Stargate Universe: Season 2. Psych Evals and Moonshine

[nacho]

I especially loved how they didn't know McKay's name, so there's a scene where they're asking, "Who was that doctor who kept staring at your tits?"

Oh! You mean the leading expert in Ancient technology who was famously trapped in another galaxy for five years and brought Atlantis back to Earth and mastered the wormhole drive that isn't being used to save us? That's Rodney McKay! Hahaha! I almost expected a 60's freeze frame.

In this episode, they encounter a duplicate ship where Rush killed the crew, except for Telford who escaped to Earth. So the second Rush is killed, and the first Telford is killed, and they get all the supplies they need to continue the mission even though the duplicate ship was in worse shape and... The second Telford is still in the timeline and on Earth now causing trouble. So the promo for next week's episode looks like it'll be all about explaining to second Telford that first Telford is dead and....aaaahhhh!!!

[Sirharles]

God...so basically they are sitting in a bathtub full of gin writing this stuff now?

[nacho]

My feeling is that they aren't written at all. It's just some sort of improve skit show.

[nacho]

Okay, so, in this episode, a duo of SGC bigwigs visit the ship to determine whether or not they should fund another Icarus Project to "extend the mission."

Um...haven't they been looking for another Icarus planet anyway to rescue the crew? RDA said as much last season. But this episode makes it sound like the SGU crew has been written off...

So why the change, then? Because everyone back on Earth is all about the "message from God" that Rush claims to have received.

While the suits wander around the ship being weirdly aggressive and ominous, Camille and Greer are back on Earth for R&R and they get trapped in an attack by a single Lucian Alliance shuttle. Which gets back to my rants above about why the fuck is the Earth actually in danger from the Lucian Alliance? The planet that, literally, defeated gods is now unable to defend against a bunch of pirates?

The whole Lucian Alliance plotline is only there anyway because they're afraid to make a Stargate show without constantly going back to Earth. I really think SGU would have been miles better if they really had been cut off all this time and quietly going insane. Instead, they're getting more visits from the authorities than SG1 ever did.

[nacho]

Oh my god. Okay, so Ginn and doctor what's her name are magically rescued from... I don't know. The land of death, I guess. They download into a sleeping pouty girl's brain (stop me when you want to punch something) and then are downloaded into the ship where they become sentient ghost things who can appear to anyone, which, I guess, tells us that Franklin and Rush's wife are also in the ship. Which makes sense for Franklin, since he was eaten by the ship, but the whole nature of that episode had us thinking that Rush was just crazy... What's with his wife being in the ship?

Anyway, now Rush and Eli have spirit guides, and the whole crew has access to doctor what's her name's knowledge... And, I guess, Ginn's useless simpering.

All this played out while we had a medical drama! A kidney transplant performed by the medic who, for two years, has been nervous around any sort of major operation... But it's okay this time because they have three scientists and the Ancient database and Ancient medical equipment (all making its first appearance at the start of this episode) to help her out. Oh, and the ghost of doctor what's her name who has suddenly gone from propulsion expert to surgeon. Well, she was plugged into the Ancient database, I guess... Which has detailed instructions on performing an antiquated, dangerous surgery with equipment that could have healed the kidneys without ever cutting flesh.

Next week: The writers will all scratch their nails down a blackboard for 40 minutes.

[nacho]

Today's waste of 42 minutes is also a waste of McKay and Woolsey! While SGC uses the stones to infiltrate a planet that magically has access to an Icarus-like power station, Rush goes into dreamland Amanda.

I just love how, suddenly, there's a stable way to dial Destiny. And it's always been there. But the residents of the planet in question are worried that it's not stable. The assumption -- the Alliance has gotten to them. SGC's solution -- Woolsey uses the stones to replace the leaders of the planet at the highest level. Glad SGC is behaving just as badly as the Go'auld!

Plot B, in dreamland, is just about as annoying as can be. Rush in love! And it's all a set-up for Amanda to steal his body...or...something, because she's evil. Or just arrogant and dumb or something.  And is now battling Ginn, who can only break free of Amanda by shutting down the FTL drive... Which, in this ONE case, doesn't fuck with the stones because, of course, the stones are being used to infiltrate the alien base. But, instead of using SGC personnel on Earth, they use Destiny crewmembers. Lousy writing.

[nacho]

I think somebody's supposed to die tonight...or something. They gate to a world and get attacked by a saber toothed something and then something then hunting and something something.

We won't burn off the last of the episodes till May 9th! For god's sake. I'll be the last person watching by then.

Next week's episode starts an arc (which looks like it carries through to the end) that sounds suspiciously like the return of the Replicators. It better not be. I'm a feather away from not finishing this season.

[nacho]

Um...wait. They still haven't gone through all the cargo on Destiny? They have to "be cautious." Really? They're starving, hunted by aliens, and on a ship that's going to fall apart any day... There's an endless mountain of Ancient cargo intended to supply a huge crew for god knows how long. Open those boxes up!

