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SGU S02E19 Blockade review
Plot Recap
The episode starts out with Destiny heading towards a planet at sublight before showing Eli watching the speech from his grandchild that was shown at the end of Epilogue. Rush walks up and asks for some calculations, which are on a sheet that’s so covered with stuff that Eli has to tell Rush where his work is. Rush briefly mentions that Brody is working on making paper before talking with Eli about constantly rewatching the footage, saying there are more important things to do. Eli says he’s going to put it in his documentary and says all the colonists they picked up left, to which Rush replies that there is a high chance of bumping into more denizens of Novus if they spread all over the galaxy.
On the bridge, Volker and Brody tell Rush that Destiny is planning to aerobrake into a refueling trajectory, which Rush takes in stride. Volker wonders why, since it takes so long, and Brody says that power levels are at 40%, prompting Volker to give a little anecdote about his grandfather constantly filling up his gas tank when it was half empty. Young comes on the bridge just before the aerobraking maneuver takes place. As Destiny heads toward the system’s star, they pick up drones and a command ship between them and the star, which surprises Young.
With several minutes remaining before they can safely activate their FTL, Destiny is forced to deal with the onslaught of drones. Unable to maneuver around the drones and without time to jam them, Rush and Young debate going through the drones in order to refuel, but Rush says Destiny can just pick another star to refuel at. Under fire from the drones, Destiny goes to FTL and Young asks how the drones knew where they were. Nobody knows, but Rush says not to overreact to what might have been a coincidence.
Down in the control interface room, Rush pulls up a hologram of Destiny’s course before Eli shows up and starts getting worked up about the possibility that the drones knew where Destiny was going to be. Rush suggests avoiding the next red dwarf that Destiny would use to refuel, since there’s the possibility the drones can predict Destiny’s course and they managed to get lucky on the aerobraking maneuver getting them through the shutdown window.
The Destiny attempts to refuel at another star, having dropped out of FTL at a fair distance to make sure the minimum time limit was passed in case they had to escape. On the bridge, Wray asks what the drones want and Eli reiterates that the drones are merely acting on their programming, which calls for the destruction of all alien technology. Wray complains about the lack of chairs, which results in Young giving her his chair. They pick up drones and a command ship between them and the star, which Greer says is a blockade. With dwindling power and faced with overwhelming numbers of drones, Destiny goes back to FTL.
Telford stones in from Earth to hear the news about the blockade, which has caused Destiny’s energy situation to become critical: systems are shutting down all over the ship and with only one more chance to refuel, they have to rely on Eli’s crazy idea. He wants to fly Destiny into a blue super giant to ensure that the drones won’t be blockading it. Volker comments that the crew won’t survive the extreme temperatures, to which Rush replies that most of the crew will be evacuated to a planet via stargate while a few stay to manually pilot the ship, since the computer might not take a programmed course and the core systems might shut down due to the heat. Rush and Eli will stay behind to pilot the ship while wearing the space suits to survive the extreme temperatures.
Chloe, Park, and Scott are picking plants from the botanical bay, since everything will be incinerated by the extreme electromagnet radiation produced by the blue super giant. While Brody will refrigerate the original hydroponics bay, there isn’t enough time to save everything. Destiny drops out of FTL and the crew scrambles to evacuate as the bridge shuts down. They bring a few guns, but Greer says they are running low on ammo, to which Young says Brody will have to make new ones. Park asks Young to use the third suit to save some of the medicinal plants that they’ve picked up and Young agrees. Greer is totally OK with it, saying she can handle herself. Rush lets them know they are approaching the super giant and says that they have at least seven hours on the clock and only one gate in range.
They dial the planet, which has well developed structures using more or less modern materials and an environment suitable for human life, which gets compared to Pittsburgh. Eli mentions that people spread out from Novus for centuries, explaining the fact that it appears to be a human settlement. The crew departs and sets up shop in the warehouse the stargate resides in on the planet. Young has small teams head to find anything worth salvaging, leaving Lt. James and Varro in charge of watching over the rest of the crew. Young asks Wray if she wants anything and she says she would like a new outfit.
