Stargate Universe 1.0 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Stargate Universe 1.0 Blu-ray Movie Review

A derivative series gets off to a slow start, but ultimately shows some promise...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 14, 2010

It's time for another round of "Name That Show!" The category? Sci-fi dramas. Ninety seconds on the clock... and here we go. This steely SyFy series represents a game-changing milestone in a long-established franchise. In it, a massive spaceship is home to a band of human survivors who narrowly escape a devastating planetary attack. Its armed forces personnel are at constant odds with other members of the crew, and a precarious struggle for dominance soon develops. On one side, a stalwart military man who places honor and loyalty above all else; opposing his authority, a once-mild-mannered woman reluctantly thrust into a position of power when she's determined to be the highest ranking official left standing. Between them? A callous, arrogant, self-interested doctor clinging to his own shady agenda. The conflicts the crew is forced to deal with? Constant clashes between the ship's soldiers and scientists, emerging opportunists, waning morale, fading hope, the loss of vital resources, mysterious deaths, and a crippling fear that their journey might not bring them to Earth. The tone? Dark and bleak. The visuals? Gritty, minimalist, and draped in shadow. Alright, contestants... name that show! If you said Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore's groundbreaking 2004 reinvention of an aging pop culture relic... you're correct! However, if you said Stargate Universe, Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper's 2009 offshoot of Wright's staggering ten-season-strong Stargate SG-1... erm, you're also correct.

"Well... this is awkward."

It's hard to miss the similarities between the two; Wright and Cooper's inspiration and influences are clear and undeniable. Nevertheless, Stargate Universe does manage to differentiate itself -- slowly but surely -- as the series' first ten episodes unfold. After ducking through a one-way Stargate during a vicious alien assault, a multinational team of soldiers and scientists find themselves aboard the Destiny, an automated ship designed by the Ancients to explore and catalog the near-infinite galaxies in the far reaches of the known universe. Among the team members is even-keeled USAF Colonel Everett Young (Louis Ferreira), stubborn IOA accountant Camile Wray (Ming-Na), manipulative scientist and resident plothole-patcher Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle), hot-tempered USMC Master Sergeant Ronald Greer (Jamil Walker Smith), pilot and budding medic Tamara Johansen (Alaina Huffman), wide-eyed fanboy and newly recruited thinktank Eli Wallace (David Blue), Air Force Lieutenant and at-times-second-in-command Matthew Scott (Brian J. Smith), unassuming civilian Chloe Armstrong (Elyse Levesque), and astrophysicist Dale Volker (Patrick Gilmore), among sixty to seventy others. Once the Destiny's stranded crew comes to terms with the situation and the fact that a return to Earth is next to impossible, they race to repair the ship's life support systems, replenish its power supply, scour whatever worlds it visits for supplies, and hurry back aboard before it whisks them away to its next destination. Without any control over its heading, where it will arrive, when it will leave, or how it will affect the course of their lives, theirs becomes a simple game of survival.

Owing as much of its existence to Star Trek: Voyager as it does to Battlestar Galactica (sorry, that's a whole other round of "Name That Show"), Stargate Universe suffers from familiarity above all else. Very little feels fresh, and very little will strike newcomers as original. The series' lone saving grace -- at least for the seven episodes that pass by before SGU begins timidly forging its own path -- is its characters. While his last name might as well be Adama, Colonel Young is an imposing figure and a welcome anchor point; one who commands respect from his audience as readily as he demands respect from his men. His encounters with the crew's alpha males and towering personalities are rife with tension and intensity; his conversations with the frightened and the weary establish him as a steadying force on an unstable mission. Dr. Rush is both a tragic Shakespearean construct and a volatile menace to anyone who brushes against his ego-fueled madness. As selfish and conceited as any fledgling villain could be without being entirely unlikeable, he perpetually damns and redeems himself, making him an invaluable component of the series. The rest of the characters are just as engrossing, elevating any mediocre writing, bland dialogue, and prevailing genre cliches that dot the proceedings. Even Wallace, a lucky videogamer whose presence on the Destiny requires tremendous suspension of disbelief, becomes a more intriguing team member as the show progresses. Once his I play MMORPGs! schtick wears thin, Wright and Cooper wisely assign him the role of ship's conscience. The all-too-knowing look he gives Colonel Young at the end of the tenth episode puts a fitting season cap on a character who could prove to be one of the franchise's more memorable civilians.

