Premiere weeks 2009, part 2 – SGU and Clone Wars

Before jumping into the new stuff, just a quick note on the second episodes of shows that started last week…

1. Heroes - an improvement. I both enjoyed and was annoyed by the Sylar/Parkman bit. It was obvious, but fun and frustrating to watch.
2. FlashForward - again, an improvement. I like the expansion of the ‘conspiracy’ and that they’re not holding back on moving forward with the investigation. Makes it feel like it will be a huge story by the end.
3. Smallville - solid. I’m digging this season so far. They better have a real clear strategy for Zod, though. So far that seems to be the weakest part, which is bad since it’s the centerpiece.

Okay, this week only gave us two new shows on my radar: Stargate Universe and Star Wars: Clone Wars. First of all, this presents a logistical problem for me, since Smallville and Clone Wars are on at the same time. I’m thinking I’m going to have a consistent visit to my cousin Larry to catch up on Clone Wars. He’s good at keeping track of these things for me.

Let’s start with Star Wars: Clone Wars – they’re making a big deal in the ads that the animation is better and the story is taking on more depth. I can’t say that I noticed a quantum jump in animation quality, though it is very good. The story is taking on a bit more depth, though. Towards the end of season one, more of the episodes seemed to lean on each other, and I think that’s going to continue this year. That zero-G battle was kind of cool. Apparently this is the season of the bounty hunter. I like that, but I hope they don’t focus on it to the exclusion of the major campaigns against Dooku and Grievous, not to mention Ventress. Cad Bane’s got some nice tricks up his sleeve, but they’re going to have to come up with some really good stuff to keep that believable.

On to Stargate Universe. I approached this show with some trepidation. It’s rather dark, visually, and the word is it would be a bit darker in tone than previous Stargate shows. I was worried it might go too much to the BSG tone and lose the Stargate-ness of the franchise. On the other hand, I was worried it might turn out too much like Star Trek: Voyager, too. In the end, I think they hit the right balance. There was enough humor, but there was plenty of seriousness, too. I correctly pegged two of the guys who were going to die, but I thought one would have lasted much longer – it seemed pretty pointless to give Lou Diamond Phillips the role that he had (though from the promo I just saw, maybe I’m wrong about that). When it came down to the big sacrifice at the end, I can’t say I was very upset. They didn’t make the character like-able enough for me to care. He was obviously a plot device. The girl… can’t remember her name at the moment… doesn’t seem too useful, but I’m assuming they’ll build her into something as the season moves on.

The cameos… Richard Dean Anderson seemed to be phoning it in, for the most part. Amanda Tapping did a good job. Michael Shanks did fine with what they gave him, it was humorous enough, but it would have been good to see him interacting with the cast instead of being a recording.

I like that they’ve set up a lot of character conflict, and I hope they don’t overplay that card and ruin it. I don’t want to see the “irrational fight of the week” show because nobody listens to anyone else or learns anything. I also like how they’re setting up a traitor plot, but not fixating on it. They’ve got more immediate problems that need to be dealt with (and I really like that they didn’t neatly wrap up the life support issue at the end totally).

It appears they’re trying to make the ship a character. I think they’re going about that the right way. They’re not giving the ship a voice, but they’re alluding to it ‘wanting’ to help.

So it’s definitely not SG1 or Atlantis… it’s got the potential to go much darker, and yet still exist in that same universe. But can it avoid the formula of the other shows? Here’s where I think it will begin to fall into the same patterns as its forerunners (possible spoilers):

1. They will meet and take on an alien as an important member of the crew by the sixth episode, if not sooner. Probably female. This person will be heavily involved in missions.
2. They’ll not use the ancient communications device to talk to Earth nearly enough to figure out the whole traitor situation fast enough.
3. The IOA rep will be stereotypically annoying.
4. There will be a big, bad, alien enemy that enslaves people.
5. They will slowly gain more control over the ship, but will never be able to get back home… until possibly the final season, when the battle with the big, bad alien will show them the way to achieve that.
6. There will be conflict between the civilian and military contingents (ooo… that’s a stretch).
7. Rush will not really trust anyone, nor will anyone really trust him, for quite a while. He’ll continue to use people for his own ends, but will in the end be proven to be doing the right thing all along. His character will be the one to grow the most (assuming the characters actually grow).
8. There will be an episode where someone uses the communication stones to swap bodies surreptitiously, and mayhem will ensue.
9. They’ll overcome the 12 hour window by the middle of the season.
10. Eli will cause a major problem by hitting the wrong button, and Rush will be unable to fix it until he and Eli team up. This will happen frequently.
11. Somebody will use a Keno to spy on someone else in the shower or some other compromising location.

What did you think of this week’s premieres?

Next week: Sanctuary.

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