SGU 113, Faith (Spoilers)

[Kingmaker]

Solid three. Watchable without difficulty, but nothing really exceptional either. I did crack up at TJ's "I'm pregnant" line. Imagine if they had put that in the teaser. Next someone needs to develop an unspecified terminal disease.

Oh, and I'm actually glad to see there's people aboard who think about a situation like the one presented in religious terms: even if I don't agree with them at all I at least feel it makes the crew far more believable. Not all SG personnel can be Daniel Jackson type 'surely there's a rational explanation for this' types.

I'm actually glad they included that, at least to some degree. One of the things I found unbelievable about SG-1 was that there didn't seem to be any religious crises whatsoever among the SGC personnel. Granted, I wish Universe handled it with more delicacy and subtlety, but people should be freaking out.

I'd hope folks who can build an entire star system from scratch wouldn't need to do so in order to capture a single starship. I mean, that'd be silly

Maybe they're just really dedicated collectors. Gotta catch 'em all and damn the expenses.

Maybe they built a system there just to show they could, and the Obelisk carried their version of "look at my works ye mighty, and despair" in a ton of languages no-one on Destiny understands.

I'm betting the inscription reads something to the effect of serial number 062398123. I really hope these guys don't show up again as anything more than another abandon/unused relic that the crew can't understand (and hopefully the writers won't do that either). Or, if they do show up, make it an episode about a bunch of ants trying to avoid being stepped on.

[Temujin]

Yeah, these are the same people, a group of which held a religious service when they thought they were going to be immolated by that star. Being that the average person is at least agnostic, if not marginally religious, I think its quite realistic that some might start seeing the mystery as a miracle, especially considering the level of stress they've all been under.

Even without the whole God angle, the current pleasant climate of the planet combined with the desire to get off a broken down ship that aliens are trying capture would be enough to get a lot of people thinking abandoning Destiny is a good idea. Mind you, one harsh winter would probably change their minds.

I would find it hilarious if this was actually a ploy by these aliens to try and get the Destiny crew to abandon ship so they can capture it.

I'd hope folks who can build an entire star system from scratch wouldn't need to do so in order to capture a single starship. I mean, that'd be silly.

I too have a hard time seeing that. I just hope that whoever came up with this idea, if they are going to revisit it, put some thought into how this is going to play out, otherwise we may end up see something rather shoehorned in.

I'm just hoping these aliens don't turn out to be some bullshit like ascended ancients keeping tabs on Destiny.

[JME2]

I suspect these aliens will appear, who knows its possible they are Ascended beings. Unless of course SG wants to continue the rather dubious idea that ONLY humans can ascend can ALL Ascended beings follow the same rule book as the Ancients.

I personally hope not. SG-1 ran the concept of Ascension into the ground, which was why I was glad it was never a large part of SGA and that it's only gotten a handful of mentions on SGU.

[Siege]

I like the idea of ascension as a great motivator for people like Rush, a thing they can chase after in a mad quest for immortality. It works very well in that role. However stories about actual ascended beings getting involved with physical matters always bore the crap out of me -- I found the Ori arc yawn-inducing and the terrifyingly bad pseudo-philosophy sprouted by Orlin and Oma Desala had me rolling my eyes more often than not. Really, I'm with Iain Banks on the topic of ascended/sublimed creatures: the process should result, for whatever reason, in an end to relations with the material universe. You don't even need to explain why that is so exactly, as long as the ascended beings get out of the way of good storytelling. The possibility of godlike intervention by ascended creatures just opens way too big a can of worms, so they have got to go for the sake of the story.

[Covenant]

I'm actually glad they included that, at least to some degree. One of the things I found unbelievable about SG-1 was that there didn't seem to be any religious crises whatsoever among the SGC personnel. Granted, I wish Universe handled it with more delicacy and subtlety, but people should be freaking out.

