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    FAN REVIEWS: 'Justice'

    Visit the Episode Guide
    STARGATE UNIVERSE - SEASON ONE
    EPISODE NUMBER - 110

    Colonel Young cedes command of the ship after he is implicated in the murder of a crew member.

    VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >>


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    Last edited by GateWorld; 02 February 2021, 07:12 PM.

    #2
    Wow,

    I think that about sums up my review of the episode. Lets go into a little more depth about the meaning of wow:

    That was an amazing Mid-Season Finale. First off, all of the elements that it feels like we have been missing lately were there. There was quite a bit of focus on technology (without techno babble for those that don’t like that sort of thing) involving the ancient chair and the discovery of the ship, there was use of the Stargate and a new alien world, and everyone who was in the show actually was given a useful part.

    For once, and I must stress this fact, Chloe had a real purpose beyond ‘relationship’. Actually, I was quite impressed by the way she was defending Young and not backing down from Wray during the small hearing they had. They gave her just enough fight in her saying she didn’t think she could without overstressing her nervousness.

    I very much enjoyed Greer’s performance in regards to the ‘potato’ as well as the way he was ready to take the ship by force to help Young.

    There was a lot of interaction with the sub-characters and we got to see them react to situations and really develop beyond the basic roles they had been given.

    Young had a great role in this episode. The way he was willing not to lie about what had happened, stepping aside, and then doing exactly what he had just been on trial for with Spencer, but this time to Rush. I found it funny that he just got out of one murder and technically just committed another. He obviously doesn’t know that Rush is going to repair that shuttle and fly after them. (I am assuming that is what will happen) Worse yet, he lied about it just like he didn’t want them to do with Spencer’s ‘Murder’ showing that he is in fact capable of doing what they accused him of.

    Rush, you have to love to hate him sometimes. He made an opportunity to have someone sit in the chair, framed Young, and was going crazy risking his and other people’s lives and being stranded on the planet to investigate the ship. I mean seriously, that guy will do anything for the ‘mission’ as he sees it. Anything to get his way. I have to admit, as much as a ******* as he can be, I enjoy watching him.

    While it might not have been a huge cliffhanger, I think it wrapped up the first half of the season well. Lets hope that Chloe and Scott continue to have good performances and character growth, and that Eli continues to be awesome. While he is no Dr. McKay with his tech knowledge and problem solving skills, he seems to be the overall solution to pretty much any problem they come across.

    Stargate Universe just gets better and better. It stumbles here and there, but it seems like the show always delivers.

    - CB
    Before you insult a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
    Then, you're a mile away ... and you have his shoes.


    Enjoy Online Roleplaying? So do I! Contact me over any listed IM program to learn about my Online Roleplaying Website! (E-Mail me first if you plan to contact me through MSN, I have privacy mode enabled.)

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    Comment


      #3
      And here we are once again. The mid-season finale has come and gone. As a viewer we tend to expect finales and premieres to raise the bar if you. We expect them to be of higher quality. So that raises the question did Justice achieves this goal? And I say yes. It wasn't huge on action but to be quite frank SGU isn't a lot of shooting action show. It’s about the character. And I felt like the characters were raised a little bit in this episode and that was all interesting. Yes even you TJ. But as always let’s start from the beginning

      Who said an angry man can't be funny. I loved Greer as he ate the "sweet potato." It was funny as he ate something that taste so terrible without flinching. Sadly that was all that was good about the teaser. Blame spoilers but I found the rest while entertaining was kind of predictable. Given the last few episodes it was kind of obvious that Spencer was the one who would wind up dead. At least it was for me. Who else saw that coming a mile away?

