Total Number of Ratings: 4
Stargate Universe Season 1, Episode 3 Review
Saturday, October 10, 2009 10:19 PM
"Air, Part 3"
Due to the Yankees game, I had to settle for a slightly delayed viewing of the latest episode of Stargate Universe. Our latest installment of the franchise finds our stranded crew heading on their first away mission while the people back on the ship make a phonecall to Earth to let them know not to stay up late. Most of the episode focuses on the away team traversing a desert planet in search of lime - the substance they hope is needed to restart the ship's air filtration system. The conflict of the episode is built around human drama instead of any meeting with an alien species or other sci-fi trapping. In the end, Lt. Scott saves the day with a heroic beat-the-clock run back to the gate. All this time, we're treated to a few glimpses of life on the ship as Col. Telford and an IOA attache swap bodies with Col. Young and Chole Armstrong via the Ancient communications device. Young makes his report to Gen. O'Neill while Chole is brought to her mother to inform of her father's death. Telford, meanwhile, throws his weight around on the Destiny until Young replaces him.
Perhaps the most striking thing about this episode was that the "alien planet" our cast has found themselves on is not the Vancouver wilderness (Stargate is produced in Vancouver), but rather a vast desert vista that seems more realistic then previous landscapes on the show. There were some rather well constructed scenes on the planet which really showcased off the new location. I can only assume this is linked to the fact that the away mission was mostly shot on still cameras, as opposed to the shaky-cam style used on the ship. As well, because the planet we were on was a shadeless, sunbaked desert, I was glad to see gradual, realistic looking sunburns appearing on all of the actors - including a second away team whose time on the planet could only have been a half an hour. Already Universe is making itself known for its realism factor, which should help shape future episodes in a positive way.
This episode gave us our first look at the week-to-week operation of the show, however, it is still a little too early to call as this episode was intended to be shown with the first two as a three-hour block instead of split-up over two nights. It looks as if the production team has opted for a LOST-esque 30-second title card with a brief snippet of music. It certainly fits the show's personality and doesn't detract from it in any way, I'm just personally not a fan of that style of introduction. I would have liked to have seen a full-on credit sequence and theme song, but I can definitely see why we opted for this. Speaking of production elements, it was a bit jarring to hear a contemporary song at the end of this episode. In general, Stargate has opted away from using any such music, both for monetary reasons as well as it seeming a little out of place. There have been a few exceptions, most notable in the SG-1 series finale. Here the music feels tacked on, like an afterthought. I don't so much mind the inclusion of the music, but wonder why it is necessary. While the music is being used to highlight dramatic moments, it seems odd to highlight these moments on a ship that is lost with music playing "concurrently" on their home planet. As well, the music choice was a little too on-the-nose as the song's lyrics talk about breathing as a montage of people (you guessed it) breathing in the filtered air occurs. This is an element I could come to eventually like, but right now it feels the slightest bit clunky.
Beyond mechanics, Universe is making it clear that it wants to be a character-based show. Certainly there is a market for these shows, and I'm a big fan of them when done right. However, I think the main problem with Universe's characters is that they seem too one-note to carry the concept. I'm aware we're only 3-hours into the show and haven't gotten to know everyone yet, but even what attempts have been made seem linked to the character's one-line description. Eli remains the sole outlet for humor in the entire show. His meandering explanation of Planet of the Apes to Rush is fantastic. His impression of Heston worthy of a laugh. Eli is probably the most well rounded character so far. I'm really enjoying his true innocence at being out here as well as going through the show with him. Dr. Rush comes in second. Again, Carlyle's acting is the main draw of the show. It still feels understated, yet it feels the most real. The little speech he gives about "Impressing a Father Figure" was well done and I thought the interaction between him and Sgt. Greer was spot on. I rather liked the one line that implies Rush is a racist which should amount to some good drama down the line.
However, once we get past Rush and Eli, the characters start to become less rounded. Greer steps into the spotlight a bit more this episode. He certainly can become one of the highlights of the show, as I think Jamil Walker Smith is one of the better actors on the show from what little we've seen, but he's being constrained by a character defined as being "crazy" and "angry." Despite finding him interesting, there is a still a lot more work to be done. My biggest disappointment was in Lt. Scott, who I took a liking to last episode. Sadly, he came off really badly here. I thought his story on the planet was pretty good, and for the most part I liked it... up until the heavy-handed backstory was shoved on his character. My initial reaction was "Oh, he's laden with terrible experiences, so they're telling me I should care for him." It certainly felt forced. Couching these events in some bizarre church flashback just felt tacky to me. As well, we're to assume when he was a teen who got a girl pregnant and resents her having an abortion. This would have been interesting, had it been played out over a few episodes and not tacked into a bad hallucination sequence that did nothing for the character. As well, Brian Smith's acting in these flashbacks comes off as wooden; perhaps they were the earliest scenes shot? There are a few scenes between Eli and Scott that felt like the earliest inklings of a bromance storyline. Hell, I thought they were going to kiss each other after their tiff mid-episode. I have no issue with that, it just feels that the writers don't have a grasp on how to handle their tentative friendship. And I still cannot find myself caring for Chloe Armstrong. Her character seems out of place, her acting is no where near good enough to make up for the flaws in the character as written and her limited scenes in this episode were abysmal. Her visit home is painful but also because the actress playing her mother is overacting to the point of unbelievability. Her final scene in the episode, with Lt. Scott, is rather bland and I can't for the life of me figure out what she sees in Scott or he in her.
