As they are wont to do, the SyFy Channel has released the first half of their original show “Stargate: Universe”, aka “Stargate: Universe 1.0″ on DVD. Check out the full specs and artwork for the standard DVD and Blu-ray versions below. The big draw? An extended version of the pilot episode, with never-before-seen footage. “Stargate: Universe 1.0″ arrives on store shelves February 9, 2010. And yes, I am extremely curious about that special feature called “[Lieutenant Vanessa] James in the Shower”, for purely, you know, journalistic reasons, of course.

Well so much for all the hope and praying by longtime “Stargate” fans that the SyFy Channel will see the error of their ways and dump “Stargate: Universe”, because it’s now official: the cable channel has given the much-derided “Universe” a Season 2 commitment, along with handing out a third season to its original series “Sanctuary” starring former “Stargate” alum Amanda Tapping.

Your weekly dose of Stargate Universe recap is a little late this week. There was some unpleasantness on Friday night involving Christmas intoxicants. I won’t elaborate. Late Friday night has ceased to exist in my buffer. But, thanks to the miracle that is the internet, I have just finished viewing the best episode of SGU thus far, an episode called “Justice”.

I’m not a TV numbers wonk, mostly because numbers give me headaches, which probably explains why I suck at math. But thankfully we have sites like tvbythenumbers.com to do all the numbers following and crunching for us. The site has a comprehensive ratings break-down for the first nine episodes of “Stargate: Universe”, and depending by your point of view, the show is either falling or steadying itself.

No one is pickier about their programming than Sci-Fi fans. We’re like piranhas on guppies when there is blood in the water. I for one, remain optimistic that SGU has some legs. People putting this show together and acting in it give a shit. I think it’s killing them that the show hasn’t had the reception they expected.

What would you actually do all day if you were marooned on a million year old starship, bound for who the hell knows and stuck with a motley band of cranky (or homicidal) crew? The ninth episode of SGU attempts to realistically explain this and also how to tastefully (maybe too tastefully) handle the sticky problem of space lesbians.

Apparently when “Stargate: Universe” producer Joseph Mallozzi told complaining fans to get over the sex on his show because it’s gonna keep happening, he wasn’t blowing smoke. Check out some new promo images from this week’s new “Stargate: Universe” episode, 1.09, “Life”, which features former “24″ CTU badass Reiko Aylesworth as Ming Na’s lesbian lover character. The whole sex and lesbian thing? I could care less. But the whole “jumping into someone else’s body and then going to have sex with someone else” angle? That just gives me the creeps. Big time. Surely, this is going to become an issue in future episodes, right? Say, a “No more having sex with other people while you’re in someone else’s body” rule? Or not, because it sure seems to keep happening. What happens if, er, they impregnate someone? Or catches an STD? I’m just saying. For a show that seems to have enslaved itself to being as “real” and “gritty” as possible, it’s curious that this topic has gone undiscussed on the show.

Despite the inconsistent beginning to Stargate Universe, I’m beginning to think, after last nights planetary bombardment of wicked called “Time”, that we may really have a Sci-Fi show that wants to be something good. “Time” had some of the classic elements of a really memorable episode for any Sci-Fi show. Let’s review.

I’m all for allowing a show to gradually introduce itself as much as the next guy, but all the survival arcs in the first seven episodes of “Stargate: Universe” is starting to wear a little thin. And it’s not as if they’re even slowly introducing new characters with each episode; we already know everyone that matters, which left a lot of really pointless filler stuff like the characters coming home (okay, I like the Eli homecoming scene, but do we really need two of Young and Chloe?), going to clubs (clubbing!) and bedding the ex-wife while you’re a gazillion miles away on an alien ship, nevermind all the implications of your wife having sex with another man, even though it’s you in his mind, but it ain’t you, if you know what I mean. BRRRRRRRR. That episode still gives me the creeps.

This is actually getting pretty amusing. As you’ll recall, last week we posted a blog posting by “Stargate: Universe” producer Joseph Mallozzi, who fired back at critics of “SGU” through his blog. Today, SciFiWire has another intriguing fight with another “SGU” producer over the show, except this time “SGU” producer Brad Wright is picking the fight not with fans, but with a newspaper columnist who dared to call his show anything but great.