SGU 103, Air Part 3 (Spoilers)

[NecronLord]

Discussion thread for this episode.

[Darksider]

instead of a recurring threat, we get the search for calcium carbonate. I know it seems shallow, but sometimes I like there to be a little excitement in a show, and sometimes I like to watch shit blow up. Neo-BSG did alright in this regard via the occasional confrontation with the Cylons, but there's no recurring enemy here to offer the promise of conflict. I sincerely hope the show tries to create some drama via shooting at people instead of having it all be "oh shit we're all gonna die 'cause we're running out of air/water/fuel/etc."

[Themightytom]

instead of a recurring threat, we get the search for calcium carbonate. I know it seems shallow, but sometimes I like there to be a little excitement in a show, and sometimes I like to watch shit blow up. Neo-BSG did alright in this regard via the occasional confrontation with the Cylons, but there's no recurring enemy here to offer the promise of conflict. I sincerely hope the show tries to create some drama via shooting at people instead of having it all be "oh shit we're all gonna die 'cause we're running out of air/water/fuel/etc."

That can come later, introducing a recurring threat this early would ahve seemed formulaic, I ahve been waiting for one to appear, and am actually OK with the fat that the recurring villian could actually be in fact: Murphy.

[Darksider]

oh, and now we get the fucking god bullshit. Joy.

They'd better reveal this "mysterious force" on planet sand as an ascended ancient or other alien life form. Otherwise they're going to pull the same shit as neo-bsg. I hated the religious angle in neo-bsg. I mean, it's not like every other deity in the SG universe has been revealed as some type of alien or anything.

I'm really trying to like this show, but it's not easy.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Waaaay too much sappy crap there at the end, and "Chloe talks to her mother!" was... poor. Other than that though, not too bad. I give the first few episodes in a series a lot of slack, so we'll see.

And yeah, the religious stuff is weird. Stargate has always been pretty secular, and for good reason, given how it treats religions which are no longer popular. The most openly religious (in the terrestrial sense) character we've seen prior to Universe is Carter of all people (she seems to be a lapsed/agnostic Catholic or Episcopalian). Going on full-bore with a heavily-religious background is... dangerous.

[Darksider]

I'm hoping that his "religious experience" was a function of whatever the hell that was that detached from the Destiny at the end there. Or an ascended ancient, or anything other than an actual "god" really. Just as long as they don't try to hand-wave all the religious bullshit away with "you know he doesn't like that name" at the end like they did with Neo-BSG.

[CaptJodan]

Jeez, calm down. The man was hallucinating, and I doubt very much the Father is going to be some staple throughout the rest of the show.

It's pretty damned clear that some kind of alien dust devil was at work here, and wasn't the result of divine intervention, though I'm sure some will look at it that way. If "God" continues to show up to help Scott, then I'll call bullshit. Until then, I take it as an alien force trying to get him to do what needed to be done.

SGU moves at a much slower pace than the other series, with the aforementioned lack of an enemy and such. While I will admit to a little "ok, they're in the desert, let's move on" to a small degree, my delight at something that's actually not so formulated (for this series, anyway) is a breath of fresh air (no pun intended).

I wouldn't say this was the best episode. The marine's (I can't remember his name) bad attitude is wearing a little thin without getting some kind of explanation, but at least he had some redeeming qualities this episode.

Overall, while the pacing was a bit slow, even for me, I am still finding the overall viewing experience to be enjoyable.

[Darksider]

I'll admit that any mention of the christian religion being legitimate in the Stargate Universe seriously puts me off given that all other religions are treated as the result of alien beings and such. The last time I got this pissed about it was in SG-1 season 9 when Daniel of all people says he thinks that "there's always been someone watching out for them from above."

Immediately I was like "What? No you weren't. That's completely contrary to your entire character!"

[CaptJodan]

I'll admit that any mention of the christian religion being legitimate in the Stargate Universe seriously puts me off given that all other religions are treated as the result of alien beings and such. The last time I got this pissed about it was in SG-1 season 9 when Daniel of all people says he thinks that "there's always been someone watching out for them from above."