Back on Destiny, Eli helps Park save the plants and they banter a bit. Park mentions looking up at the stars in the dome, which she used to do with her dad back on Earth. Rush calls Eli to the control interface room. Rush is not wearing his suit because they are still far enough from the star and it is easier to work without the suits on. Rush wants to know who’s going to be the pilot and Eli says he’ll do it. Meanwhile, Park gets locked into the dome and Rush and Eli can’t override it.
On the planet, Scott and Greer split up their group to cover both sides of the street they are searching. Brody says that the city has been abandoned for years at least, but wonders why there are no vehicles. Greer’s group raids a diner and grab all sorts of canned goods, which Volker suspects will give them botulism since they have no idea how old they are or what is in them since the labels have faded. Back at the warehouse, Varro says the sun is setting right before Laird from BSG comes back with a newspaper with a headline about an attack, while Young is on a rooftop looking at buildings that might have fallen apart naturally. He radios everyone else and says they were wiped out, but wants his teams to keep searching since there isn’t any obvious danger.
Laird starts comprehending the newspaper and says the attack came from space and that the machines responsible attacked the humans’ technology, then starts flipping out. James takes the paper from him and chats with Varro, who is busy messing with some gun that isn’t from Earth or the Lucian Alliance, saying he’s doing his part to keep the people safe. Meanwhile Greer can’t believe that there is no gun store in the city, right before he hears something that spooks him. Scott and Greer get their teams inside some of the stores, right before a drone buzzes the stores. They radio Young about the situation, who tells them to stay put and go on radio silence.
Park is still trapped in the dome and Eli tells her to put on her helmet and gloves since they’re a few minutes away from the star. As Destiny approaches the star, Rush and Eli are forced to override its efforts to abort the refueling. Eli decides to pry the door open, but Rush contacts Park and tells her to get in the collection pool in the center of the dome to shield herself from the radiation, in order to get Eli to focus on piloting the ship.
Young bumps into TJ’s group and sends them back to the gate while he heads off to help Scott and Greer. The drone stops in the middle of the street, then approaches the store Scott’s group is in. Greer tosses a can down the street to distract the drone, which promptly blasts the can and moves in to investigate it. Several hours later, Scott and Greer’s team is still trapped in the stores while the drone patrols the area between the stores. Another drone joins the first and aims a spotlight into the store Scott and his people are hiding in, prompting Greer to rush out and shoot it. However, Laird grabs the Kino remote and attempts to dial another planet in range, which prompts James to bash him in the face with her elbow and abort the dialing process. One of the drones heads off and James radios in to Scott, right before the other drone blasts the store. Greer and Scott walk into the street and stat firing, while the civilians make a break for it. Suddenly Colonel Young walks into the fight, firing his SMG, and together they manage to shoot down the drone. On their way back to the gate, Young grabs a bag with something in it- Greer asks what it is, but Young doesn’t reply.
On Destiny, alarms are blaring as the ship enters the outer layers of the star. Navigation shuts down, leaving Rush and Eli with manual control. After the ship rocks a bit, Eli speculates that Destiny sealed off the dome because it knew it couldn’t take the strain of refueling in the star. Eli bitches a bit that Rush knew, but Rush says Eli needs to stop worrying over things he can’t control and focus on steering the ship. Park is only now getting to the collection pool as the plants start to burn; as Destiny descends into the star, its shield s flicker like crazy as it strains to deal with the radiation. Rush activates the fuel scoops while the ships rocks, causing Eli to freak out. Rush keeps reassuring him that he can do the job while the plants burn up around Park.
At the gate, James leaves the building to see where the drone is and after spotting it, radios Scott, who berates her for giving away her position. However, it’s an ambush and Varro shoots it down with his gun, which is apparently an RPG. Young leads them through some underground maintenance passages, which is how he found Scott and Greer’s groups. Once at the warehouse, Wray tells them about the paper, which was printed on the third day of the attack: the city’s inhabitants moved the stargate to its present location to avoid the drones while volunteers drove every single vehicle away from the city in order to save as many people as possible. Young drops the bag and tells Wray it’s her new outfit
Having fully refueled, Eli powers up the sublight drive and gets Destiny out of the star, when the dome breaches. Park is almost pulled out of the pool, but uses her suit’s magnetic boots to keep her secured. She starts screaming as she stares into the flames of the burning plants; while Rush cools off the gate room, a display pops up telling him about the breach, which causes Eli to run off to the dome. When he gets there, Park is at the door and Rush is able to override it since they have escaped the star. Eli pulls Park through the door and once inside, she starts sobbing that she can’t see.
