S
Stonelesscutter
Guest
Link to front page review HERE
Synopsis
Destiny jumps out of FTL, there are two stargates in the vicinity but one of them is locked out. Chloe tells Wray and Eli that she hopes they’ll find some more of the purple fruit they found a while back. Before the crew has a chance to check out the planet they find themselves once again under attack from automated drones, the same type as they’d encountered earlier. Young orders evasive maneuvers. Greer manages to gun down the six attacking drones but a command ship is on it’s way, likely carrying dozens more of them. As Destiny can’t go back into FTL for a little over two hours, Young opts to go for maximum sublight and sets course away from the command vessel. There’s a discussion between Young, Rush and Eli about how the drones managed to find them. Young tells Rush to get rid of the drone they’ve had on board as it may have been the cause of that. The command ship finally catches up with Destiny and launches new drones. Destiny takes some hits but manages to go back into FTL just in the nick of time.
After a while they drop out of FTL again to investigate a planet that may have some much needed lime for the CO2 scrubbers. A small team checks out the immediate surroundings of the gate and runs into a couple of humans. As it turns out, they not only speak English, but also know the names of Scott and Greer and call them the ancestors. Apparently they are the descendants of Destiny’s crew, their colony was founded around two thousand years ago. Eli suggests this is probably a result of ‘the other Destiny’ they had encountered a while back. When they dialed Earth when they were inside a star the crew went through but never turned up, except for Telford. They had believed the rest of the crew had perished in the wormhole but now it seems they arrived on a different planet and were simultaneously sent back in time. Eli is very excited about the whole thing.
After more of the crew gate to the planet they learn that this is not the planet where the ‘other crew’ arrived originally. The people here are part of an expedition that set out to discover new worlds for potential colonization. But they got trapped on this planet because they could no longer connect with their home world which they called Novus. When the group arrives at the village they get offered tea and are asked to sit down. Eli remarks that sitting is good.
Later on we find out that the crew learned that the colony that was founded on Novus had reached millions of inhabitants and was technologically advanced. The population got split due to some differing opinions which led to the birth of two predominant countries, Tenera and Futura. The Tenerans where basically followers of Young and the Futurans believed Rush would one day return to save them. Before the colonists left Novus there had been an increase in seismic activity. The ‘other Eli’ had apparently suspected it was possible they had been sent back in time so he wrote somewhere that Destiny could one day return. Rush is not interested in anything except wether or not they’re going to get the supplies they need.
As supplies from the village are brought on board some colonists get a little tour of the ship. When they enter the ship’s bridge they encounter Rush. Some of the them believe that Rush is a demon who rips souls from human bodies and takes them to hell where they suffer for all eternity. When the tour gets to the gateroom we see a fair amount of supplies stacked right in front of the gate. The colonists ask Wray if Destiny could take them home to Novus. Wray, Eli, Young and Rush have a discussion about this. Rush is obviously against taking the colonists along and brings up all kinds of reasons why he thinks it might not be such a good idea. Young decides they shall travel to Novus without the colonists and see if they can get the Novans to help their stranded people. As Wray and Eli try to explain this to the people on the planet they are suddenly attacked by drones. They open a wormhole to Destiny and ask Young if they can evacuate the colonist. Young complies. Destiny itself is under attack as well. Before everyone can be rescued a drone manages to destroy a part of the stargate on the planet. Destiny jumps to FTL to escape the attack. There is nothing they can do for the people still left on the planet.
Eli theorizes that the drones probably managed to find them because they had activated the stargate. On Destiny Rush reaches the same conclusion. Eli thinks he might be able to send a faint signal to Destiny using the stargate, but so far all he can do is turn the system off and on. Scott gets an idea. On destiny, Young recognizes the pattern as being morse code. They alter course back to the planet and pick up the remaining people using the shuttles and then continue their way to Novus. When they arrive there, they send out a shuttle to check out the situation. Soon they learn that there’s a layer of dust around the planet, temperatures are low. They find a large city completely intact but there are no signals of any kind and they don’t see any movement. They conclude there is only one thing that could have caused all this. Extreme volcanic activity.
