SGU 2x04 "Pathogen" [Spoilers]

Overheal

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Overheal

Okay it's basically an earth episode but it's balanced well. Greer gets to be a badass, the LA arc iterates on, and Rush goes Beautiful Mind. Unbelievable conniving behavior from him too, by the way. I'm anxious to know what he knows about The Mission and why he's so hellbent-paranoid about including anyone else. Getting very conceited about it too.

Even though you know it's coming for half the episode, the moment Eli's mom turns around is mildly touching.

Cook my sock

10% and im too intoxicated to watch, will post in the morning. that to me is about 9pm. :pac:

Richard Dower

I felt the directing by Carlyle was pretty bad, he chopped every up into snippets, very choppy editing and way of stroytelling. Aww..bless Chloe!, she got a storyline from the producers and a reason to be on the show....bless her pouty lips.

Twas an ok ep. but a bit to much of a spoonful of this and a dollop of that, tryna cram too much into one ep. But various plot points got moved on a little bit i guess, Rush gets more crazy as the series goes on.

Btw....this second thread is poor form from the OP.

Antar Bolaeisk

The miraculous healing of miraculous healing girl has finally dawned on them, well done geniouses!

_Kaiser_

Must be just me then but I thought it wasn't bad!

OK the bit with Eli's mom coming to visit was obvious but touching.. though I half-expected a squad of airmen to burst in when he started blabbing about the Stargate program to her in the hospital!

Thought Rush was finally going to get caught out about his access to the bridge, but have to admit he pinned it on Chloe pretty well while also misdirecting the attention to his "study room". I still don't see why Brody or Young don't just follow him when he goes off randomly.

What is the story with his ex/Franklin though. Presumably they are something generated by Destiny seeing as he's not talking to them anywhere else?

I have a feeling allowing Chloe to interface with the chair could come back to haunt them too.

D-Generate

I enjoyed this episode. If it has Rush being Machiavellian then I am all for it!

Quick question though, he was tinkering with the hyperdrive to get it to drop out of hyperspace when ever he wanted. What is the danger of this? Does it not just recorrect course if he leaves it alone and bring them to a planet with a gate?

Random

the episode was very slow moving again .. i really do want the pace upped a bit still.

Overheal

Random wrote: »

the episode was very slow moving again .. i really do want the pace upped a bit still.

I disagree I think it moved several things forward incrementality. The alternative is a string of incohesive episodes that push forward 1 or 2 themes at a time before returning to explore the others.

And now for next weak's Opener sneak peek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0IAlYKyTWw

LoGiE

I enjoyed the Destiny based parts of this episode. I really want to see a little more information about destiny/ancients and it's mission revealed at this stage. That or Chloe turning into one of the blue aliens from season 1...

Richard Dower

That's it lads, game over...RIP SGU:

Stargate Universe
- 0.974 million viewers
- 0.7/1 HH
- 0.4/1 A18-49

GarethWA

Richard Dower wrote: »

That's it lads, game over...RIP SGU:

Stargate Universe
- 0.974 million viewers
- 0.7/1 HH
- 0.4/1 A18-49

People who only look at that figure are idiots!
That's the US ratings. You forget Canada is another main base for SG fans, as well as the other international channels across the world, including it airing on Sky for us. SGU is faring better than other scifi shows such as Caprica at the moment!

Read, learn, stop being so negative: Linky link

don ramo

i honestly dont know what you doing richard, you just seem check the rating then pop up in every forum of "underperforming" shows, while constantly forgeting polls, is there actually a tv show airing live now that your enjoying,

anyway back to the show i thought it was solid, showing some of the crews frustrations and a bit more power play,

eli and wrays girlfriend seem to be suffering the most, i doubth wrays girlfriend will be around for much longer shes extremely depressed and will either leave or harm herself, i think eli is gonna be more focused in finding a way home now, and with is new found commitment either decipers the anicent code himself or finds out rushes secret,

wray was undoubthedly playing off eli emotions by letting his mom come on board, and its hard to say if the LA leader was serious about them co-operating, did he just say that to wind-up t-bag cause hes to high strung and he needs to get him out of the way, or was he serious,

Overheal

That's it lads, game over...RIP SGU: rabblesaurus rex

That means you won't be popping in anymore I take it. Seeing as how you have no interest in the show.

Adding to the competition this month are the Major League Baseball postseason games on FOX and TBS. Stargate and Caprica faced off against Game 4 of the ALCS (Yankees vs. Rangers), which grabbed 9.846 million viewers.

