Gatecast 337 SGU The Greater Good

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Nov 262016
 

The Greater Good

The question of what is the greater good is asked of many of the crew of Destiny in this episode as the ship comes across an alien derelict. Without a shuttle the decision is made to leap across the void (in the space suits) and employ a Kino as motive force and to string a connecting rope to aid the second person across. Colonel Young and Rush both volunteer and are probably both being a little paranoid but the unlikely couple do make it across safe and sound and enter the alien ship through a rupture in its hull. Rush is able to secure a compartment and bring power up and sends the Kino in search mode, they discover the alien pods they found previously on the Seed ship and unfortunately trigger an energy surge which propels the ship far away from Destiny.

Rush is extremely unwilling to reveal the secret of the bridge and his partial control of the ship so convinces Young that the only solution would be to bring Amanda Perry back on board. Ginn has been supplying Homeworld with intel so is swapped with Amanda and once she is onboard then Rush lets her onto his secret. She gains access to the bridge and is able to fly the Destiny towards the alien ship and attempts to bluff Eli and the others that she has been able to tweak the maneuvering thrusters. Eli digs deeper and sees the secret messages Rush was passing onto Amanda and tracks hers down to the bridge, no one is pleased to say the least. Young and Rush have a knock down drag out fight before clearing the air and coming towards a consensus which if they survive could allow Destiny to be unified and to pursue the great mission that Rush has been tantalised by. Young and Rush are of course rescued but Simeon who has been disturbed by how close Ginn is to the crew and learns of her visit to Earth pays Amanda a visit in her quarters with a glorious amount of foreboding…

The Great Good was an excellent episode, some of the CGI visuals where stunning more so because they were slow and deliberate allowing you to appreciate the detail the artists applied to their computer constructed models. The continued relationship between Ginn and Eli is fantastic and Amanda and Rush spark as you would expect. The highlight of the episode barring Eli getting seriously pissed when he discovers Rush’s betrayal is the dialogue heavy discussion between Young and Rush, two great actors performing with a good script and twenty six episodes of character growth behind them.

Our continued thanks to Brad for joining us this week and the featured promo was for Generations Geek. Next week since it will be December we will be dipping into this season’s bonus episodes recording over this last year. Up first will be the episode “Penance” from Sanctuary which guest starred Michael Shanks so we hope you can join us for that and of course we’d love to know what you thought of the episode.

Oh yeah, the Stargate Atlantis favourite episode poll is open for one more week, we would love to have your opinions:)

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Gatecast 336 SGU Trial And Error

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Nov 192016
 

Trial And Error

Colonel Young continues his slide into the abyss in the episode Trial And Error as we see him indulge a little too eagerly the fruits of Brody’s homebrew experiments. Young has also started having what he takes for nightmares, very vivid nightmares of the return of the aliens who we first met when they were discovered to have been tracking the Destiny for who knows how long. Each of these experiences leaves Young failing to save the ship from destruction but he is able to take some action in the real world even though he can not really explain why he is making these specific choices. Eventually he bites the bullet and goes to talk to Camille who is obviously sceptical but when Eli discovers the ship has been running battle scenarios the truth is revealed that Destiny has been interacting with the Colonel perhaps testing his command capabilities and refusing to enter FTL until it is satisfied with the results.

 

Trial And Error is an interesting episode as it pretty much breaks Young who has been on the edge since first arriving on Destiny. His relationship with his wife and TJ plus the rigors of commanding the military and civilian crew plus day to day gate operations have all taken their toll. The death of Riley in hindsight was the breaking point where he started to use alcohol as a crutch and it’s only been getting worse. The battle scenarios and neural interaction certainly add a layer of complexity and capability to Destiny and opens up a whole world of scifi story lines if the writers so chose to use them given the show would still be around in a few years. Of course the kicker was that when Young finally realised how far he had allowed himself to fall and at least started to correct the matter the pay off of Destiny finally engaging the FTL was undermined by Rush and his antics on the bridge with the “Franklin” persona. Oh well, maybe we’ll learn more of what Destiny is capable of when it isn’t being manipulated by Rush for his own ends.

