It's Time To Embrace The Stargate You Have, SG Fans

Long-time Stargate fans need to stop their whining and complaining about Stargate Universe. Syfy has just announced that the series first half posted the best ratings for any Stargate series since the premiere season of Stargate Atlantis. In fact, it saw a 22% total viewer increase over the latest season of SGA.

SGU is an intentional departure from the tone and style of its predecessors, because the creators wanted to make the 12-year old franchise more accessible to new viewers. What's happened, though, is that while it is finding new viewers, it seems to be alienating many long-time supporters of the franchise.

From what I've seen, people new to the Stargate "world" are enjoying Universe, while those stalwart fans of Atlantis and SG-1 aren't nearly as pleased with it. As one of the former, I can't really speak as to why the legacy fans don't like it. While I don't think it's perfect, I do think it's one of the more intriguing spacefaring science fiction series I've seen in a long time.

But the bottom line these fans need to realize is that any success for the Stargate franchise is a good thing. It means there's a better chance of seeing an Atlantis film or mini-series, and that there could be even more Stargate series coming down the pipes. Certainly, Syfy isn't going to be closed to hearing pitches to expand an established concept that's showing signs of ratings growth.

Look at what happened to Star Trek when the fans abandoned Enterprise. It was the fourth series since the franchise had been revied with The Next Generation, and yet Trek fans didn't seem to care for it. Ultimately, the series failed and took the entire television Star Trek universe down with it. Even today, Trek has been relegated to a reboot (albeit a very good one) on the silver screen.

So I recommend embracing the fact that any Stargate series is thriving on Syfy. Yes, it still stings that Atlantis was doing fine and they canceled it to replace it with this show instead. But if you want a Stargate series that's more to your liking, it might not be a bad idea to show Syfy that you still want to support the franchise by at least giving SGU a chance.

Stargate Universe returns for the second half of its first season on Syfy on April 2, 2010.