Official SGUS review - Trial and Error
Sorry this is so late guys, I thought Oddessy did do his review.
OK short version of the review:
The Destiny through means mostly unknown (an sensor based informational gathering technique has infiltrated Col Youngs dreams and puts him through his paces as commander via a dream based psychological test to determine if he is up to the task of commanding the Destiny. after failing multiple times, Lt Scott breaks him out of his alcohol fueled depressive state and convinces him that he is indeed the right man for the job. The B story is a piss-poor attempt to engender care for both Eli and Ginn as thier "star crossed love" is fated to die.
In depth review.
This will be culled from the 5 pages of notes I wrote whilst watching the ep and hopefully will give those of us who did not watch this a fairly complete overview of the episode. I will come back and re-format it later when I have better access to the net so it doesn't look like shit.
ACT 1
We begin the ep with a nice shot of Destiny flying towards the screen, which is the immediately ruined by a nice close up of a comm stone. (Earth drama is afoot). Young looks depressed and has obviously recieved some bad news "back home".
We then cut to the "med lab" where TJ has been studying Scotts blood looking for evidence of the "fish cooties" from his transfusion with Chloe. He (Scott) is proclaimed clear and the scene then revolves around us finding out that Mrs Young has filed for devorce and TJ tries to raise Young's spirits with some sypathetic talk. It's a nice scene showing that Young's divorce is has almost totally broken him, but on the whole, not needed.
Cue opening "credits"
Wray brings Ginn to Eli's little "hidey hole" and they establish that Ginn has been following Eli's work (via Telford I assume) especially his work on the "star dial" idea. It's obvious that Wray is trying to intergrate Ginn into the regular crew. We also get a "first spark" of Eli's interest in Ginn.
Cut to Chloe's quaters with Scott
Here we see that Chloe is being her usual mopey emo self and Scott tells her he loves her anyway. She then reveals the cooties growing on her leg and how she is worried about how it is changing her. Scott then leaves and we get the impression he is not only doubting himself but her as well and thier continued relationship. (much pursing of lips)
Cut Back to Young.
Young is sitting down, spinning his wedding ring, obviously tring to reconcile his new "single" status with himself when he recieves a call to report to the control room as there is a "problem". The "blues" have surrounded the Destiny with 9 ships and are demanding that they release Chloe to them. Young orders them to power weapons and they attempt to fight off the blue armarda. Rush arrives and questions Yong's decision to power weapons instead of diverting power to the shields.
Meanwhile during the attack Lt Scott stands in the observation deck and watches the incoming alien fire. A shot strikes the glass panneling and as it begins to crack, Scott radio's Young and tells him to seal of the observation deck in order to save the ship and then gets sucked into space (YAY). The engines soon overload due to the strain of trying to use the ships guns, causing massive internal explosions and we see a nice shot of the Destiny blowing up. Unfortunately, Young then wakes up and realises it was all a dream.
Cut to briefing Room.
Young is conducting a "staff meeting" and Park mentions that they are trying to get the repair robot working 24/7 to get the dome repaired for a new hydroponics bay. Young shoots the idea down and demands that getting the weapon systems on board up to 100% is more important than the new hydroponics bay. Wray argues mentioning a "Dr Camp" was already injured trying to repair the weapons grid. Young doesn't care and insists on fixing the weapons. Wray then tryies to "council" Young and gets told to piss off.
Cut to Chloe and Rush.
Rush visits Chloe in the hope of getting her help on some new equations he has been working on. Chloe is still miserable, but with Rush's goading he convinces her to stop feeling sorry for herself and use her new talents to help the crew on the vague statement that he is getting close to knowing the Destiny's true mission.
Cut to Eli/Ginn/Greer
Eli and Ginn bond over common ground (I love for math, cause numbers don't lie (just ask TPTB, its all about spin) ). Elie recounts his previous desire to be a Vet and how it failed miserably. Ginn then tries to cheer him up by reminding him that if he wasn't a math genius, none of them would have got to the Destiny at all.
Cut to Young, getting pissed again.
Second KM dream. This time he forgoes the big guns on the advice of Rush and puts all power to the shields. Unfortunately, 6 more ships arrive and with thier combined firepower once more destroy the Destiny. Young then wakes up again and goes to Wray, saying that he thinks he is loosing his mind, citing that she wanted to be camp counciler. Young and Wray discuss Youngs recurring dream and what it might mean and Wray advises him to go speak to Chloe. (the Young/Wray discussion was actually well acted and nice to see, no matter how useful it was('nt).