Overall the episode was entertaining, the groundhog day approach is certainly not unique in scifi but it worked well and the cost of the rather spectacular explosions covered by multiple use. It was also gratifying to see Eli and Ginn simply sparkle with chemistry, it’s been said that she is perhaps a cold blooded opportunist but I want to believe she saw something in Eli that appealed and this was her chance to embrace a new path for herself free from the shadow of the Alliance. It was also without doubt delightful to see Greer playing the role of wingman or say big brother and taking such joy in the act, it confirms that he isn’t the hard nose he makes out to be but retains a very healthy scepticism on those who have yet to prove themselves.

Our thanks to Brad for joining us this week and to Mack for the feedback. This weeks podcast promo was for Nutty Bites and next week we are going to be taking a look at the episode The Greater Good, we hope you can join us for that and if possible let us know what you thought of the episode and this second season of Universe so far, not many episodes left.

Oh yeah, the Stargate Atlantis favourite episode poll is still open, would love to have your contribution:)

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Gatecast 335 SGU Cloverdale

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Nov 122016
 

Cloverdale

Cloverdale the home town of Scott and Chloe (also the location of many a Canadian tv series such as Smallville) plays host to their wedding after Scott on leave from the military returns home. Eli is the designated camera man for the wedding and all the preparations and Greer is the best man, oh lets not forget that Everett is Scott’s father not just the normal father figure. A lot is going on in the opening scenes of the episode but things come to an abrupt focus when we see the crew of the Destiny on an alien world battling some sort of native life form and Scott in critical condition. The episode then proceeds to tell the story of the events on the alien world as Scott lives an alternate life in Cloverdale surrounded by his friends and family played by crew of the Destiny. We see these people showing traits that is not the norm or others with attitudes highlighted, it may be that Scott is interacting with the people with character traits he believes them to have which may explain Volker being a little more fluffy than usual, Brody the source of things booze and in an interesting choice Vanessa as the love lorn ex who would still swallow her pride and offer herself body and soul on the eve of Scott’s wedding.

 

Cloverdale works in many ways, some of the location work is excellent especially the simple colour timing tweaks which turned a normal piece of woodland into a very alien world. Of course the Cloverdale location shooting was spot on and some of the in jokes worked very well including a very well crafted stunt which Brian was allowed to at least partially perform, check out the DVD extras for a full behind the scenes look. The standout character of the episode was perhaps Greer who was the life and soul of the wedding party and the true warrior as he fought off the alien planets aka Triffids. Rush was a close second thanks to a stellar performance as the registrar and both Brian and Elyse delivered solid performances.

The episode viewer ratings wise is pretty average and I wouldn’t disagree but there are some good scenes and performances and serves a purpose as a standalone episode allowing for a breather for this seasons main story arc. Our thanks to Steve (once again) for joining us for the podcast and to Brad for the feedback, apologises for the shorter show which was the result of the second episode with corrupted audio recordings. Next week should be back to normal as the flaw in the recording software has been worked around, touch wood. This weeks podcast promo is for the Babylon Project Podcast which discusses an episode per show of the great Babylon 5 scifi series, next week we will be taking a look at Trial And Error with out guest Thomas, we hope you join us for that and let us know what you think of it and all things Stargate.

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Gatecast 334 SGU Pathogen

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Nov 052016
 

Pathogen

Pathogen is a rather disturbing title for an episode more so for scifi but in this case it bodes extra specially for whatever is growing within Chloe and in part for Eli’s mother who is suffering from the accidental contraction of HIV. Maryanne Wallace is of course only aware of her son working with the US military at some undisclosed location but with no direct contact she is depressed and no longer taking her medication. In short she has given up ever seeing Eli again and without him she sees little to live for when everyday is a fight with the disease she carries in her blood. Chloe is becoming more and more suspect and in the eyes of many untrustworthy but as it happens Rush finds a way to not only use her to advance his agenda but hide the fact he is able to manipulate the Destiny at least upto a point.

