Sunday, May 8, 2011

Stargate Universe - ''Awakening''

Spoiler Level: High

You know, if there's a genre for movies called "feel good" movies -- works of film created with the deliberate intention of bringing you up-- then logically there must also be a "feel bad" genre, works of film created with the deliberate intention of bringing you down. Stargate Universe is determined to be a "feel bad" series.

As with the last few episodes, there's some great things in this episode.  The alien was very cool; I liked how he was very complacent, like he was just another worker, just trying to do his job when he ran into a bunch of humans.  I loved the seed ship-- not only does it give us a glimpse into how Destiny works, it's a cool design and makes for some excellent ship shots of the two docking, and brings some of the thrill of discovery back to the series.  The brief glimpse we get of the gate manufacturing room is very exciting, as this is probably the first time in Stargate history that we've gotten a look into the manufacturing of Stargates, or seen so many in one place at one time.


But this season is really sliding backwards, and that's the kind of thing that will make me lose interest as a viewer. I've commented a lot on how I liked Rush's progression into a decent human being during the second half of last season, and it seems like with this season they've decided to just throw that all away.


Really, guys?  We had to go with Rush stranding Telford on the seed ship?  We couldn't have had the ships undock on their own, or the aliens be responsible?  We had to make it be Rush's decision?  And let's look at that from an in-universe perspective for a moment... Rush has got control of Destiny, which the seed ship is designed to work for, but he can't switch off or reverse the energy drain from the bridge?  He has to resort to undocking the ships and abandoning Telford?  That's just writing it with the deliberate goal of having a feel-bad story, logic be damned.  It's a major step backwards for the character, and it's getting to be the recurring theme of this series.

And speaking of recurring themes, having the closing shot of everyone by themselves in different parts of the ship while a sad, lonely song is sung has been used so much on this show that it's become a cliché.  I started making up my own vocals about how life sucks before the actual words kicked in, and I wasn't far off.

I'll stick with the show because it's already been canceled so there's only 17 episodes left, I've seen every Stargate up to now, and this show has improved before. But man, it's no wonder viewers kept leaving.  If I thought this show was going to run for another four seasons, I'd probably give up on it again and go finish Primeval instead.

Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea.  I might just do that anyway.

As always, thanks to Krissie's Caps for the screen captures.

SGU Stargate Universe: Complete Final Season

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