General Discussion & Recap/Review Thread: SGU Episode 09 - "Visitation"

[psyphi]

Man i'm excited, if they kill Chloe soon i will dance. Also Greer is still the most badass character in the show. Scott and Chloe need to suicide so he can take the lead.

Review:
Yet another bottle episode setting up that stuff that might have been important doesn't mean jack. Apparently the faith aliens can build a solar system but not revive a human body for long. The Nox could do that no problem these assholes should be able to do it.

Greer and Park have a thing, awesome, i like them both at least they aren't screwing around like everyone else. He probably hits that regular like a boss.

The people they left on that planet got what they deserved, idiots. They were waiting for aliens to save them and froze to death looking for an easy out. Not being able to close the door was stupid though, there would be enough air for a few hours easy. They could rest and get warm but instead they left it open and froze.

Chloe still sucks, Scott still sucks, the episode amounted to nothing.

 

[ChromeToasterX]

What I liked:
-The crew interacting like normal people for once, no backstabbing, shouting, what not. Out of left field though, but if they can keep this up, SGU might be tolerable for the half season it has left (barring backroom deals).
-Greer's little subplot about him getting ready to off Chloe. I was hoping he would do it when he was asking her for forgiveness, but the writers decided not to go for it.
-Wray being useful. Nice to see her contribute something positive, although it makes Young more of an idiot for not working with her since the beginning.
-Young being competent and figuring out that TJ's dream was the ship messing with her head. Why couldn't he have been like this from the beginning?

What I didn't like:
-The writers pulling a shuttle out of their ass for the next episode.
-Bringing back the Faith nuts. At least we can be satisfied that they got what they deserved for being complete idiots.
-More psuedo-religious shit that the writers use to pretend to be "deep."
-The hydroponics bay. How the fuck did they manage to get it like that? It looks like they ripped up the deck plates, cleared everything from under that to the deck below, and then set up a maze. Why couldn't they just put the plant containers on the perfectly good deck and make it easy for them to maintain things?
-Chloe managing to suck the life out of the episode in every scene except the one she had with Greer. Why did we not kill her in Malice instead of Ginn and Amanda Perry?
-The stupid ending that implies Caine might survive because the light got to him before he died.
-Why couldn't the super advanced aliens that made the shuttle new again and supposedly created a solar system not heal the Faith nuts? Are they incapable of doing what a sarcophagus can easily do or were they trolling the Destiny crew?

 

[Overmind One]

Im getting this episode now.

from everybody's comments so far, it looks like a stinker overall. They seem to be showing a pattern of sorts in how they "weave the plots". That not good, because it means the plots are too predictable. Also, writing it in this fashion with a serialized format means that people seeing this episode and not Faith would have to go back to that episode to see who the hell these people are. That could be a tactic, perhaps. But the pattern seems to be:

1. Build up something for one or more characters, and ramp it WAY up.
2. Then, do something to that character or characters and leave it unresolved for at least two episodes or more.
3. Then, revisit the issue and resolve the original thread, whilst creating a new unresolved issue with another character (or characters).
4. Repeat, using different characters and a different take on what gets built up.

More later when I have watched this episode. I have 15 minutes more to wait.

 

[Loheat]

I liked this episode, there were some generally sad moments, especially the flashbacks to the planet. I even liked the scenes with Chloe, I like how she was used not to save the day in the last minute, but actually had some interesting scenes regarding her illness. I still wouldnt be worried if I were her since that disease had saved her life and her boyfriend's life, but I guess the blue skin rash is freaking her out.

Not much more to say, it was good. Not great, just good. Its one of the better SGU episodes when it should be one of the average ones, but I enjoyed it


The only problem I had is did Caine die at the end? We will find out in the next episode if he lives or not, but I dont like how it was left with ambiguous at the end. That would work in a movie where you can make up your mind, but not for a show like this where one of the options will be decided next episode, so we are left in the dark

 

[Red Mage]

This episode was very pretentious. Very difficult to sit through. The writers needs to stay far away from the faith and pseudo-religious themes because they just don't work all that well in the context of most scifi. This episode was no different. My eyes were rolling pretty much everytime Caine opened his mouth.

