Stargate Universe (3rd stargate series!)

They think so, too, but he's the only one perceived to have a shot at fixing the situation.  It'd be interesting if he's largely bluffing. 

"Set the controls for the heart of the sun."  

So, Chloe's dad's body is still on board.  I guess I'm at a complete loss as to why that shuttle took off last week.  Did I miss something?

That wasn't a shuttle. Well - so says producer Joseph Mallozzi in his blog, anyway. I'm sure we'll find out what it was at some point this season.

It was Boba Fett!

Now I want to see the scene again to puzzle it over a while.

Edit:  The shot is at the end of this video (linked instead of embedded because it's a copyright violation):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47if8VAYvKQ

Well, it's certainly not rear-entry like the shuttles the crew have been working on have been.  Interesting.


Edited by Greg_S_H - 10/17/09 at 3:07pm

You have to be kidding. Nobody else is even fluent in Ancient. Somebody's liable to hit the red button thinking it's an ignition and start a self destruct sequence. He's very irritating, but he's definitely needed. In my circles, we have a course of action for people like that. He needs to be reigned in. I think it's also appropriate to suggest the past is the past in this scenario. It doesn't matter who is most at fault for the current predicament. What matters is what's the most effective method for dealing with the situation. I submit that any solution that doesn't include the "crazy professor" (if we're going to use 'crazy', hopefully we can also use 'sleep deprived') is suboptimal.

This is a secret?  I thought the purpose of the ship was well known and even explained in the first episode (but I guess I wasn't watching the episode close enough to be sure). 

 

A little better outing this time, but WAY too much in-fighting.  I get that it's basically a day or two after the attack, and everyone's still in shock, but there's way too much conflict even amongst the military characters.  And they're going out of their way to make Dr. Rush unlikeable.  I kept wishing that Col. Young would have told Rush to straighten up or find himself under house arrest until he could act like an adult.  With the stones they could easily zap in Dr. Jackson or someone else with enough knowledge to help.

 

The segment with the gas giant was good - need more of that sense of awe and wonder.  Need to quickly get away from the 'disaster of the week' and 'everyone's out to get everyone else' and more towards trying to work towards getting home and more importantly, exploration.
 

i have never really been into any stargate series.  i enjoyed the original movie and the stand alone movie (based on sg-1) that came out not too long ago.  my mother has watched all of the series and when i am over there i might catch an episode.  i say all of that to say this.  i think that you are missing the point of this show.

none of the people on that ship are too happy to be in a situation where they have been ripped from their comfortable surroundings.  they are now in a ship that has probably reached its mileage limit with no resources.  awe, wonder and exploration is not what i would be looking for if i was 8 gagillion light years away from home with no forseeable solution to getting me home.

if you were in their shoes would you be looking to get resources and get home or would you be looking to explore be awestruck and find wonder?  if people are thrown into a new environment a new social order/hierarchy will develop.  that is where much of the infighting and power struggling is coming from.  i find that to be rather natural and realistic.  any lifeforms that are put into new surroundings quickly form a new social hierarchy.

sg-1 and atlantis have covered the exploration bases already.  atlantis even got its plug pulled. the producers/creators figured out it was time to do something different.

one of the many reasons that i could not get into the previous stargate series was because i found them way too corny/campy.  even moreso that star trek and i can watch star trek (any series) 24/7.  this show has a tinge of realistic interpersonal interaction that i find plausible.  i think that is what is holding my interest.

the one thing that is grating my nerves though are the stones.  i find them and anything dealing with them to be the weakest part of the show.

Would you care to speculate?  I didn't have any idea what was going on with it.  It seemed like a little end of episode mystery to me, but I could have missed something.

Yawn....no spoilers but who didn't see this coming a week ago?

Between the Flash Gordon/Blade Runner music and a never ending throw back to old sci fi shows I have no idea what they are thinking.

 Yawn.... How about next week we have the cliched "Guy who wanted to die but didn't"

I feel (slightly) bad for those of you who don't enjoy the show. I'm digging it even moreso than I ever liked Atlantis, and as much as I liked Stargate:SG-1 in its best seasons.

I've already mentioned that I like the more serious tone. I like that the leader of the military is a person of knowledge and conviction, but isn't mean. When he tells complainers that if they keep it up, their names will be removed from the drawing, I didn't hear a mean man, but a leader who was saying, "I know this sucks, but this is where we are and I'm not going to allow the situation to disintegrate." Excellent leadership, IMO. I prefer it to the vibe of the babysitter who is exasperated that he can't get the baby to go to sleep, which is often how Stargate team leaders have been presented in the past.

