SGU 120, Incursion Part 2 (Spoilers)

[Covenant]

That would be my guess too. He HAD been acting suspicious--and there was that moment of 'Hmmm...' when he interrupted to go talk to medic lady. I can understand Keeva, who understands her own mind control technology, being suspicious of Telford. And he's CERTAINLY no longer an asset now that he's been shot, the mind control is entirely gone in either case due to this near-death experience, and if this is Nishta then he can't be re-infected by the mind control spores. So unless Telford is valuable for some other reason, I suspect he's toast.

Really, I don't find it odd that Keeva would pull a gun on him--I only found it odd that she didn't tell anybody, or come in with guards. It wasn't really necessary AT ALL.

If Keeva had realized that Telford had been flipped, and come in with two guards, she coulda' called Telford out--claiming this deception will be punished, directing it to both to Young and Telford. They'd have exchanged fire, she'd have been wounded, he'd have been wounded too, and her second in command would have taken command. He'd say "I'm through playing around with these sneaky, back-stabbing Tau'ri" and proceeded to complete the episode. Why add in the double-shot fiasco?

Really, Telford was working for us, so having them find out he's flipped accomplishes the same thing as thinking their lines had been breached. Their lines HAD been breached. By Telford. And really, if they knew that we had no agents on their side, it would make even MORE sense to round them up. In the current situation the Luciens look a bit dumb. So they're rounding up the prisoners for execution with two or more Tau'ri commandos skulking around? Maybe the whole hull-walk thing was a trick and they re-entered from another location. They should try to get account of everyone.

Basically, it seems silly, but as you said, there's no accounting for taste. As bad as this one was to me, I really liked some of the others that people didn't, so I'm willing to stick around. The trajectory of the show is still headed for improvement, I just hope they don't kill off Telford, and I'd like more involvement with James and Greer in main storyline bits. Those three make me happy... and hero Eli is definitely a step up.

[Bilbo]

1 star here and that is being fucking generous.

The radiation is fucking lame. Sure its not magic, but the lame fucking timing is lame. Magic radiation comes along every 46 minutes which just happens to be the exact moment a bad guy is standing at a door under a shield which fails so he can fry. Also unlike every other times this happens none of the lights in the area fail so we could all see poor redshirt fry.

The LA guy that was getting friendly with TJ. He looks familiar, he has been on Stargate before, though I do not know if was LA the last time he was on the show.

Rush couldnt just progam in a timer sitting in background that transferred control for 15 minutes then took it back? He coulnt create a system that gae them control but him command control over them so he could revoke or limit their commands?

LA chick is suspicious of Telford? So much for the super perfect brainwashing that has worked fine for all this time. All of a sudden she isnt going to trust it after depending on it all this time for crucial information.


Watching this episode was like watching the "Dynasty" chiffhanger (props for anyone who gets the reference). Who will live? Who will die? Time to renegotiate contracts everyone.

Fucking stupid.

[CaptJodan]

Gave it a 2. It just didn't hold my interest throughout most of the episode.

I'm really disappointed that after 3 episodes with these jokers, not to mention a whole season with Rush, that we still don't know the significance of this ship, or why everyone wants it. Certainly none of the current team, with the exception of Rush wants it. Wray even commented that there was nothing great about the ship, and she's certainly of the opinion that it's not worth dying for. No one even seems to bother asking what the LA wants with it (which would illuminate why Rush has such a hard on for it). At this point, it seems only that the ship is desirable because the plot requires it to be.

Count me among those disappointed with the radiation explanation. It seemed like a cheap decoy shot to give you a scene that didn't look like radiation burns. That, coupled with the computer issues, coupled with the drive going offline for no reason at all, made it seem far more important than what we got. I was hoping we were leading up to a partial (didn't have to be full) explanation on why the ship was so important, or what special features it might have. Instead it was radiation, and the drive fails by act of plot.

Young's leadership these past few episodes has been abysmal. I do feel that Keeva is more intelligent than your typical LA goon, but at the same time it feels like their success is more due to Young's incompetence than Keeva's brilliance. We're, I think, in Young's-Idiot-Plan-Number-3 right now. I'm pretty sure she was smart enough to suspect Telford, though. There were several instances during the episode where she was keeping a close eye on him, so I'd wager she did suspect.

