'Human' (114) General Discussion

[Lahela]

I'm still gobsmacked - so many thoughts and emotions running around in my head.

I felt a bit disconnected during the ancient ruins segments, but that may just be because I was so overwhelmed during the Rush in-head segments. A re-watch is in order.

[Vapor]

Good times.

I don't know if I was blown away, but it was definitely a good episode overall. Particularly because of the brilliance of Robert Carlyle, and the intimate attention paid to Dr. Rush. He's always been a favorite character of mine, and this episode added a great deal of extra depth for him.

I suspected that the woman in the photo was his wife, so that wasn't a surprise, but I love how they handled the revelation. The fact that they didn't have to spell it out for us that she was dying from a disease. Something struck me about how she first said "It's back," refering to the illness, and how Rush wouldn't allow himself to be "in the moment" with her.

In a strange way, I sympathized with Rush and how he was handling the people in the dream, because I can imagine that I would lose my patience with them all even more quickly than he did. The moment where he yells at his students was very visceral to me for some reason, lol.

I like that Chloe had her moment of apology with Eli, though it does feel vaguely odd, only because a month has gone by since the moment of supposed betrayal. I did kind of love that they "teamed up" to go off-world together. A cute moment for them as friends. It was also nice to see that Chloe has been studying up on SG history. When she constantly brings up that she needs to participate and contribute, I still find it difficult to join in the chorus of people criticizing her for being "useless." The girl is making an effort. She may have a long way to go, but she's on the path.

Some people have claimed that Daniel was underused in the episode, but really, he's not there to be THE AMAZING LIFE-SAVING DOCTOR JACKSON we were often used to seeing him as. He's there to provide an extra bit of connection between the various shows, and to contribute to the story of SGU specifically. He's the guy that got Rush into the SG program, the guy that presumably both he and Eli watched on the "instruction videos" about it, and the guy who has just revealed to us the existence of the Lucian Alliance spy that is responsible for attacking the Icarus Base. There was nothing more he needed to do in the episode, and to me, it would have felt tacked on if they tried to force it.

This is the second week in a row where I expected a "surprise" moment where something major happens, and then it doesn't. In the case of "Human," as soon as Rush woke up from the chair, I assumed he would run over to a console, tap in a code, and stop the ship. It's what they normally would do on SG. Instead, he wakes up, is disoriented, and has no idea how to save Scott and the others in the five minutes they have left. It completely subverts the obvious expectation, and I love it for that.

My only source of disappointment about the ending was that there wasn't a final moment of unhapiness from Young in the final scene, after having left several people behind. I know they had their moment right before the gate shut down, but I wanted just that little extra beat to punctuate the emotion. Otherwise, all things considered, it was a good episode.

[myhelix]

A great episode, I think I love every single part of it!
Robert Carlyle´s performance was worth an Emmy- and Golden Glob nomination. To bad that SciFi never get that kind of recognition. The emotion he can give to a scene without making it over the top or schmalzy is brilliant.
The whole episode was a very good explanation for Rush behaviour and his level of obsession with his work, although I think that lot of geniuses tend to be a bit obsessive.
The neglecting of his dying wife part, I could have smacked him over the head for his actions towards her, but it seems he is that type of guy who rather ignore such overwhelming problems and not deal with them.

The things that stand out:
-Rush and his guilt about leaving his wife alone when she was dying, heartbreaking.
-awesome music for the memory scenes.
-the bits with Chloe, Eli, Scott and Greer on the planet, the spiderish thing look creepy.
-the Eli/Greer moment, "please don´t kill me"
-the parts with Daniel and Rush (I have the feeling that the ship (Destiny) was talking to Rush and take the shape of Daniel to communicate with him)
-the inside joke with the Number 42
-loved the fact that Rush was knowing it was all a dream, unlike many other Stargate episodes.

[Shen]

A very good episode! definitly getting better. Wonder what the ratings will be...

[JustAnotherVoice]

Easily the best character episode to date, and I would think that the writers would be hard pressed to put together another episode like this for anyone else. Robert Carlyle has been highly underrated in recent memory, and this episode shows us just how much talent the man has. I would be shocked if he doesn't get the nod for Best Actor in a TV show at the Saturn Awards, and disappointed if he doesn't get wider recognition.

I really enjoyed Chloe in this episode, which surprises me to no end. She showed a bit of humour, and the interaction with Eli at the beginning was quite cathartic. Despite knowledge about Milky Way cultural history/achaeology being useless on Universe, it's about time they fleshed her out some more.

[madaboutdanny]

A great episode, I think I love every single part of it!

