Diving into SG:U, Eps 1-7
May. 13th, 2011 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sesquipedaliaticI started watching Stargate Universe because I'm a glutton for punishment I miss cracky, serialized sci fi. In the last two days, I've watched the first 7 episodes and can sum up my feelings with a resounding "Eh."
The first four episodes were nothing remarkable. That's not to say they were actively bad, just that they weren't good either. We meet the characters, we learn how they react under extreme pressure, we're introduced to the basic technology. Definitely a series opening designed to appeal to people who haven't seen other Stargate.
Each episode is titled--and revolves around--a single thing necessary for survival: water, air, etc. (Actually, I REALLY like the way the titles play into the narrative. It's simple and elegant. Not nearly as wonderful as Farscape's episode titles, though.)
And then ep 5, "Light," happened.
Basic facts: Ship looses power to everything except life support, single shuttle is still operational. Shuttle holds 17, roughly 1/6 of the people on board the ship. Ship is headed towards a star with 1 planet in the Goldilocks zone, which the shuttle can reach.
Slightly less than halfway through the episode, we (and the characters) learn than the ship is not going to slingshot off the star as they expected, but is headed straight for the star's core. That's not survivable. The shuttle is on its way to a barely-livable planet and the ship is headed to certain death.
As a viewer, I KNEW that both the people on the shuttle and the people on the ship had to survive. The promo pictures alone proved that. I KNEW there'd be a deus ex machina (and since we're talking about a ship built by Ancients, possibly a literal deus ex machina). Despite knowing all that and being familiar enough with the workings of the Stargate universe (heh!), I couldn't figure out where the narrative was going.
I LOVE when a narrative can fool me so solidly. I love even more when a narrative can confound me, then provide me with a reasonable (within the bounds of the presented universe) explanation. And that happened! It was a solid "and they all lived happily ever afterexcept the part where they accidentally ended up across the universe on a falling-apart ship with no supplies " kind of ending, but I bought it and it made me do a happy dance in my chair as the narrative played out. I even gasped! We're not quiiiite talking about flaily hands, but it was headed that direction.
THAT SAID, not all is lovely. Ep 7 had the beginnings of seems to be some pretty major FAIL themes running through the show. In the first few eps, we're (inelegantly and confusingly) introduced to the communication stones. They're an Ancient device that allows the user to swap consciousnesses with someone literally across the universe. It's NOT a body swap, just a brain swap. (And yes, the fic positively writes itself.)
Tangent: Rather than pull a "Lifeboat" or "[insert name of that awesome SG:1 ep with the body switching]," SG:U decided to match actor with character brain. Instead of letting the actor play with being a different person, SG:U just shows us the different person, with occasional incongruous glances into mirrors to remind us that everyone ELSE is seeing a different face. Bah.
So. Col. Young is on the space ship. He's having marital troubles. He switches brains with Col. Telford, who is based on Earth. While wearing Telford's skin, Young has make-up sex with his wife. My problems are thus:
1. Wife: No conflict about having sex with what appears to be a TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSON? Especially after establishing a few eps ago that you're uncomfortable with the brain-swapping communication stones?
2. Young: USING ANOTHER MAN'S (and someone you don't like, for that matter) BODY TO HAVE SEX WITH YOUR WIFE?! Hello ALL KINDS OF WRONG. Consent is awesome. Use it.
But wait there's more! For handwavey reasons, the communication stones fail briefly (for a few seconds) a couple times in this particular scene. Telford is briefly back in his own body, which is currently HAVING SEX WITH YOUNG'S WIFE. Aaaand in case it wasn't squicky enough, Young's wife DOESN'T KNOW.
I nearly stopped watching right there because the whole thing made me so uncomfortable. At the close of the episode, we got a shot of Telford looking devious. Now, Telford is definitely the bad guy on the inside of SGU, and delightfully so. He's set up as an unquestionable antagonist. I'm assuming we'll hear about this incident (or something similar) again, thanks to Telford's devious look. And that's a conflict I'm NOT looking forward to.
