SGU 107: "Earth" (Spoilers)

[NecronLord]

Discussion for Earth.

[Bilbo]

Episode is not over yet but since I am right now watching a couple of them hanging at a club, it completely fucking blows.

[Razaekel]

I get the suspicion that this episode is meant as a commentary on the effects of the separation between high command and the guy in the trenches, where information about the situation on the ground gets filtered and ignored by higher-ups, while the higher ups take their advice from people who have no experience with the situation, and manage to massively screw things up for the little guys.

Oh yea, psychological breakdowns and everybody's getting a little nuts, what with potential imminent doom and all.

Doh! Mathboy got stuck in the inescapable friend zone! Now he's stuck there for eternity!

Predictably, it doesn't go the way the people back home thought it would, and those BASTARDS have the NERVE to run away when it looks like things are about to go boom. Fucking assholes.

Good thing Rush did a little bit of theater, and ran them off, even if he had to deceive everybody else in doing so. Now we get to see the true character of the people from back home.

Oh holy shit, Telford, that BASTARD!

[Bilbo]

Is Telford a bastard? Young's wife jumped in bed with her husband in another body pretty easy. Maybe there was an affair already going on.

Saw the last second cut and run coming a mile away. The last 2 or 3 minites were good but they were certainly not enough to make up for the previous 57 minutes.

[xerex]

Is Telford a bastard? Young's wife jumped in bed with her husband in another body pretty easy. Maybe there was an affair already going on.

yeah i was wondering about that. I find it odd that she didnt get any "im in another body" explanation. but just slammed the door in his face immediately. Made me wonder if she was upset with Telford not Young.


ii'm thinking- next up mathboy would start hanging out with Greer and Scott doing some exercises in an attempt to alter his physique. but still fail to impress what's her name. leading him to snap and crash the ship into a planet.

[Razaekel]

yeah i was wondering about that. I find it odd that she didnt get any "im in another body" explanation. but just slammed the door in his face immediately. Made me wonder if she was upset with Telford not Young.

She got the explanation in a earlier episode. Telford is just taking advantage of the fact that he found about Young's relations with her during one of the 'glitches'.

[Bilbo]

yeah i was wondering about that. I find it odd that she didnt get any "im in another body" explanation. but just slammed the door in his face immediately. Made me wonder if she was upset with Telford not Young.

She got the explanation in a earlier episode. Telford is just taking advantage of the fact that he found about Young's relations with her during one of the 'glitches'.

I am not so sure. Young left his wife last time on better terms than her slamming the door on him. Which does beg the question was she slamming the door on Young or Telford?

[CaptJodan]

I am not so sure. Young left his wife last time on better terms than her slamming the door on him. Which does beg the question was she slamming the door on Young or Telford?

You mean when Young's wife went running away saying "just leave me alone" to Young the last time? Yeah, that's considerably better, and only because she wasn't near a door at the time.

I'm wondering how much time elapsed during their weapon's fire. It didn't seem like a whole hell of a lot of time, but I think I'd need to rewatch it to be sure. It seemed like the ship couldn't put up much of a fight before it's energy reserves were depleted. I'm also wondering if this star refueling is more designed as a backup power supply, rather than the main supply. The ship's main power may just be dry, and the ship has spent the better part of it's time out there just relying on star reserves.

I think the answer to the "thrusters or scoop" question was answered in this episode. I'm pretty sure those things extending from the ship are scoops. As for how, I'd suggest some kind of segmented shield system, where the shields can be lowered in certain areas to allow for refueling.

For those who, again, continue to whine about the competence of the crew, we get yet another lecture about these people being completely ill equipped for the job they've been given. Even though these people knew of the Stargate, the roughest most of them ever probably had was that they took a trip on a clean, working, reliable spaceship to a new planet, and then started working on a top secret project. They even mention putting the "team that was supposed to go" in the damned dialogue, for those too clueless to figure out they weren't the ones that were supposed to go.

Not everyone needs to have a past fuck buddy history aboard. Young's affair with TJ...yeah...not loving it.

Chloe still annoys me. Some of my friends compare Eli to Chuck-Style Neelix, but Chloe is, to me, far more annoying. Hopefully she will grow up soon. The teenage bar scenes were eye-roll inducing.

I'm surprised there's not some kind of agreement clause or something on how one is supposed to treat the body of another person during this experience. No one seems at all worried about what they do to or in someone else's body. There really should be agreed limits on what can and can't be done whilst in this state. Young's wife having sex with Telford's body that easily almost can't be dismissed as stupid without thinking Telford already knew her and was getting something out of the deal.

This one just barely scores a 3 for me this week. There were some good moments, but there was also a lot of bad. I almost want to score it a 2, but some decent eye candy gives it a +1 modifier.

[JME2]

Aside from the club scenes and emo teenage bullshit, the episode was quite good:

* Merry Old Land of Oz: Ahah! Yes! SGU made it's first Wizard of Oz crack courtesy of Eli. I officially consider it to be the ol' Stargate humor at long last!