Hell, I almost left the Yankees game on myself. Starts running right after the Office and SGU doesnt begin until somewhat later.

Thanks Gareth for Highlighting that other TV happens on that Television.

I felt the directing by Carlyle was pretty bad, he chopped every up into snippets, very choppy editing and way of stroytelling.

FWIW: I noticed it too but thought it helped. The alternative being one of those strange Earth-Episodes from season one where all you can do is wait to see some more Destiny scenes. To that note I think he did well not making us sit through a 10 minute Horse-pill of earth stuff.

It looks like a similar thing will play out in the next episode, GlenDale. So it'll be nice to compare Carlyle's directing directly alongside the next episode, by Alex Chapele. The only one Alex has directed so far was Subversion, and it looks like the plots/themes are very similar. If you like the former, this may be good viewing coming up.

smellslikeshoes

Wish they would stop with these hackneyed musical bits, it really is tired and annoying. I liked where they are going with the Chloe thing but she still is pretty dull and uninteresting and it seems like they wrote this plot arc simply to keep her relevant.

Overheal

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Wish they would stop with these hackneyed musical bits, it really is tired and annoying.

I think it's meant to replace the random time-jumps seen in SGA and SG-1. "Oh do you remember that [Ancient Weapon/Planet Exploring/Diplomatic Treaty] I've been working on for months? No? Months? Beuller?"

Instead the time pretty much burns at the end of the episode so it's less of a startle when theres a large break in the timeline between episodes. Worst offending SGU episode of not doing this of course: Time.

I liked where they are going with the Chloe thing but she still is pretty dull and uninteresting and it seems like they wrote this plot arc simply to keep her relevant.

Very true. Seems like an Archetype that looked good on paper and drew in viewers but is now stalling to develop anywhere. The glaring problem is Chloe's lack of credentials: She's just a politician's daughter. I can't even remember why exactly she was at Icarus, or why she was given that much clearance. Wikipedia says Her father had political oversight over the Stargate project trying to dial the ninth chevron. She holds a degree in political science from Harvard and she is also the aide of her father, Alan Armstrong, until he sacrifices himself in the pilot. - but tell me honestly, is that memorable? At all? And the hell is she going to do with a political science degree? Talk some aliens to death about Communism? Or (damned that I even thought it) Set up functioning fovernment on the ship -_- but thats already been handled by IOA lady and Col. Young. So again, her character is completely void of utility. You know, without being possessed by aliens.

Remember the last person on a stargate show that had a lead role and got an alien STD?



If history tells us anything its that Alien-infected Lead-role Emo's don't fare well in Stargate :pac:

Whats funny is if they cast the guy who plays Greer to play - erm, that guy - they probably wouldn't have done off his character. Good actors make the roles, and no amount of writing can bandage that fact.

smellslikeshoes

Overheal wrote: »

I think it's meant to replace the random time-jumps seen in SGA and SG-1. "Oh do you remember that [Ancient Weapon/Planet Exploring/Diplomatic Treaty] I've been working on for months? No? Months? Beuller?"

Instead the time pretty much burns at the end of the episode so it's less of a startle when theres a large break in the timeline between episodes. Worst offending SGU episode of not doing this of course: Time.

Very true. Seems like an Archetype that looked good on paper and drew in viewers but is now stalling to develop anywhere. The glaring problem is Chloe's lack of credentials: She's just a politician's daughter. I can't even remember why exactly she was at Icarus, or why she was given that much clearance. Wikipedia says Her father had political oversight over the Stargate project trying to dial the ninth chevron. She holds a degree in political science from Harvard and she is also the aide of her father, Alan Armstrong, until he sacrifices himself in the pilot. - but tell me honestly, is that memorable? At all? And the hell is she going to do with a political science degree? Talk some aliens to death about Communism? Or (damned that I even thought it) Set up functioning fovernment on the ship -_- but thats already been handled by IOA lady and Col. Young. So again, her character is completely void of utility. You know, without being possessed by aliens.

I think her character is also suffering a little because of the sheer size of the cast. Having two other main female characters in Wray and Lieutenant Johnson has seriously side lined her and made an already dull character worse by lack of screen time.
I'll go out on a limb here and guess that these changes might leave her with some abilities in the long run to make her relevant. Knowledge of language(s), planets etc. Will have to wait and see how this story arc pans out but I can't see them just leaving her as the one who rides Scott :pac:

Overheal wrote: »

Remember the last person on a stargate show that had a lead role and got an alien STD?

