As I sat down to watch this week’s SGU episode, “Lost”, I was reminded of a post Ivey did last fall. He asked if shows can truly put their heroes in danger. The answer I had back then clearly colored how I approached this latest chapter. I still contend that there are certain characters on certain shows that are just not getting killed off. So, while there is certainly some interest in finding out how Eli, Chloe, and Scott get back to Destiny, I have never been worried that they won’t.
But there’s the important part. I’m not so certain about Greer. And as I mentioned in the comments to Ivey’s post, putting those characters that the audience can believe, even just a little, that you might kill in peril does work. When Greer was separated from the rest of the team by the cave in, I became a little more concerned. And then you add to that the fact that we got his backstory, and it had the feeling of finishing things up. I still thought Greer would make it back, especially after James and Rush agreed to split up. But there was a doubt that created an interest.
That’s not to say that the Three Muskateers side of the story was bad. I liked the brief bit of gate hopping. After all, the show is about a ship bouncing through distant space. Looking around is a big part of the fun, and a part that has been a little lacking so far. The giant dinosaur might have been a little much, but the adventure of it was good. And I did approve of the ending. I’m still firmly convinced that they’ll make it back, but the twist of them missing the gate when it was right there for them was unexpected. Now I’m curious to see how they get back. Or, more probably, how the crew on the Destiny get them back. Will Rush finally get control and stop the ship?
The ill-timed excursion also continued the theme picked up on the week before, with Chloe displaying new talents. Finding the map to the tunnels was one thing. That’s being smart and observant. Knowing the symbols on the alien computer though, that’s something else. It leaves us asking the question, “What did they do to her?”
The other notable bit was TJ finally telling Young that they’re having a baby. I’m guessing, “We’re gonna make this work,” wasn’t exactly what she was hoping to hear. Given the situation though, it’s probably as good as she was going to get. I’m more curious to see how they handle it after the baby arrives. My guess is that the little Johansen-Young will forge a very similar path to that which Torren John did before.
So, there we are. I remain an Atlantis fan that is curious about Universe. That’s okay though. It is still early. We know we have at least 25 episodes to go. With any luck it will turn that corner so some of us can make that leap to being Universe fans.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on May 01, 2010 @ 08:29 EST5EDT
Thinking about the never in real danger point. I agree, but what I always hope for is that they can be pounded into better characters by their adventures. I really liked the Helo/Athena BSG adventure for that reason.
With that in mind maybe Eli goes through a gate that Scott and Chloe “can’t” go through, then we find him next season, his body totally ripped, and can only speak and alien language (for a reason we don’t find out for a long time.) I’m partly kidding and partly not.
I get that we don’t want to permanently lose anyone, but surely we can misplace them for a really long time…? Like the redhead they lost (the one who was the journalist on BSG) Maybe they find her at some point and she’s a wicked alien queen?
At any rate, still enjoying SGU. This was a really good episode for me.
I agree with ya. With that bit of planet hopping going on, I was wondering about that group waaaaaaay back in the first episode that decided to go to a ‘locked’ planet.
“I really liked the Helo/Athena BSG adventure for that reason”
bsgfan2003, you are a woman of depth, class, and erudite taste.
One thing I liked in this episode was the comment made by Eli mentioning how large a galaxy really is. His statement was a grim reminder of what a little speck of a planet we are in the overall scheme of things.
*POST AUTHOR*
There’s actually a good example of both of these things in NCIS:LA right now. Dom, a character that I would have considered expendable, was kidnapped months ago. While they’ve occasionally referenced it, the rest of the characters have gone on about their business. They’ll finally be getting back to the story next week. I could get on board with something like that on SGU. It would have been great with Rush’s disappearance.
I did also think of the original group that was “lost” early on that Mack brings up. They illustrate the point as well. They weren’t on the list, so the characters, and the writers, weren’t too concerned about retrieving them. That could also make for a good season two story though, if the Destiny crew bumps into them living the high life in some alien burg.
It’s great to read that other people are on the same wavelength as far as prolonged separation story-lines are concerned. It was really disappointing when Rush was left behind only to return in the very next episode — glad to see they’re making up for it though.
If we can get a few episodes where Eli, Scott, and Chloe have some interesting adventures, that would be great.
Really enjoying SG: Universe. Really glad that they’ve moved away from using the stones as a plot device, and focussed more on learning more about each of the characters, and the strange worlds they encounter on their endless journey. Really really good :)
the stones will be back next episode I believe
One of the questions I’d really like to see answered is how far out in the Universe are they really? And maybe we’ll see one of these trippy, super hot and super large exo-planets.
I’m a Stargate newb, just coming onto the scene with SGU, so hopefully someone else can help me with this one. Why is it that there are very few intelligent lifeforms at the gate sites, at least ones still intact/alive?
There’s no reason as such in the Stargate mythology. In SG-1 we saw that there were other races in the Milky Way of varying intelligence. However humans were the most populace race, and we discovered that humanity is the descendent race of an older race called “the Ancients” who ascended into a sort of spirit form.