-the parts with Daniel and Rush (I have the feeling that the ship (Destiny) was talking to Rush and take the shape of Daniel to communicate with him)

I really like that thought, but I wonder for what reason the Destiny, or Rush himself, should choose Daniel to help him?

[mizzoueng]

I liked the episode, it opened up so much of Rush. He's been an "angry" character since the start and this seemed to explain a majority of that pent up rage. Most of it seems to be directed at Eli, but I think he is also mad at himself for working so hard on the 9th chevron and missing his wife.

I did think that Daniel was more than his subconscious speaking to him. I am not totally convinced that Destiny has some kind of AI, maybe something that has developed over time in the database with exposure to multiple cultures and technology levels.

The LA thing seemed under played, but then again we were in Rush's mind so it wouldn't be as big of a deal to him. Either way I think that little line will open up more information in the coming episodes.

The 23/46 thing was brilliant, especially pseudo-daniels 42 reference, I laughed. The DNA thing was kind of a let-down though, we went through the genetic marker thing with SG1 and SGA, I was hoping for something different on SGU.

As for the chair, granted Rush and the others modified it so it slowed down the transfer, but how did they prevent the chair from drilling into his skull like it did the other guy? Once he was done he didn't have 6 additional holes in his head.

[Demoniser]

As for the chair, granted Rush and the others modified it so it slowed down the transfer, but how did they prevent the chair from drilling into his skull like it did the other guy? Once he was done he didn't have 6 additional holes in his head.

It did drill into his head somewhat. You can see at least one mark on the side of his skull where it did when he comes out of the chair.

http://img406.imageshack.us/i/drillc.jpg/

[EllieVee]

The 23/46 thing was brilliant, especially pseudo-daniels 42 reference, I laughed. The DNA thing was kind of a let-down though, we went through the genetic marker thing with SG1 and SGA, I was hoping for something different on SGU.

The Ancients were a predictable bunch.

[MattSilver 3k]

The Ancients writers were are a predictable bunch.

Fixed.

[Krazeh]

I think the big difference in teh appearance of the holes is down to the fact that Rush wasn't seizing while in the chair. Having convulsions while you have spikes essentially drilled into your skull is probably gonna end up with you suffering a fair bit of damage to the soft tissue around where the spikes enter the skull.

[Stormtrooper]

Very good episode. It delivered drama, but not of the soapy kind. It advanced the plot regarding the control chair. It even had some classic Stargate exploration going on. Rush's wife seems to be a Laura Roslin/Amanda Graystone mix, but I'm not complaining. In fact, I want to see her again down the road. Nice to see Riley back on his feet. Chloe was OK in this episode. It seems she will be SGU's Daniel Jackson. Hopefully, she won't die/ascend so many times. Anyone else thought of "Young SG-1" from 200 while watching this episode? Heh, I know I did. So I'm assuming they will find a way to reverse Destiny's course in order to rescue Scott's team. If so, that's also good news for all those who were left behind (B.A.G., Palmer, etc.).

With the exception of the nonsensical coup from Divided, SGU has been very good lately. I wish the first half of the season had been as good, but the stones wouldn't let it.

8/10

[Eestlanna]

I wonder where they get those extra uniforms for all those civilians when they go offworld. And how old Chloe must be officially and what is exactly her area of expertise? She must have some kind of degree, mustn't she?
I'm not surprised of Robert Carlyle's good acting - he has always been very talented.
I liked seeing Daniel and didn't like those four youngsters offworld. For me it was quite eclectic episode. It should have been either about Rush or about people going offworld. These were both too important to be mixed. First signs of cilization should have bring up more questions and Young should have send scientists and more military down there. They were all like doing nothing and that's weird.

[Shan Bruce Lee]

This episode was a step up from some, perhaps because the acting quality was good.

I'm still troubled by the "magick". In this case it's the new super-duper interface to the chair device, using one of those all powerful SG standard issue laptop computers. Wow, those laptops are amazing! I'm afraid the writers have pulled this well worn prop out of the closet one too many times.

Since most of the story occurs in a lucid dreaming state (of which we are informed very early in the episode), that certain events or answers occur too easily (compared to real life) is not a concern of mine, and I don't think coming up with "46" so quickly is a big deal.

Regarding the planet - difficult to accept that there would be a non-human civilization that would build such human-like structures. Not that it is impossible, but those ruins were in what looks like a well watered area, and the fallen city is still pretty evident (structures and layouts), which means that the ruins couldn't be more than a few thousand years old. If they are that young, then where are the descendants of the builders or at least other signs of civilization?

