Gatecast 350 SGU Gauntlet

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Apr 152017
 

Gauntlet

Well this is Gauntlet the season and alas the series finale of Stargate Universe and while the episode was not specifically written as a series finale it actually works very well and by some miracle doesn’t annoy the viewer with a slap in the face cliffhanger. Of course as we know the final scenes of the series leaves everyone hanging by a thread but it’s done with such style and care you really do not mind, at least not too much.

Gauntlet

The Drones once again are pressuring Destiny and continue to block every single useful star in the immediate flight path of the ship, it’s simply impractical for Destiny to seek out resource rich worlds off the path as laid down by the seed ships so the question is asked what can they do. Eli comes up with another solution, not a good one but it has the benefit of not only preventing further conflict with the drones but maximising the current resources of the ship. His solution is to make use of the recently activates stasis pods, those combined with an energy saving FTL cruise would allow the Destiny to leave this current galaxy and bypass the are of space controlled by the drones. The margin of error is very small and the decision to implement this option would have to be taken very quickly, if Destiny’s power reserves dropped too low while in FTL the ship would be stranded in the intergalactic void with hundreds of years of sublight flight ahead of it. Some of the crew are give the option of a last visit to Earth but a minor hiccup almost derails the endeavour as some of the pods are damaged and a certain mineral is needed to enact a repair. Activating the gate will of course draw a drone command ship to their location but they lay down a diversion with one of the shuttles broadcasting a powerful signal to fool the drones, when they take the bait the shuttle does a kamikaze run and destroys the command ship and Destiny gates to the planet and collects the required material. The pods now working soon fill up and eventually only Eli, Rush and Young are left, it is then they discover one of the final three working pods is still faulty. Young doesn’t trust Rush to not risk the ship if he was unable to fix the pod after he and Eli went into stasis so Young decides to sacrifice himself but Eli makes his stand, he is confident he can fix the pod in the time allowed and will not hesitate to put the ship and crew ahead of himself if he fails in his task. Young and Rush bid their farewells in a manner which truly reflect how they feel about this young man who came onboard as a bit of a bad joke but through adversary has matured into a man that could one day lead others.

Gauntlet was an impressive episode, there is as much action as you would expect from a modern scifi series and far more drama and character work than most, par for the course with Universe but this being the finale really brings it all home. It was quite an achievement to pack so much into this last “hour” of television without sacrificing so many quiet dialogue driven scenes between characters many of which showed how far these people had come. The final situation/obstacle that Eli, Rush and Young had to deal with also summed up the show to perfection, distrust, compromise and acceptance all brought together and allowing one of the youngest members of the crew and one never intended to be part of Icarus to commit himself and his life on his skill and a simple choice to protect his friends even if it meant his life.

I’m already looking forward to watching Universe again in the near future, I really am surprised how much I have enjoyed the series after it had kinda been moved into the “will watch again one day” category whereas SG1 and Atlantis were always ready to go whenever I felt like it. The production levels, CGI and writing were all top notch and even now a few years down the line there is nothing that surpasses the quality of this series, equals yes in the case of say The Expanse but does not eclipse.

Our thanks to Thomas for joining us for Gauntlet and next week we are going to have a roundtable discussion on Stargate Universe as a whole along with the results of the quick favourite episode poll we ran for a few days. This weeks promo is for Nutty Bites and even at this late a stage if you send something in before the 21st I can get into the wrap up show as feedback.

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Gatecast 349 SGU Blockade

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Apr 082017
 

Blockade

The Drones continue to harass the Destiny but change tactics and send the command ships to local star systems to blockade the very source of energy that Destiny requires to function. As we have seen the Destiny is capable of holding her own against a single command ship and drones but each time she loses a little ground and even after a successful refueling an out of the box solution is required. Eli proposes to use a star that is way outside of the specifications and thus unlikely to be guarded, the risk is that the shields would be unable to protect the ship and crew. The decision is made to gate all but two of the crew to a nearby planet as Rush and Eli fly the ship through the star, Dr Park also asks to stay to continue the harvesting of medicinals as the radiation and heat will destroy them.