I continue to find the doctor character fascinating. It's not a Daniel Jackson fascinating where he always comes up with the solution in the nick of time. The doctor totally failed in this episode, but still managed to show his intelligence and humanity.

How sad to be the geeky math boy with the crush on the Senator's daughter (who just doesn't see him that way).

And how could there not be a bit of awe in watching this monstrosity of a ship fly through a sun to recharge its batteries? I think HD and big screens were made for stuff like this.

I don't know if the audiences will get into this show or not, but I really hope it gets enough ratings to stick around.

I admit, I'm enjoying this a lot.  Far more then Atlantis.  I like the cast more, and the storylines are interesting.  Are their cliches?  Yes, but then again, damn near every movie love story has some cliche.  It's not that something is cliche or not, it's how well it's executed.  And SGU is executed very well. (IMHO)

I just saw the past two weeks' shows back to back.  I was surprised that they did these two episodes, but right from the end of the last episode I think most viewers knew that the ship would get recharged from the sun, but we didn't know how it was all going to play out.  I would guess that we have more exploration later.  They still haven't tried to find those two who left the first planet they were on. Will they try or are they all forgotten?

I feel sorry for Eli wrt the Senator's daughter, but he still has a lot of growing to do anyway.

By the way, SF writer John Scalzi is a consultant on the show and on his website he has a discussion thread at
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/10/24/the-permanent-stargate-universe-discussion-thread/

At the beginning of October he wrote about being a consultant in
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/10/02/on-being-the-stargate-universe-creative-consultant-more-answers/

I haven't read either of these pages yet, but I bet there is some interesting information.

i am really digging this too.  hope it stays around.

This last episode really connected with me.  I enjoyed this one more than any of the others so far.

I think they're pretty much screwed. Eli tried to contact them but got no response, which I guess was meant to indicate that something bad happened to them once they got through. In any case, once the Destiny went into FTL, it probably went permanently out of range of that planet anyway. So yeah - screwed.

I can't remember why they can't dial back home (or at least a gate in their norrmal gate network). I remember that the attempt used a lot of power they shouldn't have used. But now their batteries are recharged. I suspect there was another reason, but I can't remember it. Anyone?
 
Also, was the planet they dialed onto the ship from the only place from their normal gate network they could dial into the ship? If so, why? As I understand it, the normal gate system traverses the Milk Way galaxy (7 Chevrons). In Atlantis, they figured out a way, using a sort of relay, to dial into the Pegasus galaxy (8 Chevrons). Using 9-chevron combinations, they were able to dial into the ship. As far as I know, the ship was still in the Milk Way galaxy at the time they entered it (I thought we saw a few establishing pics of them  being on the edge of the galaxy, and leaving it to go to another one... maybe Andromeda. Did I hear or read somewhere that the purpose of the ship is to build/distribute gates in places where they don't exist so the Ancients can use them for travel (back when they needed gates)?

I'm just not really understanding why they can't dial home. To me the show would still be fine if they could dial home, they'd just have to make a decision to return to the ship for whatever reason. And they could put limits on it like they need to be very careful about dialing home due to the power requrements and the possibliity they'd drain the ship when there's no nearby sun to recharge it.

Thoughts?
 

I don't think I'm missing the point of the show - I've tried to keep up on SGU since it was first hinted at during SG-1 and Atlantis' run.  I'll state upfront that while I think BSG was well-done, I am not a fan.  I watched it, enjoyed pieces here and there, but overall, not impressed with its overall arc and presentation.  And when I see SGU try to take parts of BSG (and not all good, I might add) and incorporate it into itself, I think overall it's to the detriment of the franchise.

 

Ultimately, I am liking SGU.  It has characters you can get behind - for me, it's Col. Young, Eli, Lt. Scott and Msgt. Johansen.  Right now I'm seeing too much Baltar in Dr. Rush.  Hopefully, it's stepping away from the "disaster of the week" and getting more into exploring.  I don't mind some of the in-fighting - I agree, given the crew compliment, it's to be expected.  However, there's still too much drama for drama's sake - like Young questioning whether Rush knew that Destiny would recharge itself.  All that does is forces a wedge between the two characters that isn't necessary (much like what they did with Adama and Lee on BSG).   

I also don't mind the stones - but I can see where they could turn into a crutch as well.

