Boy, that Rush can be sneaky when he wants to be. He rigs an emergency just to get Telford and Co. to clear off. Of course, they cut and run at the first sign of trouble.

It seems that those on Earth just don't get it. They sit safely back here, making plans. While it's those on Destiny who would suffer if the plan screwed up.

How can Telford take command of Destiny. All one has to do is shut down the communications thingy, and bang, he's gone.

So is Telford going to start banging Young's girlfriend now. Is he going to pass himself off as young. The slimeball!

I did not really like this episode all that much. In fact, I am not all that enamoured with the show itself. The only thing Stargate about it is the name. O'Neill is not the O'Neill we have come to know and love and seems to only be there to lend credence to the fact that it is supposed to be Stargate. Eli is the only character with any redeeming feature and I really felt sorry for him tonight.

Beth - ;)

I wonder if, in a future episode, an emergency use of the communication stones is going to put a man into a woman’s body and vice versa? And if so, will they deal with it sensitively or turn it into the comedy slapstick episode?

I’m surprised that Camile didn’t ask if she could change out of Baldwin’s uniform before going out for a walk in the park.

The fancy camera work which this series uses goes a bit wrong on occasion. When Camile and Strom were first walking through the park, the wobbly distant camera view made it look as if someone was spying on them and we were seeing through that person’s eyes.

Poor editing: when Young, Chloe and Eli first swap bodies with Telford, McCormick and Williams, Sergeant Riley is sitting at the table just before they put their stones onto the box, but is standing near the door after the transfer.

Eli reacts predictably and understandably when he finds himself in Williams’ body, but seems to have no problem with talking with Chloe even though she’s in McCormick’s body.

Where did Williams get the change of clothes from? I doubt that Eli brought them with him, otherwise he would have worn them occasionally instead of living in his red T-shirt.

Once again, Homeworld Security seems happy to allow a civilian with no knowledge of the Stargate programme to be told everything. Although Eli decides not to tell his mother what’s really happening, the major in the car with him only says, “You don’t have to tell her,” and so presumably Eli could have told her the whole story if he’d wanted to.

When Eli introduced himself to his mother as Philip Fry, I figured that the name had to be some kind of joke but I had to read Gateworld to learn that it was a Futurama reference.

I can’t decide whether or not it would be better if the director more frequently showed us the alternate bodies. In some ways I’m glad they don’t because it credits the audience with the intelligence to work it out for ourselves, but occasionally I think it wouldn’t hurt to show the other person, especially when someone on Earth sees the person for the first time. If we had seen over Mrs Wallace’s shoulder as she looked at Doctor Williams standing on her doorstep, it might have reinforced the position that Eli was in, not being recognised by his own mother. Similarly, when Emily Young opened her front door when her husband went to visit her, I would have preferred to have seen Telford standing there rather than Young. I suppose sometimes it comes down to budget and how many actors they can afford to take out to what may be location shoots, but Telford was outside Emily’s at the end of the episode and so could have been there earlier as well. Additionally, if we’d seen him standing there the first time, the final moment would have been even more dramatic than it already was.

Well done to the director, who did a great job this time in lining up the mirror images.

It took me forever to work out who was inside the spacesuits. Brody looked the spitting image of Young for some reason, although I knew that it couldn’t be Young, and neither his nor Riley’s voices sounded the same as they usually do.

Major nit: Riley, inside a spacesuit, tells the Control Room that they’re ready. The pipe bursts and an alarm sounds. Rush, in the Control Room, lifts his radio, activates it and calls to Riley. But there’s no way that Riley is talking over the radio – how can he activate it even if he’s somehow got it inside that suit? And we know that the suits are configured to activate the ship’s comms anyway. Either the writers or the director really got it wrong for that scene.

Surely trying to weld a pipe closed when it’s leaking coolant was always going to cause an explosion? I can’t imagine why Riley even tried it.

Unless Riley dies of his injuries later, it looks like once again TPTB chickened out of killing off a character who we’ve got used to.

Eli instantly realises who he’s speaking to when a female voice says over the phone, “It’s me,” but the writers seemed to have forgotten that he would be hearing McCormick’s voice, not Chloe’s. I realise that nobody else would be likely to be calling him, but I still think they ought to have had her identifying herself.

