SGU 103, Air Part 3 (Spoilers)

[JME2]

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.

True. I'm still annoyed that SG-1 was setting up the program to go public in Seasons 7 and 8, then just dropped it. The teleportation of Ba'al's skyscraper in "Ex Dues Machina" from a downtown area and the cover-up also irks me.

[Kane Starkiller]

This episode had me pondering the same question I had watching the last season of nBSG: how is it possible that every week the latest episode of the Clone Wars cartoon is more fun and interesting than a live action sci-fi show? Are they really incapable of surpassing a script aimed at little children watching cartoon network on a saturday morning?
The only remotely exciting moment was Eli holding "the elevator door open" at the end.

Here is hoping that SW live action series will happen and bring some actual fun into the sci-fi.

[PREDATOR490]

2

Sorry, dont like the way this went.

This episode could easily have given them the chance to reveal the Stargate program to the public from a distance without having to go through the motions of mass public riots affect the SGC or Atlantis personnel. Instead they have decided to maintain the status quo of keeping it all one giant secret which has long since past the point where it is reasonable to keep the thing a secret.

Running around the desert just struck me as a generic filler episode designed to ease on the budget which they no doubt blew a lot on the flashy effects on the pilot. Fair enough, all series have this kind of development but I was hoping for the slow pace filler stuff to start coming into play a little later. We are stuck on a big ancient ship that is unknown with characters completely unknown but we spend the episode watching them trail across a desert with swirly clouds acting as plot devices that solve the problem.

I can see this episode is already going to start a whole new genre of shippers with it's ending and establish a clear plot device action:
"We only have 12 hours to do our thing before the ship decides to warp away on its own - oh unless we have someone stick something in the gate keeping the door open."
Of course next will see the introduction of the counter to this plot device by showing the ship will automatically cut off WHs before jumping and is stuck to the 30min rule. Otherwise one could simply redial the gate constantly and stick something in it every 30mins to keep the ship from jumping.Telling him to stick his arm in was pretty pointless attempt at drama when we know its not gonna sheer his hand off and they could have simply told him to stick a gun or anything inanimate into the gate.

I'm not going to comment on the potential religious angle they added to this but I distinctly hope they dont go down that path unless they intend to follow through with it to the end properly. If God is working the scene then I dont want vague stuff like nBSG where everything is supposed be God's will and yet have no idea what God's will is or what the hell was trying to be achieved. I sure as hell do not want to see series personnel made up of Scientists who know about Ascended beings and the ancients take any creature or event claiming to be God at face value because of 'Faith'.

[Zac Naloen]

This episode could easily have given them the chance to reveal the Stargate program to the public from a distance without having to go through the motions of mass public riots affect the SGC or Atlantis personnel. Instead they have decided to maintain the status quo of keeping it all one giant secret which has long since past the point where it is reasonable to keep the thing a secret.

What?

This show is a serial, not episodic. Things will happen in this episode that will continue to reverberate and be felt for several episodes to come.

Running around the desert just struck me as a generic filler episode designed to ease on the budget which they no doubt blew a lot on the flashy effects on the pilot. Fair enough, all series have this kind of development but I was hoping for the slow pace filler stuff to start coming into play a little later. We are stuck on a big ancient ship that is unknown with characters completely unknown but we spend the episode watching them trail across a desert with swirly clouds acting as plot devices that solve the problem.

A. No way travelling to White Sands was cheap.

B. They need to make the ship livable before they can explore it.

C. As this is a character driven show and this episode had more character stuff than 5 seasons of atlantis put together you can probably expect the same for the 5-6 weeks as they establish all the characters and their motivation.

Action/Adventure this show is not. Better get used to it quick.

I'm not going to comment on the potential religious angle they added to this but I distinctly hope they dont go down that path unless they intend to follow through with it to the end properly. If God is working the scene then I dont want vague stuff like nBSG where everything is supposed be God's will and yet have no idea what God's will is or what the hell was trying to be achieved. I sure as hell do not want to see series personnel made up of Scientists who know about Ascended beings and the ancients take any creature or event claiming to be God at face value because of 'Faith'.

For fucks sake, He is religious. Big whoop. He hallucinated religious imagery as he was dying of heat stroke and dehydration.. OH NOES THE RELIGIONS R RUING MY TV SHOW!!!

If this show has religious portents it's for one simple reason. This is a situation where the majority aren't scientists and aren't a team of perfect smart individuals so you can expect a lot of irrational beliefs to be discussed. Because that's what real people are, irrational.

You may not like it, you may think that because there is religion in the show the writers are taking a "side". But as long as it is kept ambiguous and you can think whatever the fuck you want to believe, who gives a shit?

I happen to believe that Scott was hallucinating. Necron Lord happens to believe the alien life form was encouraging him telepathically. Others think the show is shoving religion down our throats, what does that say about them?