I just couldn't bond with any characters through this episode. Eli was perhaps the closest to earn my sympathies, but given his past track record, I'm not willing to care about him all that much just yet. I still like Greer, but we got precious little of him this episode. Young's shown his true useless colors here, and goes ranting at the worst possible moment. Rush makes a comment meant only to incite Young's wrath even more, again at the worst possible moment. And few of the rest of the characters are really making me want to care. The ship is junk as far as we know. This is the first time in this series where I really don't seem to care what happens to these people, or to the ship.

[Temujin]

Well I gave it a four again, good, but not that good.

My thoughts (pennies welcome ):

• - I too still think the lack of rational for the LA doing all of this is creating a major plot hole. I don't see why they can't give some explanation, even a throw away line that sheds some light on their motivations.
  
  - Disappointed that despite the weird build up, the phenomenon turned out only to be a natural phenomenon. I don't have a problem with it per say, but it just seems a bit too convenient the way it nuked that LA soldier at just the right time at just the right place. Chalk that up to sloppy writing, it's introduction to the plot could have been handled better.
  
  - The whole Keeva / Telford thing: I don't think she fully trusted Telford, so walking in gun at the ready makes sense; though she should have had at least one guard accompany her. I do have to say that I'm actually liking Telford more now then I did at first. Maybe it was the mind control, but he was such an obnoxious dick, now he seems pretty cool. I'd like to see him survive. Which leads me to:
  
  - Young: Increasingly disappointing as a leader. What next, is he going to start ranting about who stole is goddamn strawberries. I liked PhD Nymho's response: "Don't start yelling!"
  
  - TJs baby: Well we know how they're conveniently going to get rid of it, as it's obvious where she got hit.
  
  - Varro: I kind of like this guy. He's nonsense but doesn't seem like a total asshole like the other LA leaders.
  
  - Chloe: Shows shes a worthless bitch. "I only now know what it means to have a real friend, and know that you want me, but don't actually mention it, just keep pining for me."
  
  - Eli: Couldn't help but laugh seeing him running down that hallway, hauling his rather sizable ass. I wanted to yell out: "Run Fat Boy, Run!" I've said it before and I'll say it again, he seems to be getting bigger when he needs to be getting smaller.

[NecronLord]

The LA guy that was getting friendly with TJ. He looks familiar, he has been on Stargate before, though I do not know if was LA the last time he was on the show.

He's been in various roles. A russian officer, a bounty hunter, and the other Runner guy with the personal teleport in Atlantis. The bounty hunter was associated with the Lucians, and appeared to get Netan, leader of the Lucian Alliance. Unfortunately (and for no real reason) they are not intended to be the same character by the writers.

Rush couldnt just progam in a timer sitting in background that transferred control for 15 minutes then took it back?

No, and those are both unrealistic to expect. It's a control function left by the Ancients, not something they did. To make that happen, they would have to defeat the Ancient antivirus. Even if they could do that, doing it within the time allotted would be fucking farcical. Literally a spit in the eye to logic.

He coulnt create a system that gae them control but him command control over them so he could revoke or limit their commands?

That was his plan. He was going to take control but let the Lucians continue to operate the systems.

LA chick is suspicious of Telford? So much for the super perfect brainwashing that has worked fine for all this time. All of a sudden she isnt going to trust it after depending on it all this time for crucial information.

What makes you think she ever trusted him?

[Bilbo]

Thanks Necron, it was as a Wraith Runner that I was remembering him.

Rush's plan, which was Telford's plan, was for Telford to transfer command back to Rush. Smarter would have been a timer that automatically rerouted the command systems back to Rush.

Yes it was obvious LA trusted Telford.

1. Gave him a weapon.
2. Let him lead a group of her soldiers.
3. Planned her entire invasion of Destiny based on his intel.
4. LA chick had to have said something at some point since all of her soldiers obey him with little effort on his part.
5. Looks to him for information on Earth command structure and believes it.

This all indicates that there is enough trust that she should not have drawn and fired on him the instant he was seen at the control panel.