 

Eli is allowed to visit Earth to try to form a bond with his mother but obviously without giving the game away and even when he does blurb she doesn’t buy the uber scifi narrative this strange guy is dishing out. Meanwhile Camille who is acting as intermediary is also taking the opportunity to visit Sharon who it’s obvious is having serious issues herself, a manic personality and increased alcohol consumption. When Eli finally reaches out to Camille she acts and forces the IOA and Homeworld into allowing a visit to Destiny by Maryanne and in that sequence is dare anyone not to get teary eyed as she finally sees her son in the flesh and wanders around the Destiny and absorbs every moment with her child. Eli for his part is back to the little boy hanging on to his mother’s dress for dear life and this simple act by Camille solves at least this problem. Perhaps the unexpected bonus was that Sharon meets up with Maryanne later which gives both of them a confident and anchor to share their troubles which also shows that at least Camille while being stubborn and opinionated at terms at least is not corrupt, she couldn’t give herself the privilege of have Sharon visit her but for another who needed it then she the power she had.

Pathogen also gave us some very good moments with Simeon as his presences becomes more intense and we get both Greer and Varro making moves to contain the threat but unfortunately nothing much is being done but we can’t help but feel it should be obvious that Simeon is faraway from being the cooperative soldier that his fellow alliance members are. I said in the podcast I wasn’t sure if I really liked this episode, there was some very good scenes and situations but there wasn’t that clear cut “great episode” feeling about it, perhaps as mentioned it was meant to put the viewer on edge and if so Robert as a first time director did it proud.

If you have listened to this episode of the podcast then you know we had some technical issues, most of my dialogue has to be replaced and alas it wasn’t always done well. Unfortunately next weeks episode will suffer from the same fate but then we found the problem and resolved it so bare with us. Our thanks to Brad for the feedback and to Steve for giving us his time for the show, always appreciated. This weeks promo is for British Invaders and next week we are going to be taking a look at Cloverdale, hope you join us.

Oh don’t forget to vote in our Stargate Atlantis favourite episode poll.

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Gatecast 333 SGU Awakening

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Oct 292016
 

Awakening

In the third episode of the season called Awakening we see the Destiny approaches the mysterious object detected earlier, the ship approaches swiftly which provokes Young to order the deployment of the main gun but before they can fire the thrusters engage slowing Destiny and docks the two ships. A team board the vessel through the airlocks which prove to be compatible, no surprise really as the design of the ship certainly echoes Destiny herself. As the team search the ship the control is activated and we see that there is something alive on board, shortly after Volker alone on the bridge is surprised by an alien who promptly collapses. TJ is sent over to provide aid and when the alien awakes they try to communicate and offer it food with little success. However Rush and Park discover that the Ancient built stargate seeding ship has almost a full energy storage cell which can be tapped to provide the Destiny with enough power to dial Earth. Everyone is excited but as they prepare to dial the energy feed reverses and the seed ship begins to draw power from Destiny.

 

Telford and Eli are unable to prevent the energy drain and everyone but Telford leave the seed ship, Rush on the bridge of Destiny makes the call and disconnects the two ships leaving Telford stranded and alarmingly surrounded by a number of the aliens…

Awakening was an interesting episode both in terms of adding to the Lucian Alliance complication but solidifying Ginn and Varro and the dark presence of Simeon. We get another clear indication that when the proverbial hits the fan and the crew learn that Rush has control of the ship he may not survive the experience. Riley died because of Rush and his distrust and paranoia and now Telford has been abandoned to his fate although it has to be said it was a moving conversation between the two Colonels. It was great to see the Seed ship and the bay full of gates ready for deployment and quite funny how Rush reacted but of course he has bigger fish to fry whereas Scott and Greer were like kids in a candy store:)

A decent episode which actually works better as a jumping off point for storylines to come but with plenty of drama, humour and some great character pieces which raises the episode above average. Our thanks this week to Thomas for joining us on the show and he will be back shortly including at least one of the seasonal bonus shows. No direct feedback this week but we do want to hear from you about anything Stargate and Gatecast so drop us a line or chat over social media. This weeks promo is for Treks In Scifi and next week we are going to be watching the excellent “Pathogen”.