      Now to the investigation. What is to their say? It was okay but their wasn't anything spectacular. I did really enjoy the tension between Young and Wray as they examine the corpse. Its fun for me to watch different ideologies clash with one another. At least it is for me. It tells me how a character thinks and acts. This scene also told me how knowledgeable TJ is but that is pretty self-explanatory. I was a little surprised that Young stepped down to have Scott lead the investigation but it does make logical sense. The air vent was too well hidden. And I think under real circumstance Eli wouldn't have found the gun. It just seemed like he was too smart for his own good

      Now to the trial part. I dare anyone to say Chloe is useless. This has to be the highlight of the episode for me. Seeing Wray butt heads with everyone was awesome to watch. The way she tried to outsmart Rush but failed miserably. The way she and Chloe battled in and out the courtroom. As much as I try I can not put its awesomeness into to words. Their was so much tension as they tried to prove Young's innocence/guilt. Probably the highlight of the episode for me. And may I say that was not a verdict I was expecting. Yes I think it was obvious that Young was innocent but stepping down voluntarily was unexpected.

      Before I forget I think Greer rallying the military troops to start a mutiny was to say a little shocking. Yes I can see it from. Greer. He doesn't respect the chain of command. Its more you earn Greer's trust and he will follow you. What did surprise me was how many people agreed to follow him. You think most of the military personnel would understand the importance of conducting law and order.

      I suppose in logistic sense the next frame of topic is what I have dubbed "the repository chair." This is when I began suspect Rush. I had my doubts in the beginning but this is the first time I really suspected Rush. Wray being less "leadershippy" (Yes I made that word up) it was easier to manipulate her to suit Rush's needs. But here is the twist that I wasn't expecting. I expected Rush have someone used the chair, not study it. So that makes Franklin's actions all the more interesting. Why did he risk his lie life like that? Was just because of the chance to return home or was their some kind of motive? Furthermore did Rush or someone else persuade him? This has so many questions yet their are so few answers. But what would Stargate be without questions?

      Is it trusting or is it naivety? Whatever the answer is Scott sure has a lot of faith in Col. Young. No matter what happened Scott trusted Young. It takes a lot of trust in a person to ask Eli to do something a second time. And it was here that I knew it had to be Rush. The deletion of the KINO time codes was just too sneaky to be anyone but Rush. It doesn't sound like that many other people would be knowledgeable enough to miss with such sophisticated piece of technology.

      And that leads us into the climax of the story. I am of course talking about the ship on the alien planet. Not much was done with this piece of alien technology. But I suspect that it will play some kind of pivotal role in an upcoming episode especially when you consider Rush being trapped on that planet. Speaking of Rush I didn't think Young had it in him. I knew Rush would have some convoluted reason for doing what he did but Young beating him up and abandoning Rush was one twist I didn't think of.

      But this incident raises an ethical debate on two parts. Was it right for Rush to frame Young like that and furthermore was it right for Young to abandon Rush like that. I don't care how much you hate a person or think he is unqualified for a job that doesn't warrant the right to frame a person for murder so I think Rush was wrong in the part a of my ethical dilemma. But I'm not so sure on part b. What Rush did was wrong but did the punishment fit the crime? I'm going to have to think that one.

      As I close for the mid-season break it’s been tough at times writing these reviews late on Friday nights but it’s also been fun expressing my thoughts of an episode. I hope you had as much reading them as I had writing. Until Space everyone.
      Originally posted by aretood2
      Jelgate is right

      Comment


        #4
        A middling - in two senses of the word - episode of a mediocre, albeit decent, series...

        "Justice" was less compelling than "Time" except that in the end Young finally decided that enough had been enough from Rush. Unfortunately as this show suffers from a serial format forcefully blended with Stargate writing I am in no state of panic with regard to the well being of Rush. In fact, I'd imagine he is going to emerge from this circumstance much better off than we think... more on that in a moment.

        The acting in the episode was standard for the series - good to excellent. The cringe-worthy scene when Greer found Spencer was well acted. The witch-hunt aspects were well acted by the series regulars who turned poorly written straw into a magnificent golden character piece. TJ once again is a standout for her portrayal of the tearing force between boiling loyalty to an (allegedly) ex-lover and superior officer and the necessity of her position that she be the neutral and coolly collected medical officer.