Still, the cast and characters have a long way to go. Without the wit and charm that made the personalities that frequented SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis so colorful and endearing, Universe has a steep climb ahead. Its stern loyalists, brooding loners, and self-righteous antagonists have a tough time eliciting viewer empathy, and an even tougher time appealing to franchise diehards who've grown accustomed to the lighter tone of previous Stargate outings. Likewise, without a defined or implicit threat -- in the vein of the Goa'uld, Wraith, or Replicator races -- the series' writers have to engineer organic problems for the crew of the Destiny to solve. Resources, deadlines, and freak accidents rule the day, leading to a number of decidedly erratic plotlines. SGU doesn't have much focus beyond its characters, and its stories sometimes flounder as a result. It isn't until "Justice" that many of the series' first-season themes come to a head, and even then they leave everything in a transparent, oh-so-manufactured state of disorder; a chaotic state that will inevitably right itself the moment the series resumes its broadcast run in April. I rarely felt as if the men and women of the Destiny were in legitimate danger, and quickly identified every Red Shirt who'd find his way onto the team just in time to be devoured by a swarm of nano-beasties or nearly killed by an ominous Ancient device (a chair that practically has the words "you will die if you sit here" etched into its frame).

Can Stargate Universe make the transition from derivative spin-off to must see sci-fi classic? Season One's best episodes give me hope, but its misfires leave me with serious doubts. I always used to recommend Stargate Atlantis to anyone who didn't enjoy Battlestar Galactica, and vice versa. But while I enjoyed both shows for very different reasons, the two don't mix as easily as Wright and Cooper envisioned. As the direction of the series becomes more clear in future episodes, I'll be looking to see if the pair part ways from BSG and Voyager and offer something new and inventive. They certainly have the proper groundwork; the potential; the characters necessary to wage new interstellar wars and set new genre expectations. They have all the elements a stunning sci-fi drama should have. Their scripts just require tightening, tuning, refinement, and a more judicious eye. SGU desperately needs the sort of passion that erupts on-screen to seep behind the cameras. With any luck, Wright and Cooper's next batch of SGU episodes will give me a good reason to write a different review this fall.

Stargate Universe 1.0 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Stargate Universe: Season One arrives with a savory 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer steeped in rich colors and impenetrable shadows. While the series' palette is in a constant state of flux -- "Air" revels in desaturated skintones and murky corridors, "Light" bathes the dim Destiny halls in fiery yellows and summery oranges, and "Justice" sends the SGU mainstays to an arid desert planet where blood seems to sear the sandy soils -- contrast and clarity remain strong, skintones are convincing and lifelike, and blacks are deep and nicely resolved (save a few shoddy shots in the pilot). Detail is often striking as well. Fine facial textures are refined, edge definition is crisp and clean, and delineation, though less forgiving than Stargate fans might expect, allows viewers to explore the sinewy stretches of the ship. Yes, softness crops up on occasion, but it usually traces back to the series' photography, not Fox's proficient transfer. If I have any complaint, it's that faint artifacting and aliasing haunts shots dominated by special effects. Jut gaze out the windows of the Destiny, take note of the purple-streaked wormholes and probe the distant starfields; look closely at her hull, or examine the plating of a fleeing shuttle. It's there. Otherwise, the technical presentation is quite impressive. Unintentional noise, severe macroblocking, banding, ringing, and DNR are either nowhere to be found, or kept to an absolute minimum.

All things considered, newcomers, diehards, and videophiles of all stripes will approve of the results. Fox's transfer isn't perfect, but it looks substantially better than its DVD counterpart and adds some serious value to the release.

Stargate Universe 1.0 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rest easy, dear Gaters. Season One's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is even better than its video transfer, readily taking advantage of each channel with every jarring explosion, erupting portal, galaxy jump, and roaring breach the crewmen contend with aboard the Destiny. Whether struggling to survive the dangers of a planet's surface or delivering a hushed confession to the ship's KINO orb, Colonel Young's team members are rarely overwhelmed by the series' at-times chaotic soundscape. Voices are clear, intelligible, and well prioritized (despite the fact that the crew's mess hall chats sometime sound a tad flat). Better still, LFE output is hearty, intense, and aggressive, mounting a small assault on the senses whenever aliens attack or the ships skims the surface of a star. Rear speaker activity is commendable as well, enveloping the listener with immersive ambient effects and convincing interior acoustics. Granted, several episodes are quite quiet, but Fox's lossless mix handles the subtle and not-so-subtle highs and lows of the season with ease. Directionality is precise and pans are spot on (especially for a sci-fi cable series), and dynamics are arresting. I doubt anyone, regardless of how they feel about the show itself, will shrug their shoulders at its sonic wares.

