SG: U Spoilers

[AverageGuy]

I thought it showed the arrogance of Rush telling Eli to put his hand through rather than doing it himself. I mean, they were all standing by the portal.

You can only go one way through a stargate. I don't remember how I know that, but only the dial side lets you go through.

[karaddin]

Red Snow, you have to give props, though. Eli was kinda 'holding the door' for them and the risk of his own limb. I thought it showed the arrogance of Rush telling Eli to put his hand through rather than doing it himself. I mean, they were all standing by the portal.

I could be wrong on this, but I'm pretty positive that the wormhole formed by a Stargate is only 1-way, you can only go from the dialling side to the dialled side, and Eli was the only one on the dialling side.

Edit: Because clearly I meant the wormhole, not the stargate itself.

[LCOTNW]

I got caught up on the first 3 episodes on hulu. So far, I like it. I agree with much of the critique mentioned so far.

- I am a little unsure about Eli's character. I was surprised that he was put in charge of the other team when they split up. His learning curve was pretty quick going from gamer in his momma's basement to master of Ancient technology and leader of a squad of explorers on his first off-world mission. I feel like we skipped some character development there.

- Has anyone ever tried to go the wrong way through a wormhole? Any sense of what happens to a person or object that goes through the event horizon on the wrong end? Also, does it make sense that radio/video signals can transmit both ways through a wormhole, but other types of matter/energy transmission can only go one way? That has always bothered me a little.

- Dr. Rush's character development is a little weird. His pro-science/anti-military whining in episode 3 was a little tired.

- What happens if someone dies while using the communication stones? Is the other person stuck in the other body? I forget.

- I am not surprised to see familiar landscapes on alien worlds. The universe is all made up of basically the same elements, and the laws of physics will cause those elements to be distributed in a familiar pattern anywhere you go. Plus, the requirements for producing and sustaining life will eliminate the possibility of life evolving where the elements are not properly distributed. There are exceptions of course, such as the Goa' uld, or the glowing balls that appear to be sentient in the Prodigy episode. Maybe there would be a concentration of elements in a particular area which might produce a blue desert on a planet, but I would expect that to be a pretty bizarre exception to the rule. Overall, I would expect to see life and physical environments evolving in a general pattern that is similar to environments that we are used to seeing. Additionally, we are limited to visiting planets on which we can tolerate the conditions, and that means oxygen atmospheres, vegetation/ecosystems which produce it, gravity within an acceptable range, and other standard ingredients which means that the planets will look familiar out of necessity as much as budget concerns.

- It also doesn't bother me to see humanoid life forms everywhere in the universe because I would imagine that evolution probably selects for similar characteristics wherever life evolves (within a certain range). Life may indeed evolve in environments that are inhospitable to us, but our ability to interact with them would also be limited without something like an "encounter suit" from Bab-5. We are generally limited to viewing planets which we are capable of visiting (through pre-selection of the Stargate network, or by environmental limitations). Common language and customs are a different issue, but language issues have been explored such as with the Unas. It would be far more annoying to go through that with every culture that is encountered. It would also be annoying to dismiss the problem with technology such as the Star Trek universal translator, or a Hitchhiker Babel Fish.

[Sir Thursday]

- Has anyone ever tried to go the wrong way through a wormhole? Any sense of what happens to a person or object that goes through the event horizon on the wrong end? Also, does it make sense that radio/video signals can transmit both ways through a wormhole, but other types of matter/energy transmission can only go one way? That has always bothered me a little.

In the first SG-1 episode the Goa'uld come through the gate and then go back without redialling, but I think that's generally acknowledged as a mistake. I'm sure there was at least one example over the course of SG-1's run. If memory serves, any matter entering a gate from the wrong end gets ripped apart. It's not implausible that the gate would affect electromagnetic phenomena differently (we know it also transmits gravity waves in the same fashion). In any case, that facet of how the gate works is by now very well established, and they've been consistent about it since the aforementioned error in the pilot episode AFAIR.

Sir Thursday

[Jaxom 1974]

So far it's interesting.

Not sure how they're going to sustain any kind of momentum long term though, without falling back into the Star Gate pattern. And there are a lot of characters who've we've barely been introduced to at this point.

[Sir Thursday]

So far it's interesting.

Not sure how they're going to sustain any kind of momentum long term though, without falling back into the Star Gate pattern. And there are a lot of characters who've we've barely been introduced to at this point.