        Young actually played a delicate game with his own fate, and he chose well which two people to trust: Chloe and Eli. Chloe's so-called defense attorney was not only phenomenally acted, but the writers seem to have finally decided to make her character as substantial as she deserves. She didn't just school Wray, she owned her. That brief moment outside of the hearing told me everything I needed to know about both women (both the characters, and the actresses) and I have to say for once I was not disappointed.

        Which brings me to Eli: I am disappointed that he has chosen to compromise his integrity. That having been said: the BIG reveal gave me chills when he confirmed for the audience that he and Young had planned the exile of Rush. Both had seen Rush take the Kino and Eli had manipulated the image to make the file look 'corroded.' David Blue convinced me that this change was not only possible but probable. Another round of applause for the cast of this show!

        The look of madness on Rush's face as he realized he'd been caught was eerie, but the fact that he thought he could beat Young was laughable. Still, the forced progression of their rivalry has been brought to its head and it was a payoff if not the most satisfying due to the lack of real suspense. Which brings me back to Rush's fate: who here feels potential echoes of the original Battlestar Galactica? You know, the one with the sociopathic scientist who assisted in the annihilation and stranding of humanity in a fleet of space ships only to then join the pursuing armies of genocidal evil? If Rush is picked up by passing aliens who then come to serve him... but I digress. There are far too many ways for Rush to survive this for any writer to seriously consider abandoning one of the more fascinating faces on the show.

        Now on to the truly B.A.D. The faux-condecension among the civilians over being searched (a murder might be aboard - curse you for trying to save my life you invasive military people) is over. I'm tired of it. It's boring and pointless and so terribly unrealistic as to be laughable. The civilians on a military base would know better than to get this, well, for lack of a better term: uppity. It's lazy story telling for them to be at odds when neither side could survive if the other died or were incapacitated. It does not allow for any real progression in the story.

        Story/plot development was slim in the episode. For a midseason finale it lacked a good A story. The A story they selected was solid... for a normal episode. It was weak for an episode that, frankly based on the negativity surrounding this series, needed to be stellar. Heck, it needed to be interstellar but it just was alright. I found my remote finger itching in the third act when it became obvious that Eli's review of the Kino footage was not proceeding correctly. Heck, if I had been him I would have gone straight to the secretive archive that he keeps.

        The lack of common sense in the writing is getting so old that when the writers speak I imagine that dust must pop out where sound is to be expected. In this I mean no direct offense, just that the series needs some fresh ideas and perspective (direction, atmosphere, and theme would help too). What I do mean is that rather than writing the story straight through, in favor of some notion of realism, they chose to create too many pointless detours. How many times was Scott going to yell at Eli? How many queen of ice looks was Wray going to throw? How brilliantly dumb was Rush's logic for framing Young going to be?

        Once the outcome became apparent (not that it wasn't a little obvious to begin with given preceding episodes) the only nail biting question left was how Rush was going to make his illegal, immoral, and evil act sound saintly. That is because the writers have now done it five times in the first ten episodes. Even Daniel Jackson gave the moralizing a break from time to time in SG1...

        I personally am glad that the series is taking an extended break. I sincerely hope there will be a an improvement in the back half, or at least by season two, with reference to how the writers craft the story and how the show runners tell it.

        Comment


          #5
          While thought-provoking and complex in the issues it raises, Justice fails to deliver the dramatic tension needed to truly deliver a satisfying episode. Most of the problem is the plot which hangs together by a very thin thread of believability and just isn't strong enough to deliver the tension required, but it isn't helped by the camera work and direction. The production quality remains high with the acting on the whole tremendous but overall my biggest problem with it is that the episode isn't enjoyable.

