SG-U – Life (1x09) - (Discuss – Grade | SPOILERS)

[The Habs Fan]

7 chevrons

I thought this episode was a very good character development episode. I know lots of people seem to want the space battles, and those are coming (see: Space). But I'm liking the new tone this show has. It's almost the exact opposite of Atlantis, which I liked but was getting kind of old with all the puns and corny action. Atlantis had too much action sometimes.

I also have to compliment the writers for writing the lesbian relationship very believable. I thought Ming Na and Reiko Aylesworth had great chemistry and you actually believed that they had been together for 12 years.

The next episode preview looks interesting. Too bad it's the midseason finale.

 

[Star Wolf]

Re: SG-U

Having sex in other people's bodies certainly can't be authorized by the airforce

I'm surprised they let them spend the night with people like that, not what would happen in the real world

Do people volunteer to be vessels or are they ordered to do so?

How can it be anything other then volunteer? Why else would such a precious commodity as another set of eyes and memory being sent to Destiny again be wasted on a Senior Airman. The USAF is not only fine with the sex but they had an escort officer with Col Young as he staked out his wife's house and used a young airman's body to kick Col Telford's ass. Was the Jack's ideal of non-judicial punishment?

 

[firehawk12]

Hah, you know, I didn't even think of the implications of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" when white-Wray hooked up with her partner. SGU-Obama better work on that or she'll get discharged and write a tell all book!

I'm really tired of this body swap conceit though. By allowing these crystals to be used without any real restriction, it renders the whole premise of the show pointless. It's hard to feel isolated when every week you're spending 10 minutes in sunny Vancouver or wherever. It's almost worse than Voyager with their crappy Holodeck episodes.

I suppose I liked showing the hypocrisy of Rush. He's basically Baltar - the sniveling genius who you despite because, for lack of a better phrase, he's a piece of shit.

The only bad thing is that they pretty much set up Bald Space Marine to be the guy who sits in the chair. Either he commits some kind of crime and is forced in, or he breaks in and uses it... or maybe something similar. Oh well.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Re: SG-U – Life (1x09) - (Discuss – Grade | SPOILERS)

I think the body swap thing is weak as well, it seems a lazy way to not have to fully exploit the situation they are in and just generate manufactured drama and to allow the viewer to escape the situation of being trapped as well.

All drama is manufactured but so far everything I've seen Earthside seems forced. I liked, for example in Time, the way Rush/Eli was handled. It seemed you got to know something about the two through their working and talking together but it seemed to evolve naturally from the situation.

 

[firehawk12]

The thing is, if they wanted to do SG:Earth, all they had to do was make the program public. Hell, they could have ripped off Flash Forward before Flash Forward.

Or compromise and have SG-team members that are actually married/have kids. It just seemed very convenient that until now, the characters we followed were all single and childless. Or, they ended up shacking up with aliens/other SG-team members.

The only decent story that could come from these Earth-scursions (har, pun time) is if some disgruntled person actually decides to leak details of the program. I mean, we're at a point where relatives know about this crap now... this is about the same scale as faking the moon landing.

 

[Jenee]

I don't think I ever "noticed" the music before in a movie or tv show, but, I LOVED that song.

Now, I have to go buy the CD.

 

[David cgc]

Re: SG-U

The USAF is not only fine with the sex but they had an escort officer with Col Young as he staked out his wife's house and used a young airman's body to kick Col Telford's ass. Was the Jack's ideal of non-judicial punishment?

Remember "48 Hours," when Jack ran into Maybourne while he was gassing up his car?

Maybourne: Hi, Jack.
O'Neill: (runs towards him) You rat bastard!
Maybourne: (takes cover) Hey, hey, easy, Jack!
O'Neill: I'm so gonna kick your ass!
Maybourne: There's people watching!
O'Neill: I don't care!

So, yeah.

 

[DarKush]

I think the body swap thing can be overdone, but right now I think its better than VOY's Holodeck because the visits provide good backstory, ongoing character development, and sometimes have repercussions back on the ship.

But I wouldn't mind it if there was a limit to using the stones, that they had a finite power source and would die out after a certain time. That would limit their use and make every visit count.

I also wondered about the don't ask/don't tell thing, and why there aren't some restrictions on having sex or overdrinking or doing anything that might be considered inappropriate in another persons body. I wonder if the vessels have to sign release forms before they can be used as vessels. Also, I didn't know that you could retain the visions or share the dreams of a body you inhabited. If that's so, why did Scott have those visions/dreams and Young did not? Also, how did Young and Scott both know that what Scott was seeing wasn't some residual images from when Young was in Telford's body?

Overall I thought that "Life" was another solid episode. I think SGU is the best new sci-fi show this year. I didn't think the SG writers had it in them to do a show like this but they've really changed the tone and feel of this show, much more successfully than B & B's attempts to do the same with ENT. The only problem I foresee is how long can they keep the show going without external conflict? There's a lot of good internal stuff going on, but I wouldn't mind seeing their take on alien species. It's going to be odd watching SGU characters interact with humanoid alien species, if and when humanoid aliens show up. I know the Lucian Alliance will be coming aboard as adversaries, but I wonder if any others will?