Blockade

On the planet the crew find a dead civilisation no doubt sprung from the seed of Novus at some point in the past, evidence indicates that the drones were responsible but while they are there teams fan out to see if anything useful could be uncovered. Alas dormant drones detect the gate use and radio chatter and pin down the teams in the city, a firefight ensues and eventually they have no option but to gate back to Destiny with the hope she has successfully navigated the star. They are fortunate, the ship survived by Park had been trapped in the biodome which failed, she survived but suffered extensive eye damage and they know the drones will not be so easy to trick a second time.

Blockade is a perfect episode to bridge the recent drone episodes, once again it underlines how powerful they are in this part of the galaxy and that they are not simply reacting to an enemy presence rather they have a central intelligence directing them tactically. Removing the Destiny from her normal source of power demonstrates both the size of the done fleet but their big picture thinking. The crew got lucky by gating to a viable world but Destiny is not up to repeating this close call with a blue giant O-type star which begs the question what now…

My gratitude to Steve and Ian for joining me this week as Alan had family concerns to deal with, we had a great conversation. This weeks podcast promo is for The Round Table Podcast a call back to when Dave joined us way back when and next week it’s the finale of Universe and Thomas joins us to discuss Gauntlet. Any final thought on Stargate Universe would be most welcome, still time to add them to next weeks show or even the wrap up show so don’t be shy.

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Gatecast 347 SGU Common Descent

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Mar 252017
 

Common Descent

The crew of the Destiny come across a group of humans descended from well the crew of the Destiny in the episode Common Descent. The air scrubbers that were retrofitted when the Icarus group first boarded the ship are failing and the search begins for more lime or similar material to help clean the air. They gate to a planet and meet two English speaking young people who recognise both Scott and Greer and reveal that they are the latest generation from the crew of Destiny who found themselves stranded 2000 years in the past after attempting the nice chevron dialing within the star as told in Twin Destinies.

Common Descent

The news of these spreads quickly with Eli, Chloe and Camille venturing to the planet where they greet one of the settlements elders named “Yaozu” who recites a verse very familiar to Camille and in its native language. The crew then learn about the lives of those who fled the Destiny never to return thanks to the extensive use of Kinos and the ability to maintain the integrity of the day to day records of their society. No doubt Eli with his long held belief that everything should be documented would aid this young society in the centuries to come allowing for more rapid development and no corruption of historical figures and events. This settlement has lost contact with their homeworld “Novus” which was experiencing geologic issues which they were beginning to believe were being caused by a small black hole passing by the solar system, with no gate access to resources the settlement is dying but Young refuses to take them back to Novus as Destiny itself even with limited repairs would be unable to handle the extra personnel, the the drones attack.

The Destiny is battling the drones and taking people off the planet as it too comes under fire but when the Stargate is damaged the Destiny jumps into hyperspace and abandons a number of her own crew along with the last of the Novus citizens. Eli manages to get a message to the Destiny using the gate control subsystems and the Destiny swings back and transports the people to Novus. Unfortunately the planet is wrapped in extensive cloud cover with low temperatures and particulates in the atmosphere. The cities are intact though but no life is found and it is believed a major volcanic eruption drove the planet into nuclear winter and decimated the population of Novus.

Common Descent is a very entertaining episode which really makes the most of Twin Destinies at a time when there was no indication those eighty or so people who were lost in a wormhole would ever be heard of again. The producers and writers however have created a master stroke in exploiting a time travel narrative in a less than usual way with very positive results and far more to come in the second part of this story Epilogue.

Our thanks to Miles for joining us this week, he’ll return for Epilogue and continued thanks to Brad for the feedback for The Hunt. This weeks promo is for Flash Pulp and next week we are as mentioned going to be watching Epilogue, we hope you can join us for that.

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Gatecast 221 SGA The Tower

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Apr 262014
 

avatar The team visit a primitive world looking for trade and resources and discover that the local villagers pay tribute to The Tower and in return it protects them from the Wraith by means of glowing lights which fly through the sky. They are taken to the tower and it looks like the central structure of Atlantis but sprouting from a large wooded and hilly area of the planet. McKay along with a local named Baldric go investigate while the rest of the team stay in the village and discover that the enforcers of the tower act in a rather brutal manner to the villagers and when they intervene to prevent a whipping a man named Eldred appears and brings down a drone attack. He then scans the team and invites John back to the tower and introduces him to the Lord Protector who does indeed rule the plant from within a sister city to Atlantis complete with ZPM powered chair, sensors and weapon systems. The Royal family and their hangers on live in luxury thanks to them exploiting the villagers and it turns out that the Ancient gene has kept these people in power and it is slowly weakening within the blood line and John’s arrival offers a boost and so the young and pretty Mara throws herself at John and well he’s only a guy after all. Meanwhile McKay discovers a huge store of drones but finds that the ZPM is almost exhausted and while Teyla and Ronon are dealing with over enthusiastic enforcers and John handles a royal coup and murder the world is slowly spinning towards chaos when all three plot elements merge when the new Lord Protector launches an attack on the village and John has to then fight for his life.

