Stargate Universe 1.5 on Blu-ray is not really a reboot of the first release, as much as it is a sequel to the first release. That’s one of things that actually confused me, but I was happy to see the end result.
The Stargate Universe 1.5 three-Blu-ray disc set contains the rest of what could be considered season one. As the first disc set left our dear Doctor Rush on a remote planet, thanks to Colonel Young, this one starts off right at that point. The crew faces a different obstacle at the beginning, aliens. The aliens want Destiny and the crew must find a way to avoid them. Somewhere along the way (not going to tell you how/when) Doctor Rush finds his way back on board long enough to run into a secondary issue, the Alliance. Between aliens and the Alliance, the crew of the Destiny must find a way through both obstacles and eventually find a way back home.
This set of SGU is intense! It took only a day to watch the entire set and I’m glad I did without spaces. The story of survival and exploration outweighs any amount of action-packed firefight. That’s one of the things that turned me off when it came to Stargate Atlantis; it seemed too much like episodes dedicated to witty retorts and fighting. With SGU you get a more intelligent situation where the crew has to think through things to solve an ongoing riddle about their ship Destiny. Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of flaws in the series. There are times where solutions for situations are pulled out of thin air. Ultimately, the series does stay on course and continues this serious drama of survival on a very sealed up environment.
Had the original Stargate film been like this I would have loved it more.
I do respect that many fans of the other Stargate series have a problem with this, but understand this is a more toned down storyline. It’s not for everyone, but it’s for everyone who isn’t a huge Stargate junky.
As for it being on Blu-ray, it’s pretty good. The visuals and audio are stunning. The visuals especially as you get some pretty keen detail in the environments, thanks to a mostly darkened ship. Another kudos goes out to the effects team that worked on this show as well. It doesn’t have goofy special effects like typical sci-fi shows. It’s very comparable with Battlestar Galactica; you can tell that there was some money thrown into it. It does shine in a 1080p environment and you’ll be happy with the results.
As for the special features, there’s simply a boatload of features packed in with SGU 1.5. You get some great interviews with the creators of the show (Alaina Huffman, Brian J. Smith and David Blue). They offer some pretty solid insight to the approach they took when they were putting the show together. You also get some great cast interviews, a tour of Destiny’s set (neat stuff with Chris Beach) and some fantastic Kino Video Diaries. There are more things such as commentary on all the episodes (huge for television shows as they don’t usually do commentary on all episodes) and some features dedicated to General O’Neill’s character and ‘Out for a Spacewalk with Jamil Walker Smith’.
You’ve got plenty of stuff to choose from when it comes to features. I’m impressed by the amount and while not all of them are particularly excellent, they do have enough to satisfy your viewing tastes.