Stargate Universe 1.0 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

You might as well ignore the slew of features on the back cover of Stargate Universe. While the supplements listed in the official blurb are all present and accounted for, the majority of the video content is crammed into an interactive Star Map of sorts that makes finding specific material a pain. Ah well. With nine audio commentaries (hit-or-miss as they might be), a generous helping of behind-the-scenes featurettes, and both the broadcast and extended versions of the series' pilot, the Blu-ray edition of Season One should keep fans busy for quite a while.

• Audio Commentaries: Here's a helpful hint -- sample Season One's technical commentaries before delving into the murky depths of its cast-centric tracks. The actors are charming enough, but they tend to blather away, pursue inane tangents, and giggle their way through awkward jokes and pop culture references. Executive producer Robert C. Cooper, director Andy Mikita, and VFX supervisor Mark Savela deliver the best of the bunch while dissecting the broadcast version of "Air." They discuss SGU's place in the Stargate universe, the tone they employed for the new series, the cast's performances, the first season's various storylines, and the challenges of revamping a well-established franchise.
  
  Unfortunately, the extended pilot's commentary falls flat. Helmed by actors Brian J. Smith, David Blue, and Eylse Levesque, the wince-inducing chat-fest that ensues offers little information (beyond what can be deciphered from their anecdotes). The same goes for "Darkness," "Light," "Water" (wherein Blue is replaced by Louis Ferreira), "Earth," and "Life" (Blue is again replaced, this time with Ming Na), all of which find the actors with less and less to say about the series itself. The cast compliments their co-stars incessantly, and take plenty of friendly jabs at their on-screen comrades -- I even laughed out loud a few times -- but continually neglect the fans listening at home (something their apologies reveal they're all too aware of doing).
  
  Matters finally improve with "Time" as a more subdued David Blue sits down with executive producer Robert C. Cooper to examine the direction of the show, its characters' conflicts, and the cracks developing in the survivors' demeanor. Pairing an actor with one of the series' creative heads proves to be a smart decision as theirs is the most diverse commentary available. "Justice" offers a similar experience as director William Waring rallies actors Louis Ferreira, Brian J. Smith, Elyse Levesque, and Jamil Walker Smith long enough to actually dig into the episode in question. The foursome tend to repeat some of the information that's already covered elsewhere in the set, but theirs is a lively conversation that ends the commentaries on a fairly high note.
• Destiny SML Star Map and Log (SD): Each disc includes an interactive star map of sorts. But don't get excited, the feature isn't a snazzy BD-Live extravaganza ala Lost's sprawling online "University," it's merely a hub whereby users can access some two-and-a-half dozen standard definition featurettes (most of which are 3-5 minutes in length). The videos run the gamut -- a brief overview of the Stargate mythos (hosted by Daniel Jackson no less), a pile of behind-the-scenes interviews, dissections of key visual effects and stunt sequences, and a variety of other production EPKs -- but the menu itself is quite cumbersome. Thankfully, once a video has been played, its icon fades a bit, making it fairly easy to track which areas of the on-screen galaxy have already been visited.
• Kino Video Diaries (SD, 24 minutes): Actor David Blue and executive producers Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper discuss the KINO orb's function as a series storytelling device before introducing a number of annoying KINO-captured character shorts.

Stargate Universe 1.0 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Despite liberally pilfering from other acclaimed science fiction series, Stargate Universe has some potential. Where its writers fall short, its cast frequently rises to the challenge. Where its scripts flounder, its performances keep things interesting. Where its stories meander, its characters enchant and enthrall. Mark my words: if the second half of Season One (scheduled to begin airing this April) manages to match its actors' efforts, SGU will start earning respect. If not... well, that's best left to a future review. Regardless, Fox's 2-disc Blu-ray release is a solid one. With an attractive video transfer, a memorable DTS-HD Master Audio track, and a generous (albeit flawed) supplemental package, the Blu-ray edition of Stargate Universe should make its faithful fanbase happy.