{"id":2439,"date":"2011-05-03T18:51:37","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T18:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/?p=2439"},"modified":"2019-09-05T04:41:03","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T04:41:03","slug":"stargate-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/05\/03\/stargate-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"Stargate Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial notes<\/strong>: This Essay was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2.<\/sub> It was last updated on 03\/05\/2011.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve always been sympathetic to science fiction, but never really ever loved any of its progeny. For example, I’ll always have fond feelings towards Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/a>\u00a0for its naive utopianism, but could never take its campy plots seriously. That said, I’ve never watched many other famous shows (Battlestar Galactica<\/a>\u00a0comes to mind as one omission). I’m telling you all this in order to explain what and why this is. Stargate Universe (SGU) is the first pop media production I’ve become obsessed with. Not like comic con crazy, but more like having watched it heaps of times, thought a lot about it, and had long discussions about it. Which is why it’s maddening to look out into that untamed realm that is the internet and not find people that “get it”. I can see something incredible here which no one else is talking about. That’s why this is writeup has been categorized as personal; it’s an act of love.<\/p>\n

\n<\/span>\n
    \n
  1. Introduction.<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Air and SGA.<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. SGU and Subtle Realism.<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. SGU Cosmogeny and Stoic Ethics.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n<\/span>\n

    There are a few things I want to get across before we start. It\u2019s how I can justify saying that SGU is the best science fiction I have ever come across full stop. More importantly, these are points I\u2019ll be repeating as I discuss individual events in SGU.<\/p>\n

    First off, I guess what do I (and I stress \u201cI\u201d here) mean by something being the best science fiction? All story telling begins with some premise. The premise can be absolutely\u00a0anything<\/a>, but it has to be the \u201cbelieve-it-or-not\u201d which you need in order to explain everything else. Once you have your premises then everything else should follow. In this schema, science fiction begins with a schema that explores the possibilities of science, where \u201cscience\u201d is understood to be that\u00a0institution\u00a0or\u00a0worldview<\/a>\u00a0that gets conjured in our minds by the word (viz. \u201cscience\u201d).\u00a0What if a desperate man created a robotic replacement for his son?<\/a>\u00a0What if a couple of smart guys actually built a time travelling device?<\/a>\u00a0Etc etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

    SGU begins with a single complex premise. This premise sets up the world. This premise is inherent to the entire\u00a0SG<\/a>\u00a0franchise (although I would hold that watching the\u00a0earlier<\/a>\u00a0programs<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0practically necessary; it is not logically necessary for appreciating SGU). I call this the first premise:<\/p>\n

    Major premise 1.<\/strong>\u00a0In the beginning was the big bang. About 13 billion years later an incredibly advanced alien race we now call the Ancients emerged. This Ancients built stargates that could connect planets. These Ancients later ascended into energy. Before they ascended they discovered something important in the background radiation and sent out a ship to collect readings.<\/p>\n

    Most of everything else follows from this. I can now explain how most of the backstory to SGU forms, although first I need to explain my rather\u00a0pedantic<\/a> style for explaining connections between premises and plot events. This methodology is sort of how I see stories broken down. I use the following\u00a0criteria<\/a>:<\/p>\n