The noise I'm hearing is that they're going to try to keep more of a semi-serialised structure in place than previous Stargate iterations. Kind of makes sense - if they maybe spend 3-4 episodes in each galaxy, they could tell a decent story in that time (admittedly it would just be the same pattern, only over a slightly longer term).

I'm hopeful that they'll be able to keep themselves moving forwards by going deeper into the characters we haven't really seen much of yet (and obviously while the ship is in such a sorry state they'll have the patching up operation to talk about). When they've exhausted that particular well, I guess we'll see what they've got to follow it up with.

Sir Thursday

[LCOTNW]

It's not implausible that the gate would affect electromagnetic phenomena differently (we know it also transmits gravity waves in the same fashion). In any case, that facet of how the gate works is by now very well established, and they've been consistent about it since the aforementioned error in the pilot episode AFAIR.

True. I should probably just ignore it since I have just a casual understanding of these things anyway. It just seems convenient to be able to communicate with off-world teams. It would be annoying if they had to send a message, disconnect the wormhole so that the other side could establish one in order to reply to the message. That would really hamper the witty dialogue and banter. I suppose the gates have to "communicate" with each other in order to establish the connection and transmit the travelers, so maybe the Stargate itself is designed to facilitate the external communication signals. Sounds good to me. <disbelief successfully suspended>

[Datepalm]

Caught up - hey, its not bad at all. Last time I caught some episode of SG it was pretty much Hercules in Space levels of cheesy*. This has strong Voyager vibes, true, but I liked Voyager.

I'm pretty sure the little dust devil was meant to be sentient, or at least alive - it helped Scott out, maybe as thanks for him giving him water earlier?

Chloe annoys me somewhat, (and, hullo, Scott? Whats with the soldier (James?) you were screwing in that closet at the beginning?) But Scott has some decent charecterization. I agree that Greer is pertty much the most interesting character atm. I feel like they're trying too hard with Rush to make him grey and complex, and hes coming off a bit all over the place. I like the medic (TJ?) too.

*now I reminded myself of Andromeda. Sigh. Still, as someone upthread pointed out, its just nice to have some traditionalish space opera, almost regardless of quality.

[red snow]

So far it's interesting.

Not sure how they're going to sustain any kind of momentum long term though, without falling back into the Star Gate pattern. And there are a lot of characters who've we've barely been introduced to at this point.

Well there's the fact that they have to move onto the next planet every 12 hours or so. It could give it a Quantum Leap/sliders style show - both of which I liked. Continuity could be based around getting the ship to support them with regards to life support and supplies and then could move onto trying to get back home. I'm sure there will b esome alien threats involved too somewhere down the line too.

[Lord of Oop North]

Time to get nerdy.

There are a number of examples of SG team members 'holding open the gate' from the dialed end. I believe O'Neill does it in the episode where he infiltrates Maybourne's offworld NID base. When the Asgard attack it, in order to prevent the renegades from dialing another planet, he puts his hand into the event horizon. The technobabble reason for this is because when you stick your hand into the puddle, it is only in the event horizon and hasn't yet entered the wormhole itself.

There is also an early episode where Kawalsky gets killed by a disengaging Stargate. Cuts his head off, if I recall correctly.

We can also easily see that going through the dialed end of a Stargate is impossible or suicidal. There are a few episodes where they dial an underwater gate, and no water came back through to Stargate Command. Another example is a MALP that went through a Stargate that was pointed vertically. It fell back into the gate and was never seen again.

:leaving:

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I just watched the fourth episode "Darkness". I liked it. I thought the lack of sleep on the part of Rush's character does explain some of his more bizarre behavior however the "caffine withdrawl" was really weak. I've given up caffiene without going off on wild unhinged tirades. I liked the aerobraking manuver. I hope they try to keep the ship and its travels within the outside realm of the scientifically possible.

Also the actor playing Col. Young is particularly good in my opinion. I love Robert Carlye but he appears to be trying too hard.

:)

[gladius]

This was the first episode that i didn't like. The recorded messages disrupted the pace and added nothing.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

gladius,

I don't disagree. I still liked this episode.

[Datepalm]

I rather liked the taped messages. They played into the plot with helping explain the motivations of the people who cornered Eli, and for a brief moment there I actually imagined people finding them, way off in the future, which is a rare emotional moment for something as cliched as trapped-on-ship-far-away to manage for me. I also appreciate the large cast.

They're not even pretending to be episodical, are they? I'm fine with that, though I wonder how long they'll keep it up.

Chloe is, um, unimpressive. Getting dressed in the dark - not nuclear physics. And where did she get different clothes, exactly?

