SGU 105: Light (Spoilers)

[Dralan]

If there were to be a ship avatar or whatever, could we, I don't know, get a dude for the role? I'm sure there are exceptions, but as a rule all ships seem to be women.

There are most certainly quite a few exceptions. If we look at the series Andromeda there were quite alot of male avatars as well as female avatars in the systems Commonwealth.

In some societies all ships are designated to be female. But that is not to say that the majority of people have preferred to designate their ships as female.

I think it would be nice to have an ship avatar that you cannot place as either a male or female. But since we are talking about an Ancient ship any avatar will probably be easily identifiable.

[TheLostVikings]

On the subject of aliens, I'm curious if we are actually going to see ALIENS in this new series rather than having galaxies filled with civilisations seeded by the Ancients. In which case, are we going to get aliens with 10 heads or is it just going to be ST style aliens which are basically all humans with minor face ridges that speak excellent English ?

They said in one of those behind the scenes specials which showed here after the first two episodes, that they specifically would *not* be doing Trek rubber-forehead english speaking aliens, and that the aliens they (the actors) had seen so far were all CG.

Spoiler

We're going to see some humanoid aliens, but apparently not for quite some time. Link

But, yeah. I really liked what they did with that semiambiguous dervish in the desert. Hopefully they keep doing excellent stuff like that, it would certainly be a departure from most other SG aliens, that's for sure.

[TheLostVikings]

My guess is that either the AI is damaged or shut down all non needed functions when energy reserves became low so that it could do a little bit more of its mission before taking a detour to refuel itself. To be honest I think its actually a combination. Some parts of the AI is damaged just as some parts of the ship is. As such the AI probably have an emergency AI support unit that can take over in case of unforseen events but the backup unit is not really designed to run a ship like Destiny for any length of time.

On the energy reserves point I personally think that the ship had set aside more than enough power reserves to reach it's next refueling stop, but then suddenly all those pesky humans dial in, trying to dial all the way back to earth, dialing multiple times out to a planet, then try to force the gate to stay open beyond the limit, etc. Not to mention jump starting all the life support systems and a ton of other stuff that the Destiny had intended to stay powered down.

I guess from now on Destiny will be a little more conservative when estimating when to refuel. To put it mildly.

[Zac Naloen]

On the subject of aliens, I'm curious if we are actually going to see ALIENS in this new series rather than having galaxies filled with civilisations seeded by the Ancients. In which case, are we going to get aliens with 10 heads or is it just going to be ST style aliens which are basically all humans with minor face ridges that speak excellent English ?

They said in one of those behind the scenes specials which showed here after the first two episodes, that they specifically would *not* be doing Trek rubber-forehead english speaking aliens, and that the aliens they (the actors) had seen so far were all CG.

Spoiler

We're going to see some humanoid aliens, but apparently not for quite some time. Link

Spoiler

She is Lucian Alliance who are going to be a Milky Way based protagonist and who are Human so it's not really a trek rubber forehead issue.

[NecronLord]

I seriously wish I hadn't read that goddamn spoiler. Grr.

[ThomasP]

You and me both. That's going to take one hell of a shoehorn to fit in the plot. Hopefully it's not going to head down that road so soon, but it doesn't look promising.

[Bilbo]

Question for someone who knows more about astronomy than me. It appears in the episode that the Destiny was recharging straight through its shield. We see systems coming on before the scoops open up and the ship skins below the stars surface.

Would the scoops be sucking up hydrogen at that depth in a star? I would assume no that they are not going deep enough but if those are scoops they must serve some purpose. Maybe the shield can absorb certain amounts of energy but the scoops are dedicated energy absorber that charge the main cells of the ship?

[Vympel]

Anyone notice that the (comment about next episode screencaps) Spoiler

EVA suits in the next episode are identical to those of the Evil Asgard?

[Themightytom]

You and me both. That's going to take one hell of a shoehorn to fit in the plot. Hopefully it's not going to head down that road so soon, but it doesn't look promising.

nah, they set it up in the pilot.

[PREDATOR490]

Meh, I cant say that spoiler was really that suprising given the pilot. The list of possible candidates who can launch an attack like that are rather short.

All I can say is that in light of this information it confirms my belief that those stones are nothing more than a means of getting guest stars and giving them a cheap run of fillers whenever they choose to do so like Atlantis did with all the 'Earth' based running around they did against the Trust. If they wanted to keep SG-1 and Atlantis in the show to satisfy Stargate fans then they should have kept them seperate of each other.

As for an AI, one of the reasons thrown out from Andromeda was that crew members reacted better to female avatars and it seems like valid reasoning to me even if it was a poor show. An AI looking like Lexa Doig is far more pleasant to deal with than one like Christopher Judge or even Michael Shanks although it depends on how the AI is programmed to behave personnality wise obviously.