Immediately I was like "What? No you weren't. That's completely contrary to your entire character!"

I always thought the Ori were, to some degree, a slight mockery of the Christian faith. True, it was "gods" vs. a single entity, but they did have a book which was the word of law, and they had evangelical-esque preachers from on high spreading the wisdom and all that shit. They had the true believers in Tomin, who was trying to reconcile his own faith with the twisted nature that it was being used for by the Priors (and the Ori themselves, really).

Of course, they offset all that by having Cameron recite his grandma every 5 minutes and Sam's deathbed conversion. Daniel's case, maybe he was talking about the ancients. He'd sure been helped by that higher power enough times.

Wonder what that probe was that shot off the ship there at the end. And I assume we won't see those two who stepped through to another planet ever again? Is the Destiny leaving that galaxy now?

[Burak Gazan]

Interesting, I am sure that we will see more of who or whatever just left the ship at the end as the season continues

As for those other 2 knuckleheads, its problematic as Rodney put it once, y'know like poisonous atmosphere, acid atmosphere, NO atmosphere Left behind may be somewhat redundant

And what the hell was Telford playing at? Trying to be tough guy in the body of another man who's seriously fucked up and should be in a hospital? Who the hell is the SGC recruiting these days

Nice play by the medic though with the off-button needle

[Minischoles]

Terrible episode all around really, the only redeeming feature continues to be audience surrogate Eli and Rush (almost purely saved currently by Carlyle playing him brilliantly).
Its a desert planet, there really wasn't much they could do with it, but they surely could have come up with something better than this?
Music was beat you over the head obvious, the pacing of the episode felt overly slow and needlessly over-dramatic.
Do we really need to see the daughter going to see her mother? can't that just happen off screen after she's been escorted away from Young and O'neill? or is there a plan for some stupid sub-plot where senators wife threatens to go public with the stargate program?
Greer is becoming more and more one dimensional, I really hope they've got something planned for his character other than 'generic angry black guy' because right now he just bores me. Couldn't care less about Chloe and the blatently obvious love triangles they're trying to push the cast into (Eli/Scott/Chloe and Chloe/Scott/soldier girl).
The scene where Scott goes forward alone to try and save the day has been done so many times its practically a cliche, and did we really need to give this guy a tragic past? parents dead, raised by an alcoholic priest who drank himself to death, giving us the pointless emotional scene at the end.

All in all considering the first episodes are supposed to be the episodes hooking us in, the episodes that keep us watching the rest of the series and keep the ratings high, they've given us a bland over-used plot with crappy music, crappy emo scenes for no reason and some retarded sand monster that likes moisture that was never really developed on beyond giving us some stupid hallucinations.

[ThomasP]

I'm liking this so far.

I have my groans, like the aforementioned Chloe's mom scenes and the Dawson's Stargate plot developing at the end, but so far I'm enjoying this.

The religious bit didn't really swipe at me much. The guy's having a hallucination, and there's really nothing SoD breaking about having a character in the US military with a Christian background. It's not like weird aliens are unprecedented in-universe.

And yeah, I caught that shuttle or probe or whatever detaching at the end. This ship is full of unknowns at this point, and so far they're treating it like a bunch of people actually stranded on a rust-bucket of a ship.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

The religious bit didn't really swipe at me much. The guy's having a hallucination, and there's really nothing SoD breaking about having a character in the US military with a Christian background. It's not like weird aliens are unprecedented in-universe.

Were it any other show, I'd agree with you. But Stargate has always been very careful about playing with contemporary religions, with good reason. Most mythology is adapted pretty much verbatim (Egyptian pantheon, Norse pantheon, King Arthur, etc), but the closest they've ever gotten to Christianity was the Ori's oblique allegorical implications and a few early episodes poking cautiously around the edges ("The First Commandment", "Demons").

Jumping into the deep end with a balls-to-the-walls, unambiguously Christian character treads over some dangerous ground. I'm not necessarily coming down on it on one side or the other, but I am very, very wary of what they're going to do with Scott. With Carter, you had to specifically try to comb through the entire series to pick out the little choice bits that even then only hint at a religious background ("The First Commandment", "The Tok'ra", and so on).

