Air

 DVD, Stargate Universe S1 (Air)

Where to begin? It was a much longer opening episode than I ever remembered, essentially three parts in one, so there's a lot to keep track of. Fortunately I watched this a few years ago when I bought all the 'Stargate' sets instead of waiting to view it in its proper place in chronological sequence. That makes it a little easier to digest this vast episode than if I were coming to it brand new, I know the characters, broadly where they go, and where the series ended (too soon), but I came to it originally without any prior knowledge of either this (other than its ignominiously early demise), or its prequel, 'Atlantis,' if you can call it that when there's no connection between the two other than both being in the same universe! I hadn't even watched all of 'SG-1' at that time so I was truly venturing into the unknown much like the characters. It's slightly disappointing there was no character in the continuing cast that had featured in the previous series', though we have plenty of faces from past 'Stargate,' not the least being three of the original four cast members of the original series. But I was hoping some minor recurring character from 'Atlantis' would be in the main cast, not quite remembering who all the characters were. There are a lot of them, one of the signs this was charting new territory for the franchise which had tried to stay as close in style, tone and format to its parent show when 'Atlantis' came long. You can see the influence of such Noughties TV as 'Lost,' setting up a big ongoing adventure story for a large cast to solve, no one safe, and filming it in a much more prestige drama style than the more traditional formula the other series' had followed.

We have a lot of shaky-cam, something that was becoming more and more common and which is a little irritating, and gone is the usual opening title sequence, though at least for this episode we do have a beautiful, majestic fly-by of the Ancient ship, Destiny, as the cast names appear. The premise seems to be a lot more about interpersonal conflict than the tight band of four or five characters of yore, so we have all kinds of threads hanging loose, upon which the writers had set up potential to be pulled from: there's the fresh-faced, good if flawed, Scott, there's the volatile bad boy with a temper Greer, the genius boy Eli and most importantly main scientist boffin Dr. Rush. There's a blonde medic, Colonel Young whom we don't really get beyond typical heroic leading man, and Chloe, daughter of a Senator who dies saving the ship. And there are others: James, another soldier, Camille, a representative of the IOA, and no doubt various others I'm forgetting. It's all a bit messy and you're really unsure of what the series is going to be from all this setup - if I'd seen 'Atlantis' beforehand I'd have noticed the parallels that it's another vast alien 'city' to explore within the bowels of which anything of story potential could come, as it did in that series. It's a little clumsy as to why there could be this ship out so far beyond not just our Milky Way Galaxy, but the Pegasus and many more, way away from any petty little alien worries like Lucian Alliance or Wraith forces, it's mind-blowingly vast in concept. And yet we hear this isn't the first ship that went out so far, other 'gate-building and seeding ships went first to prepare a route so this ship could follow, but wasn't this ship meant to be unmanned too?

They speculate that perhaps the Ancients ascended before they got around to boarding it, but then why would it have been sent out at all if they could already get Stargates out there? You see the logic problems, but they had to come up with some way to have Stargates still be part of the series otherwise they couldn't really call it that! Though clumsy, the setup was still pretty good and it both begins and ends well, from the moment people are being hurled out of the Stargate into this dark hall, to the mad scramble to bring the necessary sediment or whatever it was, back to the ship, there was a great sense of first confusion, and later jeopardy. It can't help but be (probably deliberately so), compared with a genre (though not one of mine), favourite: 'Battlestar Galactica,' in the sense that they start in disarray, escaping from a foe that means they can never go back, and then they're simply trying to survive. Another influence must be 'Voyager' since they're out in a distant space far beyond all else that had been encountered in past series'. This both frees them and makes them captive at the same time, because how do you do aliens beyond all known galaxies, not just our 'small' region of space. They would tend to avoid them as much as possible, though the episode ends with a tantalising hint of things to come when a tiny craft detaches from the Destiny and flies off. But as much as they had the possibility of newness to explore, they were also mostly cut off from the lore and continuity of 'Stargate' as a whole, something that may have hurt the series overall.

They weren't entirely trapped on this dark vessel away from everything they'd ever known, they had the communications stones which would enable trips back to Earth, mentally at least, and also the appearance of other characters (like Dr. Lee or Walter). This gave an added benefit of being able to do all kinds of stories not restricted to the ship, wisely. If they weren't too restricted they did trap themselves a little bit by losing the lightness and neatness of those well depicted archetypes. Not to say they aren't there, the series is still well rooted in the military versus scientific mentality, with a side order of civilian interference that has always been there, it's just more spread out amongst various characters. One thing that did appeal, especially after the more fantasy bent of modern Trek and other sci-fi, is that procedures were followed and things made sense: they get sunburnt because they don't come with sunscreen, and they're doing little experiments to locate what they need on the desert planet, it doesn't just happen with technology or magic. Not to say that hierarchy is always followed, the chain of command is confused by Young being incapacitated for most of the story, there's a mass of frightened people, both soldiers and civilians, and various strong-minded individuals with their own ideas as to what should be done. What is interesting is seeing how things come together, with some characters making the wrong decision that gets them killed.

There's also a good sense of there being more to most of these people than we're used to, we're not sure if they're good or bad, they have their own agendas: is Rush their only hope or is he a troublemaker intent on achieving his own ends at the expense of others? Eli is the one we're supposed to warm to as the outsider being shown or explained to about all the various 'Stargate' lore, though he is a little annoying, this podgy young guy who only got there through solving a puzzle in a computer game that had been designed to find someone suitable for the mission. He's easily walked over by the others, as he should be, I didn't understand why you'd put him in charge of one of the teams on the desert when he has no leadership training at all, other than for dramatic purpose. Chloe, similarly was a bit of a disgrace, having an emotional meltdown as her Father gives up his life to save the ship, and making his last moments torturous as he must be able to hear her selfish wailing for him to come back instead of bravely accepting his decision and being strong for him (but we see where she got it from as her Mother is also extremely emotional!). That's not to say we don't see bravery in action, whether that be Scott taking the plunge to see where the Ninth Chevron has led the 'gate, or Young being the last to evacuate the doomed Icarus Base, to Greer going back for Scott when he's out of contact in the desert with time running out before the ship jumps again.

I liked the direction for the most part, the way the flashbacks to how this all came about aren't 'One Day Previously' as we've seen so many times before, but were woven into the story more organically, and when they had montages or moments of danger it was well done and shot nicely, other than the overuse of shaky-cam. The desert portion of the story took me all the way back to Season 1 of 'SG-1' when they encountered these intelligent crystals on another desert planet, only in this case it's intelligent, benevolent sand. The effects were very good, and that goes for the ship and the Faster-Than-Light aurora borealis light shows as well, it's just a shame the interiors are so dark and dingy, though I can see why it has to be that way so they can be creepy about it all and you never know if that's a shadow in the corner or a hatch into some little crevice, providing ever more dramatic potential. I liked the music which suitably evoked the alienness and scale of the ship and the situation these people find themselves in, so Joel Goldsmith was still going strong, just a shame they couldn't have had an opening theme along with the closing theme. It was somewhat refreshing to see some of the attitudes from characters, made before PC took over completely, so there's still a rough reality about people that I appreciated, even if it wasn't always complimentary. It was sad the series never lasted beyond two seasons, but I'm certainly looking forward to seeing it with new eyes as the last bit of 'Stargate' (not counting 'Origins' as it's only a short, is a prequel, and has never been released on DVD). This particular 'episode,' if you can call it that as it's more like a full film, had its moments, but also felt a little drawn out (much like modern serialised sci-fi), but I know they did better as the series progressed.

**