Then there is the fact that he is supposed to be brainwashed by a process that takes near-death to overcome.


A big portion of what sucked about this episode is that it is obviously part 2 of 3, but they lied and called it 2 of 2 to hide the 6 million lame cliffhangers they piled up in the last 90 seconds of the episode. So instead of getting any sort of resolution we get a POS filler episode and a 4 month plus was before they play the next 10 episodes.

Finally they need to cut 90% of the Cloe and Eli scenes. All that pathetic emo crap was boring as hell and took up time that could have been better spent on regular aspects of the pack. I couldnt have been the only person who deep down inside wished both of them were sucked into space to die when Eli got careless opening hatches.

[NecronLord]

Thanks Necron, it was as a Wraith Runner that I was remembering him.

Rush's plan, which was Telford's plan, was for Telford to transfer command back to Rush. Smarter would have been a timer that automatically rerouted the command systems back to Rush.

Also fucking impossible. You are not comprehending how difficult that is. Telford doing it is practical.

Right. Let me explain.

You have a prime access.

You give set the primacy flag on my terminal, yours automatically loses it.

I give it back.

Simple. Now, what you're proposing, is that you give me the prime control, and somehow make it default back to you. It's orders of magnitude more difficult, it's something any competant programmer (IE the Ancients) would not want anyone doing and therefore would not make possible, and it's something that'd take time anyway.

Yes it was obvious LA trusted Telford.

1. Gave him a weapon.
2. Let him lead a group of her soldiers.
3. Planned her entire invasion of Destiny based on his intel.
4. LA chick had to have said something at some point since all of her soldiers obey him with little effort on his part.
5. Looks to him for information on Earth command structure and believes it.

There are degrees of trust. No one in the Lucian Alliance seems to wholly trust anyone else.

This all indicates that there is enough trust that she should not have drawn and fired on him the instant he was seen at the control panel.

Did you listen to me? She drew, he drew, they both fired. If he draws on her, what's she meant to do, gape like a goldfish?

Then there is the fact that he is supposed to be brainwashed by a process that takes near-death to overcome.

Which, by the by, she has reason to suspect. She's seen Rush nearly-die on their end. And someone told them the Lucians were coming.

A big portion of what sucked about this episode is that it is obviously part 2 of 3, but they lied and called it 2 of 2 to hide the 6 million lame cliffhangers they piled up in the last 90 seconds of the episode. So instead of getting any sort of resolution we get a POS filler episode and a 4 month plus was before they play the next 10 episodes.

Err. They don't put 'Part II of III on the fucking title. It's Incursion Part II. Did you complain about 'The Seige Part II' being the same thing? When it was followed by 'The Seige Part III'?

Finally they need to cut 90% of the Cloe and Eli scenes. All that pathetic emo crap was boring as hell and took up time that could have been better spent on regular aspects of the pack. I couldnt have been the only person who deep down inside wished both of them were sucked into space to die when Eli got careless opening hatches.

You probably aren't. But I for one, went 'oh dear, this is going to suck them out, crap, close it man' - I don't have any spite toward them. She's useless and he's a Marty Stu, so what?

[CaptainChewbacca]

1 star here and that is being fucking generous.

The radiation is fucking lame. Sure its not magic, but the lame fucking timing is lame. Magic radiation comes along every 46 minutes which just happens to be the exact moment a bad guy is standing at a door under a shield which fails so he can fry. Also unlike every other times this happens none of the lights in the area fail so we could all see poor redshirt fry.

What we saw is EXACTLY what would happen with a high-gamma burst. Also, the 'light' that was on was the white light of the pulsar shining through.

[Bilbo]

1 star here and that is being fucking generous.

The radiation is fucking lame. Sure its not magic, but the lame fucking timing is lame. Magic radiation comes along every 46 minutes which just happens to be the exact moment a bad guy is standing at a door under a shield which fails so he can fry. Also unlike every other times this happens none of the lights in the area fail so we could all see poor redshirt fry.

What we saw is EXACTLY what would happen with a high-gamma burst. Also, the 'light' that was on was the white light of the pulsar shining through.