While I noticed this last episode, it really struck me this episode as well. The younger members of the cast seem to be cast-a-likes. This isn't to say that they are complete doubles for famous people, but the way they've been written and cast seems to imply something. A quick survey shows a very Jonah Hill type character and actor in Eli, Chole Armstrong seems to be an Ellen Page-Alexis Bledel hybrid, Lt. Scott looks quite like Tatum Channing and the Medic (whose name I don't believe I've caught in 3 hours of the show) bears a passing resemblance to Katherine Heigl. It's more than a little distracting to me as a viewer.
I seem to be slightly proven right that the Ancient Communication Device is going to be more hindrance than help to the ongoing plot. While I was glad for another Richard Dean Anderson cameo, it really undercuts the show. I no longer feel lost knowing Lou Diamond Phillips can pop up for a snap inspection every week. (Though I am glad it seems LDP will be with the show for a while.) But the biggest thing the ACD spoiled was Rush's bid for leadership in the first episode. I thought we were going to be treated to a few weeks of speculation over whether he actually was left in charge by O'Neill or whether it was a lie. We learn this episode it was not.
Overall, I enjoyed the episode. There was definitely a classic Stargate feel to the away mission. The alien creature was handled very well, and I liked that we didn't learn anything about it. I'll be excited to get past this opening storyline, though. I did get the feeling that we were killing some time, as if they had written 32 minutes of desert planet and needed something to round out the 45. That said, there are still some random questions killing me. While it's a small complaint, I'm curious as to why we changed "hyperspace" to "FTL or Faster than light?" Clearly, it's to capitalize on Battlestar fans tuning in, but it felt like a bit of a reach, to me. It confuses me when we change something like that, yet retain a rather continuity dependent plot device like the Ancient Comm. device. Also, I missed the introduction of the handheld Dial Home Device. I rather liked this idea, but it was used in the episode freely without any explanation. I jokingly asked "When did they release the Gate Dialing app for the iPhone?" on Twitter during the episode. I heard it referred to as the remote and possibly the second time called a "Key-Mote." This seemed like a rather important part of the concept to randomly throw in and not explain. However the biggest unanswered question is what was that shuttle-type ship that took off from the side of the Destiny at the end of the episode? There were still a few bumps in the road, but I'm willing to see the show out. I can't say I have a good handle on how the show will work yet. Hopefully the next few weeks will bring us that. Stargate Universe airs Friday nights at 9 PM EST on the SyFy Channel. See you next week for my next review!
Hey thanks for reading David. And yes, the movie certainly does count. It's still "in continuity" with the series.
I actually really understand what you're saying. The "arm in the gate" thing annoyed me for another reason, too. Besides *knowing* it would work because it was three main cast members at risk, it's been done to death in the main series. The idea that neither Rush nor Col. Young knew about it was preposterous to me as a long time viewer. I know the show needs to be new viewer friendly, but this could be accomplished with a simple "Does this work?" "Normally yes. But on this ship...who knows?" And there may have been a twinge of "Oh maybe they will do something crazy."
One important thing to remember is that, while I love Stargate, the first two installments of the franchise had the sensibilities of Star Trek: The Original Series. This isn't a slight to either series, I love them both, but there were no stakes. The writers came up with the characters not taking anything seriously, and half the time expecting things to go wrong and magically get better. That's the charm of SG-1. I think the writers of SGU need to either amp up the character level drama, and not have it be so hamfisted, or they need to adapt some of the techniques they used to get around the no-stakes writing.
Totally agree, Brian. BTW, I didn't say this before in my rush to get to my complaint, but I thought you wrote up a very nice review. I just had to mention that about the stakes. While I haven't seen the other series, I can see what you're saying about "no-stakes." This series definitely seems to be built on the premise of life-threatening danger -- they're on a ship, they don't know how to get back or if they'll survive long enough to get there. And that's cool, but you run into the problem I mentioned in my comment. That said, I think they can still do a lot. Maybe the stakes have to come from a fight for leadership or some other psychological aspect of what happens when a tiny group is forced to fight for survival on a ship. I"m not expecting the "cannibalism" episode, but...well, you know. ;)
Hey Zefyr, thanks for reading. I actually didn't mind that so much. The issue is that there only two, maybe three, characters carrying the show so far and some of the larger cast is being neglected. Heck, Ming-Na doesn't even appear in this episode outside of a 5 second appearance in a montage.
Eli and Rush really are driving this show for me. I'll give a lot of credit to the actors (David Blue and Robert Carlyle). The written dialog is okay, but not too terribly strong. That's especially why the weaker actors are floundering. If it weren't for these guys, I think I would stop watching.
I agree Jamil Walker Smith is giving a good performance, with some subtlety for a very one note character.
