Stargate Universe debuted with ho-hum ratings on the initial 3 episodes, and the Destiny took a nose dive after that. Writers and the characters they created both floundered with pants around their ankles, and was only bested by the on-going mediocre acting and uninteresting swiss-cheese plotlines. For an entire season, the story arc lumbered into nowhere, and whatever potential fans — old SG stalwarts and curious newbies alike — continued to drop like flies. Although you flatter us by saying we wield such influence, none of us were in the homes of some 500,000+ people telling them to tune out SGU. They did that on their own. You ignored the viewers and you paid the price.

Calling us idiots was a mistake “The Powers That Were” made, and look who’s out of work now. I guess it is fun and interesting to update their resumes with “tried to be edgy and hip”, but in truth it brought a venerable franchise to its knees. “Hip and edgy”? Whatever you want to call it, it got the show cancelled in the middle of season 2. Just don’t forget that fans have long memories, and will not so quickly forget.

Here’s some choice quotes from the fans:

“They just can’t admit it, that people simply didn’t like their show, because it wasn’t entertaining to them. Why is that so hard to understand? SG1/SGA and SGU are completely different. I mean no one is surprised, when a Hawaii Five-0 fan isn’t a fan of Desperate Housewives, too. So why can’t the SGU actors simply admit, that SG1/SGA and SGU have not much in common? When SGU started they gave tons of interviews about how different SGU is in comparison to SG1/SGA and when SGU’s ratings dropped, they are behaving, like the completely different style has nothing to do with the dislike of a lot of SG1/SGA fans!

“And it is by the way not the fault of SG1/SGA fans, that SGU sucked. Where were those tons of new viewers, which Brad Wright wanted to get? He said he wanted to attract people, who haven’t watched any of the previously Stargate series. Where were they? I mean the USA has over 300 million people and most of them have never watched SG1/SGA. There were tons of new potential viewers. So why has no one of them watched SGU?” – PSW

“Why must they do this? It failed move on please, he isn’t doing his career any favors by conducting himself in this manner. SGU didn’t need SG1/SGA fans, remember that? The thing is though, in my time doing my own little bitching sessions have I done anything personally to SGU. No. All I did was not purchase the product, I guess that counts as boycotting today doesn’t it? Not wanting to buy something you clearly don’t like/want is just plain wrong obviously, you must always go forth and buy the most shittiests of products whether you want too or not.

Why can’t they get it through their thick skulls and tiny brains that SGU failed, not because of some mysterious SG1/SGA Illuminati force, but because it didn’t find the audience needed to sustain it and basically shat on the previous one, removing any chance for a last gasp. He mentions firefly. Firefly’s after success was because enough people bought the DVD’s which enabled them to make a movie, there was enough support afterwards. What does SGU have? Oh I forgot right, people are too poor these days aren’t they, all lining up at the soup kitchens, so they can’t buy DVD’s. I don’t earn much yet I have enough money to purchase the dvd box sets or whatever I’m interested in, it just means I can’t dick around and waste money.” – ParagonPie

“It’s that crazy sense of entitlement that everyone involved with this production had. They just KNEW they had a built in fanbase that was going to propel them to success and adoring fans at conventions like the other SG shows. No actual work needed. We were just going to accept what scraps were put on our plate. So when reality hit, you can imagine their bitterness.

It would NEVER be the fault of TPTB for producing such crap. NEVER! It has to be the fans fault for ruining the franchise. We should have just shut up and fell in line like little sheep and fawned all over their silly little soap opera. How dare we have opinions!!

He just seems like he’s jumping on the ‘bash-the-fans’ bandwagon and repeating exactly what he’s heard the other idiots say. I guess he can feel part of the team that way. Common sense should have pointed out to him that if there were more fans of the show, period, the negative websites wouldn’t have made a blip on the radar.

YOUR SHOW SUCKED AND IT GOT CANCELLED! GET THE FUCK OVER IT!!! LIKE IT’S THE ONLY SHOW THAT’S EVER BEEN CANCELLED IN THE HISTORY OF NETWORK TELEVISON” – I Miss Fri Night SciFi

“He just doesn’t get it. The fanbase is too deep and complex for a teeny drama. The first step to fixing a PROBLEM is to admit that you have a problem ie ratings drop. Artists do not have a head for business. If your creativity or lack thereof puts you on the unemployment line then change your creativity into something that will make money. I agree SG1 and SGA were predictable but I adorned the actors and to this day I will go out of my way to support them. SGU actors, I would cross the street to avoid them.” – Lilith

Last but not least, and arriving at the crux of the matter:

“Wow, he literally called us idiots for “not supporting SGU”… and all this bullshit about us supposedly judging the show without having watched it? He clearly hasn’t seen the encyclopedic amount of content here all about what happened in SGU and why it all sucked. Sounds like he judged our site without even reading it. What a hypocrite.” – Will

We’re not about to apologize for not supporting SGU, and neither are we going to shoulder any of the blame for such a goddamn awful show that had the temerity to call itself STARGATE. Put that one on your resume.