Back on the planet, the crew hears a rumbling in the distance and Young orders the gate dialed even though they are ten minutes early. Outside the warehouse, Young, Varro, Scott, and Greer watch a drone control ship descend over the city before heading through the gate. Once back on Destiny, Rush tells TJ about Park, who rushes to see her along with Greer, before telling Young Eli’s work was genius. However, Rush says that they can’t do it again since blue super giants are rare and the drones might be wise to their trick, then parts with a shot at Volker by saying they’ve got a full tank of gas.
Critique and Commentary
Blockade is, in my opinion, one of the most solid episodes of SGU. It has good pacing, a great A-plot, music that fits the scenes perfectly (except for the crew’s return) and the characters all behave fairly reasonably (except for Eli). For once in SGU, they use science in an interesting and appropriate way, as opposed to tacking on the science to pre-existing situations like in Incursion. Everything involving the refueling from the blue super giant is actually tense and worthy of the viewer’s attention. The only questionable part is why only the dome breached, considering all the other damage the ship has taken and the fact that the crew had the repair bot fix it, although they did only have it fail at the point where the hole was patched.
The offscreen disposal of the colonists from Common Descent is not really surprising or unwelcome, mostly because they had no development. I’m assuming that Varro’s RPG came from the Novus cache, although it begs the question of why more people didn’t have them. The last few episodes and Blockade all have the crew recovering useful supplies, which I think is the writers’ way of apologizing for wasting the opportunities to salvage stuff from the Ursini ships in The Greater Good and Resurgence. However, most of that stuff probably got ruined by the heat, so it sets them back to where they were in early season 1; I personally don't like that, but since the way they did it was fairly reasonable, I don't have as many problems wit hit as I did when the writers arbitrarily broke the shuttle in Aftermath.
The problems in this episode stem mostly from the B plot on the planet. While the first two refueling attempts weren’t the greatest parts of the episode, they were executed quite well and were actually necessary for the story to advance, unlike some of the footage from Novus in Epilogue (particularly the birthing scenes and Eli’s whining about his loneliness). The problem with the planet mostly revolves around the big chunk of episode where Scott and Greer are stuck in the stores with their people. The drones are boring antagonists because they are one-trick ponies- they fly around and blast things wherever they might be. Unlike the Ceph from Crysis 2, who likewise never talk, the drones lack visual and behavioral variety that is key to making these kinds of villains interesting.
And speaking of Crysis 2, another advantage the Ceph had over the drones is competence. They used a bioweapon to achieve their goal of killing all the humans and actually bothered to test it out over multiple iterations to make sure they got it right. The drones apparently just shoot things with their blasters, which is terribly inefficient and doesn’t fit with the lack devastation in the section of the city the crew stayed in. While both the drones and Ceph can be taken out with modern/near-future weapons, the Ceph can at least kill people when shooting at them; the drones missed Greer standing still and merely flipped him in the air.
Colonel Young’s sudden appearance in the gun fight was a massive failure in terms of directing an action sequence. He just walks into the fight and shoots at the drone with no expression on his face, coming off like a Terminator knock off. A better choice would’ve been to follow Young racing through the streets to help Scott and Greer, as it would’ve at least given some life to the fight. Seeing people stand around and just shoot a CGI object that has no moving parts and doesn't move is boring, so one would've expected the director to try to compensate for that somehow.
The whole bit about getting Wray a new outfit appears to tacked on to give Young something extra to do, as it’s pretty ridiculous that he would grab clothes for just Wray, when everyone could use new clothes. It feels almost like there was a larger subplot revolving around Young and Wray that got cut, with the bridge and clothes thing being the only remnants. I suppose that it could be more of the crew bonding stuff that's been going on since The Greater Good, but it feels a lot more out of place than the tiny bit when Young and Rush say good morning to each other early in the episode.
