Stargate Universe

[David Hingtgen]

I said something like this months ago, I'll say it again:

Chloe's most interesting when she's not herself, and having her permanently switch with someone would be an improvement/more useful to the crew.

[Dobber]

Episode was really good. Pity the series finds itself at the end of it's run. Or pity that Syfy cancels shows before they get their speed up.

Yeah I've been thinking this too. I really like this show and HATE that it is ending soon.

Chris

[sketchley]

Re S02 Eps 15

Excellent episode.

Not because of the character development (as good, if not better than the level the last few episodes have been at).

Not because of the sacrifices the crew has to make (some truly unexpected twists and turns therein)

but because it captures the feel of SG1 and SGA. For that alone, it's highly recommended.

On top of that, there's a whopping two moral themes that are examined. This show has truly got up to speed.

[miles316]

It would have been cool if it had been Jonas who was the administrator of the Facility.

Jonas might not have fallen for the stones might have recognized them from SG comand records.

Too bad the show has been canceled I wonder if the finale will end with the establishment of a regular supply line to destiny.

[sketchley]

It would have been cool if it had been Jonas who was the administrator of the Facility.

Jonas might not have fallen for the stones might have recognized them from SG comand records.

Too bad the show has been canceled I wonder if the finale will end with the establishment of a regular supply line to destiny.

Agreed that the appearance of Jonas would've been cool, but I do appreciate that it would've made the episode overly complicated.

I don't think he would've been the administrator though, as Jonas being in disagreement with SGC would be out of character.

Nevertheless, I'm still hoping for an 11th hour intervention and a season 3 will be produced. Though, the realistic side of me is telling me it'll be a movie or nothing. I don't think it'll end with the creation of a supply line - for the simple reason that that is what was achieved during SGA, and this show has deliberately tried to be different from SG1 and SGA. But that's just me.

[miles316]

Agreed that the appearance of Jonas would've been cool, but I do appreciate that it would've made the episode overly complicated.

I don't think he would've been the administrator though, as Jonas being in disagreement with SGC would be out of character.

Nevertheless, I'm still hoping for an 11th hour intervention and a season 3 will be produced. Though, the realistic side of me is telling me it'll be a movie or nothing. I don't think it'll end with the creation of a supply line - for the simple reason that that is what was achieved during SGA, and this show has deliberately tried to be different from SG1 and SGA. But that's just me.

I think many of the actors have already signed on to new shows so they can't really start the show up again accept for a movie.

[EXO]

That ep. was just OK. Reminds me of why they cancelled it.

[sketchley]

Re S02 Eps 16

Interesting stuff, but is it really an SGU episode? I felt very nostalgic watching it, as a) it abounds in one of the main reasons why I started watching TV SG in the first place*, and b) it feels like an SGA episode.

Nevertheless, I'm glad that the show finally did something about the Lucian Alliance members on Destiny. It's a shame that after being developed, all but the main one are killed off!

Anyhow, a good episode simply because the main protagonists all take a back seat, and the supporting protagonists are highlighted.

* the on-location stuff filmed in the Pacific Temperate Rain Forest and Greater Vancouver area - as I'm from "near" there. So, SG1 and SGA were a great way of remembering what "true" nature is. LOL

Edited April 17, 2011 by sketchley

[CoryHolmes]

I thought Rush was awesomely devious in the episode. Leave it to him to derail Eli, crush Volker's hopes, and prove himself as Top Scientist Dog all in the same day. I wish I could be half the Magnificent Bastard that he is

The rest of the episode was meh, save for the TJ/Varro bits. Bad show *whaps with newspaper* bad! I ship TJ/Young.

[sketchley]

Re S02 Eps 17

Another good mind-trip episode (though I still think the wormhole to the past in an alternate future should've resulted in a paradox, but anyhow). Lot's of excellent plot twists and references to preceding events in the series. Probably the best thing in the episode is the zinger in the closing segment that elevates the show to an entirely new level of thought provoking-ness.

Dare I say that it elevated the episode from good sci-fi to good science fiction, as the episode actually analyzes a relevant topic de jour, but does it in a way that we don't know what it is until the very end? Kudos to the writers for pulling that off.

Oh, and we get stargates in this episode. (Yay!) Alas, we also get a plot reason not to have them in upcoming episodes. (Boo-hiss!)

EDIT: I have to say that I quite like these latest couple of episodes. Mainly because they've gone back to the core premises of SGU (exploring the ship, and examining real science.)