 

[P0sitr0nic]

As dismal as Earth was, I really liked this one. It didnt feel like a show written only to showcase the emotions of the characters, it simply felt like we were tagging along on their ride.

But they didnt even show the STARGATE once. Not even in the background.

 

[David cgc]

Yeah, it was almost like the last four years of SG-1 and Atlantis in that respect.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Re: SG-U – Life (1x09) - (Discuss – Grade | SPOILERS)

But they didnt even show the STARGATE once. Not even in the background.

They did show the UNIVERSE a few times though.

 

[shadowedgalaxy]

*snore*
Wait - there was a new episode of SGU? Must've dozed off.
Sorry, this show is BORING AS HELL. I only watch it cuz it's the sole new Stargate show on TV.

 

[cultcross]

I enjoyed seeing Young beat down Telford, but I am getting tired of the looking for food, water, etc. I don't think we are going to see any aliens on this show at all. Are they ever going to move beyond the search for supplies+soap opera drama? I want some scifi action.

We had aliens last week and also in Air and Water. Short memory.

I don't think I ever "noticed" the music before in a movie or tv show, but, I LOVED that song.

Now, I have to go buy the CD.

I was surprised to hear it actually, Flogging Molly didn't seem very sci-fi, but it turned out it was pretty much a perfect choice.

Overall, Gave this one a 7 - I quite enjoyed it, in short. The characters are getting interesting enough to me that I care enough about the broader picture of their lives that the Earth bits don't bother me. Plus some Reiko Aylesworth is always worth having. Their relationship seemed beautifully genuine, the most 'true' romantic relationship we've seen yet on any Stargate incarnation, I'd say. Certainly more believable than Daniel Jackson and Sha're ever were.

Scott has a kid - I think we all saw that coming as soon as the pregnancy was mentioned, so it wasn't that big a 'wow' moment; I thought the exotic dancing boozing mom was a little stereotypical but we'll see what happens there.

Loving the Young/Telford bust up, it's nice to see a leading man who isn't O'Neill for once. Sheppard was just an O'Neill clone with worse acting, so it is nice that we have a different type of guy as the lead for a change.

Oh, and to the person who said this was worse than Torchwood - Have you seen any early Torchwood? That show is an embarrassment to the genre. This one's just a bit talky for some tastes.

All in all, enjoyed it, wasn't earth-shattering.

 

[Brent]

One thing I noticed, this episode was rather slow, which isn't necessary bad, just a fact, at 30-45 minutes in I thought the episode should have been over by now, it seemed to last a really long time, felt longer than an 1 hour

 

[Agent Richard07]

Scott has a kid

I wonder how many kids he has.

One thing I noticed, this episode was rather slow, which isn't necessary bad, just a fact, at 30-45 minutes in I thought the episode should have been over by now, it seemed to last a really long time, felt longer than an 1 hour

Maybe that's because the Earth visits were wrapped up around the 40 minute mark, then we got more things happening.

 

[Othello]

That was Chloe who was sleeping with the black guy not the other girl. They showed her sleeping with the guy who found out he had a kid in the beginning and then showed her sleeping with the black guy at the end. That dovetails very nicely into the "the people here are very helpful" response on how she was coping.

 

[Checkmate]

What?

That was not Chloe. That was the other horse-faced chick from the psych evaluations or whatever. They showed her face both times. Ignoring that, they also showed us what she was doing while that was going on (ie, exercising on that observation deck).

 

[Harvey]

Whoever the actress is playing Chloe, I can't stand her. Every scene she was in was a hammy bore.

Young is completely unsympathetic, which is a considerable piece of work by the writers, considering what Telford has been doing. Worse, Young is a terrible leader. He sends a totally unqualified person to do psych evaluations when they have a qualified person on the ship for...no reason at all? He runs off to carry out a personal vendetta on Earth.

It's a good thing the writers are trying so hard to make Rush a bastard (at least this time, Rush's behaviour made sense). Otherwise, Young would have absolutely no claim to authority whatsover.

Loved the opening and closing montages. Hated the montage in the middle with Ming-Na and Michelle Dessler. It's obvious the writers can't do Earth drama well, and more obvious that they're completely oblivious to the ethical and legal implications of the Earth drama.

5/10.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

That was Chloe who was sleeping with the black guy not the other girl. They showed her sleeping with the guy who found out he had a kid in the beginning and then showed her sleeping with the black guy at the end. That dovetails very nicely into the "the people here are very helpful" response on how she was coping.

no, it was the scientist chick.

 

[Broccoli]

What?

That was not Chloe. That was the other horse-faced chick from the psych evaluations or whatever. They showed her face both times. Ignoring that, they also showed us what she was doing while that was going on (ie, exercising on that observation deck).

It wasn't Chloe. It was one of the scientists. The idea that it was her (and not Chloe) that was bed hopping was first suggested early in the episode when she passed the first guy she was with. He gave her a somewhat flirtatious "Hi" and she gave him a complete brush off. She was the same one, during her psych evaluation, that hastily claimed she read to relieve stress.