[Sir Thursday]

Got to agree with Gladius, the recorded messages did feel quite out of place in relation to the episode. Surely these people would take Eli asking them to record a message for posterity as a sign that he's been told they're not going to make it? Also, that scene with Eli and the other dude controlling the Kino to try and sneak it into large-breasted soldier's bedroom was a bit off as well - shouldn't Eli being trying to help at this juncture?

I'm also somewhat surprised that the Destiny got its trajectory wrong - if it's good enough to find a habitable starsystem and drop the ship in the right place (no mean feat when they're travelling what must be millions of times faster than the speed of light), then how come it can't calculate an aerobraking manoevre properly? Still, sets up some nice challenge for them next week. The only thing I can think of is that they'll take the shuttle off to one of the planets and try and rustle up some juice for the ship in time for it to divert away from the sun...

Sir Thursday

[Narishma Reborn]

I'm also somewhat surprised that the Destiny got its trajectory wrong - if it's good enough to find a habitable starsystem and drop the ship in the right place (no mean feat when they're travelling what must be millions of times faster than the speed of light), then how come it can't calculate an aerobraking manoevre properly? Still, sets up some nice challenge for them next week. The only thing I can think of is that they'll take the shuttle off to one of the planets and try and rustle up some juice for the ship in time for it to divert away from the sun...

I have a feeling that it didn't get the trajectory wrong, in that it may be heading towards the sun for some sort of recharging maneuver.

[red snow]

I have a feeling that it didn't get the trajectory wrong, in that it may be heading towards the sun for some sort of recharging maneuver.

My thoughts exactly. It's pretty clear that Destiny has some clever AI running it and if it has no energy, the sun seems to be a fairly obvious place to get it from. I was hoping that the slingshot manoever would have also been used to generate some energy for the ship.

I'm impressed with the show as i'm still enjoying it and it has yet to slip back into stargate mode (not that there's anything wrong with that).

The video messages are a little cliche now but they did serve as character building moments for the rest of the cast. The stone body swapping is more of an issue for me. Not so much with regards to tieing them back to earth but moreso in that they are used as R&R for the destiny crew. Surely Young would have been in a serious debriefing session and trying to get ideas for solutions to their problems rather than being able to go off and visit his wife? They've done this twice now and I will be really annoyed if this is used as an oppurtunity to see all the crews homelives.

I'm still waiting for the show to at least provide us with an excuse for why Rodney Mackay hasn't been body swapped in yet. It makes no sense at all why the real expert on ancient tech has not been involved. I understand why they don't want to involve him as it would make Rush seem redundant but surely they could give us some line mentioning how Rodney is stuck in Atlantis somewhere (even though the last time we saw Atlantis it was on Earth).

I'm still digging this show though!

[CryHavoc]

I'm still waiting for the show to at least provide us with an excuse for why Rodney Mackay hasn't been body swapped in yet. It makes no sense at all why the real expert on ancient tech has not been involved. I understand why they don't want to involve him as it would make Rush seem redundant but surely they could give us some line mentioning how Rodney is stuck in Atlantis somewhere (even though the last time we saw Atlantis it was on Earth).

I'm still digging this show though!

Yeah, that doesn't make a huge amount of sense. I read somewhere, though, (I think on one of the producers'/writers' blogs) that the events of the Atlantis movie that was written and then sidelined have something to do with why none of the Atlantis personnel and technology (like that wormhole drive thing from the last episode) are involved right now.

[red snow]

Yeah, that doesn't make a huge amount of sense. I read somewhere, though, (I think on one of the producers'/writers' blogs) that the events of the Atlantis movie that was written and then sidelined have something to do with why none of the Atlantis personnel and technology (like that wormhole drive thing from the last episode) are involved right now.

That's what I'm thinking too. I can see how they don't want to spoil the Atlantis movie but having someone say, "After what happened in Atlantis ..." Then again if Rodney were to die in the movie I'd rather have this inconsistency stand than the film be ruined.

On an Atlantis note, it's been confirmed that Jason Momoa has been cast as Drogo in AGOT (this is who i saw Drogo as when reading - yay) but I noticed it could potentially clash with the filming of the Atlantis movie - wiki says a late November filming. Wiki is of course an unreliable source, plus I guess that even if AGOT gets picked up there will probably be a gap in production allowing Momoa to do both.

[Xanrn]

Yeah the thing with the stones is being used like flashbacks from Lost.

As for no Rodney Mckay probably because him and Rush would cause a rift in space time when their egos smash together.

Anyone want to take a bet on how long before they bring in a surgeon with the stones because someone needs a life saving operation?