I just don't see the point in this episode. These seemingly dead characters were brought back only to die again hours later. Why were they brought back? The aliens wiped their memory so it could not have been a last chance to say goodbye before dying again. They had experience the pain and suffering of death all over again very shortly after being brought back to life so I don't see it as a too benevolent an act

Chloe has a quite a bit of screentime which is always a huge negative for any episode. The way the rest of the cast has been treating her is downright ridiculous. WHY IS EVERYONE SO FEARFUL OF HER? She has done NOTHING except being able to solve some math problems and occasionally zone out to blankly stare at nothing. Her abililities have only proved to be beneficial thus far. Contrast this with the way a real threat like Simeon was handled. Simeon got to freely walk around with minimal supervision and sexually harass women and Chloe gets 24 hour lockdown with full surveillance.

 

[Rating]

This episode was very pretentious. Very difficult to sit through. The writers needs to stay far away from the faith and pseudo-religious themes because they just don't work all that well in the context of most scifi. This episode was no different. My eyes were rolling pretty much everytime Caine opened his mouth.

I just don't see the point in this episode. These seemingly dead characters were brought back only to die again hours later. Why were they brought back? The aliens wiped their memory so it could not have been a last chance to say goodbye before dying again. They had experience their pain and suffering death all over again very shortly after being brought back to life so I don't see it as a too benevolent act

Chloe has a quite a bit of screentime which is always a huge negative for any episode. The way the rest of the cast has been treating her is downright ridiculous. WHY IS EVERYONE SO FEARFUL OF HER? She has done NOTHING except being able to solve some math problems and occasionally zone out to blankly stare at nothing. Her abililities have only proved to be beneficial thus far. Contrast this with the way a real threat like Simeon was handled. Simeon got to freely walk around with minimal supervision and sexually harass women and Chloe gets 24 hour lockdown with full surveillance.

I really dont mind it when stargate goes down the "faith and pseudo-religious themes" route. I think that SG1 / SGA did this very well, what with the Ori and the Ancients and such like.

What I dont get is why everyone is so shocked by this sort of shit happening. I mean we know what Ascended beings can do.... Its not a massive leap of faith in the stargate universe to imagine that other biological beings across the universe have reached a state of pure energy without developing a prime directive along the way. or is it?

I really wish the writers would just get a move on, and write a decent episode!

FFS have Chloe transform already... The changing on her arms and legs is pretty pitiful.
Lets meet a civilized Alien Society. with fancy ships, cool technology, and who dont want to smash destiny up...
And for the love of god give the freaking blair witch keno shit a rest... its boring.

 

[Gatefan1976]

If the Faith aliens did not have the ability to revive dead humans permanently, why would they want to revive the dead humans to begin with? Just because these are aliens does not mean that they would act contrary to reason. What purpose did the re-death of the Faith colonists on the Destiny serve the aliens?

The pat answer would be that these questions would be answered later in the series, however:

1. I have seen no evidence that open questions will ever be answered (i.e. Furlings, Evil Asgard, etc.,).
2. This season will probably be SGU's last season.

Well, I guess the easy answer is, it didn't serve the "aliens", it served the writers who went "Oh fuck, we need a shuttle again, but we crashed it to build some kind of reason for it coming back"

 

[ParagonPie]

I'll start off with the biggest complaint, I skipped most of the Chloe scenes, seriously how many times must we have people talking into those blasted Kino's? She is seriously doing my head in now I never could stand her but now she has achieved the impossible and managed to piss me off even more whenever I see her. Also at the start, how everyone is thrilled at the true nature of Destiny's mission, yep these folks are definitely enthusiastic about a signal that came from the dawn of the universe.... now I can see why Rush didn't tell anyone because no one is interested.