          The plot is the major culprit in making Justice somewhat of a damp squib. It spends too much time at the beginning playing around with whether Spencer was killed and who might have done it, before moving swiftly into did Young kill Spencer, and subtly ignores the real mystery hinted at all the way through which is who has actually framed Young - despite being careful almost in every other scene at one point to clearly have someone state "someone is framing Young".

          Perhaps it was felt that it was better to underplay it to provide a bigger reveal moment at the end when it is discovered that it is Rush. In my opinion, that scene ends up being the poorer because the lack of focus on the hub of the issue creates a lack of tension preceding it. The storyline needed to commit to one mystery being the issue, to have presented real suspects in that mystery which would have enabled the build-up of tension that then climaxed with the confrontation between Rush and Young.

          In addition, it's not entirely believable that events transpire the way they do. Eli finding the gun (and what was with searching the quarters with flashlights - have they still not discovered where the light switches are?) hidden in a vent, him then only finding the deleted kino recording once he'd been made to go back through the recordings again. There is also the conversation Rush and Young are apparently overheard to have on Spencer that is thrown into the courtroom scene; it seems out of character for Young to confide something like that in Rush and isn't believable. The whole evidentiary hearing itself just seems pointless given they knew setting out there wasn't enough evidence to make a conclusion. If the intention was to try and create drama, to create tension, it failed for me.

          I also think the wider political power play theme overshadowed the main plot. Rather than focus on the mystery, the changeover in power dynamics and the continuing tensions between civilians and military take centre stage. I don't have an issue with the question being raised over military rule versus civilian, but here how each camp responds to the others' rule (either with the room searches, the various discussions each has, the changeover in command) overtook the real issue of the crime and who was the perpetrator. Indeed there was more tension in the scene between Greer and Wray over his removal from the off-world duty list than there was in any scene where the possible innocence/guilt of Young was discussed.

          Wray's leadership is a nice follow on from Life and Ming-Na does a good job of playing Wray as someone who wants the power, can take responsibility but who has some self-doubt (great scene before she heads to the gate room where she looks down at her shaking hand). Elyse Levesque also gets to shine a little as Chloe stepping up to defend Young. However, Louis Ferreira and Robert Carlyle steal the show with the scene on the planet. It's a marvellous show of rivalry and underlying hostility erupting into physical violence. It does bring their power struggle arc, which has been building through the first part of the series, to a head in a very dramatic and controversial way given Young's abandonment of Rush on the planet. This ending provides a real shock and point of discussion that brings up really interesting takes on the morality of each man and their actions.

          The fight scene between Rush and Young at the end is very well done in terms of direction and camera work but for the first time since Universe began, I found myself really irritated with both for the most part. The scene in Spencer's quarters where they gather in the immediate discovery of the body has the camera weaving all over the place like a drunken sailor. At various points, the angle and distance chosen when there are reaction shots is poor but especially when finding the alien ship, and this decreases tension. I will say the reaction shot to Wray on seeing Spencer's last message and the reaction shot of Rush when they manage to get Franklin out of the chair are great.

          The rest of the production continued to shine. The alien planet was again very different from those seen previously; the alien ship intriguing in design. The special effects of the Destiny in FTL and falling out of FTL are well done. The sky above Rush in the final shots is fabulously beautiful. The sets of the Destiny continue to be consistent and grim - although please, they have power, they can turn on a couple more lights surely!

          So Universe continues to deliver a quality hour of television. But here the episode plot just doesn�t deliver the necessary tension or drama for me to make it a stand-out. There is a lot of interesting questions provoked by the episode but interesting questions aside, I didn't really enjoy it. I am however intrigued enough by Rush's dilemma to come back after the hiatus.

          At the midway point of its first season, I will say that I think Universe overall is delivering quality entertainment. It's focus on how humans deal with facing extraordinary situations is creating a lot of interesting discussion and prompting many questions. It just needs to find a better balance, in my opinion, and ensure each episode delivers a great story in amongst the increased attention on character and overarching themes. I've enjoyed the first half in the main, and I'm looking forward to the second.
          Last edited by Rachel500; 07 June 2010, 12:59 PM.
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          Women of the Gate LJ Community.
          My Stargate Fanfiction. My LiveJournal.