Sure, whatever. That point I do not care about. What was annoying was the near perfect timing necessary to create the scene and leave everyone wondering how the guy died. Radiation leaking through just as guy was standing under a breach in the hull, just as Young was about to launch an ambush, blah blah blah.

Its not the radiation. Just the horrible BS timing of it. Then we have the "oops we dont know why" FTL that is suddenly broke but can be fixed by two spacewalking jarheads who open it up, flip a few switches to (I guess a fuse blew) and everything is all pretty.

It is fairly obvious to me at least that the writers were intentionally fucking with the fans. They know the fans are still wondering where the guy who disapeared from the chair went. So by doing the vaporize bit on the LA soldier at just the right moment they made it appear like he is somehow still around and connected to Destiny and he saw a chance to eliminate one invader and took it.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Its not the radiation. Just the horrible BS timing of it. Then we have the "oops we dont know why" FTL that is suddenly broke but can be fixed by two spacewalking jarheads who open it up, flip a few switches to (I guess a fuse blew) and everything is all pretty.

AFAIK, the main drive is still broken. The switch-flipping was to re-route the shields and buy them the hours necessary to fix the drive, which they havn't been able to START doing.

[Themightytom]

I really can't have been the only one to notice that the power was actually still on when that man got his radiation dose, it wasn't the same as the times the power shut off, so the whole "omnipresent force" theory isn't quite dead.

I definitely liked the Chloe Eli dialogue, I don't know why the general concensus is that Chloe HAS to either reciprocate or acknowledge Eli's feelings for her the INSTANT she detects them. I think she voiced legitimate resentment that while she feels a deep affection for Eli, he'd rather just get laid, because lets cut to it, that's the difference here. if Eli is truly committed to being in love with her, than good for him, he can do so as a friend and keep his dick to himself. The fricking puppy dog faces he's been making are all about him trying to set conditions for their relationship when he's not really in a position to do so.

Rush continues to be an utter douche "Well someone had to" probably set Young off because the implication was that not only was young inevitably going to get someone killed, but that some people were more worthy of saving than others. Rush is not at all discrete about this belief, and he's been a little too well behaved so it was nice to see him become a thorn during a moment of crisis once again. he's like a much more sophisticated interpretation of Rodney mcKay. instead of sniveling groveling cowardice however, Rush is calculating and manipulative towards his own ends. We saw this even in Air, when he dropped that little nugget about "politicians ask soldiers to die all the time" which was probably rattling around in Senator Armstrong's head when he nobly sacrificed himself. he was goading Young into being more aggressive, which frankly Young needed to be.

Wray kind of had the tiger by its tail with Kiva, that was an interesting position to see her in, she got what she wanted, influence and a role.

We saw some interesting interaction between Scott and Grear. until now, Scott has been the more confident leader, while Grear is an unstable henchman, suddenly GREAR is reassuring Scott? what the..
Are there any ideas of Destiny's size and how far they had to go in the time Rush gave them?

The soldier who attacked the LA guy whow as about to execute him in the med lab pulled some pretty nice moves, a nice remainder that these are trained soldiers. THEN he waved the thugs gun around the room as thug was pulling the trigger. A nice reminder that these aren't exactly competent trained soldiers. Wasn't that the guy in Air who said he was just a cook?

Telford could have REALLY pulled a coup, I wonder if he could have snuck four communications tones into the LA side, and had the SGC body swap as the ultimate trojan horse.

The set that Chloe is bleeding all over looks pretty elaborate I suppose it might be used as an important area next season but I'll be damned if I can figure out what its supposed to be used for.

The LA's motives could be pretty straightforward. Destiny has intel on hundreds of galaxies and is following ships that make stargates. the information is valuable, the gate factories might be priceless to the LA. They can set up bases wherever they want in whatever galaxy they want no less. They can build IG bridges too and start moving in on turf in pegasus or Ida,

[PREDATOR490]

4

It's meant to be a cliffhanger and sadly these things end up being contrived to CREATE a cliffhanger situation. In doing that it managed to do so well enough under the circumstances.

The Eli / Chloe situation finally went somewhere productive but that was obvious the minute the got 'trapped' alone. Although I have to admit Chloe's admission while meant to be 'touching' ends up going in another direction from the way they handled it.