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Gatecast 332 SGU Aftermath

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Oct 222016
 

Aftermath

Well the titles says it all, in the aftermath of the defeated assault by the Lucian Alliance the crew have to come to terms with the loss of some of their comrades and the unexpected visitors locked up in a store room. Some members of the alliance forces are co-operating by explaining the reasoning behind their attack on Destiny while others are still looking to cause trouble. All ready there are rumblings of discontent amongst the expedition members over the resources being used on the captives but the IOA and others want to interrogate them as trouble seems to be brewing back in the Milky Way.

 

Rush has eventually determined the location of the ship’s bridge and in typical fashion doesn’t tell anyone else, he is confronted by a representation of his wife and Franklin who may be hallucinations or avatars of the ship’s AI but either way Rush is making decisions with little thought of the people involved. He brings the ship out of FTL near a planet with a locked off gate and proclaims it safe to visit via the shuttle even though there is extremely high turbulence in the atmosphere. Of course the shuttle crashes and Riley is critically injured and trapped in the wreckage, the gate as well is missing but turns up buried under what was perhaps a landslide and they are unable to return to the ship before the Destiny jumps away.

Rush is confident that when the Destiny re-enters normal space the planet’s gate will still be in range and meanwhile they continue to dig the gate out eventually relying on explosives to clear the bulk of the debris. Once uncovered the Destiny does indeed dial the planet and the team are rescued and Young informed of Riley. He visits Riley and the two men share a moment and Riley makes it clear he knows he will die where he lies and makes it clear he does not want anyone to risk themselves by staying behind and asks Young to help him die. The silence passes by and as the unspoken words pass between them the Colonel suffocates Riley and then slowly exists the ship and announces the passing of the young officer.

On board Destiny the Colonel gets a list via Telford of the members of the alliance the IOA and Homeworld want to continue to talk too, the rest of the alliance members are gated to the planet where it has to be said they will probably die. The Destiny jumps away now minus the last remaining shuttle which could be a problem since they have come in very useful so far.

Our thanks to Thomas for joining us for this episode, we recorded two episodes that evening so next week he will be back. Brad sent us in some audio feedback via email which we will spread out across the relevant episodes, gratitude for taking the time. This weeks promo was for Flash Pulp from Skinner Co and next week as mentioned Thomas will be back for the episode Awakening so join us for that and if you have any comments/feedback we would love to hear from you.

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Gatecast 330 SGU Incursion Part 2

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Oct 082016
 

Incursion Part 2

The Lucian Alliance and crew of the Destiny face off in Incursion Part 2, both sides have control of specific areas of the ship and both need/want what the other has. Young and Kiva agree on an exchange of medical and food for civilian hostages. Young is prepared to risk casualties by double crossing Kiva but the power issues intervene blowing the plan apart before it is enacted resulting in a half hearted exchange at best. Kiva then agrees to deal with Camille and a deal is done but alas the body of an executed Cpl Rivers is thrown in underlining how ruthless Kiva can be. Eli and Chloe continue to explore the ship and eventually find an active panel, he contacts the main control center using ancient which Rush recognises.

Destiny thanks to the need to come out of FTL to allow gate access is in the vicinity of a pulsar whose regular output of gamma rays and other exotics is preventing the ship from generating the threshold of energy required to jump away, shields are taking preference. They decide to prioritise shields near the pulsar leaving the ship unprotected elsewhere which will mean less energy required and thus used for the jump engines. The shields however will need manually adjusting on the hull, Scott and Greer are tasked with the job. However to make it happen Young has to give control of the ship to Kiva but is hoping thanks to Telford the transfer can be reversed before any serious consequences.

 

Incursion Part 2 is a very fitting season finale making the most of the set up in the first half of this series of episodes and delivering action and oodles of suspense and drama. We lose crew and of course the cliffhanger leaves many of the main characters in jeopardy, in fact if contracts hadn’t been sorted before this aired many of the actors could be seriously worried.