An offscreen AI like Skynet could work but regardless if the system is even remotely intelligent to the degree it can properly interact with the crew then it seems even more obvious someone like Daniel or an Ancient language expert should be brought in to translate rather than rely entirely on Rush when clearly they dont trust him.
If the computer is a well programmed machine, then Rush has already demonstrated the ability to instruct the ship into getting what they need so the convienence of being unable to stop the timer, manually control the ship or alter course cant really be maintained beyond the first season at most for this series to remain along the 'realistic' angle its going.

[CaptJodan]

To be honest, I'd be far happier with a more basic AI, rather than a hyper-intelligent AI, hologram or no. It makes it easier to attribute what personality you think the ship best displays without having it spelled out one way or the other. So far, the Destiny has just about the level of AI I'd want. Smart enough to know when trouble arises, and try and fix it, but not so smart as to be solving problems it wasn't programmed to deal with. With any luck, we won't be seeing any holographic personality AI types, giving information and being "part of the crew".

[Ragnarok]

To be honest, I'd be far happier with a more basic AI, rather than a hyper-intelligent AI, hologram or no. It makes it easier to attribute what personality you think the ship best displays without having it spelled out one way or the other. So far, the Destiny has just about the level of AI I'd want. Smart enough to know when trouble arises, and try and fix it, but not so smart as to be solving problems it wasn't programmed to deal with. With any luck, we won't be seeing any holographic personality AI types, giving information and being "part of the crew".

I agree, because then Eli and Rush become pointless if you have an AI that's capable of just giving out information that they're supposed to be there to help solve.

It might be fun to have the Destiny's AI have been programmed to be able to make its own decisions within the programmed parameters (might explain why it just didn't change course and get the Shuttle in this episode, it just wasn't programmed for that an would assume an Ancient crew would be able to figure it out), which means what will happen once the crew gets into a situation that the ship cannot get them out of? It'll finally be a tense moment without me thinking that the ship is going to get them out of the problem that they're facing that week by the end of the episode. It'll be dull, and boring.

[starslayer]

Would the scoops be sucking up hydrogen at that depth in a star? I would assume no that they are not going deep enough but if those are scoops they must serve some purpose. Maybe the shield can absorb certain amounts of energy but the scoops are dedicated energy absorber that charge the main cells of the ship?

A star is 70-75% hydrogen usually. Even a red dwarf, assuming it formed about 13 billion years ago, should be at least 50-60% hydrogen, and such a star will be evenly mixed. So yes, at that depth, the Destiny could scoop up gobs and gobs of hydrogen, even though the density at that depth is still only one ten-thousandth that of sea level air. However, I don't think those were scoops; they looked more like thrusters to me.

[ThomasP]

You and me both. That's going to take one hell of a shoehorn to fit in the plot. Hopefully it's not going to head down that road so soon, but it doesn't look promising.

nah, they set it up in the pilot.

Maybe. It could be doable; in fact
Spoiler

maybe that shuttle we saw leaving at the end of Air part 3 has something to do with it

[tezunegari]

You and me both. That's going to take one hell of a shoehorn to fit in the plot. Hopefully it's not going to head down that road so soon, but it doesn't look promising.

nah, they set it up in the pilot.

Maybe. It could be doable; in fact
Spoiler

maybe that shuttle we saw leaving at the end of Air part 3 has something to do with it

Spoiler

Maybe there is a second "Icarus"-planet with a second super-dial device.
Which would be quite believable to me. It also would explain how the Lucian Alliance did know about the Icarus Base. The Icarus base looked to be a human base and not an ancient one. So, if that other planet has an ancient base with its memory intact...

[Gramzamber]

Spoiler

The Lucian Alliance? Really? Those dull assholes?
I sincerely hope that they will be written better than they were in SG-1 where they came off as inept space mobsters who just suddenly popped out after the Jaffa rebellion.

[Zac Naloen]

Spoiler

The Lucian Alliance? Really? Those dull assholes?
I sincerely hope that they will be written better than they were in SG-1 where they came off as inept space mobsters who just suddenly popped out after the Jaffa rebellion.

I think it would be best if we save that discussion for the second half of the season, shall we?

[Covenant]

I'm not really seeing where all that Chloe hate is coming from Covenant, but you are more than entitled to your opinion

I really like her character, she's useless, she knows she's useless so she's just hanging on to the two Males showing an interest. I'm hopeful her story is how she goes from being useless to being useful and I'm looking forward to that at the moment. Her being the emotional crutch is understandable at this point.

It's mostly that. It's not that she's unrealistic--I don't think so, I think she's acting in a relatively normal way for a girl in her situation. It's just that if she were a real person and I were on that ship, I'd still find her absolutely intolerable. She's not a goddamn piece of jewelry, she needs to do more than just cling onto a male. I find her really disgusting, but I find those kinds of people disgusting in real life as well. Her character profile basically makes her out to be the kind of person I just shudder to be around, so tying her to the emotional tenor of two of the main characters is about as bad as if they added Neelix to the crew. She's useless in the most high impact way, she consumes a lot of camera time I'd rather was focused on someone whose depth of character extended past "confused, no serious knowledge of anything pertinent, and from a family of pushy blow-hards."

