Heading into the retarded Syfy mid-season break (seriously, I’ve hated this game ever since Farscape), I thought it would be good to reference back to the post from the premiere. There, we asked if you were ready to go on Stargate‘s dark new ride. Now the question is … having seen what that ride entails, will you be returning? I will, but not without reservations. The show still feels like it’s trying to figure out just what it wants to be, and it still has moments that are just terrible. Case in point, the “trial” in ‘Justice’. Still, as bad as some of those moments can be, there are still parts of the story that have my interest.
For the first half of the episode, I thought I would be writing a much different post. The machinations surrounding the “murder” and the ridiculous courtroom drama that followed were just terrible. The worst part was that they really didn’t have to be. The mystery of who murdered Spencer, or later, who tried to frame Young, brought up a lot of interesting questions.
The confusion over whether it was a murder or a suicide added to it, as each offered a different suspect to me. When it was thought to be a murder, I was looking at Franklin, thinking he finally snapped and just couldn’t take it any more. And how frustrating would it have been to find out that the killer was the guy in the coma? The same guy that, if he does wake up, may hold the secrets to the crew’s salvation.
As a suicide with someone framing Young, I was looking at Camile. That was based mostly on that short conversation she had in ‘Life’, where it was suggested that it was time to start her own team. Ultimately, of course, neither of those panned out, but the speculation and the mystery were a fun distraction. And the end result, with Rush being the guilty party, foiled by not knowing the level of Eli’s obsessions, worked very well.
While the show has struggled to draw clear pictures of a number of characters, it has done a good job of pitting Rush and Young against each other. Their showdown on the alien planet was a high point in that battle. Yes, a high point, not a conclusion. Is there anyone that believes Rush won’t be back? His inevitable return makes for some interesting questions. First, how will he manage it? Is he able to get into the alien ship and actually fly it, somehow catching up to Destiny? Does he somehow figure a way to use the gate on the planet? Or is he assisted by the aliens that hold the pink slip on that ship? I’ve no idea, but I’m betting one way or another we see Rush and Young face-off again.
And that will be very odd, indeed. Rush will likely be forced to go with Young’s version of the story as far as what happened on the planet. Certainly, he could tell everyone that Young left him to die, but with Young holding video evidence that he was the one that tried to frame him, that puts Rush in a spot he can’t wiggle out of. Given everything else he’s done, the majority is still going to come down on Young’s side. How all of that plays out is the thing I am most looking forward to when the show returns.
Which gets us back to the big question. Was there enough in these first ten episodes to get you to keep playing along? Taking it as a whole, I have to say the series has so far fallen short of my expectations. I thought it would be better, or at least I would be more engaged with the show. So far, I’m still not in the bag. But I am intrigued enough to stay on board the bus, and that’s good enough for now.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Dec 04, 2009 @ 23:51 EST5EDT
After Dollhouse, I raced to the computer to read and then write about how much I enjoyed these Glau episodes (No post yet). I totally forgot that SGU was on tonight. Will I watch it? Maybe later this weekend. It really does not seem that exciting after reading what Brett had to say about it. The only episode I loved from SGU was the time-loop one.
I sadly stopped caring about the show weeks and weeks ago. There were too many stone episodes and not enough exploring the universe!
This episode actually gave me hope for the future of the series. The emphasis has been way to much on who is sleeping with who and what is wrong with the ship this week.
I agree most of this episode sucked, but the end after we knew about Young’s innocence and Rush’s actions, Young’s reaction had me doing the Snoopy dance. I did not like Rush. Granted I think we will see him again, but I did not like him. There are very few characters that I have liked on this series so far.
The problem with the show is that they attached the name “Stargate” to the title. If they barely use the stargate then it is not really “Stargate”.
Alright now there are alot of people complaining about this series, but come on, its about time Stargate finally got switched up a little. This episode was pretty good and decent. So far i’m hooked on this series.
