Lower Decks

The latest teaser trailer for SCI FI Channel’s upcoming Stargate Universe series makes the show look less like the third installment in the Stargate franchise and more like a Battlestar Galactica wannabe. Which could very easily be the case. The 50-second spot, titled “Survival,” features brief comments from members of the cast, including Robert Carlyle, Ming-Na and Elyse Levesque. Says Lou Diamond Phillips:

These are real stories and real people with real concerns.

We get it, Lou, it’s going to be REAL. Perhaps the most telling comment comes from Brian J. Smith:

“It’s gonna have a different look, it’s gonna have a different feel, it’s gonna be written differently.

In other words, it won’t be anything like Stargate: SG-1 or Stargate: Atlantis.

Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ll admit that by the third season of Stargate: Atlantis I was sensing a little stagnation on the part of the writers. Shaking things up for Stargate: Universe may be just what the franchise needs. Except for the pesky fact that Stargate: Atlantis apparently wasn’t cancelled because of low ratings. SCI FI just didn’t want it anymore. The same could be said for Stargate: SG-1, though.

Apparently, what SCI FI (which will be going by the name SY FY by the time the new show gets on the air this fall) wants is a Battlestar Galactica clone. Having the Battlestar Galactica prequel — Caprica — on the air just won’t be enough. It needs, in the words of Lou Diamond Phillips, a “sexier, grittier” Stargate series. Judging from the various teasers that have been released so far, that’s just what Stargate: Universe will deliver.

Whether it will deliver viewers is a question that won’t be answered until sometime this fall when the series premieres. I’ll be watching the three-hour (!) premiere and there’s always the chance it will surprise me. But I’m not hopeful.