Lost... In Space!

No, not that Lost in Space...

I'm referring to the new Stargate series, Stargate Universe. The questionably anticipated premiere of this show went off with, in this reviewers opinion, a bang!

The show starts off with a very lonely and mysterious sounding theme and a long shot of a very large star ship cruising through the vast emptiness of space and follows up with a slow pan through the corridors of the same ship as lights slowly begin to flicker on.

The slow pan comes to a stop as the camera arrives in the ship's gate room, where the stargate has already begun to open a wormhole. Moments later the first cast member is ejected through the event horizon and topples to the floor covered in dirt obviously fleeing from some unknown event. Following him is an increasing stream of disoriented evacuees tumbling through the gate falling over each other and random cases of gear that have been strewn about the floor in the confusion.

Does this sound familiar?

So hopefully you've figured out where I was going with the title by now. This show is blissfully done in a format very unlike the Stargate series of yesteryear which I think is fantastic. I was an avid fan of Stargate Atlantis and a bored viewer of Stargate SG-1, but I believe the downfall of those shows was the stale Star Trek format that they followed. Not only was it an antiquated method of telling a story, but the writers had no idea where they were going with the arcing plots so they ended up with buzz episodes and filler episodes - neither of which ever did the franchise any justice.

The format of this new show is very similar to... did you guess it? Lost.

The last of the evacuees arrives on the ship in an explosive concussion from the other side and collapses to the ground, bleeding from the back of the head and unable to move. Shortly after they show a confused young man and then cut to a flashback of the day he cracked a code embedded in a video game by the military. The goal this was to find a brilliant young mind to solve a complex equation by tapping into a pool of minds that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the mainstream.

Their problem, in a nutshell, is that Stargate Command has discovered a 9 chevron address in an ancient database, presumably from Atlantis' ancient database. Those that are Stargate fans will remember that any gate dialed within one's own galaxy uses only 7 chevrons, and that adding an eighth chevron will dial another galaxy but 9 chevrons - well they don't quite know where that will go. If the x factor distance equation can be solved then the 9 chevron address can be locked in.

I won't go too much more into the plot of the show because, well, it was an incredibly enthralling experience. I was dubious about what this show would bring to the table especially since the cast had described it as a blend of Stargate and Battlestar Galactica. As one of the few sci-fi nuts that really detested Syfy channel's reboot of the Battlestar Galactica series this set me up for having low expectations of the show - and they were all blown away.

Maybe I'm just smitten because I love the format of the series Lost, but the format allows for amazing flexibility and intensely deep stories without having to resort to endless filler episodes because they don't want to blow the load of their arcing story in 4 episodes with 12 episodes left in the season. I am cautiously optimistic that this show will be much more about the survival and back stories of the characters who we thus far know very little about.

The flashbacks for the pilot episode revolve mostly around the incidents that led the expedition to flee through the stargate so hastily and that of Eli, the kid who cracked the code. If they do intend to follow the Lost format we can probably look forward to a slow reveal of what led each person to their present situation, and the likely focus of each episode will be determined by whatever plot the episode is focusing on.

One additional bit of mystery added to the show is it's true purpose. Back before there was much of any information on the show available it had been mentioned that the Stargate producers had pitched the idea to the show as a group of people stranded aboard an ancient ship whose mission is to seed the galaxies with stargates. During the pilot, however, it's revealed that the ancients sent other ships ahead of the one in question for this task and that the ship the expedition is stranded on, called Destiny, has some other as yet unrevealed purpose.

Have I peaked your interest? I hope so, because since this show premiered on a Friday night my normal small gathering of friends were in attendance, all of whom were not only not Stargate fans, but didn't care for the franchise at all previously. And for the two hours that the show premiered every one of us was enthralled with what was going on. At the end of the night it was a unanimous vote to watch the show on a weekly basis, so this show definitely has a much broader appeal than the previous incarnations of the Stargate franchise.

Still not convinced? Decide for yourself. Hulu has been gracious enough to host the show making it possible to be viewed by anyone with an updated flash player at any time they like. Enjoy =)