Instead of being sharp and gripping, SGU (especially in season 1) was a dismal outer space soap opera that relied too heavily on characters returning to earth via the communication stones. While SGU perhaps thought it was being edgy by showcasing a lesbian relationship on the show, the relationship itself was dull, boring and didn’t advance the plot whatsoever. Who cares about the strains of being in outer space on a long-distance lesbian relationship? We want to see some action! If we cared that much more about characters’ love lives then we’d be watching Desperate Housewives and not science fiction – and the writers forgot that.

Fortunately, the worst excesses of the relationship drama were weeded out by season 2. So the question is:

Did SGU redeem itself? If you haven’t watched it yet, is it worth it to sit through season 1 to get to the improved season 2?

Yes and no. Yes, in that, if you’ve watched all of Star Trek, all the Star Wars films, Firefly, Farscape, BSG, and every other conceivable space show out there, then by all means, you’ll want to rent SGU and watch it. It’s got some good points. I’d recommend, if you are really hating the relationship drama in season 1, to simply fast forward past it. Trust me, you aren’t missing anything.

By season 2, SGU started to gel a little bit and the writers added some much needed comic relief to the dreary landscape. By the end of season 2, the show had started to get its legs. Despite that, it was still a highly flawed series and suffered from a variety of problems, including (in no particular order):

1. Too much death and disappointment. Yes, it’s realistic, but in today’s “Great Recession” we need more hope and vision than that. I got tired of people dying, getting sick, or otherwise ending up deflated and disappointed.

2. Too much in-fighting, not enough camaraderie. We get it, Rush is an asshole, and the Colonel doesn’t like him. Next!

3. Wooden female characters. Camille Ray (the aforementioned lesbian) was the absolute worst and bypassed Chloe as my most hated female character. The female medic was only somewhat appealing. The best female characters were peripheral ones who outshone the main performers in their brief appearances on the show.

4. Big gaping plot holes or unresolved issues. (SPOILERS: Eli’s and Rush’s electronic girlfriends being put into quarantine with nary a mention or sniffle afterwards; the descendants of the alternate Destiny being dumped on a planet without us getting to see this, never mind that they were traveling in a hostile universe filled with psychopathic drones bent on destruction.)

5. Lack of a common goal. Rush wanted to find out what the message was from the edge of the universe, and everyone else wanted to get home. Or did they? No-one seemed to be motivated or excited about anything. Such a far cry from the optimism and vision of Star Trek.

There were a few things I liked about SGU: I actually liked Eli, as well as Rush, and Greer was probably my favorite character. The two science geeks on the bridge ended up being quite funny and they added much in season 2. I only wish they’d done more with the alien Chloe.

The bottom line for me is that SGU was an extremely flawed show that might have gotten a bit better if given a little more time. But in this instance, I don’t blame SyFy for dumping it, as much as I hate SyFy’s lack of loyalty to its shows and its fans. All that said, in two seasons of SGU, there were many decent moments and interesting things going on. If you’re jonesin’ for some outer space scifi then SGU might not be a bad thing to catch up on. Just don’t have high expectations for it.

I initially gave SGU a good review. The first episode was very promising.

Seven episodes later, the show is failing to live up to its initial promise.

We’re treated to the “Big Problem of the Week” instead of the “Big Adventure of the Week.” More and more, the focus of the show is on the lame sex lives of the characters, instead of science fiction.

An excessive focus of the show has been the love life of Chloe, who is probably the weakest, least interesting, and most annoying character on SGU. (In fact, I’d make her one of the worst characters I’ve seen on TV in a while).

In the most recent episode of SGU, we were treated to an extensive trip into a nightclub, where we got to see Chloe (trading consciousness with someone on earth), get upset at her best friend for now dating her ex-boyfriend. Meanwhile, Chloe is sleeping with a young soldier on the ship – so why should she care? It’s not like she’s being loyal to said boyfriend. Meanwhile, Eli is in love with her.

THIS IS NOT SCI-FI! I do not care about Chloe and her stupid love life!

