General Discussion & Recap/Review Thread: SGU Episode 08 - "Malice"

[Tomm]

Scott was definately the worst part of this episode. he just wavers so much in personality it makes him a totally unpredictable character.

Especially when he said "after we get the information out of him you can do whatever you want with him, I don't care"

isn't this the same Scott that was so against torturing Telford that he had to be restained by Greer not to interfear?

so he was against bad treatment of prisoners, but now suddenly he has no problem with killing prisoners?

totally inconsistent.

also Scott says something like "countless people on Earth are counting on us" , 5 seconds later, Greer gets shot and Scott says "let's go back to the gate, it's not worth it"

so what about those countless people? the guy changes his mind faster than Chloe spreads her legs.


Eli was also completely all over the place. it's like they didn't know how they wanted his character to react, so there was a little bit of everything.
one moment he's sad and about to cry, the next he's gloating over Chloe, then he's suddenly angry, then he's sad, then he's a jerk, then he's smiling, then he's violent, it was totally randome and had no consistency at all.

TJ's "ER" scene was definately a big WTF moment. where the hell did all that equipment come from and who are all those new people we never saw before?
if they want to introduce new faces they should do this gradually first by showing the person walking by in the corridor or something like that, then give him/her a line, and so on.
but the way they did this was just showing completely new characters in the center of the action and it was completely distracting because I was asking myself "who is that" and loosing focus on what was going on.

the scenes on the planet were relatively good. but there are a lot of inconsistency with previous episodes.
first of all we now know that they have at least 3 remotes which activate the gate.

if that is the case, how come in the first episode when they were on a desert planet they were so terrified of loosing their remote that they shot the guy trying to leave to another planet because they thought they were going to get stranded ?
wouldn't Destiny just dial their gate and throw them another remote?

also in this episode after they loose their 1 kino, why don't they send more Kinos? we know they have an endless supply of Kinos so why not just send 10, 20 of them to search for the bad guy?
they sent only 1 and it got destroyed and they didn't send another, even though they had plenty of time to do it.

 

[SGUBlows]

I haven't watched yet, but my god, they really killed the two likable characters? Amanda Perry was the most compelling to watch on screen of any character they've had, guest or regular. She was actually pretty, emotive, and empathetic, not pursing and posing like some model-turned-actresses. God, these writers so deserve the firing they're about to get. They have no idea what comes off on the screen. None.

 

[ChromeToasterX]

TJ's "ER" scene was definately a big WTF moment. where the hell did all that equipment come from and who are all those new people we never saw before?
if they want to introduce new faces they should do this gradually first by showing the person walking by in the corridor or something like that, then give him/her a line, and so on.
but the way they did this was just showing completely new characters in the center of the action and it was completely distracting because I was asking myself "who is that" and loosing focus on what was going on.

I know I've seen short-haired Asian/Hispanic (I can't recall which one it is) military woman in some other episodes, but I have no idea what her name is, if she even has one.

 

[Illiterati]

WTF? SGU now has Dinosaurs? Why didn't somebody tell me?

No twenty foot penguins with stinging tentacles? (That's a Monty Python ref for you youngins.)

There is a certain point with this show where you expect to see a cut-in where the announcer says:

"And now it's time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode."

 

[SG-Rocks]

There is a certain point with this show where you expect to see a cut-in where the announcer says:

"And now it's time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode."

Hahaha that actually did happen as I remember. Scott of the Antarctic.

 

[Illiterati]

Hahaha that actually did happen as I remember. Scott of the Antarctic.

Oh god...what Python fan can forget that?

I think the first place I encountered the exploding penguin was on Python's "Monty Python's Previous Record and Another Monty Python Record" two record set.

It also turned me on to Lupins and the Money Song.

 

[SG-Rocks]

Lupins, Jean-Paul Satre, fish dance, Lion tamer, lumberjack song. All part of my mis-spent youth.

 

[Illiterati]

Lupins, Jean-Paul Satre, fish dance, Lion tamer, lumberjack song. All part of my mis-spent youth.

The Argument Clinic...

