TV Review: Stargate Universe – Pilot (#2)

I am just about a Stargate virgin. I have seen the first movie, starring Kurt Russell and James Spader and I liked it. It had a cool concept and I really liked the whole Egyptian mythic tie-in. Since that movie it just hasn’t been on the radar. I’m sorry. I’ve been a very, very, bad Sci-Fi blogger.

But I am trying to mend my ways. After the spiffy Battlestar Galactica, I have been taking my SyFy channel programs much more seriously. To be honest, I really didn’t, really pay attention to the new Universe until I heard that Robert Carlyle was involved in the show. My little pointy ears drew erect at this news. Robert Carlyle is a feature movie actor and I think a guy with a ton of character. Robert has gravitas. That’s not to say that the rest of the cast is chopped liver. Once I got on the Google it seemed to me that SyFy was taking this Stargate up another level in the acting quality. Alongside Mr. Carlyle we have Lou Diamond Phillips as Colonel David Telford, Ming Na as Camile Wray and Justin Louis as Colonel Everett Young  as those among the actors I instantly recognized.

The early vibe I got in the previews and the endless Robert Carlyle interviews I watched told me “Stargate: Universe” was going with what we, the larger Sci-Fi watching and loving, populace wanted. Make it darker, make it desperate, make it adult or in other words, make it BattleStar Galactica. This was the inevitable course of things. The Sci-Fi destiny of Universe so to speak.

Ok, so here’s the setup. We have a group of people visiting a newly found Stargate someplace hell and gone. Among the group we have Robert Carlyle playing the fiendishly complex Dr. Nicholas Rush, a guy seemingly obsessed about getting this found Stargate to give up it’s last level and tune in to destinations previously unreachable by other Stargates. Dr. Rush seems pretty OCD about this project. He seems perhaps motivated by other, at present unseen pressures. The plot is further illuminated by a tender moment between Dr. Rush and a photograph of himself and a female person. Dr. Rush feels the pain. Will this woman in the picture somehow be connected to Dr. Rush’s obsession with the Stargate’s unlocked level? Perhaps Dr. Rush needs to get himself to a distant place for romantic reasons. There are plenty of complex emotions tied up in a love story, with vengeance, grief and guilt among them.

I think further illuminating Dr. Rush’s increased interest in the gate is his recruitment of Eli Wallace, played by David Blue, a couch loving gamer dude that has solved a math problem critical to unlocking the Stargate that has been hidden in an online game by Dr. Rush. Dr. Rush could not solve the problem himself or at least not within the foreseeable future. A very visibly frustrated Dr. Rush drags the kid along to the Stargate to I guess let him in on what his math solving skills hath wrought. I’m not really sure what the kid is doing there or what his role in the continuing endeavour really is about. When he shows up to see the Stargate, Dr. Rush seems to think it’s all in hand.

The creators of Stargate, again in the Battlestar theme, are going for a more realistic look and feel to the show. It looks gritty with a dark palette and a somber military vibe. I really like shows that go in this direction. By that I mean in the direction of realism. I need to believe in the rules or the system of the game before I can suspend my disbelief and get into the story. The story of Universe seems to be built on a scaffold of concrete things. We have realistic sets and especially actors whose performances downplay the fantastic setting and story. People are attending to their business in a way that they would if all the science and sorcery was real. Real people in crazy environments and stories make for good television.

So deeper we go. Dr. Rush thought he had the secrets to opening the gate. A host of civilian types, including a senator, are along for the unveiling of the next channel to the far, far away. There’s a hitch though and it doesn’t work and I suppose this is the somewhat lame contrivance that brings Eli Wallace into frame. Dr. Rush and Eli get the thing working, during an alien attack that helps showcase the excellent effects in Universe. Now here’s the rub. Dr. Rush could have tuned in Earth as an escape route for those inside the base. He does not. Instead, he forces everyone to flee to the dark unknown beyond the 9th chevron, where Dr Rush seems to really, really want to go.

Through the Stargate they go, taking what they could hurriedly bring with them as the station behind them collapses along with the planet. They arrive on a seemingly crewless starship, later discovered to be called the Destiny, a ship on a very long voyage that has been underway for a very, very, long time. I like the look and feel of this setting. The ship is old, broke down and big. There are lots of places for adventure to be had and for secrets to hide. I wish they had gone for more spooky here though. It’s a missed opportunity. Everything is too well lit. People wander around on the Destiny like it’s the Love Boat. There should have been more inherent danger. Who knows what lurks around the next corner? Let’s hope they up the suspense in future episodes. I’m not a kid. I can take it. There is some medium tension created around the fact that the Destiny is kind of in disrepair. Without a fix, the castaways (hello Lost and again BattleStar) are toast within a reasonable sciencey period of time. To the rescue comes the Stargate itself, which though cannot get to Earth can still tune into parts really unknown. As we leave the crew of the Destiny, billions of light years from Earth, they are preparing to gate themselves to a desert world, chosen by the ship itself, to search for repair items to make the ship habitable for the long haul.

I really liked Stargate Universe. Sure, I nitpicked on a few details but I didn’t even want to get up to use the bathroom during the breaks. This is a good sign. We have really good actors and an awesome, claustrophobic setting that will hopefully lend itself to some mysterious and suspenseful moments. My advice to the creators of the show, Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, is to keep the show adult. Do not dumb the thing down for the larger audience. Make it scary, keep it smart and grounded in human emotion. The sexy part is ok, although the first glimpse of this was a little needy. Not everyone, or even anyone, in the cast is terribly likable. This is a good thing. Complex characters create complex responses to them. This is another good sign for the future to come. I’m excited about next week. On a more personal note, I had to watch the show in low def. The Space channel in Canada hasn’t switched to Hi yet. This is a terrible thing. I had to squint to make out some pixelated elements. I am spoiled, so sue me. Space!, get your act together.

Andy Mikita (director) / Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper (screenplay)
CAST: Robert Carlyle … Dr. Nicholas Rush
Justin Louis … Everett Young
Brian J. Smith … Matthew Scott
Elyse Levesque … Chloe Armstrong
David Blue … Eli Wallace
Alaina Huffman … Tamara Johansen
Jamil Walker Smith … Ronald Greer
Patrick Gilmore … Dale Volker
Julia Anderson … Vanessa James
Peter Kelamis … Adam Brody
Jennifer Spence … Lisa Park
Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman … Darren Becker
Ming-Na … Camile Wray
Josh Blacker … Sgt. Spencer
Lou Diamond Phillips … Colonel David Telford