[CaptainChewbacca]

I was quite pleased to see scientists on TV doing SCIENCE. I give it 4/5. Sucks for the 2 people who got ditched, though. Well, a man and a woman, they'll be able to... comfort each-other after enough time, assuming they don't get eaten.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

That's a good point. Props to the show for actually including some nod toward actual scientific experimentation, rather than "Well if we recalibrate the hyperdrive to take into account the new information we've found in the Ancient database, then interface that with Asgard protocols to lengthen the time the capacitors can remain charged then we should be able to..."

[Zac Naloen]

Terrible episode all around really, the only redeeming feature continues to be audience surrogate Eli and Rush (almost purely saved currently by Carlyle playing him brilliantly).
Its a desert planet, there really wasn't much they could do with it, but they surely could have come up with something better than this?
Music was beat you over the head obvious, the pacing of the episode felt overly slow and needlessly over-dramatic.
Do we really need to see the daughter going to see her mother? can't that just happen off screen after she's been escorted away from Young and O'neill? or is there a plan for some stupid sub-plot where senators wife threatens to go public with the stargate program?
Greer is becoming more and more one dimensional, I really hope they've got something planned for his character other than 'generic angry black guy' because right now he just bores me. Couldn't care less about Chloe and the blatently obvious love triangles they're trying to push the cast into (Eli/Scott/Chloe and Chloe/Scott/soldier girl).
The scene where Scott goes forward alone to try and save the day has been done so many times its practically a cliche, and did we really need to give this guy a tragic past? parents dead, raised by an alcoholic priest who drank himself to death, giving us the pointless emotional scene at the end.

I suggest you stop watching now, you are watching the wrong show for you.

This isn't going to be as shallow as SG-A and is more about the characters than any stargate before. If you want to watch an action adventure show you are out of luck.

I'm hoping that his "religious experience" was a function of whatever the hell that was that detached from the Destiny at the end there. Or an ascended ancient, or anything other than an actual "god" really. Just as long as they don't try to hand-wave all the religious bullshit away with "you know he doesn't like that name" at the end like they did with Neo-BSG.

It can't just have been an alien life-form on the planet? It was following around picking up all the waste water, determined what they were looking for and then dumped it on him when he found it.

The rest was just the hallucinations of a religious man running out of water in extreme heat. It gave us some of his characters background and his motivations.

As for what detached from the destiny at the end, it was Alien whatever it was. Completely different design principles to the rest of destiny.

[Zac Naloen]

And I assume we won't see those two who stepped through to another planet ever again? Is the Destiny leaving that galaxy now?

I doubt the destiny is leaving that galaxy very much, just moving to another part of it to point them in the direction of whatever the next crisis will be.

Like Lost and the "Island" the Destiny is just going to be a very much admitted Deux Ex Machina to provide that weeks motivations. Certainly at first. The first few episodes looking at the episode titles are all about finding resources to make sure they can survive.


I thought this episode was better than the previous one, there was nothing wrong with the pacing. Bad pacing usually means "WTF is going on?" because it's too quick or "Boooorred" because it's too slow. This was neither. I'm not yet convinced on the music choices though.

[[R_H]]

The scene with Chloe and her mother annoyed me, and I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that they're going into the bloody desert with black fatigues on. The whole "wandering through the desert bit" was pretty boring. Rush is a manipulative SoB..."Greer shot him" while neglecting to say that he was the one who order Greer to do so. I wonder what was on the other world?

Edit: I gave it a 3 BTW.

[Zac Naloen]

At desert temperatures it really doesn't matter what colours you are wearing. I've seen pictures of Bedouins dressed head to toe in black.

It's not like he needed to be camouflaged either.

[Themightytom]

You know it started out with a chemistry lesson, so you can't start jumping every time they show a cross, I highly doubt that SG:U is going to start proselityzing, none of the other shows did it, they are just exploring it in terms of character background for dramatic effect.

Actually when the priest with the booze showed up I half expected Scott to reveal he'd been molested. My eyebrows went up and I told my girl "Oh geez I didn't sign up for this I just wanted to watch them shoot things"

The only thing they shot was themself by the way.

