Back Through the Stargate
Posted on March 8, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments
A reminder to all and sundry that Stargate: Universe is back for its final ten episodes, starting tonight at 9pm Eastern on Syfy (and this Friday if you’re in Canada on Space). It is of course sad that the series is closing up shop with these ten episodes, but I will say this: If this is the way it goes out, it’s going out pretty well. You should watch; it’s worth the time.
Update: Whoops, people are telling me that the episodes are now running on Mondays. How embarrassing for me not to have known. Well, anyway, you can catch the streaming version of the latest episode here.
After StarGate ends, there’s not going to be much left on SyFy that I like. Sigh.
Actually they’ve shifted it to Mondays, the first ep of the back ten aired last night.
We’ll do our darnedest…I wish I could add a little emoticon saluting right here.
Space starts showing Stargate Universe tonight at 10pm EST. It will also air on Fridays at 8pm EST.
By blainesgirl’s suggestion, a salute to Stargate: Universe, its cast, crew, and creative heroes:
(｀-´)>
(At least I hope it renders as a salute.)
Watched the first episode of the last 10 last night and it made me sad that there won’t be more- it had the potential to go to so many interesting places! And Syfy is now doing more “ghost hunting” shows. And a cooking show?!?!? This is supposed to be a network for Science Fiction, as in, fantastic made up stories. I, for one, would love Syfy to “reinvent” itself into a network like AMC and do great science fiction like The Walking Dead. Well, maybe watching the end of Stargate: Universe will do my part to “vote” for real science fiction shows. I’ll be there till the end, Sir Scalzi!
Saw the episode last night on SyFy; it was pretty good. Hope the last few episodes can wrap up the story better than they did on Battlestar Galactica…
I’ve never quite figured out why American TV is so obessed with long-term runs, when the fact is most series last less than four years on the average. Why not go the route of Babylon 5, where the main story was actually wrapped up in 4 years (with the 5th year nice to have, though not as good in quality) on purpose? Treat the series like novels and shoot for quality instead of long runs that usually don’t end well.
I sure hope you’re tying up all the loose ends and giving it some semblance of an ending? I’ll be awfully upset if I watch it and the answer is no.
# 6–ejbooks86: I’ve long ago quit looking to SyFy for traditional science fiction except for the occasional drop in the bucket. It’s the usual run for the ratings. It’s a shame, since I think when quality has actually been out there, it’s been respected, but when SyFy started with the WWF, I knew quality wasn’t the first thing on their minds.
@Eric
I don’t think the Creative Consultant is the person responsible for loose-end-tying in the face of cancellation; clearly, CC isn’t high enough on the totem to even get a note about a change in airing schedules :)
But John has said he thinks viewers will be pleased with the back ten, and so far with one ep down, I am certainly intrigued.
Yay! Ahem.
Think I’ll wait for it to show up on Hulu though. The last time I tried to watch it on the Syfy site the quality of the video was absolutely appalling.
@Doug(#7)
Nice to see some more B5 appreciation out there. The way I understood it was seasons four and five were compressed into what became season four on fear of cancellation (the last episode of season five was actually meant to end season four), and when it was renewed after all, season five sprang into being, Definitely agree, not as good as the rest, but still a nice story arc from beginning to end like you mentioned.
As for SGU, I forgot how bummed I was about it’s cancellation until I noticed it was on my DVR last night. I liked SG-1 and SGA both for the light-hearted fun they were, but SGU seemed to really go for that deep, well-thought out, solid story that’s hard to find on TV anymore. I’ve enjoyed the cast and the stories so far and will miss it when it’s gone. While I will still tune to SyFy for Eureka (and to a slightly lesser extent Warehouse 13 and Haven) for as long as Syfy keeps them around, certainly not optimistic about the channel pulling much of my attention in the future.
I’m glad to have some SGU back on TV, though. Looking forward to enjoying these last remaining episodes, and raise a glass to the hardworking folks who gave us some enjoyable science fiction on TV again.
I didn’t know that it was now on Mondays. I was looking forward to watching it tonight. When I checked my TiVo to make sure it had enough space to record it tonight I discovered 11 saved episodes instead of 10! Whoops. At least it was set to automatically record, so I didn’t miss it. It was a good episode, of course.
I’ll be sure to catch the rest of the episodes live, now that I know that it’s been moved to Monday nights.
How can you say there’s nothing on SyFy that you like? What about the wrestling? And don’t forget Ghosthunters. All that stirring stuff for us mere mortals top enjoy…
@Doug,
From what I’ve read, longer runs == better chance at syndication. Yes syndication will eventually be eclipsed by technology, but not for a while.
Anyhow, most American Science Fiction shows have to worry so much about syndication because companies in the States (or, companies that produce shows primarily for the States) spend a lot more money on production than other countries. Watch “Dr. Who” (another show I love) and you’ll see the obvious difference in production costs. Production companies don’t want to spend money on a show that won’t be yielding back dollars for years or decades to come.
I sure hope you’re tying up all the loose ends and giving it some semblance of an ending? I’ll be awfully upset if I watch it and the answer is no.
@Eric #8: If our host has been doing any actual writing or story-lining on the show without due credit (and compensation), I’m certain Mr. Scalzi, his agent and his union rep will be even more upset.
Watch “Dr. Who” (another show I love) and you’ll see the obvious difference in production costs.
I’m not really sure where you get that from, since neither the BBC nor American networks are that forthcoming about their production costs. But I’m pretty sure the BBC aren’t throwing a blank cheque at Steven Moffat and Piers Wenger any time soon. Oddly enough, Doctor Who could actually be every bit as expensive as an American show because it has precisely one standing set (the Tardis) and requires a lot of comparatively expensive location work.
Production companies don’t want to spend money on a show that won’t be yielding back dollars for years or decades to come.
And neither does the BBC, which is why it has a commercial arm (BBC Worldwide) and puts a lot of time and effort into things like international sales, DVD/BluRays and associated merchandising.
I know American television does obsess about syndication rights and the money to be made from that, but we tend to get an awful lot of schlock programming that never gets syndicated anyway.
I thought B5’s writer/producer/be-all-and-end-all (whose name I can never remember how to spell) had it right when he said he thought through B5 as a novel with a beginning, middle and an end, which he did a pretty good job of delivering on, even given the nature of commercial programming. Story has always mattered more to me than special effects, but if you can have both, well, it’s even better. Doesn’t have to be 3D by any means.
Craig @ 16: “Eric #8: If our host has been doing any actual writing or story-lining on the show without due credit (and compensation), I’m certain Mr. Scalzi, his agent and his union rep will be even more upset.”
Pretty sure that was a collective ‘you’.
No disrespect to the SGU team, as I quite enjoyed the show once they grew out of the flashback phase, but I don’t think I’ll be watching the final episodes. SyFy has truly jumped the shark as a network, and I have no desire to give them any more of my viewing time. At this point, I’d rather watch an insipid network sitcom with a cast of interchangeable mannequins than reward SyFy for their complete lack of integrity and imagination.
I stopped watching SGU after the first season. Is the scientist guy’s intentions still a mystery to the audience? (i.e. the audience doesn’t know if he’s purposely avoiding going back to earth or if he’s trying but technical issues are stopping them) After a couple weeks on a ship with military firepower, somebody would have simply fragged him just for being such an arrogant ass.
(trouble posting earlier,trying again)
I stopped watching sometime around the first season when they were unknowingly trapped in a timeloop, kept goign to a planet with little velocirapters running around (but would only come out at night), and everyone would end up dying. And then the episode just ended. That pretty much broke it for me.
Is the scientist still a mystery to the audience as to whether he is trying to help or secretly trying to avoid goign back to earth? Trying to keep his intentions some kind of “spooky mystery” to the audience just annoyed the hell out of me. One of the enlisted people would have fragged him in real life.
Shame SGU is ending. I always liked all the previous Stargate series, but I always prefer the more realistic/serious, even if only slightly, shows. SGU was a nice stepup in realism from the other SG shows.
As others have already mentioned, I’m not sure what I will watch on SyFy going forward. Eureka and Warehouse 13 are ok, but I’m not exactly making sure I watch them. It would be nice to have a smart SF show on the SyFy channel. USA and the other cable networks can do it with Justified, White Collar, Sons of Anarchy, etc., why can’t SyFy do it? No way I’m watching the reality TV SyFy is showing now. Talk about being late to the party.
@21 – Yes we do indeed have more insight in “the scientist guy”. But I’m going to make you watch it to find out :-)
I enjoyed the first of the last eps. I like the way they resolved the Chloe issue. Although… SPOILER ALERT…. I hate the way Stargate in general has to keep the heroes from getting too powerful by blowing up all the neat toys. We barely got a look at the seed ship and it got all blown to heck. Thankfully there is a spare out there.
As for SGU – my opinion is that they had a neat idea, but basically blew it on the “stones” – too much story around swapping the minds between people. An occasional swap now and then with a random person would have been enough.
The best story is when unexpected things occurs, not when things are blown up. Better to waste several episodes trying to understand an unknown object than to blow it up. Even if the end result is an anticlimax – that the capsule studied ends up being a portable shower cabin.
Personal tensions are OK – as long as they don’t flip over and gets to be a main part of the story. But since this is a “family show” it’s a completely hopeless issue to explore “forbidden” relations like homosexuality and shared love. But be aware that if you look at the original Star Trek – that was the first time that there was a kiss between a black and a white person in a TV show. At the time shocking for some.
The beauty of writing a book is that you can extend further into the realm of the forbidden than what you can do when doing a TV show.
SGU had (has?) so much potential! I’m living in hope that it’ll come out of stasis after three years… :-)