Sanctuary, Season Two: Thoughts, Feelings, and Jello

Now that the second season of Sanctuary aired last Friday, allow me to ramble a bit about my thoughts and questions for the season.

The season premier "End of Nights, Part 1" takes place a few months after the events of last season's finale, "Revelations, Part 2," which ended with quite the cliffhanger. I rather enjoyed the episode, which involved quite a bit of action, many different settings, the introduction of a new character, and more. Viewers new to the series may find themselves lost and wondering who all these people are, why they can do so many weird things, and did they seriously call that guy Jack the Ripper? so I would recommend watching some of the last season (Hulu's still got the last four episodes up) and/ or reading up on the characters before diving into this season.

And now comes the section with SPOILERS:

After watching this newest episode twice, there are some questions that I think have the potential to be expanded on:

• The Funny Evil Doctor Lady: Why does she have a limp? The way one scene is done seems to emphasize it, so was it caused by some significant event in her past? What happened to her daughter? "She didn't survive" really isn't a normal way to talk about a loved one's death and implies a violent death to me.
• The Project: Is the Montana Project subject who got away (the one Druitt got to) going to have a significant role, or was accelerating the operation her only significance?
• Ashley: How will the acceleration of Phase 2 effect its results? Will Ashley's brainwashing and new abilities be effected by the rush-job? Will Ashley be able to return to the Sanctuary when this is all over?
  
• Will and the Invisible Girl: Was Tesla's comment foreshadowing? Is Will doomed to forever be called "huggy-bear"? Why have there been no Susan Storm jokes?
• Lazarus: Has the out-break been effectively quelled, or will it continue to cause problems?

Some things I'll be watching for in the season as a whole:

• What are the Big Cabal Lady's personal motivations? What are her real reasons for doing anything?
• The season starts with an intense, three episode arc, the last episode of which is called "Eulogy." Is this a symbolic eulogy, or does a character die, and if it's the latter, who is it? I have a few theories who it might be, but I hope I'm wrong, so I won't say anything.
  
• Syfy's promo cast photo for the season (on the right) does not have a certain prominent character. Whether this is intentionally miss-leading or a clue about the story arc, only time (or spoilers) will tell.
• In the premier, Kate asks for jello. This is the second mention of jello in Sanctuary I've noticed so far. Coincidence, or Easter-egg for SG-1 fans aware of Samantha Carter (played by Amanda Tapping)'s taste for blue jello? Of course, the fact that that's the first place my mind went when jello was mentioned probably says more about me than the show, but still...
• Will Zimmerman (played by Robin Dunne) has a Bollywood Dance scene near the end of the season. And this apparently makes sense in context (at least, according to the Press Day). I really want to know about that!
• Henry Foss (played by Ryan Robbins) is now a regular. Nothing else, that news just fills me with joy...
• There is a new character: Kate Freelander (played by Agam Darshi). So far she seems to be an interesting character. What we've seen of her so far really reminds me of Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, sense of humor-wise. I'm interested in whether or not this mercenary character has any past issues with abnormals, and in how her character will grow and develop over the season.
  

And, to end this rant, a link to video of Sanctuary's Press Day, from Wormhole Riders: Part Two has a clip of Robin Dunne's Bollywood Dance!

First Thoughts on Stargate Universe

Hello, internet! In honor of the premier of the latest series in one of my favorite sci-fi franchises, I shall start my ramblings with Stargate Universe. I'm sorry this is so long, but I've had a week to think about the pilot.

I have to admit, I approached it with extreme skepticism. All I had read and seen about it previously had made it look like Star Trek: Voyager with Battlestar Galactica flavor and a Stargate setting. I have nothing against BSG, but I love the light-heartedness of Stargate and the sneak peaks of SGU made it look ever so grim and unwilling to laugh at itself and the press releases declared the attempt to be darker and more gritty than the previous shows.

I approached the two-hour pilot with caution, and noticed some interesting things they did to make the show "darker":

1. The Stargate's event horizon is grey in SGU instead of the cheerier shade of blue it's been in the previous series. Whether this is supposed to be a special property of the Destiny gate or not, it definitely adds visually to the darker tone of the series. (side thought: Would Sam eat grey jello in SGU? What flavor would that be?)
2. The Ancient technology on board the Destiny is rougher and alien-seeming or streamlined than the other examples of Ancient tech we've seen. It feels far more like a Daedalus-class Earth ship than like the Ancient city of Atlantis, except in scale. This is probably because the ship is older than Atlantis, but it still adds to the gritty feel of the show.
3. The characters lack the optimistic attitude the characters of previous shows had in even the most dire of situations. I mean, they're in pretty much the same situation as the crew from Atlantis was at first, minus the threat of Wraith attack, but where Atlantis characters would tackle puzzles and crack jokes, the Destiny's passengers freak-out and argue.
4. The lighting is done at such angles as to increase the sharpness and to make everything feel darker. The quarters in Icarus base are decorated pretty much the same way as quarters in Stargate Command if you pay attention, but the way they use lighting makes them feel darker and more oppressive.
5. There is already signs of intrigue and power struggle. Usually, it takes a few episodes (or seasons) for that to come along.
6. They are definitely willing to use content the previous series wouldn't touch (except for SG-1's original pilot, but we don't like to talk about that...). Call it daring if you want, I did not need to see that scene...
   

So those are the major differences I've noticed from SG-1 and Atlantis. The show comes to a dark, serious start. SGU has not completely departed the beloved (by me, at least) grounds of it's predecessors. The character Eli is definitely showing more of the lighter attitude of the Stargate-verse. Even his back story for why he joined the program is light-hearted (and strangely reminiscent of The Last Starfighter). Also refreshing: the end of the pilot has them start exploring through the gate. That made me feel warm and fuzzy...

All in all, I found the pilot intriguing, though different. There was already evident character growth and I found myself wanting to know more about (some of) the characters. While I still feel that it can never take the place of light-hearted and never too serious SG-1, and it still seems like Voyager with a BSG color scheme, I look forward to the next episode and I plan on watching at least the first season to see how it develops.

Now, if only Hulu had the next episode up! Curse my lack of the SyFy channel!