Here's what I like about how the situation was resolved. It wasn't deus ex machina. See, in the typical 'gate plot of the last few years the Destiny would have, at the last minute, simply deployed some solar panels, recharged, and everyone would have said "Yay, we're saved!" But that would have been it. It would have been a "random power" that the ship comes up with to solve the crisis of the week. Here, the writers went a bit deeper, but in a crucial way. "She's powered by the stars themselves." Rather than be a last-minute asspull, the save is worked into a larger mythology with a coherent framework. Now, having seen how the ship recharges its batteries, we the viewer bonk our heads because we didn't ask the obvious question: we've seen before that after even 10,000 years, a ZPM say, begins to lose power. So how HAS the Destiny been going for over 500,000 years? Answer: it must have been designed to refresh itself along the journey. Okay, so what's not just the most useful, but more importantly, the most /reliable/ source of power for an unmanned ship meant to travel the breadth of the entire universe? Only one logical answer: stars. And so we see the ship is specifically designed to physically meet with and scoop stellar matter. See television sci-fi writers? With just a bit of thought, you can come up with a dramatic save for the day while enhancing your own mythology rather than cheapening it. This revelation actually makes Destiny seem more epic and awe-inspiring. It also makes the Ancients seem more imposing and visionary, and much more daring, than the frankly increasingly disappointing, vague utopians that Atlantis turned them into - and incompetent ones too, whose technology failed, was badly designed, or was a string of science experiments gone wrong. But, this all just relates to what I suspect SGU is intentionally setting out to do: retcon away some of the weaker aspects of Stargate that crept into the franchise thanks to Atlantis. There is indeed a disparity between Destiny seemingly being more capable and advanced than later Ancient technology. Even visually, the ship and its shuttles are actually more exotic and functional looking than most of the Atlantis era Ancient designs. As viewers, we can rationalize this in a few ways though. For instance, there's the already stated point that Destiny was built to last, so all of its tech is focused on a few critical functions. We could also plausibly say that Atlantis (the city ship) and the Ancient technology of its era was from the very end of the Ancient's history, when they were in decline and abandoning reality for another existence. The Ancients in their prime might have been more impressive to 21st century human sensibilities than their descendants, with their cold, angular, bare aesthetics and minimalist culture that had become focused almost purely on highly theoretical research. (What if, just for the sake of crazy ideas, there is /another/ split of Ancient culture we haven't seen yet? The Ancients already split once - into the Ori and what we think of as the Ancients. What if /those/ people, before the split, where in turn a splinter from those who built Destiny? While it might seem like a cop-out to some, revealing a third variation of Ancient civilization could be used as a way to "fix" a lot of past mistakes.)
^Well said. I liked "Light" quite a bit more than last week's episode. It's the strongest SG:U episode so far. Here's hoping they can keep it up. I did not, however, like the way they handled the bit with Rush at the end. Why the frak would he know the ship would recharge but not tell anybody? They came so close to developing him as a real character and part of the team this week, then negated it all by going back to having his major characteristic be that his motives make no sense.
I gave it 8/10 (thanks for adjusting the grading scale btw) I don't even notice the shaky cam to be honest. It certainly doesn't bother me! Let's see... more praying to Jesus this episode. At least it was in more of a realistic context I guess. Not a fan though. I like that they take their predicament way more seriously than previous Stargates. None of that O'Neill 'make jokes, don't act like you're bothered in the slightest until you somehow magically survive, then don't seem particularly relieved' silliness. As others have mentioned the Rush thing at the end was a little WTF... but I guess I'm still interested to see where they're actually going, so that's a plus. Poor poor Eli. It's gotta be pretty depressing for him to be sitting there with Chloe in the friend zone with Channing's stench all over her as he's waiting to die. I'd like to see them have Eli take a more sinister turn. Marooning Lt. Doucheface on some inhospitable planet at the end of the season would have me plant my "Dark and Gritty Approved Seal" on this show. Kind of like a turn they tried in B5... except with uhh, a little more foreshadowing, and a lot less suck. Btw, it's a very well respected seal. I'm glad we weren't treated to more scenes of people using the stupid stones to say goodbye to people back home.
I was very pleased with the episode overall. Even though we guessed it last week, the ship using the sun to replenish itself was beautifully handled. The ship has real character now; it's a remarkable survivor. There's something fairly awesome about that. The lottery selection and the buildup to it were very well done, people acting s I would expect, with just a hint of a possible insurrection but nothing over the top. Poor Eli. I actually deducted a chevron because of the last scene where Young suspected Rush; I find that plotline hard to believe, personally. but it was still a great ep.
Remember that Rush suggested to Young that he choose Greer to be on the shuttle, even though he wasn't one of the choices... clearly he knew the ship was trying to regenerate itself (why else would an intelligent ship just fly into a star?) and he was trying to get rid of someone who didn't like him and someone he didn't like. Btw, I gave it a 6. It was quite predictable and I'm not a fan of Chloe (she seems to use poor Eli like some sort of emotional blanket and Scott as a physical one) but the effects are great and I like Rush despite how despicable he is. I also like how Young brought it up, since Rush was the one who talked to him about fixing the lottery.