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/stargate-atlantis/images/rainbow-sun-francks-3.jpg


If history tells us anything its that Alien-infected Lead-role Emo's don't fare well in Stargate

Whats funny is if they cast the guy who plays Greer to play - erm, that guy - they probably wouldn't have done off his character. Good actors make the roles, and no amount of writing can bandage that fact.

I'm not sure if that's fair to the actor though, Ford was a boring character from the start and essentially just a sidekick for Sheppard. He spent lots of time on screen in the first series of SGA but was always just in a supporting role to Sheppard.
Greer is a quick to anger badass who was waiting to be court-marshalled on icarus base. He isn't on screen near as much but when he is, he's often the focus of the scene, like his two altercations with Simeon in this episode. For that reason I think he stands out as an actor much more.

Sorry for straying off topic

Overheal

No, let's go there :pac: Ford wasn't written boring he was just cast wrong. Francks just, imo, had no way of filling that role. He was too Boy-ish to be a Strongarm, which is what the role called for. Basically, he couldn't act tough enough. He could try, but he was completely unconvincing. They didn't need a wimpy kid that could act tough they needed a tough guy that could act wimpy (and then become tough). But they kept pushing this toughguy thing on the character/Francks despite it not working. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the guy's name being Rainbow, by the way. But, those problems made him an unappealing character to develop upon. Even in the Second season the other Characters, namely Shepphard, finally just unload on the kid and basically say he was a pansy little child from the beginning. Its in one of those episodes.

I think the same issue is springing up with Chloe. From the start they positioned her to be a vulnerable emo princess that didn't have anything in the way of spine, and they didn't really develop one for her either. As every other character on that show has developed (Eli, Rush, Young, Greer, Scott, Brody and most of the Supporting members) Chloe's gone nowhere. They're now in this terrible position where she's gotten stale.

This is their experiment for the character. The Ford Expirement 2.0, in all fairness. The advantage for Chloe though is Elyse Levesque would probably have not that much difficulty pulling a Sarah Kerrigan, if given a fraction of the opportunity. Or even, a Karen S'jet which is something I thought might have become of the first guy that used the chair. But, we'll see. High chance of failure though. If I had to put money on it though, Chloe will be the one with the keys to the ship.

_Kaiser_

don ramo wrote: »

i honestly dont know what you doing richard, you just seem check the rating then pop up in every forum of "underperforming" shows, while constantly forgeting polls, is there actually a tv show airing live now that your enjoying,

I have to agree.. naturally most people have an interest in whether a show they're enjoying is going to continue, but it seems to me that EVERY US-based TV thread I open has you (Richard) posting numbers and telling us it's all over.

For me anyway it just spoils things a bit - I quite LIKE SGU myself, and yes I may not be in the Neilsons catchment area but I'd rather enjoy the show while/for as long as it lasts rather than getting the weekly doom and gloom report in the episode discussion thread.

Maybe confine it to ONE "Ratings" thread in the main TV forum that people can check out as they want?

_Kaiser_

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Greer is a quick to anger badass who was waiting to be court-marshalled on icarus base. He isn't on screen near as much but when he is, he's often the focus of the scene, like his two altercations with Simeon in this episode.

MEant to mention that in my "review" earlier..

Is it just me or does anyone else keep waiting for Simeon to react with a T-Bag style quip, or come out with the slithery southern drawl - maybe call Greer "Pretty" a few times?

don ramo

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Maybe confine it to ONE "Ratings" thread in the main TV forum that people can check out as they want?

i think you mean "the" rating thread that is at the top of the general TV forum as a sticky, and who is the one person who has never posted in it,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=259312

don ramo

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

MEant to mention that in my "review" earlier..

Is it just me or does anyone else keep waiting for Simeon to react with a T-Bag style quip, or come out with the slithery southern drawl - maybe call Greer "Pretty" a few times?

i wonder if he has pockets in that outfit, :P

don ramo

does anyone know why exactly rush is constantly taking the ship out of ftl, we know he knows by now how to stop and start the ftl, we know he can detect gates and seeding ships, so what exactly is the purpose of these jumps out of ftl so soon, didnt he also say that if the engines dont run for 4 hours at a time it will damage them,

crazyderk

don ramo wrote: »

does anyone know why exactly rush is constantly taking the ship out of ftl, we know he knows by now how to stop and start the ftl, we know he can detect gates and seeding ships, so what exactly is the purpose of these jumps out of ftl so soon, didnt he also say that if the engines dont run for 4 hours at a time it will damage them,

Didn't he mention that he was trying to play around with the clock? to try and control it! That's why he was getting pissed off every-time he dropped out of ftl and the clock started ticking!