Party Time all the time

Party Time all the time

The Tower asks a lot of questions and the main one is why would the Ancients leave a city ship on this planet complete with functioning ZPM, drones and it seems a working star drive. We have seen that individual Ancients have taken it upon themselves to protect humans within the Pegasus galaxy by a manner of means but a second city ship is not something that can be just slipped in under the council’s noses so it must have been a sanctioned plan which still leaves the question open. The story of course when dealing with the attitudes of the people of this world does make perfect sense, there is nothing new there but it’s done fairly well and the village set is rustic and primitive enough as well as the redressed Atlantis looking pretty spectacular in a period style. Lets not forget the costuming which worked well both for the male and female characters (main and extras), I really liked the flowing shirt with the ruffles that Eldred (Peter Woodward) was showing off:)

McKay with his sidekick Baldric was a laugh, Ronon and Teyla dealing with the enforcers and the villagers was quite intense at times and seeing Ronon lose it provoked by the threat of a woman’s rape was both frightening but inspiring, we really saw what he was capable of and combined with Jason’s expression during the fight really hammered home how complex this character can be. John of course had a great time, good food, good sex, political intrigue and a fight for good measure combine to make a pretty good couple of days away from the city and then underlined by the criminally short screen time for Elizabeth when the two chattered in the final scene.

Overall quite a fun episode, an excellent cast with the return of Jay Brazeau to the franchise and the overall production was excellent with action, humour and drama.

This weeks promo is for the Nutty Bites Podcast and next week we return to SG1 for the episode Off The Grid so hope you join us for that and if you have anything to say then don’t hesitate to get in touch, we love getting feedback in any form so check us out on Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus and if you have the inclination a review and rating on itunes and Stitcher would be most appreciated.  Don’t forget that our two polls for the upcoming wrap up shows are currently running so please vote for your favourite SG1 Season 9 episode and Season 2 Atlantis episode.

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Episode 153 Lost City Part 2

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Oct 202012
 

 Jack now armed with the knowledge of the Ancients continues the herculean task of piecing together the information in his overloaded brain looking to find the location of the lost city and through some clever out of the box thinking a planet is discovered. Thanks to the Jaffa they get a cargo ship and investigate this long thought dead planet and make a startling discovery one which changes everything but also provides the solution to defending the Earth from Anubis and his fleet of ships now orbiting the planet.

The second part of the season seven finale is a absolute cracker, lots of drama and humour with some very expensive but very impressive CGI effects and top notch set design and production. We have the search for the lost city which doesn’t quite go according to plan but does reward SG1 and the SGC with the means to save the planet while really setting the stall for the upcoming Stargate Atlantis spin-off series.

The Red Planet but it ain’t Mars

Credit once again to some excellent performances from both the regular cast and guest stars, the tension and drama in and around the Oval Office is riveting  and we get some good stuff from Kinsey once again when he faces off with Weir as well as showing his true colours when Anubis calls. We’ve often seen characters made or broke when faced with planet critical situations, it’s a little trite but it works for this show perhaps because they have been so well developed.

Ok who didn’t wipe their feet?

I dare anyone to watch this episode and not cheer during the final battle or even take incredible pride and satisfaction in the look Bra’tac has on his face as he sees the fruits of his labours and maybe the foreshadowing of greater things to come.

Ok then that was the final episode of the seventh season of SG1, next week we will have the wrap up show with a guest host and then to be honest we are still not sure, it may be a special episode or SG1 season 8 but we have to make up our minds soon. Many thanks for the feedback and continued support via twitter, facebook and google+ but now we need itunes reviews/ratings and there may be a carrot dangling for those who think we are worth a few minutes of typing.

Thanks to Tuning Into Scifi for providing the promo, a great podcast with other titles under it’s wing, well worth checking out.

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