Le sigh

That's fine kind of humor I enjoy. I can't watch a lot of what passes for humor at this point and time.

 

[psyphi]

What i liked:
The secondary cast. They are more interesting than Young, chloe, scott, rush, eli, with a fraction of the screen time. It's a damn shame.

Greer shooting stuff and threatening people, Rush should be in a hole somewhere, people should treat him like shit he's earned it.

Park and James not dying. Also Greer. Those parts had me, everything else was a waste of time.

What i didn't like:

Everything else. One man killed a lot of red shirts and wounded characters that were good while missing the worthless ones. Scott needed to eat a bullet and gtfo.

 

[JohnSN7]

Malice Review

Stargate Universe
“Malice Review”
By JohnSN7

Recap:
We start off with Young and the scientists talking about Rush lying about controlling the Destiny. It seems Rush was telling the truth about the “structure” in the radiation. Rush goes back to his room and finds Ginn lying on the floor dead (with Amanda Perry’s consciousness in her body). It doesn’t take long for everyone to realize that Simeon (Robert Knepper) killed both Amanda Perry and his guard. Simeon shoots a couple of soldiers and takes plenty of firepower from the armory. He then takes Dr. Park hostage and goes through the Stargate. Rush, furious over Amanda Perry’s death, takes the gun from a soldier’s body and goes through the Stargate after Simeon. Young is told by Homeworld Command that Simeon knows the details of the Lucian Alliance’s coming attack on Earth and needs to be taken alive. On the planet, Rush finds Dr. Park sitting on the ground with an explosive (mine?) attached to her back. He manages to remove it from her back with the wire he used to repair his glasses and throws it away before it explodes, saving Dr. Park. The military comes through and starts looking for Simeon, who subsequently owns Scott and the kino they are using. Scott and Greer catch up to Rush and argue with him about taking Simeon alive. They decide to have Rush tag along and continue the search.

On the ship, Eli is hard at work trying to stop the countdown clock and prevent the ship from automatically going into FTL in a couple of hours. He is grieving over Ginn’s death (even though she is technically in Dr. Perry’s body). He wants to go out to the planet and hunt down Simeon, but Young convinces him not to. Chloe, under the influence of the alien infection, is able to solve the problem and bring the Destiny back to the desert planet.

Back on the planet, Scott tries talking to Rush about the Destiny’s mission, but Rush gets angry and then breaks down into tears over Amanda Perry’s death. They come across Simeon, who pins them down. Scott tells Lt. James to flank Simeon. Rush realizes that it’s a trap and warns Lt. James over the radio. She and her squad are ambushed and injured. Scott is suspicious and Rush admits that he has reprogrammed his kino controller to track the kino controller Simeon is carrying. They catch up to Simeon and Greer shoots him in the leg. In the subsequent argument between Rush and the others over whether or not to kill Simeon, Simeon shoots Greer, injuring him badly. This forces Scott to take Simeon back to the gate. Rush goes after Simeon and they are near a herd of dinosaur-like creatures. Rush plants some C4 and then gets into a shootout with Simeon. Rush gets pinned down behind a rock. Rush then detonates the C4, causing the herd to stampede and they trample Simeon. Rush then walks up to Simeon, who is begging for his life by saying he has information, and executes him. Rush then goes back to the gate and meets up with the rest of the crew.

Review:
This episode is called “Malice.” It should be called “Simeon owns everyone up until the end” because that’s exactly what happens. We’ve talked quite a bit about the magical survival kit and how bad the characters are, so I’ll focus on issues relating to this episode alone.

I will start with the good. Robert Knepper was excellent, as always. The character of Simeon was not very well developed (more on that later), but that is a function of the writers. Knepper does elevate Simeon from generic bad guy to a hardcore badass villain. It was really cool seeing him own everyone on the ship, grab a massive arsenal from the armory (in a pretty badass fashion), and then continue to own everyone on the planet.

Another good thing about this episode is that it had some action. Granted most of it was slow, boring but at least this episode of SGU had a few brief exciting moments. Rush executing Simeon was really cool in my opinion.