There was as you would expect some truly beautiful CGI shots and the stunt work was exceptional no doubt thanks in part to Mike Dopud who started his career as a stuntman, the fight in med bay was intense and brutal and the consequences heart wrenching and maybe the nastiest cliffhanger of them all. Lets not forget Eli and Chloe, a wonderful scene between the two of them which relied on a year’s worth of interaction and emotional ups and downs, credit to both David and Elyse. The final scene was beyond intense and the flickering light and fade to black highly effective in terms of building expectation but going hand in hand with the threat the ship faces from the pulsar. To sum up this was a pretty good episode:)

We would like to thank Brad for joining us once again this week even when these two episodes were recording on the same night.  Brad will return for some bonus content later in the year and for a few episodes of the second season of Universe. This week podcast promo was for the Scifi Diner a long running show full of news, reviews and features hosted by Scott, Miles and M. Next week we’ll be taking a look at the season two premiere of Universe with the episode Intervention, join us and let us know what you think.

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Gatecast 329 SGU Incursion Part 1

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Oct 012016
 

Incursion Part 1

The first part of the two parter season 1 final Incursion kicks off where we left the previous episode. Telford is being more or less tortured and eventually dies but that’s what Young must have been waiting for as he is revived and immediately informs Young that the Lucian Alliance are about to launch an assault on the Destiny thanks in part to the contribution of the captured Dr Rush. Carter has flown to the planet housing the Alliance facility but as the attack commences that gate is activated and connects to Destiny. Young has laid a trap but when the chips are down he hesitates and the Alliance soldiers gain a foothold and break out of the gateroom and a running battle begins within the corridors of Destiny. Soon a balance is reached with both forces holding key areas of the ship, negotiations begin made the more urgent by seemingly unexplained power outages and an Alliance soldier being vaporised by some unknown force and of course Camille takes the role of the peacemaker and diplomat which you just know Kiva and Young would both agree is pointless but can be exploited.

 

Incursion being a two parter is using a lot of its narrative to make way for the pay off in the second episode but that aside this is a riveting episode full of action and drama. It has to be said though that Young failed in his task to protect his people. As Jack pointed out when Sam had to take her ship away from the exploding planet and sacrifice two of her pilots she made the hard call, for one man (well maybe two) Young allowed the Alliance on board and cost far more lives. Commander Kiva played by Rhona Mitra was fantastic, brutal yes but never a wasted action or reaction, she was as proved quite capable of cold blooded murder but when required had the sense to deal, no one reaches command rank in the Alliance by being reckless as we will see next week. Of course we also have a mystery surrounding the death of the Alliance soldier, well he was vaporised and with the power fluctuations we get a wild card in already volatile situation, next week should be fun.

We want to thank Brad for joining us this week and he will return for the second part of this season finale. This week podcast promo was for Generations Geek the father/daughter show which looks at all things Geek in the media so for now we’ll leave Destiny hanging around a galaxy and return next week for the final episode of the first season which promises to be a doozy 🙂

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Gatecast 328 SGU Subversion

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Sep 242016
 

Subversion

As you would expect from the title Subversion there are secrets and lies surrounding Destiny and the former Icarus project. The surprise attack on Icarus base was never fully explained but after Rush dreams of Telford having secret meetings after sharing the communication stones it becomes clear. Young is not totally convinced Rush is being truthful but agrees to allow him to take Telford’s place and investigate the Colonel but he also talks to General O’Neill about his suspicions and he in turn tasks Daniel (one man he can trust) to follow Rush. Meanwhile back on Destiny TJ is having a baby shower but when Telford arrives his sombre presence dampens things down but even with Camille’s support he is unable to prevent Young from pressing him on his undercover activities and the revelation of the communication stones side effects on people who shared Telford’s body. Rush makes contact with Lucian Alliance members on Earth and unable to supply credible ID is zapped and flown off world in a cloaked cargo ship and eventually arrives at a world which has the same Naquadah deposits as Icarus and a gate making it possible to dial Destiny if the calculations are precise.