I'll keep watching the series for now, either until it irrevocably offends me, bores me, or I acquire something that engages me more. (And I just reserved the first disk of the first season of Smallville with my shiny new library card, so that may win.)
The first four episodes were nothing remarkable. That's not to say they were actively bad, just that they weren't good either. We meet the characters, we learn how they react under extreme pressure, we're introduced to the basic technology. Definitely a series opening designed to appeal to people who haven't seen other Stargate.
Each episode is titled--and revolves around--a single thing necessary for survival: water, air, etc. (Actually, I REALLY like the way the titles play into the narrative. It's simple and elegant. Not nearly as wonderful as Farscape's episode titles, though.)
And then ep 5, "Light," happened.
Basic facts: Ship looses power to everything except life support, single shuttle is still operational. Shuttle holds 17, roughly 1/6 of the people on board the ship. Ship is headed towards a star with 1 planet in the Goldilocks zone, which the shuttle can reach.
Slightly less than halfway through the episode, we (and the characters) learn than the ship is not going to slingshot off the star as they expected, but is headed straight for the star's core. That's not survivable. The shuttle is on its way to a barely-livable planet and the ship is headed to certain death.
As a viewer, I KNEW that both the people on the shuttle and the people on the ship had to survive. The promo pictures alone proved that. I KNEW there'd be a deus ex machina (and since we're talking about a ship built by Ancients, possibly a literal deus ex machina). Despite knowing all that and being familiar enough with the workings of the Stargate universe (heh!), I couldn't figure out where the narrative was going.
I LOVE when a narrative can fool me so solidly. I love even more when a narrative can confound me, then provide me with a reasonable (within the bounds of the presented universe) explanation. And that happened! It was a solid "and they all lived happily ever after
THAT SAID, not all is lovely. Ep 7 had the beginnings of seems to be some pretty major FAIL themes running through the show. In the first few eps, we're (inelegantly and confusingly) introduced to the communication stones. They're an Ancient device that allows the user to swap consciousnesses with someone literally across the universe. It's NOT a body swap, just a brain swap. (And yes, the fic positively writes itself.)
Tangent: Rather than pull a "Lifeboat" or "[insert name of that awesome SG:1 ep with the body switching]," SG:U decided to match actor with character brain. Instead of letting the actor play with being a different person, SG:U just shows us the different person, with occasional incongruous glances into mirrors to remind us that everyone ELSE is seeing a different face. Bah.
So. Col. Young is on the space ship. He's having marital troubles. He switches brains with Col. Telford, who is based on Earth. While wearing Telford's skin, Young has make-up sex with his wife. My problems are thus:
1. Wife: No conflict about having sex with what appears to be a TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSON? Especially after establishing a few eps ago that you're uncomfortable with the brain-swapping communication stones?
2. Young: USING ANOTHER MAN'S (and someone you don't like, for that matter) BODY TO HAVE SEX WITH YOUR WIFE?! Hello ALL KINDS OF WRONG. Consent is awesome. Use it.
But wait there's more! For handwavey reasons, the communication stones fail briefly (for a few seconds) a couple times in this particular scene. Telford is briefly back in his own body, which is currently HAVING SEX WITH YOUNG'S WIFE. Aaaand in case it wasn't squicky enough, Young's wife DOESN'T KNOW.
I nearly stopped watching right there because the whole thing made me so uncomfortable. At the close of the episode, we got a shot of Telford looking devious. Now, Telford is definitely the bad guy on the inside of SGU, and delightfully so. He's set up as an unquestionable antagonist. I'm assuming we'll hear about this incident (or something similar) again, thanks to Telford's devious look. And that's a conflict I'm NOT looking forward to.
I'll keep watching the series for now, either until it irrevocably offends me, bores me, or I acquire something that engages me more. (And I just reserved the first disk of the first season of Smallville with my shiny new library card, so that may win.)
