Stargate: Universe Discussion – “Life”

The crew finds a (plot) device that’s about as likely to get them home as anything Voyager found in the first season. Y’know, the problem with “here’s a way home” in a show where the premise of the show is “you’re a long way from home” is that even though the characters don’t know it won’t work, we know it won’t.

19 replies on “Stargate: Universe Discussion – “Life””

  1. So they didn’t continue off the last episode at all.

    Actually I think I like the “time” episode was a little better now. The idea was that they found a way to actually kill off the cast.

    The character development changed those versions of the characters and made them more real, even Rush became a little heroic and developed a relationship with Young that will certainly not occur now. That version of the characters is now dead, permanently, they weren’t resurrected or turned into ancients, they aren’t even remembered anywhere. I think the idea is that the episode was supposed to be a tragedy, and to demonstrate the characters’ fear that disaster will strike and they’ll simply die on some remote planet halfway across the universe.

  2. Am I the only one getting really creeped out by how they’re using using the communication stones? Is the military really allowing them (encouraging, even) to go out and have sex and get drunk while using other people’s bodies? And the whole “I’m a close personal friend of X who knows all the secrets of his life” cover story seems to be a setup for disaster.

    If I was stuck on Destiny and came back into some other body, I might be happy to get out and see the sun for a bit, but I sure as hell wouldn’t be able to actually interact with anyone I know. They’d have to settle for getting some emails from me.

  3. I have to agree. I especially find it unbelievable that some military person shows up at your door, tells you your loved one has been swapped into another body and you not only go along with it but have sex with this person. C’mon, that is just ridiculous.

    I am a little curious what Telford’s plans are with his spending time with Young’s wife. It seems a particularly douchey way to undermine Young.

    So far this episode showed us that the Destiny is crewed by douches, backstabbers and psychotics, however so far none of them are engaging as characters. So meh.

    • You left out “sociopaths”… ;)

      Given all the friction those character types should be able to generate, I think it’s not unreasonable to expect that we should have seen a few good episodes by now – we’re almost half way through the season after all! Frankly, I can’t think of a single episode that I didn’t summarise as “meh!” and even SG fan sites like “Gateworld” where the most popular episode rating votes are nearly always “Outstanding” are starting to shift towards low-ball scores, with 23% currently rating the episode as “Terrible”.

      Not exactly promising, is it?

    • I’ll give them the coward’s way out by saying it is an “accidental”, catch-all crew. Kind of like on Gilligan’s Island. Had they been planned and conditioned for the mission better, the compatibility and backstabbing wouldn’t be as much of a problem.

      Not a great excuse. Just one that works.

  4. I’m disappointed that the Icarus-type planet was faked. At least then the “here’s a way home” premise would have been able to contribute more to the series, even if we know it won’t end up happening.

  5. I thought this episode had some good character development and I’m glad they finally got away from their plot formula. That being said, I don’t see SyFy keeping this show around too long, although they have wrasseling so there’s no telling.

  6. This was the WORST episode yet. Very lame attempts at character development and no real plot at all. Rush is still an ass hole and getting worse. (He makes Rodney look good). What we need is for some G’ould or Wrath to show up because nothing interesting is happening here.

    • The probe, or whatever it was, that detached from the ship way back when has to have been a precursor for something, and the introduction of SG:Universe’s bad guys is probably it. Unfortunately, I think the the introduction of any recurrent foes in the vein of the G’ould or Wraith is going to bring with it even more problems.

      The Destiny is supposedly jumping to different galaxies every episode or three, so any recurrent foes would presumably have to have a similar (or higher) level of technology to avoid getting left behind. That in turn raises the issue of how the Destiny, supposedly on its last legs, is going to survive any kind of encounter with foes possessing a level of technology only seen with Stargate’s most advanced races. It might have worked once, but these days you can only do “deus ex machina” and “just in the nick of time” endings once or twice before all but the most dedicated fans of the franchise get bored.

      • You’re not the first to mention the thing that detached in the first (?) episode. I was always under the impression it was the busted shuttle with the dead senator. Not that this show has been good about maintaining past events, but you’d think if the shuttle were still docked, senator’s daughter would spend a lot of mopey time at it’s door.

        • On screen they told us the senator is still in one of the shuttles.

          Of screen the producers said that what flew away wasn’t a shuttle.
          They’ll probably return to it in episode 20 and all the kids will cry with joy and exclaim “Story Arc!” and “Foreshadowing!”

      • The probe, or whatever it was, that detached from the ship way back when has to have been a precursor for something, and the introduction of SG:Universe’s bad guys is probably it.

        I think that was sent to retrieve the fools who left the desert planet for another.

        The ship is keeping them alive, going as far as positioning itself so that the wormhole goes through a solar flare to give them a few extra time-traveling tries when they need to go to a very dangerous planet.

        • “The ship is keeping them alive, going as far as positioning itself so that the wormhole goes through a solar flare to give them a few extra time-traveling tries when they need to go to a very dangerous planet.”

          Or it was just random chance (no evidence of the ship doing this on purpose)

          • The ship chooses where it drops out of hyperspace, and what planet ti dial the gate to.

            This convenient solar flare is a huge coincidence.

            I’m thinking there’s one or more Ancient bending their “no meddling” rule by hiding in the ship’s AI.

    • Re: Rush vs. Rodney

      Even at Rodney’s worst he was funny. Sure, he was arrogant, but in a comedic way.

      Rush is just a self-serving d!@k.

  7. I generally like the series and I am Incredibly Thankful they left the old SG formula behind. Don’t need no G’ould or Wraith or boogey-men-thumping-in-the-dark. No more “push the magic button and spin around three times”. A character driven drama is fine with me. If they had some characters worth caring about. And some drama beyond saying so and so was mean to me.

    I don’t want a soap opera, which an entirely closed setting like this show set up turns into. So the writers gave them the traveling stones, and limited power to affect their environment. That allows the ability bring new things into the closed box. But the pacing is so slow, its like watching ants try to understand an automobile. Something needs to be done to make this thing (rescue or return) possible, or at least apparently possible. Maybe something like 6 year olds trying to understand an auto :). Once the audience doesn’t see a way home, its over. It turns into drama of the week (instead of monster of the week) again. Even Voyager only put the crew 100 years or so from home. A long way, but at least theoretically achievable with really good luck for the youngest members of the crew.

    This current episode may have been a way to break the mold, but it only made Rush seem particularly pig-headed. The Captain said it, even if the (plot device) allows them to turn around and head straight home, it is still a million years away. Rush, and everyone else, may be going stir crazy, but are they really crazy suicidal risk takers? I’m not getting that from Rush. He may be blind to other people, but he’s got his own ego to preserve.

    • I like the concept of Rush. One of my complaints with SG-1 and SG-A is that everyone is too buddy buddy. The problem I have with Rush is not what he’s doing, his motivations or his demeanor but rather this complete lack of subtilty. Its almost like he sincerely trying to piss everyone off around him for the hell of it and in his case I would have thought him to be a little more cunning and conniving.

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