          Comment


            #6
            Murder on the Destiny Express

            This episode is a little different, Good acting as always, but here it actually supports a bit of a plot. Not a sci-fi plot. It's a murder mystery. Not exactly a thriller. More of a whodunit. This episode must be the big midseason finale because it is the last episode on DVD Disc 3. The character cauldron gets stirred and bubbles over slightly. There is a cliffhanger with The Chair finally getting used. Maybe the series writers should try out The Chair.

            I finally caught the name of the character that I had mentally tagged as "the bald headed psycho guy", Spencer, and now he's dead. So that was a bit of a wasted effort. There's an investigation. Rush tries to frame Young by planting the gun and tinkering with the KINO record. His subterfuge is discovered by Eli. Turns out, Spencer shot himself. Young is cleared but understandably ticked off at Rush. Destiny stops at a dirt planet because the crew is running desperately short on ... dirt? No. Food. There seem to be a few plants.

            But there was that nice little shot of Chloe picking pods in the "Time" episode. And the pile of exotic produce. Didn't they already get more food, calories to burn? Since the final time-loop was never shown, I guess, just assume that they returned to the jungle planet off camera, nabbed enough creatures for a cure but either didn't pick anything or that it all turned out to be toxic. But why should the viewer have to do all the work. Why couldn't that have been made clear in the script(s) and actually shown? I guess, to a soap-opera audience, if Destiny is suddenly chartreuse in the next episode, nobody would take notice, so long as there were no discrepancies in the character profiles.

            If the crew were smart, they would have loaded up on some dirt, as with sand from the sand planet. I'm not an expert gardener but I think that plants prefer to grow in some sort of soil as opposed to gelatinous goo. The stuff that they finally get something to sprout in looks like it's from the old sci-fi-horror movie "The Blob".

            Maybe that's what happened to Curtis and Palmer. The forbidden gate led to the Blob Planet. "It Came From Outer Space", after all. They come out on the other side and, -plop- -plop- - fizz- -fizz- .

            Something that I find rather irksome is when the writers start a plotline and then just drop it. It's one thing to leave a possibility open such as "Well the monster is finally dead." And then the dramatic pause or musical cue "...or is it?", an eye twitches or something. The viewer understands that we may see whatever it is again but is satisfied for now that issues introduced within the episode have been dealt with. In SGU, the viewer is just left twisting in the wind. With Palmer and Curtis for example. Also with the alien probe. Been waiting now for what, a half dozen episodes, sitting through all kinds of irrelevant dialog, like listening to elevator music on the phone when you're put on hold.

            Back on the planet, they find something interesting. It doesn't look like the thing in "Air", but it's some kind of spaceship that probably crash-landed. Rush tries to figure out how to open the hatch. He and Young are the only ones who haven't returned to Destiny when they run out of time. Young confronts Rush about his shenanigans but Rush is unrepentant. The argument escalates into a fight. Guess who is going to win. Let's see, medium-weight, combat-trained, military man vs. undersized, undernourished, neurotic academic. Young doesn't actually murder Rush in cold-blood, but leaves him laying there, knocked-out and marooned. Upon his return to Destiny, Young chooses pragmatism over truth and makes up a story about Rush getting killed in a landslide.

            Will we be treated to a Robinson Crusoe scene with Rush foraging and doing all kinds of ingenious things inside the downed craft? Are there aliens inside? If you want to find out, I would say, "Don't hold your breath."

            Guess I'll resist the temptation to do a parody of the song at the end of Air, substituting the above phrase for the chorus and making it about the series with its open-ended plot lines.

            They obtain an edible, but grossly unpalatable potatoe-like vegetable. As guinea-pig, Greer has a bit of fun by pretending it tastes good, causing the others to fecklessly dive in for a "gotcha" on Greer's side. Theoretically funny, but somehow I saw it coming. This gag really had me chuckling when I saw it for the first time, in SG1's "Small Victories".