Discuss this Article Here.:>

If I need to waste my time telling you who Leonard Nimoy is, you need to get the hell out of my column.

Sorry. I’m just very passionate about Star Trek and, as far as iconic sci-fi characters go, you don’t get much better than Mr. Spock. Nimoy, of course, played Spock in the original television series and its subsequent film franchise, before revisiting and retiring the role in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot.

In recent years, Nimoy has rekindled a near-lifelong passion with photography, releasing books of portraits that explore the feminine facets of God (2005′s Shekhina), challenge the contemporary conceptions of the female form (2007′s The Full Body Project) and reveal the manifestations of inner identity (2010′s Secret Selves).

Nimoy will appear at this weekend’s Dallas Comic Con. We spoke on the phone to discuss his photography, what it means to be (or not to be) Spock and what makes for a good book title.

Q: In your first autobiography, 1977′s ‘I Am Not Spock,’ you tried to respectfully draw a line between yourself and the Spock character. Why was it necessary to make such a public distinction?

Nimoy: During that period, I had a struggle. I was busy. I had no problem finding work. But the work pretty much was related to the Spock character. I was, on the one hand, happy to be working because I know what it’s like to be an out-of-work actor. But at the same time I was hoping to broaden my scope, and eventually I did.

I must say, the overarching answer to your question is that the Spock character was great for me. It gave me entrée, and I had a lot of opportunities to fulfill a lot of dreams. But you do have to make a choice whether you’re going to ride with it or struggle against it.

Q: Was the follow-up autobiography (1995′s ‘I Am Spock’) meant to clarify some of the misinterpretations of ‘I Am Not Spock?’

Nimoy: Yes, very much so, because the first book was misinterpreted. Grossly misinterpreted. I made a terrible mistake with the title. The title is a terrible, terrible mistake. There’s a chapter in the [first] book called “I Am Not Spock,” which was an attempt to answer a very large question I was being asked constantly, which is, “How much of you is Spock and vice versa? Are you Spock-like? How did this character come about? Are you playing yourself or have you built this character? What’s going on here?” And I think I did a really good job of explaining the actor’s process in finding and portraying a character.

Spock was born of a Vulcan father and a human mother; I was not. My parents were Eastern European immigrants; Spock’s weren’t. I was just trying to explain the differences between the actor and the character and how the actor finds a way to merge with the character. And I made a mistake in giving that [chapter's title] the title of the book, and it was misinterpreted. A lot of people heard the title but would not read the book because they were angry at me.

Q: They were judging a book by its cover.

Nimoy: Exactly, yeah.

Q: Well, these days that’s not such a bad thing considering you’re publishing books of photography. What initially drew you to taking pictures?

Nimoy: It was a magical process to me. We had an old family camera, which I still have. It was an old Kodak Bellows camera. But to be able to go into a dark place and pull out the film and run it through some chemicals and get a negative, and then take a piece of paper and put it up against that negative and make a print – that whole process was magical to me.

In a strange way it wasn’t even so much about taking pictures, it was about making pictures. Subject matter was hardly important to me at first. I was just so taken with the process of making these images.

Q: The two most recent books, ‘Secret Selves’ and ‘The Full Body Project,’ have somewhat of a common theme, in that they both deal with the beauty and truth of the human condition.

Nimoy: Absolutely.

Q: This is where the serious artistic subject gets a corny sci-fi question. What do you think Spock would say about such stark human depictions?

Nimoy: Well, I’ll tell you something. I came to believe finally that Spock was at least as human, and perhaps more human, than any of the other characters on the show. Spock’s condition was a quintessentially human condition. I think that’s maybe the underlying secret to why so many people identify with him, because he had this inner life that so many people recognize, which is the struggle between our logic and our emotion; our right or left brain. We all, to some degree, have this process to deal with. Particularly young people who are in their formative years, trying to figure out how you’re supposed to function in relationships, in your career, in your personal choices. It’s a condition that’s easily recognizable.

So, it’s interesting that you ask a question about how Spock would respond to these human issues. I say, he would recognize them totally.

Q: As a fan, I was very skeptical of them remaking ‘Star Trek’ because Hollywood had pretty much ruined everything I loved as a kid. Did you go into the reboot with a healthy sense of skepticism?

Nimoy: No, I’ll tell you why. It all started with a meeting. [J.J. Abrams] asked me if I would come to a meeting. And this was before they started writing, I think. I met with him and his writers. The conversation, frankly, was actually moving to me, because it had been a number of years since I’d been asked to do anything with Star Trek.

And here comes a guy named J.J. Abrams who has a lot of cache, I thought, a very good filmmaker and his writers, and they’re telling me about their sense of Star Trek and their sense of the Spock character. I thought it was profound, frankly. I thought, “Wow, these guys really get it.” I was very touched. And they asked me if I would go along for the ride and at least explore it with them. Because what they said to me was that the Spock character was central to their story, and if I wouldn’t at least explore it with them, they would have to go off in another direction with their story.

I was immediately intrigued. I promised to explore it with them, and then when they sent me the script, I called immediately and I said, “Yes, let’s do this. I think it works.” So, that’s the way it happened.