So they haven't been able to figure out what to do with the Lucian Alliance people for this whole season. It's been the silliest subplot. They could have turned them into redshirts, or mingled them with the crew... Instead they wrote them all out.

Or so I thought... Turns out there are still six more in addition to the main guy. So they get rid of those others in this episode.

That said, I actually managed to sit through this episode. I guess I just like looking at the Canadian forest that covers every planet in three galaxies!

I also hate the relationship subplots. There are, what, 30 people, and you've been locked together on a tin can for a year. You don't know who's together and who isn't?

[nacho]

Well, I'll be.  A good episode. No stones and no trips back to Earth! How daring of them to do that in a show about a desperate group of people stranded in a distant galaxy with no way home!

Um...

What I feared were Replicators are actually the descendants of the duplicate Destiny. Because the solar flare made the wormhole...loop....to....a very very distant planet...which is not possible with the Destiny gates.

Oh, and, it transported them back 2000 years. And Rush even says that there wouldn't have been a gate seeded yet. Which means that it makes even less sense...and, of course, wouldn't be true because the seed ships are far, far ahead of Destiny. Except when they're not for plot purposes, I guess.

Anyway!  Whatever. The duplicates got sent back 2000 years and the 30 of them started a civilization that now numbers in the millions and is advanced enough to be on the same level as modern day Earth. Due to an ecological catastrophe, they sent out expeditions to find a new world, and we pick up with one of the lost expeditions.  So really just a straight up sci-fi story. Evil drones chasing them, an innocent community in awe of the crew, and 300 refugees on a ship that can barely sustain 30 people.

It's a two-parter, too.

[Reginald McGraw]

This seems to go on and on.

[nacho]

This seems to go on and on.

No shit. Burning off these last ten episodes has felt like sitting through an entire season of terrible sci-fi. They really should just air the last few over the course of one week and get it over with.

[nacho]

Oh my god... Okay, so, last night's episode was primarily flashbacks... Of the duplicate crew! Covering the rise of the civilization they founded 2000 years ago. Our crew pretty much sat on their ruined planet and just watched TV recordings from the archive for most of the episode, though we did have a ridiculous subplot where TJ discovered that she had Lou Gehrig's Disease.

So the leader of the "descendants" says, oh, yeah, we have a cure. It's in the database. They copy the database and, in the epilogue, TJ is upset because they can't find a cure, and Eli says there's lots of info to go through and the name of the disease might be different and...

No! Wait! You've still got the guys who know the database. And they're your children! They have the same name for the disease! They know all about it! What?

Also -- birthing montage. We see EVERY SINGLE female crewmember screaming wildly during childbirth.

And that's the episode! Also, the final Lucian Alliance guy gets cheaply written out. He's now severely wounded and unconscious. Leaving TJ emotionally alone to deal with the knowledge that her duplicate got sick ten years after being stranded on an alien planet and living a rough and primitive life 2000 years in the past.

[nacho]

Getting ready to download tonight's episode.  Here's a review from the site:

This was the worst episode of any show that I have ever seen and I watch a lot of shitty tv shows.

[nacho]

Oh, thank god. The last episode. 

The whole thing with the drones really makes no sense. So they decided to ignore a 2000 year old technological, gate-using society up until a few years before Destiny came through? Oh, and, considering that society was based on the duplicates, the duplicates didn't mention the drones in their records?

But, whatever, that was just a throwaway two part episode with no resolution and nobody seems to care about it now.

They pull an Earth 2 with the finale and decide to go into stasis for three years...or a thousand if things go wrong...so most of the episode is going back to Earth via the stones and saying goodbye, and then talking about saying goodbye back on the ship, and then talking about talking about saying goodbye in corridors and control rooms.

We end with Destiny on her probably doomed three year jump, and Eli awake and alone with only two weeks of life support left to unfuck the last pod (because, of course, Destiny only had exactly the number of pods for the cast).

For now, this is the end of the franchise. Brad Wright said a couple weeks ago that all the movies are trashed, and SGU will have no follow-up (or conclusion) and pretty mush said that he's done, after helming this franchise for 20 years. So, if we believe him and others on his team, the next Stargate won't come until there's a reboot.

[nacho]

Hahaha! What?

The fans have spoken, and Stargate Universe is the runaway winner at the 2012 Constellation Awards. The series took home five of the six awards for which it was nominated.

Presented by the fan-run TCON Promotional Society (organizers of the Polaris convention), the awards focus on excellence in science fiction television and film, with an emphasis on Canadian productions. Nominations and voting in each category come from fans.

SGU‘s wins include:

Best Female Performance: Ming Na, “Epilogue”

Best Science Fiction Television Series

Best Technical Accomplishment: Joel Goldsmith, Music

Best Overall Film or Television Script: “Twin Destinies”

Outstanding Canadian Contribution to Science Fiction Film or Television