subversion

Kiva having tortured “Telford” and learning it is really Rush now expects him to complete the research for dialing Destiny, she orders the death of her own “expert” for well no longer being useful so plenty of incentive for Nicholas and while Varro shows him some compassion he admits that he will do the deed if Kiva requests it. Telford is also being aggressively interrogated onboard Destiny and Jack pays them a visit and Telford finally cracks and reveals his duplicity, yes it was under the thrall of brainwashing tech but the admission lets Young off his leash and he orders the air to be pumped out of Telfords room…

Well what can you say about Subversion, great to see some of the SG1 cast making guest appearances and we begin to understand some of the behind the scenes events that led to the fall of Icarus. A little concerned how the Lucian Alliance can infiltrate Earth so easy and Teford being undiscovered for so long. We had some very nice moments with TJ which were pretty much the only “nice” things about this story to balance out the heavy and emotive drama going on with Telford and Rush. Rhona was kickass as Commander Kiva and we’re getting get a lot more of her next week when well the proverbial really hits the fan.

As always our thanks to our third voice on the episode, this week it was Ian that joined us and a big thank you to everyone that listens to the show and who have interacted with us on social media in it’s many forms. This weeks promo is for Continuing Missions a Star Trek Voyager podcast from the Trekmate network and next week we are going to be watching the first episode in the three part story which straddles season 1 and season 2 so we hope you join us for Incursion Part 1.

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Gatecast 327 SGU Pain

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Sep 172016
 

Pain

This episode entitled Pain is pretty much standalone dealing with the unforeseen consequences of a recent visit to an alien world by some members of the expedition. The episode begins with a very dynamic sequence with Vanessa and Scott making sweet sweet nah going at it like rabbits which is confusing given Scott has pretty much staked his camp in the Chloe pasture. We then get a truly WTF moment when Scott ends up dead on the floor and we jump to a bemused Volker who can get out of his cabin and then Greer paranoia to the max spying Camille on the gate room computer. More slightly strange events occur before we get to see the outline of what is going on aboard Destiny which pays off pretty well I have to say. The cold opening really leaves the viewer in a confused frame of mind because nothing we are seeing is outside the bounds of probability or reason.

pain-17

You may notice the write up for this episode is fairly short that’s because while overall it has no real impact on the main story it should be experienced by the viewer as fresh as possible, if you haven’t seen it yet then you are for a treat, if it’s been a while then you should still enjoy it. For a veteran viewer some of the shine may have been lost and without plot elements meshing with episodes either side of it then it may lose some appeal. So short and sweet, our thanks to Mack for the feedback over on Google + and to Steve for joining us on the show, this weeks promo is for Nutty Bites and next week we are going to be taking a look at Subversion. We hope you join us for that and as always we’d enjoying hearing your thoughts on the podcast or Stargate in general.

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Gatecast 326 SGU Sabotage

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Sep 102016
 

Sabotage

The Destiny is venturing into the void between galaxies when one of the drive units explodes, sabotage is not suspected despite the episode title, rather the simple fact of the age of the ship is considered to be cause. They decide to bring in an expert in FTL engines one Amanda Perry who has been developing the replacement for the Asgard hyperdrives currently installed in the BC-304 starships. Amanda is however a paraplegic and who ever swaps with her will have to spend maybe a month experiencing what Amanda has had to live with since she was a nine year old. Camille desperate to see Sharon again agrees to swap and the exchange is made allowing Amanda and Rush to be reacquainted after working together at the SGC.

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While the ship is adrift the gate activates, the defence crew rush to the gate room and behold Chloe, Scott and Eli walk through, everyone seem surprised even the three wanderers who have been saved by the explosion onboard. We then get a pretty good montage which covers the following three weeks and with the aid of one of the recently discovered robotic maintenance units the drive pod is ejected and bypassed which increases the efficiency of the engines making it possible for Destiny to reach it’s destination. Amanda now bids farewell to Rush and reveals that she has also loved him but knew he had not yet gotten over the loss of his wife and after the events in “Human” Rush is reliving the same feelings and is unable to reciprocate her feelings (at this time). To complicate matters further they discover that Lt. James after an aborted use of the communications stones has been taken over by one of the aliens and it was “her” who had sabotaged the engines and then the aliens arrive on the scenes. In a desperate do or die situation Young prepares to sit in the Chair but Franklin finally speaks and returns to the device which almost killed him. As the ship comes under attack and the shields weaken he merges with the ship and then she jumps to FTL, Franklin however is missing…