Cons
Okay, so the mentioning of the purple fruit near the start of the episode kind of gives me the feeling it’s supposed to be a little sexually oriented joke which didn’t really go down well with me. Then again it could just be my disturbing nature so I’ll let that one slip.
When the ship is attacked the first time Young orders evasive maneuvers which just sounds so out of place to me. It’d be a bit like an oil-tanker trying to outmaneuver a speedboat. Also, Destiny managed to slip back into FTL just as the drone command vessel had caught up with them. I found the timing of this to be simply too convenient.
I find the comment Eli made when they were first in the village to be somewhat insulting. Not only was the comment ‘sitting is good’ an unnecessary one but the writers could have made any one of the team members say it. But they specifically chose Eli as the one to do so because he is the fat guy and obviously fat guys like to sit. It’s almost as if the writers put that line in there specifically to rub something in with David Blue. But perhaps I’m reading too much into it again.
Normally I can live with Rush but in this episode he just annoyed me a whole lot. The discovery of the people that were part of a civilization that the crew of Destiny founded thousands of years ago should be an amazing event for anyone, especially to someone who’s a part of that crew. Yet, Rush manages to be interested only in procuring limestone and getting out of there as fast as they can saving their asses, his own in particular.
In the gateroom there is a whole bunch of supplies stacked right in front of the gate. I’m not sure what moron put those there. I did see Lt. James managing the transfer of goods though. Anyone that’s seen a stargate in action, which obviously includes everyone aboard Destiny, should know that when a wormhole is formed everything directly in front of the gate is destroyed. There is plenty of space for the goods to be stacked beside the gate instead of in front of it.
Destiny gets attacked by the drones a second time and this time they manage to jump to FTL to escape. Wait, that seems familiar. Oh right they did that before in the beginning of the ep. Come to think of it they also used that tactic on at least one other occasion in previous episodes. This is getting tiresome. Also, a short while after they had escaped they turned right around and went back to the planet to rescue the stranded people. So where would the drones have gone? They have means of detecting an active stargate from God knows how far away and then arrive at the scene a little while later yet they can not track Destiny down. It would make sense to me that they would at least stick around the area for a while looking for adversaries instead of just heading off in some random direction.
Lastly when they conclude that the E.L.E. could only have been massive volcanic activity, they forget that the same situation could have been caused by the impact of a huge asteroid. But that’s not such a big issue, especially since there was mention of seismic activity earlier on.
Pros
The discovery of the colony on the planet that turned out to be the descendants of the Destiny crew is a very good twist. I know it has been done before in other series but it fits very well in the SGU storyline. Though I think it’s too bad that everyone on Novus turned out to be dead. I’d have loved to have seen more of that society.
I really liked the fact that there were people among the colonists that believed that Rush was a demon who’d rip out their souls and drag them to hell. A lovely religious-like little anecdote.
A drone blew a hole in a stargate. That was certainly an unexpected turn of events. The first time ever in the history of SG that a stargate is only partially destroyed. Pretty cool.
When Destiny jumped to FTL when it was under attack from drones the drones that were very close got destroyed.
There were a couple of little jokes in the episode, some funnier than others. My favorite one was “Rushia?”.
Conclusion
All in all this episode felt like an average to me, neither very good nor very bad. There was some combat action which wasn’t really inspiring though the CGI was well done. There was some drama that we’ve come to expect from SGU, TJ giving birth to Young’s baby for example. The pacing of the episode wasn’t slow. I wouldn’t have minded if it had been though. It’s not like there was a whole lot going on in this episode despite the rather cool setting. I would have appreciated a little more depth to the cultural aspect. Eli came across well, as did Scott, Rush and Young however not so much. Although I’ve mentioned more cons than pros I think the episode was alright. It doesn’t have much replay value to me and I’ve seen it three times already because of writing this review so I probably won’t want to see it again anytime soon. If I had to give a grade I would give this episode about 6.5 out of 10. Maybe a 7 if I were in a good mood. The episode was alright but it could have been slightly better.
