gate but became a dismal failure toward the end, mostly due to bad written with entire episodes, nothing but fluff and unnecessary contributors to the story line. Sadly, this show has started off much like that.
I read some where that the intent of this show is to retain existing fans while trying to attract younger viewers. I have no problem with that goal but this show fails miserably as I see it only attracting the pot-smoking retards and other fools, who are most likely doing what they do on a Friday night, and not watching this … whatever. So good bye SGU. I will not be wasting my time on this stupid show and I am sure that it will be gone soon. Good riddance to it.