Chloe is a good example of how useless most characters are made on SGU. Chloe is there because she’s a senator’s daughter. She does not offer anything of value to the efforts to save the people on Destiny, yet she’s regularly given special perks due to her political status. She has yet to display any bravery, intelligence, creativity, or anything else useful (other than talking back to Rush in one brief instant).

Among the women on Destiny: We have a boring human resources manager, a boring blonde medic, and that’s about it. The male characters are slightly better but not one of them has any lasting charisma to make the show inspiring. Eli is a character I do like, but he irritates half the audience, and Rush is probably the only thing saving this show.

If the writers at SGU don’t get it together soon, this show is going to go down in history as one of the worst, most mind-numbingly painful sci-fi shows ever. And that’s a lot for me to say, considering how much I liked the first episode.

Get it together, SGU people. You can start by diminishing Chloe’s role and finding some other more interesting female to bring to the forefront, someone who has more dramatic interest other than the fact that she sleeps around a lot and confuses cheap sex with love.

I am giving SGU about one or two more episodes. If they continue the obsessive focus on Chloe’s personal life rather than science fiction, I am done.

I was never drawn in to watch Stargate: SG1 on a regular basis. It was one of those shows I would watch once in a while when I happened to catch it. I was a Farscape fan, and SG1 really didn’t cut the mustard compared to Farscape. Bringing on Ben Browder and Claudia Black did not convert me to SG1 – it actually kept me away. Why ruin my good Farscape memories just to see Ben and Claudia in an inferior show?

I caught Stargate Atlantis a few times and found it entertaining, but not so much that I wanted to include it on my regular TV schedule. It was always one of those “well, I’ll watch this series at some point on DVD when nothing else is good on TV” type of shows.

So I wasn’t waiting for the premiere of Stargate Universe with baited breath. Since the SciFi channel turned into the watered down SyFy I haven’t really paid much attention. But I just happened to see SGU was available on Hulu and decided to give it a go.

Not being attached to the previous Stargate shows, I was able to watch SGU with fresh eyes. I liked that it was a little less shiny and plastic than previous Stargate incarnations. The quality of the filming seemed to be more cinematic. (Notably, some of the desert cinematography was particularly well-done for a TV show in the last installment of the opener.)

While some of the plot elements were a little canned (such as – SPOILER ALERT – the ridiculous sacrifice on behalf of the politician with his daughter stupidly freaking out and trying to stop what obviously could not be stopped), I liked the idea of a group of refugees being stuck on a mysterious ship way out in the middle of nowhere.

The characters on SGU are a mixed bag. Geeky Eli who is a fish out of water is my favorite (loved his comments on the desert planet about finding a half-buried Statue of Liberty). The military guys are pretty good, and the amoral scientist with the requisite accent is also an intriguing character. The women I am not so fond of. Chloe, the daughter of a senator, is whiny, moody, and very unappealing personality-wise. She’s not even that attractive so I have to wonder why on earth she was cast. (As I noted on Twitter, there seems to be this bizarre trend lately towards girls with really huge foreheads.) We also have a female medic who one Internet fan called a “7 of 9″ clone, and Ming Na, who has not really done much so far, so I can’t really judge.

If I have one minor nitpick, I hate the fact that when they use their “communication stones” to talk to people on earth, they make it look like the people have switched bodies when they haven’t. I understand this is a device to make the audience understand a new personality is taking over the body on earth, but it would make a lot more sense to me if the actors simply mimicked being the character that is inhabiting the body. It really takes me out of the story when they use a device like that. (Kind of like the silly body switch they’ve been doing lately on Ghost Whisperer.)

Stargate Universe does have problems sometimes with pacing – the show can drag a bit at times, and it has yet to find a good rhythm and rapport with all the diverse characters. I am intrigued, however, and Hulu gives me an easy way to watch the show at my convenience. So I’ll be tuning in for more…for as long as SyFy keeps the show alive.

Now if SyFy would get it together and actually offer a Farscape spin-off…ahhh, a girl can dream…