Now about the folks left on that planet, it did actually have potential however like all things in SGU great potential poor execution, they seem almost determined to write episodes that skirt past good episodes then swing it back into the poo poo valley. So the aliens built this entire solar system so that people could die on it? Just for a test of faith? Seems a bit of a dick move by the great almighty, worship me or die. Anyway because nothing was really explained or that we will ever find out who the aliens are, they are now just being deliberately ambiguous just an excuse to give them a new shuttle crew, a brand spanking new shuttle craft.

Why couldn't it have been, that the planet wasn't meant for those humans, it was designed for another race and that being on the planet caused certain problems with our physiology. The aliens returned reanimated the dead humans as a message to send back because as aliens they didn't fully understand us or how we interact as a species. That would have made far more sense to me. Like a bunch of aliens scratching there whatevers going who the fuck are these guys? Sod it send them back, put some duct tape there be good as new. Yes I know I'm comparing the aliens who created a solar system to the British postal service.

Why do I get the feeling that the Destiny is actually traveling towards the end point of Ascension (like taking the really, really, really long way round), which could explain why the Ancients never bothered with it, because they knew in roughly 50 million years they would ascend.

 

[Overmind One]

OMG....a stinker and probably a ratings sinker too.

This episode was horrible to me. More magic, more silly drama, more emo angst and sappy morality mirrors, and religion. Those were the very things that killed BSG seasons 3 and 4, and thats where it seems these writers decided to steal bits and pieces. At least in BSG we didnt see any magic or witness such GLARING illogic. There is too much to say and its all negative.

NO WAY will this breach more than say...1.1 million (Im hoping for less). It was boring to watch, and I cant imagine the casual viewer lingering longer than say...2 minutes, before feeling an uncontrollable compulsion to change the channel. Just

 

[stclare]

This episode was horrible to me. More magic, more silly drama, more emo angst and sappy morality mirrors, and religion. Those were the very things that killed BSG seasons 3 and 4, and thats where it seems these writers decided to steal bits and pieces. At least in BSG we didnt see any magic or witness such GLARING illogic. There is too much to say and its all negative.

NO WAY will this breach more than say...1.1 million (Im hoping for less). It was boring to watch, and I cant imagine the casual viewer lingering longer than say...2 minutes, before feeling an uncontrollable compulsion to change the channel. Just

if its as bad as you say, it may have a knock on effect next week for the grand half season finale, i hope. I have to say looking around im not seeing a lot of excitement for it.

 

[Yllek]

I’m getting a little tired of the “Something is messing with our mind, oh what could it be!” cop out. Not only is it getting old after the umpteenth time, but what it boils down to, in the end no one on that leaky boat has to take a lick of responsibility for anything they do or say. They can always blame the virus, the fish aliens, the Destiny, the faith aliens or the stoneswapping. And if they aren’t possessed, it’s all a dream. No ramifications, no justification, nothing.

And the writers say they ran out of storylines for SGA (floating city, team dynamics, plausible contact with Earth, entire Galaxy for field trips, awesome aliens), but the non-adventures of a bunch of (frankly stupid) people on a runaway subway-train gives them enough inspiration to fill five seasons?? Pfff. /disgruntled.

 

[Red Mage]

We can add forensic pathology to TJ's training she had as a "field medic." She is able to diagnose and declare caues of death of the returned crew members. This is something a forensic pathologist is trained to do who are not only MD's but have many years of additional schooling beyond medical school. To become a forensic pathologist one must pass:

4 years of college, to get a bachelors degree
4 years of medical school, to get the doctor of medicine (MD) degree
4 or 5 years of residency (4 for anatomic pathology only, or 5 for combined anatomic/clinical pathology, the latter track being recommended) to become eligible to take the Board exams in pathology
1 or 2 years of forensic pathology fellowship, to be eligible to take the subspecialty Board exam in forensic pathology.

TJ's character is getting more and more unrealistic. She's demonstrating skills far beyond what a paramedic should be qualified to do. The open chest surgery, the diagnosing of disease, the analysis of blood and pathogens with fancy machinery from the survival kit and now determining cause of death. Her skill set requires her to have atleast 3 degrees: a PhD in Biochemistry, MD and forensic pathology certification. This inaccuracy is up there with "Master Sergeant" Greer.