Q: In the film, you and “new” Spock Zachary Quinto share a single scene. Did he ever come to you for Spock advice?

Nimoy: I invited him. We met for the first time at Comic-Con in San Diego before the filming, as I recall. I came out and shook Zachary’s hand for the first time. There was a lot of excitement. And then he came to my home and we talked for hours. He’s a wonderful guy, a really well-trained and very serious actor. When I say “serious” I don’t mean in a dark way, I mean he’s really invested in the work. And we found a great camaraderie. I like his company, I think he’s intelligent and very well-trained and a wonderful choice.

Q: Having attended so many conventions, what is the nerdiest question anyone has ever asked you?

Nimoy: Oh, God! I couldn’t possibly – wow, my head spins when you ask me that. I don’t know if I could focus on that. I don’t know.

Q: Maybe later on you can compile them into a coffee-table book or something.

Nimoy: Yeah, Nerdy Questions. That’s a good title. That’ll sell better than I Am Not Spock.

Original Article Here.:>

Playa Vista, CA (May 10, 2011)

The Tricorder X PRIZE aims to incentivize consumer empowerment in healthcare by extending the reach of health information and services to more people. This prize will bring understandable, easily accessible health information and metrics to consumers on their mobile devices, pointing them to earlier actions for care.

“For years, Qualcomm has been transforming lives by connecting people through incredible technologies.” said Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. “The X PRIZE Foundation is honored to work with Qualcomm to positively affect health consumers by developing a prize that will revolutionize consumer’s access to health data and information.”

Qualcomm Tricorder

The collaboration between the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm will bring together experts in technology usability, wireless sensors, cloud computing and mobile health to accelerate the convergence of these fields. The winning tool will enable consumers in any location to quickly and effectively assess health conditions, determine if they need professional help and answer the question, “What do I do next?”

“Qualcomm strives to provide a means to see choices, make decisions and get the right care faster and more conveniently. We believe this is a fundamental step in helping people become true ‘Health Consumers’ who can have as much say in assessing and accessing healthcare as they would any other service or product,” said Don Jones, Vice President of Wireless Health Strategy and Market Development at Qualcomm Labs. “Qualcomm believes the value of this X PRIZE is also in changing the cost structure and focus of healthcare. By having consumers take the initial actions to obtain health assessment data, the use and the quality of physician’s time is improved.”

Eugene Wesley “Rod” Roddenberry, Jr., son of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, commented, “it is great to see two amazing organizations – the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm – bring the technology of Star Trek to life and make the Tricorder a reality for people everywhere.”

The X PRIZE Foundation will be collaborating with industry experts and advisors to complete the Tricorder X PRIZE design in 2011. It expects to launch the competition in early 2012.

ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION
Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in four Prize Groups: Education & Global Development; Energy & Environment; Life Sciences; and Exploration (Ocean and Deep Space). Prizes won include the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private, suborbital space flight; the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE for creating safe, affordable, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG energy equivalent (MPGe); and the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE CHALLENGE for advanced rocket development. Active prizes include the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE, and the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE

Original Article Here.:>

Brad made it clear that he thought anything he touched would turn to gold. He wasn’t interested in listening to the fans or even to his own actors. How dare anyone question him or criticise his work. We ended up with a bunch of grown men sticking their fingers in their ears and deliberately blocking out any form of feedback that didn’t agree with their way of thinking.

Brad and Robert Cooper couldn’t wait to end SGA and they couldn’t wait to get rid of Joe Flanigan, because they didn’t keep anyone who disagreed with them. Their treatment of Joe Flanigan pretty much summed them up and clearly showed how they had let their arrogance get the best of them. They didn’t even offer their condolence when Joe’s father died, or thank him for continuing to shoot on that day thus saving them thousands of dollars.

So they convinced themselves they had the best cast and that SGU was going to surpass everything that came before. But their total lack of respect for the fans and actors that brought them their success was their biggest downfall. The lack of respect from their new actors on what came before was also a testament to their personalities. The unprofessional attitude of everyone involved in SGU also led to the downfall of SGU.

No one was willing to stand back and acknowledge that SGU wasn’t what the fans wanted, or that it had some serious issues. All the producers did was listen to the tiny bunch of worshipping sycophants and block out everything else. Every interview whether it was from producers or SGU actors, lauded SGU as the best thing ever and those who criticised it were labelled as haters – those out to deliberately sabotage SGU. What a childish and ridiculous way to behave. Even after all the predictions have come true those involved are still putting the blame elsewhere.

I find Darren’s obsession with blaming Syfy quite sad and pathetic. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Darren, but his latest bout of unfounded attacks against Syfy has made me lose respect for him. Each article continues to ignore the fact that SGU failed while on a Friday night and it failed in every country it was shown, where time slots and days weren’t an issue, but yet he continues to incite hate against Syfy which goes against everything he has been advocating on GW over the last 2 years.

Criticism is part of life. No one expected the writers to pander to every whim of the fans, but when an entire fanbase is voicing their distain at the direction the Franchise is taking, then it’s probably good business sense to take notice.

