Sci-Fi Heaven.net - Latest Comments

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Spartas Edge — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 09:31:38 -0000

It had potential, but sadly i don't think they realised that potential, certainly in time to save it, and while it had that potential, just wasn't good enough in the two series it had to get renewed. Like someone else said, the drone enemy aspect could hsve been an interesting premise, who did they belong to, why they attacking the Destiny and other aliens, but instead of follwing up on something that could have been interesting, they just left them behind, which is kind od symbolic of the whole show, wasted potential, i think anyway.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

IAIN BARTLETT — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 19:36:25 -0000

Spot on. Couldn't agree more. Some people appear to be seeing something that wasn't there to make themselves seem above everyone else in the intellect stakes.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

IAIN BARTLETT — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 19:33:52 -0000

You must hang about with some pretty boring adults. The rest of your comment is really pretentious.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

IAIN BARTLETT — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 19:31:49 -0000

It failed because it was boring as Hell. Characters no-one cared about, risible dialogue, stories that didn't actually achieve anything or go anywhere and a pacing so nauseatingly slow - even the actors looked bored. And all this talk about "dark themes" is laughable. What dark themes? Oh, people must be talking about the lighting. From an idea that must have seemed really good over a pint to a production about as successful as Harsh Realm.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

MaximusX67 — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 21:06:37 -0000

It was a more 'realistic' sci-fi adventure than the 2 previous series - which had plenty of their own sci-fi, but were more campy, relying on humor, and battling the 'bad guys' in episodic, and overarching story lines. SGU had a dark, gritty, much more 'serious tone' if you will, with the crew stranded in whatever-the-hell galaxies they traveled through ...... which is why I liked SGU so much, and probably also why I find it hard to sit through any episodes of SG1 or Atlantis, even though I have tried to enjoy them.

I agree that it had a somewhat Battlestar Galactica (new series) feel to it and I believe that's what drew me in .... I love BSG. The premise of these shows was very different, but the gritty, dark reality (both literally, with very little light shown on camera, and metaphorically of course) of being space explorers/scientists/cowboys/ordinary people, stranded in the cosmos, draws some parallels to BSG. It also had a little bit of a Star Trek Voyager feel as well - for what are pretty obvious reasons I'd imagine.

In the end, SGU was definitely not like the previous 2 shows and I can understand why fans of those shows had a hard time getting into SGU - it's nothing like it's predecessors save for the name and the fact that they used Stargate's to move around some of the time. It failed to carry over much audience from its successful two previous shows and did not find enough of an audience of its own in enough time to save itself, which is unfortunate for those of us who loved the show, and hoped for a solid 5+ season run.

What I looked forward to on SGU was the continued advancements of control over Destiny by the crew, section by section, of the enormous, mostly still unexplored ship. By season 2 they'd managed to gain control of much of the ships expected capabilities via finding its bridge (how was this not found within the first part of season 1?!), which I thought pushed the series forward nicely. I wanted to see them experiment with the ship, come across new (or existing) races to fight or befriend, explore awesome new worlds, and eventually find a way to send the ship, or at least it's crew, back to earth in the series finale some day.

Re: Earth: Final Conflict â€“ worth a remake?

LatinLiberty — Wed, 02 May 2018 00:16:49 -0000

Let's hope

Re: Star Trek: Discovery – what would Roddenberry think?

David Russell — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:45:49 -0000

I really like Star Trek Discovery. I hate what you have to do to watch it. To buy a subscript to CBS ALL Access just to watch this one show blows. That said, I have seen all the episodes of Star Trek Discovery (twice) and I'm psyched to see next season. I'm a sci-fi geek FOR SURE FOR SURE!!!!

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

scottfree — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 03:20:44 -0000

just watched the entire series again, and I couldn't stand to watch this show again, it was so horrible, just a bad battlestar knock off with pointless drama, way too many stone episodes, stupid sound effects and camera filters. I kept tuning out

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Peter Dahu — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 03:05:39 -0000

People say SGU is edgy. So having a lot of sex, always being depressed, bad lighting, and whining is considered an adult show? I bailed after the third episode because of all that. Also Ely joined the team because of a PC game? How does that make it a mature show?