The highlights of the planet plot are James and Varro being competent, despite the fact that they are pretty much shoved in the background. Julia Benson and Mike Dupold manage to make the best of what little they have and make me wish they had been given an opportunity to do more earlier in the season. I was a lot more interested in what they were doing than Scott and Greer’s bit, although that probably has to do with the fact that Scott and Greer were stuck in a building doing nothing.
The only problem with the A plot is Eli. Eli started off being a fairly likable character despite the drain of bad jokes and the Chloe romance, but he stagnated along the way and then started devolving after Ginn died. In Resurgence, he was a bit emo, while here he’s a bit of an asshole, putting his documentary over doing actual work and calling Rush an SOB for wanting Eli to focus on getting the ship through the star. The disintegration of the chemistry that the Rush and Eli characters had in the pilot (which was one of the highlights of that episode) isn’t too bad- in fact, the scene where Rush tells Eli that he’s the only one capable of doing what needs to be done as they are flying through the super giant manages to recapture it perfectly- but it’s there just enough to annoy you while watching the episode. While Rush is a bit of an ass when it comes to dealing with people, seeing Eli get pissed at Rush for wanting Eli to focus on making sure the ship doesn’t get vaporized by the star, killing them and dooming the rest of the crew, instead of worrying about Park, who knew the risks and volunteered for the job, really does a good job of eroding Eli’s likability (which was already pretty worn down after a lot of the antics in the first half of season 1). But it was nice to see Eli do something important that didn’t feel like it was an asspull to finish the episode in five minutes or brought up the drama elements of the show, which are the weakest part of it.
Overall, for SGU this was an A+ episode, which would be B+ on any other show.
Plot Recap
The episode starts out with Destiny heading towards a planet at sublight before showing Eli watching the speech from his grandchild that was shown at the end of Epilogue. Rush walks up and asks for some calculations, which are on a sheet that’s so covered with stuff that Eli has to tell Rush where his work is. Rush briefly mentions that Brody is working on making paper before talking with Eli about constantly rewatching the footage, saying there are more important things to do. Eli says he’s going to put it in his documentary and says all the colonists they picked up left, to which Rush replies that there is a high chance of bumping into more denizens of Novus if they spread all over the galaxy.
On the bridge, Volker and Brody tell Rush that Destiny is planning to aerobrake into a refueling trajectory, which Rush takes in stride. Volker wonders why, since it takes so long, and Brody says that power levels are at 40%, prompting Volker to give a little anecdote about his grandfather constantly filling up his gas tank when it was half empty. Young comes on the bridge just before the aerobraking maneuver takes place. As Destiny heads toward the system’s star, they pick up drones and a command ship between them and the star, which surprises Young.
With several minutes remaining before they can safely activate their FTL, Destiny is forced to deal with the onslaught of drones. Unable to maneuver around the drones and without time to jam them, Rush and Young debate going through the drones in order to refuel, but Rush says Destiny can just pick another star to refuel at. Under fire from the drones, Destiny goes to FTL and Young asks how the drones knew where they were. Nobody knows, but Rush says not to overreact to what might have been a coincidence.
Down in the control interface room, Rush pulls up a hologram of Destiny’s course before Eli shows up and starts getting worked up about the possibility that the drones knew where Destiny was going to be. Rush suggests avoiding the next red dwarf that Destiny would use to refuel, since there’s the possibility the drones can predict Destiny’s course and they managed to get lucky on the aerobraking maneuver getting them through the shutdown window.
The Destiny attempts to refuel at another star, having dropped out of FTL at a fair distance to make sure the minimum time limit was passed in case they had to escape. On the bridge, Wray asks what the drones want and Eli reiterates that the drones are merely acting on their programming, which calls for the destruction of all alien technology. Wray complains about the lack of chairs, which results in Young giving her his chair. They pick up drones and a command ship between them and the star, which Greer says is a blockade. With dwindling power and faced with overwhelming numbers of drones, Destiny goes back to FTL.