And, I didn't mind the music at the end EXCEPT for the fact that the lyrics were so literal in their meaning. I simply felt hit over the head with the message. Perhaps they should have just adapted a song from Oliver if they were worried we didn't get the point, such as "Air, glorious air! We're anxious to try it!"
The concept of the stones didn't bother me as much this time. One thing it did point out to me was that they can communicate back home, but that's all they can do. No supplies are coming. It did give me a brief sense of despair for those stranded.
And I actually didn't realize until now that Lou Diamond Phillips' character isn't on the ship, yet this does answer a question I had last episode, in which I was wondering how he made it back from his fighter to the Icarus stargate to end up on the ship. The answer is, he didn't.
I'm actually thinking a lot about the O'Neill and Young interaction. Just how matter-a-fact it was, how O'Neill told Young how to handle "the mission" (but he didn't use the word "mission" that's the feeling I got). The tone worked for those too, because I couldn't help thinking how everyone could very well be dead in hours, and these two military men are being so calm about it all. The message was...weird...unusual...opportunistic? I mean, those back home on Earth want to rescue these people, right? It's almost like the General has decided that this is a new mission of exploration. It's not bad, it's just not the response I was expecting.
Oh god, the mother part was painful to watch from beginning to end. Really over the top. Booze sloshing all over the place. I think watching it violates the Geneva Conventions! "I'll talk, I'll talk!!"
"I'll just go tell the world about the Stargate Program! It's not as if there aren't loads of people around who would care if I suddenly went missing, what with my dead husband and my daughter stranded in another section of the universe. Uh... actually on second though."
This is where I just don't have the Stargate background/knowledge to know how serious or realistic a threat this is.
Do they have Men in Black running around erasing people's memories?
I know stargates and spaceships are big, hard-to-believe secrets, but there are a lot of people who know. They showed Eli the spaceship minutes after he solved the puzzle, and what if they didn't have the leverage over him. (Imagine if his mom already had proper health care.)
In short, if Senators know, and there is funding, then everyone has the potential of learning cold, hard facts.
Not a big deal for me, but still I'd like to know how this has been addressed in the past (if it has).
They don't necessarily have an MIB team, but being based on the real military, I imagine she would make an accusation and be quietly taken out. For your own edification, the Stargate programme is not general knowledge. There have been a couple of close shaves, but it's always been covered up. The Stargate Program is hidden in the budget as a billion dollar R&D program and part of their mandate is converting alien weapons and tech into practical tools. Outside of the American Air Force, several foreign powers (China, Britain, Russia, France and Germany) have created the International Oversight Administration which assures fair, non-militaristic of the gate. Ming-Na's character is an IOA representative. Also, the Air Force allowed the production of a show called "Wormhole X-Treme" which was based off of someone's knowledge of the Gate program for plausible deniability. That is to say, "What do you mean you heard about people going through a gate to other planets!? That's a TV show, nerd!"
I was wondering about the shuttle too. For a minute I thought I might have missed something, but then decided it?s one of the mysteries we?ll learn more about later. Right now I?m "making believe" it?s flying off to plant a Stargate on some world. This is probably incorrect, but I still get credit if turns out to be true! :-)
I'm waiting for someone to say: "Oh that was Senator Armstrong's shuttle taking off." If that's the explanation, I'll bang my head into the ground! Per your theory, I have a feeling they don't have enough power to launch one themselves. I'm banking on it being a mystery.
This is where I just don't have the Stargate background/knowledge to know how serious or realistic a threat this is.
Do they have Men in Black running around erasing people's memories?
I know stargates and spaceships are big, hard-to-believe secrets, but there are a lot of people who know. They showed Eli the spaceship minutes after he solved the puzzle, and what if they didn't have the leverage over him. (Imagine if his mom already had proper health care.)
In short, if Senators know, and there is funding, then everyone has the potential of learning cold, hard facts.
Not a big deal for me, but still I'd like to know how this has been addressed in the past (if it has).
Quick note: to address your "hyperspace" comment. In the first episode Dr. Rush described the ship, stating, "The design is clearly ancient, in the truest sense of the word. Launched hundreds of thousands of years ago. Faster than light, yet not through hyperspace" (14 minutes, 40 seconds into the episode). So technically they?re not in hyperspace, thus the use of FTL.
Respond
So, I was a big BSG fan, but I've never seen any SG until this series. Well, I had seen the movie, I guess, if you want to count that.
I thought the episode was alright, but I felt that there was a basic flaw in the drama in this episode, and I'll see if I can explain it here.
I didn't buy into the stakes.
It's that simple. I knew that they had to find what they were looking for because the whole show would be over if they didn't. I never felt like any of the principal characters were truly in danger. Even when Eli sticks his arm into the gate... are we even worried? Of course it will work. You've got some of your main characters there... you're not going to kill them this early on.
This is not to say the show itself is bad. But they bluffed too big, and I didn't buy in. Something that BSG was great at was raising the stakes in a believable way. It wasn't always about whether or not the entire fleet would die. Sometimes it was just about what would happen to one person or where they'd end up, etc. Death doesn't always have to be the result. I think SGU could benefit from choosing its dramatic stakes a little more carefully.