Edited April 19, 2011 by sketchley

[miles316]

Re S02 Eps 17

Another good mind-trip episode (though I still think the wormhole to the past in an alternate future should've resulted in a paradox, but anyhow). Lot's of excellent plot twists and references to preceding events in the series. Probably the best thing in the episode is the zinger in the closing segment that elevates the show to an entirely new level of thought provoking-ness.

Dare I say that it elevated the episode from good sci-fi to good science fiction, as the episode actually analyzes a relevant topic de jour, but does it in a way that we don't know what it is until the very end? Kudos to the writers for pulling that off.

Oh, and we get stargates in this episode. (Yay!) Alas, we also get a plot reason not to have them in upcoming episodes. (Boo-hiss!)

EDIT: I have to say that I quite like these latest couple of episodes. Mainly because they've gone back to the core premises of SGU (exploring the ship, and examining real science.)

I know I am a Dang nit picker but shouldn't the Gate have gone nuclear after being hit by the Drone it was powerful enough to break the Gate?

[sketchley]

I know I am a Dang nit picker but shouldn't the Gate have gone nuclear after being hit by the Drone it was powerful enough to break the Gate?

Hmmm...

from what I remember, they're nigh indestructible. Perhaps the SGU versions are lower quality ones?

http://www.gateworld.net/news/2011/04/wright-sgu-continuation-other-movies-dead-for-now/

Edited April 20, 2011 by sketchley

[Dynaman]

I liked the last episode, but it had a problem, which the plot later removed but - the Destiny could have gone to their home planet and they could have then used the gate to get the people there (the one on destiny, using the shuttle to shuttle them down to the planet, no need to use up all the supplies hauling the people around for a week).

They also did not explain why the gate was not working, volcanic winter should not have caused the problem. (Perhaps that is for next week)

[sketchley]

Well, given how large a super volcanoes eruption is, it's highly likely that the gate was knocked over and buried. As has been seen many times previously, if the event horizon cannot form, a stargate link cannot be made. So, it may simply be that (or that the gate was deliberately blocked to prevent people from returning to the planet).

Anyhow, I was thinking that the episode provides a nice what-if bookend to the series. What if Destiny continued and they had to land somewhere? In a way, this episode is akin to SG1's "Unending".

[miles316]

Well, given how large a super volcanoes eruption is, it's highly likely that the gate was knocked over and buried. As has been seen many times previously, if the event horizon cannot form, a stargate link cannot be made. So, it may simply be that (or that the gate was deliberately blocked to prevent people from returning to the planet).

Anyhow, I was thinking that the episode provides a nice what-if bookend to the series. What if Destiny continued and they had to land somewhere? In a way, this episode is akin to SG1's "Unending".

Well if they had time to Block/Bury the gate than why not tell the people that the gate was going to stop functioning.

It appeared that the people did not know why the gate would not open to Novas any more. I will accept that the gate got buried, or the Rogue Black hole some how prevented the gate from functioning.

[EXO]

Found the episode extra funny. An ex-gf just bought her first computer back in the day and she wanted to sign up for ICQ because she saw me and my friends on it. I used to play Quake2 almost 6 hours a day and me and my buddies used our stupid screen names for everything, even in person. That's where I got EXO from. Anyway, she signed up as Futura. And I told her that was the lamest name ever, and I told her why didn't she use Nova like I told her. The reason she didn't was that she didn't want to be named after my car back then, which was a 74 Chevy Nova SS.

[sketchley]

That's right - I'd completely forgotten about all the comedy gold in that episode.

"Sim City?"

"Sim Earth!"

and the classic, "it's a font."

Edited April 21, 2011 by sketchley

[CoryHolmes]

The thing is, SGU has always had comedy in it. Just not the in-your-face slapstick of Atlantis and (to a lesser degree) SG-1. For reference, the previous episode 2-16 when McKay stoned onto the ship and immediatly stared at Lt. James' rack "Hey! *points at eyes* Up here."

[miles316]

Man they had me going thinking Rush was up to no good, but he wasn't He was just being his bastardly self.

[Knight26]

Why are they making a big deal about getting the database from the escape ships? The things are sublight and the database they accessed intially would have told them the course and speed of each ship, it would simple for destiny to plot an intercept course and meet up with them enroute to transfer off their rescued folks and get the data to help their doctor.

[Scream Man]

I suspect they'll run into the ships somehow anyway.