            Franklin decides to try the chair. The electrodes drill into his head. He passes out, and that's the end of the episode.

            I'm thinking that maybe if Destiny existed in a vacuum... Well, it does exist in a vacuum. There Is No Air In Outer Space. (Something which I truly hope stays taped to the wall in the writers room alongside, oh, maybe, "Plasma Cutters Only Cut Metal", for a random example.) What I was going to say is, taken in isolation. That maybe if I didn't have this body of great past SG franchise episodes to compare to, it wouldn't seem so, well, underwhelming.

            Still, I never had this problem with Atlantis. It was pretty much the same overall situation. It's got to be the new soap opera format. The mix isn't right. The whole SGU series story arc, so far, has been like watching fish in an aquarium. Most of the time they just swim around, occasionally bumping into each other, mouths in constant motion.

            While waiting for the remaining Season 1 DVD's, I recommend "Moon" for those who need a reprieve from SGU character overload. Reminiscent of "2001 a Space Odyssey", it's an example of excellent sci-fi with a cast of one.
            Last edited by apostrophe; 14 June 2010, 03:14 PM. Reason: delete extra word
            "Thank God it hit the Reading Library, or somebody might have been seriously hurt!"

            Comment


              #7
              Justice

              I honestly thought "Life" had hooked me; I honestly thought that this next episode would be good; unfortunately I was wrong for both. This episode brings SGU back to it's usual routine, which is to say forced dramatic situations, bad acting and moments where I can barely care for the characters. In this episode, we finally get to see some of the bald guy's character revealed; unfortunately it wraps it around a crime drama mystery not suited for this show at all...

              The mystery in itself is somewhat interesting; there's a possible murder/suicide, there's a prime suspect, there's evidence. However, in the scenes following; all of that interest is quickly zapped away, replaced with what I call "Law and Order/CSI in Space". While many people would argue that the eyewitness scenes and the scenes where they have trials and argue about evidence and whether or not the guy can be defended is needed/create good drama, these scenes are ripped straight out of a "Law & Order" script and they barely do anything to make the situation interesting or compelling; they also don't do anything to make you care about the people they're interviewing or more importantly, the person who has died (which I admit is a nice way of having a character based episode around him but still.). These crime dramas always have some sort of hook and while I may not be a fan of crime dramas, they at least have one thing that hooks me; SGU does not. I will admit that there is some good drama but if it's muddled in a less then interesting murder plot then who cares?

              Additionally, 75% of the episode is predictable. If you just joined in without having watched any of the previous episodes then you may feel right at home since you know nothing that is about to happen; however, if you have watched previous episodes then get ready for a shocker! The show has constantly forced the Rush/Young conflict down people's throats since the dawn of time; almost every moment that relates to them equate to Young acting as the reasonable guy who tries to keep order while chastising Rush for his behavior/actions/intentions and Rush acts like the manipulative guy who wants to push boundaries and always has a plan. Rush is a character that deserves more then to be placed in a plot where his actions are suspect; sure, it creates mystery but at what cost? We've seen Rush be curious, cautious, daring, bold and we've even seen him to have doubts but to place him in a position where everybody suspects him is not working for me.

              It doesn't work for the episode also. I knew that the gun would be found in Young's room; I knew that Rush would be behind it, I knew that it would relate to the chair/crew in some sort of way. It's obvious once you think about it; the plan is so simple that even a 8th grader could watch the episode and figure out every major plot twist before it comes. It's mainly the fault of that aforementioned conflict; you know what Rush's intentions are; you know what he can do; hell, you even know that he's a genius; so much so that it ruins surprises that are actually surprises, even though they're ripped from the same page as the law dramas. Having your surprised be ruined just because a thought of 100% certainy came into your head is just plain wrong; we should be trying to figure out what happened; not expecting it to be Rush all along. Even the unexpected scenes at the end (while as cruel as they may be) don't do much to make themselves unexpected because you know that everything will work itself out in the end. (like they did with "Time".)