So I had mixed feelings with the sudden religious subtheme, becuase it doesn't seem in character with stargate and I'm really not looking for any controversial issues to be addressed on the show.

I enjoyed mostly in terms of watching the character's experiences, I mean come on, in ONE episode Lt. Scott leaps ahead of half of the characters in the other franchise in terms of developement. instead of "Hey look Sheppard is a closet mathmatician" or "O'neill has a telescope" we get "Lt. Scott's parents died in a car crash, his mentor was a priest who drank himself to death, when Scott tried to follow him into ministry he knocked up a friend of his who may or may not ahve aborted the pregnancy and somehow ended up in the army."

That is a significantly more developed character than what we've had so far and if nothing else it will be interesting watching someone with such a deep religious upbringing react to his circumstances. You notice they had the cross clearly visible, and Scott all in black at the end when he started giving advice to Chloe. That was probably deliberate. I am not suggesting he's going to go full priest... you NEVER go full priest but it shows Scott might be coming to terms with some of his past.

I'm really hoping that whirling derevish doesn't get explained. If there IS an ancient onboard the Destiny, he's a complete douchebag for letting them all stomp around in the dirt, shoot each other and losse two ferengi guys through a wormhole.

Chloe might be an interesting character. She clearly loved her dad, but cclearly has some issues with him as well. The way they portrayed her mother wasn't half bad either. Chloe's seems like she earns all the sympathy, you know, being the one stranded in a life or death situation billions of light years from home, and her mom can't put down the glass long enough to let Chloe tell her about the senator. THEN Chloes mother goes after the airman and starts making threats in a haphazard attempt to support Chloe when it seems like what Chloe really needed was emotional support. Apparently her mother is a taker not a giver, which adds more to the Chloe had a messed up childhood background.

Eli continues to be the trustworthy everyman, but we see a crack when he is forced to try to provide leadership to people who won't listen to him. He tried to contact them while everyone was off looking for scott, but apparently didn't get a reply. How Pissed Were They when they realized they had no DHD, or at least not the portable one.

I think I was actually right about the body swapping trend, thats kind of clever I guess, because it can be a vehicle for introducing guest stars. I DO think it will get awkward if anybodys boyfriend starts to get out of hand while using the stones and you KNOW there's gonna be an episode where someone hijacks a destiny crew member for some diablocal purpose.

They're keeping the realism alive. Dr. Rush chugs some guys water and you ehar him mutter "Well there goes MY ration..." it would be easy to forget that just because they aren't ina desert doesn't mean they have a solid water supply. it also demonstrates how much of a selfish prick Rush is, and it sort of justifies Ford 2.0 not giving him any water.

By the way, would it ahve been a terrible idea after establishing that the desert planet was fairly safe, to just move 50 or so nonessential people to the planet? They could probably have set up a temporary shelter or something from the sun, and they could ahve extended the amount of air they had lefft quite a bit. Course you run the risk of even MORE jackasses panicking and trying to run off by themself.

[JME2]

The third installment of "Air" was...decent; a bit slow, but alright. I was surprised that Rush contacted O'Neill after all; I was sure the bastard was lying. It's interesting to see it as the anti-VGR where the SGC knows from the start that the Icarus team is stranded on the other side of the universe. I'm still liking it, I'm just getting a wee bit more annoyed at the nBSG influences (handheld camera shots of the ship, the music -- that's really ticking me off, given how well Goldsmith followed the operatic style David Arnold laid down for SG-1 and SGA). Ah well, different shows, different styles.

3/5

[NecronLord]

Personally I didn't mind the bit about Chloe and her mother. I found it quite good, in fact.

oh, and now we get the fucking god bullshit. Joy.

To paraphrase Kirk: What does God need with water? That wasn’t a god, it was a freaky telepathic sand alien with some mild telepathy that reacted to the Lt showing it some generosity by leading him to what it wanted while probing his mind a bit to learn what he knew. No further explanation is required. You could even go simpler and say that the priest-y bits were all hallucinations, but I’m not sure that holds together as well.

