Stargate Universe (SPACE: two-hour premiere October 2, 9:00 PM ET; in regular timeslot starting October 9, 10:00 PM ET) surely needs no explanation.  Stargate is the pre-eminent science fiction franchise of the 2000s.  Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis have ensured that the franchise will be a syndication staple for at least a decade, so why not add another chapter to its history?  It’s the thinking that has birthed Stargate Universe, as profitable franchises can be flogged for as many spinoffs as they can bear.

I am not impressed with the first part of “Air.”  It starts off well, with people being launched out of a Stargate and onto an abandoned Ancient spaceship.  That remains the strongest visual for me after watching the show’s first two hours, which means “Air” has blown its load in its first five minutes.  The first hour, despite a well-made battle sequence, is boring overall.

Eli Wallace (David Blue) is a nerd stereotype – lives with his mother, obsessive gamer, dumpy-looking.  Eli solves a riddle encoded into the Prometheus video game.  After Eli disbelieves that the Stargate Program wants anything to do with him, he is sent to the George Hammond battlecruiser and coerced into helping it.  Eli’s an ascended fanboy played straight.

Sure, Eli went to MIT, but I can’t believe Stargate Universe actually goes this route with a character.  Blue does what he can with the material he’s given, but his character is not overly convincing.  There is no reason to get behind Eli Wallace until the second hour, when he’s shown as overeager and naïve as regards military protocol.  Eli’s not as annoying on second viewing, but he’s in danger of becoming Wesley Crusher.

Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) is either a Dr. Gregory House-type genius or the downfall of The Icarus Project, the Stargate Program being fond of ominous names.  Carlyle anchors the show, and is its obvious star.

Rush does have his tender moments, yet he’s usually detached from all but his work.  If someone accidentally dies on his watch, so be it.  Rush has the potential to be an interesting character, more due to Carlyle’s acting than anything else.  In lesser hands, Rush would be the stock misanthropic genius, although he does seem cribbed from House M.D.

Stargate Universe feels like a gestalt of borrowed plots and characters from Popular Shows, even when it’s not trying to be.  The first part of Stargate Universe is Sliders all over again.  Instead of Quinn Mallory and company making a second jump before completing the first, the Stargate fucks up before it can dial the ninth chevron to Earth.

Parallel dimensions are replaced by Red Dwarf, I mean a decaying Ancient spaceship.  SGU takes the Lost tack of telling its story in both flashbacks and real time.  Eli Wallace is a variant of The Last Starfighter.  References to prior Stargate shows are a given.

Somehow, Stargate Universe is meant to be edgy as Stargate military personnel shag in the first hour.  Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper spend so much time proving how unlike the previous Stargate series SGU is – hey kids! fucking! – that original storytelling is placed on the back burner.  I almost expect a statue of Seshat to figure in the show’s mythology.

The second part of “Air” is better, as less time is spent focusing on Wesley – er, ah, Eli – and more of the main characters get airtime.  Louis Ferreira is a standout as Colonel Everett Young, who is situated as Rush’s dramatic opposite.  He isn’t in “Air” for a long time due to his being badly wounded, but I can at least emotionally invest in his character.

Senator Alan Armstrong (Christopher McDonald) and his daughter Chloe (Elyse Levesque) are given meaty roles, although Alan’s role is limited to sacrificing his life as he prolongs Destiny’s life support systems.  The Senator is not evil, though he does resort to pulling out a gun in the second hour of “Air.”  His character, in the end, is there for sacrifice and to define Chloe’s backstory.

Stargate Universe takes from more successful shows and wads everything it can into the Stargate mold.  I can understand the move to “edgier” storylines – a franchise can’t cater to the same fans forever, lest the show find its inner Rick Berman and go shit.

At the same time, Stargate Universe is a reboot of a reboot.  In addition, Wright and Cooper were responsible for Stargate‘s initial reboot.  While I’ll give SGU time to find itself, Wright and Cooper should have handed the reins to someone else.

Maybe a Robert Smigel-helmed Stargate series?  Think about it: wormholes, the X-Presidents, Doug Dale in a major role.  Damn it, this has to happen.  For the good of television, this needs to happen.  Until then, I’ll put Stargate Universe on the back burner.

The main draw of SPACE’s Star Trek Labour Day marathon is the debut of remastered Star Trek: The Original Series episodes.  This includes the Canadian television premiere of the remastered Star Trek: TOS pilot, “The Cage” (SPACE: September 7, 10:00 PM ET), which recently entered syndication after forty-four years.

It took me a few minutes to get used to the remastered Star Trek.  I do like the old, primitive Trek effects, but “The Cage” does look good in its tampered form.

There are a few effects that ring false, such as the opening transition from the ship to the bridge.  The effect is too modern for a forty-four-year-old pilot, but its inclusion amounts to a few seconds of television time.  Overall, the CGI is subtle enough that it doesn’t detract from the pilot.

Vina (Susan Oliver) is the only survivor of a scientific expedition that crash-landed on Talos IV.  The native Talosians engineer events that force USS Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) into a holding cell with Vina.

The Talosians have developed great illusory powers, using them to tempt Pike into mating with Vina.  The Talosians, underground survivors of a nuclear holocaust, are breeding a slave race to repopulate their planet.

“The Cage” is a very good unsold pilot – a bit portentous, as Star Trek episodes of the 1960s are.  ”The Cage” contains most of the classic Star Trek elements – disguised social issues of the 1960s, good character interaction, a bit of sex appeal, and at least one over-choreographed battle.

The predictable plot – Captain Pike fights a race of highly evolved, emotionally detached aliens – is overshadowed by Pike’s guilt over a failed mission on Rigel VII.  ”The Cage” is standard sci-fi improved by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s concise dialogue.  Alexander Courage’s music score is excellent, making “The Cage” more exciting than it really should be.

