'Human' (114) General Discussion

[carmencatalina]

A spider in my garden has spun a huge web from one of the lilac bushes to the garage - I tell my boys not to disturb "Charlotte" - she is catching mosquitoes for us!

[Linda06]

I love spiders, they eat insects. So there.

And my adorable cat eats spiders So there

But seriously, I really have a phobia of spiders which is why I hate them so much, can't even look at pictures of them It all stemmed back from when I was a kid, something happened

[Blizzah]

Well, space spiders are cool, this one was pretty ugly and looked mean. I enjoyed the episode and being a big fan of Rush I was quite interested to see more of his back story. It was a nice glimpse into his mind and the scene where he says that Eli is the genius he'll never be was significant. Rush works hard and is very intelligent in his own right but some people out there are just operating on another level.

[maneth]

Great ep, and since Rush is much my favorite character I loved seeing more of his story, tragic as it was.

And of course seeing Dr Jackson again was a big plus!

[ZRFTS]

This episode won Robert Carlyle a Gemini award, the most prestigious award in Canada; that alone suggests how good the episode is.

Which it is.

To me this is the best episode of Season 1 because it does three things, it provides character, it provides a good story in the form of a Rush flashback and it provides what can be of the shows potential when realized. The seeming desire to go to Destiny was evident before he even appeared in Icarus and that disenchanting performance was evident, seeing him teach and criticize the kids was both cruel and informative, mainly because we got a shot of what Rush was.

It was also nice to see what drove Rush, he really wanted to get to Destiny but at the same time, he also had a wife who was sick. He was really focused on Destiny as a whole, all of those formulas, all of those hours and yet you could still sense that he had a soft side for his wife, that he still had her in her mind despite the obsession that he had. He may not have shown it but he really cared, he was trying to do it for someone else and when he cried tears over her deathbed, when he faced himself for the pivitol moment of his life that he may or may not have been holding back; his humanity showed. This was the turning point for his character, no longer was he a sinister person with ulterior motives; he was a person who was really determined in his work, who had a connection with Destiny, who felt that there was a purpose to being here, who ultimately cared for his crew. It's not a big turning point but it's the moment Rush became Rush.

It would of been a masterpiece had it not been for a few things; Seeing numbers, code and equations from his perspective was gimmicky. I even called it RushVision™ in a review. I mean it was so nonessential but it was unique to Rush as a whole. The appearance of Daniel Jackson did nothing for me; while he wasn't a jerk as he was in Atlantis, his entire performance seemed to be that of a person trying to break from his goofy sci-fi persona and move towards a more serious role. I can understand, you don't want to be known for being Daniel Jackson (and it did pay off in the form of Saving Hope.) but this is based in the continuity of Stargate and you should act as the Daniel Jackson from SG-1, not as an entirely different person. I'm not saying his performance isn't good, it's just inconsistent and SGUized. Also of note is the gimmicks; the producers may think that excessive blurriness, unnecessary focus and overdone lighting is needed but it really hinders what is a quality product. I find it very odd that the producers are acting as if excess is good when simplicity is even better, many of the worlds finest things are simple, the GE building, Thai food, most paintings out there; sure, excess can be nice but if you just add lots of ingredients and overfocus on the details than it just becomes a mess, a statement that focuses on it's stuff rather than it's message.

The scenes on the Destiny just made me want to go back to Rush's scenes; in fact I wish this entire episode was a Rush flashback. I don't buy that the audience won't buy it as much as I don't buy that the audience wouldn't buy Weir's perspective in "The Real World", the audience is not that dumb, they're able to recognize when something isn't what it is without the sight of Atlantis or Destiny. The scenes on Destiny have everything on the checklist; a crew of people to develop, check; a situation in which they can't easily escape, check; a ticking clock, check; forced acting, double check. I can't remember much of what happened but I do like that they tried to make you think that these characters were indispensable even though they would find a way to appear on the Destiny again; it's an attempt at signifying the attempted reality of the series, the need for survival, the possibility that they won't make it. It's as if they were beginning to realize the stakes and they even continued it for the next episode...

Still, it's the best episode of the Season and one of the few of the best of SGU. On an off note, this was nominated for 9 Gemini awards and only won one in terms of acting; I find it telling of itself in regards to the show's quality and appeal.