Telford stones in from Earth to hear the news about the blockade, which has caused Destiny’s energy situation to become critical: systems are shutting down all over the ship and with only one more chance to refuel, they have to rely on Eli’s crazy idea. He wants to fly Destiny into a blue super giant to ensure that the drones won’t be blockading it. Volker comments that the crew won’t survive the extreme temperatures, to which Rush replies that most of the crew will be evacuated to a planet via stargate while a few stay to manually pilot the ship, since the computer might not take a programmed course and the core systems might shut down due to the heat. Rush and Eli will stay behind to pilot the ship while wearing the space suits to survive the extreme temperatures.
Chloe, Park, and Scott are picking plants from the botanical bay, since everything will be incinerated by the extreme electromagnet radiation produced by the blue super giant. While Brody will refrigerate the original hydroponics bay, there isn’t enough time to save everything. Destiny drops out of FTL and the crew scrambles to evacuate as the bridge shuts down. They bring a few guns, but Greer says they are running low on ammo, to which Young says Brody will have to make new ones. Park asks Young to use the third suit to save some of the medicinal plants that they’ve picked up and Young agrees. Greer is totally OK with it, saying she can handle herself. Rush lets them know they are approaching the super giant and says that they have at least seven hours on the clock and only one gate in range.
They dial the planet, which has well developed structures using more or less modern materials and an environment suitable for human life, which gets compared to Pittsburgh. Eli mentions that people spread out from Novus for centuries, explaining the fact that it appears to be a human settlement. The crew departs and sets up shop in the warehouse the stargate resides in on the planet. Young has small teams head to find anything worth salvaging, leaving Lt. James and Varro in charge of watching over the rest of the crew. Young asks Wray if she wants anything and she says she would like a new outfit.
Back on Destiny, Eli helps Park save the plants and they banter a bit. Park mentions looking up at the stars in the dome, which she used to do with her dad back on Earth. Rush calls Eli to the control interface room. Rush is not wearing his suit because they are still far enough from the star and it is easier to work without the suits on. Rush wants to know who’s going to be the pilot and Eli says he’ll do it. Meanwhile, Park gets locked into the dome and Rush and Eli can’t override it.
On the planet, Scott and Greer split up their group to cover both sides of the street they are searching. Brody says that the city has been abandoned for years at least, but wonders why there are no vehicles. Greer’s group raids a diner and grab all sorts of canned goods, which Volker suspects will give them botulism since they have no idea how old they are or what is in them since the labels have faded. Back at the warehouse, Varro says the sun is setting right before Laird from BSG comes back with a newspaper with a headline about an attack, while Young is on a rooftop looking at buildings that might have fallen apart naturally. He radios everyone else and says they were wiped out, but wants his teams to keep searching since there isn’t any obvious danger.
Laird starts comprehending the newspaper and says the attack came from space and that the machines responsible attacked the humans’ technology, then starts flipping out. James takes the paper from him and chats with Varro, who is busy messing with some gun that isn’t from Earth or the Lucian Alliance, saying he’s doing his part to keep the people safe. Meanwhile Greer can’t believe that there is no gun store in the city, right before he hears something that spooks him. Scott and Greer get their teams inside some of the stores, right before a drone buzzes the stores. They radio Young about the situation, who tells them to stay put and go on radio silence.
Park is still trapped in the dome and Eli tells her to put on her helmet and gloves since they’re a few minutes away from the star. As Destiny approaches the star, Rush and Eli are forced to override its efforts to abort the refueling. Eli decides to pry the door open, but Rush contacts Park and tells her to get in the collection pool in the center of the dome to shield herself from the radiation, in order to get Eli to focus on piloting the ship.