But we saw evidence in SGA’s season 5 as to how JM loves to dig his heals in deeper if anyone voices their displeasure at the direction the show is taking. Instead of taking on board the criticisms their answer is to give the fans even more of what they don’t like. Perfect example was Keller. The more fans complained about her character the more Keller based episodes we were subjected to. The more they complained about the overuse of McKay the more McKay centric episodes we got. Season 5 had loads of potential but most of it was just swept under the carpet with unresolved story lines in favour of McKay suddenly finding love with Keller.

They took all their bad habits and continued them into SGU, but unlike SGA the characters/actors kept many viewing, despite the terrible writing and subpar plots, but SGU actors didn’t garner the same love and support as the SG1/SGA actors did and very few liked their characters. Again the writers ignored all the criticisms and continued with their forced melodrama, with characters that the audience just didn’t care about. There was no chemistry between the actors of SGU, no stand out leading man/lady and to be honest I wouldn’t follow the SGU actors onto any of their next projects.

But even now after it’s over Brad and Co and everyone involved in the show are still refusing to acknowledge its faults. They are still referring to it as some misunderstood masterpiece and blaming its demise on outside influences and not the show itself, or its producers. No show is perfect and whilst fans have different likes and dislikes SGU’s failures weren’t just about the over use of one character, or who was being paired with whom, it was the concept of the show itself. Everything that had made Stargate successful was taken away and we were left with a hybrid show masquerading as Stargate, with a bunch of characters with no redeemable qualities.

But the worst thing of all was the writers expected us to look upon these self-absorbed petty characters as HERO’S. They tried to say that this kind of behaviour was more realistic and that we would be drawn to them more. Those despicable characters who would kill each other to save their own skins are someone we should care about.

Well the writers missed the boat. I had no interest in any of the SGU characters and this seems to be a reason that many fans stopped watching. Unrealistic characters with “forced” flaws didn’t make for good entertainment. I couldn’t relate to any of them. Again I’m not looking for perfect characters and there is no such thing as unflawed people imo. SGA/SG1 had many flawed characters, but overall they would put their lives on the line for others and that’s what Stargate was about. Good people doing the best they could, not people who displayed criminal behaviour and would go to any lengths to save their own skins or follow their own agendas.

Discuss Article Here.:>

By Startrek.com Staff

When you think of Roxann Dawson and Star Trek, do you think of her more as B’Elanna Torres on Voyager or as the director of the Voyager episodes “Riddles” and “Workforce, Part 2” and 10 episodes of Enterprise, including “The Andorian Incident,” “Bounty,” “E2” and “Awakening”? These days, no question about it, Dawson thinks of herself as a director more so than as an actress. Since Voyager faded to black 10 years ago this month, she’s devoted her time to behind-the-scenes work, calling the shots on not just Enterprise, but also Crossing Jordan, Cold Case (which she also produced), Lost, Heroes, The Closer, The Mentalist andThe Good Wife. StarTrek.com caught up with Dawson last week for an exclusive conversation in which she looked back at her time on Voyager, discussed her evolution into a director and previewed her upcoming projects.

How much does it boggle your mind that it’s been 10 years already that Voyager has been off the air?

Dawson: Well, it doesn’t surprise me because I just look at my kids. They were babies when I did Star Trek and now they’re getting so big. I think that’s the bigger shock. 

How do you look back on your Voyager experience?

Dawson: Oh, it was a major highlight of my life. I went into Voyager and I’d just gotten married. I came out of Voyager and I had two kids and I’d started directing. It was a great experience doing it and a great transitional experience, too. I loved it. I look back on it with great fondness.

Is never again too soon when it comes to the makeup?

Dawson: (Laughs) That was more annoying than anything else, but it wasn’t terrifying or anything like that. I wouldn’t want to do it again, though.

How satisfied were you with the arc that you got play out as B’Elanna?

Dawson: I was extremely satisfied. I thought that they never forgot about B’Elanna. If you look at her, from her first episode through all her transitions, internally, as a couple with Tom, as a member of the crew, it was great. She grew, she changed. She wasn’t perfect. She failed and recovered. I never felt like they left her on the sidelines. I think she continued to change and grow through all seven seasons.

Was there anything that either went unexplored or that you wanted to see more of when it comes to the character?

Dawson: I’m sure I could come up with several things if I were to think about it more, but just talking now, what would B’Elanna and Tom have been like with a three-year-old? What would they have been like back on Earth and not in the confined environment of Voyager? Those would have been interesting things to explore, but the series ended before we could get to any of that. I’d like to think she’s still loving Tom and still battling it out with him, and trying to make the relationship and their family work. I’m sure, if the show continued, there would always have been drama between them just because of the nature of who the characters were, and that’s all good.  But in terms of what we did on the show itself, I think we covered a lot of ground.

Who from the old days are you still in touch with?