' Lets be friends, oh I know you secretly pine for me and want more but I decided to just let you continue doing so. Dont be upset, it's not like being my reject is a runner up prize, geez'

Realistically, one would hope Eli would tell her politely to get fucked and go after someone else on the crew or at least STOP acting like Chloe's bitch. Unfortunatly, it wont happen and Eli will continue to pine over her because that's what the nerd does and that's what the hot chick is for. It was kinda funny watching Eli trying to act all macho and heroic despite the obvious fact he is WAY not that type but I still like Eli since he seems to be the only one on the fucking crew that has an excuse to be less than stellar.

Baby - Dead, sorry but that was coming a mile away because a baby wont work at this stage but drama over a dead baby is AWESOME for the 'grim dark' theme they like to play. Incidentally, I found that scene where TJ gets shot rather forced with the soldier basically serving to kill / hit everyone in the room except the one's with character shields. Mr. LA Guy gets to be all badass and kill him when he is done serving the 'kill TJ's' baby plot.

LA - They are going to become allies eventually, the woman is gonna die though but I see the guy becoming the LA leader.

Telford - Going to live because if he dies they have lost one of their best characters in this show. If anyone should be killed it should be Young for being such a weak leader. The dual shoot outbetween him and the LA leader was cool for the bad ass reaction times it portrays but stupid for the fact if she suspected someone was screwing around she should have brought help.

Young, Greer, Scott - Bleh I dont see them killing these folks even though two of them would'nt be missed by me in the slightest.


As for their space walk, I find that entire situation stupid. You can access the shields for the entire ship from one panel on the hull ?
That seems a bit contrived and silly from a ship design perspective. Those blue aliens will be kicking themselves if they realise they could have taken the shields out from a single point.

[Bilbo]

The LA's motives could be pretty straightforward. Destiny has intel on hundreds of galaxies and is following ships that make stargates. the information is valuable, the gate factories might be priceless to the LA. They can set up bases wherever they want in whatever galaxy they want no less. They can build IG bridges too and start moving in on turf in pegasus or Ida,

It has already been proven that Gates reset once you move them. So if the LA's main goal is acquiring the ability to build them they are pretty fuckign stupid. They could just steal some and put them on whatever planets they wanted. Hell Baal even explained that you can create a "private" network of Gates if you want and have a whole group that only communicate between each other.

I still think overall the LA goal is rather dim here. They know how fucked up the ship is and how poor communication, conditions, and supplies are. Yet they send a shitload of soldiers and even though they came through quickly you never got the impression that there were a whole lot of LA techs or scientists that were going to be going if things had been perfectly as planned.

[CaptJodan]

The LA's motives could be pretty straightforward. Destiny has intel on hundreds of galaxies and is following ships that make stargates. the information is valuable, the gate factories might be priceless to the LA.

And they're going to get these gate factory ships back home...how? Destiny is tagging along a fair distance from these seeding ships. They don't have a FTL capable ship to catch them, short of Destiny itself. Even if they find them, how are they going to get them back? Wormhole drive?

Keeva had access to the information about Destiny. She should know what a piece of crap it is. She should know how hard it is to crack into the system and take control of the ship so they can pilot it themselves. If she had the code to crack it, she would already have done so, either by flat overriding Rush when he had control, or inputting the code when she got control of the systems immediately, so she had full access to the ship. So far, nothing I've seen indicates she has a substantial leg up on the Icarus team on how to get back, or how to operate the ship. I'm only assuming that she knows there's a greater value in the ship than we've seen thus far, because otherwise going to Destiny when you know the shape it's in and how far out it is looks fucking retarded.

All of that is really not the issue, though. The issue is that the writers have failed to give us any real hint on their motives. It could be as simple as TJ asking in a vague way why they were stupid enough to come here, and Keeva replying that there is more potential aboard the ship than the they (Icarus) could ever realize, and leave it at that. They don't have to give anything away, they don't have to tell us what it is, but after an entire season of seeing Rush masturbate over his control console, they could at least give us some sign that Keeva's actions make some sense. It would also be a good way to increase the drama by people questioning if Rush knew what this great thing was all along, and if he'd risked all their lives just for whatever it is.

