Actually they did try to hold open the door. The Medic told it to the injured Military Leader (Everett ?). She told him that the door just opened up again, like an elevator door.
The Senator was dead anyway, between his internal injuries and his heart condition he was in pretty bad shape. He knew he was dying and at least he could go out doing something useful.
Yeah. Maybe it's a Vancouver thing and there aren't many black actors to play "background scientist #4". Heck, only reason I'm sort of excited about Ming Na on the show is because it's the first time a "real" Asian character is being written.
Why would Rush lie about being put in charge? Others will use the device and they can find out the truth by talking to the right person back home. I was just a little bit afraid O'Neill was going to say something inappropriate when he was talking to Carter.
2 - watched the first half, not sure if I can motivate myself to watch the rest. Wow, the characters are DULL! Only the fat nerd kid has any screen presence at all, and that's not the type of character I usually care for, so kudos to David Blue, who will obviously have a nice career as a comic/character actor. The writing is cliched drivel even by Stargate standards. The female characters in particular are utter nonentities. Robert Carlyle is shockingly dull - the intent seems to be that he's some kind of edgy, compelling character but he's a complete snooze. Maybe they should have made David Blue's character the snaky one - the genius they must rely on for survival, but who is an emotionally immature megalomaniac who cannot be trusted. He seems to be the only actor in the bunch who could bring anything interesting to his role. They are obviously trying to ape BSG but without the level of acting or writing talent that will allow them to come even remotely close. What a train wreck, worse than I'd ever envisioned. I really wanted to stick with this one, because of the lack of space opera on TV. But if they're just going to start visiting more pine tree planets, there's no wonder of exploration anyway, so what's the point?
I'm happy about Ming Na too, though I'm not sure about the Vancouver 'excuse'-not saying you're making an excuse, it's just a reason I've heard for many of the casting decisions for shows based in Vancouver. To some extent, I wasn't just talking about background characters. What about some 'non-traditional' casting for some of the major roles? For Stargate, they don't seem to have trouble finding or casting blacks as Jaffa or other warrior types, or the occassional background flunky, so why not as a scientist or something else? You had Michael Beach on Atlantis for a minute so there is a precedent. Plus, I'm sure there are black Canadian actors or black American actors that would fly out to Vancouver for the work.
Once again.... There will not be any Canadian pine tree episodes for at least the first dozenish episodes.
I really enjoyed it. It obviously has some very rough spots to iron out, but it showed potential. When I watch a pilot it can be the worst 1 (or 2) hours of my life, but if it shows potential I'm happy with it. It's not easy to set up a premise, myth arc, nearly a dozen characters, and a decent story for your very first episode. I tend to be very forgiving of the actual quality of the pilot, but I get way more critical a few episodes in. I'll give it a seven. So I'm not used to following sci-fi shows. How long should it take for ratings numbers to start popping up and what exactly are we hoping for here? 2+ million or so?
What worked: Robert Carlyle as Rush. He turned out to be what I was hoping for: an enigmatic, more somber version of Dr. Smith from Lost In Space. Who is he? What's his agenda? Can he be trusted? No evil alien bad guys. I also loved how the ship itself seemed to be the enemy--as well as having the conflict in the first two shows come from within the group. The darker tone overall. And the muted music--finally! For the deaf and hard of hearing, loud obnoxious music in movies and TV shows is our worst enemy. My God, I could actually *HEAR* what they were saying in this, without relying too much on the CC. Also loved how they worked in O'Neill, Daniel and Sam. What didn't work: Eli comes across as the Wesley Crusher of this show for me. And if somebody like this had been abruptly taken from his home and exposed to the dangers that he'd witnessed, he'd be freaking out like crazy. And I'm really not crazy about how they're able to just call earth whenever they want. This takes the edge off of the whole concept for me. Overall, I liked it. So far, so good. The darker, grittier look and feel works for me--but then, I'm a huge BSG fan, anyway. I gravitate towards that kind of stuff. Sean
I'm going to rate this a 5 (average), although it's hard to judge without the third part included. I also should point out up front that, although I have plenty of quibbles with these two episodes, I feel there's a lot of potential for improvement. I really like what they've done with the cinematography. It's handheld, but smoother and less aggressive than the photography on Battlestar Galactica. I love that they didn't have a traditional main titles sequence, although that may not last, as Stargate Atlantis dropped that for their pilot episode as well. It was an interesting choice to show the whole of the Destiny in the very beginning. It denies the viewer the chance to be wowed by the ship when the characters arive there, and makes the focus on the characters and their survival. Joel Goldsmith's score was surprisingly typical of the Stargate franchise. Mostly traditional, with a very synthesized (read: low-budget) sound. From his work with his father on Star Trek: First Contact (and the occasional cue on Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis over the years) I know he could produce something much more interesting. Since the producers advertised that this series has a much bigger budget than the two that preceded it, I'm led to believe this was a deliberate creative and budgetary choice on their part. It's a shame Goldsmith wasn't given the freedom that Bear McCreary has enjoyed on Battlestar Galactica (and now on Caprica). The cast is a very mixed bag. I was excited to have Lou Diamond Phillips onboard, but it's clear from these two episodes that his role will be very minimal, and his performance and character weren't anything of interest here. If they wanted to waste a perfectly good actor on a boring character, why not get Ben Browder to reprise his role as Colonel Mitchell? Robert Carlyle is good, as expected, although the writing often makes his character rather obvious (does anyone find his intentions to be anything but dubious in nearly every scene he's in?), and he lacks the dark comedy of Gaius Baltar, who he'll no doubt be compared to endlessly unless the writers make him more complex. David Blue does the best he can with a character that is contrived and insulting in its pandering to what the writers view as their audience. Living at home, unemployed, and playing online video games all day long in his PJs, I'm not exactly feeling much more respect for the writing staff. But then the wish-fulfillment comes, and he gets to sit down and eat with the beautiful woman and solve the problem that Rush couldn't beat in two years. If Robert Carlyle wants too much money, we know they have a replacement waiting in the wings as the nerdy scientist. Justin Louis fails to impress as Colonel Young, but is that due to his performance or just bad writing? His flashback where he argues with his wife (?) is badly acted, but, then again, the dialogue is also terrible. He has little else to do but lie unconscious, deliver some gruff lines at the end, and make a hilariously cliched run to safety from a fireball as he escapes the SGC (er, whatever planet they were on...the re-dress was such a non-item that I was actually confused and thought they were on the SGC during certain scenes). The rest of the cast has failed to impress me. The Senator's Aide (and daughter) manages to overact when he dies a completely contrived death (but who can afford Christopher McDonald on a weekly basis, anyway?). Scott is Shepard light (with some pointless sex added to make the series 'edgy'). About the only thing suprising about him they don't repeat what they did on Atlantis and make him the commander. Hopefully they don't reduce him to what happened to Ford. And there's an NCO with a discipline problem (glad the angry, aggressive grunt is the only African-American in the cast...I mean, oh boy!). The cameos from SG-1 were nice. I think that Teal'c was deliberately kept out of this one, in order to eliminate all the cheesy aliens from series past. Even the Ancients, though oft-mentioned, aren't seen in any form. Let's see where it goes next week. They have a few actors that are worthwhile (I didn't mention Ming-Na, but that's only because she's a complete non-entity in these first two hours), and for the first time in the series, top-notch production values. Let's see if the writers can do something with that, or if they'd prefer to have the characters shouting at each other for little reason while they pretend it's serious drama.