I'm not sure why though. This is just a planet that's clearly been manufactured but not magic'd into existance, it's not a miracle planet, it's a planet and there is a bigass obelisk on it and it's not as if they've never run into seemingly magical things before. They know about ascended beings, right? Do they know that Samantha Carter blew up a star herself? Or that the Asgard have solarforming technology, even though it might work on a bigass long timeframe? Have they heard about the Dakara device? Do they know that the Ancients are considered to be our predecessors biologically, thus blowing any possible creation story out of the water by default? Shouldn't they have had their freakout a long time ago?
i
Caine is the guy who complained about his shoes, who James hit on by accident, and who describes himself as an IT Tech. He's been through quite a bit, and I just don't know why this needs to be cause for freaking out. If he had been borderline before this, alright, but why so Zen all of a sudden? He wasn't quoting scripture down on that desert world they found the alien ship on. Are they going to repeat this process every time they find a nice planet? Thing is, if these were a bunch of fundie missionaries, I might buy it. But these are supposed to be highly trained and presumably well briefed members of the Stargate program whose previous position was working on a planet whose core was a unique mixture of super-powerful elements allowing it to act as a giant planet-sized battery for a single super Stargate. That's totally normal, as well as the idea that humans are spread across galaxies, each one with independent religions and cultures and levels of advancement (some far in excess of us) but finding a planet just sitting there is cause for a religious freak-out session?

Egh. It seems forced and contrived. I have a very, very hard time believing that it's the kind of response a religious person would have. Maybe I just don't know enough crazies, but it seems reaaaaally fake to me, even faker than the Angry Atheist Science Man was.

[NecronLord]

You've got to imagine you've been stuck on that ship for months, and then, hey presto, convenient virgin land. Fresh air, all that good stuff, the chance to sleep without imminent death. Some people really do think like that.


Other weird things about that planet, while they're mentioned to be looking for them, we don't see one freakin' animal. Not even an insect (what are those flowers for?) in any of the scenes.


The beam from the obelisk, at first reminded me of the unexplained wraith beam in Letters from Pegasus. Then I thought, we've actually seen a communications technology that shoots a bright light up into the sky. The Tollan had something similar (in armband form) that they used to contact the Nox in their first episode.

Wraith beam, possibly some kind of Wraith comms device on similar principles?

Tollan device. Tollan beam flying up and away.

[adam_grif]

I doubt the guy had thought of it much before. If he was "borderline" it's unlikely he's ever gotten into any kind of serious theology. IT degrees don't give you a crash course in philosophy either. There is no shortage of people on Earth who start to get all faithful and thankful to God when some particularly good luck happens for them.

[GuppyShark]

I haven't been watching this show, but I caught this episode and it's the first one I've liked for a long time.

It is completely believable that people stuck on a ship that constantly runs out of food, water and air would want to stop jumping further and further away from Earth and remain on a planet with an abundant supply of food, water and air.

I found it annoying that they even let the senator's daughter waste cargo space by going down to the planet when she had no relevant skills for the expedition, but that's about the extent of it. I liked the fact that they did not explain where the planet came from. I hope they revisit it down the line.

[Sabastian Tombs]

I did like the "I enjoy chess" exchange and hope to see them work on a relationship, but the baby drama completely obliterated my hope for a less-stupid future plot arc.


All in all, a pretty forgettable ep that dragged for me because it made several key characters look intensely selfish, started a Oh No Baby Drama plot arc, and seemed to set it all up for a "What if..?" moment that hinges on me believing the crew show be excused for being insane.

They had a choice between a "Oh No Baby Drama plot arc" or shooting Alaina Huffman from the shoulders up for the rest of the season.

She had a girl, BTW.

[DesertFly]

They had a choice between a "Oh No Baby Drama plot arc" or shooting Alaina Huffman from the shoulders up for the rest of the season.

She had a girl, BTW.

Silly actresses, going and getting themselves knocked up in the middle of a TV show shoot!

It makes me feel better knowing that at least the pregnancy subplot didn't just come up out of some random desire to be "edgy" or something. Seriously, I was having flashbacks to SG-1's "200" every time the doc was on screen.

At least they already had that character in a sexual relationship too (although we don't know to what extent it's been continuing since they came to Destiny).

[NecronLord]

It makes me feel better knowing that at least the pregnancy subplot didn't just come up out of some random desire to be "edgy" or something. Seriously, I was having flashbacks to SG-1's "200" every time the doc was on screen.

At least they already had that character in a sexual relationship too (although we don't know to what extent it's been continuing since they came to Destiny).

I was assuming she was pregnant by Young on Icarus, and that's why she wanted to leave the Air Force.

[Themightytom]

It makes me feel better knowing that at least the pregnancy subplot didn't just come up out of some random desire to be "edgy" or something. Seriously, I was having flashbacks to SG-1's "200" every time the doc was on screen.

At least they already had that character in a sexual relationship too (although we don't know to what extent it's been continuing since they came to Destiny).

I was assuming she was pregnant by Young on Icarus, and that's why she wanted to leave the Air Force.

