Onward, ever onward the seemingly indestructible Stargate series moves - with four incarnations (yes, four - though few will have heard of the abortive Stagate: Infinity and fewer still watched it) it's hard to keep things fresh. So, we have a team sent to a distant galaxy and with no way home, trapped on an Ancient vessel and... NO, this isn't Stargate: Atlantis.
The premise is similar... but really it has more in common with Voyager and that was just a rehash of Lost In Space and that was really just The Odyssey (IN SPACE!). So, no real point in trying to poke holes in it for that. Also, there are obvious differences. The people aren't on the ship by choice - the ship itself is totally fucked... in fact, thus far the episodes have revolved entirely around the basics of survival. Which is in direct contrast to Voyager and Stargate: Atlantis - where just about everything was fine after the pilot episode.
However, someone clearly felt the plight of humans on an Ancient spaceship that is falling to pieces, stranded millions of light years from home with limited resources and no idea where they are or even if they're going to survive. No, that has to be padded with tedious flashbacks and Ancient communication devices. The occasional flashback is OK but the Ancient communication devices mean everyone can just chitchat with their loved ones - Voyager waited what was it... four years before they did this? AND THAT WAS VOYAGER! Still, all these flashbacks and
Beyond that, the cast is poor. Robert Carlyle is a capable actor but here it feels like someone said "HAM IT UP!" and he has chewed his way through entire sets... but his character is the only vaguely competent character other than Eli (MIT drop out/boy wonder) and Young (the barely tolerable O'Neil/Sheppard equivalent). Eli is the only one that is really relatable - he's kind of the equivalent of Daniel Jackson in the sense that he's the ordinary guy who is kinda dead ending in the world and then come men come along and BOOM, he's in his element.
To be honest, Eli is the only person seemingly capable of coming up with ideas and Rush is the only person that understands the ship. Young spends most of his time bitching about what a bitch Rush is... despite the fact Rush (who shouts at people because they've no clue what's going on) has been right... more than anyone. Not to mention the fact Rush is the person seemingly MOST concerned with the immediate task of survival, Young hasn't been sabotaging Rush but by ignoring him, he's not really advanced their cause. It's so manifestly obvious that they're stuck where they are for the time being...
In many senses, it is as if we're going through a further iteration of the Stargate dynamic. For those who followed SG-1 and Atlantis, this may be something that will be obvious. For those less acquainted... Stargate started out as pretty much PURELY military, the air force of all things... but as the show progressed, various tentacles of the government wrapped themselves around it and this somewhat culminated in the IOA - who served the same purposes as previous senators and various other people had... to be a thorn in the side of the SGC. Atlantis somewhat progressed this idea by being a mission led by scientists with a civilian administrator who had the final word... of course, she was rubbish... but it was a logical extension.
Stargate Universe is trying to give us something in the same vein... except that thus far, beyond having a mix of military and scientists... the power structure is clear.
All in all, pretty lacklustre. Poor casting, mediocre and lazy writing - making the senator's daughter an utterly unsympathetic... And really, who cares about any of these characters? They're just bland. It needs work.
