Gatecast 342 SGU Twin Destinies

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Feb 182017
 

Twin Destinies

The episode title Twin Destinies hints at this story which begins with the Destiny is badly damaged from the recent conflict with the drones and the use of a star to power the 9th chevron dialing is once again addressed as Eli claims to have made a breakthrough with the work he did with Ginn. He uses the communication stones to exchange with Dr Lee and the attempt is given the green light. Rush is opposed to the attempt citing all the possible things that could go wrong with the chaotic variables they will be manipulating. Young allows Rush to present his thoughts to the crew and as we see there are enough people willing to stay onboard and continue the mission despite the state of the ship. As they fly towards a star they receive a signal from a shuttle approaching Destiny, onboard is Dr Nicholas Rush who reveals he has travelled backwards in time and his Destiny is dead in space and the crew gone. We learn that a solar flare intersected the wormhole and only one person made it back to Earth but there is a ship out there with spare parts, food, medicine and weapons and the opportunity has to be taken to bolster this timelines Destiny although one Rush may be one too many.

Twin Destinies

Well it’s true you can never have too much Robert Carlyle and he went to town in the episode and also credit to Lou Diamond Phillips who as Telford was the only person to get home portrayed the survivors guilt and anger towards Rush with style. An unexpected conclusion to both characters but when you have a spare then you can always offer up a good death scene without taking away future potential story lines. This episode also saw the final appearance of Bill Dow (Dr Lee) and the final sole writing credit for Brad Wright whose current series Travelers will return for a second season.

Our continued thanks to Brad for making the time to record with us over skype from Australia and for sending in this weeks feedback for last weeks episode “Deliverance”. The promo played in the episode was for Nutty Bites a podcast hosted by Nuchtchas, always entertaining and often informative and surprising. Next week we are going to be joined by Ian for the episode “Alliances” and we hope you too can join us as we continue the journey along with Destiny.

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Gatecast 322 SGU Divided

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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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Gatecast 321 SGU Space

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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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Gatecast 320 SGU Justice

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Jul 302016
 

Justice

The mid-season finale of Stargate Universe is entitled Justice and brings forward the conclusion of the ongoing issues with Sgt. Spencer who more than many has been having serious issues and coping with self medication. Now we know that whatever drug he has been taking has run out and his behaviour has become more extreme over the last few weeks culminating with an assault and bullying of Franklin in particular. The events that take place on Destiny are shocking but offer an opportunity for both Rush and Wrey to gain control over the ship and while both are complicit in the events as they unfold as always Rush has his own very personal agenda.

Justice (29)

Justice begins with a truly humorous scene more so because Greer is at its center, there is a good bonding moment between him and some of the scientists which gets derailed when he investigates the missing Spencer and finds his body with a bullet hole in it’s head but no weapon. The scene certainly implies suicide but the missing gun points to at worst murder and at best some other nefarious plot. The weapon is found in Young’s quarters by Eli and Wrey uses this to undermine the military control of the ship through a hearing (approved by the IOA) but much to her annoyance Chloe is treating the hearing with respect. Wray was looking for an easy takedown but can’t seem to handle the fact that a civilian could be arguing for due process and a balanced look at the facts. It’s quite clever that the writers didn’t give us any reason to really like Camille but then they gave us her homelife and a 180 degree turn in her character but now back on the ship she’s back to well her professional self and not much to like there. Spencer himself was another character we were not meant to like, we knew little about him and his stealing of supplies and mysterious drug use were red flags but ultimately he was perhaps the first of the true casualties, he was broken before reaching the Destiny and had no avenue to seek help, others sacrificed or were selfish or simply met an unfortunate end but Spencer was a victim in the truest sense. Eli once again is feeling the pressure of being privy to secrets and of course we get the final straw of the fragile relationship between Young and Rush. Pity the discover of the spaceship on the planet came so late in the FTL downtime, who knows what they could have learnt.