Dawson: I just emailed with Picardo yesterday, actually. I talked to Tim Russ a while back. Who else have I seen recently? Robbie (Duncan McNeill) and I communicate. We were actually across the street from each other at Warner Bros. when I was doing Cold Case and he was doing Chuck. Robbie is the one I’ve probably kept the most in touch with. And I see everyone else once in a while, usually at the conventions. Also, because I’m directing, I run into a lot of the Star Trek crew. There’s a lot of overlapping and it’s a small world, the different people who show up on the crews of the shows I come in to do.

You started your directing career while still on Voyager. What do you remember of the day that Rick Berman gave you the OK to direct your first show?

Dawson: Actually, more importantly, I remember when he handed me my second episode, because he said something I’ll never forget. We were at some function and I was very curious as to whether he thought I did a good job on my first one and was ever going to give me another chance. He came up to me and said, “So, I’m going to give you another opportunity to fail.”

Was that a compliment or a diss?

Dawson: I don’t know. I don’t know. I think it was sort of a compliment, but I think he was giving me another opportunity and saying, “There’s nothing guaranteed. You did OK on this one, but you could fail on the next one.” So I think it was a “Don’t get too full of yourself” kind of thing.

When was the last time you saw your two episodes? And how do they hold up?

Dawson: You know, I haven’t seen them in a long time. My kids are just at the age where they’re starting to look at the DVDs. So maybe I’ll look over their shoulders at some point. They just brought in the first season, so that’s what they’re watching.

You went on to direct 10 episodes of Enterprise. Which one or two of those were you personally fondest of?

Dawson: Did I really do 10?

Yes, you did.

Dawson: Wow. You know, I think it’d be “The Andorian Incident.” That was my first episode and it’s my favorite, I think. I think we were just starting to define that world and it was so much fun to be at the inception and to really explore what the series was going to be like and look like. That one stands out in my head. But I enjoyed my time there with all of those episodes. They were a lot of fun.

… to be continued in Part II

Original Article Here.:>

Are you feeling bereft because Star Trek 2 is taking too long to come the big screen? Are you sorely missing seeing some Vulcans, Andorians and Orions on your TV screens? The good news is: We may get some new Trek again on TV. The bad news is: It may not be the way you might expect or even care about.

Cinema Blend is reporting that a new Star Trek animated series may be in the works, based on a Twitter exchange between Trek Movie and Star Trek writer Roberto Orci.

All right, so that’s not a lot to go on, but it’s kind of exciting news. After all, it’s been six years since we’ve last seen Enterprise and its crew face weekly dangers and seek out new life and new civilizations on our television screens.

But is an animated series something the Star Trek fans truly want right now? Is it the right and proper way to go in order to bring back the beloved sci-fi franchise into our living rooms?

An animated series would be much cheaper to produce than a live-action series, but would the fans and the general masses embrace it? The answer is, probably not as much.

After all, there was a Star Trek animated series back in 1973, and though it’s generally considered canon, it always felt like a strange blip on the Star Trek radar.

And we can also ask ourselves if Roberto Orci is only saying that they’ve (Orci and co-writer Alex Kurzman, in all probability) talked about a new animated series between themselves, or has a proper pitch already been made to Paramount? And when would it take place? The alternate timeline of the new movies or the prime timeline of the previous series?

Guess we now have to sit tight and wait with bated breath to see what happens next.

Original Article Here.:>

Young is in the background but doesn’t interrupt the moment, if you’ve seen the sneak peak you’ve already seen the following part. He gets called to the control interface room where Rush and Eli have found a way to track the drone command ships, however slight problem as now they’ve parked themselves outside of every single gate in the entire galaxy. It does make me wonder how they actually know where every single gate is, since (what we’ve been told) they can only detect them once they are active, maybe something happened many years ago I don’t know and neither do the writers of this show.

Now here is something we haven’t seen in a while, they’re using the stones. Rush and Young are in a waiting room what I can assume is the Pentagon(?) outside of Telford’s office. I’m sorry but when I saw this scene it made me giggle, as I was imaging the music Spanish flea playing in the background. They talk with Telford, with him saying “you sure your sensor data is accurate” with Rush responding “well sadly without Chloe on the observation deck we can’t be 100% sure, but I would say mostly accurate yes” ok that last part was a complete fabrication. They enter into the discussion of going off the path the seed ships presented however Rush saying that they did all the leg work finding the best possible planets for resupply.

Side note. Wow I guess they shouldn’t let all of those plants die them. This is part of SGU’s self-destructive course, just when they finally get something going they have to destroy in a later episode.

Meanwhile! Chloe (dear god) is actually doing something! Stop the presses everyone, this is huge news! She is talking with TJ, in that she can’t help Park because of her condition and even with the right equipment they couldn’t solve it. Yeah I mean its not like they have access to advanced alien technology back home right? So now after that depressing scene.

In the part Rush is on the bridge with Brody, Volker and Eli discussing a new strategy to defeat the drones at least in one on one engagements, Rush having a brain uses it. The plan is to modulate the shields so that they match the energy signature of the drones weapons fire to better withstand them. All they need is a deflector dish, reverse the polarity and they are set! So using this they assault the command ship in a surprise attack, asking who did the calculations for such a jump it was the oh so wonderful Chloe, so when they pop out of FTL they collide. They have a ‘pew pew pew zap pa-powy’ battle destroying the command ship. Using this time they quickly resupply however this is only a stop gap measure.