It’s easy to see why “The Cage” didn’t sell NBC on Star Trek.  Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock is a bit excitable, which doesn’t play to Nimoy’s strengths.  As much as I like Majel Barrett-Roddenberry’s Number One, she’s superfluous to the action, as is most of the crew.  ”The Cage” is all about Captain Pike, from his desire to become a slave-dealer to his imprisonment on Talos IV.

John Hoyt is excellent as Chief Medical Officer Phillip Boyce.  He should have been retained for Star Trek: TOS‘ second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”  Jeffrey Hunter’s histrionics as Captain Pike are a bit hard to take, not that Star Trek ever mastered understatement.

I’m not surprised Star Trek was almost completely recast.  ”The Cage” possesses little talent depth beyond Hunter, Nimoy, Hoyt and Barrett-Roddenberry.  As wooden as William Shatner is as an actor, the man can connect to audiences in the way Hunter can’t.  Folding Number One into Spock was the best thing to happen to Leonard Nimoy, as it defined Spock’s character and gave Captain James T. Kirk a dramatic opposite.

“The Cage” isn’t on the level of the best Treks.  There’s a bit too much talk, the pilot relying far too much on Hunter’s talents.  All the same, “The Cage” is good television.  You can’t say that about Star Trek: TOS episodes like “The Way to Eden” or “And the Children Shall Lead.”

Warning: mild spoilers.

Defying Gravity (CTV/’A’/ABC, two-hour premiere August 2, 9:00 PM ET/PT; in regular timeslot starting August 9, 10:00 PM ET/PT on CTV/ABC; premieres August 7, 8:00 PM ET on SPACE) is an anomaly in the world of prime-time Canadian content.  The creator of the show, James D. Parriott, has run or co-run shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Sons of Anarchy and Ugly Betty.  He created Misfits of Science, Voyagers! and Forever Knight, so his sci-fi credentials are solid.

Michael Edelstein, meanwhile, was one of the original Desperate Housewives executive producers.  Less excitingly, he executive-produced Hope & Faith and Threat Matrix.

On the Canadian side, Omni Film Productions has produced such shows as The Odyssey, Edgemont, Alice, I Think and Robson Arms.  Defying Gravity is not as Canadian as The Listener, but it’s not quite an American show filmed in Vancouver to save money.  On the sliding scale of CanCon, Defying Gravity floats near the middle.

Defying Gravity has been publicized by Parriott as Grey’s Anatomy in space, which has birthed a million unfunny Grey’s Astronomy jokes.  The show also takes a strip off Virtuality‘s “reality show in space” concept.  It’s an attempt to make science fiction appeal more to women, or at least that’s the excuse offered.

The excuse is insulting.  Defying Gravity tries to balance sci-fi with relationship drama.  Big deal.  Doctor Who, Being Human and Torchwood do it.  Any space opera worth shit is about compelling characters mixed with exciting action.  Sadly, Defying Gravity doesn’t hit the ground running, due to its insanely slow pace and familiar characters.

Maddux Donner (Ron Livingston) narrates the series, he of the “left crewmembers to die and needs to atone” backstory.  Zoe Barnes (Laura Harris) is carrying Donner’s baby – maybe – after a one-night stand, and could be gay.  Ted Shaw (Malik Yoba) is married to Eve Weller-Shaw (Karen LeBlanc), yet had a pre-launch affair with Jen Crane (Christina Cox).

Nadia Schilling (Florentine Lahme) is competing with Zoe for Donner’s affections.  Ajay Sharma (Zahf Paroo) goes batshit insane in the first half of the pilot despite being the most psychologically stable of the Antares crew, and so on, and so forth.

Livingston makes for an entertaining Donner, while Malik Yoba is decent as Shaw.  Dylan Taylor’s character, the geeky porn enthusiast Steve Wassenfelder, could be the dark horse of the ensemble given time.  If nothing else, the main characters are engaging in the way that The Listener‘s Craig Olejnik wasn’t.

The main problem with Defying Gravity‘s pilot is that the science fiction and soap opera elements are not blended in very well.  The crew’s backstories are a little too pat and the show is too earnest to be “sexy.”  Defying Gravity isn’t actively horrible, but it’s obviously picking and mixing genres in an attempt to chart its path.

At the same time, Defying Gravity tries for more dramatic depth than the pilot can handle.  A Ganesa figure, placed on the Antares by Sharma at the end of the pilot’s first half, is obvious symbolism.  Defying Gravity is playing the field, attempting to be plausible sci-fi while dealing in “who fucked whom” tales.

The second half of the pilot is better-handled than the first.  There is some sex, but Defying Gravity keeps the focus on non-sexual relationships between the Antares crew.  That’s what I find interesting about the series.  I don’t care about the libido-killing HALOS suits or the attempts to ape Lost.  Gimmicks like that won’t ensure the show’s success.  Well-written characters will.

As it is, Defying Gravity is ABC’s Greatest Hits in Space.  I actually think ABC is doing the right thing in giving the show an early August timeslot, as the show could blow up right as the fall season hits its stride.  Parriott has his DNA all over ABC, so the network’s going to give him some attention.

If Defying Gravity fails, big deal.  Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy are still going concerns, although Ugly Betty is on life-support at this point.  Canadian television can still pin its Yank-baiting hopes on The Bridge and Copper, since cop procedurals are as numerous as copies of Super Mario Bros. 3.  As for Edelstein…eh, maybe he’ll revive Brandy and Mr. Whiskers as a sex-filled romp.  It couldn’t be worse than Wipeout.