Stargate: Universe

Tonight I'm going to take a break from my usual ice-skating, personal stuff, website obsession based posts to talk about something else. Stargate. Stargate began for me with a friend of mine who said to me 'oh just watch it already!' or something along those lines. The episode was in Season 4, called 'The First Ones' and even though that episode is not my favourite I was hooked from day one and ever since I have been a avid fan. I cried when Michael Shanks was written out, laughed myself silly with the episode 'Window of Opportunity' (where the day loops over and over and Teal'c and Jack play golf through the Stargate, breaking shot records). Stargate got me through my Higher School Certificate (Australian version of the SAT's at the end of year 12) and through the years since. I made the reluctant transition to Stargate Atlantis and became just as hooked and furiously wrote to Channel 7 after they stopped an episode halfway through one week - slamming them by fax and insisting they replay the entire episode. After almost 3 years of the show being moved about that was the last straw. I mustn't have been the only one because they did replay the episode the next week.

I have hated with a passion the decline of sci-fi shows and cheered the New Dr Who because it was a welcome break from remakes of 90210, Home and Away, bad comedies such as Rules of Engagement and the endless list of new, trashy, reality TV shows.

I gratefully borrowed the earlier seasons on video and then bought them on DVD until I knew almost every episode word for word. I nearly fainted one day after seeing the prototype for the Phillips e-Reader (also referred to as the Readius) because it looked so much like a device from one of my favourite episodes "Window of Opportunity".

 

Now tonight Australia FINALLY got the long awaited premiere of Stargate Universe. Australia regularly has to wait for episodes of TV even though communication is supposed to be almost instant these days and by the miracle of all miracles it was aired on Ch10. This is a miracle because Ch7 which still airs Stargate Atlantis now airs it on digital, a type of TV not accessible to everyone because it requires a set-top-box (a gadget I don't have). Thankfully Ch10's digital channel is all sport so I eagerly sat down to watch the premiere this evening. It did not fail my expectations. As if my nostalgia at watching Stargate at home in the cool weather and sitting on the edge of my seat wasn't enough the episode was surprisingly entertaining. My favourite bit had to be the computer/math geek being beamed out of his house to the ship and saying to myself in the ads 'some day, some way, somehow my life will get interesting!'. One of the reasons I've always loved Stargate (and it's spin-offs) is the possibility, however small, that it's all real, all going on somewhere. I would do almost anything to be part of a real-life Stargate team - however dangerous.

On the more practical review side Robert Carlyle is a very mysterious, dark character and I suspect he has a past he is hiding from. David Blu as the geek is quite funny and one suspects he is a lot braver than his appearance leads us to believe at first. Elyse Levesque, who plays Chloe the Senator's daughter, drove me crazy until I realised I'd seen her in the under appreciated kids Show 2030CE. I suspect there is a lot more to her as well and would like to see her kick-butt in upcoming episodes.

I could go in all day to the characters but a lot of reviewers have already done a much better job at that. So I'll finish here by saying that this show definitely deserves a chance and I sure hope Channel 10 gives viewers a proper chance to decide, rather than ditching it in a midnight time-slot after 3 episodes (as happened with Torchwood). I'll be interested to see next week's episode after the premiere ended with a cliff hanger and hope I can find a video tape next week so I can go back to my high school ritual of taping Stargate each week - even if I do miss Michael Shanks, Tapping, RDA and Judge.