Aug 132016
 

Divided

We see in Divided that the tensions which have been brewing since the Icarus survivors reached Destiny stoked it has to be said by Rush and Camille come to a head and a core group of the civilians stage a mutiny in an attempt to take control of the ship. The timing turns out to be poor as when the shuttle returns with Young and Scott on board it is unable to secure itself to the ship and as the FTL countdown is almost up it will be left behind when the Destiny jumps. Chloe and Camille pressure Rush to stop his attempts to secure exclusive access to the computer and he reluctantly agrees but it means that some control of the ship remains in the hands of Eli and under the control of the military. The ship now for all intents and purposes is split in two but the military have control over life support but the civilians have all the food and water, someone will have to blink first. Young however is not going to be sitting on his ass, he and Scott go for a walk on the hull of the ship and access the civilian areas through the damage done by the recent alien attack. The conflict is soon resolved as the military quickly secure the ship but then the aliens turn up, three ships then begin firing hoping to break down the shields.

Divided (28)

While the crew are indeed divided it turns out that as usual Rush has been manipulating Camille, he knew he had been implanted with a tracking device and afraid of what Young would do he engineered the coup in an affort to protect himself. Alas he had the right idea to defend the ship, unable to fight effectively their best chance for survival was to endure the attack until Destiny jumped away but he was still being selfish, the only true protection would be to totally evade the aliens which means surgery to remove the tracker from Rush. The do use the communication stones to bring a surgeon (via Chole’s body) but the connection breaks during the procedure, Rush was probably lucky they didn’t just throw him out of the airlock!

Divided was a stellar episode, a tightly told story with some wonderful one on one dialogue, TJ excelled when laying down the situation to Chloe (war is what we do) and you can almost feel sorry for Camille who yes has her agenda but was totally manipulated by Rush. The episode delivered the usual high standard of visual effects and the opening sequence (cinematography and music) was a credit to Stargate as a whole. One of the best episodes so far and a lot more to come. Our thanks to Andrew for joining us over skype for this episode and to Mack for the feedback, thanks to Colin and Adriano for their emials as well. This weeks podcast promo is for The SciFi Diner and next week we are going to be watching the episode “Faith”, hope you join us.

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Aug 062016
 

Space

Stargate Universe returned for the second half of its first season with the episode Space in which the crew come face to face with one of the known elements of the universe, we are not alone and for the most part our fellow beings are not warm and cuddly, although neither are we if we are being honest. The fate of Rush is still being questioned amongst the crew and Camille tells Young she will be reporting in full to the IOA but as he points out she can only speculate and at this point it may be that she was in the dark as to the framing of Young for the murder of Spencer. Young uses the communication stones and finds himself on an unfamiliar ship and face to face with an alien being, the being seems uninterested in Young and we find out that on board Destiny the alien consciousness is now inhabiting Young’s body. The connection is broke and while many are sceptical that Young saw what he did when a huge spaceship appears in front of the Destiny the doubts fade away…

Space (23)

 

Eli attempts to communicate with the alien ship and they get a simple one word response “surrender” which came though untranslated, Young orders the launch of the shuttle and for the ship to bring her weapons on line. As the shuttle approaches the ship they see a number of smaller craft fly towards them, battle is joined but many get by and at least one latches onto the Destiny and breaches the hull. Chloe approaches the breech and looks into the light, we then see the ship detach causing decompression. When Young realises what has happened he orders the shuttle to cease fire and decides to once again use the communication stones to get intel on the aliens. We then get treated to the realisation that the aliens have captured Chloe for some sort of interrogation but that’s not all, they also have another human suspended in a water containment vessel, Rush is there. Young breaks Rush from the vessel and after some confusion and pain Young returns to Destiny and orders Eli to open up on the alien ship with the main weapon despite the risk to the shields and conduit stability, is he trying to save the Destiny or finish Rush off once and for all even sacrificing Chloe along the way?

Space is a major turning point for the show, we know the universe is full of life but this is the first confirmed contact the crew have had since coming to Destiny and it seems this race have been trailing the Destiny for a long long time. At this point we don’t know their motivations and they didn’t shoot first but who would say Young was incorrect in a pre-emptive defence of the ship after the surrender message. Scott lets his feelings get the better of him and Greer is having the time of his life, Camille is once again pushing the boundaries and we get both humour and drama from all the remaining characters. This is a good episode which makes the most of the cast and throws in a lot of great looking action and suspense which is all you really want.

