SGU 109: "Life" (Spoilers)

[NecronLord]

Discussion for this week's episode of Stargate Universe.

[Agent Fisher]

4. More chracter work. Good stuff. And I loved the song choice. Worst day since yesterday indeed.

[Slacker]

I really enjoyed it when Young went back instead of the doctor and beat the shit out of Telford.

[Kodiak]

It's interesting to see all the character depth- layers upon layers all around. The nymphomaniac scientist was also an interesting touch.

[spaceviking]

Something thats been bugging... did they find some ancient razors or something. No one even has a 5 O'Clock shadow

[CaptainChewbacca]

Something thats been bugging... did they find some ancient razors or something. No one even has a 5 O'Clock shadow

I doubt they've got much in the way of protein, that's probably keeping facial hair growth down. Lt. Scott seemed to be sporting a bit of a scruff, though.

[Zac Naloen]

Not as good as last week but last week was classic Science Fiction. However this is the best character stuff Stargate has ever done and it stands very well on those merits as an acting piece. I'd certainly argue that the last two weeks have been the shows best in terms of an overall production.

A 4 for this one I think, loses a point for not having "spacesplosions".

[Covenant]

Gave it a 3. Seems about average so far, not terrible, not good. I found this week's character reveals to be pretty dull. I like the girl that sleeps around to relieve stress--she's like how Chloe should have been, if Chloe hadn't gone through Love At First Fuck and otherwise subjected me to episodes of worthless angst whining by multiple characters. The IOA girl is bland and sad, so I hate her terribly and she is the new Chloe. Okay, she misses her gf, big deal. That hardly makes her unique, and at least she had someone to go back to for a day--lots of people don't have that. Hell, I don't have that, and I'm not even trapped on a ship, so here's the world's smallest violin for the subversive IOA jerkess who is going to help undermine the crew's sense of order. Or possibly, and oddly, she'll actually provide some non-insane leadership. Young certainly seems to be useless and Rush is still awesomely untrustworthy.

I did enjoy seeing Scott's worthlessness on full display, and hope that the guilt eats at him for some time. I'm happy to see the writers punish him for his asshole behavior the same way they knocked Chloe down a peg. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to feel sorry for him or happy to see him face the music, but I'm reassured that the writers had intended him to come off as a bit cocky, loud-mouthy and irresponsible... so that they could build on that by giving him a sanity check and a reason to grow the fuck up. I'm interested in how Chloe responds to the idea of marrying into that pile of baggage, it'd be pretty much High Society Suicide, so her parent may not be pleased. That'll be annoying to watch, I'd much prefer that Scott and Chloe cool off a bit and keep it at a simmer until they can figure out what their REAL feelings are.

So yeah... pretty bland. Big focus on the dull characters I find duller than dull, which is most, and lots of bad behavior from people who should know better. I don't really feel sorry for any of them--they should have given me to really like them before trying to cash in on it, but I've felt that from day 1. I started off liking Eli a bit since, hey, he solved a problem and that's smart and responsible. Since then he's been mostly useless and everyone else is just undeveloped and annoying... except Lt. Nipples, who has been pretty strong and self-assured and professional in her scenes. I like the idea of her being Young's go-to gal. If she could become the second in command, I'd be thrilled. Just so long as they don't make her have to cry all the time.

[[R_H]]

I also gave it a 3, for pretty much the same reasons that Covenant did. I couldn't help but chuckle when Chloe asked Scott what his son's mother is like. "She's got her issues."

[NecronLord]

Something thats been bugging... did they find some ancient razors or something. No one even has a 5 O'Clock shadow

They have the charge plate to recharge their earth stuff, remember. So long as one man (or hell, even a ladyshave would do) brought along an electric razor they're willing to share, they're sorted until it breaks.

[Netko]

Doesn't explain the magically-appearing PT clothes, or the state of their clothes in general for that matter - they're supposed to only have the clothes on their backs and no changes. Sure, its a nitpick, but unless its acknowledged in some way soon, its going to start being absurd.

[Sarevok]

I actually liked this episode. People bash SG:U for copying nBSG formula. But what they dont get is that SG:U has been careful to take the good ideas only. In this episode you had touching emotional feel good moments without the obnoxious starbuck yelling factor, or Helo whining or Apollo / Dee / Kara / Anders love rectangle as in a comparable galactica scene.

+2 for for capturing human drama without going overboard. A solid 3.5 from me.

[[R_H]]

I actually liked this episode. People bash SG:U for copying nBSG formula. But what they dont get is that SG:U has been careful to take the good ideas only. In this episode you had touching emotional feel good moments without the obnoxious starbuck yelling factor, or Helo whining or Apollo / Dee / Kara / Anders love rectangle as in a comparable galactica scene.