Only 2 episodes left EVER of new Stargate

[EXO]

There's one thing I don't get... The crew of Destiny thinks that the settlers they found went back in time yet they go to the planet and it's been desolated after a 2000 year occupation. If they were in the same timeline as the people that escaped and are on a 200 year journey, that means that they're the ones that traveled to the future of a parallel universe, doesn't it?

For a minute there I thought that I miscounted and that was the series finale. The double timeline reminded me of Lost but if it ended like this, then SGU would have had a better finale.

[mechaninac]

The way I understood it is that the Destiny crew that settled Novus were the same that were presumed dead in the ill fated attempt to gate to Earth from within a star a few episodes back... the one in which the current time line Destiny runs into the alternate time line shuttle carrying Rush and than proceeds to find the alternate Destiny in a decaying orbit around the system's Primary, where they cannibalize what supplies and equipment they can before the ship burns up. Where Rush and Destiny were thrown back in time by days or weeks (I don't recall if they ever said what the time gap was), the crew were gated back some 2000 years onto an inhospitable world from which they then found Novus and made it their new home.

All in all I found this episode, along with the related preceding ones, quite good, with a melancholy undertone lending it a certain poignancy. However, the causality paradox inherent in the plot would tend to negate the whole thing from happening: By finding Rush they avoided the events that would cause their being stranded two millennia in the past which would mean there could not be a human population to start the Novus civilizations, but if they avoided the fate of the alternate Destiny there would be no marooned Rush to find which would then cause the Destiny crew to make the stellar gate attempt... it's an endless loop...

And one thing bugs me to no end: Why is it that whenever a show finally hits its stride, Syfy immediately proceeds to cancel it?

Edited April 27, 2011 by mechaninac

[sketchley]

Good episode, with something for everyone to do, excellent pathos, and both positive and melancholic fates illustrated for the crew. Because SGU has been cancelled (boo-hiss), I'm glad that we are getting this "alternate future" for the characters - as in a lot of ways, it does provide closure to them.

Maybe the next episode(s) will resolve the alternative timeline descendants/doctor disease story arc. Maybe.

Oh - mechaninac: this story arc isn't the first time in the SG universe that a time paradox has been created.

SG1 had the SG1 team sending themselves a note from the future that after reading it would've prevented them from sending the note.

SGA had Sheppard sent to the distant future, and McKay created a holographic self to help him, but upon Sheppard's return from the future, McKay didn't work to create a holographic self to help Sheppard in the future...

SGU had the team go to a planet with nasty bugs, get killed and their Kino recordings viewed by a second timeline who went to the planet and also got killed who's Kino recordings were viewed by a third timeline who didn't get killed and leave a Kino for the 2nd or 3rd to find...

[EXO]

the crew were gated back some 2000 years onto an inhospitable world from which they then found Novus and made it their new home.

Ah OK. I misheard Eli then. Gotta stop playng with the iphone while watching TV... lol. Thanks!

[mechaninac]

Oh - mechaninac: this story arc isn't the first time in the SG universe that a time paradox has been created.

SG1 had the SG1 team sending themselves a note from the future that after reading it would've prevented them from sending the note.

SGA had Sheppard sent to the distant future, and McKay created a holographic self to help him, but upon Sheppard's return from the future, McKay didn't work to create a holographic self to help Sheppard in the future...

SGU had the team go to a planet with nasty bugs, get killed and their Kino recordings viewed by a second timeline who went to the planet and also got killed who's Kino recordings were viewed by a third timeline who didn't get killed and leave a Kino for the 2nd or 3rd to find...

Too true, but for some reason this story arc really got my causality paradox alarms going full bore. On some of the examples you mentioned the paradoxes can be circumvented by the possibility of a tangential split in the flow of time so that a cause and effect contradiction is avoided (Ex.: sending a note to the past creates a split in the time stream at the point the note is received; stream 1 remains the same as before where the note was never in play and stream 2 is given a warning from the now-alternate future -- like a premonition or precognitive event... the 2 parallel, yet separate, possibilities continue to unfold normally but do not coexist; the same can be argued about the SGU episode with the Keno recordings... diverging, parallel, and unique time streams with no interaction other than the Keno which was the catalyst for the branching out of realities in the first place). In this SGU arc, however, the two time streams coexist since the descendents of the stranded crew inhabit the same time line/Universe as the crew that never went back to have descendents... hence why it bugged me as much as it did.