 

[ZeroPointRatingsModule]

I don't think TJ's skills are outside the realm of reason. It's friggin' blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia, what highly trained military medic can't identify those? It's not like she's diagnosing some obscure syndrome -- and besides, what's to say that the SGC hasn't been pulling her in via comm-stone for further training ever since she was stuck as the only medic aboard the ship? Not to mention the specialists they keep bringing aboard from time to time.

As for biochemistry, you have a ship full of civilian scientific experts who were put together to study alien planets, life, and technology -- what's the chances TJ has some friend aboard the ship with a PhD in biochemistry? I'd say it's pretty likely.

I don't know. I'm glad we got resolution as to the fates of the crazy planet-dwellers, but it just raises more questions with no answers, which was the main failing of Lost. On the upside, the planet-building aliens are starting to look as though they're the ones behind the background radiation ... but then again, it's probably just Q messing with their heads.

Goddamnit. Here's hoping next week is more entertaining ...

 

[mikeb]

This episode was very pretentious. Very difficult to sit through. The writers needs to stay far away from the faith and pseudo-religious themes because they just don't work all that well in the context of most scifi. This episode was no different. My eyes were rolling pretty much everytime Caine opened his mouth.

I just don't see the point in this episode. These seemingly dead characters were brought back only to die again hours later. Why were they brought back? The aliens wiped their memory so it could not have been a last chance to say goodbye before dying again. They had experience the pain and suffering of death all over again very shortly after being brought back to life so I don't see it as a too benevolent an act

Chloe has a quite a bit of screentime which is always a huge negative for any episode. The way the rest of the cast has been treating her is downright ridiculous. WHY IS EVERYONE SO FEARFUL OF HER? She has done NOTHING except being able to solve some math problems and occasionally zone out to blankly stare at nothing. Her abililities have only proved to be beneficial thus far. Contrast this with the way a real threat like Simeon was handled. Simeon got to freely walk around with minimal supervision and sexually harass women and Chloe gets 24 hour lockdown with full surveillance.

I think this is a really intelligent and observant post. Your contrast between Simeon and Chloe are particularly so.

 

[mikeb]

We can add forensic pathology to TJ's training she had as a "field medic." She is able to diagnose and declare caues of death of the returned crew members. This is something a forensic pathologist is trained to do who are not only MD's but have many years of additional schooling beyond medical school. To become a forensic pathologist one must pass:

4 years of college, to get a bachelors degree
4 years of medical school, to get the doctor of medicine (MD) degree
4 or 5 years of residency (4 for anatomic pathology only, or 5 for combined anatomic/clinical pathology, the latter track being recommended) to become eligible to take the Board exams in pathology
1 or 2 years of forensic pathology fellowship, to be eligible to take the subspecialty Board exam in forensic pathology.

TJ's character is getting more and more unrealistic. She's demonstrating skills far beyond what a paramedic should be qualified to do. The open chest surgery, the diagnosing of disease, the analysis of blood and pathogens with fancy machinery from the survival kit and now determining cause of death. Her skill set requires her to have atleast 3 degrees: a PhD in Biochemistry, MD and forensic pathology certification. This inaccuracy is up there with "Master Sergeant" Greer.

I think this is another well-thought, thorough, and intelligent post.

 

[iratecaller]

from everybody's comments so far, it looks like a stinker overall. They seem to be showing a pattern of sorts in how they "weave the plots". That not good, because it means the plots are too predictable. Also, writing it in this fashion with a serialized format means that people seeing this episode and not Faith would have to go back to that episode to see who the hell these people are. That could be a tactic, perhaps. But the pattern seems to be:

1. Build up something for one or more characters, and ramp it WAY up.
2. Then, do something to that character or characters and leave it unresolved for at least two episodes or more.
3. Then, revisit the issue and resolve the original thread, whilst creating a new unresolved issue with another character (or characters).
4. Repeat, using different characters and a different take on what gets built up.

More later when I have watched this episode. I have 15 minutes more to wait.