Sabotage once again deliveries on multiple fronts, we get some solid drama with Camille and Amanda from both perspectives and we get a little bit of action, plenty of humour and another mystery which may be explained or maybe not. This weeks promo is for the Babylon Project Podcast which is delivering my quota for B5 and our thanks to Ian for joining us for the podcast, we are also grateful to both Mack and Brad for the feedback as always. We hope you join for our next show which is going to be “Subversion” and Steve will be joining us for that.

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Gatecast 325 SGU Lost

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Sep 032016
 

Lost

In the episode Lost we continue the off world adventure of Scott, Chloe and Eli as they choose to leave Greer behind after the second tunnel collapse. It was a tough decision for Scott to make but it was the right one given that the Destiny would not be waiting for them and their only chance of returning to the ship would be to have gated to a world further down the path the ship was traversing. Greer awakes to find himself trapped but manages to free himself and follows the chalk marks on the walls to freedom, of course he is too late but without a remote he can not go anywhere so sets up camp near the gate. This is where the writers chose to provide us with the meat of his backstory and it is very revealing. An abusive father who was no doubt suffering from PTSD after serving in the gulf shaped a young Greer into a man who wanted nothing more than to protect others and it was through the service he found his peace.

Lost

While the lost members of Destiny struggle to survive the ship itself has gone into power saving mode, they soon realise that she is preparing for a Galactica FTL jump and with no gates between the galaxies the opportunity to search nearby worlds will soon be no more, teams gate to available worlds expanding outwards in a last ditch hope of crossing path with the missing team. Eventually Lt. James gates back to the world where the team originally were trapped and finds Greer waiting for them, he returns in good condition but as the counter reaches zero and the final search term returns the ship jumps and begins her voyage to another galaxy. We then see Chloe, Eli and Scott vainly attempting to dial Destiny just as it winks out on the remote, gone forever…

Well a pretty impressive episode of Stargate Universe with some excellent background to the troubled character that is Greer, it was well worth the wait. We get some good exploration via the Stargates as the teams jump from world to world and none of that could have been cheap to do, the “dinosaur” was a laugh and the winter world and crystal world were very impressive to look at. The issues with Destiny herself continue to plague the expedition, the lack of any control still means the potential to lose people if even a single event goes awry must cause Young sleepless nights and speaking of which he now knows he is going to be a daddy.

Overall Lost was a very good and entertaining episode, good character writing and interaction as well some stunning visual effects to enhance the story being told. Our thanks to Steve for joining us on this episode of the podcast and we got some feedback from Mack once again, thank you kindly and Brad recorded us his thoughts on last weeks episode, appreciated as always. This week podcast promo was for Trek News & Views which is making a return now that Colin is feeling a lot better after his recent health issues and next week we are going to be watching the episode “Sabotage” with Ian, hope you join us.

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Gatecast 324 SGU Human

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Aug 272016
 

Human

In the 14th episode of Stargate Universe “Human” the crew of the Destiny have to deal with some bad decisions by the gate team who venture into some tunnels within a long abandoned and derelict city. The tunnel system collapses blocking the exit and trapping Chloe, Scott, Greer and Eli underground with no way to navigate the complex pathways, they can however contact the ship and relief is sent to help dig them out but the clock is ticking and ultimately Lt. James and her people are unable to reach their friends and are forced to return to Destiny. Meanwhile depending upon your point of view the A or B story deals with Rush who after some tweaking of the “chair” has connected himself to it in the hope of revealing the key to the Destiny which they believe will allow them full control of the ship.

