Headline of the Week

io9's headline covering Show Patrol's interview with Brian J. Smith (Lt. Scott on Stargate Universe) is titled: There's More To SGU Than Closet Sex, Star Insists.

What Smith is really reacting to is fan hostility to the show, which, as he points out, got out of hand before it even started thanks to leaked casting requirements that seemed to suggest to some that SGU would be all about nubile hunks and buxom blondes getting it on in space. Since the topliner casting didn't fall into that category (Robert Carlyle and Justin Louis are handsome men, but they're not twentysomething hunks), the young, buff Smith, seen actually having sex in closets in early episodes, inherited a lot of this unwarranted animus.

The fact is, the vitriol aimed at SGU (and Caprica, for that matter) mystifies me. SGU needs to be judged on its own merits, not on what that fans think it should be, and from the ten episodes I've seen I think it's clear this series, while flawed, has potential, and I want to see more. Just the leadership issue alone is unusual and, to me, compelling: most genre shows artificially have a square-jawed hero as the officer in command, but here we have the doubt-ridden Scott and the opaque, manipulative Rush each undermining the other. Neither of these expedition principals is an ideal leader, and given the premise--that this is a random group of humans accidentally marooned in a distant galaxy--that's exactly what I would expect to happen. This kind of thing is what separates the show from Battlestar or Voyager: the show is about the conflicts of individuals clashing with the collective capacity to survive. It's well made, well acted, well written, and well directed, and while--again--it's had its share of fumbles--it deserves not to be torn down by the caustic rancor of misguided fans.