There appears to be a competition between Greer and Rush over who can be more crazy. Rush took this episode with useless insanity that served no purpose other than angst and anger. Stargate Universe in 4 episodes has accomplished absolutely nothing in terms of story. 'Darkness' had the least story out of the 4 episodes which is amazing considering how nothing happened in the other episodes either.
Power is running out on the Rush and he goes crazy yelling and being a general jackass. He eventually collapses and finally stops being so unpleasant. The ship finally loses so much power it stops traveling are the speed they were going at. They see a gas giant and slingshot around it to reach a solar system, but now they're going towards a star.
That's the extent of what happened. The peripheral stories were slightly more interesting, but I couldn't care less. Eli shows Chloe the shower and she gets really scared when the lights go out and wants Eli to stay. The crew confronts Eli about what he knows since he is highly valued by the people at the top. Colonel Young's wife is mad at him. Yep, that's what it all boils down to.
I'll admit I am slightly warming to some characters, but there must be a balance between story and characters. Having people worry about power is not a story. Stargate Universe can be an effective character driven show, but that means having the characters reacting to something external. The Stargate franchise has always created vast worlds with cool mythology that the characters can explore. So far we have gotten lots of interaction between the character with essentially nothing else.
Score: 8.2/10
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2 comments:
The slingshot sequence, with its uncharacteristic "real time" FX shots implying Destiny's speed, was a glimmer of what the producers might have wanted in a show appealing to wide audiences -- a sci-fi convention made what it would be to any of us, i.e., spectacular.
But that constituted, what, five minutes of a 43-minute show?
The first two episodes reminded me of Atlantis' premiere, minus about 60 percent of the plot. "Darkness" borrowed from the previous series again, this time with the camcorder messages. One problem: in Atlantis, an entire season of colorful episodes had established primary and supporting characters. We know practically nothing about the stars and supernumeraries of Universe; and canned, "Game over, man! Game over!" soliloquies don't help.
Unless Mallozzi and company cleverly planned the series' best episodes to air after the premiere, Universe is not going to last long.
I couldn't agree more, regarding the absence of a story. I am a long time fan of SG-1 and Atlantis. This incarnation of the franchise is only doing harm to the Stargate Mythology. Too many angry people shouting at each other, no further development of the Ancients, or any other existing storyline threads, amature camera, handycam work. The whole thing is too dark, and I am not just refering to the lighting!