Man oh man oh man, did they knock it out of the park tonight, or what? This is the first unquestionably great episode of the series, and obviously if they submit one for awards this year, this’ll be the one they choose. We’ve all had our misgivings with the show. Even I - and I really do like the show - have had some misgivings here and there, not so much with the premise or the cast or whatever, but just that it seemed to be taking so long to get going in the first few episodes. Not a deal breaker, but I can certainly see where the heft the more deliberate pace gives the show comes across as simple ponderousness to a lot of people. But tonight, boy, it all paid off, and we finally get to see exactly what the show can - and presumably will - be.
PLAY BY PLAY
Take 1:
A team comes through the gate on to a Fake Jungle Planet. It’s a fake soundstage planet that’s supposed to look all jungly and foreboding, but mostly just looks like Gilligan’s Island. We follow the team along as they gather food to supplement the supplies on the ship, and then stupidly decide to take turns testing out some local fruits and such. They get sick, and since they’ve got 30 hours to kill and are in no rush, they decide to quarantine themselves on the planet for a bit just to make sure it’s nothing they can spread to the Destiny. This is all seen by us as part of the ongoing documentary that Eli is making.
That night they’re attacked by bug/snake things, which bite Scott, kill Chloe, and several others as well. A firefight ensues, and everyone’s in a bad way. They try to dial out, but the gate is working wonky, and they can’t get a stable wormhole.
The next morning, with a lot of dead and wounded and little ammo, and Scott in a coma, Greer decides to find a more survivable location. Eli and Rush talk a bit, and we get an interesting window in to both of their lives and backstories. Eli and TJ talk, too. Greer teaches Eli how to use a weapon, and they go out bug snake hunting during the day, discovering they live in sulfurous volcanic vents they use as nests. Rush tries to get the gate to work, but it’s unstable, and again, nothing comes of it. That night, the bugsnakes attack again, and Rush runs for the gate, says he’ll radio back if it’s stable, and dives through giving a last line that makes it pretty clear he knows he’s probably gonna’ die. The bugsnakes overun the camp, and everyone dies. Eli, TJ, Lt. James the Hot Chick, Greer, all the civilians, everyone.
Except Scott, who wakes up the next morning feeling fine. Everyone else is dead, so he records all the info they’ve got on the Kino along with Eli’s documentary and throws it through the wonky gate as a message to the people on the other side to come and get him if they receive it. The ship is 45 minutes away from FTL at this point, but for some reason the Kino just comes back out again, and lays on the jungle floor.
Take
| neorandomizer New day 23 hours ago |
| neorandomizer wife seems to have took a step forward today but a half of a step back so her condition is about the same. It's damn hot here! 1 day ago |
| neorandomizer Already 95 deg in Vegas and it's not 10 yet. Off I go to see wife hope she has some improvement. 1 day ago |
| Republibot 3.0 I'm really sorry to hear that. She's in our prayers. 2 days ago |
| neorandomizer @Republibot 3.0 The wife is still in icu and seems to be just treading water. 2 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 Yeah? What's up? 3 days ago |
| neorandomizer All things being equal I can go for a cosmic reboot. 3 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 but he has no other genre credits." It seemed like a cool idea to me. 4 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 If we were interviewing James "Scotty" Doohan, we'd say say "He played on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Space Academy, 4 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 The concept was, "Hey, let's pretend Trek didn't exist, and just cover the rest of the genre." 4 days ago |
| jkirton2 Gonna take a few minutes to look around. 5 days ago |
| jkirton2 @Republibot 2.0 Will do 5 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 » Jake Was Here "Jake Was Here" has been a member of our little blog family for exactly one year and three hours. THREE HOURS! 5 days ago |
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Comments
22 August 2009
4 hours 27 min
I see bits of something that could happen but probably hasn't
1. James/ Scott is probably over because of Scott/Chloe
2. Eli was peeoping on Lt. James
3.why would Eli be wondering if Lt. James is okay ( before TJ and Greer begin laughing)
5 September 2009
29 weeks 2 days
I'm thinking an ancient with a parallels to Daniel Jackson. His memory was wiped. Perhaps most of Rush's memory has been wiped as well. He knows enough to get the Destiny working. Yes he may be doing this for his dead wife, but I can't shake the feeling that at one time he was a fallen ancient. Or, how about this...an Ori.
