Stargate Universe opinions.

[LuxLuthor]

SGU is just so-so at this point. I'm trying to give it a chance but if there's not some actual plot soon, I'm going to give it up. There's a lot of hidden plot lines that are hinted at, but never revealed. So far it's been "Woe is us, trapped on an uncontrollable starship and our supplies are running out." If it doesn't grow beyond that soon, SGU is going to end up being an emo space opera flop. We need heroes with humor like SG and SGA, not a bunch of panicky whiners. Then again, if they keep killing off their few trappped survivors like they've been doing in these first few episodes, maybe they'll just run out of cast members by the end of the first season and we'll just have an empty ship for season 2.

:crackup: Not only an astute summary, but a wonderful sense of humor! I needed that!

 

[benhar]

I was starting to like Stargate University (Or Stargate 90210), especially after the twist at the end of "Light". But the love triangle/drama was wearing on me, and then the new one created by Lou D. Phillips' character (which I saw coming a mile away) was just too much. :sick2::poof:

Kudos to the OP for picking up on the 200th episode irony. I thought the same thing.

I just keep hoping for an episode where Carter, McKay, and/or Jackson use the stones to help out on the ship. But she's probably too busy at the Sanctuary.

I think the worst part for me is seeing RDA showing his age!

 

[Mjolnir]

Yeah, he sort of "let himself go" a little bit; he definitely looks very different from when SG1 ended only a few years ago.

Did anyone notice some type of ship thing leaving the back of the "Destiny" during one of the episodes? Was that some sot of alien hitchhiker?

Also, what is the deal with the "nine chevrons?" Did the gates always have nine chevrons? Atlantis was accessed with some 8th chevron, and this with the ninth? Don't the gates only have 7 physical "chevrons?"

Also, what is the deal with their FTL drive? Why are they saying that it is "FTL, but not through hyperspace?" You can't have a local velocity that is faster than the speed of light , so you need some sort of warp drive or "hyperspace" drive (whatever that is specifically). If the ship is multiple galaxies away, then it must be going at a speed that is orders of magnitude faster than the speed of light (a lot of orders of magnitude). Any idea why they felt the need to make some new unexplained type of FTL?

 

[DonShock]

...Did anyone notice some type of ship thing leaving the back of the "Destiny" during one of the episodes? Was that some sot of alien hitchhiker?.....

That's one of those hinted at plot lines I was think of in my earlier post. IIRC, it was at the end of the first episode after the Senetor sacrificed himself to save everybody. They definitely showed something detatching from the ship and moving off. I expected it was some type of teaser for the next episode. And there's been absolutely no mention since then.

Some of the other hinted at items: Why the one soldier was in the brig and got sent back there. Why all the distrust of the main scientist, everybody is suspicious of him for some reason that's never mentioned. One episode, the younger lead soldier is involved with the female soldier. Then the next episode, he's hooked up with the Senator's daughter with no explanation.

It gives you an idea of the problems with this show that even though I watch the show every week, I can't remember any of the character's names. And I keep rewinding the show on my TiVo thinking I had missed something that would explain some of the weird jumps in the plot. I don't know if the holes in the story that I find so jarring are intentional or not. Maybe the writers think they are adding some mystery to draw viewers in, but when you are watching it the show feels like somebody dropped random pages out of the original script when they took it to Kinkos before shooting the episode.

 

[1138]

In all honesty, I'm not really sure where they can go with this show, since they will have hard time coming up with an excuse for a having planets already colonized by humans, as in SG1 and SGA

There aren't going to be any humans in SGU. All of the aliens in the first season will be CG according to actor interviews.

Yeah, he sort of "let himself go" a little bit; he definitely looks very different from when SG1 ended only a few years ago.

RDA had foot surgery recently. Hard to keep in shape if you can't move around.

Did anyone notice some type of ship thing leaving the back of the "Destiny" during one of the episodes? Was that some sot of alien hitchhiker?

Will be explained in a few episodes, according to producers.

Also, what is the deal with the "nine chevrons?" Did the gates always have nine chevrons? Atlantis was accessed with some 8th chevron, and this with the ninth? Don't the gates only have 7 physical "chevrons?"

There have always been 9 chevrons. One or two of the chevrons are usually blocked from view by the ramp (at the SGC) or whatever the gate is mounted on. The only exceptions are space gates in Atlantis, which sometimes have only 8 chevrons. This is usually a visual effects error.

The eight chevron addresses were already introduced in SG-1's Season 2 episode The Fifth Race. It wasn't pulled out of nowhere for Atlantis either.

Also, what is the deal with their FTL drive? Why are they saying that it is "FTL, but not through hyperspace?"

To explain why Destiny has been traveling for more than 3 million years* but is still only ~10 billion light years from Earth. Intergalactic ships on SG-1 and SGA have been able to cross 3 million light years in 3 weeks or less using hyperdrive, so it would take less than 20 years to reach 10 billion light years at that speed. The Destiny FTL is much slower than hyperdrive.