+2 for for capturing human drama without going overboard. A solid 3.5 from me.

The only blatant parallel to nBSG I've noticed was the whole "give the crew hope by inventing a planet" that Rush and Adama did.

[Kodiak]

Doesn't explain the magically-appearing PT clothes, or the state of their clothes in general for that matter - they're supposed to only have the clothes on their backs and no changes. Sure, its a nitpick, but unless its acknowledged in some way soon, its going to start being absurd.

IIRC there was a large-ish room full of supply boxes that they brought through. It's not unreasonable to think that they managed to grab some spare clothes.

[Sarevok]

Was not Icarus base supposed to be staging ground for another Atlantis style expedition ? Those containers they threw across must have been stashed in preperation for the real teams arrival. That might explain why they already have such good deal of equipment.

[Bounty]

Was not Icarus base supposed to be staging ground for another Atlantis style expedition ? Those containers they threw across must have been stashed in preperation for the real teams arrival. That might explain why they already have such good deal of equipment.

Well obviously, that was made explicitly clear in the pilot. The problem is with some of the non-military personnel having a change of clothes. But come to think of it, did we ever see them wear something else?

[Siege]

I don't think so, certainly Eli has worn the same outfit forever and that scientist guy the Angry Sergeant bumped into was still wearing the same (pretty badly stained by now) shirt too I think.

Another 4 for me because I liked this episode, as a whole the emphasis on character work on SGU is a nice change of pace for Stargate. In nine episodes they've visited, what, only three planets? And none of them with any humanoid life on them. It's a good start insofar as I'm concerned.

[CaptJodan]

I was hoping we'd get some real insight into Ming-Na's character, but we basically got nothing we didn't already know. She keeps being told to do things by "Mik Schoppel" (same actor, character on a different show), but I haven't really seen her actually follow his party line all that aggressively yet. The psychological evaluation stuff could easily have been done by having a psychologist show up via the stones, instead of using someone who doesn't know what the hell they're doing (my undergrad is in psychology, and I still know I wouldn't be qualified to evaluate people, so one damned class (probably intro to psych) isn't going to do shit).

I thought Rush's refusal to sit in the chair himself was a little out of character, but maybe I need to know more about him before I know that for sure. He seems so focused on the Destiny and the knowledge he could gain from it. Given how he wants to be there with every new discovery, I'd think he'd want to be the first to learn whatever the neural interface could teach him. But again I suppose it depends on what his ultimate goal is.

The troubles Scott is having right now were mildly interesting. My feelings towards him were mixed. He was clearly trying to do the right thing by his old flame and by the kid he had. He was trying to be responsible for what he had done. But he also comes off as assholish with his old flame a bit, and I imagine that's some of his religious upbringing. That's overall a positive...don't make me just loathe the character or totally like them either.

Young's beat down of Telford was pretty nice in the end there, though I wouldn't be surprised if his wife has a problem with it.

I'm beginning to wonder if this series is ever going to even give a slight nod in the direction of the concept of people switching bodies and then using them in whatever manner they wish. If body switching was regulated to simply meeting and talking to your loved ones, that's one thing, but having sex or other relationship interactions with someone who looks completely different...not so much. Young's wife allowing Young, with Telford's body, to fuck her could be an outlier. But now we have Ming-Na's S.O. snuggling up, and might have gone farther had she not had her boat breakdown. I should think it would be considerably harder than this for people to get over the whole kissing-someone-who-is-your-loved-one-but-isn't thing.

This one rates a 3. It's got some good character stuff, but not enough to push it anywhere interesting thus far.

[Bladed_Crescent]

The psychological evaluation stuff could easily have been done by having a psychologist show up via the stones, instead of using someone who doesn't know what the hell they're doing (my undergrad is in psychology, and I still know I wouldn't be qualified to evaluate people, so one damned class (probably intro to psych) isn't going to do shit).

I agree: as a supportive anecdote, my single undergrad psych course didn't offer anything even close to the ability to evaluate people. I think this was primarily a trust issue for Young. He trusts TJ; less so, someone from the SGC, especially after they rammed the 'rescue' mission down his throat and Telford and the scientists' actions on Destiny. As well, it would be harder to get the crew to open up - and most of them were already avoiding TJ - to a bungee therapist. Particularly if they thought that (whether or not it would happen), SGC personnel would be looking through their bungee-therapist's reviews, plus it might lead to some resentment:

"I know this must be hard for you..."

"You? You're safe and sound billions of light-years away! You get to go home to your family in a couple hours! What the hell do you know about any of this?!"