I have another Varro update for the ladies on this forum. He does appear briefly in this episode. Young talks to him and asks him about Simeon. Varro once again displays intelligent behavior and says that they should leave Simeon behind on the planet and find another way to learn about the Lucian Alliance’s coming attack on Earth. He even offers to go after Simeon himself (that would be epic), but Young ruins the fun and turns him down. In this scene Varro is not wearing his LA gear. He is wearing a tight black t-shirt which emphasizes his biceps.

Now onto the bad. The character of Simeon had some problems. Why did he kill Ginn/Perry? He is stranded several galaxies away from the Lucian Alliance, unable to reach or contact them. He shouldn’t care if Ginn was giving Stargate Command (oops, Homeworld Command) intelligence about the LA attack. Killing her was a death sentence for him. He had to have known that they would either kill him or leave him to die on that desert planet. He strikes me as the kind of person who cares about his survival first and foremost. The best way for him to survive would be to cooperate with Homeworld Command and tag along on the Destiny. Maybe he is Bear Grylls and can survive on desert planets. Maybe he was sick of the Destiny crew (I know we are). Simeon doesn’t have much screen-time in all of the episodes of SGU he’s in, so we don’t really get to learn much about his motivations. As a result, his actions aren’t really believable. But Robert Knepper is still a badass.

And that ties into the next WTF moment. It was awesome seeing Simeon own everyone, but the fact that Simeon owned everyone is a WTF moment. I kid you not, Simeon displays better military tactics than the allegedly elite military teams of Homeworld Command. In the end, Rush, a civilian, displays the most resourcefulness and kills Simeon. In this episode and in Incursion (those two come to mind first and foremost), the military seems incompetent. I remember when the military was actively involved in the production of Stargate and actually had airmen and marines as background characters. What happened to those days?

And now onto the biggest WTF moment for me. Rush finds Dr. Park with a mine attached to her back. He manages to take off the top and remove the “proximity detector” (I believe that’s what I heard) and throws the mine away seconds before it explodes. He does this with the wiring on his glasses. Yes, you read that correctly. THE WIRING ON HIS GLASSES. WTF? So Rush is an EOD bomb technician? Those guys go through ridiculous training that most people would not be able to do. Also, what kind of mine was it? I am not an explosive expert, so maybe someone can clarify for me. They said “proximity mine” in the show. Shouldn’t the mine have gone off since Rush came up right behind Park and took the covering off of the mine? Then the mine turns into a beeping timed explosive when Rush removes the “Proximity detector.” Does it work like that? I don’t know how mines work, but that whole part seemed ridiculous.

Another thing about this episode I didn’t like was the music. Simeon is going on a rampage and the music is the same droning, slow music. Don’t get me wrong, you can pull off a great action scene with slow-tempo music, but SGU is not good at that and the music detracts heavily from the episode. How can I get excited about what’s going on if the music is dull?

Eli was irritating in this episode. I know that if someone I loved was murdered I would be furious and want revenge, but why is Eli so emotionally invested in Ginn (and vice versa)? He just met her recently. It doesn’t seem believable that he would all of a sudden love her and want to go onto the planet and hunt down Simeon (knowing full well that Simeon would probably kill him easily). Rush knew Perry for a long time, so his reaction was far more believable.

In conclusion, this episode was above average for an SGU episode, but that is not saying much. I’d rather watch this one than Life again. With that said, Malice did not have the emotional impact that it could have had. The whole show is lacking in emotional impact. Watching this episode, like watching every SGU episode, is a chore. It is watching the show fail, and I really hope it is cancelled soon because we are eight episodes into the second season and it is the same show it was in season one.