[Gil Hamilton]

Hold the fucking phone. I just got done watching this episode and I can safely say that I'm DEEPLY disappointed in the tone this new series is setting. You mean to fucking tell me that the characters in the show solved their problems with basic chemistry, requiring some bit of sacrifice to get the materials for, rather than locating an Ancient device that solves their problem at the touch of a button? That isn't the Stargate I know! How dare they not resort to a Deus Ex Machina in the last five minutes of the show to fix everything?

And where the fuck was the Real Ultimate Evil Power that is on the cusp of dooming the Universe and Earth in particular unless they find some Ancient designed silver bullet to destroy it, thus making room for the Real REAL Ultimate Evil Power? It's not fucking Stargate without some seemingly invincible Real Ultimate Evil Power to be 4th Quarter Magicked away!

[ThomasP]

Maybe the show will prove me wrong as it progresses, but I just don't see how this is a bad start. Could be because I skipped BSG, the later Ori seasons of SG-1, and most of Atlantis, but I'm just not getting the OMG DOOM! predictions.

I can understand a little groaning about God, given some of what I've read, but come on - religious guy has a religious experience. I can't take that as anything more than what it is, at least not without more to confirm it. The religious views of a religious character aren't necessarily cause for alarm.

Granted the SG franchise has had an interesting relationship with gods and religions, but I just didn't get any impression that "God did it!" is going to become a central plot point. Maybe I'm just being overly optimistic.

To tell the truth I'm honestly surprised I've liked it as much as I have. I was really expecting to loathe it, based on the concept, but so far it's just not worthy of my hatred.

I stand completely willing to be proven wrong, however.

[Razaekel]

I don't get why that if they knew they needed to look for a lake bed, why didn't the just send out a Kino or two to look, instead of trekking all over the place themselves? It probably would've cut down on the time needed to find it by allowing them to cover a larger search area, and then they could just beeline to the lake bed, get the lime, and get back on the ship with time to spare.

[JME2]

I don't get why that if they knew they needed to look for a lake bed, why didn't the just send out a Kino or two to look, instead of trekking all over the place themselves? It probably would've cut down on the time needed to find it by allowing them to cover a larger search area, and then they could just beeline to the lake bed, get the lime, and get back on the ship with time to spare.

Unless the Kinos had a limited travel range. Oh well..

I also want to add that I'm liking the Destiny Stargates more and more. The Pegasus Gates are still my favorite variant, but I like the sound effect and the new take on the dialing ring.

[Gil Hamilton]

I don't see why the religious guy having a religious experience while under the effects of dehydration and sun stroke is a deal breaker for anyone. Interesting fact: that's not particularly an uncommon hallucination. That's happened TONS in history, in fact.

[Gil Hamilton]

I don't get why that if they knew they needed to look for a lake bed, why didn't the just send out a Kino or two to look, instead of trekking all over the place themselves? It probably would've cut down on the time needed to find it by allowing them to cover a larger search area, and then they could just beeline to the lake bed, get the lime, and get back on the ship with time to spare.

How does a Keno test the area for calcium carbonate content?

[JME2]

I don't see why the religious guy having a religious experience while under the effects of dehydration and sun stroke is a deal breaker for anyone. Interesting fact: that's not particularly an uncommon hallucination. That's happened TONS in history, in fact.

True. It works either as an hallucination or alien entity. I'm not crying foul yet, it's just that nBSG spent any remaining goodwill I had towards vague religious/mystic bullshit (ironically, DS9 got the ball rolling on that front). IMO, despite the use of Earth religions in SG-1 and those wacky ascended Ancients, Stargate as a whole simply cannot support that kind of storytelling and I would be...dissapointed if they end up going that route.

[Bilbo]

Interesting with good and bad points.

1. The FTL is definitely different. No other FTL we have seen on SG would allow a ship to detach from another ship in FTL.

2. Disapointed in how quickly the one SGC soldier decided to disobey orders and go to the random planet. The two civilian scientists I can see, the soldier should be higher quality.

3. The black soldier, my apologies his name just eludes me, so far he is annoying. Even with how much SGC has expanded it is still small enough for the military to really have its pick of the litter. No reason we should have a troublemaker in the SGC on a crucial offworld base.

4. Arm through the gate was nice though a bit obvious.

5. Love the empty threat from the self important elitest wife. Even if the US government didnt shut her down I am sure the Trust would. They have no interest in the Stargate going public. I have to wonder what kind of a fuckup that the Senator was that he passed so much info to his wife. Do these turkeydicks not understand security? Everything earned by the Senator's sacrifice went out the window once you realize he was a blabbermouth.

6. Colonel Lou Diamon Philips is a complete and utter asshole, but then that has been obvious from the beginning of the show.

[Ford Prefect]

The black soldier, my apologies his name just eludes me, so far he is annoying.