I don't mind sex in shows but when I saw the first sex scene I realized the writers idea of an adult show was just showing a bunch of stuff you wouldn't show to a ten year old. For some reason people think they are an adult because of shows like that.

SG-1 and SGA succeeded because they had good narration and story pacing. They intricately developed the story. Unfortunately Syfy pulled the plug too soon otherwise the Ori and Wreith storylines might have ended properly.

I'm okay with a dark TV series. SGA had an episode where Dr. McKay was infected with a parasite. The show was dark and was good Stargate. Going further than that just made the show dreary.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Spartas Edge — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:16:31 -0000

Well said, and your right about the series being so dull that i don't think that there is a single memorable episode of SGU.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Stephen C. — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 09:59:20 -0000

The problems with SGU were evident most in season 2. Things actually started happening; the drone enemy stuff was the only part of the series that wasn't overwrought and tedious. Not for the action, but for the questions of who built these things and why were the other aliens fighting them? Or the idea of an enemy that could take on the Ancients (well, their ship, piloted by their human cousins/descendants) and all their tech. Then their series finale solution was to skip to the next galaxy and who cares about any of the background stuff. Nothing ever got answered, it was 2 seasons of aimless meandering. Maybe it could have become the next DS9, which also had two early seasons of tedious meandering, but it had even further to climb to get there, and no character to get behind because for a supposedly "adult" show almost every single character reminded me of the banal, immature drama of a high school. They're on a ship sent out to find a signal of meaning from the literal beginning of the universe, and yet nobody can keep their junk in their pants for five minutes? Snore. There are plenty of shows that do complex personal drama and issues, and manage to do it without those characters randomly hooking up every other episode (Saul and Carrie on Homeland, Garak or Quark and almost anyone on DS9, even the main cast of Burn Notice!)

SG1 and SGA might have churned out some clunker episides, sure, and neither had a particularly great finale episode, but they have lots of episides I will still watch to this day. SGU, I find a five minute clip and rewatch and think, jeez, even the action scenes were often dull as dirt. I think SGU could have been good but it was empty, soulless, and too far up its own butt with "realism" (which wasn't, unless you think every last human is a self involved narcissistic a-hole) to get anywhere close to good.

Re: The Geek’s Wedding Guide

Dean Stoner — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 15:59:54 -0000

If anyone needs Full Size working Daleks at their event please see my facebook page. Search Sons of Skaro and message us there.

Re: Earth: Final Conflict â€“ worth a remake?

MarkWillMayoMagallanes — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 23:03:59 -0000

Just finished rewatching the whole series. I say, now that it's already 15 years after, they SHOULD remake the series to make it more interesting. And the 1998 special effects they employed is still way more advanced than the crap effects TV and movie prods in my country have.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Thomas Sperl — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 18:13:53 -0000

Hm...being flawed is one thing (all of us are in one way or another, hell even the SG-1 cast was flawed! Sam has some daddy issues and something to prove, Daniel also has issues with his parents (they after all died when he wasn't all that old) not to mention with his wife being abducted and Jack has all that baggage with his son etc.), but not letting it rule your life is another!

None of the SGU-Crew were able to! Colonel Young was the worst offender, he has a temper he's unable to control, he has virtually no leadership ability or charisma and he is unable to control his urges to sleep around (something I always admired Jack and Sam for! They liked each other but accepted that the SGC was more important than that! Hell, they could have probably gotten away with it if they were discrete and made sure that they firstly used birthcontrol and were prepared to have any child (if BC were to fail!) aborted...fact is however: They didn't try, they kept their urges in check - unlike a certain Colonel!), basically: That man isn't just flawed, he's so flawed that he should not have been anywhere near the SGC!

Not that his subordinates are any better! His sergeant has an even worse temper, he's trigger happe and has a short fuse and his second in command is a non-personality (he's boring!)!