I would assume he is waiting more than 4 hours before dropping it out of ftl

FreudianSlippers

Richard Dower wrote: »

I felt the directing by Carlyle was pretty bad, he chopped every up into snippets, very choppy editing and way of stroytelling. Aww..bless Chloe!, she got a storyline from the producers and a reason to be on the show....bless her pouty lips.

Twas an ok ep. but a bit to much of a spoonful of this and a dollop of that, tryna cram too much into one ep. But various plot points got moved on a little bit i guess, Rush gets more crazy as the series goes on.

Btw....this second thread is poor form from the OP.

I agree, terrible directing made this episode even worse than it could have been. I get where they were going with the story, but it was just not done well. It ended up being quite boring TBH

FreudianSlippers

Remember ratings posted are live ratings, and they do not include the +7 DVR viewing data which both Caprica and SGU do very well in.

Even a SyFy employee has said that it's too early to count out Caprica and SGU for renewal.

http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/7896/dont-count-caprica-sgu-out-just-yet.html

crazyderk

OisinT wrote: »

I agree, terrible directing made this episode even worse than it could have been. I get where they were going with the story, but it was just not done well. It ended up being quite boring TBH

I found Season 1 to be seriously boring and I'm actually enjoying season 2 more!

Each to their own I suppose! I hope they don't cancel it!
I don't watch Caprica and this is pretty much the only sci fi buzz I get!

mickoneill30

I've enjoyed most episodes so far.

This was the first one that I switched off halfway through as I wasn't bothered. I went back to it later to finish it off but only in the hope that it picked up and it didn't really.

I enjoyed the story with Elis mom.

Rushs going off to another control room is beginning to annoy me. With a team of scientists and military on the ship nobody is noticing him sneaking off every time the ship seems to do something weird. Why is he stopping the ship and changing course? Why is nobody able to figure out that hes doing this?

helimachoptor

Really enjoyed it i have to say. Give Greer some ass kicking screen time please!!

Anita Blow

Ignoring the fact that there was huge competition (baseball I think?) that night, it's helpful to understand the bear analogy. If you're in the woods with a mate, and a bear starts chasing you, you don't need to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your mate friend!
Caprica is now down in 700,000 territory and has floated around that for a while. SGU is floating around the million mark. It's not safe, but it's not 100% cancelled yet. SO far Syfy has nothing to replace it

FreudianSlippers

Anita Blow wrote: »

Ignoring the fact that there was huge competition (baseball I think?) that night, it's helpful to understand the bear analogy. If you're in the woods with a mate, and a bear starts chasing you, you don't need to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your mate friend!
Caprica is now down in 700,000 territory and has floated around that for a while. SGU is floating around the million mark. It's not safe, but it's not 100% cancelled yet. SO far Syfy has nothing to replace it

The simple fact with any SyFy show, especially on a competitive night is that you cannot make any judgements until you see the +7 DVR figures.

AlmightyCushion

These episodes are moving way too slow. The parts where something actually happens are good but all the other crap they throw in just bores me to tears. Eli's mum is a prime example. What purpose does she serve except to pointlessly fill some space? We probably won't see her again until next season when they need to fill some more space. I'd much rather they spend that time showing us chloe and rush working together instead of the crap we got with them.

Rush: Does this make any sense to you?
Chloe: Um, not really.

<scene deleted>

Rush: She managed to solve a huge problem that has been puzzling us since we got here and now we'll be working together.

Why didn't they show us that playing out instead of the pointless crap with Eli's mum. It'd be much more interesting, more relevant and develop character's and relationships of people we'll see more than once or twice a season.

Overheal

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

These episodes are moving way too slow. The parts where something actually happens are good but all the other crap they throw in just bores me to tears. Eli's mum is a prime example. What purpose does she serve except to pointlessly fill some space? We probably won't see her again until next season when they need to fill some more space. I'd much rather they spend that time showing us chloe and rush working together instead of the crap we got with them.

Rush: Does this make any sense to you?
Chloe: Um, not really.

<scene deleted>

Rush: She managed to solve a huge problem that has been puzzling us since we got here and now we'll be working together.

Why didn't they show us that playing out instead of the pointless crap with Eli's mum. It'd be much more interesting, more relevant and develop character's and relationships of people we'll see more than once or twice a season.

I think that SGA and SG1 did too much of that and it took a very long time for characters to develop, and sometimes they just never did and became caricatures - especially on Atlantis.