Instead, I leave this season no closer to caring about this ship than I ever did (in fact, probably less). And I'm only assuming that there's something more to this ship. I'm not willing to call that something ascension just yet, unlike others.

[Covenant]

What we saw is EXACTLY what would happen with a high-gamma burst. Also, the 'light' that was on was the white light of the pulsar shining through.

Is that really so? I don't see any evidence of a gamma ray burst doing that from the literature I can pull. Burns yeah. But to instantly set you ablaze is, like, nuke warhead kinds of thermal effects. The amount of radiation required to do that wouldn't harmlessly pass through the atmosphere as it hit, you'd have a very noticeable effect as it started splitting the nitrogen and oxygen molecules up and forming new compounds. Afterall, they aren't just being hit by gamma rays, but X-Rays. I just don't think it's EXACTLY what you'd expect to happen.

If it had happened at once with a big bang, okay. But this was a very slow, subtle effect. He had time to go "What? My hand! Nooooo" in essence, which doesn't seem similar to the effects of being highly irradiated in one go, not at this level... at least, not at the level required to make your body burn slowly. Partially I think you're incorrect, and it was just a bit of creative license taken, but if I'm wrong I'd love to have it explained to me.

I mean, I know that radiation will give you burns, but not like that--not desiccating/spontaneous combustion like we saw, and he would have either been instantly incapacitated, blinded, or something... it just seems too cute. I would have rather them say it was some effect of radiation striking the shield, and say that they'd never been this close to a Pulsar before and don't even know how Destiny's shields work.

Anyway, it's not a big deal, it was just a letdown. I thought the name "Incursion" was going to talk about both the Lucians and a strange alien menace that attacked from outside the hull and was going to, like, eat the ship. Or something. I really was hoping for a Color Out Of Space type monster.

[Oskuro]

I liked it. It was good television, with action, suspense, a bit of character development, and plans not going well.

I suspect, thought, that it suffers from "Lost Finale" syndrome, a lot of people seem pissed that the mysteries of the previous episode didn't turn out to be how they expected to be. It isn't bothering me much.

One thing I noticed is that the recap at the beginning showed again the blue-man-group ships. Are they purposefully toying with our expectations through the recaps? that would be deliciously devious.


The part I liked most was the Eli/Chloe scenes (obviously because I expected them to find something cool on that side of the ship, instead of just be the deus ex machina meant to save Greer and Scott, but oh well), and although I agree that Eli is being a bit of a douche by not accepting Chloe just as a friend, Chloe, despite all her claims of how much his friendship means to her, has betrayed said friendship before. Not sure what to make of all that. Well, other than realizing Chloe's role: She's there so all the nerds who have been in Eli's situation empathyze with him. And it is working

Now, what has pissed me off is the "Cliffhanger-itis" of the episode. I don't like cliffhangers, particularly because all the tension they've built up will simply go away in all the time it'll take for the next episode to air. Cliffhangers work well for two-parters, but inter-season cliffhangers lose their punch with time, and there's always a chance the series could get cancelled without resolving it (T:SCC, I'm looking at you )

[CaptainChewbacca]

Don't worry about it being cancelled, I think right now SGU is syfy's top-rated show.

[Temujin]

Don't worry about it being cancelled, I think right now SGU is syfy's top-rated show.

Yeah, they don't have much else aside from Caprica, Eureka, and Ghost Hunters. Not saying that those are that great mind you, I only consistently watched Caprica which was hit or miss. I never cared for Eureka and the less said about Ghost Hunters the better.

[NecronLord]

The part I liked most was the Eli/Chloe scenes (obviously because I expected them to find something cool on that side of the ship, instead of just be the deus ex machina meant to save Greer and Scott, but oh well),

Congratulations, you just hit upon one of my pet hates. The over-use of the term 'Deus Ex Machina' by sci-fi fans.

A Deus Ex Machina resolves the fucking plot. "The ship has an airlock you can get in" is not a fucking DeM. DeM would be say, a former-Prior stepping out of the stargate and smashing the heads of all the Lucian guys with telekinesis - not impossible, but resolving the story with no logical buildup. Similarly, anything that is set up beforehand in a logical way (Eli getting stuck where no one else is) cannot be a Deus Ex Machina. It is logical for a ship to have an airlock. It is not exactly unbelievable that Eli might be within running distance of it in this situation. This does not resolve the story. It therefore cannot ever be a Deus Ex Machina. There is no dispute, it simply is not, you're using the term wrong, and should look up what it actually means before using it again.