If she were funny, or upbeat, or something, I'd hate her less. But instead her mere existence forces me to watch a subplot about a stupid love triangle between the nerd and the young jerk soldier and her. So basically, I hate her in great part because she contributes nothing to the scenes she's in (as an actress or as a character) except to advance a series of sub-plots I find incredibly uninteresting and actually just forward through via tivo because I simply do not care. But also because, as a person herself, I'd want nothing to do with her.

[His Divine Shadow]

The music this episode was such a ripoff from nBSG, practically groan inducing. I'm not sure but did other eps have the same type music or was this episode particularly notable?

[Burak Gazan]

I am kind of hoping the character evolves into something more than 98 pounds of recreational equipment

Still, no one on the boat is really suited to this situation, so at some point there will have to be some sort of organizing as to who does what and where -- assuming they ever actually get the thing under something resembling manual control and aim its nose in the direction of the Milky Way

I think it would be best if we save that discussion for the second half of the season, shall we?

I'm with you there

[Zac Naloen]

The music this episode was such a ripoff from nBSG, practically groan inducing. I'm not sure but did other eps have the same type music or was this episode particularly notable?

Can't say I'm with you there at all.

The music was more bombastic than we are used to with Stargate but had little in common with the bsg soundtrack.

[NecronLord]

The music this episode was such a ripoff from nBSG, practically groan inducing. I'm not sure but did other eps have the same type music or was this episode particularly notable?

I'm sorry, I'm not with you on this either. My chief memory of the BSG soundtracks was the drums themes, the only really prominent instrumental here was during the sundive, and that sounded nothing like BSG to me.

The opening title (such as it is) is much more BSG than anything I remember here.

I think you're looking so hard for BSG comparisons that you're reaching for anything now.

[Gil Hamilton]

Wow, people are really desperate to make SG:U seem like a nBSG clone, huh?

I've talked to people that claim that Rush is a Baltar clone, but they are very different people. Their main similarities are that they are super geniuses who are both reasonably arrogant and currently wigged out due to stress. However, Rush doesn't seem to be out for #1 to the exclusion of everyone else, he wants them to survive, its just that he's firmly confident that he knows precisely how to do it. He's pragmatic in the extreme to the point it makes him utterly callous. Moreover, he's really making lemonade out of lemons vis a vie the whole being stranding on Destiny thing.

If Baltar was in the situation this week, he'd have immediately set to work to rig the lottery by hook or by crook to be on that shuttle, possibly knocking over a eight months pregnant teen mother at the airlock to get on (whom he impregnated), and even look out of the rear window with an "OMG what have I done?!" look to him. Then he'd get an angelic blowjob from Head Six cause he Survived. This is all after he had a threesome with Lt. Nipples and Camille. And banged Chloe.


As for Destiny, I hope they don't do the ship's avatar thing. I'd like Destiny herself to be the Silent Castmember, where you she never is personalized and you aren't sure how intelligent she is or how aware she is about the people who've come to have boarded her, but there is a definite sense of her as a intelligent force in the series, with Dr. Rush gradually piecing together her purpose.

[Bounty]

I actually find Rush's character very recognisable - the perfectionist who envisions an environment that perfectly supports his genius, who gets cripplingly frustrated when anyone around him doesn't live up to that ideal. It's almost the perfect opposite of Baltar, who comes across as a chronic underachiever. Look what happens when both are given responsibility: Rush works himself into a coma trying to get his work done, Baltar orders booze and hookers.

[Starglider]

Wow, people are really desperate to make SG:U seem like a nBSG clone, huh?

SGU and nBSG are both soap operas with deeply flawed characters and lots of sex and swearing. It has a similar visual style, dark dramatic lighting, grittiness, drunken camera, but less exagerated. I don't think the music is similar though; it's just really heavy handed. In that last episode the music hardly ever stopped and overpowered the dialogue (not that that was a bad thing, because the dialogue sucked).

I've talked to people that claim that Rush is a Baltar clone, but they are very different people.

That's bizarre. Baltar has always been charming, Rush acts like an asshole, I don't see how you could reconcile that blatant difference with 'same character'.

Anyway, I gave this a 2 since it was really boring and what wasn't boring (the last 5 minutes) was predictable. As my wife said, almost nothing of note happened in this episode. The middle 20 minutes were particularly annoying, with everyone sitting around and moping/fucking, where you can bet your ass that SG-1 or the SG:A team would be trying something, anything to change the situation. I like the idea of the situation being the life-or-death challenge rather than introducing humanoid enemies, and I can tolerate the protagonists being annoying. Any more of this pathetic passiveness and stupid Lost-style massive-blocks-of-irrelevant-backstory and we will not be watching or buying the DVDs.