As for saying its someone we'll see once or twice a season - Im sure theres a word for it, but she's not really a character, so much as a prop (again, theres a better word for it) to support the development of Eli's character, whom we do see every week. Same for Camille* and the same reason that 15 minutes total that we saw of Young's wife/ex-wife added a large amount of depth for his character. Before that he was just a dude that huddled around on an M16 crutch.

So no we don't see them often but they are important. I think the issue is people are finding out they don't really like Eli's character though, and thats why the 10 minutes of hospital drama really feels like a drag.

*one day i may even remember that without googling

FreudianSlippers

Overheal wrote: »

I think that SGA and SG1 did too much of that and it took a very long time for characters to develop, and sometimes they just never did and became caricatures - especially on Atlantis.

As for saying its someone we'll see once or twice a season - Im sure theres a word for it, but she's not really a character, so much as a prop (again, theres a better word for it) to support the development of Eli's character, whom we do see every week. Same for Camille* and the same reason that 15 minutes total that we saw of Young's wife/ex-wife added a large amount of depth for his character. Before that he was just a dude that huddled around on an M16 crutch.

So no we don't see them often but they are important. I think the issue is people are finding out they don't really like Eli's character though, and thats why the 10 minutes of hospital drama really feels like a drag.

*one day i may even remember that without googling

The problem with Eli IMO is that they spent all this time in the first episode or 2 talking about how much of a genius Eli is and how much they needed him etc.

Now, he's just a comic relief character and he does pretty much fúck all of use in the show.

I'd really like to see him actually do something and not just sit around and be the chubby sarcastic kid.

hightower1

Overheal wrote: »

Before that he was just a dude that huddled around on an M16 crutch.

FYI it was a g36 not an m16

G36 (variations)

[Embedded Image Removed]

M16

[Embedded Image Removed]

_Kaiser_

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

These episodes are moving way too slow. The parts where something actually happens are good but all the other crap they throw in just bores me to tears. Eli's mum is a prime example. What purpose does she serve except to pointlessly fill some space? We probably won't see her again until next season when they need to fill some more space. I'd much rather they spend that time showing us chloe and rush working together instead of the crap we got with them.

Rush: Does this make any sense to you?
Chloe: Um, not really.

<scene deleted>

Rush: She managed to solve a huge problem that has been puzzling us since we got here and now we'll be working together.

Why didn't they show us that playing out instead of the pointless crap with Eli's mum. It'd be much more interesting, more relevant and develop character's and relationships of people we'll see more than once or twice a season.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather what we got (some Eli character development) than watching Rush and Chloe stand around a dark corridor pouring over equations!

After all, SG1 touched on it a few times (with Sam particularly) where they were trapped by protocol and secrecy and unable to tell their loved ones the truth about their work/what they were doing.
Eli isn't even military so of course it'd be harder again on his mother - I thought it was a genuinely nice touch (if a bit predictable) for Camille to pull strings to get his mother cleared for a brief visit to Destiny to reassure her that her son wasn't just not arsed to come see her.

Adds realism and makes them more than one/two dimensional characters imo

Kiith

I think we will start to see Eli regaining some of his season 1 importance again. He'll discover something, or will find out about the bridge, or something like that. I quite liked the scenes with his mother, as they are important to his character.

I've really enjoyed the first 4 episodes so far, after watching them all last night.

hightower1

Overheal wrote: »

As for saying its someone we'll see once or twice a season - Im sure theres a word for it, but she's not really a character, so much as a prop (again, theres a better word for it) to support the development of Eli's character, whom we do see every week. Same for Camille* and the same reason that 15 minutes total that we saw of Young's wife/ex-wife added a large amount of depth for his character. Before that he was just a dude that huddled around on an M16 crutch.

So no we don't see them often but they are important. I think the issue is people are finding out they don't really like Eli's character though, and thats why the 10 minutes of hospital drama really feels like a drag.

*one day i may even remember that without googling

There is no reason why the development of the characters going back to earth cant be done on destiny itself. It negates the situational development. I can understand why they wanted it to begin with as a device to bridge fans from one franchise to another by bringing in O'Neil, Samantha etc once in a while but they now need to ditch it and start forming bonds based on where they actually are and the situation they are in.

My excitment is slipping for the series now, I find myself getting the episodes later and watching whenever cause I'm simply not that pushed anymore. Sick of getting an actuall exciting EP only every few weeks. Growing old fast hoping for an exciting episode to be dissapointed.

Feels like its better watched these days waiting for a season to finish then watch the lot as one run. Maybe why the live ratings are sliding fast and DVR / online ratings seem to be better.

Sherifu

I go away for a week and I miss out on forum drama. :pac:

The episode itself was pretty slow and only McKay really.