27 December 2008
27 min 29 sec
Yeah, I watched it. I liked it, even, much better than "Chronicles of Riddick"
Hadn't thought of it, but you're right, the menace in this episode was pretty similar to Pitch Black, a movie they're obviously aware of since Claudia Black was in that and SG1. It's also fairly similar to "The Invincible" by Stanislaw Lem http://www.republibot.com/content/book-review-%E2%80%9C-invincible%E2%80...
Doing these kind of cosmic reboot episodes is most effective early in a shows' run when you don't know anyone really well. then they kill off a character and you're like "Crap! I didn't see that coming!" whereas later on in the show's run, you know who the stars are, and you'll know it's fake just as soon as Carter or O'Neil or Lt. Data or whomever dies.
27 December 2008
27 min 29 sec
I didn't get a sense of a relationship between Eli and Lt. James The Hot Chick. I also got the feeling that the Destiny *has* been moving quite a bit, they just haven't bothered to show much of it. I don't think Eli's documentary existed in the "Third loop", I think it's just Scott's message.
1 June 2009
15 hours 55 min
Did anyone else see significant parallels in this story to the ones in the first Riddick movie "Pitch Black"? We have swarms of alien flying worm thingies that kill people rather gruesomely and only come out in the dark and live down in holes during the day. With all the movie quotes they do I was half expecting partly a Pitch Black quote, but maybe they figured mentioning it was a little too much since they were sticking to that plot in so close a way.
Did I ever get you to watch that one R3, or not? I know you avoided it, although you liked the sequel enough, if not completely.
I love alternate timeline plots that allow shows to kill off major characters and a big change of pace for the audience and the writers. This one seems to come rather early in the lifetime of the show, though. Like jumping the shark in the first story arc, just to get it over with. :)
So now we gotta get to the old standby of the main characters swapping minds with each other and doing their impressions of how they act, to supposed hilarity. And the false Suddenly We're All Home Somehow, Unexpectedly, But It's Not What We Think.
22 August 2009
4 hours 27 min
he specifically said HIV
i don't think Rush is an ancient, he want to help his dead wife
possible Eli/Lt. James relationship?
Over the past few weeks Destiny hasn't moved much interspacially
all three planets are probably in the same region of space, so they could be somehow related
i also think great episode,
if your stuck in a time loop and mess up liek that, Scott did the brilliant thing to do, make a short simple message
does that also means that the long documentary of Eli's didn't exist or coexisted with Scott's new one
27 December 2008
27 min 29 sec
Wow, Fornax, I hadn't thought of that. very intereting idea. But if he's an Ancient, why didn't he know...well, wait, actually...he's clearly known more than he's been letting on all along, so he might just be playing dumb. Hm. Good one.
@ Neo: The time travel aspects were consistent w/ the way it's always worked in Stargate. Of course it's all nonsense, but at least it's internally consistent nonsense, unlike Trek.
I agree it's extremely unlikely that the biochemistries of the three planets would be able to interact at all, but remember, there were Ancient Ring-builder ships that left earth a million years ago, setting up the stargates. If they'd had microorganisms on 'em, a million years is more than long enough for them to speciate and evolve in different directions. Some aspects of the biology of the Ice and Jungle worlds may have had that as an antecedent.
Of course I'm just being apologist for them here , you're obviously right. Still: a very good episode.
5 September 2009
29 weeks 2 days
I actually enjoyed the episode, loved the way Chloe bought it in that one scene.
Not to be a killjoy but if the coming attractions are anything to go by next weeks....oh boy...does that look like a soapy snoozer.
Just throwing this out there but does anyone think that Rush may be have been an ancient?
27 June 2009
21 min 38 sec
The only real complaint I have on this episode is the disease which is the major plot line. The chance that a micro-organism on one planet would infect life from another is slim and that an organism from a third is the cure and it become a little thin. The biochemistries of the three planets would have to be so close as to defy statistical probability.
Other than the above nit picking this episode did have some of the best acting so far and was extremely well written.
I could nit pick the time travel elements but that is just my personal bias on how time travel might work so I will keep it to myself.