Another Lost Wannabe Bites the Dust

The scifi show Stargate Universe, another Lost copycat, is cancelled. I wont even bother to share a link this time, the show and this latest news on it is just too boring. But let me make some general points on this subject.

TV Land, writers, marketers, listen up: Finding a major theme for a scifi show is not that hard.

The Western cultural tug-of-war is between Rome and Jesus, war and piece, Archimedes and a centurion (the former was killed by the latter), centralized military machine against Renaissance [2].

Why did Stargate the movie, shows like Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis work? 1) On the human side, Stargate is all about the conflict between the military and the scientists, between Rome and Archimedes. O’Neil and Jackson bicker all the time. Divison #2) On the alien side, there is the G’hould who according to show’s canon were the pharaohs in ancient times. Hello? Isnt that akin to a Roman emperor, who bestows himself (and its always a he) God like powers? Opposing them we have a diverse humanity (which was stressed more and more in Atlantis) and their seek of technology.

Battlestar Galactica (Original): Why did this show work? The enemy is a centralized military machine (literally), they are the robots, Cylons. Cylons are also monothestic, they resemble the marriage between Rome and the centralized Catholic Church. One God, sure, as long as it serves the military needs. On the other side is humans who pray to multiple Gods, but that is more like multiple religions than polytheism.

Star Trek TNG: Humans are all about science, knowledge. Who is the baddest enemy? Borg: all about conquest, and the collective: a mix between communism and Rome. Romulans? For f..k’s sake, it’s all there in the name. The name of Romulan’s capital? Romulus [1].

Bingo.

So you see, it’s not that hard. Hopefully the upcoming show BSG Blood and Chrome will return to original show’s roots, and follow the cultural lines mentioned above more closely.

Dear show creators, writers: so you had your little confusing period after 9/11, you got that out of your system. Now get the f..k back to what you were doing before. Dont come up with another artificially confusing shit and parade it around as scifi / mystery. We can see right through that, very easily. Follow the example of Eureka. They are pretty successful in terms of viewership.

Now excuse me, I have old episodes of Firefly waiting for me.

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[1] The falling out between Vulcans and Romulans also have their parallels in Rome / Renaissance seperation. Vulcans are all about science, philosophy, Romulans are all about conquest, and military.

[2] This is one of the rare culture codes that I find relevant for today’s world.