The recent spin off of the awesome STARGATE franchise, came to us in the form of STARGATE UNIVERSE. After a hugely successful Season 1, its second and last season brought us, not only a close to the series, but apparently the franchise as well.
running from a threat... for the last time...
Continuing the massive cliffhanger of Season 1, STARGATE UNIVERSE Season 2 starts off with a complicated first few episodes. Having to now deal with The Lucian Alliance on the ship, the crew have to put their differences aside and work together. That’s easier said than done, especially considering all the issues this crew has.
Season 2 works extremely well to up the ante with a lot of new problems and issues for the crew to face, as well as some jaw dropping revelations. Along with having to deal with their existing problems, there’s a lot of loss this season. However, unlike Season 1, this season seems to lose a lot of steam at they go along.
Having to deal with enemies on the ship is a big plot point of Season 2. It was also a great way to introduce new characters into the ship, since the premise doesn’t really allow for new characters to get onto the ship. With no way to get off the ship or hold prisoners, the crew of Destiny needs to decide how they’ll deal with the Lucian Alliance members. There is also a heavy alien presence on the show this season. We’re introduced to a lot more alien races, some with deep ties to Destiny and its mission from day one.
vroom vroom
By this time in the show, the crew is more or less resigned to the fact that they’ll be on the ship for a while, and hopes of going home are abandoned, more or less. The Rush and Young fallout continue, even despite their make up mid Season 1. Rush’s obsession to unlock the master code of the ship and reveal Destiny’s mission drives the character. This season develops a lot more of the changes to characters, status quo and over all evolution of the characters. The story lines themselves take a turn for the grandiose.
Essentially a lot of connection to the aliens end up affecting the crew directly, one of them even slowly transforming into one. Destiny’s mission is revealed to be one of utmost importance, whose objective will question everything from our existence, religions and the beginning of the universe. Along with a revelation that is relevant to the entire history of the universe, not just Destiny’s mission.
As great as it is, Season 2 of STARGATE UNIVERSE ends up very muddy. Some episodes are weak and seem like filler. While others are amazingly complex and charged. One of the best episodes are ‘Hunt’ and the 2 parter right before the finale. However, as I said earlier, Season 2 was the final season of the series. As of right now: STARGATE UNIVERSE has been canceled, along with it, the existence of the continuing STARGATE franchise.
*sniff...
Regardless of the hows and why of it all, STARGATE was an awesome concept, that’s been built on and bettered 3 times starting with the original film. It’s been innovative, revolutionary and always amazing.
STARGATE UNIVERSE was brilliant for the way that it felt like a gritty Michael Mann film, with its camera flares, erratic zooms and sideways framing shots. The space shots of Destiny were always handled with such subtlety that one had to squint to determine what angle of what was on screen.
last time I get to see her.. *sighs...
The story lines seemed too intense for network television. The characters were too horrible for PG rating. And the performances were way too good for a television series. STARGATE UNIVERSE blew out of the water everything that was previously established about the franchise. And Season 2 planted seeds that were gonna do the same with the entire mythos of the universe itself. Truly a show that died too young, as is the case with the best of shows.
At least we can take solace that the finale episode of STARGATE UNIVERSE reflects the sentiments and situation of the STARGATE franchise. Not dead, but merely in stasis… maybe to come out on the other side someday.
*waves...
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Blank Page Beatdown 
I was hoping they would get at least 70 episodes in before getting cut. Truly it was a nice piece of sci-fi I’m going to miss. Nothing now can really compare to it.
Well technically, the series isn’t over. You have to watch Gauntlet real closely. But in short, it’s not really over. Just…well, do you really want to watch them quarrel and be at each other’s throat every week?
I have to admit within the two seasons, it was jammed packed with a lot of deep symbolism. Lots to really think about as a whole. I guess it’s one of it’s “redeeming” qualities as a franchise, turn an abstract idea into a realistic thought provoking story.
Who knows? Maybe Sy-fy might be crawling back begging.
…or a video game.
(I personally think a video game would come out faster than Sy-fy at the mercy of SGU…I would definitely take bets on that.)
I too shall miss the SG universe in general. And SGU made is very awesome to experience with a new take.
Yes. Yes I do want them at each other’s throat every week. lol. If you read the trade news, MGM has discontinued any plans of an SGU or SGA movie as they previously had on the floors. With SGU’s cancelation, the entire franchise has been shelved. There’s still hope, but we’ll see. That’s why the last episode was so prophetic and conveyed the status of the entire franchise in the storyine… as being suspended, but not really over.
I’m not a gamer, but if a game does well enough to re-start some interest in the franchise… then I’m all for it.
Thanks for your comments dude…
Yeah, I’ve been following the status very intimately and I will be doing so until there is some headway into this. Not quite sure if I would enjoy the SGA movie; but if it’s a tie in, to everything and SGU, can’t be so bad.
Last few scenes are really artistically thought through to really bring 1 and 2 closer together. If you’re not quite sure, wait the beginning of Air then Watch the end of Gauntlet.
I’m not tech expert; but I got a feeling if they revived the series, Eli’s got one hell of a story to tell. It was more or less a 2 pronged attack to the series. One being the filler episodes and the second would be the time slot jumps. I have a feeling the community of Gaters (yeah, I’m call people that…and yeah, I’m one of them) could band together to really produce scripts. Downside being the budget and legal issues…and hiring back everyone including the in-house CGI studio. No less some people have some good fan-fi and thoughts of how Eli would survive the intergalactic trip. Three to forty under stasis shouldn’t be that bad on a million year old ship with damaged systems and minimal power and environmental system capacities…right?