Synopsis
Destiny jumps out of FTL, there are two stargates in the vicinity but one of them is locked out. Chloe tells Wray and Eli that she hopes they’ll find some more of the purple fruit they found a while back. Before the crew has a chance to check out the planet they find themselves once again under attack from automated drones, the same type as they’d encountered earlier. Young orders evasive maneuvers. Greer manages to gun down the six attacking drones but a command ship is on it’s way, likely carrying dozens more of them. As Destiny can’t go back into FTL for a little over two hours, Young opts to go for maximum sublight and sets course away from the command vessel. There’s a discussion between Young, Rush and Eli about how the drones managed to find them. Young tells Rush to get rid of the drone they’ve had on board as it may have been the cause of that. The command ship finally catches up with Destiny and launches new drones. Destiny takes some hits but manages to go back into FTL just in the nick of time.
After a while they drop out of FTL again to investigate a planet that may have some much needed lime for the CO2 scrubbers. A small team checks out the immediate surroundings of the gate and runs into a couple of humans. As it turns out, they not only speak English, but also know the names of Scott and Greer and call them the ancestors. Apparently they are the descendants of Destiny’s crew, their colony was founded around two thousand years ago. Eli suggests this is probably a result of ‘the other Destiny’ they had encountered a while back. When they dialed Earth when they were inside a star the crew went through but never turned up, except for Telford. They had believed the rest of the crew had perished in the wormhole but now it seems they arrived on a different planet and were simultaneously sent back in time. Eli is very excited about the whole thing.
After more of the crew gate to the planet they learn that this is not the planet where the ‘other crew’ arrived originally. The people here are part of an expedition that set out to discover new worlds for potential colonization. But they got trapped on this planet because they could no longer connect with their home world which they called Novus. When the group arrives at the village they get offered tea and are asked to sit down. Eli remarks that sitting is good.
Later on we find out that the crew learned that the colony that was founded on Novus had reached millions of inhabitants and was technologically advanced. The population got split due to some differing opinions which led to the birth of two predominant countries, Tenera and Futura. The Tenerans where basically followers of Young and the Futurans believed Rush would one day return to save them. Before the colonists left Novus there had been an increase in seismic activity. The ‘other Eli’ had apparently suspected it was possible they had been sent back in time so he wrote somewhere that Destiny could one day return. Rush is not interested in anything except wether or not they’re going to get the supplies they need.
As supplies from the village are brought on board some colonists get a little tour of the ship. When they enter the ship’s bridge they encounter Rush. Some of the them believe that Rush is a demon who rips souls from human bodies and takes them to hell where they suffer for all eternity. When the tour gets to the gateroom we see a fair amount of supplies stacked right in front of the gate. The colonists ask Wray if Destiny could take them home to Novus. Wray, Eli, Young and Rush have a discussion about this. Rush is obviously against taking the colonists along and brings up all kinds of reasons why he thinks it might not be such a good idea. Young decides they shall travel to Novus without the colonists and see if they can get the Novans to help their stranded people. As Wray and Eli try to explain this to the people on the planet they are suddenly attacked by drones. They open a wormhole to Destiny and ask Young if they can evacuate the colonist. Young complies. Destiny itself is under attack as well. Before everyone can be rescued a drone manages to destroy a part of the stargate on the planet. Destiny jumps to FTL to escape the attack. There is nothing they can do for the people still left on the planet.
Eli theorizes that the drones probably managed to find them because they had activated the stargate. On Destiny Rush reaches the same conclusion. Eli thinks he might be able to send a faint signal to Destiny using the stargate, but so far all he can do is turn the system off and on. Scott gets an idea. On destiny, Young recognizes the pattern as being morse code. They alter course back to the planet and pick up the remaining people using the shuttles and then continue their way to Novus. When they arrive there, they send out a shuttle to check out the situation. Soon they learn that there’s a layer of dust around the planet, temperatures are low. They find a large city completely intact but there are no signals of any kind and they don’t see any movement. They conclude there is only one thing that could have caused all this. Extreme volcanic activity.
Cons
Okay, so the mentioning of the purple fruit near the start of the episode kind of gives me the feeling it’s supposed to be a little sexually oriented joke which didn’t really go down well with me. Then again it could just be my disturbing nature so I’ll let that one slip.
When the ship is attacked the first time Young orders evasive maneuvers which just sounds so out of place to me. It’d be a bit like an oil-tanker trying to outmaneuver a speedboat. Also, Destiny managed to slip back into FTL just as the drone command vessel had caught up with them. I found the timing of this to be simply too convenient.