The moment I saw Young and Emily in bed, I wailed, “Eww! She’s boffing Telford! I mean, ewwwww!” (Of course, at that moment I didn’t realise that in a couple of minutes’ time she really would be boffing Telford, albeit briefly!) And surely Young, once he’s back on Destiny and has had time to think about it, is going to wonder how his wife was ever willing to have sex with a different man’s body.

Does Chloe really have the right to get drunk in someone else’s body? What if McCormick is a recovering alcoholic, or is allergic to alcohol? (Then again, you could ask the same about Young’s right to make Telford have sex with Emily. Do we know whether Telford is married? What if Telford has any sexual diseases? Could that be why he turned up at Emily’s house at the end – to urge her to see a doctor?)

It took me a couple of views to confirm in my mind that Eli had just fantasised the kiss with Chloe. For a moment there, I had been saying to myself, “OK, now she is officially a tart!” I suspect that the many and vocal Chloe-haters on forums like Gateworld will be screaming blue murder about this scene if they don’t realise what really happened (or, rather, didn’t happen).

How does Emily know that T.J. (assuming that it is T.J. to whom she’s referring) is on Destiny with Young? Was he dumb enough to tell her?

I got a little frustrated as Destiny started her new firewalk, because the background music began to reprise the tune that had had me in floods of tears a couple of weeks ago, but it never quite got there and so didn’t have the same emotional impact on me.

I don’t know why, but I absolutely love that buzzy hum that the Stargate makes when its chevrons lock.

Missing moment: some of the crew carrying Riley into the Gateroom on a stretcher when everyone thought they were going home. Or had T.J. forgotten where he was?

As soon as Telford said to Williams, “Shut it down,” I said mockingly, “We can’t!” and sighed when that was exactly what happened. Just once it would be nice if an Off switch worked first time – and the “We can’t shut it down” routine is getting a bit old.

You know, I have now watched well over three hundred Stargate episodes. Over all those years, and with the many and varied awesome and amazing cliffhangers that various episodes have produced, I have never, never clapped my hands to my mouth, gasped, and then wailed in total shock, amazement and horror in the way that I did at the end of this episode. Brilliant ending! Martin Gero is back with a vengeance!

the “We can’t shut it down” routine is getting a bit old.

Disclaimer (spoiler, highlight): The off switch did work. Rush just pretended it didn't so as to get rid of Telford.

I think they spent far too much time on Earth in this episode. This is supposed to be about the Destiny and the adventures of those on it. I hope from this point on, they keep contacts with Earth to a minimum. Maybe it's time for the communications thingy to break down for a while.

I agree with Tim. These people are supposed to be lost and having them sign in at a specific time every day (every other day, week) spoils it IMO.

I was wondering how they manage to get the right people into the right bodies. I mean, the stones all look alike, how can they be sure Young will wind up in Telford, Chloe in the woman's body, etc. And why is Telford allowed to take over from Young so often?

I agree with Callie that they should have had the people on Earth see what Young, Eli, Chloe, etc., look like from their point of view. And even if Emily accepts that it is her husband looking like someone else entirely, she should have drawn the line at going to bed with him. That ending scene was definitely a surprise but I wonder if Telford has been visiting Emily previously. It was not until Young said "it's me" that she slammed the door on him.

Beth is right. On Voyager, for most of its run, they had no contact with Earth or the Alpha Quadrant at all. It was only in the latter half of Season Six and into Season Seven, when the series was winding down (it ended after Season Seven), that they began having contact with Earth again.

This show is just starting. Time to move away from Earth and focus on Destiny now.

Does Chloe really have the right to get drunk in someone else’s body? What if McCormick is a recovering alcoholic, or is allergic to alcohol? (Then again, you could ask the same about Young’s right to make Telford have sex with Emily. Do we know whether Telford is married? What if Telford has any sexual diseases? Could that be why he turned up at Emily’s house at the end – to urge her to see a doctor?) - Callie

I think Young was the worst offender. He basically committed rape by subjecting Telford's body to a sexual act without Telford's knowledge or consent (gag). Plus, wasn't he drinking alcohol later on during his romantic dinner?

I really wasn't happy with this take on Young. As a character (and a lead one, at that), he's treading the line between being flawed and repulsive. At least Chloe and Eli are young enough for their behavior to be written off as youthful immaturity.

What if Emily gets pregnant? Whose baby is it?

