Interesting. Although that ending was clearly 'inspired' by an old Space 1999 episode.

Although that ending was clearly 'inspired' by an old Space 1999 episode

Which one?

Wow, it sure has been quiet here this week, where is everybody. Did no one see the episode when it aired on Tuesday in the U.S.?

Anyway...

Okay, tonight we got what I call the Gilligan's Island Syndrome. They nearly find a way home, only to have it yanked away at the last moment (Voyager did this too in its first two seasons). Of course, they weren't going to get back to Earth, the series would be over if they did.

Ah Telford, we barely knew you. I kind of knew he was gonna stay behind on that other ship. Will the aliens kill him or not.

How long is Rush gonna sneak off to that bridge before someone finds out what he's been up to.

Once again, is Rush hallucinating his dead wife, or is the ship. He only sees her in that bridge, nowhere else.

Nice to see the problem of the Lucien prisoners being dealt with. Young should let them out, just have a guard keep an eye on them for a while.

This planned attack on Earth, will the writers follow up on that?

I wonder how many more ships like Destiny are out there?

Looks like next week Chloe is gonna have a big part. I can hear the Chloe Haters groaning now.

Which one?
Highlight to read - Earthbound.

Did no one see the episode when it aired on Tuesday in the U.S.?
How many nitpickers in the US still watch? I think the rest are from around the world where it premieres, or gets downloaded illegally, on other days.

tonight we got what I call the Gilligan's Island Syndrome
Doesn't everyone call it that?

Of course, they weren't going to get back to Earth, the series would be over if they did.
Not necessarily. Rush would stay on Destiny. I was actually hoping that some of the dead wood would get shipped back to Earth.

How long is Rush gonna sneak off to that bridge before someone finds out what he's been up to.
How long did Lois Lane get fooled by a pair of glasses? ;-)

This planned attack on Earth, will the writers follow up on that?
I wonder if this is part of the plot of the planned Atlantis movie?

Looks like next week Chloe is gonna have a big part.
But enough about her sex life. *Bah dum bump!* ;-)

Tim, I saw the episode on Wednesday night but didn’t want to comment until I had finished the transcript. For some reason, although I knew that this would be a fairly easy episode to transcribe (and indeed it did end up one of the shorter ones) I couldn’t get inspired to finish it quickly, so didn’t complete it until today (Saturday) in the evening.

Rush would stay on Destiny
I’m not so sure. He wouldn’t be able to survive for long on his own, and he wouldn’t fancy having to leave the ship regularly to go and search for food on his own. Being an epic coward, I think he would have no choice but to return with the others and then bang on to Stargate Command about trying to get back there with a dedicated research team (and lots of soldiers to do the grunt work for them).

I wonder if this is part of the plot of the planned Atlantis movie?
I was thinking more likely the SG-1 movie. See more thoughts on this below.


They’re lucky that deploying the big honkin’ space gun on the underside of Destiny didn’t (a) break the gun off when the ships were applying Rule 34 * docking or (b) prevent the docking altogether.

* [loved your MiSTing, Keith! Glad I’m not the only one with a filthy mind.]

I’m glad that this series doesn’t have the weekly redcoat, though the tradition is so ingrained in me that as soon as I see a nameless marine joining an away team, I fear for his life! However, it appears that this series is far more fond of killing off the named characters. (So there’s hope yet that we could get rid of the two annoying wimmin ;-)

I wonder how Adam feels about Scott talking about him and Dale as “Brody and Doctor Volker.” Bit rude of Scott to not even credit Adam with a “Mr.”

All this talk of the Lucian Alliance being about to attack Earth is presumably a potential lead-in to the SG-1 movie if they ever get the go-ahead. With a plotline like that, I cannot get excited about said movie, especially if it contains as much boringly clichéd dialogue as this episode had. Someone please tell Mullie and Mallozzi that they’re allowed to invent new phrases and use words differently to the gazillion times that such set phrases have been used before. I could practically have typed out vast tracts of the transcript without bothering to listen a second time and would have got most of it right.

And yet they can get it right when they try, cos I loved the brief scene where Matt’s trying to find out who Greer is boffing; and also the scene where T.J. pwns Simeon practically without moving and then he sits on the side of the bed and tries not to cry like a girl.