The civilians weren't any better however! Power plays when their lives are in danger? Damned, those people are all despicable! I don't expect everybody to be as great as SG-1 (especially not the civilians who weren't part of the SGC like the Senator's daughter!), but they reached new levels of BAD constantly....it was torture to watch season 1!

Yes, season 2 was better, but they pulled the plug when there was light at the end of a very long and very dark tunnel! I don't know if that's good (nobody ever told us what the plans for season 3 were after all!) or bad...

But I know what pissed me off the most: They AXED Stargate Atlantis FOR THIS CRAP and not only that:

The poor performance of this killed all the Stargate Movies they had planned and thus the story with the Wraith was never wrapped up etc.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

phronsie — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 13:23:55 -0000

I think the final failure was an example of the ol' "don't kill the Golden Goose;" when you cut open the goose to get the gold, you kill the goose and you get nothing. The Goose was the franchise, and the cutting included literal fracas with fans by the production team, canceling Atlantis in such a manner that it reinforced the idea that Universe killed the older series, and possibly going in a darker direction without the bridge of the other series to help along those who were more used to the more traditional SG tone.

Re: Star Trek: Marmite?

Chris McQuillan — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 15:47:12 -0000

Definitely a fitting mantra for the show!

Re: Star Trek: Marmite?

Sam Kurd — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 10:54:39 -0000

A little weird, but good - I love it, it's perfect!

Re: Star Trek: Marmite?

Bert Singels — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 13:44:27 -0000

Nice article. The title is spot on as a description for Star Trek: Discovery.
In the Netherlands we have a soda that had a commercial slogan that said "beetje vreemd maar wel lekker"
translated it woud be "A little weird, but good" and that is exactly how I feel after the first 3 episodes.
So I am very hopeful for the coming episodes and can't wait to watch them.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Jazz Cabbage — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 22:25:54 -0000

I disagree. Atlantis is far away the most balanced of the three and has seemed more timeless (since I'm replying from the future :). The annoying adoration of Samantha on SG1 and the irritating David Blue character on SGU make me more than biased.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Spartas Edge — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 01:33:14 -0000

You are giving Stargate Universe way too much credit and people who didn't like it not enough, because no one had trouble understanding and comprehending SGU. Contrary to what you imply, it was neither complex or complicated, it was just plain boring for reasons i will elaborate on.

There is a lot of outright inaccuracies and misplaced pretentiousness in your comment. You imply imply that SG1 and SGA was made for kids, but the fact is, there was a very broad range of viewers of those those two shows that if anything was probably more mature viewers than young. I find your insinuation that viewers of those series are somehow immature and easily pleased to downright unintelligent and lowbrow because 'they like explosions and unfairly say things like 'the same ol enemy's' inaccurate and full of unjustifiable condescension, and i find your insinuation that adults don't like some action and other interesting things happening, and that only kids do, to be ludicrous. In fact we are not easy to please, hence the fact we didn't automatically like and unquestionably defend SGU, despite having the Stargate name/brand slapped on it, and are not willing to lap up any old thing that's served up in front of us.

Firstly, the Ori only appeared in the last two series of a total of ten series, so i find it strange that you say every episode was about them, and even in that series, many of those episodes did not feature the Ori, in fact they featured in only 18 of the 40 episodes of series 9 and 10 lol you didn't even mention the gua'uld, Replicators, super soldiers, evil ancients and other back ground adversaries such as the re'tu and Geni, so your claims are grossly exaggerated, as were your claims that the Wraith are in every episode of Atlantis, ignoring the fact that they are the primary bad guys in the series just as the Gua'uld were in SG1, and in SG1 they were not in many episodes and there were various other regular enemy's and various one off episodes featuring none of the regular enemies.