Later on, Eli follows Young while he heads to his bedroom. That sounded way better in my head when typing this. No, Eli has come up with a genius plan. Two brains in one episode, when you’re hot you’re hot! The plan is to skip the galaxy and head into the next in one continuous FTL jump, however it will take three years. The genius part is to use the stasis pods. Only in SGU, using something for its intended purpose is considered to be genius. SGU, the fountain of knowledge and wisdom folks. Rush on the other hand is against the plan because the amount of power it will use will practically drain them or leave them adrift, but of course he doesn’t have a counter plan to propose

So Young and Wray have a talk, and Wray says that everyone be given time to use the stones to give last farewells. Oh dear god. Luckily though we get Rush in his little den (that hallway area of the ship that is covered in his calculations) I must admit it was funny when he said bollocks. Chloe comes down to visit. Thankfully I wasn’t drinking or eating when she said, she went over Eli’s calculations, yeah Chloe your only amazing and wonderful off camera. Rush is saying that the ship was launched to solve a mystery, that by skipping this galaxy they might leave out a piece of the puzzle however the ancients being off their tits when designing the Destiny only made one.

Now we have a little montage of people entering into the stasis pods, don’t worry it’s the series score not some whiny man playing an acoustic guitar and to add bonus the camera man is stable. The girls will get a moment of relief when they see Varro now forever placed into the stasis pod, I’m waiting to see how many girls will try to dial the 9th Chevron just to get him out. Cut to Eli going back home (stones sheesh) however I will have to engage in a small rant here. The editing in this, just appalling, they show him walking up to the front door but we are missing frames or using different takes so it his movements are completely unnatural, jerky and sudden. This has long been within SGU and frankly it has always pissed me off, it makes the show look poorly edited or that the episode ran short so they had to fill in with pointless scenes. To cut it short, Eli’s Mum tells him how proud she is, and that decisions he made lead up to this (Am I detecting an ounce of fate there?).

However we soon realize that one section of the pods isn’t working correctly so that 8 people will be left behind. The plan is naturally to fix this problem by using a material known as palladium hydride. The find a possible planet with a gate however again the Cylons, I mean there is a drone command ship in the area. Adding to the problems the power requirements for those 8 people will make them fall short, so 8 peeps will have to take their own lives. After this we see Greer and Park together discussing to the situation, until Park has an idea. Her plan is to use a decoy, remote controlling one of the shuttles and by giving it a specific energy signature similar to a gate so it will attract the command ship, addition to this is that the shuttle won’t survive so it will be placed on a suicide run on the command ship. Now this is a genius plan and the third time someone has used their brain so the universe may collapse.

By using this plan they can dial the planet and gather the material needed. The shuttle makes it run dodging and sometimes getting hit, until it comes into close range overloading its engines and actually destroying the command ship in the resulting explosion. The team has gathered the material needed, as I didn’t know the Destiny has an ore smelting foundry on board. Anyway we get another little montage of more people heading into the stasis pods, giving their farewells to one another. After that we get a little dinner scene sort of like thanksgiving with the most dysfunctional family I suppose with Young giving a little speech saying that they are most bravest, smartest people, if the Destiny had feelings it would be pretty angry as so far it managed to fly around the universe for the past 50 million years doing so well until these people came on.

The last group (strangely enough its all of the main cast) enter into the stasis pods. Rush, Eli and Young are going to be last few people to enter. One final problem though, one pod isn’t working. Rush says he will stay behind but Young doesn’t trust him enough that he will do it, however Eli instead steps up saying he will be the one staying behind, Eli goes off on a little talk and saying he is smarter than Rush. In one moment he and Rush talk, and to be fair it was alright, a sort of reluctant respective for one another.

The episode closes with the ship powering down and Eli standing on the observation deck looking into the amazing ancient screen saver I mean FTL thingy.

Episode follow up.

Overall this episode was alright, it felt a little crammed though as so many was happening too quickly that again nothing really held tension longer enough to be actually effective. For a finale I suppose it was something different (unlike the previous end of season cliff hanger Incursion which tried to hold onto tension only for it evaporate the very next episode) it wasn’t a tearful ending but I suppose one can see it as hopeful ending. Maybe I am just getting tired of cliff hangers always being on the ‘death note’ but for me it was at least a welcome change and a good way to end the series.

Some people have said that the show was finding its footing in season 2 but I sort of disagree. Granted yes season 2 is considerably better than the abysmal first season, but it was still using the same tropes and it could really only manage up to mediocre. Maybe I just have to high expectations or standards when it comes to science fiction these days, or maybe whenever people give it titles and awards like ‘most realistic’ or ‘best science fiction’ it just increases my scepticism and by giving it such titles I uphold them to levels of intense scrutiny and criticism. But to judge SGU within itself and not comparing or upholding to other shows or even ones within the series, it was a competently made show that lacked an overall direction and by focusing on the needless aspects of trivial human pursuits in the awesome grandness that is the universe, they just don’t compare.

