Stargate Universe: Darkness – someone forgot to pay the power bill – contains spoilers

We were pretty harsh on Air part 3 last week, I expect it was because the first two episodes were so full of promise and we’ve been supplied with such average Stargate material for so long. So when a filler episode showed up in the second week it hurt, a lot.

Action, excitement, innovative ways to develop characters and an exciting storyline.

These are not qualities to be found in the Stargate Universe episode Darkness. In fact I sought out the promo for this episode just to see how the hell they marketed it:

Oh yeah they managed to make that look real tense and exciting… actually I’m a poor judge since seeing the episode, if you break that preview down it all amounts to some tense music and I don’t even think they had that in the episode.

Spoilers to follow, you’ve been warned, twice.

So this episode was marginally better than the last one, which isn’t really saying that much but maybe we can say at least they are trying… forget it. There were some really strong scenes in the beginning of the episode where the commander guy with the busted up knee had some really cool briefings with the crew/survivors. The scenes felt really natural and actually made me interested in the day to day running of the ship and what they are doing.

Of course my now least favourite character in Stargate history Dr Rush shows up and apparently no one but him can do anything at all, his standing around staring at consoles is such riveting stuff I dearly hope the powers that be continue to follow that.

So what did we learn this week:

Nothing at all about last weeks shuttle taking off
Dr Rush is an unbelievably giant jerk who is unpleasant to watch.
That the commanding dude, who if next week’s show is better I’ll bother to learn his name is a cool leader who makes people naturally laugh at staff briefings.
Lou Diamond Phillip’s character is a big jerk too (I don’t know if Lou himself is a jerk so I won’t speculate)
The chef has his work cut out for him.
That Eli is a completely bearable character who I actually don’t mind, however, he does need to stop playing with those balls… umm that’s isn’t… nevermind.
That the woman with large breasts is a woman with really large breasts, I don’t say this to diminish her in any way shape or form I just wish the producers wouldn’t and I’m surprised that they didn’t use the hallway shot in the promo.
I don’t even care what the medic’s problem is or why she quit, I actually want them to reveal it just to stop the hints at it, I mean really guys, subtle much!?!?
Skimming a gas giant is not as cool as seeing the Serenity fire up her engines on half the budget.
The senator’s daughter is a poor man’s Summer Glau
They can’t fix the power problems but they can get the plate to recharge torches… dudes!? Really??
The cliff hanger is pretty weak, I don’t expect them to plunge into the sun like Disaster Area’s Stuntship*

I’m willing to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe some new blood in the producing and directing area might be called for, none of this feels very fresh right now… oh scratch that, last time someone else took over Stargate we got Stargate Infinity… shudder.

So what did you guys think this week? Am I being too harsh? Any things that you learnt?

*If you got the reference then you are a hitch-hiker geek!!

Posted in television | Tagged Darkness, SGU, Stargate Universe

kellane1

OK, read all the blogs, I quite like the show.. The only reason I am on this site is to find out what happened last week, I forgot to tape it!!!!
Did destiny just skim the sun and recharge her batteries? let me know..
Cheers
Kel

Lee

Hi Kel - no problem! The Destiny plunged into the sun to recharge, it had diverted all the power to the shields to withstand the sun's forces.

Now make sure you set that tape!

riGby

Just watched it and, man, those nipples are in-your-face.

The flying camera thingy wasn't even looking at them and she storms off.

3of5

oh, and Eli should have lost his hand. Not that i wish it on him, i rather like the charakter. But no Milky way Stargate had a failsafe preventing dismemberment. i do remember a Goa'uld getting cut his head of by a closing wormhole.

Lee

In fairness even SG1 couldn't quite decide on that, I saw both sides happen, the goa'uld losing his head and SG1 holding the wormhole open using someone's arm (or maybe something else but certainly holding it open)

