'Darkness' (104) General Discussion

[BigPaul]

So far its not a bad show but good god does it move so sloooooooow. When I watch this show I feel like I'm watching an hour show but only really get like half an hour tops of content.

[PG15]

I guess I am arguing that the scientist development is lacking.

Obviously we know what the military personnel do. We also have an idea that Eli can be helpful. The medic does medical stuff and we so far see that Chloe is useless and only there to get naked and shower.

But what about all the scientists other than Rush? They are being introduced and used in the story yet we don't know how good they are at what they do. So far it appears they are also useless.

Other than Rush who are these mystery scientists?

Well, isn't it great then that you got a good bit of info on some of them with this episode?

So far, from what I can see, they are 1). doing various little research things, like Riley with that charger thing and 2). hilarious.

[Amakusa]

The name tags on the controls and Rush saying they were reversed just fell flat. Already done on SGA.

I don't remember this at all. It's more like on SGA they assumed everyone could read Ancient.

[PG15]

I believe he was refering to the movie "Independence Day".

[Shan Bruce Lee]

I'm liking Young a lot as a character. There's something very three dimensional about him. There's a firm, quiet confidence in his leadership style, but you still sense a human being underneath who has had to make some difficult choices and is probably regretting how this one turned out.

Young was probably my favorite part of the episode. He seems like the only one that really knows how to handle Rush. And the scene where he's telling Volker to stop backing down from Rush showed he has a strong character.

[Shan Bruce Lee]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.

Jesus Christ, that was...YES, YES IT WAS!!!

Um, um, um at the end I was like, when it ended, I was like NOOOOOOOO!! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

HOLY CRAP.

Ok, I'll try to be more coherent later. YES YES YES.

I understand completely.

[Cold Fuzz]

I guess I am arguing that the scientist development is lacking.

I'm afraid I don't agree. We got a good dose of the secondary scientists with Adam Brody and Dale Volker, particularly Volker. In that one scene with Rush and Volker, we actually got a great deal of character exposition:

Rush regards the other scientists as useless. He's the isolated prodigy/borderline madman who likes working alone because he can't stand explaining things to people who he believes are incapable of comprehending things that are supposed to be obvious to him.

Volker is obviously intelligent, otherwise he wouldn't be Dr. Dale Volker. And he's right about one thing, he wouldn't be in the Stargate program if he weren't a competent astrophysicist. He and Rush have obviously clashed before, and very likely with Rush almost always telling him to go away and telling him that he's an idiot. Volker, while an intelligent man, lacks the self-confidence and the gumption to stand up to someone like Rush. Furthermore, Brody and Volker seem like the types who are good at conventional thinking--that is, looking at a situation, working with known variables in a system, and then formulating solutions. This leads to a kind of "tunnel vision" that I've actually observed with people who are used to doing things in a repetitive methodical way. Eli's thinking is markedly different in that he seems to form links between disparate ideas--like using the shuttle's power supply to augment the Destiny's main power systems.

Oh, and Volker is obviously a follower of late Classical & Romantic Era music since he was familiar with Antonio Salieri, Franz Schubert, and Edward Elgar, as well as Mozart.

And yes, it was possible to gleam all of this information from this episode.

So if your original argument is that we there's no development--that we learned nothing about these scientists, that we don't know how they think, and how they interact with others--then I completely disagree. There was definitely exposition, interaction, and because of how the plot forced them to take actions and get in conflict with each other, therefore there was development too. I don't know what your definition of character development is but I think you should re-examine it before making a blanket statement about it.

It's one thing to say that you don't like the way a character is being developed. It's entirely another to say that there's no development whatsoever. If you don't like the way TPTB are doing the character development, that's fine. SGU certainly isn't everybody's cup of tea. But to say there is no development at all is inaccurate.

[Shan Bruce Lee]

Come on , cant they do better than this?? There is no action at all. NOTHING. Stargate is not supposed to be this slow and boring. Im really trying to like this show and want to support it but they are totally losing me. Im giving it 2 weeks and im done wasting my time with it. IF its so good then why is the gateworld poll for air 3 not above 35% for a 10 rating ????? Because its only a 4 and thats pushing it.

Well the 10 got more votes than 1-7 combined and it's more than double the second highest rating.

[_Ancients_]

I must say, this is my favorite episode of the series so far. And the graphics were just amazing! I felt sorry for Rush in his little coffee-deprived rage. And I like it how we actually got to see a few things that we haven't seen before...like showers and stuff like that. It's just an interesting little detail, to me, anyway.

And does anyone else think Telford's an ass?



That's what I was thinking, that maybe the Destiny had some way to recharge the power from the star's energy or something. Or maybe there is something on those planets that could help them.

I was thinking the same thing about the sun. So far the ship has know how to put itself in a position to get repaired. So it makes sense that it set the course it did.

Just think of the amazing programing that the Ancients would have had to integrate into the ships systems so that it could think in real time like it does. Absolutely amazing.

[MattSilver 3k]

<Snipped by Moderator.>

One more thing I'd like to mention: I'm glad that they tackled the coffee and cigarette addictions among the people on board. Another little moment I liked in hindsight was Becker asking Young what his assignment is.

"Think up some new recipes." There was this pleading tone in Young's voice that was deadpan and hilarious!

[amconway]

You sure know a lot about how to stage shots of boobs.

Theater/film/graphic design background. I know about cameras and lines of sight.

[BurningIce]

Dr Rush was excellent, let's just get that out of the way

Colonel Young was good in this episode, but I preferred him on the Destiny than with his wife. He is a cool leader, very calm and collected but can be harsh when necessary. A good scene was where told Volker to "harden up" (my words), the one where he points out that Volker is a adult who just has to learn to deal with Rush. It tells you that SGU is taking situations seriously.

As for the "chest" shot, *ahem*, nice and all but I preferred the CGI of the Destiny and the planet's in the last 10 minutes

[Shan Bruce Lee]

Poor TJ too.

I'm going to go watch it again.

I loved that scene in the shuttle with her, Scott and Greer. The more and more they hint about her situation over the last few weeks before they were all stranded on the Destiny, the more I wanna know WTH happened.

One more week. That's all I've giving it, and I'm really not that impressed at this point, especially when we get close ups of the monster boobs from outer space. Its just not funny.

Well here's hoping

[geewillie86]

Don't like Scott either. One week he is coming across as a sex addict, the next he is Altar Boy. Which is it?

Having sex with one girl does not constitute sex addiction. I know that it's a bit weird to see adults actually being portrayed as adults. It takes some getting used to. Furthermore, saying a prayer doesn't make you an alter boy.

The thing that people have to realize about these characters is that they aren't 1 dimensional archetypes. They're more complex, and you shouldn't try to pigeon hole them. Stereotypes are too common, especially in sci fi, where you have a "desert planet" or an "ice planet".

[Uncle Tobias]

Gotta say, I really enjoyed this, again. I like the slow pacing, and serial shows are usually my favourite, so I plan to keep watching.