So to break this rather serious tone I’ve set down. Boogily woogly woo.

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Fumbling with the fast-forward, I raced to the scene.  Btw, without commercials, it is about 16 minutes in; with commercials about 22 minutes in.  I’m sitting on the edge of my seat as Chloe comes down the corridor in slo-mo, and I have my 60-inch plasma HD set to max picture.  I hit the stop.  There it is.  Clear as day.  It says, “F*ck the French.”  Granted, the assumed “u” is smudged beyond recognition, but there is no mistake as to what the original word was.  Momentarily I am stunned………

I cannot imagine that this was missed when TPTB were gathered watching the episode dailies, or when the editor was editing and compiling the master.  For such a joke (and I am only assuming it was meant as an inside joke) to survive the many eyes who perused both the raw and finished footage would suggest that the inclusion was either suggested or sanctioned by one of the higher-ups.  But we may never know ‘who’ or ‘why’.  Maybe the French contingent of fandom wronged someone along the way; or, maybe Mallozzi really hates French cuisine.  We may never know the source, or the story behind it.  But, as Tonton Beber, the SciFi-Nexus member who first posted the shot, pointed out.. “How could the production team let them insult a whole country?”  <Forum Thread> To my way of thinking, it seems to be consistent with some of the same arrogance we have seen publically displayed and to which we have become somewhat expectant.  It does beg the question.  Perhaps the French Fandom of the Stargate Franchise will generous of spirit and be forgiving.  On the other hand, how do you say “fuck off” in French?

For people who missed the Episode, or watched it live, but missed the scene, go to around 1min 50sec. It looks real to me! That’s unbelievable!!
Note:  A special thanks to Tonton Beber for his original post and link!  Merci, Tonton!

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There was actually a real sense of tension in this episode, and some really cool moments.

Overall I’d say this was a good episode, probably the best of all of SGU. even on par with SG1 episodes.

Maybe i’m overreacting because I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t as bad as most of the other episodes.

Still had a lot of WTF moments though.

First of all that deal with the drones. when they were first introduced those grey aliens seemed to think there was 1 command ship controlling all the drones, and they risked everything to try to destroy it to disable all the drones.
now suddenly we find out there are countless command ships at every star system. so the grey aliens really didn’t know this? if they did why would they even bother trying to destroy that one command ship instead of just trying to escape as far as possible? makes little sense.

In the previous episode we’ve seen Varro falling to what seemed like his death but then it turned out he stayed alive. in this episode he’s walking around like nothing ever happened. also he’s wearing the earth military uniform so I’m guessing he’s now considered one of the crew. yet still his character is pretty much pointless.

We’ve got to see the ship fly through an atmosphere of a gas giant which was all a recycled footage from season 1. and the only purpose to show it was for eye-candy.
they should have at least mirrored the footage or changed some of the colors to make it a little less obvious they were re-using old special effects.

Apparently the descendents have spread all over the galaxy and there are now abandoned human cities on many other planets.
they gate to one such city but it’s abandoned because it’s been attacked by drones.

This time they do the smart thing and raid the city for supplies and Young apparently collected a bunch of new clothes (which is what I said should have been done in the previous ep)

Some drones show up on the planet and they try to hide form them in what reminded me of a Battlestar episode.

There is the typical asshole who panics and almost gets them all killed on the planet. I think it’s the same guy who didn’t want to donate his kidney.
anyway he activates the gate to try to escape which draws all the drones to them and James knocks him out. this is the same thing that’s been done over and over in SGU (in the first episodes it was that big bald guy who was stealing food for himself and Greer knocked him out). now it’s this new asshole who is set up to be hated just so you’ll get a satisfaction to see him get abused.

The good part of the episode was on the ship. Park got trapped in the hydroponics bay while the Destiny flies into a giant star, and because of the dome she’s at risk of not surviving.

Rush, typically, doesn’t let Eli try to save her and instead forces him to navigate the ship (because apparently he can’t do it himself because Eli is the only one who can because he’s such a genius). Here’s an idea, why didn’t Rush himself go to save Park? Also, why did they send Chloe to the planet when she could have helped navigate the ship. she still has that super-brain powers doesn’t she? I guess not anymore.

so anyway the part with Park was very well made and the best part of the episode.

The Destiny now dropped out of FTL behind a gas giant (using same footage from the season 1 episode Darkness) to slow the ship down, the immediately come across the strike force of drones. They come to the conclusion that the drones while they can’t track them in while in FTL have found out that they need stars to recharge, with the Destiny now running low of power and the risk of engagement because every time they’ve engaged the drones it has resulted in serious damage to the ship or near end destruction. We also find out information like the Destiny normally or prefers to use M/K class stars in order to refuel and that it is likely the drones are guarding any nearby ones and so they can’t take the risk. With this Eli proposes the plan to refuel the Destiny using an O class star(for those who don’t know what that is imagine giant blue balls like if God was teased by watching anime school girls), which are highly volatile and the ship will heat up. So this begins the separation into two plots, since there are only three EVA space suits, most of the crew will have to be evacuated to a nearby planet. Eli and Rush will stay behind protected by the suits and guide the ship manually through the star.