Many thanks to Brad for joining us on the podcast this week and our continued thanks to Mack for his feedback. This weeks promo is for the British Invaders podcast a show which looks at British scifi television across the years, next week we will be discussing the episode Divided.

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May 102014
 

avatar Two escape pods are found in orbit around a distant planet and upon return to Atlantis the first is found to include a very old woman whose life is maintained purely by the pods machinery. If she is removed then she will die but as Weir approaches the pod she is struck by a beam of energy and the conciousness of the woman is transferred to her, this is believed to act as a last ditch method of allowing the survivor to communicate and say goodbye or offer insight into what ever disaster befell the mother ship. Weir seems to be all up for helping the woman who says the other pod probably contains her husband and John agrees to host the males spirit. Things do not go according to plan, the two now with healthy bodies with the knowledge of their hosts attack the guards, take their weapons and begin a cat and mouse game around the city intent on killing the other, they are the two final survivors of a culture that has ripped itself apart and with only hours to live just being the last one alive would be considered the victory.

The Long Goodbye has it’s story elements born within many scifi stories and series so there is nothing new but as always it’s how it’s done for each incarnation. In the Atlantis version we have some excellent space CGI, the pods look very nice and as a practical prop acceptable. The two aliens motivations while ridiculous at least have the desperate and illogical sense that we alas do see in the most obsessive people in real life who ignore ethics and morality to achieve a goal, this is normally a bad thing and the same is seen here, both aliens push the boundaries caring little for their hosts. The real upside of this episode is once again when Torri gets a meaty script she really gets her teeth into it and while Joe works his acting muscles it’s Torri that steals the scenes with everyone although it has to be said McKay and Caldwell have great abrasive chemistry. It’s only after the fact you realise that this is a bottle show, existing sets and cast with a little it of new CGI to set everything up and then you let the stunt crew and writers go to town.

Weir and Sheppard having fun.

Weir and Sheppard having fun.

We had some feedback this week over on Facebook and Google+ and as always Twitter pays us back big time with lots of Stargate and scifi chatter. This weeks promo is for The Podcasting Gear show hosted by Scott who also does the SciFi Diner Podcast and next week we are joined by Stephen for the SG1 episode Scourge, it’s been a few years since he joined us for an episode so it’s a welcome return. We hope you enjoyed our look at The Long Goodbye and feel free to let us know what you think about that episode and anything Gatecast or Stargate.

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Mar 162013
 

avatar2 A mist shrouded world may hold the key to gating back to Earth from the Pegasus Galaxy, it’s risky as the one and only control crystal will have to be used but McKay is convinced it will work but then again how often does he doubt his own abilities.  When the wormhole is established the SGC reveals that the Prometheus is being fitted with an Asgard hyperdrive engine which will allow a swift return to Atlantis when required so the decision is made to return and report on the expedition and the threat of the Wraith.

Sir!

Sir!

Home is a well told story with a twist in the tail and on rewatching the clues are all there but how many of us on first viewing picked up on them and realised what was going on, of course the first is the presence of General Hammond, granted as part of homeworld security he has the right to debrief them but alarm bells should have been ringing. The various tales weaving around the core story provide some character development for Weir, Sheppard, Teyla and McKay not so much Ford so even though the episode is standalone we do get something out of it not least the one and only visit to Atlantis for Don S. Davis and Garwin Sanford returning to the Stargate family.

He looks familiar

He looks familiar

Next week we are thrown back into the Trust storyline in the SG1 episode “Endgame” with plenty of action and intrigue. This weeks featured promo is from Hexed and as always many thanks for the support, feedback and simple chat on the various social media portals the Gatecast is carried on (Facebook, G+, Twitter, Itunes, Stitcher). We would love to hear from you so by all means make use of the contact forms on this site or any of the listed social sites we are currently using, twitter seems by far to be the most popular means but Facebook is the more verbose as you would expect.

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May 102010
 

Not officially a three parter but the ramifications of the missing crew and the lack of energy and resources to cross the galactic void come to a point. The stones are used to bring an expert in Hyperspace tech in an effort to increase the engines efficiency but a mysterious explosion takes out one engine module. As the title suggests this was no accident and we deal with the fall out amongst the crew including the woman inhabiting Camille’s body and the threat posed by the Aliens who are set to return.

Excellent episode and the writing for Amanda was fantastic as she learnt how to use a body again and back on Earth how Camille was willing to accept anything to see her love again not to mention once again showing us Rush used to be a very different person.

Key points..

  • Sacrifice
  • Aliens