What did they switch? Did the show switch writers? Nope. It’s more sex and BS Earth storylines instead of using the Stargate!!! That’s all we want, go exploring and stop using the stones!
After being an avid fan of SG-1 and Atlantis, I’d have to say this attempt at another “Stargate” franchise is ridiculous. It’s a space soap opera plain and simple. I could only handle 15 minutes of this episode when they did exactly what I said would happen when they found the body. OF COURSE THEY FOUND A GUN IN YOUNG’S CABIN. And of course he was framed.
The idea of this show was supposed to be finding their way back to Earth. Have they done that in any of the episodes?
I’ll keep DVR’ing it, but it certainly won’t be on my “must-see tv” anymore. I’ll watch Sanctuary instead and I was no fan of Sanctuary, but by far the better of the 2 series.
They’re doing their very best to winnow down the characters in which I remain at all interested. At least now we know why Wray was passed over four times for promotion. That leaves me with Johansen, who at least can be a professional, and Greer, who seems by far to have the most common sense on this ship. “Do you see a gun?” Honestly.
Oh, and hot alien chicks in tight leather and space battles might be enough to save this show. We all knew those were coming.
So, yeah, I’ll be back next year, should it not be canceled, for more self-flagellation. It’s easy enough to record it along with Sanctuary, which is, as the_0ne says, a far superior show.
*POST AUTHOR*
I’d stop short of saying Sanctuary is a ‘far’ superior show, because I think it has problems of its own. It seems that when Ashley left, she took any sort of direction for the show with her. Last week, with Magnus and Will in a pool for an hour was worse than any episode of SGU. Just a completely wasted hour.
I stand by my opinion. ;) I’m not even saying that Sanctuary is an excellent show, but that the difference in quality is that vast because SGU is just dreadful, even worse than Stargate Atlantis. It’s badly written, so painfully serious that we can’t treat it as camp, and, most unforgivable of all, boring because very little happens. It reminds me of that other primetime soap, the new Melrose Place, except with less likable characters.
Of course, you were ill the other week and obviously missed the wretched SGU episode “Life,” so I understand your basis for comparison.
The B-plots this season have mostly stemmed from the fallout of Ashley’s death, including factions within the Sanctuary sensing weakness in Magnus in her time of grief, and the power vacuum left from the destruction of The Cabal. This seems a lot more direction than we got for most of the first season, of which I was not a fan.
The bottle show in the water tank turned out to be part of the grieving storyline, and gave us two cool monsters fighting it out. I’d still rate it higher than any SGU episode except for “Time,” which was also a completely wasted hour since it effectively never happened.
Of course, anything’s better than the Atlantis episode where three scientific geniuses got stuck in a hole in the ground.
*POST AUTHOR*
Technically, wasn’t that two scientific geniuses, Carter and McKay, stuck in a hole, with the anchor that was Keller? :D Still, fair point to you. I do agree that Sanctuary is, at the moment, better than SGU. But I also see it losing its way. I’m really not that interested in the Magnus grieving process and look at the power vacuum from the destruction of the Cabal as more of a story vacuum left from the beginning of the season. If this is all they had, the battle with the Cabal should have gone on a lot longer.
I opted for brevity rather than specificity, as medicine is a science, just not one of the physical/mathematical ones to which we usually refer in Stargate. The offscreen explanation for Keller’s ridiculously young age as Chief Medical Officer was that she was a brilliant prodigy. She became a doctor so early that she actually had a lot of experience, even though she didn’t look it. So you see, it all makes sense. :P
I don’t begrudge you your lack of interest. It feels odd to be defending Sanctuary when each week it usually rises only slightly above “does not actively annoy me.” I actually thought the Michael Shanks episode was particularly weak.
I believe we can agree that Venture Brothers blows them both totally away.
what a great stargate universe resource your site is – nice one! if you want to trade any links let me know! do you have an rss feed?