It wasn’t the best of series to be sure. And it wasn’t my favorite show by far. But it did have some things going for it. Dare I say it even had a touch of BSG? What I think killed it was also a touch of Star Trek Voyager. Yes, that old show where the bad guys flew in giant ham ships, look at them, they look like hams.

What I mean here is that though there was a solid story to Stargate Universe, it was just too episodic. Often we are greeted by some stupid episode where the crew has to get off a planet and before some monsters eat them. Big whoop.

Now, it wasn’t a lot of episodes like that but it was enough to slowly kill the show. They really needed to stick to their guns and do more about destiny’s mission. Though, honestly, when you start looking for god, there’s really not much to do to end it. I mean, where do you take a story like that?

And when there was two destiny’s, great episode, they should have stuck with it. Lets have two of a character. Farscape did it and it was brilliant. Don’t shy away from the bigger weird and cooler plots. Your core audience wants to see it!

The biggest disappointment is that I fear there will be story lines that are not going to be explained. What was going on with the dead people that came back to the ship? The created planet? The drone fleet? Suckiest bad guys ever. I mean come on, a drone the size of a person can fire an energy weapon strong enough to penetrate the Destiny’s shields? Give me a break. Gobflys. It’s not like the people that built the Destiny were idiots. They knew how to build tough shields. Those shields can survive inside of a freakin star, some little tiny drone can fuck it up? Crapola.

In the end I think the bigger plot was great but the smaller plots were rushed and unsophisticated. You just can not do that in today’s environment. With shows like Babylon 5, Farscape, BSG and Firefly in the can, you really need to step up to compete in this genre. Stargate Universe just didn’t stand up to that caliber of shows.  And that really is what has me peeved. Now there really is no space based TV show out there. And Stargate Universe had some really interesting twists to it. It’s unfortunate we cant’ see where they go. A message to future writers, dump the episodic filler episodes and go balls to the walls! Make every episode a nail biter! You will be rewarded for it.

First of all, lets get some things right out in the open. The acting and cinematography were top notch. Eric Stolz is Eric Stolz after all. When you add that big of a name to a show it’s going to do well just with his talent. Esai Morales is no slouch either. As the pilot began I thought he was being a bit stoic with the death of his daughter and wife but that’s exactly what his character was supposed to do. He did it so well it was eerie to watch. Paula Malcomson rounds out the top three. If you don’t know her it’s only because you never watched Deadwood, which must mean you who Sweragin is, and I pity you for it. Suffice to say Malcomson has proved her talents in the past and is a great addition to the cast. The only other actor of significant note that I saw was mother of Caesar in HBO’s Rome. Polly Walker, who was fantastic in Rome, looks to be playing another villain as one of the leaders of a monotheistic religious movement.

The casting of Caprica was done well and the filming is also superb. Clearly SyFy knows that BSG was a monster hit and spared no expense in making Caprica, at least so far. And they would be right in doing so. If even a half the BSG fans come on to watch Caprica then it’ll be a big success for SyFy. Ahh, gone are the days of Tremors the series and I for one rejoice.

But the premiere of Caprica wasn’t all rosy for me. In the first two hours we learn where the cylons got their monotheistic beliefs from. We learn where they get their consciousness from. We even saw a glimpse of “all this has happened before and will happen again” spiel from BSG. I was left after the pilot thinking, what happens now? This then feeds into my dislike of prequels in general. We know what’s going to happen, be it in the next scene or 54 years in the future. Sure it’s neat seeing Adama as a boy and you get some good insight to his past. One thing of note there, boy does Adama’s life suck. He lost his mother, sister, son, two wives and ended up alone on a mountain in Ireland or wherever it was. Ireland before Guinness was invented, which really made it suck.

We’ll have intrigue of course, great acting, great scripts etc etc. But we know where it all leads. There’s no surprise or mystery that filled Battle Star Galactica. And really, wasn’t that what drove the show? We all wanted to see the 13th colony. We all wanted to see Earth if the 13th colony wasn’t it. We all wanted to know how the hell Starbuck survived, which was kinda a let down anyway. That’s what had us tuning in every week, to see how this reboot of a classic panned out.

Caprica is on new ground. Telling the story of how the events which led to BSG unraveled.  The biggest issue is there’s not a lot more to tell. We created Cylons, who merged with humanoid Cylons from the 13th colony, who blew up the 12 colonies. Got it. I for one hope Ron Moore throws in some twists here and there. Something unexpected like hints that the 12 colonies weren’t the only colonies. Hell, maybe even throw in some aliens, or at least take us on a tour of the other 11 colonies.

I’ll still watch every episode of course. It is just cool that we are looking at Caprica before the fall. And perhaps that’s what they are banking on. The fact that all the geeky fans will tune in, even though we all know the plot and what’s going to happen, just because we are geeks and loved BSG. Yep, you have us over a barrel Ron Moore. You got our attention now please do something unexpected.