Stargate Universe 2-hour pilot: Definitely the weakest of the Stargate pilots, in part because once the characters get onto the ancient Ancient ship, everything bogs down in an exciting race to...fix the air filtration system. It's like the science fictional equivalent of Holmes on Homes. Really not up to par with the battles with the Go'a'uld or Wraiths that anchored the second hours of the SG-1 and SG-Atlantis pilots, respectively.

The only character I felt any interest in was the videogame-playing genius. Poor old Robert Carlisle got stuck with something of an annoying wet blanket of a character -- hopefully that will get fixed in the series proper. Most annoyingly (and distractingly), the casting instructions for three of the characters must have read 'looks like Jonah Hill', 'looks like Charlize Theron' and 'looks like Ellen Page.' The last of those -- the actress playing the Senator's daughter -- looks so much like Ellen Page that I was completely thrown out of every scene she was in.

If this is what they cancelled SG-1 and SG-Atlantis for, then God help us. But the cast sure is young and pretty for the most part! And they squabble sorta like the characters on Battlestar Galactica! And Robert Carlisle is a shady scientist like Gaius Baltar! Maybe this will get better.