 

[Rac80]

Stargate Universe
“Malice Review”
By JohnSN7

Recap:
We start off with Young and the scientists talking about Rush lying about controlling the Destiny. It seems Rush was telling the truth about the “structure” in the radiation. Rush goes back to his room and finds Ginn lying on the floor dead (with Amanda Perry’s consciousness in her body). It doesn’t take long for everyone to realize that Simeon (Robert Knepper) killed both Amanda Perry and his guard. Simeon shoots a couple of soldiers and takes plenty of firepower from the armory. He then takes Dr. Park hostage and goes through the Stargate. Rush, furious over Amanda Perry’s death, takes the gun from a soldier’s body and goes through the Stargate after Simeon. Young is told by Homeworld Command that Simeon knows the details of the Lucian Alliance’s coming attack on Earth and needs to be taken alive. On the planet, Rush finds Dr. Park sitting on the ground with an explosive (mine?) attached to her back. He manages to remove it from her back with the wire he used to repair his glasses and throws it away before it explodes, saving Dr. Park. The military comes through and starts looking for Simeon, who subsequently owns Scott and the kino they are using. Scott and Greer catch up to Rush and argue with him about taking Simeon alive. They decide to have Rush tag along and continue the search.

On the ship, Eli is hard at work trying to stop the countdown clock and prevent the ship from automatically going into FTL in a couple of hours. He is grieving over Ginn’s death (even though she is technically in Dr. Perry’s body). He wants to go out to the planet and hunt down Simeon, but Young convinces him not to. Chloe, under the influence of the alien infection, is able to solve the problem and bring the Destiny back to the desert planet.

Back on the planet, Scott tries talking to Rush about the Destiny’s mission, but Rush gets angry and then breaks down into tears over Amanda Perry’s death. They come across Simeon, who pins them down. Scott tells Lt. James to flank Simeon. Rush realizes that it’s a trap and warns Lt. James over the radio. She and her squad are ambushed and injured. Scott is suspicious and Rush admits that he has reprogrammed his kino controller to track the kino controller Simeon is carrying. They catch up to Simeon and Greer shoots him in the leg. In the subsequent argument between Rush and the others over whether or not to kill Simeon, Simeon shoots Greer, injuring him badly. This forces Scott to take Simeon back to the gate. Rush goes after Simeon and they are near a herd of dinosaur-like creatures. Rush plants some C4 and then gets into a shootout with Simeon. Rush gets pinned down behind a rock. Rush then detonates the C4, causing the herd to stampede and they trample Simeon. Rush then walks up to Simeon, who is begging for his life by saying he has information, and executes him. Rush then goes back to the gate and meets up with the rest of the crew.

Review:
This episode is called “Malice.” It should be called “Simeon owns everyone up until the end” because that’s exactly what happens. We’ve talked quite a bit about the magical survival kit and how bad the characters are, so I’ll focus on issues relating to this episode alone.

I will start with the good. Robert Knepper was excellent, as always. The character of Simeon was not very well developed (more on that later), but that is a function of the writers. Knepper does elevate Simeon from generic bad guy to a hardcore badass villain. It was really cool seeing him own everyone on the ship, grab a massive arsenal from the armory (in a pretty badass fashion), and then continue to own everyone on the planet.

Another good thing about this episode is that it had some action. Granted most of it was slow, boring but at least this episode of SGU had a few brief exciting moments. Rush executing Simeon was really cool in my opinion.

I have another Varro update for the ladies on this forum. He does appear briefly in this episode. Young talks to him and asks him about Simeon. Varro once again displays intelligent behavior and says that they should leave Simeon behind on the planet and find another way to learn about the Lucian Alliance’s coming attack on Earth. He even offers to go after Simeon himself (that would be epic), but Young ruins the fun and turns him down. In this scene Varro is not wearing his LA gear. He is wearing a tight black t-shirt which emphasizes his biceps.

Now onto the bad. The character of Simeon had some problems. Why did he kill Ginn/Perry? He is stranded several galaxies away from the Lucian Alliance, unable to reach or contact them. He shouldn’t care if Ginn was giving Stargate Command (oops, Homeworld Command) intelligence about the LA attack. Killing her was a death sentence for him. He had to have known that they would either kill him or leave him to die on that desert planet. He strikes me as the kind of person who cares about his survival first and foremost. The best way for him to survive would be to cooperate with Homeworld Command and tag along on the Destiny. Maybe he is Bear Grylls and can survive on desert planets. Maybe he was sick of the Destiny crew (I know we are). Simeon doesn’t have much screen-time in all of the episodes of SGU he’s in, so we don’t really get to learn much about his motivations. As a result, his actions aren’t really believable. But Robert Knepper is still a badass.