3of5

did nobody think, thath skimming a Gas Giants atmosphere is an ingenius way to fire up a good old bussard collector and haul in some Heilum 3? Nice little fusion rector anyone? How would you recharge the power supply of an aon old unmanned starship built to go on just forever? there surely aren't ZPM Modules lying around.
The whole starsip is far past his expiration date though, how does it builds all those stargates it's seeding all these Galaxies with? I think, the continuus use of shuttles is more probable. btw. i noticed the Shuttle from teh last scene of "Air" doesn't look like the same design as the Destiny. I had hoped it would have started to pick up the 2 lost geologists. Guess it will not. I'm sure, we haven't seen the last of them 2 though.
I do like Rush, while everyone on the ship is just bitching around, making tiny films, stepping on each others toes, he is the only one, actually facing the problems that arise. What engineer of shit do you have to be to just sitting around, while theres stuff to be done, to save everyone? Well at least, they found a way to recharge theis cellphones and I-Pods, puh, thats gonna save them all for sure. Nobody even tells Lnt. Johannson "for what its worth, we are happy you are here, for we would all die horribly without a physicist" Whiny little pack wouldn't last for two days crashed on a desert island (well the crew of lost would'nt either, so for Hollywood we're still fine, i guess.

Lee

I did think of that as well, scooping up material from the gas giant that is. What I didn't think of and it's an intriguing idea is that the shuttle went to pick up the stranded red shirts on the other planet, that's a REALLY interesting idea.

What does everyone else thing of that idea?

3of5

i fear though, that would just be wishful thinking. The departing shuttle didn't seem of ancient origin, nor did it seem to be integrated into the ships systems (it just sat on a flat surface).

Lee

It's a shame because I really think SGU needs some innovative ideas to help it along.

Name

What we learned:
Nothing at all about the away team that went to the other Stargate

Lee

I was certain I saw the woman who went through the other gate in this episode but I'm sure I was wrong and can barely get interested enough to go check. It would be all shades of lame though if they didn't leave them behind and it all happened off-screen.

Name

Me thinks that Destiny is plunging into the sun in order to replenish its energy supply.

Lee

Me thinks you are probably right :)

Jeff

heh heh... all I can say is that I called it. They used the Keno ball to spy on a chick in a compromising way. At least they've gotten that out of their system.

Lee

LOL it seems like such a stupidly obvious frat boy thing to do so I'm a little disappointed that they couldn't resist.

Actually the other thing that annoys me about that scene is that they play to a very stupid stereotype that 'geeks' treat women like objects that they can't have, Eli whilst a geek obviously is able to interact with people on a normal basis.

BioTeq

Dear God this series is boring... I'm watching it because of SG1 and SGA, both of which I found to be truly entertaining, but seriously, if they continue with this, season 1 will be the first and the last at the same time.
42 minutes of empty conversations, crappy vlogging, annoying mood swings of the main cast and incredibly lame visits home... wtf was this with the wife... don't get me started on the senator's daughter... and Eli... chasing skirt and playing with his flying balls, really building some serious fan base here... really sad.
I would fire the writers responsible for this RIGHT NOW! before the whole thing crashes and burns.
I don't know how much more I can take, after 3 episodes I feel like I'd rather be retyping War and Peace.
@Garth: Stronger than SG1? I think not, watch Children of Gods once again.
@ zanestriker: excellent summary, the only likeable character in this whole series is the freaking ship, it's holding together after spending a better part of the last million years travelling between galaxies... Christ the whole premise of this series is weak.

I miss Carter and Teal'c

Lee

It happened to Star Trek, the same people worked on that show for 15 something years so eventually there has to be some burnout. I don't think they need to lose the entire brain-trust they just need to bring in some innovative writers and directors and actually listen to them.

The less they go back to Earth the better in my mind, I preferred it on SGA when they had no way of contacting home so they really were on their own.

jani

totally agree with your review :-)
it seems to me that the better part of SG-1/SGA crew went with Amanda Tapping to make Sanctuary. i watch SGU only because they call it "SG".

Lee

I really like the concept behind SGU so even if it wasn't Stargate related I would probably watch the show but next week would be my cut off for it to get better. As it is I'll probably keep watching the entire season in the hope it eventually kicks some ass.

I only watched a little of Sanctuary last season, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't get on board for that!

Arjan Beens

Sanctuary isn't highclass, but I still like it.
I'm not naming any castmembers, but they cleaned out a couple this week!

Rob Brown

And push for 'Stargate Worlds' to be released immediately, so we all can experience the Stargate adventure.

Lee

Man Stargate Worlds has been in development for ages! I wonder if it is going to become another Duke Nukem?

Rob Brown

I have to disagree when it comes to Rush. I like Carlyle... and sometimes I even think what BSG would've become, if he'd played Baltar instead of the weak-kneed James Calis... or whatever his name was.