What you're actually saying it is is a contrivance. And it is. But it's really not much of one at all, for my money.

[dragon]

Well with the burst happening every 46 minutes or so there was a 2% chance that whomever was standing under the opening was hit and the odds went up for every minute he was there.

As for the radiation burning him to ash maybe the fluctuating shied acted as as lensing effect turning a wide area into a narrow beam making a simple form of coherent gamma ray beam. Kind of like when taking a magnifying glass and burning ants with sunlight.

As for losing the baby its possible it will live as there have been cases of pregnant women getting shot in the stomach area and the baby still lived. At least if the baby lives it going to have a very interesting education with all the scientists and military to act as teachers.

[Covenant]

The guy getting hit by the radiation is just plot--if people have issues with stories having plots then there's larger issues that need discussing, such as why they hate stories. Him burning up like that is only odd because it doesn't look like radiation, and with the squealing we heard and the other odd phenomenon I think people expected something that it wasn't, so it can be a bit of a let-down. That's not bad, it's just unfortunate, but you run that risk with any kind of cliffhanger. At least it wasn't entirely arbitrary, and it DID form the premise for the next episode, so I'll criticize but they don't need to explain themselves: they didn't do anything out of the ordinary for a Sci-Fi show. I'm totally willing to accept unrealistic depictions of radiation and such, just not without comment.

Most shows wouldn't even bother to deal with the concept of low oxygen levels in the exterior portions of the ship where Eli is, or the risk of carbon buildup from exhalation, so it's still a few steps up in the science category.

[Joe Momma]

I still think overall the LA goal is rather dim here. They know how fucked up the ship is and how poor communication, conditions, and supplies are. Yet they send a shitload of soldiers and even though they came through quickly you never got the impression that there were a whole lot of LA techs or scientists that were going to be going if things had been perfectly as planned.

OTOH, Kiva does make reference to multiple waves, such as her regret that they didn't bring more supplies with the first wave, and it was previously noted that they left a lot of people behind due to lack of time when gating to Destiny. I think the intent was to send their soldiers through first, secure the ship, and then send successive waves of technicians and supplies through, but that was botched when the SGC attacked their base. If that's the case, then perhaps the LA originally figured they could do a lot more to get the ship working properly and use it for their own purposes because they'd have a great deal more expertise and materiel to bring to bear. Even more so if they could keep gating people and resources in for an extended period.

[Covenant]

Well yeah, but why'd Kiva go then? Shouldn't she and most of the technicians stayed behind, to find a new world to use, and set up a second wave? Who the hell is going to come for them now? Were they expecting to use the stones to communicate back to base, despite the only stone-users being people in a government lab in one of the most secure locations on the planet?

It doesn't bother me, but it doesn't seem like this was a huge, Alliance-wide plan. That or she's got to have a boss or something. IE, we need her to the the Young of their group, and for them to have an angry Telford and O'Neill wondering what the hell happened. It's still totally possible that's the case--Kiva might have been too impulsive, and there might be some LA/Tau'ri combined efforts to find a planet and get to that ship with supplies.

That might be how the supply chain gets limited. The Alliance owns the world with the stable gate while the Tau'ri own the ship--and neither wants to surrender the other assets.

[Mlenk]

Well yeah, but why'd Kiva go then? Shouldn't she and most of the technicians stayed behind, to find a new world to use, and set up a second wave?

Well I think her plan was to stay behind but the fact that the planet that they were on was about to be blown to hell probably played a big factor in Kiva going through the gate.

[NecronLord]

Well yeah, but why'd Kiva go then? Shouldn't she and most of the technicians stayed behind, to find a new world to use,

She went because it was that or die, one assumes. The Tau'ri would logically have a reputation for blowing things up, a lot. And she was on a bomb planet.

This comes back to 'why do they want the ship' and I'm happy to wait and see on that.