* Assholes Inc.: Well, after years of dealing with mid-ranking IOA assholes like James Coolidge and Shen Xiaoyi, we get to meet the King Asshole of the entire organization, Carl Storm. Color me shocked that the IOA was going being the SGC/Homeworld Security's back again. And Telford...you know, I'm really beginning to wonder if Telford has his own agenda in all of this or if I'm giving his bone-headed arrogance and pettiness too much credit. I'm getting a bad vibe regardless from the last scene.

* Magnificent Bastard: I loved Rush's duping of Telford and his theater comment.

* RIP?: Hunter, no! I'd hate to see one of my favorite supporting characters bite it this early.

4/5

[CaptainChewbacca]

I missed it, what did the Sergeant guy do to piss off Telford? I'm guessing it was in a previous episode.

[Covenant]

I missed it, what did the Sergeant guy do to piss off Telford? I'm guessing it was in a previous episode.

Greer was originally put into the brig because he decked Telford, I believe, so now that Telford's back in command he put Greer into the cell once more. This schism between Telford and Young seems very unusual, but I've got no problems believing that Telford is an asshole and has had a really lousy life ever since these idiots started doing things. First he's almost killed by rubble, now he's appearing in someone's body mid-coitus. Maybe Young's wife was using a strap-on and Telford is a little upset.

And, I gotta say, I really liked the club scene for what it did for Chloe's character (to me). I've never actually been to a club so it's not like I have any affinity for them, but I really like how it made Chloe upset to see how terrible her old circle of friends was and how shallow her life has been (and how she's basically been just an appendage of her father's influence), and will hopefully give her an actual impetus to stop being superficial and worthless. I really hated her dad, so seeing her pine after him was also good, since it made me feel like the writers recognized that I may not like Chloe yet and they're saying "There there, it's okay, see, she knows she sucks." It warmed me up to the character, and thank goodness, the kiss was imaginary. The only thing I want to see less than a Scott/Chloe romance is one involving Eli. It would be too forced. I like Eli, but I don't want him to be audience wish fulfillment Gary Stu.

I gave it a 5 because, by the standards set so far, I felt the characters were much deeper, there was a lot more interaction, and the stress wasn't so much "oh my god, I'm trapped on a ship!" because for fuck's sake you have magic body-teleporter stones, how 'trapped' can you be when you can still go to a movie or eat some home-made cookies or bang your wife? It's not perfect but it ain't that bad. The "oh no we're trapped" seems more like a sort of trapped between a dangerous IOA agenda, Telford's axe-grinding, and Rush's slippery motives. I've kept seeing Rush as the Dr. Smith type character, and I think he provides the most valuable source of antagonism to the crew. I think he's cool, but I like the idea of him keeping knowledge from the crew, because that's the kind of peril you can't just circumvent by having someone fix a bulkhead. Overall, the "rock and a hard place" situation felt more original, the assistance from Earth made it feel like people were trying their best, and best of all it gave me a reason not to hate Chloe for the hour.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'd just like to say as a complete aside, I really like the creative poll options that are being given each week. I'm not sure why, but they're quite fun for me to place in the SG1 script universe.

[Gil Hamilton]

* Merry Old Land of Oz: Ahah! Yes! SGU made it's first Wizard of Oz crack courtesy of Eli. I officially consider it to be the ol' Stargate humor at long last!

Eli calling himself Philip Fry was some pretty vintage Stargate humor too.

[Xon]

I wouldn't be suprised if dialing Earth might have gone baddly for Earth given how the gate was acting up. Worse, there is the posibility of the Destiny dropping the active stargate into the star should anything go really wrong with the Destiny. Then Earth is quite fucked irs or not.

[xerex]

my thing is Young-as-Telford didnt identify himself before she slammed the door.

Did she just recognize by his pose that this was her husband and not Telford come to give her some news ?


also I hope to GOD that Eli doesnt end up with Chloe it would just be too unbelievable have all the freindzone that they've set up.

[Slacker]

Middle of the road for me. I get what the episode intended to do, it just didn't get that much of a 'wow' from me. Eli is definitely friend zone-I sympathize with you, bud, now move on-and whatever's up with Telford should be good television when it finally comes to a head.

[CaptJodan]

Couple other things I thought about that were unclear.

1. Earth scientists felt that if they could get Destiny's crew home through this method, they could somehow duplicate it and use it to get back to Destiny sans an Icarus style planet. Um...how? Their ships aren't designed to scoop up star stuff to power their ships. I doubt very much they've figured out how the Destiny does what it does, and the engineering and material science to do what it does is probably still beyond them, at least without some technical manual to take back home with them (and it didn't seem like many people were preparing to take back a lot of data). I'd think it a pretty big leap for them to suggest that they could get back in the same way they bring the team back.

2. This wouldn't probably work well for the story, but for practicality and realism sake, would it not make sense to have a fully trained doctor on hand to take the stones should TJ need help diagnosing and fixing a problem? So far, we've had one person die, and Riley is "touch and go" the last we heard. I'm not saying that, given the poor supplies they have, a doctor could do more than TJ has, but it seems having someone who can better diagnose a problem and offer suggestions for medical help would be a logical step.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Couple other things I thought about that were unclear.