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Human is very much a Rush episode despite the rather traumatic events going down on the planet which themselves would easily carry an episode. However seeing so much back story to the enigmatic Rush is very absorbing even though we are seeing him experience his past (Louise played his wife Gloria perfectly) knowing it’s not real so his actions are different to what they were. That said so much is made clear and provides an explanation as to the character we first met in the opening episode who then proved to be rather aggressive, arrogant and short tempered. It was probably fitting that the sacrifice Franklin made by trying the chair first paid off allowing Rush to commune with the computer system of the Destiny and it was an interesting to see the merging of his psyche with the AI of the ship. We still are not clear as to what the Ancients equipped the ship with in terms of control systems, there seems to be some intelligence maybe even sentience there but it’s clear the Destiny is far from a starship controlled by simply programming. I was a little disappointed that the excellent choices in music during the episode were not more key to solving the puzzle of the ship but they did lead the way and maybe even Rush was able to learn something about himself which will temper his interactions with the crew.

Rush aside it was a little reckless for the gate team to enter an unstable tunnel system in pursuit of a kino, it was simply a bad decision and a few more bad choices left them in an untenable position, the consequences of which may take quite a while to play out but the drama of time running out and then Destiny jumping to FTL was intense. Overall a very good episode with two significantly different stories and kudos to the director and cinematographer for making the two very different visualisations of the events work and look so well.

I want to offer me thanks to Thomas for joining me on this podcast, Alan was unavailable to it was just the two of us and we had a good time with an episode I was not sure would hold our interest after so many viewings, I was wrong. Our thanks to both Mack (Google+) and Brad (voicemail) for the feedback and continued support from the Stargate fan community. This weeks podcast promo is for Treks In Scifi and next week we are going to be watching and chatting about the fifteenth episode “Lost” and we hope you listen and let us know what you think about the episode and any other other aspect of the franchise.

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Gatecast 323 SGU Faith

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Aug 202016
 

Faith

In the episode Faith we see the Destiny drop out of FTL in a star system with a single planet that had not been charted by any of the seed ships which had passed through their part of the galaxy. Rush investigates and determines that this star and planet where simply not there when the seeders were looking to place Stargate and the scans of the system simply make no sense in terms of the age of the star and the planet’s structure and ecosystem. However Destiny will be in the system for at least a month as it orbits the star so the shuttle is sent down along with a full compliment of volunteers who set up camp and proceed to live the life of hunter/gathers. TJ goes along and realising now she is well into her pregnancy makes the most of the fresh air and water and good local food to revitalise her soul, many in the camp follow suit.

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On Destiny the remaining crew take the time to do some maintenance and explore the ship further, they find a few things that may come in useful at a later date but overall a depression has set in thanks to the daily grind and as the ship gets nowhere rather slowly. Of course not everyone had the opportunity to visit the planet but with gate travel limited perhaps many people still have not physically left the shop since they arrived. As the days go by and the camp prospers many begin to question the existence of the planet and the strange tower, perhaps the planet was created by an advanced species for purposes unknown or as Dr. Caine mentions perhaps it’s a gift from god. When their time on the planet draws to a close Young is rather startled to hear that not everyone wants to come back, mostly the group consists of the civilians but Scott and TJ want to stay, this does not go down well with the Colonel. Taking the partially repaired second shuttle he makes planetall and offers a deal, if all the military return he will leave that shuttle (shelter, power and limited flight) for the civilians and wish them well. TJ is heartbroken but a realist and returns forcing Scott to follow suit and the primary shuttle returns to Destiny with less people than before but packed with food and water.

Faith is beautiful looking episode making full use of the location shooting, some of the visuals are truly awe inspiring including the “night” shooting which was actually done during the day and making use of post production to create a truly believable night scape. The discussions between all the characters on the planet be it about TJ and her pregnancy and the existence of the plant and the tower be it from god or another species showed how good the writing was in the show and the chemistry between both regular and guest actors. There are many questions asked in this episode and they tend to be ones with no direct answer, certainly this planet will remain a bit of a mystery for a while as such things should be although I am sure it’s existence may have been addressed if Universe had been on the air longer than it was.

Our thanks to Steve for joining us for this episode of the podcast and for bringing great insights into the story, he will be back. This weeks promo is for the Flash Pulp podcast and next week we will be taking a look at the episode Human with one of our long term guest hosts Thomas, hope you join us for that and we would be delighted to hear from you.

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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.

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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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