I thought Rush's refusal to sit in the chair himself was a little out of character, but maybe I need to know more about him before I know that for sure. He seems so focused on the Destiny and the knowledge he could gain from it. Given how he wants to be there with every new discovery, I'd think he'd want to be the first to learn whatever the neural interface could teach him. But again I suppose it depends on what his ultimate goal is.

I think it hearkens back to his very utilitarian outlook in the first/second episode, where they were trying to decide who was going to sacrifice themselves in the shuttle; Rush suggested finding out what skill sets everyone had before making a decision. I think that's something of the same thing here: "It's probably not going to kill the person that uses it, but just to be safe, we can't risk anyone with valuable skills." He can't use it because he's the only one who really understands Destiny (or at least is the least stymied by it). By the same token, I think he'd nix Eli "Math Boy", Lt. Scott (their one pilot), TJ (only medic), simply because if something goes wrong and the person does die, then the survivors are that extra little bit screwed.

[Siege]

I don't think Rush is so much refusing to use the chair outright as he is considering the possibilities. He probably knows better than anyone what the risks and rewards of trying are, and he never said "no way, dude". Young is just drawing potentially premature conclusions based on his perceptions of Rush when he says "see, you're not volunteering yourself either". Now granted, Rush probably does feel more than a little hesitant but that can hardly be held against him. I'm rooting for him, I'd be all for "we ought to see if there's volunteers" too, and yet I probably wouldn't be the first to volunteer either. And yeah, there's the whole triage thing too, of course...

[NecronLord]

That torture chair is interesting. Especially as the control chairs predate it. I wonder if it really does what he thinks it does.

[Xon]

That torture chair is interesting. Especially as the control chairs predate it. I wonder if it really does what he thinks it does.

It could be a high-bandwidth version of the control chair designed to control Destiny and the automated ships running ahead of it. We really have no idea of how many automated ships are ahead of the Destiny beyond "more than 1".

It could also be some sort of telepresense device which keeps your body from flopping around while your mind is projected into something else with feedback directly implanted into the user's mind.

[CaptJodan]

That torture chair is interesting. Especially as the control chairs predate it. I wonder if it really does what he thinks it does.

You really have no faith in anything Rush says, do you?

Edit: How do the control chairs predate it again?

[NecronLord]

That torture chair is interesting. Especially as the control chairs predate it. I wonder if it really does what he thinks it does.

You really have no faith in anything Rush says, do you?

Edit: How do the control chairs predate it again?

I'm going by the notion that the ship was launched around the same time that Atlantis left Earth (during the plague) at which time we saw Aiyana with a control chair in the background and a subtitle 'millions of years ago' in the shot before - and that's ignoring the probability that Taeonas was abandoned before Earth. If the Destiny was launched 'hundreds of thousands of years ago,' then these are an order of magnitude older, if otherwise, then they're certainly the same general period.

Incidentally, I do have some faith in what he says - I don't think he knew Destiny was going to recharge.

[Themightytom]

I agree: as a supportive anecdote, my single undergrad psych course didn't offer anything even close to the ability to evaluate people. I think this was primarily a trust issue for Young. He trusts TJ; less so, someone from the SGC, especially after they rammed the 'rescue' mission down his throat and Telford and the scientists' actions on Destiny. As well, it would be harder to get the crew to open up - and most of them were already avoiding TJ - to a bungee therapist.

I'm interning for my MA in counseling, and i've worked in social work for 6 years now, I am pretty sure TJ was doing it wrong and the writers might be a little bit brilliant in depicting this. She's not suppopsed to be fully qualified. The best example is Sgyt. Grear. OF COURSE she should have backed off, she tried to cut straight to his deepest issues in session one without taking the time to build repore She wasn't following any apparent plan or rubric in doing her "psych evaluation" either.

Chloe used minimal encourage to elicit information from Scott much more effectively than TJ did, and minimal encourage is like Skill #1 in basic communciation.

I wonder why they are letting the frigging ticking time bomb walk around. When Colonel Young broke up his attack on the doctor, he said "If you keep pulling this crap I'll lock you up"

UuUuUuUuUuumm he's been borderline hysterical nonstop since arrival, he was hoarding fromk the beginning and tried to force his way onto the shuttle, now he's picking fights in the hallway? What are we waiting for here n

Everetts getting dicked around by everyone today, Col jackass is macking on his wife, for which there is NO jsutification. Even if nothing untoward happened, its innapropriate for the wife to be having drinks with the guy her husband used to screw her. Telford knows what he's doing, so does she. On the other hand it seems a little bit obvious something was going on between Everett and TJ and was probably the cause of the near divorce in the first place? There might be a little eye for an eye shit going on here.

Rush inventing a planet was unmitigated douchebaggery, and now he's trying to arrange a mutiny. Everett needs to swap Sgt. Psycho for Rodney McKay stat.