Yep, it's a simplification of an already ridiculous "daytime soap" formula in which no character ever gets all issues truly "resolved". As soon as progress is made, more melodrama and silly subplots emerge. That "awww finally, that was cool" feeling of weight being removed from the story never truly occurs. Drab and boring. Rinse and repeat.

Your little 4 points seem to be the actual algorithm used by the writers.

Be careful about getting sued Overmind!!

 

[Overmind One]

NO

Was the Stargate used in this episode?

Nope...it wasnt even SEEN.

 

[Rating]

they did mention the system they dropped out in had a bunch of stargates.... that was before they saw the shuttle tho.

 

[Overmind One]

OMG, why do so many SGU fans do that?

I don't think TJ's skills are outside the realm of reason. It's friggin' blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia, what highly trained military medic can't identify those? It's not like she's diagnosing some obscure syndrome -- and besides, what's to say that the SGC hasn't been pulling her in via comm-stone for further training ever since she was stuck as the only medic aboard the ship? Not to mention the specialists they keep bringing aboard from time to time.

WHY do SGU fans continue to try to explain plot holes that the writers were too lazy/incapable of closing for these episodes? In seasons 1.0 and 1.5, SGU fans were coming up with all sorts of explanations for stuff that made no sense in those episodes. I would see these explanations on GW and on other forums stated as though they were canon or "official". What makes you think that TJ is a "highly trained medic"? Medics are NOT highly trained, just trained in field medicine and triage to some degree. Thats why there are medics and DOCTORS. Whats to say the SGC hasnt been pulling her in via the comm stones for further training? Well, the WRITERS perhaps? There is nothing to suggest that anyone has been training for anything using the stones.

What happened to the stone "hiccups" that were happening in season 1? You know, where the communication was interrupted unpredictably? Why have those stones been used for sex and clubbing and signing divorce papers? No explanations for that stuff? Sorry to be such a killjoy, but you are trying to do the job that the writers are supposed to do...tell the story.

As for biochemistry, you have a ship full of civilian scientific experts who were put together to study alien planets, life, and technology -- what's the chances TJ has some friend aboard the ship with a PhD in biochemistry? I'd say it's pretty likely.

Um, please re-read my above paragraph. If there were such personnel aboard the ship, then they would be performing the job of the biochemists and whatever other specialties they have. Not training TJ. If there were a biochemist with a PhD aboard, they would be the ship's biochemist, they would not train TJ (or be qualified to train her). Why even try to explain for them? You are making this up because the show doesnt make sense to you either...your reaction to plot holes is to explain them away instead of being angry that they exist in the first place. Thats probably not healthy!

I don't know. I'm glad we got resolution as to the fates of the crazy planet-dwellers, but it just raises more questions with no answers, which was the main failing of Lost. On the upside, the planet-building aliens are starting to look as though they're the ones behind the background radiation ... but then again, it's probably just Q messing with their heads.

Goddamnit. Here's hoping next week is more entertaining ...

Now, you have to wonder what the Lucian Alliance would find so interesting about this "signal"...how could finding it or discovering its origins be helpful to them? We know what the mission of the ship is, and now that we do, it makes you wonder why so many aliens and entities seem to want this ship. Cant they find the signal with their own ships? Why would the Faith aliens send these reanimated people back to Destiny in their repaired shuttle? Why not send them to Earth?

Please stop trying to create excuses for these awful, lazy writers...they arent worth your creative energy.

 

[Overmind One]

LOL..I was right!

This episode was horrible to me. More magic, more silly drama, more emo angst and sappy morality mirrors, and religion. Those were the very things that killed BSG seasons 3 and 4, and thats where it seems these writers decided to steal bits and pieces. At least in BSG we didnt see any magic or witness such GLARING illogic. There is too much to say and its all negative.

NO WAY will this breach more than say...1.1 million (Im hoping for less). It was boring to watch, and I cant imagine the casual viewer lingering longer than say...2 minutes, before feeling an uncontrollable compulsion to change the channel. Just