How Outraged Fans Destroyed Their Own Sci-Fi Franchise, And Turned SyFy Into A Wrestling Channel

In 2009, with Battlestar Galactica at the peak of its pop culture success, the SyFy channel started planning a new show to be its next big thing. They were so all in that they canceled another long-running science fiction series, Stargate Atlantis, to make room for their new show’s debut.

Their new show was gritty and dramatic, and they spared no expense for special effects. It was a new take on an existing franchise, and it seemed poised to propel that universe into the rarified sci-fi mega-hit realm of pop culture icons like Star Trek and Star Wars.

Or at least that’s what they thought. This is why Stargate Universe FAILED

Stargate Universe Arrives And Gives Fans Tonal Whiplash

Stargate has never been as popular as Star Wars and Star Trek, but both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis ended up finding a large fanbase precisely because they were different from the big two. Embracing a fun spirit of adventure and a cast of characters that bonded, learning to work together, and accepting one another, both shows maintained a degree of positivity even at their darkest moments.

This is why the writers’ sudden turn with Stargate Universe, the third series in the franchise, was jarring to fans. It jettisoned everything that felt most familiar about the franchise in favor of embracing the dark, gritty aesthetic of Battlestar Galactica. Tossing aside the “planet of the week” formula of the first series, Universe dealt with one story for most of each season, so you had better get used to hearing about the Ancient communication stones.

The dark, gritty visuals weren’t the only change. To match the new aesthetic, the writers dropped the “action” part of the first two shows and turned in a straight-up “sci-fi drama,” which could have been fun, but they also forgot to include immediately likable characters.

Instead of exploring new worlds, Stargate Universe was confined to Destiny, an Ancient spaceship built for a mysterious purpose that constantly hinted at exciting, off-world adventures, but they never happened. Viewers were stuck in close quarters with a cast of characters that seemed to hate each other and watched as everyone backstabbed everyone else at least once a season, alternating with an attempt at romance that felt more like Riverdale than SG-1.

For example, Colonel Everett Young, played by Louis Ferreria, is the ship’s leader. His downfall and subsequent rise could have made compelling television. Unfortunately, before the show gets there, we see him cheat, lie, and argue with the rest of the crew in a way that previous Stargate leader O’Neill would never have sanctioned, even if alien spirits possessed him.

Young was opposed to one member of the crew, in particular. Dr. Nicholas Rush, brilliantly played by Robert Carlyle, was supposed to be something new for the franchise: a character in shades of grey. Robert Picardo’s Richard Woolsey from Stargate Atlantis looks like a hero compared to Rush, who the audience can understand as acting for the greater good (mostly), even if his actions were (mostly) questionable.

The problem with including a complex character that, to put it politely, owes a lot to Battlestar Galactica’s Baltar, is that it doesn’t work if everyone else on Stargate Universe considers him evil. Rush frames Young for murder, defies his explicit instructions not to mess with Ancient technology by doing exactly that the moment he has the chance, and yes, he takes advantage of Chloe Armstrong’s alien infection to further his own research.

Despite all of this, the seeds of a GREAT character were there. Stargate Universe tried to do something different, with Rush as the physical embodiment of embracing the dark side of sci-fi, but it lost the adventurous spirit of the franchise in the process.

Stargate Fans Destroy Their Own Franchise

Existing fans of the overlooked franchise didn’t want high-school-level drama; they wanted bold new worlds, alien encounters, and a dash of uncovering a galactic mystery. So they revolted and bailed on the show.

Maybe Stargate fans thought that by doing so, they’d get a new series more suited to their tastes. In response to their exodus, the show’s ratings dropped 25% during its first season. SyFy noticed, and they began deprioritizing programming catering to science fiction fans.

The network thought they’d given fans a gift with Stargate Universe, but the fans they’d worked hard to please rejected it. So SyFy went looking for a new audience, and settled on wrestling fans. Stargate Universe was canceled after only two seasons, and SyFy stopped making serious science fiction.

Worse, the entire Stargate franchise was thrown in the trash. There was nothing else, and at this point, maybe there never will be. You have to wonder if part of the reason for that is simply that no one in Hollywood trusts Stargate fans, numerous though they are, to support it.

Stargate is now a dead property. Nothing new of consequence has been made since fans killed Universe with their complaining, and no sign will change anytime soon.

Universe Could Have Been Stargate’s Deep Space Nine

While I understand the concerns fans had about Stargate Universe, if they’d stuck with it, I think they’d have eventually grown to love it. By the time the show’s second season ends, SGU is starting to come together. Even the series’s most justifiably hated character, Eli Wallace, has grown into something special.

The point of Eli is that he’s very intelligent, but emotionally, he’s still a teen who needs to grow up. That’s one of Season 2’s best running subplots, and by the series finale, it’s clear that if Season 3 were to happen, Eli would have become the main character.

Star Trek: The Next Generation set the bar for the entire genre, but even Wil Wheaton admits Wesley is an annoying character from beginning to end, as are most kid genius characters. Stargate Universe added a wrinkle to what could have been a generic character by allowing Eli to grow and challenge Rush, providing a counterpoint to the scheming doctor. Even if they often agreed, they’d butt heads, and Eli was the only one whom Rush considered an intellectual peer.

Stargate Universe Was Punished For Daring To Be Different

Stargate Universe is initially flawed, but it dared to be different. Not every character is meant to be liked, and SGU allowed its complex characters to grow, develop, overcome faults, discover new ones, and behave more like humans struggling to survive surrounded by their annoying co-workers. The show Stargate Universe is at the end of season 2, is one well on its way to developing into an all-time great space science fiction show.

Stargate Universe had the potential to make Stargate into the next Star Trek, a mega-sci-fi franchise that would last for generations. The impatience of Stargate fans killed it in its infancy, depriving the world of the Star Trek alternative we need in an era when Trek is self-destructing.

Stargate may never recover.