My own ten cents:

-More action, less talking.
-Ditch the communication stones and Earth.
-Ditch the vlogging, or video confessions or whatever. You don't want to copy 'Virtuality'. That was another Ron Moore disaster.
-Kill Chloe. Immediately.

Lee

I like Carlyle too which leads me to think that his acting is a little too good in this - making me really dislike him is a hard task :)

I'm not a giant fan of the vlogging, I think it's a lazy way to try and develop characters especially if they continue doing it. Eli should be trying to work out how stuff works not stuffing around filming people's diary room confessions.

LOL you know that if they kill off Chloe then it's another awkward out of body experience visiting her mother to inform her of what happened, maybe best to keep her alive :P

Garth

I found the show quite promising when I first saw it, but now I'm finding it's copying BSG a little to closely - the stones are also a major problem - as has already been pointed out - why don't they just replace the useless people with useful people...

Still... I feel it's a stronger start than SG1 or SGA had (though I could be wrong, been a long time since I saw them).

I'll continue watching for now.

Lee

It's been a while since I watched the start of Stargate Atlantis and I remember the first two part premiere being really stand-out good which led me back into to watching Stargate (I had given up on SG1 for a while there) and I have a vague impression that at least the first half of the season was pretty watchable.

I only recently watched all of SG1 and I finally "got" what people raved about, the series is really strong even though in the first couple of episodes it was still finding its legs and fixing problems that would plague a week to week show (the being thrown through the Stargate and the ice). But the first movie episode was quite strong.

This gives me hope for this show because it also had a really strong opening episode but unlike BSG they haven't kept it up.

Maybe when the power comes back on...

zanestriker

Just watched the ep. I can't believe it's been 4 eps already and absolutly nothing has happened.

Atleast by this point Atlantis have introduced the characters, the villians and solved some of the problems.

Really don't like any of the characters and the stones are annoying the crap out of me. They cant fix the ship but they can swap bodies with people? Um, did anyone else think of swapping with someone who knows something maybe? Like Sam perhaps? Or even that scientist from atlantis, I mean, they're only sitting on thier asses in Sanfransico or something now right?

Lee

You bring up a really good point about the stones, why haven't they got their absolute best people swapping bodies back and forth instead of Lou Diamond Phillip?

Even today with NASA if something goes wrong they bring in the best people and give them a full list of materials they have available and get solutions from them. On the Destiny they've got it even better because the experts can be there for real!!

It's a very poor hole in the storyline.

Jayne

*sigh*
Haven't seen this ep yet but the 3rd ep was running true to scripting cliche form and ticking all the boxes ...
African-American character a bad/poor/uneducated/barely-staying-out-of-gaol dude - check.
Dr Rush unlikeable leader AND son of blue collar worker made good on a scholarship - double check.
Lou Diamond Phillips character has nfi what to do except go strictly by the book- check.
A priest who drank himself to death AND selflessly brought up an orphan who was destined for the priesthood but failed the jump - triple check.
If I can start to predict the storyline/script I'm switching the channel to watch paint dry.

OT - The Spouse and offspring went to Armageddon sci-fi con today, was excellent I'm told!

Lee

I'm yet to attend an actual convention, I've nearly gone to a couple but I generally hate other fanboys :P

This episode actually didn't even really have the normal Stargate clichés which would have saved it slightly - BSG was doing better episodes at this stage of the game. Granted they retconned so much of BSG that early episodes didn't mean much anyway but still those early episodes were pretty good.

Arjan Beens

It was not as bad as last week indeed. Somehow I do think the whole bigbrother videotaping doesn't fit in too badly, but they should use it to let us know the crew without getting to corny with it.

- The hinting must change a bit to sometimes just telling something
- Dr Rush is irritating the crap out of me, it's a bit off that he just doesn't explain ánything. He knows everything, does his secret thing but as a watcher we aren't even told what's going on..now we still don't get a hint (and they seem good at this) if he's having good intentions or that he has an evil plan :P

- I know love interests are always a part of series, but they the whole drama with the boss and his wife on earth was ..well a bit useless to the storyline in my opinion at least.

- the cliffhanger could/should have revealed just a little bit more than it did..

Lee

Four episodes in and I'm already sick of the communication stones and the stories back on earth. I just wish they would focus on the survival situation on the Destiny!

Yeah I'm also sick of the hinting, less hinting more story please!!