The last time I got this pissed about it was in SG-1 season 9 when Daniel of all people says he thinks that "there's always been someone watching out for them from above."

Immediately I was like "What? No you weren't. That's completely contrary to your entire character!"

That objective statement of fact, as told to him by the avatar of the pantheon of supremely knowledgeable beings they’re fighting who have no reason to lie? “They shielded you!”

“Really? Interesting, I didn’t think they did much of anything for us.”

I note that they did then resolve the Ori arc with divine intervention from the Ancients. So, yeah. His statement is both correct given the evidence he knew, and an accurate prediction.

Interesting, I am sure that we will see more of who or whatever just left the ship at the end as the season continues

As for those other 2 knuckleheads, its problematic as Rodney put it once, y'know like poisonous atmosphere, acid atmosphere, NO atmosphere Left behind may be somewhat redundant

They sent the Keno through first. That’s why the rescue party sent by Young brought a new one, I assume. They verified atmosphere water and vegetation.

If there’s a hostile alien threat in this, though, I’d not be surprised if it’s because of them going somewhere the ship locked out for whatever reason.

And what the hell was Telford playing at? Trying to be tough guy in the body of another man who's seriously fucked up and should be in a hospital? Who the hell is the SGC recruiting these days

God knows. Presumably he’d forgotten that it’s not his body to run into the ground.

Were it any other show, I'd agree with you. But Stargate has always been very careful about playing with contemporary religions,

No it hasn’t.

Amateratsu and Kali are gods people actually venerate – the former is one of the chief Okami in Shinto, and Kali is also still worshipped, though to a lesser degree. The Jade Emperor, to a lesser degree is also still venerated in Chinese Folk Religion. Nirrti is a very minor but still extant part of Hinduism as well, though considered little more than a demon. Satan, of course, is still part of an extant religion. They’re merely wary of portraying Jehovah and his son.

In any case, the alien wasn’t impersonating Jesus here, it was impersonating a father figure, for whatever reason.

The scene with Chloe and her mother annoyed me, and I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that they're going into the bloody desert with black fatigues on.

Then allow me to explain it to you: they are not the Cat from Red Dwarf. Their first thought in evacuation was not for their wardrobes.

[JME2]

Personally I didn't mind the bit about Chloe and her mother. I found it quite good, in fact.

It'd actually be kind of amusing if she made good on her threats. 12 years of cover-up's by the SGC, NID, Atlantis Expedition, and a grieving pissed off widow is the one who blows the bid on the Stargate Program.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Overall, I guess I would have to say SGU feels a lot more REAL to me. From the character interactions, to the way everything just sucks and people aren't awesome, they seem more like folks I know than the world-savers on SG1 and SGA. Even the sunburns that the people had afterwards looked and seemed more genuine.

I mean, sure, you'll see someone with a singed face, but how often do they remember to sunburn the hands, too?

It'd actually be kind of amusing if she made good on her threats. 12 years of cover-up's by the SGC, NID, Atlantis Expedition, and a grieving pissed off widow is the one who blows the bid on the Stargate Program.

I'm sure the US government wouldn't have any problem giving her a heart attack or mysterious car accident.

[NecronLord]

Honestly, they need to go public anyway. I mean, the element of modern-people is all well and good, but it strains my SoD a fair bit. Though this show hopefully won't have any elements of that. I don't see any battles in orbit of Earth any time soon.

Something a friend and I were talking about - regarding the Ori, was that their ships seem to use some Arcturus-esque power source (potentially meaning they've no fuel limit), and are probably fast enough to reach Destiny, faster than anything except Atlantis that Earth has anyway. I'd rather like to see that in an Earthside bit, rather than just an unbounded struggle to survive. General O'Neill saying they've got Tomin's people to send a rescue ship, but it'll take years to catch up with them. At the moment, the situation seems to be 'we're totally screwed without a way to get back' - I think it'd be interesting for the way to get back thing being addressed ahead of time in some way like that.

The pod thing, so far I'm thinking...

• The shuttle with the Senator's body being ejected?
• An automated Search and Rescue ship being sent to the locked out planet.
• An alien was on board Destiny when they arrived, and that's its ship.