Convenient then, that the actress playing her got knocked up rather than the one playing Lt. Merry Go Round. There would be massive finger pointing when it became clear how many on board she's hit.

Does it strike anyone else as kind of arrogant the crew assumed the planet was there for them?

I mean it was created after the advance ships passed through, sure, but its not like it was a few weeks old and how long has the crew been on Destiny??

Really this just illustrates how very old Destiny may be and how very far ahead the advance ships are dropping star gates, if they are even still out there.

I was surprised no one pointed out that the Destiny itself might have detoured after determining that a planet was nearby and though it had no stargate was within shuttle range. They made it sound like Destiny didn't know it was there solely because there was no stargate, maybe Destiny is just a little smarter than that?

[Alyeska]

Does it strike anyone else as kind of arrogant the crew assumed the planet was there for them?

I mean it was created after the advance ships passed through, sure, but its not like it was a few weeks old and how long has the crew been on Destiny??

Really this just illustrates how very old Destiny may be and how very far ahead the advance ships are dropping star gates, if they are even still out there.

I was surprised no one pointed out that the Destiny itself might have detoured after determining that a planet was nearby and though it had no stargate was within shuttle range. They made it sound like Destiny didn't know it was there solely because there was no stargate, maybe Destiny is just a little smarter than that?

No. Only some people said it was there for them. This was covered earlier under the faith beliefs and what not in this thread.

[Zac Naloen]

According to Mallozzi's blog Caine and a few other nondescripts stayed on the planet and it's currently undetermined/top secret if we'll see the race that built the planet again.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Convenient then, that the actress playing her got knocked up rather than the one playing Lt. Merry Go Round. There would be massive finger pointing when it became clear how many on board she's hit.

The chick we've seen sleeping with lots of guys is a civilian scientist, so she'd be DOCTOR Merry-Go-Round.

[Agent Fisher]

Actually, for some reason, I like Lt. James as a character. She seems relatively normal, and lacks any real emotional baggage except for her lover dumped her in two hours for some young senators daughter.

[Covenant]

Actually, for some reason, I like Lt. James as a character. She seems relatively normal, and lacks any real emotional baggage except for her lover dumped her in two hours for some young senators daughter.

Also, the guy she had a crush on got all messianic and stayed behind. Caine was the guy she said was sexy for being a widower. So far James hasn't let any of that stuff interfere with her, and I'm glad they're giving her more screen time, she seems very believable.

Originally she was Lieutenant Nipples, because that's all she did. Over the past few episodes she's apparently become Lieutenant Sympathetic, and I like her too. I think that partially the writing is still kinda inconsistent, and they lean too much on the "Stressful Situation!" excuse to make people frustratingly unlikeable except for moments of relative weakness, but she's seemed like a good sort the past few episodes, whereas the other military people acted like asshats. The catholic kid who couldn't keep it in his pants was also behaving a lot more interestingly in Faith, except for that end bit. Why the fuck was he staying anyway? Is it something to do with his feelings towards kids, and something like that? Coulda' used more explanation, even if it was just "Chloe here, and she's all I've got."

Regardless, the actors in the show are good, it's the writing that's spotty and the conceptualizing that needs to get looked at.

[Alyeska]

LT James was a relatively sympathetic character in the first ten episodes to. When LT Scott was trapped on the ice planet, LT James went to Chloe and gave her information. James has become an empathetic character. Very professional. Gets the job done and won't hesitate to get int a dangerous situation to save others. She even tried to make nice with the batshit crazy Sergeant that shot himself.

She started off unprofessional given her relationship with Scott in circumstances that were not ideal. She initially used her "assets" when first on the ship. But it seems the gravity of the situation has brought out a better side to James and she has become very professional in her handling of situations.

[Oskuro]

I liked the Obelisk, and even if they don't show these aliens, I do hope we learn more about them.

Now, what irks me is why no one made the obvious rebuttal to the "This planet is meant for us" claim: If these Aliens left this planet here to save us, why didn't they leave some message behind? Maybe a hologram saying hi? A tablet with the basics of their language? A radio signal calling us to the planet? It's pretty weird to help people by not telling them you want to help them.


Oh, and a detail I liked was when Young came down to the planet and popped the crew's balloon by pointing out that, despite all their self-righteousness about having a right to stay, they were still being shelfish pricks since the rest of the people on the ship didn't have that choice.

And did anyone get the impression, for a second, that Wray had had sex with Eli? (Yeah, I know she's lesbian)