Stargate Universe S02E09

So we have the return of some lost cargo from last season. I haven't seen the episode yet but I have a feeling some may not care for the plot idea.

Tonight I decided to toggle between my usual shows (NCIS) and SGU. Once again I'm uhm disappointed with the writing. C'mon that's how they chose to explain how they got another shuttle? I'd much rather have preferred them encountering another automated gateship and learning it had a shuttle that they could take for their own use rather than resurrect some characters we already wrote off as dead just to kill them for no better reason than the writers realized they screwed up by destroying the only shuttles Destiny had.

I actually thought it was a rather interesting episode. Aside from getting the shuttle back... it did well to promote character growth, dug deep into characters belief structures and explained what happened to those left behind on the planet. I kind of wish they had introduced a more valid 'pro-religion' point of view, but at least it didn't feel like out-right religion bashing. For example: In response to Eli's quote, Young actually quoting Churchill rather than making an apathetic joke. That would have been a nice touch, imo.

Still... at the very least... it was a solid filler episode.

Well Rush did a good job of bursting the God fantasy that guy had, but other than getting a brand new shuttle all they accomplished is they set up TJ for a breakdown by torpedoing the fantasy she had about her baby being alive somewhere.

I did like the conversation Greer had with Chloe.

It wasnt a horrible episode as far as a filler episode goes, and did well to i guess fix some issues.

Issue 1 the shuttle. Sure there was other ways to do it, but atleast now its done and we can move on.

Issue 2, i really think that we all knew that we had not heard the last of those people. Dropped on a manufactured planet with a mystic statue etc. Im pretty sure we had to know it was gonna be revisited. So now it has been, without totally throwing off the structure of the ship beyond that episode and leaving just a hint of mystery as to what is going on to fit into the overall story i would assume they are trying to establish. I dont think it was ment as much to bash religion as much as it will serve to allow some of the real science types have doubts to their own beliefs. Especially with the keno feed at the end of the show.

I also think the episode did a good job of expanding what we know about greer. Military hard *** yes, but its nice to see a human side to him. To show that no matter what he is asked to do he will follow orders, but that he needs to justify it as the right thing to himself and that he has that understanding from others.

Overall i have spent 60 worse minutes watching this show. Here is hoping next week is a valid pay-off for giving the show another chance to fix itself.

Next week we see a bit of what happens when the crew decides to take Destiny off it's intended course as they land in the remains of a space battle. I will leave it at that despite knowing more that is supposed to happen.

Interesting idea to bring that group back just to have them die a second time from the same thing that killed them the first time. I don't recall actually seeing Caine die, just him saying he remembers dying while the Kino feed shows the light through the windows of the shuttle when he was still alive.

I love that their explanation for getting there was that they feel asleep and woke up in the shuttle near Destiny. That was a nice bit of foreshadowing to the conclusion that they had actually died. Ya know... death is the sleep you never wake up from.

It seemed a long-winded contrived way to get a shuttle replaced.
With a ship that big there's no repair parts or redundancy for a vital system like a shuttle? My take would have been:

Eli: Col. Young, the Kinos just found an area that look like an support bay and guess what. There's two or three shuttle hulls and enough spare parts to get at least one of them up and running.

Young: That's great, I'll put together a team to start work on one.

There, 58 minutes left for another plot *without* temporary zombie crew members.

Seriously, one more epi until the season "half-time," they better have a helluva an episode planned. Jack O'Neil comeing to the Destiny's rescure riding an F-302 like Slim Pickens on the bomb in Dr. Strangelove would be good.

It's 106 miles to Grandville, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing faceless helmets

... Hit it ...

Here's an interesting thought.... In the vision TJ had, we assumed everyone was alive. But we now know they all died months ago. Perhaps what she saw was everyone in the afterlife and they were comforting her with the knowledge that her child's spirit was going to a good place.

Probably not, but I thought it would be an interesting twist. An afterlife would also support the religion side of things and how there will always be some points of knowledge outside of our reach.

Whatshisname may not necessarily be dead. they never actually showed him dying either the first or second time. And in the kino recording the aliens show up right as he is begging for help.

The Destiny itself doesn't make and drop the stargates, the seed ships going ahead of Destiny do that.

But you would still think there'd be something on the ship to replace the shuttles, perhaps even a small, pilotable escape pod or something. But maybe they just haven't explored all of Destiny yet, like how it was with Atlantis.

Good to see they finally got that domed room mostly repaired and usable.

I also liked Greer's conversation with Chloe, and with Scott before that. And it seems Camille and Young are getting friendlier(not in a relationship way, I just mean they're not adversarial anymore.)

No Lucians at all in this episode, I noticed.

It seems that SGU currently is set up for a 5 year story instead of doing what the other Stargate series did by going season to season according to producer Joseph Mallozzi.

Finally watched this tonight. Interesting.

Now here's a thought, they only stayed alive as long as they didn't remember. Ignorance is life, knowledge is death.

I wonder if Rush can use the restored shuttle's systems as a baseline to help him understand Destiny more.

That came out darker than I intended. More like knowing that you had died triggered a conflict in your psyche that rejects whatever it was that reanimated you.

Those that stayed behind were fairly religious, if they were all like Caine, and believed that they are merely shadows of their former selves, soulless copies, it's that self awareness that triggers the shutdown. Can you live with yourself if you don't think that you are you? The aliens may simply considered it would be cruel to those who were reanimated to be burdened with such thoughts.

It's the old transporter debate. When you are teleported, is the you that materialized at the other end the same person that was dematerialized?