Friday, June 3, 2011

SG.U Stargate Universe The Complete Final Season

Television viewers are a fickle lot. Whatever the genre of show, be it crime, drama, comedy, variety or reality, audiences can make or break a budding new show. That is especially true with science fiction shows.

As open-minded and willing to embrace new ideas and concepts as science fiction fans purport to be, they, in general, are very conservative when it comes to truly ground-breaking science fiction TV series.

A perfect example of that is SG.U Stargate Universe. SG.U left the comfortable confines of its predecessors: SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis. SG.U was a much darker show, where the line between good and evil was blurred and characters often stepped over the line in both directions.


The premise was a simple one: a SG research team stationed on a distant planet is attached. Abandoning the site the residents of the remote site leave via the Stargate. Where they wound up is on an alien ship hurtling millions of light years away through space. The entire show was one of survival and the ship’s occupants attempts to get back to Earth.


Along the way they meet aliens, encounter hostile conditions, struggle to find food and water and slowly begin to unravel the mystery of the ship they are on. It made for a fascinating show with multi-layered characters and intriguing ‘what ifs.’


Unfortunately the show didn’t catch on quickly enough which is a real shame because during the second, and final, season, SG.U found its niche and was producing some of the finest science fiction ever seen on TV. But, audiences translate to money and the sponsors didn’t believe they were getting enough product purchase to warrant supporting the show so the SyFy Channel pulled the plug.


MGM and Fox have compiled on 5-discs the final 20 episodes of the ill-fated SG.U TV series along with lots of extras such as commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes and much more. Although the series is gone, fans of the show (I being one) can enjoy truly well-written, acted and conceptualized science fiction.

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