Stargate Universe, Sky 1 | reviews, news & interviews
Stargate Universe, Sky 1
Stargate Universe, Sky 1
Latest Stargate boldly goes where almost everyone else has gone before
Tuesday, 06 October 2009
Considering that Stargate began as a colossally silly Roland Emmerich movie about ancient Egyptians with magic wands and spaceships, it's proving astonishingly resilient. The Stargate SG-1 TV series created a booming fanbase so eager for more that it spun off Stargate Atlantis. There have been straight-to-DVD movies, computer games, books and animated series.
Now here's Stargate Universe, which – judging by this double length opener – creators Brad Wright and Robert S. Cooper might equally well have called Stargate Galactica, Stargate Trek, or even Stargate Lost.
Or why not McStargate, since it's clear that much of the saga is going to revolve around Dr Nicholas Rush, played by Robert Carlyle in unadulterated Glaswegian. Discussing his character, Carlyle observed that "he's absolutely not to be trusted in any way", and already we're seeing disturbing hints that he's nursing one or more secret agendas behind his ratty-haired, scruffy-boffin exterior. It's all several million light years from Hamish Macbeth, though maybe Carlyle's brain-damaged villain Renard in The World Is Not Enough might offer more clues.
However, like it or not, the Stargate cast are going to find themselves relying on the fiendishly brilliant Dr Rush to dig them out of many an unearthly scrape, such as the one they were left dangling in last night. Having undergone an emergency evacuation through a Stargate portal from a secret base under alien attack, our carefully-cast troupe of soldiers, scientists and civilians find themselves aboard a huge spaceship countless solar systems away from earth. This is because they set the Stargate controls using the newly-decoded (by chubby, precocious techno-whizz Eli Wallace) Ninth Chevron, which has catapulted them to regions unknown. It would have been far safer, though fatal to future plot development, to stick to a routine seven chevrons. The intergalactic Stargate network is what Subscriber Trunk Dialling could have been if the GPO hadn't been so hidebound by bureaucracy and bakelite telephones.
So anyway, this giant spaceship is unmanned (or was, until all these characters unexpectedly landed on it), and was programmed thousands of years ago to...
Oh, to hell with it. They're lost in space and can't get back to earth because they can't dial a Stargate connection. Assuming they can solve the pressing problem of the on-board air supply running out (and don't get lost in the director's confusing and unsignposted flashforwards and flashbacks), they're going to be confronting endless trials and challenges involving many strange planets and bizarre civilisations. And, because everything now has to be like Lost at least a bit, the characters are going to have lots of reveries about their lives and how they came to be here. We've already seen Dr Rush sobbing over a picture of his dead wife (oops, plot spoiler, sorry about that) to the strains of Puccini's Vissi d'arte.
Staggering under such a crushing tonnage of cliches and echoes from other sci-fi series, can Stargate Universe survive? Probably. There's an ocean of fans willing it on, and although most of the characters look about as interesting as a bunch of Subbuteo footballers, Carlyle (especially) and David Blue as Wallace look good for some solid mileage. Not exactly TV's last frontier, however.
more TV
Blue Lights Series 2, BBC One review - still our best cop show despite a slacker structure
The engaging Belfast cops are less tightly focused this time around
Baby Reindeer, Netflix review - a misery memoir disturbingly presented
Richard Gadd's double traumas are a difficult watch but ultimately inspiring
Anthracite, Netflix review - murderous mysteries in the French Alps
Who can unravel the ghastly secrets of the town of Lévionna?
Ripley, Netflix review - Highsmith's horribly fascinating sociopath adrift in a sea of noir
Its black and white cinematography is striking, but eventually wearying
Scoop, Netflix review - revisiting a Right Royal nightmare
Gripping dramatisation of Newsnight's fateful Prince Andrew interview
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World Season 2, BBC Three review - fun, friendship and big talents
Worthy and lovable winners (no spoilers) as the best stay the course
This Town, BBC One review - lurid melodrama in Eighties Brummieland
Steven Knight revisits his Midlands roots, with implausible consequences
Passenger, ITV review - who are they trying to kid?
Andrew Buchan's screenwriting debut leads us nowhere
3 Body Problem, Netflix review - life, the universe and everything (and a bit more)
Mind-blowing adaptation of Liu Cixin's novel from the makers of 'Game of Thrones'
Manhunt, Apple TV+ review - all the President's men
Tobias Menzies and Anthony Boyle go head to head in historical crime drama
The Gentlemen, Netflix review - Guy Ritchie's further adventures in Geezerworld
Riotous assembly of toffs, gangsters, travellers, rogues and misfits
Oscars 2024: politics aplenty but few surprises as 'Oppenheimer' dominates
Christopher Nolan biopic wins big in a ceremony defined by a pink-clad Ryan Gosling and Donald Trump seeing red
Add comment