What we have seen in SGU so far is an unknown galaxy, previously unseen on the show, and it looks like the Destiny is headed for another one after this episode. If they were to run across humans along the way, it would be a significant thing as our knowledge of where the Ancients inhabited is limited to the Milky Way, Pegasus, and an un-named galaxy where the Ori live (basically evil Ancients.)
They’ve done some interesting things with non-human races being found on planets before. In fact, I’d say those were often the real stand-out episodes.
*POST AUTHOR*
Part of the problem could be that they just don’t have the time to actually explore and find whoever lives on the planet. More likely though, given the number of gates the Destiny program has placed, is that intelligent life is just rare. Even if there is intelligent life on some of these planets, living near the gate might not be the best idea. Chances are that they won’t know how to use it anyway, so it’s just a curious ruin. And even if they do know how to use it, they’ll quickly learn that what is going to be coming through the gate may be doing so with very bad intentions. The Wraith are a good example.
In the Pegasus galaxy, the Ancestors (Ancients) seeded humans everywhere, so the Atlantis SG teams were always running into populated worlds. The Ori did the same thing in their galaxy. IIRC, the Goa’uld took humans from Earth in the past to build slave populations throughout the Milky Way, which is why the Earth SG teams encountered familiar ancient cultures and languages in their travels.
The Ancients would have eventually used Destiny for colonization as well as exploration, had they not Ascended first. Since they didn’t, we won’t be seeing medieval humans living around every Stargate. The SGU Stargates are also more primitive, having a limited range and no built-in DHD (Dial Home Device), so no non-technological alien civilization is going to be running around using them. You would need to build your own dialer, like the ones we saw in this episode that were brought from a distant galaxy.
As to the episode itself, a horrible, hackneyed, soapy mess. I never harbored illusions that Greer was ever in danger prior to this because he was a main character. Doubly so, this week. They already gave the Black Guy the abusive alcoholic Gulf Vet father; they’re not going to have the Black Guy be the only one on the away team that gets killed, too.
I think Helo/Athena above is a very poor example. I didn’t know if they (plus Hera) would make it when I was watching BSG. They could easily have killed off Athena at any point, because Park was playing plenty of other Eights. And later we learned that Helo was supposed to die of radiation poisoning on Caprica after giving up his seat on the Raptor to Baltar, so he would have been the equivalent of the Senator here.
You wound me! ;)
I never watched the other Stargates, except the movie, so for me, after the rough start and hating Eli and Camille, I’m good with the show. You’re more of a SGpro, so you can have more to complain about.
Re: Helo/Athena, they did change from the adventures (which is my larger thought). Helo fell in love, and lost his playboy attitude, and the Eight took real steps to becoming Athena, who went on to give the great speech about picking a side and sticking. And – they did not kill Helo after all, so the point still stands, no?
If you still disagree, put on your swimsuit – MUD WRESTLING AT HIGH NOON! :)
Like with the new Star Trek, changing the lore doesn’t really bother me (and, as I’ve previously stated, Stargate Atlantis was terrible by its final season). But making the characters annoying, inconsistent, and impossible to reconcile with actual human beings, along with weak plots, trite dialogue, and massive logic and believability problems ruined both reboots, far beyond any ideological or continuity-related severances from the original franchises.
Oh, I totally agree with your assertion about Helo & Athena changing and growing (heck, I was always a far more ardent fan of Athena, who was so committed to her new loyalties and she was willing to commit genocide against her own species to protect them, when Helo was not). My point was that SGU is in no way comparable to that stellar drama, against which it falls far short in both senses of the term. Sorry, but I misunderstood your original point; I thought you were trying to relate the Sliders adventures of the Three Stooges to Helo/Athena, when you were merely expressing the hope that this show might one day aspire to be good enough to polish BSG‘s boots, a prayer to which I have no objection.
I completely agree that Greer will never be in danger. Sure they gave him the stereotypical abusive father and hard life, but he’s fun as a character at this point. When the series first started, a friend of mine called him the “token angry black guy” because he was fairly 2-dimensional, but I think he’s one character we’ll see grow and become one of the most complex over time. I’m glad the writers are making Greer more than he seemed to be when the series began, he’s one of my favorite characters and I can’t help but love Eli.
SGU is a far cry from BSG, but after watching every episode of the previous 2 iterations of the franchise at least twice, I find this one to have the most potential. My complaint is that they’re taking a slow burn that’s just a little too slow. It’s time to really get control of the Destiny, build on the characters a LOT more and ramp up the adventure, just not to the “we know the good guys will win every time” level of SG1 and SGA.
Ming Na is a great actress and she’s getting a little more fleshed out, but I’d like to see her do more and I’d like to see less of the pregnancy. I hate that they added that twist to the story. If BSG could produce so many complex characters then SGU can too. At least that’s my hope because I love this show.