Young bumps into TJ’s group and sends them back to the gate while he heads off to help Scott and Greer. The drone stops in the middle of the street, then approaches the store Scott’s group is in. Greer tosses a can down the street to distract the drone, which promptly blasts the can and moves in to investigate it. Several hours later, Scott and Greer’s team is still trapped in the stores while the drone patrols the area between the stores. Another drone joins the first and aims a spotlight into the store Scott and his people are hiding in, prompting Greer to rush out and shoot it. However, Laird grabs the Kino remote and attempts to dial another planet in range, which prompts James to bash him in the face with her elbow and abort the dialing process. One of the drones heads off and James radios in to Scott, right before the other drone blasts the store. Greer and Scott walk into the street and stat firing, while the civilians make a break for it. Suddenly Colonel Young walks into the fight, firing his SMG, and together they manage to shoot down the drone. On their way back to the gate, Young grabs a bag with something in it- Greer asks what it is, but Young doesn’t reply.
On Destiny, alarms are blaring as the ship enters the outer layers of the star. Navigation shuts down, leaving Rush and Eli with manual control. After the ship rocks a bit, Eli speculates that Destiny sealed off the dome because it knew it couldn’t take the strain of refueling in the star. Eli bitches a bit that Rush knew, but Rush says Eli needs to stop worrying over things he can’t control and focus on steering the ship. Park is only now getting to the collection pool as the plants start to burn; as Destiny descends into the star, its shield s flicker like crazy as it strains to deal with the radiation. Rush activates the fuel scoops while the ships rocks, causing Eli to freak out. Rush keeps reassuring him that he can do the job while the plants burn up around Park.
At the gate, James leaves the building to see where the drone is and after spotting it, radios Scott, who berates her for giving away her position. However, it’s an ambush and Varro shoots it down with his gun, which is apparently an RPG. Young leads them through some underground maintenance passages, which is how he found Scott and Greer’s groups. Once at the warehouse, Wray tells them about the paper, which was printed on the third day of the attack: the city’s inhabitants moved the stargate to its present location to avoid the drones while volunteers drove every single vehicle away from the city in order to save as many people as possible. Young drops the bag and tells Wray it’s her new outfit
Having fully refueled, Eli powers up the sublight drive and gets Destiny out of the star, when the dome breaches. Park is almost pulled out of the pool, but uses her suit’s magnetic boots to keep her secured. She starts screaming as she stares into the flames of the burning plants; while Rush cools off the gate room, a display pops up telling him about the breach, which causes Eli to run off to the dome. When he gets there, Park is at the door and Rush is able to override it since they have escaped the star. Eli pulls Park through the door and once inside, she starts sobbing that she can’t see.
Back on the planet, the crew hears a rumbling in the distance and Young orders the gate dialed even though they are ten minutes early. Outside the warehouse, Young, Varro, Scott, and Greer watch a drone control ship descend over the city before heading through the gate. Once back on Destiny, Rush tells TJ about Park, who rushes to see her along with Greer, before telling Young Eli’s work was genius. However, Rush says that they can’t do it again since blue super giants are rare and the drones might be wise to their trick, then parts with a shot at Volker by saying they’ve got a full tank of gas.
Critique and Commentary
Blockade is, in my opinion, one of the most solid episodes of SGU. It has good pacing, a great A-plot, music that fits the scenes perfectly (except for the crew’s return) and the characters all behave fairly reasonably (except for Eli). For once in SGU, they use science in an interesting and appropriate way, as opposed to tacking on the science to pre-existing situations like in Incursion. Everything involving the refueling from the blue super giant is actually tense and worthy of the viewer’s attention. The only questionable part is why only the dome breached, considering all the other damage the ship has taken and the fact that the crew had the repair bot fix it, although they did only have it fail at the point where the hole was patched.
The offscreen disposal of the colonists from Common Descent is not really surprising or unwelcome, mostly because they had no development. I’m assuming that Varro’s RPG came from the Novus cache, although it begs the question of why more people didn’t have them. The last few episodes and Blockade all have the crew recovering useful supplies, which I think is the writers’ way of apologizing for wasting the opportunities to salvage stuff from the Ursini ships in The Greater Good and Resurgence. However, most of that stuff probably got ruined by the heat, so it sets them back to where they were in early season 1; I personally don't like that, but since the way they did it was fairly reasonable, I don't have as many problems wit hit as I did when the writers arbitrarily broke the shuttle in Aftermath.
