In BSG, the fleet pretty much was home; they brought it with them, more or less. Yet, the whole first season the writers followed the adventures of Helo back home, and then they found a way for people in the fleet to travel all the way home, then return to the fleet.
In Voyager, the writers eventually had to reconnect the characters to Earth. They established sporadic communication, then I think the doctor actually transported himself all the way to Earth. It seemed they were in pretty much constant contact with Earth towards the end.
Keeping some contact with home in these “Lost in Space” type shows seems common. I don’t know if it’s necessary in a story-telling way, but it works on TV. Maybe it’s just a way to keep the door open for new characters. It must save money, so they can give us some fun space action once in awhile, and the makers of Stargate can do pretty good space action when they want to.
You’re right about BSG & Voyager, Lev, but I don’t recall either being so eager to establish a connection back home so early on in the story, much less in the first season. I always thought Ron Moore’s involvement in BSG was a maturation of the “lost in deep space” concept that he cut his teeth on with Voyager. Even on Voyager (which had more than its fair share of convenient plot devices) they weren’t doing much more than sending interstellar e-mails and video back to Starfleet for a few minutes at a time, and that was much later on in the series.
The whole transgalactic mind control thing on SGU is a bit of a stretch, both in terms of how it’s being used plot-wise and in terms of science fiction, as far as the science part is concerned. When we first encountered the stones in the previous shows, it was a stretch to even believe they could do that kind of trick across the galaxy, but across a span of galaxies? Even the best Ancient technology can’t go faster than FTL starships or gate travel, yet these stones can transmit across billions of light years with absolutely no lag? Sorry, but I only have so much suspension of disbelief to give in science fiction, or perhaps particularly with science fiction. Yeah yeah, it’s Ancient technology, not ours, and it has magical deus ex machina powers, but come on. The fact that this very lazy science is being used for the sake of cheesy “who’s fucking who” soap drama (both in the literal and narrative sense) makes the offense twice as bad.