And that ties into the next WTF moment. It was awesome seeing Simeon own everyone, but the fact that Simeon owned everyone is a WTF moment. I kid you not, Simeon displays better military tactics than the allegedly elite military teams of Homeworld Command. In the end, Rush, a civilian, displays the most resourcefulness and kills Simeon. In this episode and in Incursion (those two come to mind first and foremost), the military seems incompetent. I remember when the military was actively involved in the production of Stargate and actually had airmen and marines as background characters. What happened to those days?

And now onto the biggest WTF moment for me. Rush finds Dr. Park with a mine attached to her back. He manages to take off the top and remove the “proximity detector” (I believe that’s what I heard) and throws the mine away seconds before it explodes. He does this with the wiring on his glasses. Yes, you read that correctly. THE WIRING ON HIS GLASSES. WTF? So Rush is an EOD bomb technician? Those guys go through ridiculous training that most people would not be able to do. Also, what kind of mine was it? I am not an explosive expert, so maybe someone can clarify for me. They said “proximity mine” in the show. Shouldn’t the mine have gone off since Rush came up right behind Park and took the covering off of the mine? Then the mine turns into a beeping timed explosive when Rush removes the “Proximity detector.” Does it work like that? I don’t know how mines work, but that whole part seemed ridiculous.

Another thing about this episode I didn’t like was the music. Simeon is going on a rampage and the music is the same droning, slow music. Don’t get me wrong, you can pull off a great action scene with slow-tempo music, but SGU is not good at that and the music detracts heavily from the episode. How can I get excited about what’s going on if the music is dull?

Eli was irritating in this episode. I know that if someone I loved was murdered I would be furious and want revenge, but why is Eli so emotionally invested in Ginn (and vice versa)? He just met her recently. It doesn’t seem believable that he would all of a sudden love her and want to go onto the planet and hunt down Simeon (knowing full well that Simeon would probably kill him easily). Rush knew Perry for a long time, so his reaction was far more believable.

In conclusion, this episode was above average for an SGU episode, but that is not saying much. I’d rather watch this one than Life again. With that said, Malice did not have the emotional impact that it could have had. The whole show is lacking in emotional impact. Watching this episode, like watching every SGU episode, is a chore. It is watching the show fail, and I really hope it is cancelled soon because we are eight episodes into the second season and it is the same show it was in season one.

well another ep I am glad I didn't watch....although hubby watched the TNG's before it and enjoyed THEM a lot. off went the tv at 9pm.


oh you sweet thing to think about us ladies.

 

[Starman]

• Chloe is showing powers of mathematics and other stuff she says she doesnt understand, but Rush was in the tank with the fish people longer...was he too filthy for them to try it on him? Why did he have a tracking device planted is he wasnt affected, but Chloe was not, and she is the one they changed?

Whether they actually used this logic in the writing or not is debatable, but maybe they tried one method on one prisoner and another method on the other prisoner (and if they had more prisoners, we might have seen even different things come out). The whole thing might be an experiment by the Blueberries.

 

[Loheat]

[/LIST]
Whether they actually used this logic in the writing or not is debatable, but maybe they tried one method on one prisoner and another method on the other prisoner (and if they had more prisoners, we might have seen even different things come out). The whole thing might be an experiment by the Blueberries.

I think it is possible that Chloe's infection may be an unintended side-effect. I doubt the Blaliens did it on purpose because it has done nothing but help the Destiny crew since she got it. Of course, they also fixed the ship when they tried to blow it up before, so maybe they are just really incompetent

 

[Joelist]

Logic and the writers of SGU have little to no relationship with each other.

On a related note, I am still finding this whole notion of the Lucian Alliance being big bad's who threaten Earth to be ludicrous. The LA were always a squabbling bunch of thugs who were not really into empire building but more into profit. Suddenly they are a major threat to earth with its fleet (at least 5) of Daedalus class ships with Asgard technology, Atlantis and once they rig a new control system the Antarctic weapons platform? Plus lest we forget Earth is allied with the Jaffa, who control most of the ships and hardware the System Lords left AND the Ori (or whatever the political unit is called now that Adria and the Ori themselves are gone).