Quick couple of questions... Was it as boring as Darkness? Was there actually something interesting happening throughout the whole episode rather than the last 5 minutes? Or was it just more arguing?
It was meant as a "character" piece or something... so it turns out that Ming Na is a giant coward and "thuggie" black dude has some kind of problematic past. What I find kind of funny is that on this ship, everyone is either Christian or not... so yeah, this "team" is still probably 99% American either way.
Yep, I was right about the solar power and about them not knowing til the last second. I was wrong about people being at each other's throats, though. That was pretty tame compared to how it would've been on BSG. Almost everyone was pretty grown-up about it. I love how they're using hard sci-fi scenarios quite a bit - slingshots, ramscoops, power and air issues, aerobraking - very cool. Space feels exciting and dangerous indeed. Top-notch visuals - that star was amazing. I didn't forsee the issue with the shuttle not having the deltaV to intercept the Destiny toward the end - that was a nice touch. If they'd wanted to they could've drawn it out into next week - those that were to be saved are now damned, etc. Just as good as it was, though. On the personal side of things, I feel bad for Eli. I've been in his place, seeing the girl I saw first sleeping with the jock and using me as a "friend". That kinda sucks, and I wonder if anything will ever happen between him and Chloe, and if not if it'll strain his friendship with the Lt. at all. Should be interesting. I didn't like at all how they suspected Rush at the end, though. If he saw it coming his actions would have made no logical sense. He would've told people, kept them from scaring themselves stupid and maybe losing valuable people and supplies, not to mention the fact that he helped save the shuttle at the end. Best episode so far - 9/10. Looking forward to next week.
Re: SG-U I didn't see it that way. For survival, considering this motely bunch he figured Lt Scott would need a strong arm. I'm just a cook, would not do it. Ming-Na so far is just a governmental hanger on. Major Ta-Ta's is a destraction even in combat uniform. That leaves Master Sergeant Greer who would have had the same role he had in stopping the Airman's mutiny on the Destiny. It does seem as only two of the military characters still see themselves as both warriors and under military authority.
Agree fully with you both. This episode was fantastic, it was the turnaround I was waiting for from 'setting it up, still a bit shaky' to full blown decent science fiction. Complete with RJ's much-desired wonderment and awe of space angle. Yes, we (taking collective credit for Juan's insight there... ) predicted the outcome of last week's cliffhanger, but then it was brilliantly done, and as Kaijima said, advanced the mythology of the Destiny rather than weakening it. The character stuff was good, a lot more realistic overall with some light hearted moments and the characters beginning to like each other a bit more. The sleeping-with-Scott thing kind of came out of nowhere (have we even seen them speak before this?) but nonetheless, it felt kind of OK - we know Scott is promiscuous, it makes sense in a 'we're about to die' scenario that people would want sex, and as Juan said, it rang true that the hot girl would go for the jock over 'friend zone' Eli. And finally, Ming Na got something meaty to do, I loved the scene in Young's quarters. 9/10, best one yet.
Was his plan to save the shuttle, though? He seemed irritated that Eli did the calculations. Perhaps it wasn't a pride thing that irritated him, but the loss of control over the shuttle's fate. Weak, but possible. I happen to agree with you. I didn't like the out-of-nowhere accusation by Young and agree that Rush's actions didn't make sense for the most part if true.
It looks like a number of people thought it came out of nowhere. Lt. Scott and Chloe bonded a bit at the end of "Air, Part III" when he told her about the priest who raised him and killed himself. That combined with him being the sexual go-getter/alpha male type made him her choice for some "we're about to die" sex.
Arguing would have made sense. These 75ish people just went "We are going to die now, oh well, let's just watch it happen". They didn't use the stones to get more science help, they didn't do anything but sit there and look sad. But it was a perfect 10/10!!! Best episode of sci-fi ever!!!!
Good episode again, nothing outstanding. Was a bit predicatable but logical conclusion with the ship getting its energy from the sun. Didin't get the Chloe/Scott relationship I hadn't even noticed that they spoke to each other much. Regarding that they took it so well what could they have done and what would using the stones have done, there was no power to do anything.
Your criticisms are very unrealistic. What would arguing get them? Yes, the realistic thing is to completely lose all self-control and act like savages before we die. As for science help, science isn't magic. How could Carter or anyone have helped them? They literally had one option - and that was to escape on the shuttle. They had no way to know that the ship would repower itself (except maybe Rush). What good would an expert from Earth have done?
Destiny and Atlantis were made for much different purposes. Destiny has to be able to survive thousands of lifetimes in deep space by itself that requires it to be very robust and able to resupply itself. Atlantis was designed as a place for people to live and work I think we as viewers sometimes forget that while we know the characters are going live to see the next episode, the characters don't. If one of us knew it was a pretty decent chance one or both of you wouldn't survive the rest of the day, you wouldn't be thinking about the future.