They start gathering supplies from the hydroponics bay and this is where Park points out, that the heat will basically fry any unprotected organic matter in this domed area since it is more than likely an incredibly less protected part of the ship, however during this they will lose vital types of plants especially the ones used in medical practices, like TJ hasn’t actually a magical survival bag. With that Park ends up donning the third suit. Now this does make me wonder that how come no one else pointed out that these plants were necessary, in fact why weren’t the entire bay just plundered. Maybe there was a time pressure involved I don’t know, but the amount of time they spent picking the tomatoes they could of easily had plants in bags ready to be moved. I guess intelligence is a finite resource and honestly most of that must be allocated to Rush and Eli.

The A plot involves Rush, Eli and Park on the ship, while the B is the exploration of the planet. Yes they actually start to explore a planet for a change.

They realize that when they dial the drones are attracted the subspace signal given off by gate travel so a time pressure is now involved hindered by the ship must have time to cool down. However while they beginning preparations to evacuate the Destiny is slowly sealing off certain doors as we see the Bridge shut down and close up Volker and James just able to escape it. I still wonder why the Ancients wanted to place the most important section of command and control on the highest point where it could be shot or hit by anything. Also they leave a laptop in there.

Now the A plot is easily the best part of this episode as it gives a fair amount of focus on Eli and Rush, unlike the episode The Hunt. During the Destiny’s descent into the giant blue star, Park gets sealed in the hydroponics bay, Eli attempting to override the door but the Destiny denying access. Rush subtly hints to Eli that he is incapable of doing the navigation calculations, saying that Eli is the only one able to do so, however Eli is distracted by the fact that Park is now in a room which is heating up and possibly left to die in a raging inferno. Now the of them play the typical role of moral versus survival, Eli the former, Rush the latter. My problem is that it could have been explored much more, in that Eli could have been another voice of survival, they are on a ship with finite supplies and people, losing Park would be losing someone of exceptional skill and impossible to replace. While they didn’t pose that into Eli’s character the conversation/argument between them both was light and not really forced, since they were both distracted by the task at hand, which saving the ship was far more important than saving the life of one.

The B plot I will say, while they did explore the planet it will filled with such laziness from the production team, all of the signs on the shops and building where in English dialect though it was funny when they found a newspaper that said “Attak” I guess this is the planet of dyslexics then. But also it had stereotypes, like the man who is going to panic when a crisis hits. So basically the drones come down to the planet obviously investigating the gate activation, one pins down Greer and Scott’s team who reside in two buildings opposite ends of each other, the drone in between them. It gets to the point of darkness for them with all the waiting and the drone simply not moving away. Until the ladies finally get their money shot when Varro pulls out his big weapon. I mean what looks like a light anti-tank weapon (oh jeez I’ve already encouraged more than enough innuendo here). The Drone is attracted to radio signals also, as when the stereotypical asshole goes into full panic mode and tries to activate the gate James I think knocks him on his rear end, she blasts over the radio despite being told by Young they need radio silence, Scott tries to tell her this only to for the drone to open fire.

The next few scenes really felt silly to me. As they open fire on the drone but in a completely stupid manner, simply standing there in the open no kind of cover yet the drone is unable to hit stationary targets that are in the open. Young suddenly appears firing his weapon from the hip in a nonchalant manner like he is really bored and they take down the drone. Again I still don’t know how these drones manage to take on other cultures if they can be easily stopped by three morons.

Back to the A plot, the hydroponics bay is now starting to set ablaze from the plants they left inside, Park is now hiding in a water container. During this Eli’s self-doubt starts to whittle in only for Rush to be the only voice of encouragement saying he is only one capable, Eli then enters some sort of rainman trance and begins punching out calculations with the speed of a hamster on several cups of coffee, they manage to refuel and escape the star, only afterward the hydroponics bay dome breaks open and the resulting blown out of air basically puts Park in the center of an inferno. Rush realizes the problem and Eli runs down, they save her only for her to be blinded by the intense light.

Episode follow up:

This was actually a good episode for SGU, while the B plot had its moments of cheesiness it didn’t bring it the whole episode down but served as a plateau for the A plot to elevate it.

Now if I had to nit-pick if I wasn’t already, certain problems could have been avoided very easily. For example, when the dome broke open all of the air from that area would have been blown out into space in an instant basically putting out the fire. No oxygen, no fire. The design of the EVA suits again suggest that the ancients simply don’t know what space involves as if you compare it to today’s astronauts, they have visors which block gleaming rays from the sun, we have modular mobiles which enable a use to simply fly around in space around objects than be tethered to the object or shuttle. Also maybe if they vented the atmosphere from areas unoccupied they could maybe have slowed the heat building up and actually prevented the hydroponics bay from igniting into a huge inferno.

Like I said this was a good episode for SGU, despite it being predictable for me personally, the character interactions and solving of mixed crisis overshadowed certain annoyances.

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