Which of course leads to other questions? Why were the LA using earth weapons? What happened to Zat's? Basically they not only made a "darker" Stargate they also junked the whole canon pretty much, and what they replaced it with is illogical at best.

 

[MetalFoldingChair]

Logic and the writers of SGU have little to no relationship with each other.

On a related note, I am still finding this whole notion of the Lucian Alliance being big bad's who threaten Earth to be ludicrous. The LA were always a squabbling bunch of thugs who were not really into empire building but more into profit. Suddenly they are a major threat to earth with its fleet (at least 5) of Daedalus class ships with Asgard technology, Atlantis and once they rig a new control system the Antarctic weapons platform? Plus lest we forget Earth is allied with the Jaffa, who control most of the ships and hardware the System Lords left AND the Ori (or whatever the political unit is called now that Adria and the Ori themselves are gone).

Which of course leads to other questions? Why were the LA using earth weapons? What happened to Zat's? Basically they not only made a "darker" Stargate they also junked the whole canon pretty much, and what they replaced it with is illogical at best.

The LA thing confuses me also. I mean, they couldn't have written that into the show with the expectation that Stargate fans would just accept it. How stupid is that? Anyone who has watched SG1 knows the size and capabilities of the LA. They are no threat so to suddenly make them out to be is laughable.

But the LA thing is just one of many flaws that doomed the show from the start. It's not worth hurting your brain trying to figure out the motivations the writers had for coming up with such nonsense, especially since the show is on the chopping block as we speak. I swear I can hear an axe being sharpened on a wet stone right now.

 

[Illiterati]

There always seems to have to be some alien/otherworldly threat to the Earth in whatever Stargate we're watching. Even SGPoo isn't any different that way.

I am reminded of that great line from Monsters vs Aliens:

"Once again, a UFO has landed in America, the only country UFOs ever seem to land in."

 

[webduelist]

LA

well the LA did manage to get a cargo ship past sensors, maybe its less of a frontal attack and a attack by infiltration, kinda like the shape shifters from fringe. slowly drop off la members and hide until the time is right. I do agree there is no way the LA can take on earths 304s, then again why didn't the General Hammond not have Asgard beam weapons? Those ships should have dropped out and then been blown up 20 seconds later. A 304 can take out a Ori ship which if I remember was complete over powered and took out a lot of ships in a very short amount of time. And speaking of the ori and their super gate, the gate was built by the humans they had worshiping them, so that stands to reason that the plans are still around. They also seemed to have a power source that could maintain a gate indefinitely so could they just dial what ever galaxy the Destiny is in, send a super gate, collapse a planet into a black whole (seems like 90% of them are just rocks) for power, dial the Milkyway or dial the other galaxy, problem solved easy back and forth travel from the Destiny to earth and earth to Destiny. Kinda started Rambling there.

 

[heisenberg]

Location was great but the arc sucked ass!Where on earth did Simone come all of a sudden? There was , no episode(s) that brought the development of the character. He just popped out of no where. Seriously, this series is proving to be more illogical than any other show I've ever watched, it doesn't make any sense what so ever.

Also,this was Robert Caryle's worst ever performance on TV imho.His acting didn't look look believeable in this episode.

 

[Darth Atlantis]

Simone is the toughest dude in the lucian alliance! lol this one guy caused all kinds of havoc! ahahahaahha!

 

[Bluce Ree]

Whilst I haven't seen it yet, the response seems to be "it coulda been good but its either "too late" or "not enough" " I'm interested in seeing the ep for myself when it airs here just to make an accurate assesment. Personally, I think it will fall somewhere between the 2.

This episode only raised one gigantic question. Where the hell did Simeon think he was going?

He killed Uselesserella (or whatever the fuck her name is) in her quarters then proceeded straight to the weapons locker and out the Stargate to a desert planet full of dinosaurs billions of light years from home. Huh?