And the new shows keep on rolling out, even into October, on cable as well as network TV.

First up this weekend is Syfy’s newest spin-off of the channel’s most durable franchise: Stargate: Universe, launching with a two-hour movie (9/8c) that brings an unusually grim urgency and tension to what had always seemed to me (on the occasions I sampled it) a relatively escapist romp through the galaxies.

The Stargate portals are still there, along with glimpses of some of the core cast members (Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks), but once the plot kicks in, the tone is closer to the Battlestar Galactica remake (or possibly a darker Star Trek: Voyager) as the show becomes the latest version of the classic “lost in space” survival saga. This isn’t anywhere near as riveting or meaty or distinctive as the landmark BSG, but this is solid mainstream sci-fi. And selfishly, I’m just happy to see Syfy get back into outer space—no slight against the channel’s more whimsical hits Warehouse 13 and Eureka, which have both successfully concluded their summer runs. I’ll be shocked if this doesn’t find a sizable audience on a night that has long been hospitable to Syfy’s brand (although this fall, the networks have once again loaded up Fridays with fantasy alternatives like Smallville and Dollhouse, not to mention CBS’s Ghost Whisperer-Medium combo).

With the terrific Scottish character actor Robert Carlyle (most recently seen in 24: Redemption) in the lead, you might actually think for a moment that you’ve stumbled across one of those nifty British sci-fi imports. He’s one of the best reasons to watch Universe, bringing prickly gravitas and a murky tragic backstory to the stock role of the embattled brainiac-in-charge who almost no one else (especially the military) trusts. But stranded billions of light years from Earth on a rickety Ancient ship with a mind of its own and few creature comforts (like water and even clean air), Dr. Nicholas Rush is probably the best hope for this ragtag crew of civilians, scientists and soldiers to survive.

Lest you think Stargate has entirely lost its patented sense of quirky humor, the second best asset of Universe is the comic relief supplied by David Blue (Ugly Betty) as Eli Wallace, a computer nerd recruited just before a crisis involving an exploding planet sends these characters into a portal to who-knows-where that lands them on the mysterious ship Destiny. “I’m Math Boy,” he says, never losing his sense of wonder and amusement even in the darkest hours. (Somehow allowed to go along on a desert planet mission during next week’s first regular episode, his first response is to make a Planet of the Apes joke).

There’s plenty of conflict and danger in these opening hours, enough to get you past the fact (for now) that it’s hard to tell much of the young and telegenic supporting cast apart. We may get to know some of them better courtesy of “kinos,” floating camera orbs discovered on the ship, into which the characters are encouraged to spill their guts in confessionals in case they don’t make it back to Earth during their life spans. (Also on hand: a device that allows characters to temporarily take over another body’s consciousness back on Earth, a convenient way to bring former Stargate-ers back into the story and to get us off this forbidding ship once in a while.)

So far, this seems a very promising ride. Maybe not one for the ages like BSG, but for the next few weeks, I’ll be curious to see how these space castaways cope.

Coming back down to Earth, I have little to say about CBS’s new medical drama Three Rivers (Sunday, 9/8c) except to hope the network has something better lined up for Alex O'Loughlin should this painfully dull and terribly earnest transplant drama fail to raise the audience’s pulse.

The original pilot (which was much worse) was entirely scrapped, with splashy new sets and (thankfully) a new wardrobe for its empathetic docs, led by Moonlight’s charismatic O’Loughlin, here somewhat strait-jacketed in an underwritten role that fits him best when he trains those soulful eyes on patients in perpetual crisis. At least CBS got it right when they recognized his fans would appreciate his bedside manner. But if ever there was a star that would seem better suited to CBS’s more action-based procedurals, it’s this guy. (Why in the world did he not get assigned the Chris O’Donnell role in NCIS: Los Angeles, given that such a spin-off was a no-brainer and O’Loughlin was the most promising breakout star CBS had produced in several seasons, which is why they kept him under contract after prematurely pulling the plug on his vampire show.)

So what are we left with? A terribly generic hospital hand-wringer that splits its focus three ways (hence the Three Rivers of the title, which refers to its Pittsburgh setting as well): the doctors, of course, are center stage, but there’s also a victim-of-the-week—in the opening, a construction boss who falls to his brain-death—whose organs (a heart) are desperately needed by a patient-of-the-week (in this case, a pregnant woman). Even though Three Rivers aims to be inspiring as it rattles off lots of exposition about the need for organ donation and the lives it saves, the premise is inherently something of a downer, because someone’s going to have to die each week to put the plot in motion—and if these docs (said, naturally, to be the best in their field) aren’t successful, it’s a double downer.

The real drag here is watching actors as appealing as O’Loughlin, Katherine Moennig (as a rebellious poor little rich girl surgical fellow) and Alfre Woodard (as the boss, typically seen barking orders in walk-and-talks) looking as bored as we can’t help feeling. The supporting cast is diverse, but uniformly bland. Three Rivers isn’t as laughably awful as NBC’s Mercy, but it’s possibly more forgettable. Given some of the talent involved, that’s just tragic.