Ranting Kenya

Stargate Universe is one of the coolest Sci-Fi shows I’ve watched. Sure, I liked SG-1 and the other shows, but this one is so different.

I’m way late to the game on this one. It was not shown in HD in Canada last year when it was initially run (as far as I could tell). As a result I just kinda skipped over it. This year however, some other channel is carrying it in HD. I watched about 3 episodes then I decided to just buy in on Blu Ray.

It is not of the style SG-1. There’s not a ton of techno babble. It’s a drama with a Sci-Fi setting. It’s totally about characters clashing. I’m only part-way through the first season, and loving it completely. The episode “Light” was the episode that made me purchase the show on Blu Ray. The combination of the visuals, the tone, and the wicked synthy soundtrack were too much to ignore. That episode is a gem.

The crazy thing is I’m not really sure who the protagonist is. That’s not to say the show features all these different people and never sticks with anyone. The show really focuses around a handful of characters. But much like the characters in the show, I’m not really sure who I’m supposed to sympathize with.

The current state on the ship is basically two men at war with each other. One a Colonel, the other a brilliant scientist. They each have their own methods of problem solving and their own priorities and they are battling for control of the ship, both in the literal sense and in the court of public opinion with the rest of the crew (a mix of military and civilian personnel). But it’s more of a crazy mind game. Once you think you know who you’re agreeing with, that character goes and does something to advance their own goals that doesn’t jive with how “your hero” should act. Neither character is “the good guy”, but they’re both attempting to achieve the same goal, just with different methods.

At any rate, I’m having great difficulty watching a single episode at a time. I have little doubt that I’ll blast through the entire first season in a couple days, then re-watch everything. Then I’ll be anxiously awaiting season 2 on Blu Ray. The production value of this show is so high, I don’t want it diminished by compression, bandwidth, commercials, audio blips, bad recordings or whatever. Watching it on Blu Ray is so pure and enjoyable. It’s making me pine for a 1080p plasma now to replace my 720p projection.

From what I’ve heard, much of this style is similar to Battlestar Galactica, which I’m interested in checking out. I just need to catch it in HD from the first season or something to get into it.