you talk about SGU like it was something great and high brow, just because not a lot happens in it, but that by default doesn't make it adult and certainly doesn't make it great by default. At least the enemies in SG1 and SGA were genuinely interesting and the story lines varied. I don't mind and even like something dark, as long as it has interesting story lines and characters but SGU had neither, the story lines were bland to totally forgettable, much like its characters, and if you think episodes about running out of air in one show and water the next or getting back through the gate on time and looking depressed all the time is something that 'makes you think' i'd say you have set the bar pretty low for what makes a show interesting and intellectual lol

If SGU was truely as great as you claim, the right people would have cottoned on to it and watched it, just like other truly intelligent series have, an audience would have found it 'if you build it they will come' but SGU didn't, and unlike those series, appealed to hardly anyone, and there was very good reasons for that. Those reasons were the dull, bland, uninteresting, cut and paste one dimensional characters and going nowhere and dull as dishwater so-called story lines. Funnily enough the series is like you in some ways, in that it takes itself way too seriously all the time, is over pretentious and seems to have delusions of grandeur when it really isn't as great as it likes to think it is lol. As i say, the two series it managed to get out before being axed featured poor and extremely dull plots about nothing particularly interesting featuring forgettable characters, story lines and enemies. None of the characters were particularly likeable either, which means there was no-one to root for or get behind or empathise with, and that is a huge mistake to make with a Tv show, and it's these reasons is exactly why it failed and failed so quickly, and by that i mean it was struggling and in trouble almost straight away, but if there was something else great about it to make up for all these shortcomings to say about it, then it would have had it's fans for what it was, that appreciated it for what it was, and it would have lasted, but where were those people, those people simply did not exist in kind of significant number, they were a small minority not enough to warrant justification to keep making more, and that lack of viewers from anywhere, pretty much says it all in itself.

The show makers didn't even seem to know what to do with the show and the premise, and the Destiny itself was an unfortunately ironic metaphor for the show, in that it was without direction and they didn't seem to know where it was going or what do do with it..lol and if you think liking such a show makes you sum how superior and highbrow, then i will have to whole heartedly agree to disagree with you on that one.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

MinorityRupert — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 22:16:58 -0000

Couldn't disagree more! SGU was a show made for adults but unfortunately mainly only kids or Big Bang Theory type adults tried and failed to watch it. Of course these viewers liked Ely, he was the kid with the child humour which they missed so much from the other SG's. Same ones that just loved tuning in to see the good 'ole wraith or Ori in every episode... saves having to think. Nevermind that THAT is the thinnest type of plot possible.

From what I read here I think that SGU was too complex for the type of mind that needs explosions and lasers to enjoy a series.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Zeta Convex — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 15:07:59 -0000

The problem of SGU is staring everyone in the face: it was too plodding, not enough plot.

Young and Rush were really good characters. It doesn't matter that Young was unlike O'Neill, or that the show was darker than SG1.

I actually applaud the fact that the producers tried something different. Unfortunately, it did not work. The jittery camerawork was annoying, and there was too much emotionalism. Too many acoustic guitar songs. Let's have one acoustic guitar song to convey the fact they're all humans trying to get by all alone; and then move on to the science fiction elements which is, after all, what a science fiction series is supposed to be about.

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Spartas Edge — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 13:21:19 -0000

To me, it failed because the tone just didn't fit with the rest of the Statgate ethos, as the article says, because i thought all the characters were pretty dull with the slight exception of Eli, and ultimately there was nothing really exciting to get your teeth into. As one other commenter astutely pointed out, there was no bad guys as such either, no real tangible danger beyong getting hungry and getting back to fhe ship before it jumped out, which got old pretty fast when its that same clock watching danger every time.. its about as exciting as keeping an eye on when your parking ticket is due to expire..lol

Re: Why Stargate Universe Failed

Spartas Edge — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 13:14:32 -0000

I didn't really think about that, but a very good point.

Re: Tauriel – A Feminist Critique

lookthisway — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 14:15:24 -0000

Tauriel character killed the Hobbit for me. After hearing Tauriel expressed that Kili is tall for a Dwarf, and proceeded to fall madly in love with him I was wishing someone would put Tauriel out of her misery.