Spoilers Dark Matter - Season 2
- Thread starter JD
- Start date
Nitpick: SG-1 did reverse-engineer the Intar stun weapons - they use them for live-action training exercises.
So on the show if we had seen more of Earth outside of the mountain the stun weapons should have started being marketed to the police and civilians around the time of Stargate Universe.
Yes, but only for a little while after they were introduced. Later seasons seemed to forget about them. Especially in light of this:
Exactly. We should've seen more of how the technologies gathered by the SGC were affecting the world outside the classified bubble, and the intars being introduced as a nonlethal weapon alternative would've been a great choice.
Just in general, they kept up the whole secrecy angle way too long. It was ridiculous when we got to the point that Earth was a major galactic power with most of the planet's population not even knowing. And there was no longer any story reason for it by that point, since we saw countless politicians, civilian scientists, business leaders, and the like who were aware of the Stargate program. We did get a terrific 2-parter out of it in "Heroes," but they should've gone public sometime after that. That would've been a good story to tell.
I get so frustrated by all these SFTV shows that insist on keeping things secret from the general public. It's a way to maintain the pretense that the shows are happening in the "real world" rather than some alternate reality, but of course we all know they aren't, so why not embrace that? Science fiction at its best is about exploring how new discoveries and inventions affect human nature and society. Trying to pretend a show is taking place in secret in the real world hobbles its creative potential, because nothing can ever be allowed to have a larger effect on everyday life, and that rules out so many stories that are worth telling.
Shows like SG-1 try to keep it to the "real world" to keep production costs down. If you suddenly (for example) introduced fly car technology then you've just added a major headache from a production point of view every time you want the action to tale place in the "real world".
It's not hard to imagine that the treaty negotiated between the major powers in 'Disclosure' forbade the use of alien, or reverse engineered alien weaponry on Earth, outside of SG related operations. Pretty much the reverse of the 'Outer Space Treaty' which (broadly speaking) forbids the use of WMDs in space. That probably also included naquadah reactors since those can be easily weaponized.
I imagine any other technology moved into the public awareness would have been tightly controlled and trickle fed by *tiny* increments through shell R&D think tanks. As great as it sounds to leap forward a thousand years, it can be utterly disastrous for a society that's not ready for it yet, to say nothing of the destabilising effect it'd have on the global economy.
The only one I was surprised Four killed was his brother, the step mother and the Seers had it coming. I guess Four thinks by killing his brother, there will never be anyone who can legitimately threaten his position on the throne.
So now we now who betrayed the crew, although he did not really betray them yet (they are all alive after all) we will see what happens next episode.
So now we now who betrayed the crew, although he did not really betray them yet (they are all alive after all) we will see what happens next episode.
I read it more as Ryo sending a message that he would show no mercy to anyone who betrayed him or attempted to usurp him, no matter who it was. And maybe there was an element of petty vindictiveness to it as well, punishing Hiro for stealing his rightful throne, even though it wasn't his idea. Although, now that you mention it, eliminating a potential rival heir could well be part of it too.
That was a disappointing turn. Ryo is supposed to be smart, yet there was no just cause for killing his brother. He knows that Hiro is the last person that would ever want the throne, or challenge him in any way. The only possible explanation is that he may have feared Hiro would be angry over Ryo killing his mother-because I can't see him banishing her as the Seers prognosticated. And over time, would grow to oppose him. Shock for the sake of shock, is how this feels.
I don't have a problem with him going full blown villian, as we all know the Raza gang weren't the nicest people in the world to start with. I will miss the dynamic he brought to the crew though, assuming there won't be a reset button pressed during season 3. Perhaps the reassimilation of his memories isn't going as smoothly as he thinks.... Yeah, cop out.
The cast has been the nicest asset the show has had-and yes, that includes Marc Bendavid, who I feel got stuck with some poor writing as One, coupled with the unwanted romance of doom with Two.
In any case, I'm at least glad this whole Ishida arc moved forward. Its been an albatross around Four's neck, progressing through news vids, with very little connection or impact on him or the crew until now.
I think its a bit more than the rest of the Raza crew had bad pasts. Besides Six who was a cop, even if he concluded for a bent government after turning on the crew to end the first season, the rest didn't have anything positive to point to with the glimpses of their past. Where as Ryo can reclaim royal status rather than just remain a mercenary.
I'd like to have a firmer grasp of the Raza's mecernary past. When the show started, they seemed to have a history that, now that things have unfolded, doesn't feel long enough to develop the reputation others have spoken about them. I imagined there had been others who've come and gone before we met up with them. But now, that doesn't appear likely.
Yeah, given the problems SG-1 had with folk like that rich guy who was dying and wanted a cloned symbiote, I'd say even introducing low-level alien tech would potentially cause nightmares. Widespread intar usage? We've seen the problems with cops and "non-lethal" weapons like tasers already, and has the SGC/NID really tested them widely enough to know how non-lethal they are outside of military use? What if you get a trigger-happy user who keeps stunning someone over and over, like Geordi in TNG when the Pakleds captured him - there we learnt that close successions of stuns can cause neurological damage...
Mentioning naquadah raises another issue - what's the intar's power source? One of those little naquadah vials we saw is used in the staff weapons? The one that was capable of powering an intergalactic stargate dial when hooked into O'Neill's prototype reactor? Yeah, they're gonna let Billy Beat Cop walk around with that...
Which is exactly the value in letting the Stargate Program go public. Stories come from problems and conflicts. Science fiction stories come from exploring the consequences of progress on society, including the negative consequences. The questions you raise are exactly the kind of what-if questions that generate science fiction stories.
I wonder if there is any chance that he killed a clone of his brother?
What'd I do with that Groucho smiley?That sounds dirty.
I see lots of folks trying to figure out a reason why Ryo killed his brother, but you're missing an obvious one: his brother was weak and of no use to him. The guy was too dumb to realize that his mother was the real villain for years, and then he pretty much lost the war. When the Seer said that Ryo would make his brother an advisor, I immediately thought to myself "why?"
That said, that was a real holy $#!+ ending. They killed off multiple plotlines in just a few seconds. (And as mentioned above, likely Devon too.)
So, why didn't Four want to have any contact with Three after he got back his memories?
And btw, Three really had a chance to shine over the last few episodes, from his memory in the virus-implant episode to the time when he and Five were taking on the gang of brothers and the GA.
Oh yeah, one last thing: I could swear we had a nice little conversation last year about using the transfer transit technology to send in an army of special forces anywhere in the galaxy. It didn't quite work here, but if they had sent in actual elite commados like Arnold and Sly (or at least Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, Apone, etc), they may have had a better outcome against the Raza crew.
That said, that was a real holy $#!+ ending. They killed off multiple plotlines in just a few seconds. (And as mentioned above, likely Devon too.)
So, why didn't Four want to have any contact with Three after he got back his memories?
And btw, Three really had a chance to shine over the last few episodes, from his memory in the virus-implant episode to the time when he and Five were taking on the gang of brothers and the GA.
Oh yeah, one last thing: I could swear we had a nice little conversation last year about using the transfer transit technology to send in an army of special forces anywhere in the galaxy. It didn't quite work here, but if they had sent in actual elite commados like Arnold and Sly (or at least Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, Apone, etc), they may have had a better outcome against the Raza crew.
