The third spin-off television series in the Stargate franchise has now hit our screens with a new take on the way Stargate stories are told. There has been a lot of criticism over the choices SyFy channel have made with this series, but now that we've seen it - is it any good?

Most of the trailers and literature I'd seen about this series prior to it airing made me worry that the newly rebranded SyFy channel had ruined a perfectly good franchise. It wasn't until the more recent theatrical trailer shown some promise that I thought that this series may be in with a chance of lasting.

The basic premise for this show centres around the ninth chevron of the Stargate; the purpose of which has remained undiscovered until now. This is the purpose of the "Icarus Project", a Stargate on another world which taps into the radioactive core of the planet has enough power to dial the ninth chevron but they had no way of calculating how much power was actually needed. It was then the idea of a Californian senators daughter that they put the problem into a computer game so that players can solve it. This is where Eli Wallace (David Blue) comes into the story as an unemployed, lazy, ex-MIT student who is capable of solving the equation but whose mother is very ill. He is visited by General Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and Doctor Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) who ask him to sign an NDA. Before he can agree to it he is beamed aboard the starship "George Hammond" (named after the character played by the late Don S. Davis who died in 2008).

Eli is the character who is there to be the comic relief for the series and is in someways a similar character to Rodney McKay in that he is a genius (and who can forget the comical banter between him and Sheppard!) but instead of being in the military or having some amazing job, he is instead someone who was previously unemployed. The purpose of this character and the many "unqualified for the job civilians" is that it brings a sense of familiarity to the audience - it allows them to picture themselves in that situation easier so they can identify with the characters. This does lead us on to what has been the problem for most people though - the average age of the cast members is around 25 which combined with the fact it's on a ship billions of light years from home earned in the nickname of "Stargate Voyager 90210" (also referring to the Star Trek: Voyager series that had a similar plot line).

So, following on with a basic outline we soon see that their first attempt at dialling the ninth chevron fail leading some of the people there to believe it's not going to work and is a waste of resources. Whilst relaxing over dinner in the Officers' Mess the base comes under attack by an unidentified faction using Goa'uld Ha'tak ships (and from the looks of it also a couple of Al'kesh ships amongst the gliders). The "gate operator" is ordered to dial Earth, but before he can finish Rush interrupts him after Eli figures out that the point of origin should have been Earth instead of the planet they are on. This new attempt works and they manage to evacuate the base before the planets core explodes taking the attacking Goa'uld ships with it. Up until this point you don't really see much chemistry between the different characters, the only ones who are interesting up until this point are Rush and Eli as the main focus is on them getting the Stargate working.

On the other side of the gate we see them aboard the Destiny, an unmanned spaceship built by the Ancients to explore the far reaches of our Universe. This is actually the first thing we see in the episode as everything that leads up to how they got there is seen through flashbacks dotted throughout the pilot episode. It didn't bother me too much, but one friend commented that it was distracting.

There were other problems with the episode too - Earth ships now have very powerful weapons using Asgard technology so should easily have been able to fight off those Goa'uld ships and defend the planet. Of course though that wouldn't have given them a reason to force the wrong people into the wrong place at the wrong time.

Getting back to the story, they soon learn about their circumstances and most of the new crew are eager to find a way to get the Stargate running so they can return home, however they are going faster than light and are getting ever further away from their home. Just as when the Atlantis expedition reached the Ancient's city, they have the same problem here with little power, no water, and a rapidly disappearing air supply. They sound out teams of three to scour the city to see what they can find and before long they find some shuttles, one of which is badly damaged and leaking air. A quick check of the shuttle shows that the door can only be closed from the inside and was most likely jammed open so someone could escape (though later they say it was unmanned). It's obvious someone will have to sacrifice themselves to save what air they have left so hopefully they can survive long enough to find a way to restore the badly damaged CO2 scrubbers.

Rush understands this necessity but Chloe Armstrong (Elyse Levesque) disagrees as asks for a list of the crew so he can determine who to send. His explanation to her is that politicians often send soldiers into war to sacrifice themselves for the many, but I think his explanation did seem to suggest he thought it should be her injured father (the politician). As expected he does sacrifice himself and they are bought an extra day of hour to find a solution to their problems.

By this time Colonel Everett Young (Justin Louis) has started to recover from his head injury and discovers that there could be a way to dial the gate back to Earth. As he starts to dial however an alarm goes off on Rush's console and he rushes to intercede. He explains that they don't have enough power and that an attempt will only drain more of what little they do have. Before they can cancel the dial their FTL drive disengages and Rush predicts the Stargate will dial out - which it does.

Noticing that they seem to have only 12 hours before the ship's FTL drive starts back up they prepare themselves for an away mission to the planet in search of supplies.

Overall I wasn't amazed by the series, nor was I overly disappointed. I think it will be a few more episodes before I decide whether I will be watching this series but I am starting to see a few hints that it does actually have some potential. For a pilot episode I would have liked it to have left a lasting impression with me eager to see more, unfortunately that was not entirely the case. Regardless, I would recommend at least checking out the first episode as it's currently free to watch in the US on Hulu.

UPDATE: After seeing the third and final part of the first episode titled Air, I'm starting to find some more confidence in this series and can say that it does offer some potential albeit with the same predictability (come on it was obvious someone was going to try one of those other addresses and that they'd get back to the gate at the very last minute). It was nice to see a planet that did not resemble a Canadian forest though.

Maaaaannnn...was this trippy. I don't know if this show is a sequel, or what, because I haven't watched TV in ages, but after GDS mentioned it, I saw that it had been posted on Hulu.com, so I gave it a shot. Glad I did, 'cause Robert Carlyle plays the lead. At first I didn't recognize him, but after a while I started talking Sco-ish agin...just as I did when I sat through a Hamish McBeth marathon (http://www.rateitall.com/r-3155627.aspx). Yes, that was Hamish, all right. And yes, the plot line is about a group of people who get sucked through a portal and are lost in space with the life support system failing. What did they expect? The ship is over 1000 frickin' years old and sludge has built-up in the CO2 cleanser. When they all realize that they're gonna die, one guy sacrifices himself to buy a day for everyone else, while a Marine grabs the first dickless human and jams her up against a rusty wall.

"I need you up here right away, Corporal!"

"I'm coming! I'm coming!"

Well, anyways, the real story, here, is about Hamish. Yah see, Hamish is the Constable in tha sleepy li-uhl sea-side town uh Lochdobh, Sco-lin. He was jes aboo to solve the case uh the missun boh-ey (which was eaten by McCrae's illegal lobstair operation), when...lo and behold!...he's been sucked through this wairm hole and spit out with uh bunch uh strangiers who call him Dr. Rush and air expectin' him to save the Univearse! Pair 'ol Hamish. Kin ee doo it? Will ee git space nookie? Or, does ee av some evil plans fer 'em all?

Check with GoingDownSLow for next week's up-date. He'll be an easier read. (Fun stuff)

Robert Carlyle as Hamish McBeth

Hey, look at me! I'm a friggin' TV critic!


Lieutenant, what's your position?

Uh, oh! More on this later.

Definitely NOT your father's Stargate, this series looks to be a darker, more somber tale. Think Battlestar Galactica meets The Shield meets Stargate Atlantis. The free camera cinematographic technique of pseudodocumentary cinema verite is appropriately used, in my opinion far less than was chosen for BG, where barf bags were required to make it through a show. The cast, many of which are relative unknowns, at least to me, make up a better ensemble than the previous two iterations of SG. Now, let's see what we have:

The good:

Dr. Nicholas Rush - Boy obviously has an agenda, though it's unclear whether it's for the good of the crew or simply self-serving, since he doesn't appear to want to return to earth. Methinks he's the main plot around which sub-plots will revolve. Clearly has some issues over the loss over his wife/GF. How much that has to do with his plans, if any, are still to be determined.

Special effects - I've always thought that the SG series had better-than-average CGI, especially since, with the exception of the early years of SG-1 on Fox, it's a cable series where budgets are tight. Yet, somehow, they've managed to ratchet it up a notch, at least for the premiere. If this holds up throughout the run, we'll clearly have a winner. Just one thing: no outside shots of the spaceship passing by with the rumble of engines in the background. Space may not be a perfect vacuum, but whatever medium exists (dark matter) is too sparse to afford your hearing sound waves. Leave it silent and let the Farscape fans think their TV is broken.

Plot - Certainly not unique, since both BG and Star Trek: Voyager had similar storylines i.e. me wants to go home. Nothing wrong with that, though if it becomes too predictable, they'll lose fans. I trust Cooper-Wright-Mikita to see that this doesn't happen.

Mature themes - Yeh, baby...SEX! If you watched either SG-1 or Atlantis, you soon came to realize that very few of the principles ever got laid. Not so here. This is one randy bunch. Not more than fifteen minutes into the premiere, the LT is in flagrante delicto with some chick who's name I've forgotten. Drop what you're doing and get up here. Nice! I suspect interpersonal relationships will abound, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on how syrupy they get . Just remember guys, this is a sci-fi series not a freakin' soap opera.

The bad:

Goa'uld - Will someone please remove these fucks from the universe - PERMANENTLY! Hopefully their appearance was a one shot deal. This is a major issue for me. If I want to see these dopes, I'll watch re-runs of SG-1. And no Asgard or Replicators, thank you very much.

Eli Wallace - AKA freakin' mope. Gets into the picture by solving an online math problem hidden within a game. Geez, where have I seen this before? Whiny turd who has all the maturity of Carrot Top. If he's a prime player in the series, as currently written, we're all doomed! Get him laid, post haste...

Friday 9:00pm - Worked well enough for the previous series, though I'll have to pick up Tivo, since the chances of me being in on Friday now are zero. If Scumcast adds it to their On-Demand lineup, so much the better.

The Unknown:

This is clearly aimed at grabbing viewers from the now defunct BG, while keeping those from SG-1 (cameos by RDA, Tapping, Shanks) and Atlantis as well as those Farscape fans that came aboard during the last few years of SG-1. Whether of not they'll take to the plot, especially the BG fans, is anyone's guess. I never liked BG, so if they do or don't show up in force is irrelevant to me, unless the SGU fan base is so small as to cause production problems and ultimately cancellation. Stargate had a pretty strong viewership and these guys are rabid, so unless the stories are unbearably bad, which I doubt will happen given the Cooper-Wright track record, this show should have at least a five year run.