After all of the drama revolving around crossing the void between galaxies, it was a little surprising to see it just swept under the rug this week. The events of last week were simply reduced to a passing comment, so I suppose we can all just agree that the rest of the trip was rather uneventful and move on from there. If dropping that particular ball in the middle of the play is your grounds for complaint, I can see that. However, it kind of worked for me this week, because we didn’t really know that it had happened for quite some time.
Let me try to explain what I mean there. When the episode began I was sure that the James and Scott sex scene was some sort of dream, even before she brained him with a lamp. It was just too far out of left field to be anything else. But the lamp, that was the kicker. We saw that lamp again, with its eerie blueish light, and I was sold on that having something to do with the spreading hallucinations.
Even as we were told that space-tics were the thing, I wasn’t sure. Why couldn’t that just be TJ’s own personal hallucination? Given what we’ve seen, it’s reasonable to expect that one of her worst fears could be knowing what is wrong with her patients and not being able to help them. I’m sure that comes well after all baby related fears now, but probably still up there. So the idea that something else, possibly even our friends in blue, was behind the mindgames lingered, and made for a solid stand-alone episode.
Of course, the space-tics were ultimately to blame, but the episode was still helped by the hallucinations themselves. A couple were just okay. Claustrophobia and snakes (Why did it have to be snakes?) are pretty run-of-the-mill. But the big winners are those that give us a little more insight into the characters, and those that will have lasting effects as we move forward. James is clearly struggling emotionally with the isolation of the Destiny, and the unresolved issues with Scott, while Scott is guilty about not being there for his son.
Chloe’s hallucination of her father didn’t come as any sort of a surprise, but her reaction to it was interesting. Even knowing full well that some alien creature was doing something to her, and having no idea what the long term damage could be, she still wanted to move forward with it. That’s not really the reaction of someone who is in the best frame of mind.
And best of all, Greer and Rush. It’s been obvious that Rush was affected by his time with the aliens, but I don’t think we really had a picture of just how much until now. His imagined run-in with his old nemesis also offered another hint at how things are changing on the ship. When he thought he was in dire straits, he called for Young. Now, that could just be that Young is in charge, etc., but I take it as another signal that things are slowly evolving between the two.
What really sold me on the whole concept though was when the different hallucinations from Rush and Greer started to feed into each other. Rush became the mutiny that Greer had to stop, as Greer became the alien that was chasing Rush, with Camille playing both parts. It had a very SGA “Phantoms” feel, while still maintaining its own vibe. How it would all end up was kind of obvious, but it was still fun to watch it unfold. And it is something that should come to mind when the aliens do enter the picture again.
At the end of the day, it was a curious spot in the bigger story to drop a stand-alone episode. This one might have been better served earlier in season one, or later in season two. But if we are grading it against other stand-alone episodes, a pretty solid outing.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on May 15, 2010 @ 08:42 EST5EDT
Actually not a bad spot at all for a stand-alone. The trip through the void will take a while. Nothing to see, nothing to do, no planets to stop off at. Almost like a long drive down a dead-straight desert road.
I also didn’t have any problem with the James/Scott scene at the beginning. After all, the two of them do have a history, and Scott has demonstrated that he does like some variety in his life… we’ve already seen three different partners for him. James is lonely, Scott could easily be persuaded to be interested. I am a bit worried that James is being set up for something bad to happen to her, and I’d hate that, I like the character. Oh, and those lamps are all over the ship.
I did also wonder if the space ticks were just how the hallucinations were manifesting in TJ. Interesting that the ticks knew to go right to the back of the neck in humans.
If you think about it, every Stargate series has done their share of “characters seeing things that weren’t really there” episodes. Good call on the Rush/Greer/Wray interaction. Reminds me a lot of Atlantis S1/E8 “Home”, and how the characters were distinctly different in each different person’s dream.
One thing I don’t understand… at the end of the episode they dropped out of FTL and the gate dialed. Are they across the void already?
*POST AUTHOR*
They never really made it clear, but considering the reference to the away mission we never saw, where they picked up the space-tics, I am assuming that we jumped forward to after the void.
I did some checking and this episode was originally slated to be aired as number 18, not 17. I’m guessing that if we had been shown an episode before this with no gate activity or drop from FTL it would’ve made more sense, but that’s networks for ya, always screwing with the episode orders. Strangely, the episode originally slated for this spot won’t be shown until season 2, so it must also be a stand-alone.
Here’s how it read at the Stargate Wiki: “The episode was originally slated to be the 18th episode of season one. However writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi wrote the season one finale as a two-parter; Pain became the 17th episode and the episode that was slated as 17th will air sometime in season two.”
https://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Pain (It’s at the bottom of the page under “Background Notes”)
Then if I understand correctly, this is going to be one long pregnancy.
“Then if I understand correctly, this is going to be one long pregnancy.”
LOL, I didn’t think about that! I guess TJ, or at least her pregnancy, won’t be a factor in that episode.
I was really hoping that the aliens were real, that would have been a fun little wrinkle to the hallucinations.
Great episode overall, not least because it offered us an insight into the unconscious minds of the characters, and exposed it for the other characters to see. The only thing that grated me was the use of the song at the end of the episode. It’s such a fracking cliche to use a song, whilst looking at each character emoting in slow motion. Pretty sure SGU has used this device before. Sure it allows five minutes of screen time to be filled up, but it really doesn’t move the story along, or even tell us much about any of the characters. And on top of that, the songs are often kind of lamestream. Maybe if they used ‘Annihilation of the Wicked’ by Nile, or ‘Black Force Domain’ by Krisiun…nope, song+silent slow motion emoting is cliched and should be banned.
I agree. SGU uses the old song montage trick too often, and it annoys me every time. It’s like they’re trying to use the music to force some emotions on us, and I’m just not feeling it.