Greer. Personally, I find his assholery mildly entertaining and unusually convincing for a Stargate series. Frankly, the idea of an Earth soldier who isn't basically a decent enough guy is pretty refreshing for a change. Both Scott and Greer strike me as being much more realistic soldier-type characters compared to basically everything else Stargate has ever thrown at us. For me, this is part of what makes Stargate: Universe so promising. It's basically the Atlantis scenario, only with a different direction. I'd hesitate to call it the producers trying to do Atlantis 'right', but sof ar Universe is really promising. The shift away from the rather campy good guys fighting space monsters that we've had for the past 300 odd episodes is welcomed, because it was wearing extremely thin (and the writers completely lost it towards the end, as far as I'm concerned). I don't really trust the writers to really capitalise on what they've got, but their approach is so far much more satisfying than Atlantis ever was.

[CaptainChewbacca]

They didn't send a kino to look for the lake-bed because they might not necessarily find it, but by walking and testing every so often, they might get lucky and find useable sand.

[JME2]

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.

On a similar note, I just want to make an observation about everyone who was condemming this show before aired and calling it a vilolation of the Stargate themes/mythos, et. al. I'd like to point out that all of the die-hard TOS/Trekkies were making similar complaints 16 years ago when DS9 premiered, saying it violated the spirit of the franchise, that it was a fuck you to Gene Roddenberry, etc. And yet, DS9 is considered by a lot of fans, including myself, to be the best written and executed of the shows (despite its flaws). I'm not saying we have the next DS9 on our hands here, I'm jut saying that this darker, more character oriented take on the Stargate concept could do wonders for the franchise after 12 years straight of action/adventure from SG-1 and SGA.

[Vympel]

I quite liked this episode. I still say we could do without the whole Ancient communications device link to Earth, but it's in the mythos so might as well use it. Hopefully it has a finite range and they eventually lose contact.

[JME2]

I quite liked this episode. I still say we could do without the whole Ancient communications device link to Earth, but it's in the mythos so might as well use it. Hopefully it has a finite range and they eventually lose contact.

Or have Rush conveniently 'misplace' them...

[dragon]

Finally saw it and while ok could have been better. As for the comment about the never seeing the sand thing again, so what in SG-1 they had creatures of the week that never reappeared. As for the religious part, well what do you expect. He was a religious man that was in a life or death situation and suffering from heat dilieram. Even a non religious person would start seeing questionable things.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I don't think the complaint is over having a religious character have a religious experience. The complaint is over having an unambiguously Abrahamic religious character in a Stargate show. It isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's a very clear cause for concern.

[Zac Naloen]

I don't think the complaint is over having a religious character have a religious experience. The complaint is over having an unambiguously Abrahamic religious character in a Stargate show. It isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's a very clear cause for concern.

Err... Why?

[Darwin]

I wouldn't rule out the Destiny itself (or its AI) putting the ship's own welfare (And repair) ahead of the human passengers. If done right, it could lead them along, thinking each step, each repair brings them a little closer to home, when the ship has no intention of altering its mission. I mean it wouldn't be the first example of Ancient Dickishness.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Err... Why?

Because the entire premise of the franchise revolves around powerful aliens masquerading as and even being the source of religious deities.

SG-1 and SGA wisely chose to quietly sidestep modern Abrahamic religion so as not to invoke controversy in a fairly light-hearted "...and then the heroes saved the day!" show. Obviously SGU is a little darker and a little more serious, which is why I'm not necessarily opposed to taking the kid gloves off with Christianity. The problem, however, is that in all likelihood the suits and writers behind SGU won't have the balls to actually carry through with that and instead we'll get some lame "But Christianity is special!" story in a universe where every other god, demigod, and underworld evil in humanity's collective imagination is just some alien being a dick.

Now, I'm hoping they do pull it off well, mind. It is one of the primary functions of science-fiction, after all: To obliquely provide commentary on otherwise too-hot-to-handle societal issues. It's too early to tell exactly how it will play out, if at all. All I am stating at this point is that it's a cause for concern down the road.

[Zac Naloen]

Ah I see where you are coming from.


I think that as long as they don't try to justify his beliefs or explore the philosopy but merely keep it as "The guy had a christian upbringing, this may affect his behaviour and outlook" (Certainly not his sex-life though) then it will be fine.


If they use his beliefs as a vehicle for something else then there would be an "in-universe" problem because in universe you need to be extremely wary of anyone claiming to be a God or anyone claiming to worship a God. But considering past form, I find that to be very unlikely. (But that could create an interesting story in itself if Scott meets someone claiming to be his God and falls for it).

Stargate has always been a bit of a No True Scotsman fallacy with it's approach to Godhood anyway.

[TheLostVikings]

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.

No to the first option, they are clearly completely different:

Image One

Image Two

In addition the UFO at the end was just sitting around on a flat plate, completely devoid of any attachment points or openings. So it was most likely not docked to anything on the destiny itself. It's been a while since I watched any SG, and we haven't seen very much of the Destiny yet, but I still thing the design of the UFO gives off a pretty different "feel" than that of the Destiny. So my guess is that it is option 3, it belongs to someone else... que ominous music.

Though it is worth noting that it is flying off during FTL, complete with the same "swirls" around it and everything.

[Zac Naloen]

Yeh, that thing is not in keeping with the rest of the destinys design.

I have to go with it being alien in origin. Whoever said it seems like they are being spied on, maybe not too far from the truth?