              Even the actions that aren't relating to the courtroom are to be expected. Someone gets injured on his watch because of something he's doing and he's obviously in a state where he may not recover. Young is pissed, Rush tries to justify it, yaddyyaddayadda. It does show the situation at hand and the potential dangers that follow but the Young/Rush conflict just ruins whatever the writers intentions were. There are multiple reasons for the conflict not working, this episode contains alot of the reasons why it does not work. There is some dynamic and some reasoning but it's just forced upon us every second upon every second and they don't do anything to make it truly dynamic. Not to go on but isn't there anybody else that wants to push boundaries? We can't focus the show on Young and Rush and maybe Eli you know; there are other characters.

              Speaking of which, the other characters (after having such amazing character growth in "Life") are back to their usual shelves. Okay, maybe not everybody but they're obviously not putting as much effort into their respective roles, save for a few scenes in the beginning. You're 10 episodes in, why is it that most of the characters here (even the ones who have backstory) feel the need to act this way? I mean whenever these characters act, they seem like they're trying hard to be either dynamic, emotional or just playful but they can't seem to nail the actions, the emotions or even the tone of the voice right. I apologize if I seem harsh but this is the 10th episode; if people are to continue watching then their characters have to grow. Additionally, the plot involving the Asian girl being the leader seems wasted; there were so many directions they could of taken in regards to that role and there were even moments that could of been had. Unfortunately; she seems to be more of a plot point in this episode rather then a character; which is a shame.

              They did do a good job with the bald guy, though some of their comments and perceptions of him were generic (doesn't help that we've barely seen him at all throughout the 10 episodes.); some of the characters shown actually manage to help grow the bald guy's character (RIP). The main speech moment at the end of the episode manages to reveal the character from his perspective, thus enforcing his character growth; though they could of done more instead of have him worry, it's still a good enough show and one that paints him as a character; not as some guy who is standing around, looking into space and acting mean. Young, Rush, Eli and the Black Guy all do good jobs and all deliver moments that further establishes them as the four best characters of the show. As always, the actors playing Young (though he did regress into his tough guy act for a few scenes) and Eli deserve my highest respects, both of them managing to create good moments together and even a fight scene; which is merely serviceable (it didn't have the impact it truly needed.) but it does fit in with the episode.

              There were also some progression when it came to the chair. We finally get to see the chair in action and it helps us connect with the chair because the chair is like the most intriguing thing here so far. It's interesting to see them try to figure out what it does and the fact that people are willing to do anything just adds to the chair scenes. We also get an unknown dune planet which works well as both a staging point and a potential mystery; however, there should of had more focus on the mystery and additionally, there should be better settings which aren't entirely focused on danger, survival and the dramatic moments at hand. I mean if every planet they encounter leads to danger and dramatic scenes then it kind of takes the insisted uniqueness out of SGU.

              In conclusion, this is a step down from "Life". After an episode that at least fleshed out it's characters and focused on the best aspects of SGU; we get an episode that tries to be dramatic and mysterious but it just fails. It's not bad but it certainly isn't rememberable; managing to remember the episode will be trouble for you because of the large amounts of scenes that blend in from each other and don't exactly stand out. Unless you're a drama fan, the only thing you'll be remembering is that dune planet and that chair. Episodes like this test the willingness of the general viewing public; I mean they wouldn't want to get invested in a show that mainly disappoints them and gives them barely anything in return for their investment. Again, it's not terrible and it does give you something (though small) but it's very very boring. Unless you're the type of person who can handle this stuff, you're going to have trouble staying awake through it's 44 minute running time.

              4.0/10
              Last edited by ZRFTS; 26 February 2012, 01:24 AM.
              Back from the grave.

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