The problems in this episode stem mostly from the B plot on the planet. While the first two refueling attempts weren’t the greatest parts of the episode, they were executed quite well and were actually necessary for the story to advance, unlike some of the footage from Novus in Epilogue (particularly the birthing scenes and Eli’s whining about his loneliness). The problem with the planet mostly revolves around the big chunk of episode where Scott and Greer are stuck in the stores with their people. The drones are boring antagonists because they are one-trick ponies- they fly around and blast things wherever they might be. Unlike the Ceph from Crysis 2, who likewise never talk, the drones lack visual and behavioral variety that is key to making these kinds of villains interesting.
And speaking of Crysis 2, another advantage the Ceph had over the drones is competence. They used a bioweapon to achieve their goal of killing all the humans and actually bothered to test it out over multiple iterations to make sure they got it right. The drones apparently just shoot things with their blasters, which is terribly inefficient and doesn’t fit with the lack devastation in the section of the city the crew stayed in. While both the drones and Ceph can be taken out with modern/near-future weapons, the Ceph can at least kill people when shooting at them; the drones missed Greer standing still and merely flipped him in the air.
Colonel Young’s sudden appearance in the gun fight was a massive failure in terms of directing an action sequence. He just walks into the fight and shoots at the drone with no expression on his face, coming off like a Terminator knock off. A better choice would’ve been to follow Young racing through the streets to help Scott and Greer, as it would’ve at least given some life to the fight. Seeing people stand around and just shoot a CGI object that has no moving parts and doesn't move is boring, so one would've expected the director to try to compensate for that somehow.
The whole bit about getting Wray a new outfit appears to tacked on to give Young something extra to do, as it’s pretty ridiculous that he would grab clothes for just Wray, when everyone could use new clothes. It feels almost like there was a larger subplot revolving around Young and Wray that got cut, with the bridge and clothes thing being the only remnants. I suppose that it could be more of the crew bonding stuff that's been going on since The Greater Good, but it feels a lot more out of place than the tiny bit when Young and Rush say good morning to each other early in the episode.
The highlights of the planet plot are James and Varro being competent, despite the fact that they are pretty much shoved in the background. Julia Benson and Mike Dupold manage to make the best of what little they have and make me wish they had been given an opportunity to do more earlier in the season. I was a lot more interested in what they were doing than Scott and Greer’s bit, although that probably has to do with the fact that Scott and Greer were stuck in a building doing nothing.
The only problem with the A plot is Eli. Eli started off being a fairly likable character despite the drain of bad jokes and the Chloe romance, but he stagnated along the way and then started devolving after Ginn died. In Resurgence, he was a bit emo, while here he’s a bit of an asshole, putting his documentary over doing actual work and calling Rush an SOB for wanting Eli to focus on getting the ship through the star. The disintegration of the chemistry that the Rush and Eli characters had in the pilot (which was one of the highlights of that episode) isn’t too bad- in fact, the scene where Rush tells Eli that he’s the only one capable of doing what needs to be done as they are flying through the super giant manages to recapture it perfectly- but it’s there just enough to annoy you while watching the episode. While Rush is a bit of an ass when it comes to dealing with people, seeing Eli get pissed at Rush for wanting Eli to focus on making sure the ship doesn’t get vaporized by the star, killing them and dooming the rest of the crew, instead of worrying about Park, who knew the risks and volunteered for the job, really does a good job of eroding Eli’s likability (which was already pretty worn down after a lot of the antics in the first half of season 1). But it was nice to see Eli do something important that didn’t feel like it was an asspull to finish the episode in five minutes or brought up the drama elements of the show, which are the weakest part of it.
Overall, for SGU this was an A+ episode, which would be B+ on any other show.
They did actually use the STARGATE again this ep, which is nice, and they had a lot of action. :beckettu:Your right about Eli.....he has been downright annoying to me lately. The comlexity that I felt they had built into Rush also seems to have stagmented. I found myself enjoying the banter between the squints more than anything else sometimes. The worse part of this ep to me , was not enough movement along the storyline, it is so obvious to me now that we (SGU and all SG fans) are about to get royally screwed again and with no dinner and drink. 
I am not happy with that, But I felt the individual ep was stll very entertaining. 