Many thanks to Thomas for joining us this week, a few technical issues which meant no clean audio for some of the show but that was a temporary issue. Our thanks to Mack for the feedback as always and to everyone that supports the show on social media our heartfelt gratitude. This weeks promo is for Tuning Into SciFi Tv and next week we return for the episode Space, we hope you can join us for that:)

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Gatecast 311 SGU Air Part 1

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May 282016
 

Air Part 1

Welcome to our very first look at Stargate Universe and the first episode Air Part 1 which in this case is part of the extended release on the DVD/Blu-ray, for the purposes of the podcast we cut the double episode in half and will be looking at Air Part 2 next week.

The story of Stargate Universe begins with the view of the Destiny (as we come to learn) and onboard the activation of a Stargate, by mixing up the timelines we learn that the SGC has an off world base codenamed Icarus which is using the geo-thermal properties of an alien world to power its Stargate and access the ninth chevron. The complexities of energy manipulation has prevented a successful activation until the puzzle is sent out into the real world by means of a computer game. This game is solved by Eli Wallace (played by David Blue) who is then shanghaied by General O’Neill and brought to Icarus to work with Dr Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) and along for the ride comes the Senator who was instrumental in securing the funding for the base and his daughter who came up with the idea to exploit gamers. During the visit the base comes under attack from the Lucian Alliance and Eli has a flash of inspiration, the symbols required are not just an address but also incorporate a code, the Earth symbol should not work but when used the wormhole is opened and with no other option the survivors of Icarus flee through the gate. They arrive on board Destiny with many injuries including Colonel Young (Louis Ferreira) and begin to explore not realising at first they are onboard a starship billions of light years away from the Milky Way and Earth…

Da Boys are Here

Well there you go the first look at Stargate Universe and it was far better than I remembered infact all three parts of Air were a very rewarding viewing experience. The main cast is incredible and as you would expect the Stargate producers have made full use of continuity and the acting pool of Stargate veterans to populate the screen, it paid off big time for those of us who are familiar with the franchise. The production quality right from the start was incredible for television and felt very different to what SG1 and Atlantis has offered in the years before, as it turned out that may have played a part in the show only getting two seasons but those two seasons are an adventure to say the least:)

We’ve got to thank Jeff for returning to the podcast (sucker for punishment) and our first timer Steve who is a veteran podcaster in his own right. Together with myself and Alan I think we did one of our better episode commentaries/discussions, the fourth voice I think added that extra something and for once Skype was well behaved. So next week we are back with the same line up and taking a look at Air Part 2, we hope you join us and we want your feedback on the podcast and Stargate Universe, if nothing else SGU generated discussion in the Stargate fan community:)

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The Rush – Amanda Tapping

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Apr 102013
 

Amanda was the special guest on The Rush on Shaw TV (Tuesday 9th April), her interview begins around the 18 minute mark but watch the entire live stream, it’s all entertaining and good to see Robin Dunne having a great time.

SGU Human (SyFy Broadcast)

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Apr 252010
 

So we finally get the Rush episode which helps to clear up the mystery of the photograph he was upset about in the pilot. It was a little confusing at first until it became clear Rush was reliving events from his past when he was approached by Daniel to head up the Icarus project (Rush named it:) ) but the obsessive personality he is pushed him away from his wife at the time she needed him most.

The B plot dealing with our first visit to some ruins which left the team stranded was a little too simplistic but it looks like we are going to get an uber payoff next week.

Key Points…

    • Obsession
    • Code Breaking
    • Personal Demons

      SGU Divided (SyFy Broadcast)

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      Apr 112010
       

      Ramifications from the fall out between Rush and Young continue as the chasm between the military and civilian personal gets wider. The aliens it seems have ways of tracking the Destiny which again gives us a clearer understanding of how manipulative Rush can be.

      Key Points…

      • Tracking Destiny
      • Manipulation
      • Betrayal

      SGU Space (SyFy broadcast)

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      Apr 032010
       

      So I’ve just finished watching the first new episode of SGU for some time and I came away pretty satisfied. We see the crew dealing with the loss of Rush with the obvious differing opinions from within the camps and that’s made worse by a “malfunction” in the communication stones prior to an IOA report being sent. Things start to ramp up as the mysterious ship which left the Destiny earlier in the season is seen again bringing it’s own issues to the general mix of back stabbing and double dealing.

      Key points

      • Rush & Young
      • Theme of being alone
      • Growing discontent and Conspiracy
      • Aliens