When watching SG I tend to become somewhat analytical and critical, but I don't mean this comment to be all negative. Not at all. This episode has several things by which to commend it. First and foremost, if the purpose of this episode was to humanize Rush, a thoroughly despicable character in most episodes, then the story made a large step in that direction.

Also important is that this episode changes the direction of the SGU story-line. Up till now the story is based around these people on a ship out of their control, and thus totally subject to the whims of fate. Now a definite clue has been given to change the scene - the humans have a chance of taking control of the ship. We expect future episodes to take this up, and one day the SGA castaways will indeed take over the ship from the autopilot. If the writers refuse to do that (say before the end of the season) then I will be disappointed, and I suspect other viewers will be also.

Most of what they do is with the actual devices. The "magic laptops" are just a way to translate information, analyse data and send commands.

[Kaiphantom]

First, I have to push out an amusing bit. Jackson talked about the "23 enigma" which shows up all over the place. Off the top of my head, in Air, Scott asks Greer how many weapons they have. Greer replies "23, including handguns." Makes me wonder if the writer's put 23 references elsewhere that I may have missed, which makes Jackson's reference an in-joke, heh.

Anyway, onto the episode: It was fairly good. Usually I'm not one for these types of episodes, preferring a more action-oriented one, or something to do with technology. But I have to say, I really like Robert Carlyle's performance here; he did a very good job conveying Rush's inner layers. The dream obviously wasn't exact, because he knew it was a dream, and I can imagine how much he didn't want to be there to see his wife die again, hence his short-tempered attempts to ignore what was going on and focus on the code.

The tvtropes page has him listed as an "Insufferable Genius" and now I can really see why; he's deliberately pushing people away because of how his wife's death affected him, and how she died when he was away. All of us usually have some pretty strong regrets, and we deal with them in different ways. But it was nice to finally see Rush's mask crack at the end as he held her hand, and then see how that experience change him when he gave that optimistic estimate to Young later, which Young seemed to notice.

All in all, a nice character revelation and development piece, rolled into one, for Dr. Nicholas Rush.

Now, for the others:

Eli - good to see him showing a bit of hesitance and pulling back from Chloe, finally. Although he seemed to go right back to whipped dog later. The right thing to do would be to keep being her friend, but that will just leave him in the friend zone. The more controversial action would be to continue to pull back, refuse to coddle her, which would make her pursue him harder. Eli, being a nerd, probably won't do that, however. Women want a chase and a challenge, and thus a friendly, nice, open guy is quickly dismissed as a possible mate.

Chloe - What the hell? Her method for getting on that mission seemed horribly contrived, as if the writer's wanted her on that planet and tried to cook up a reason out of the blue to get her there. Seriously, writers, stop trying to bring these things in all of sudden that haven't been established on the show, with regards to her. Because all it seems to me right now, is that Chloe wants to go to a planet anytime it's a nice, pleasant one, just to get off the ship. Time, Faith, and now Human prove that. She's no archaeologist, and Dr. Jackson's notes (as young pointed out) wouldn't be worth squat this far out. It really feels like they are trying to shoe-horn Chloe into a Dr. Jackson role, with none of the training, and none of the knowledge. I'd like to see her get fit in somewhere, but there's good and bad ways of doing that; this way smacked of poor writing, and is really the only mar on an otherwise good episode. And don't get me started on the spider web; hot damn, she is such an immature girl who hasn't grown up yet. "I want to go to the planet, yay! ... ooh, dark places and spider webs, I want to go home now!"

Greer - I assume we'll see the reasons for his claustrophobia in "Pain" when it explores his backstory. Otherwise, I like seeing Greer finally afraid of something, but I don't think he played it right. The ship, and Icarus Base, are claustrophobic places, too; why isn't he freaking out there? Might be because the underground tunnels could collapse. I expected to see him freak just a bit more, but he was rather calm.

Not too many other things, but it was nice seeing Volker(or was it Brody? I sometimes get those two confused...) secretly work with Rush. They didn't like the man much at first, but it seems they are becoming more useful than other SG shows (where Carter and McKay did everything), and recognizing that he is a smart man.

Going to the planet to explore ruins was a bit weak; they are not explorers and should be more focused on survival. There was no reason to go there, and no reason to assume Destiny stopped there other than a stargate came into range. Kino's are supposed to have flight plans, apparently, so why Eli couldn't put it into reverse and have to backtrack out of there... The whole planet thing in general was a bit weak, as if the writer's were trying too hard to get those four down underground and trapped so Destiny could leave them behind.

But Robert Carlyle's performance really shined, so I'm willing to call it a decent episode. Not great, but not too bad, either.