End of Act 1
Act 2
Young goes to see Chloe who is now working on Rush's equations instead of moping around. He apologises for locking her up but Chloe says she understands his reasoning and feels like an outsider. Young then tells her no one has given up on her and they still hope to find a cure.
Cut to mess hall
Eli and Greer have a Bromance moment over Eli making a move on Ginn. Again, a nice scene, but pretty useless on the whole.
Cut to KM version 3
Using his previous experience, Young hands Chloe over to the blues without a fight this time. An understandably pissed off Scott then drops Young and he finally cracks, lying on the floor laughing like a lunatic. Scott then takes command and begins to order the defence of the ship against boarding parties. Young in the meantime has got over his break and is wandering around the ship aimlessly until a blue finds him and shoots him.
Young again wakes up and trotts himself down to Brodies bar and begins to get utterly shitfaced. TJ then come in and trys to lift his spirits again by explaining about thier baby but is is obvious she is trying to convince herself it was real. Young shoots her down again saying that just because you want something, that it doesn't make it real. TJ is very upset by Youngs apparent lack of care.
Act 3
Ginn and Eli in Eli's "nest"
Eli discovers that the ship is running some form of simulation but cannot determine what it is. Ginn asks about Eli's photos and he explains that they are part of his "movie" about thier voyage and shows her a piece on "ancient toilets" (ahh, that old gem, where is the toilet on the Enterprise) Greer gets "called away" to give them some alone time, Eli follows Greer looking for some advice while Ginn finds Eli's entry about the recent visit from his mum. Eli comes back and see's what Ginn is watching and tries to call off the "alone time" but Ginn kisses him as they drop out of FTL (the time transition in dropout obviously gives them both the "jitters")
Cut to Young and Scott
Scott bashes on Youngs door, telling him that they have dropped out of FTL. A ragged Young tells scot to "figure it out" and closes the door on him.
Cut To Bridge
Rush is trying to work out what happened as he didn't order the Destiny to stop. Holofranklin tells Rush to look deeper.
Cut to control room
Eli works out the simulation whilst waffling on about how he and Ginn have become "more than friends" and Wray realises that the simulation is Youngs "dreams"
Cut to Rush on the Bridge
Rush realises a simulation is running and Holofranklin tells him to look even closer. Rush realises that while the simulation is running it will overide normal ship ops.
Cut To Control room
Wray and Scott discuss how the Destiny itself is affecting Youngs dreams.
Cut to Chloe and Scott
Scott grills Chloe trying to determine if she may have sent a message to the Blues on thier location. Chloe cannot remember and Scott begins to organise the ship based on Young's previous dreams.
Act 4
Scott is organizing fire teams to cover possible points of alien incursion. Scott/Wray/Rush then discuss weather Scott should step up as leader as this is obviously a test of some kind. Rush puts forward the idea that the ship is learning to react to them, but denies it having any actual personality.
Scott then goes to see Young again to give him the old "Hoo-Rah" speach and rags on Young for giving up. Young pushes back saying he never wanted the role and dosn't want to be Scott's father figure. Young then admits that he killed Riley and that he cannot live with the pain of the results of his actions. Scott then admits he is being an ass and that he can't fill Young's shoes and points to the fact that of all people on the ship, only Young has the strength to walk the fine line between commander and callous arsehole.
Act 5
Young gets his shit togeather, cleans himself up and goes to the control room and acts like a commander. Almost instantly the ship jumps back into FTL
Cut to Mess hall
Eli is worried about Destiny messing with his head and his dreams. Park has a good natured go at him about his dreams (Ginn is sitting next to Eli) and Brody and Volker proclaim that after this test, they know that Young really was "the right man for the job"
Cut to Rush on Bridge
We learn that the only reason the ship started again is because Rush bypassed the simulation, not from Young stepping up. Rush gets his "I am god moment", sitting like daniel in the main control chair. HoloFranklin reminds Rush that just because he "got around" this problem, that it doesn't mean that the treat was not real or that there are greater challenges to face.
End Episode.
OK, thats the overview. I will post more of my thoughts on it soon, but this has been a long enough haul on "ratings day" and I wana kick back a bit.
Part two coming soon.
- alas, it was not for real :icon_e_sad:
