Come Monday...Stargate Universe

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of, or commentary about, websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time. Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.” This is subject to change, however. In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while. For rants promote change, and change can be good—right? Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

Oh my, I was so excited to hear about [Stargate Universe]. Not that it made up for the ending of [Stargate Atlantis], but I had been down this road before. For I had felt the same way when I could read the writing on the wall about the impending demise of [Stargate SG-1], which did indeed turn out relatively well.

Such is not the case with Stargate Universe so far, however. For the storyline is way too dark for my taste—with both the good and bad characters being cut from the same cloth. In other words, this is another show that is too “real-life” for me to truly escape into.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, Stargate Universe is the latest version of a entertainment series that started with the 1994 movie, [Stargate]. The plot of the movie was that we are very much not alone in the universe, and that most of our ancient civilizations were greatly influenced by the [Goa'uld], who were serpent-like creatures that used humans as hosts. The [stargate] was a device that creates an artificial wormhole, which allows travel between planets that have them, and it was through this that a United States Air Force special forces team headed by Col. Jack O’Neil (played by [Kurt Russell]), along with an Egyptologist by the name of Dr. Daniel Jackson (played by [James Spader]), traveled to [Abydos], where they encountered one of the most powerful of the Goa’uld system lords, [Ra] (a.k.a. the ancient Egyptian sun god). In the end, Ra was killed, and Dr. Jackson stays behind on Abydos while the rest of the team returns to Earth.

Stargate SG-1 is the television series that took off from where the Stargate movie ended, with a few personnel changes involved. For [Col. Jack O’Neil] was now being played by [Richard Dean Anderson], and [Dr. Daniel Jackson] was being played by [Michael Shanks]. [Capt. Samantha Carter] (played by [Amanda Tapping]) and [Teal'c] (played by [Christopher Judge]) rounded out the original SG-1 team, which traveled throughout the galaxy fighting the Goa'uld. Later on, [Jonas Quinn] (played by [Corin Nemec]) came and went as a member of SG-1, and [Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell] (played by [Ben Bowder]) replaced the promoted to brigadier general, Jack O’Neil, as the leader of SG-1, with his [Farscape] co-star [Claudia Black] being added to the team as [Vala Mal Doran], just for laughs, I suppose.

Now, to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Stargate SG-1 is an understatement of monumental proportions. It is also rather ironic. For here I am claiming to truly have a very close and personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, who is the Lord God Almighty and the Creator of all that exists (apart from Himself, of course), and the subtle religious theme to the series is very close to (if not exactly) [Buddhism]—with self-achieved ascension to a higher plain of existence as pure energy being what happened to the [Ancients], who were the builders of the stargates. Ah, but such is the way it is with my personal brand of escapism.

A few years before the end of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis was introduced, and it was about the discovery and inhabitation of the Ancient city of [Atlantis] on a planet in the [Pegasus Galaxy]. This series starred [Joe Flanigan] as [Lt. Col. John Sheppard], [Rachel Luttrell] as [Teyla Emmagan], [David Hewlett] as [Dr. Rodney McKay], and [Jason Momoa] as [Ronon Dex], with the main enemy in that galaxy being the [Wraith].

No, Stargate Atlantis was not as good as Stargate SG-1, but it was close. In all fairness, it is arguable that it was even better. For the main reason why I consider SG-1 to be better than Atlantis is because I want my heroes to know what they doing most of the time, and this was not the case with the Atlantis team for at least two seasons. Yet, when I catch some of the very first episodes of SG-1, they were stumbling around without a clue just as much as the Atlantis bunch was at first. So, I must admit that my initial disdain for Stargate Atlantis was based upon being used to the maturity of the Stargate SG-1 characters.

I am hoping that this is the case with my current disdain for Stargate Universe, but neither SG-1, nor Atlantis, had as much discord written into the plot. For they had their personality conflicts, but there is genuine animosity between [Col. Everett Young] (played by [Justin Louis]) and [Dr. Nicholas Rush] (played by [Robert Carlyle]), which has forced the rest to have to choose sides.

Oh yeah, I suppose it would be helpful if I told you something about the plot to Stargate Universe. For this series starts out with a bunch of ill-prepared people becoming trapped on an Ancient starship by the name of [Destiny], that is on its way to the very end of the universe. So far, they have spent as much of their time fighting amongst themselves as fighting to survive their predicament, and as soon as I start to take a liking to a particular character, it becomes clear that they are deeply flawed. Yeah, just like me, but I am watching the show in the hope of escaping the reality of having to live with myself—remember?

Anyway, you can watch the show for yourself on the [Syfy Channel] on Friday nights. If you would like, you can also watch full episodes of Stargate SG-1 online at [Hulu.com], and then you can better judge if I am completely wrong about finding Stargate Universe severely lacking so far.

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