I find the comment Eli made when they were first in the village to be somewhat insulting. Not only was the comment ‘sitting is good’ an unnecessary one but the writers could have made any one of the team members say it. But they specifically chose Eli as the one to do so because he is the fat guy and obviously fat guys like to sit. It’s almost as if the writers put that line in there specifically to rub something in with David Blue. But perhaps I’m reading too much into it again.
Normally I can live with Rush but in this episode he just annoyed me a whole lot. The discovery of the people that were part of a civilization that the crew of Destiny founded thousands of years ago should be an amazing event for anyone, especially to someone who’s a part of that crew. Yet, Rush manages to be interested only in procuring limestone and getting out of there as fast as they can saving their asses, his own in particular.
In the gateroom there is a whole bunch of supplies stacked right in front of the gate. I’m not sure what moron put those there. I did see Lt. James managing the transfer of goods though. Anyone that’s seen a stargate in action, which obviously includes everyone aboard Destiny, should know that when a wormhole is formed everything directly in front of the gate is destroyed. There is plenty of space for the goods to be stacked beside the gate instead of in front of it.
Destiny gets attacked by the drones a second time and this time they manage to jump to FTL to escape. Wait, that seems familiar. Oh right they did that before in the beginning of the ep. Come to think of it they also used that tactic on at least one other occasion in previous episodes. This is getting tiresome. Also, a short while after they had escaped they turned right around and went back to the planet to rescue the stranded people. So where would the drones have gone? They have means of detecting an active stargate from God knows how far away and then arrive at the scene a little while later yet they can not track Destiny down. It would make sense to me that they would at least stick around the area for a while looking for adversaries instead of just heading off in some random direction.
Lastly when they conclude that the E.L.E. could only have been massive volcanic activity, they forget that the same situation could have been caused by the impact of a huge asteroid. But that’s not such a big issue, especially since there was mention of seismic activity earlier on.
Pros
The discovery of the colony on the planet that turned out to be the descendants of the Destiny crew is a very good twist. I know it has been done before in other series but it fits very well in the SGU storyline. Though I think it’s too bad that everyone on Novus turned out to be dead. I’d have loved to have seen more of that society.
I really liked the fact that there were people among the colonists that believed that Rush was a demon who’d rip out their souls and drag them to hell. A lovely religious-like little anecdote.
A drone blew a hole in a stargate. That was certainly an unexpected turn of events. The first time ever in the history of SG that a stargate is only partially destroyed. Pretty cool.
When Destiny jumped to FTL when it was under attack from drones the drones that were very close got destroyed.
There were a couple of little jokes in the episode, some funnier than others. My favorite one was “Rushia?”.
Conclusion
All in all this episode felt like an average to me, neither very good nor very bad. There was some combat action which wasn’t really inspiring though the CGI was well done. There was some drama that we’ve come to expect from SGU, TJ giving birth to Young’s baby for example. The pacing of the episode wasn’t slow. I wouldn’t have minded if it had been though. It’s not like there was a whole lot going on in this episode despite the rather cool setting. I would have appreciated a little more depth to the cultural aspect. Eli came across well, as did Scott, Rush and Young however not so much. Although I’ve mentioned more cons than pros I think the episode was alright. It doesn’t have much replay value to me and I’ve seen it three times already because of writing this review so I probably won’t want to see it again anytime soon. If I had to give a grade I would give this episode about 6.5 out of 10. Maybe a 7 if I were in a good mood. The episode was alright but it could have been slightly better.
The idea that an entire community of millions was sired by 80 people is a bit scary (genetically). The description of this episode confirms one of the things that has bothered me about this show from the beginning. LACK OF FOCUS. Without a known, regular enemy with a known target that has to be protected from them (the stargate, the ship, etc), there is no tension. The fish people were a good start, but they dropped that ball with the antics that happened when Destiny's crew interacted with them. Those drones...before, they were inactive but still in the debris field in Twin Destinies. Robots have no reason to wander away from a target area. They could hibernate and remain in one location for 1000 years or so. Why are all of TJ's major moments attached to a baby? 
