Movie Review: Stargate Universe 1.0 Blu-ray

Stargate Universe is the next installment of the Stargate franchise with a new set of actors/characters thrown into a new situation following an evacuation of one of the Stargate bases on a new planet.

Film making 18/25
Video 24/25
Audio 24/25
Bonus Features 15/25
Total 81/100

Stargate Universe continues the main theme of the Stargate shows and creates a new self contained storyline where refuges from an attack on one of the Stargate worlds find themselves alone aboard an Ancient ship. When a group of soldiers, scientists, visiting dignitaries and even a recent recruit to the Stargate program evacuate from an attack on a base they find themselves onboard an ancient ship.

The stars of Stargate universe are all not regulars from previous Stargate shows but there are a few special appearances from some of the regulars of the original Stargate. A couple stars of note are Robert Carlyle, Ming Na and Lou Diamond Phillips with occasional guest appearances by other Stargate regulars.

The show's theme is more of a mild adventure compared to previous Stargate series with much of the first episodes taking their time getting around to the action. The story goes like this, millions of years ago an old race called Ancients sent ships to seed the universe with Stargates.

The network of Stargates connects planets across the universe so people can travel the universe simply by stepping through a Stargate. The address using the chevrons on the ring of the Stargate dials the planet of choice using the pictures of constellations on each chevron.

The group on the planet at the beginning of the show are there to try and open a Stargate to another farther galaxy using not the usual 7 chevrons or more complex 8 chevron address but 9. The group including a young genius who cracks a code that the group has imbedded into a video game tries to establish the connection with the far off Stargate and end up under attack at their secret base.

While the group is gathering to use the Stargate as their escape Doctor Nicholas Rush successfully connects the Stargate with the 9 chevron address. With only the one chance to escape the group jumps through the Stargate to find them trapped on a starship somewhere else in the universe.

The ship is on auto pilot and doing its own thing but the introduction of people adds to the power drain on the ship as well as increasing other drains on systems. The new crew of the ship must try to figure out how to gain control of the ship, repair failing systems and generally survive.

They find out some of the ships systems and automatic routines the ship uses to function and the crew now spends each episode to figure out one major problem of the starship. Communication with Earth is through some alien artifacts that allow people to swap consciousness with ones on earth so talking with home base is still possible.

What is not is the general panic, mix of characters now forced to work together and use of very little supplies they brought with to help them survive. The show does pretty good at showing and having them solve major problems as they are confronted with them one at a time such as power, air and food.

What I really don't like is how they are taking so much time to solve some of these with too much personal time spent with each character through the use of recording devices found on the ship. A couple episodes spend at least a quarter of the show just having people give personal information into a recording device much like the cameras reality shows use in back rooms.

Stargate universe has a great theme and uses the general story of the Stargate universe to a well done start to a series but with a few problems. The show itself has the usual Stargate scenarios of planets with all kinds of different physiologies and life forms.

The show does a great job of tackling each problem in succession but adds a bit of the human element with the chatting to a camera that seems to just add an emotional element. I didn't like this part and was hoping it would only be in the one episode but it continued into two of the shows but just about quits there.

Other annoyances of the show are fleeting and interspersed through the shows well done acting and great scenes so there really are no problems other than a few minor things. Stargate Universe does show promise but it is too early to tell if it will take off on its own or just sit in the shadow of the previous Stargate shows.

The video and audio are great with some fantastic looking scenery that really does give you the feel of being on other planets as well as the main alien ship. The transfer to Blu-ray looks very good with great color and flesh tones as well as extraordinary filming with an eye toward dramatic effect.

The audio is also extremely well done with great surround sound from the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with very good effects and nice heavy LFE when appropriate. The show has its own theme and the general feel of a smaller group of humans being left on this huge ship is well done even with audio and the general hubbub you hear, and a few times miss due to power loss, works well.

Video and audio are great and really better than you would expect for a Blu-ray, almost perfect in my opinion with only an occasional hint at not hitting perfection. The bonus content is pretty good but kind of a pain to get to with 9 audio commentaries and more but in a star map form that makes navigating to single features a bit difficult.

While I enjoy additional content to follow the general theme of a film or series I cannot stand anything that is not simple point and click simple so the bonus content is not the greatest. There are some interesting things to hear in the audio commentary and the making of features are fun to watch as well as a Stargate lesson given by a character from the previous series.

The additional content is pretty good but nothing more than some additions to a new series that hopefully will get better with more episodes. We have a promising show in Stargate Universe but again here we have only part of a season of a show being released for whatever reason, money is my guess.

The show has promise but time will only tell as a half of a season does not give more than a look into what may happen with the coming shows. Stargate Universe does have promise and for any fans of Stargate it is going to be a must have for the fun of it but only time will tell if it will continue to be worth our attention.