Jelgate's Two Cents-Space
Sorry for the late review everyone but alas personal problems that you don’t care about prevented me watching SGU at 9:00 PM. As a result this review might be shorter then normal. Anyway here we go…
It’s been a long 4 months waiting for SGU. I’ve tried keeping busy watching past Stargate episodes and the ever demanding real life. But it’s not the same. I missed the writing the reviews (I bet my 2 fans missed reading them) and the blood pressuring raising debates I’ve had with my stance on SGU. In that regard did Space live up? Was such a long wait worth it in this material? Barring a few minor complaints (and lets face it no episode is perfect) I really liked Space. It had that balance like feel. Less character interaction then early SGU but still it was not mindless action like SGA. There was emotion of why the SGU characters did what that did. Anyway as always let’s start at the beginning.
I kind of found the beginning where these division of who trusts Young and who thinks Young killed Rush kind of boring. Maybe it was the 3 months discussing this in fandom but I know Young would regret stranding Rush and I know the crew is divided into civilians and soldiers and neither side really trusts each other. Do we really need to go over this again? However there is an exception to this boredom. I really liked the scene between Young and Wray where she confronts Young about “lying about Rush” and Young accuses of her wanting to take power of the ship. It was a really intense scene. And a scene I think can only be pulled off when you have the great acting talents of Ming Na.
Ah the communication stones glitch. Some people will probably complain that we didn’t figure out what caused the glitch when Young tried to connect with Earth. But I think this is something that shouldn’t be explained. These stones are Ancient technology after all and I think we can all agree that the Ancients are way smarter then us. To that end I think it makes sense that the glitch shouldn’t be explained. On a humorous note I thought it was hilarious for James to yell out to everyone how she was attracted to the stone “technician”.
Oh space battles. This was quite intense. It may be because this was the first time we ever saw major weapons fire from the Destiny but it was quite cool watching the Destiny shoot those aliens out of the sky. Sure the Destiny was no match for the aliens but it was still cool none the less to see them trying to blow up the alien ship. And I especially like Eli’s frustation at Young about how the weapons weren’t working that well. It seems the character is growing a backbone and is not Young’s yesman as much anymore. Although I will say using a character as a plot device is always a crack in shoddy writing. As many of you know I do like the Chloe character and what she brings to the show but she served mainly as a plot device in this episode. You see a piece of a ceiling fall and you approach to investigate. I don’t know about you but if I saw that at minimum I need a gun before I will approach that mysterious hole.
I have to give credit to Young for this one. The easy thing would be to ignore the kidnapped Chloe and blast that ship out of the sky. But he risked his own well being to go onto that ship in a situation that is most defiantly hostile. I have to give credit to Young for breaking Rush out of that alien water tank. This guy has plotted and schemed and done almost every thing in the book to gain control of the Destiny and to undermine as much as Young’s leadership. And even after Young stranded Rush he was willing to swallow his pride and free his own worst enemy. That to me is harder then shooting your enemy. I think the worst thing to do is help your enemy because even though you hate then you know they are needed. The mind control thing was kind of cool looking too. But I wonder does always cause that much pain and it that one stone Young used fried for good.
Predictable. That word describes Rush and Chloe’s escape. The whole thing was predictable. It was predictable that Rush would find the fighter bay and flee to the Destiny. But it’s not all bad. For one I liked where Scott and Greer where going to ignore Young and head for the alien ship. Not so much for Scott for I figured he would do that as he cares about Chloe. But what really touched me was Greer and how loyal he was to people. He knew the risks and he had nothing at stake and yet he still went with Scott knowing full well it was a suicide mission. That really speaks to me.
And now for the aftermath of this episode. Let’s start with the mess hall scene. It was an obvious need. For people would be screaming plot hole if it wasn’t explained how Rush went from the barren planet to the alien ship. I liked the song of showing how everyone is reacting to the common ordeal. It keeps with the SGU theme of being character oriented especially seeing the part where James was crying. That was so sad. On a final note I do blame whatever happens to Rush after this episode. He pretends to extend an olive branch and that he respects Young because of what he did in Space and yet he conspires with Wray. That man is nothing but a manipulator playing with people’s emotions to get what he wants. I welcome his fate and drama that will ensure.
All in all a good episode.