I'll continue to watch, and it'll be interesting to see how it does ratings-wise.  I'll make a prediction though, unless it does well (BSG or SG-1 well), expect the number of characters to go down (dramatic deaths and so forth) after a while or a reduction in sfx - it won't be able to sustain BSG with SG-1 effects unless it's getting a lot of eyeballs or pub.

Going by memory: the planet had some kind of unique core that they were able to tap into for power.  They just can't get the kind of power necessary to dial a ninth-chevron gate in any other known location.

Also going by memory: they are far, far beyond the Milky Way.  The computer model swooped past our galaxy, past Andromeda, past Pegasus and kept going to another distant galaxy.

Thanks, Greg. This is why I used to save episodes. Sometimes things I've seen just escape me, and I need to go back and try to find them and watch them again. I could really stand to see that scene again.

Anyway, they couldn 't dial to the ship before because that planet, which is now gone, was the only place they knew of with enough power. But the ship is fully charged, now. Why can't the ship take a page from ET and phone home?

As for seeing Baltar in Dr. Rush, I have to say... I really don't see this BSG parallel. I do see that it's a darker series and perhaps what came before (BSG) has some influence, but not to the point of character homages. If you told Baltar he could have a harem but someone would have to die, he'd struggle with the decision (as long as he didn't have to actively participate in the death). He's just that selfish. I don't see Dr. Rush like that at all. Dr. Rush is, however, a slave to his curiosity and quest for knowledge. In that regard, I'm not sure he would always put the needs of the crew above his own desires. In that sense, he's somewhat Baltarish. But I'm not sure we've seen him flat out ignore the survival of the crew for the sake of his quest.

Friday's episode was another interesting one, though it seems we didn't really learn anything about those aliens.  I watched it via OnDemand and was quite surprised to see that the whole thing was only about 38 minutes or so.  Hard to believe it came in so short.

Hm... On iTunes it's 43:32...

Quote: On Hulu it is 43:02.  I wonder what 5 minutes I missed OnDemand.  It wasn't the end as I just verified that.  All very weird.

Can we kill off the professor tonight? He's really getting on my nerves.

Your statement made me realize something. I'm not even sure I'd watch the show anymore without Dr. Rush. But I think he's more a scientist than a professor.
 

I understand that the producers probably didn't want comparisons to either Dr. Jackson or McKay but Dr. Rush is too abrasive right now (too Baltar-ish  :) ).  I think they'll probably make him more likeable as the show goes on, but right now I see no reason why Col. Young doesn't have someone use the stones to bring in another 'Ancient expert', even Daniel.   (Okay, I know why from the show's creators standpoint, but not within the show itself) 

The more I think about it, Dr. Rush's characterization's all wrong - he should be in high-spirits, almost giddy - he's succeeded in his goal to get the gate to use the ninth chevron and he's landed in an Ancients' ship that predates most, if not all, of their previous experience with that race, and he's not acting like a kid in a candy store?!  They either need to show backstory as to why Rush is so dour or lighten his personality - they're out of immediate danger and if he's truly a scientist, his sense of wonder should be kicking in.

It will continue to be on my record list (the stones should go)

If not for the stones, we wouldn't have tonight's Very Special Guest. 

Lou Diamond Philips is a snake!!!!

Him showing up at Young's wife's door at the end creeped me the hell out.

I'm with Arild. We haven't actually seen what's going to happen, but I'm not sure how I'll react if he does what's implied he'll do. It may be so distasteful that I'll stop watching, even though I like the show. I'm for dark and realistic, but I think I hit an internal limit. Here's hoping they don't go there.

It wasn't smart no the team leader's part to engage in such an activity knowing the stones could give out at any moment. They'd already shown the communication breakdown earlier, even though there was some lip service given within the episode to it not happening again.

At least they've addressed my concerns over why they don't just dial home, though as time goes on, I'm really not getting why the Ancients would design a ship that recharges within a sun, but only have it get a quarter tank of gas instead of a fill-up. I can't see the logic except to possibly say that the simply is so old and damaged it simply can't store a fill-up anymore.

My mother also wouldn't understand if I showed up in someone else's body as she has almost no exposure to science (or even TV), but I think I sitll would have taken the time to explain it to her rather than pretend to be a friend. The problem is, there's a security risk. You can't really control what people like that will say and to whom they'll say it.

They touched on the episode about Dr. Rush not really wanting to go home, but added in the layer about how he was almost removed from the expedition and might not be sent back if Destiny can ever dial Earth. That raises the angst as we'll never really be sure his goals are the same as everyone else's.