These people have no business getting to 'go home' at all. There are serious security issues involved - Chloe telling her mother and Young telling his wife - with "outsiders" knowing all about the Stargate program and certainly telling others. There are so mamy ramifications to them knowing - Chloe's mother might meet someone else but she is still married; how can she tell that her husband is dead? As I suggested above, Emily could get pregnant - how does she explain that with her husband missing? (or course with the current morality she would not really have to explain at all.)

So far this series is more soap opera than sci-fi and I really hope that it very quickly becomes more about the ship and the fact that the people on it are lost than what we have had so far.

Exactly, it's time for the communications thingy to break down. No more visits to Earth, at least not for a while.

I agree - there are so many bad things that can arise out of this. What if Telford's gay? (SPOILER FOR FUTURE EPISODE and I am not looking forward to the fact that the whole issue of a gay person in a straight person's body and vice versa will be dealt with in a future episode). Hopefully in due course Homeworld Security (and, more importantly, the WRITERS) will realise that they just can't continue to allow this continuing abuse of people's bodies and perhaps insist that only a limited number of people - say, Rush and Young - are allowed to use the stones in order to report on progress, and only under supervision and they will not be allowed to leave the base to make personal visits.

Exactly, the Stargates are supposed to be top secret. Is it wise to let ANYONE with the knowledge of their existence just wander around?

Callie, I hope what you posted is false. This is supposed to be science fiction, not a soap opera!

Sadly, one of the executive producers confirmed that story long ago, and initially got into a lot of trouble for the flippant way he announced it, making it sound like it was all going to be very funny. If this is the kind of sense of humour which he has, and if he thinks that's something that's hilarious, it kind of explains why this body-swapping thing keeps happening.

*Sigh. There went any hope of T.J.'s secret being anything interesting.

Hoping someone can help me out with some backstory here: Do we know yet why Young so completely distrusts Rush? Or what the deal is with him and Telford? I've finally caught up on the show, and I don't feel like going back to watch the rest of it all over again to pick up clues I may have missed. Someone said something about Rush losing his wife??

The body swapping: This is ghastly. Why do they keep using it to visit nightclubs and not to, say, learn useful survival skills? Why not transfer in someone like Samantha Carter or Rodney McKay to argue with Rush for a while?

And, yeah, someone needs to work on an etiquette for this body-swapping business. I don't think Telford's participation in the menage a trois counts as consensual.

I don't think the body swapping machine was the best thing to carry over. Aside from all the issues brought up here, I wondered if the scenes in the pilot episode where Rush uses the device wouldn't have confused new viewers who didn't necessarily know what was going on.

Maybe some sort of long-range hologram would have been better. That way, they could play up the "ghost" angle and allow the characters to visit earth in a more straightforward way. The characters could visit their loved ones, but would still be just out of reach, all the while avoiding all the silly body-switching issues that don't seem to do much to further the plot of the show.

Re: Bookwyrme

I don't get the Rush/Young/Telford dynamic, either. Young doesn't trust Rush because Rush forced them to evacuate to the Destiny instead of another planet in the pilot, and he keeps holding things back.

Telford is more confusing. In earlier episodes, he acts like Young is not listening to Rush enough (specifically about the power problems). Here, though, he totally disregards Rush's opinions and pushes him out of the loop.

I still do not know what the sergeant did to be locked up on the planet. Practically the first thing Telford did once he was on the Destiny was lock him up again.

The whole body-swapping thing seems like an extreme invasion of privacy to me.

Exactly, I certainly wouldn't like someone grabbing my body anytime they jolly well pleased.

What if they did something illegal while in my body, like robbing a bank? How the hell could I prove my innocence. I don't think the judge would buy a story about someone else in my body at the time the crime occurred.

Presumably the people involved have agreed to have their bodies borrowed, since a pair of the stones is needed for each swap. However, there is a world of difference between "Yes, you can, in this emergency, borrow my body to report on the situation" and "Sure, take my body, have sex, get drunk, do any old thing you like with it!" The writers seem oblivious to this (reading comments they've made on the episode Callie has spoilered makes it clear that they really don't see a problem with it & are puzzled that anyone does)

Beth, although nobody has actually said the words, it has become fairly clear that Greer got into a fight with Telford, or simply punched him without warning - probably while Telford was getting into Greer's face. It's been established that Greer flies off the handle rather quickly and so he presumably over-reacted (although both Young and Scott have made it very obvious that they don't disapprove of what he did).

Telford locked him up again out of pure spite, IMO, and it might have even been that behaviour (amongst others) that helped convince Rush that it was time to get rid of him.