* Destiny is > 3 million years old. The "hundreds of thousands of years" that was quoted in the pilot is wrong; Joe Mallozi (one of the writers) says as much. Its pre-ATA gene technology suggests it predates Atlantis, which itself is > 3 million years old since Ayianna (from SG-1's Season 6 episode Frozen) was present when Atlantis was launched. Ayianna herself was later found frozen by SG-1 in ice that was 3 million years old.

 

[Mjolnir]

I'd be interested to see what their explanation for how the FTL works is going to be. Even if it is slower than the "hyperspace travel" that they made up for SG1 and atlantis, it is still many times faster than the speed of light and therefore must utilize some sort of space manipulating type of drive. The idea of "FTL engines" doesn't make sense, since that would seem to indicate that it is actually being propelled in a more conventional way at those speeds, which is impossible.

What do you mean that the 8 chevron gates were a "visual effects error?" It sounds to me like they didn't know that they were going to need them to have 9 chevrons for a future spinoff. There aren't "errors" that somehow remove of a specific entity from a rendering... If they space gates had 8 chevrons, then they put 8 chevrons on them.

Also, if this gate and ship is much older than the atlantis and SG1 gates, then why is it so much cooler? A gate that completely spins is way cooler than a gate that only partially spins, or doesn't spin at all...

 

[TorchBoy]

Also, if this gate and ship is much older than the atlantis and SG1 gates, then why is it so much cooler? A gate that completely spins is way cooler than a gate that only partially spins, or doesn't spin at all...

How did they cope in Star Wars? A Clone War that wiped out the coolest technology?

 

[1138]

I'd be interested to see what their explanation for how the FTL works is going to be. Even if it is slower than the "hyperspace travel" that they made up for SG1 and atlantis, it is still many times faster than the speed of light and therefore must utilize some sort of space manipulating type of drive. The idea of "FTL engines" doesn't make sense, since that would seem to indicate that it is actually being propelled in a more conventional way at those speeds, which is impossible.

It's FTL but not hyperspace. That's all you need to know. In-universe, there have already been multiple ways to go FTL: by Stargate, by hyperdrive and by wormhole drive. Destiny's FTL is just one more type.

Compare to Star Trek: There's warp drive, transwarp, quantum slipstream, subspace corridor, wormhole, power of Q and problably a few more I've forgotten.

What do you mean that the 8 chevron gates were a "visual effects error?" It sounds to me like they didn't know that they were going to need them to have 9 chevrons for a future spinoff. There aren't "errors" that somehow remove of a specific entity from a rendering... If they space gates had 8 chevrons, then they put 8 chevrons on them.

Go back and re-read what I said. There have always been 9 chevrons on the Stargate, as far back as SG-1. The physical Stargate model that you see at the SGC has 9 chevrons, two of them are simply blocked from view by the ramp. If you watch SG-1 Season 4's Exodus, you can barely make out all 9 chevrons in the scene where the gate is tossed into a sun:

http://www.stargatecaps.com/sg1/s4/422/html/4x22_219.html

It's hard to see but the 9th chevron is at the bottom left.

As for the CG error:

This gate, with 9 chevrons, is from Rising, Part 2, i.e. the first episode of Atlantis:

http://www.gateworld.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-196848

This gate with 8 chevrons, is from The Return, Part 1, a 3rd season episode:
http://www.stargatecaps.com/sga/s3/310/html/return1_0080.html

Note that there are 9 chevrons in Rising and 8 chevrons in The Return and Rising aired a full 3 years before The Return.

Errors crop up in visual effects all the time. It could have been done for cinematic purposes to make the gate look symmetrical with all chevrons lit, or it could have been a slip up in digital asset management. Like some intern accidentally overwriting different versions of a model. There's also the issue of having more than one production company working on visual effects. One may have erroneously created an 8 chevron gate.

Also, if this gate and ship is much older than the atlantis and SG1 gates, then why is it so much cooler? A gate that completely spins is way cooler than a gate that only partially spins, or doesn't spin at all...

My 1974 ITT Model 500 rotary phone has a spinning dial. My 2005 LG cell phone does not. Which one is newer?

How did they cope in Star Wars? A Clone War that wiped out the coolest technology?

None of the technology seen in the Episodes I - III is objectively any better than that seen in the Original Trilogy. The starships are smaller and less powerful. Blasters and lightsabers are exactly the same. The Original Trilogy had two Death Stars which are orders of magnitude more powerful than anything seen in I - III.

 

[Mjolnir]

My 1974 ITT Model 500 rotary phone has a spinning dial. My 2005 LG cell phone does not. Which one is newer?

I don't know about you, but I think that dial phones are much cooler.

 

[elgarak]

I don't know about you, but I think that dial phones are much cooler.

True, but that wasn't the question.

 

[LuxLuthor]

It's FTL but not hyperspace. That's all you need to know. In-universe, there have already been multiple ways to go FTL: by Stargate, by hyperdrive and by wormhole drive. Destiny's FTL is just one more type......etc.

1138 (or should I just call you Eight?), you are hard core. I love it. :thumbsup: