Stargate Universe Season Two -- the Final Season for a Reason

Season Two of Stargate Universe, which is the final season for the show, is one of those series you cannot jump into in the 2nd season and expect to understand what is going on. I should know -- I tried. Frequently I have successfully reviewed the 2nd season of a series having not seen the first: Army Wives, Kyle XY, etc. but Stargate Universe is too convoluted to make sense without season one, and even then I have my doubts it would make complete sense.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Stargate Universe Season Two, which just released on DVD, hops back and forth from present day Earth (and alien planets that look an awful LOT like Earth) to the futuristic Destiny, which is really an ancient spaceship traveling many billions of light years distant from the Milky Way Galaxy. A present-day, exploration team has leaped through a Stargate portal and landed on the alien spaceship during an evacuation. Once on the ship, they apparently want to return to Earth, but they apparently want to explore the universe on Destiny, too. However, the ship is damaged and cannot be turned back to Earth, even though there is a Stargate on board.

Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is? (Does anybody really care?)

The series relies heavily upon devices like flashbacks, dreams and alternate realities, so the timing of events, even the reality of events is often confusing, and not in an interesting way. To make matters worse, halfway through the series, there is another set of main characters who show up a few thousand years in the past after hurtling through the portal in the present and being duplicated, and the present day explorers catch up with their descendants and watch video footage of themselves as space-travelers-become-pioneers-become-ancestors.

But Wait -- There's More

To add to the confusion there are strange communication stones on board Destiny. I never quite grasped the concept, or why any alien race would ever create such a silly system, but apparently when one uses the stones, one's psyche is sent to earth in someone else's body and vice versa. Toss that in with the aforementioned convoluted plot devices and there is even more needless confusion.

Lack of Leading Characters For a series with so many plot lines going on at once, Stargate Universe was strangely tedious and lackluster. Characters often spent time waxing philosophical, which was sometimes interesting, and sometimes not so much. And none of the characters seemed that appealing or developed except the often annoying, chubby nerd, Eli Wallace (David Blue) -- not a bad character, but not a character who can carry a series. It's a shame the character of Everett Young (Louis Ferreira), the commander or Matthew Scott (Brian J. Smith) weren't developed more or that the character of Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) was so ambiguous. Oh, and I almost forgot Lou Diamond Phillips was a forgettable repeat character. What a waste of talent. When all of them except Eli ended up in come kind of cryogenic stacis, it was anticlimactic.

Rest in Peace, Stargate Universe

For a show with so much potential and some interesting concepts to work with, season two of Stargate Universe fell far short of being good entertainment. It is no surprise the series was canceled. Stargate Universe may appeal to die-hard Stargate fans, and a few Star Trek/Star Wars/Lord of the Rings geeks, but this is one series that belongs in cryogenic stacis with its characters.

Pardon the strange formatting. There is a bug in the AC/Yahoo network that prevents proper line breaks.

Also see:

Kyle XY, Season II Review Featuring Matt Dallas, Jaimie Alexander, Chris Olivero & Kirsten Prout Now on DVD

Army Wives - the Complete Second Season: Patriotism & Drama Now on DVD