Why it took only a bad spin-off to kill a science fiction franchise old decades

By Jonathan Klotz | Published 8 seconds ago

Stargate has never been as popular as Star Wars and Star Trek, but both Stargate SG-1 And Stargate Atlantis ended up finding a large fans base precisely because they were different from the two big ones. To embrace a funny adventure spirit and a casting of characters who have linked, learning to work together and to accept each other, the two shows have maintained a certain degree of positivity even at their darkest moments. This is why the sudden tour with which the writers took Stargate universeThe third series of the franchise, has surpassed everything that is good in the franchise in favor of kissing the dark and grainy aesthetic of Battlestar Galactica.

Dark and grainy science fiction

Stargate universe was released in October 2009, at the height of Battlestar Galactica’s The success of pop culture, and Syfy wanted the show to be their next great thing. They went so far as to cancel Stargate AtlantisThere was therefore only one series in the wave franchise.

Throwing aside the “Planet of the week” formula of the first series, Universe treated a story for most of each season, so you would be better to get used to hearing of old communication stones. The dark and gravelly visuals were not the only change. To correspond to the new aesthetic, the writers abandoned the “action” part of the first two shows and transformed a “science fiction drama” directly, which could have been fun, but they also forgot to include characters friendly.

Instead of exploring new worlds, Stargate universe was confined to Destiny, an old spacecraft built for a mysterious purpose which has constantly alluded to exciting and out of the world, but they never occurred. Viewers were stuck in narrow neighborhoods with a casting of characters who seemed to hate themselves and watched everyone raised everyone at least once a season, alternating with a romance attempt that looked more like River that SG-1.

For example, the fall of Colonel Everett Young (Louis Ferreria) and the subsequent climb could have made convincing television. Unfortunately, before the show arrives, we see it cheating, lying and chatting with the rest of the crew in a way that O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) would never behave, even if the extraterrestrial minds it had it.

A complex character and a bunch of high school students

Young was opposed to a member of the crew, in particular. Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) was supposed to be something new for the franchise: a character who existed in the nuances of gray. Richard Woolsey (Robert Picardo) looks like a hero compared to Rush, which the public is able to understand as acting for the greater good (mainly) even if his actions were (especially) doubtful.

The problem of including a complex character who, to say politely, must a lot Battlestar Galactica’s Baltar (James Callis) is it does not work if everyone Stargate universe considers it bad.

Rush Frames Young for murder, challenges his explicit instructions not to spoil old technology by doing exactly when he has the opportunity, and yes, he takes advantage of the extraterrestrial infection of Chloé Armstrong (Elyse Levesque) to move forward His own research, but the the seeds of a great character was there. Stargate universe I tried to do something different, with Rush as a physical incarnation to embrace the dark side of science fiction, but he lost the adventurous spirit of franchise in the process.

Fans of the neglected franchise did not want drama in high school; They wanted new daring worlds, extraterrestrial meetings and a hint of discovering a galactic mystery. All that they had in the first two programs and lost thanks to the leaders of Syfy take advantage of it on the new wave of grainy prestigious television.