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

I'm so glad Daniel as more screen time that he did in Air.

Overall, it was a damn good episode.

There were a lot of Atlantis references, specifically near the end.

Also, we now left others behind, I wonder if they'll find their way back to Destiny.

Tomorrow, can those who we left behind, find their way back.

[Krisz]

Can never decide which episode is the best of season 1 for me, 'Time' or this one.

Seeing it again has put 'Human' on the top of the list, and one of the best of the whole series.

It was a fantastic look at what brought Rush to the place he was in now. He replaced his grief with an obsession. Really sad how he was using these memories as the vehicle for accessing the information from Destiny knowing they would more than likely be lost in the process.

He had no control over that event and now seems to see unlocking Destiny's secrets as something that he can control. Certainly explains his singular minded pursuit of the knowledge, and to hell with anything that gets in the way of it.

Robert Carlyle's performance, along with Louise Lombard's as his wife gave some of the most moving, poignant moments of the whole series. When Stargate gets moving character moments like this right, boy do they! The other moment that comes to mind is in SG-1's 'Heroes' as Bregman appeals to Daniel as to why the visual record of Janet's death should be shown for what it was, a hero dying as she did what she did best, saving a life!

I loved the visuals of the information superimposed on the memories he was accessing.

So it's the number 46, not 42!

Once again Daniel Jackson is in someone else's illusion again trying to help them sort out what is real and not! He's very useful like that!

Chloe and the spider, lol, Young's face when Scott told him that Greer had shot a 'sizable' spider! It's these little moments of humour thrown in that show there is room for it even though the situation is pretty grim.

Loved how Eli nearly got his head bitten off by Greer with the "are you afraid?" joking around! Although I think Greer likes to tease people a bit!

I think they just about got away with the distraction of the investigation of the ruins. For me it wasn't too bad and gave just the right amount of a break from the intensity of the Rush moments without taking too much attention from them.

[Matt G]

Midweek, another ep of SGU...

1. The Rush stuff was a bit meh this time round...other than him losing the plot at the class.

2. Forgot about the spider. That was a fracking big spider!

3. The four of them also got left behind - ouch!

Solid enough ep.

[garhkal]

Its a pity the US awards shows are so 'scifi' anti biased, seeing as its rare as heck for any scify show to win any awards their nominated for.. BUT this ep for me SHOULD have been one of the few that should have won here like it did up north..

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

Boring ep second time around.

Best things being Daniel making an appearance. And Robert Carlyle's brilliant acting.

More people left behind. I bet they're wishing they didn't volunteer to go.

[garhkal]

People left? Where?

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

On the mysterious planet that the ancients didn't make. Faith.

And Eli, Scott, Chloe and Greer in this ep.

[VampyreWraith]

I forgot to commnt on this one.

This is my favorite episode from season 1. It was the episode that got me hooked on SGU when I first watched the series.

Robert Carlyle was amazing. I loved the scenes with Rush and his dying wife. The parts with Eli, Chloe and Scott were also interesting.

[jelgate]

The episode is so perfectly named. It attempts to humanize Rush and explain his selfish actions. And while that no means justifies what Rush does and has done it does show why Rush acts the way he does. When Gloria dies he dives himself into his work as a coping mechanism and thus when she dies Rush feel committed to solving Destiny. Nothing else matters because he has sacrificed so much to figure out the 9th chevron. Like I said it does not justify Rush's actions but it does sort of shed light and expain why Rush does what he does. He really has nothing left but his work and for it end in failure is unacceptable. That is what I got from the chair's VR enviroment. The clue to the bridge code was obviously there but I think the meat of the VR was explaining Rush. I will admit the 46 relation and the code being the human genetic code was a mind blowing revelation

The stuff on the planet seemed kind of tacked on. It was obvous from the start this was clearly set up for Lost. While Lost is a great episode this is largely uninteresting in this episode. It had moments like Greer's fear of closed space and shooting the sizable spider but I thought it was largely boring and uninteresting. It seemed stupid to chase after a KINO in a maze and even more stupid to use C4 on an unstable structure.

[garhkal]

Especially underground. I can maybe see it above ground as you can get around still.