1. Earth scientists felt that if they could get Destiny's crew home through this method, they could somehow duplicate it and use it to get back to Destiny sans an Icarus style planet. Um...how? Their ships aren't designed to scoop up star stuff to power their ships. I doubt very much they've figured out how the Destiny does what it does, and the engineering and material science to do what it does is probably still beyond them, at least without some technical manual to take back home with them (and it didn't seem like many people were preparing to take back a lot of data). I'd think it a pretty big leap for them to suggest that they could get back in the same way they bring the team back.

Isn't it possible for the receiving gate to power the wormhole as long as the first gate has enough power to at least make the initial connection? I know it's not normally how it's done but I vaguely remember an Atlantis episode making use of it. They could dial Destiny while it was refueling/recharging, as long as they knew when.

[JME2]

* Merry Old Land of Oz: Ahah! Yes! SGU made it's first Wizard of Oz crack courtesy of Eli. I officially consider it to be the ol' Stargate humor at long last!

Eli calling himself Philip Fry was some pretty vintage Stargate humor too.

Yeah, I was cracking up when he identified himself.

[CaptJodan]

Isn't it possible for the receiving gate to power the wormhole as long as the first gate has enough power to at least make the initial connection? I know it's not normally how it's done but I vaguely remember an Atlantis episode making use of it. They could dial Destiny while it was refueling/recharging, as long as they knew when.

It's been in several episodes, actually (the first black hole one comes to mind, as it powered the gate beyond 38 minutes). But making the initial connection is the problem in the first place, and there's no evidence to suggest Earth (or Atlantis or anyone else) has the capacity to make even a brief connection with Destiny.

Even if drawing from the Destiny's gate was the plan, however, they didn't take steps to know shit. Even before the plan was enacted, they didn't know the exact amount of time before Destiny would need to refuel. They only narrowed it down to months, and they couldn't really accurately predict how much power Destiny might use while they were all gone, further throwing off their guesses.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Even if drawing from the Destiny's gate was the plan, however, they didn't take steps to know shit. Even before the plan was enacted, they didn't know the exact amount of time before Destiny would need to refuel. They only narrowed it down to months, and they couldn't really accurately predict how much power Destiny might use while they were all gone, further throwing off their guesses.

Once they had managed to use the star-fuelled method once though, it'd be easy to use it again. Say once they evacuated most of the civilians off, leave a few military personnel to wait until it needed to refuel (since they'd be able to last much longer with fewer crew, or just use the weapons array or something to deplete the reserves) and use the stones to contact SGC once the ship started heading in towards a star to refuel. Getting the civilians home doesn't mean they have to leave the ship empty.

[Covenant]

also I hope to GOD that Eli doesnt end up with Chloe it would just be too unbelievable have all the freindzone that they've set up.

Of all the reasons not to have an abominable Eli/Chloe relationship, to fall back on the ridiculous concept of an unbreakable 'friend zone' is mind-boggling. Don't be fucking immature, people date anyone they want, this 'friend zone' meme is garbage. If Eli suddenly got a) physically attractive and b) a pair of functioning balls, he might have a chance, it's got nothing to do with 'friend zone' status.

[NecronLord]

I'd just like to say as a complete aside, I really like the creative poll options that are being given each week. I'm not sure why, but they're quite fun for me to place in the SG1 script universe.

Thanks!

also I hope to GOD that Eli doesnt end up with Chloe it would just be too unbelievable have all the freindzone that they've set up.

Of all the reasons not to have an abominable Eli/Chloe relationship, to fall back on the ridiculous concept of an unbreakable 'friend zone' is mind-boggling. Don't be fucking immature, people date anyone they want, this 'friend zone' meme is garbage. If Eli suddenly got a) physically attractive and b) a pair of functioning balls, he might have a chance, it's got nothing to do with 'friend zone' status.

Well #1 shouldn't be a problem, given the limited diet and likely lifestyle. It'd obviously be a more extreme version of the way Jackson developed over the years.

Though, that does rather depend on the actor.

[Covenant]

Of all the reasons not to have an abominable Eli/Chloe relationship, to fall back on the ridiculous concept of an unbreakable 'friend zone' is mind-boggling. Don't be fucking immature, people date anyone they want, this 'friend zone' meme is garbage. If Eli suddenly got a) physically attractive and b) a pair of functioning balls, he might have a chance, it's got nothing to do with 'friend zone' status.

Well #1 shouldn't be a problem, given the limited diet and likely lifestyle. It'd obviously be a more extreme version of the way Jackson developed over the years.

Though, that does rather depend on the actor.

Or like Rodney, who has the bigger social ineptitude thing in similar with Eli. While Daniel was a dork, he was also married when the show started, and became separated for reasons beyond his control. Eli acts like a kid, something that's bound to be addressed in plot now that we've seen it referenced a million times. If this show is about overcoming your own personal demons, the demons Eli has to address are the ones that keep him from really ever trying, but there's no reason that needs to lead him to Chloe. There's nothing heinous about him becoming well adjusted but not getting the one girls we've seen in his age-group.

[Imperial Overlord]

I have to agree with Chewie: Necronlord, your polls are awesome.