Talking of whom, I wonder if Robert Knepper is sick of having signed this contract yet. He gets about two lines in each episode if he’s lucky. Surely he was promised a better role than this? If they’re gonna keep the Alliance on board, do something with them!

When Greer finds the alien pods, he radios to Telford and Scott. He says “...the alien is not alone. It’s got friends ...” then lowers his hand away from his radio before adding, “... and plenty of ‘em.” There’s then the audible click of his radio disconnecting, but he had already taken his hand away before then.

I’m sure that Jeffrey Bower-Chapman is glad of the money, but why does Young have Becker, of all people, with him while everyone is preparing for evacuation? Becker’s just a cook – surely there must be better-trained marines who can run security?

Why is this bunch of morons aka the Destiny crew standing so bloody close to the Stargate when it’s doing a Nine Chevron Dial-Out?! I’m not sure they should even be in the same room but should instead be waiting outside. They’ve seen how big the kawhoosh was at Icarus; they’ve seen how big the kawhoosh was when the Alliance dialled in from Icarus II; and Destiny has never done a nine chevron dial-out since they’ve been on board, yet they’re standing just feet away from the Gate! Mind you, maybe they should just be left there and let’s let Darwinism do its job.

Young tells the idiots crew that “Homeworld Command is expecting us.” Does this mean that Earth’s Stargate is now at the Pentagon? Cos if it’s still under Cheyenne Mountain, shouldn’t the phrase be “Stargate Command is expecting us”?

It was nice to see Camille and Greer working together for once, and her sympathetic pat to his shoulder after they had packed up Riley’s effects was nice, especially after all he’s put her through in the past.

And at last in this episode we solve the biggest mystery of all: why Nick never runs out of notebook. From the several that were scattered over a console at one point, I’m thinking that that small bag he brought with him from Icarus contained just his iPhone and speakers and the rest was stuffed with notebooks!

I wonder if we'll ever find out what became of Telford?

Callie, maybe you can help me with this. How long ago were the ancestors of the Lucians taken from Earth? They all speak like 21st Century Americans.

Oh gods, don't get me started. Every time I type Varro saying, "wanna," "gonna," etc it sets my teeth on edge.

It's one of those unavoidable issues in this particular series. All the humans who were removed from Earth by the Goa'uld were taken away thousands of years ago, yet the vast majority of them all speak modern-day English (even the ones who weren't taken from English-speaking areas, go figure) - and those who don't are stuck wearing the same kind of clothes, and having pretty much exactly the same traditions they had when they were taken all those thousands of years ago. It's something that is never explained, and it's something that we kind of had to turn a blind eye to in the SG-1 days (and in the Atlantis days when aliens and humans living in the Pegasus galaxy also spoke perfect English).

One of the joys of Universe was the implied promise from the Exec Producers that there would be no human-looking aliens speaking English. Umm, right. No doubt if asked now, they would backpedal furiously and say, "No, we meant new aliens."

I guess the writers will weasel out of this by saying "Hey, they're not aliens, they're human beings, even if they weren't born on Earth."

So from what you told me, Callie, these people were taken around the same time as the Egyptians in the 1994 movie, that started this all, were. The movie got it right, in that the Egyptians spoke their own language. Since the Lucians have had no contact with Earth for thousands of years, English should be a totally unknown language to them.

Like you said, Callie, this is a problem for every Sci-Fi show. Some get around it, like Star Trek and Doctor Who, that have the universal translator and the TARDIS telepathic circuits. But other shows are just plain stuck and we just have to go with it.

Me - Rush would stay on Destiny
Callie - I’m not so sure. He wouldn’t be able to survive for long on his own, and he wouldn’t fancy having to leave the ship regularly to go and search for food on his own.
Didn't think of that. Still he wouldn't want to leave & who knows what other things about this ship he's discovered? Maybe the ship has an automatic food processor? After all the Ancients did invent... replicators. ;-D *dives for cover*

I would have explained the language problem by stating that gates have an automatic translation feature & that it didn't work in the movie because they juryrigged the dialing sequence.
But no one did so...

And sorry for the shameless plug, but the language discussion reminded me of a background gag in a recent comic of mine.

I would have explained the language problem by stating that gates have an automatic translation feature & that it didn't work in the movie because they juryrigged the dialing sequence.
But no one did so...

Ah, the wisdom of hindsight.