[CoryHolmes]

Why must this show have gotten so good while closing in on its end? The first season was fabulous, I'd even say brilliant sci-fi, but now the plot and characters have all gelled and it's fabulously enetertaining. Damn you, Syfy. Damn you to hell!

[miles316]

Why must this show have gotten so good while closing in on its end? The first season was fabulous, I'd even say brilliant sci-fi, but now the plot and characters have all gelled and it's fabulously enetertaining. Damn you, Syfy. Damn you to hell!

I loved them comparing the planet to Pittsburgh and than the Lt said "I was born in Pittsburgh".

I know my Nitpicking is rearing its ugly head but why did the Suits not have a polarized visor? I know when they were used on Atlantis by the Asgard they had a blacked out visor.

[Loop]

I think we are down to one episode left....... I really wish that SyFy would have picked it up for more episodes.

I this show is actually pretty damn good so far and only getting better.

[EXO]

I thought the first season was directionless. I didn't really know what the show was about. I read in some old interview recently that the first season was meant to convey being lost and alone in the vast universe, but I think that was a mistake. But it also seems like syfy is getting rid of their more serious show in favor of the campy stuff. Let's see what they do with the new Battlestar. It's too bad, this show has really shaped up in the last few episodes. In the start of the season I wouldn't have cared if they axed it right away but now I feel like I'm ready to see more of the Destiny crew. On that note, I'm really getting bored of the drones. Maybe if this show wasn't wrapping up I'd be more tolerant but I'm really over that storyline.

It's insane that there's no clue of which genre show will make it. Fringe gave me the same feeling about their run. Boring start but it's finally solidifying as a show. Who knew the network that cancelled Firefly would stick it out with that show and the sci-fi driven network would cancel 2 of their most promising shows in the same season.

[CoryHolmes]

I loved them comparing the planet to Pittsburgh and than the Lt said "I was born in Pittsburgh".

I know my Nitpicking is rearing its ugly head but why did the Suits not have a polarized visor? I know when they were used on Atlantis by the Asgard they had a blacked out visor.

I imagine there's only so much polarizing a suit can do when facing a Type O Supergiant. Either way, I was on my seat if they were going to kill her off or not (and they probably should have). Also, Lt. James once again shows herself to wickedly awesome; first with that glorious elbow (discussion? Pheh, who needs a discussion!) and secondly by making herself bait. From the look on her face, I'd say that she didn't think Varro was there.

[anime52k8]

It's insane that there's no clue of which genre show will make it. Fringe gave me the same feeling about their run. Boring start but it's finally solidifying as a show. Who knew the network that cancelled Firefly would stick it out with that show and the sci-fi driven network would cancel 2 of their most promising shows in the same season.

well for one, Caprica my have been promising in concept but it was absolute crap all the way through it's run. SGU on the other hand has been getting watchable in it's last few episodes but I'm actually glad to see it get canned. SGU still has by far the weakest core cast of any stargate iteration, and while the current story arc has made for a few good episodes the fact that the central conflict is a bunch of nameless faceless robots with no personality or back story is getting really old, really fast.

also Caprica is still crap.

[CoryHolmes]

well for one, Caprica my have been promising in concept but it was absolute crap all the way through it's run. SGU on the other hand has been getting watchable in it's last few episodes but I'm actually glad to see it get canned. SGU still has by far the weakest core cast of any stargate iteration, and while the current story arc has made for a few good episodes the fact that the central conflict is a bunch of nameless faceless robots with no personality or back story is getting really old, really fast.

also Caprica is still crap.

I wouldn't call TJ & Young's affair, with the subsequent fallout (divorce, child, interpersonal issues) being highlighted as "no backstory". Personally, I loved watching those two interact. In public, she's the subordinate officer, but in private she switches gears and becomes his (ex)mistress and verbally smacks him down when he was wrong. That was fun to watch

[anime52k8]

I wouldn't call TJ & Young's affair, with the subsequent fallout (divorce, child, interpersonal issues) being highlighted as "no backstory". Personally, I loved watching those two interact. In public, she's the subordinate officer, but in private she switches gears and becomes his (ex)mistress and verbally smacks him down when he was wrong. That was fun to watch

actually I was referring to the Drones. They suck as big bads. They have no personality, no motivation, no history, there just doofy looking probes shooting lasers at things for no reason.

[miles316]

I kept expecting their descendent's to be responsible for the creation of the Drones. I think it should have been the replicators Rather than a anonymous fleet of drones, and the occasional command ship. They did not have to be a version or the Milky way/Asgard or Pegasus/ancient versions but something similar.