'Life' (109) General Discussion

[garhkal]

Back on topic about the episode please,everyone.

Bagpuss
GateWorld Moderator.

As you command my lord!

On another note, I wonder how much extra hazard pay Jack is offering those who volunteer to be stone-bearers. (Destiny isn't exactly the safest place to tie one's consciousness too, nor are desperate people missing home the best roommates to share your body with, and I'm sure that is abundantly clear to all the volunteers.)

Forget the money, give them days off when done... Especially for those who body swapped for Eli and Chloe..
man they must have had one humdinger of a hangover.

Perhaps Rush spotted the planet in the database and intentionally made it look like he faked it to stop them going back to earth.

That would be like him...

Spoiler:

Two more alien encounters in the back half. One that is the first episode after the mid-season break, and another involving a dinosaur-esque alien on some random planet.

YAYYYYY

My first computer experience was with a Commander 64 in the year 1980.

Same here. Heck i still have it in the garage... though du to not having a tape deck or any games, it sits gathering dust.

So it wasn't a case of Young saying "kill yourself, Rush." It was a case of him trying to motivate Rush to find out more about the chair.

Yup. Rush bluffed, and young called it.

I was actually surprised that Rush DIDN'T go sneak in and sit in the chair. He obviously wants the knowledge so bad he can taste it. I personally think it's just a matter of time before he manages to convince himself that the benefit outweighs the risk.

Agreed. I can easily see him sneaking in to get the knowledge once he workes up enough nerve.

[Jper]

Why did no-one mention Greer handing Eli a weapon and learning him to use it? See, the previous episode, Time...

[Saquist]

That's not entirely true. Daniel is the only scientist that was ever shown as militarily able. While he made mistakes in the beginning, he still had that apect to his character. McKay could manage but it wasn't his forte, and he didn't like doing so. We don't see the others acting in a military capacity or showing signs of being able to do so.

It's not about aptitude.
Eventually every man may end up on the front line civilvian or not...( so to speak)

[prion]

Well, Sharon did ask: "Is it really you?" and Camille proved that by saying (In Japanese): "Did you throw out that ugly chair yet?"

very true, but if you drugged up a person enough, you could conceivably get that info out of someone, but realistically, Sharon doesn't work at the Pentagon or anything (can't recall what she does) but still... it's amazing how many characters on earth Not in the Stargate program on this show just go "oh yeah, bodyswapping. no problem."

[jelgate]

Why did no-one mention Greer handing Eli a weapon and learning him to use it? See, the previous episode, Time...

Relvence to Life? Its not like our Eli remembers that.

very true, but if you drugged up a person enough, you could conceivably get that info out of someone, but realistically, Sharon doesn't work at the Pentagon or anything (can't recall what she does) but still... it's amazing how many characters on earth Not in the Stargate program on this show just go "oh yeah, bodyswapping. no problem."

They said she had security clearence. Makes you wonder what a person needs to get clearence these days though. I suppose it possible given the Destiny's situation the Pentagon granted clearence to the family after this happened

[Jper]

very true, but if you drugged up a person enough, you could conceivably get that info out of someone, but realistically, Sharon doesn't work at the Pentagon or anything (can't recall what she does) but still... it's amazing how many characters on earth Not in the Stargate program on this show just go "oh yeah, bodyswapping. no problem."

Actually, I don't think so. You would be able to very quickly figure out it wasn't the person you though it was that you are talking about. I can easily tell when someone is saying something about my friends if it is true or not. People tend to have some sort behavior, word choice, acting etc. which allows us to easily distinguish people from each other. It's psychology 101. At least my Professor went on about it when I had psychology.

Also, I think a lot of the people we've seen had problems with it.

Emily certainly had problems with it.

Eli did not even tell his mother because it got in the way.

Which makes me want to point out that a lot of people (e.g. Scott's son and the mother, Chloe's friends, Camille's parents...) aren't cleared, so the cover-story is used.

[amconway]

Why did no-one mention Greer handing Eli a weapon and learning him to use it? See, the previous episode, Time...

You mean in the conversation about civilians handling weapons? Well, that was a pretty unusual circumstance--Scott was out of commission, that put them a soldier down and freed up a weapon. Circumstances were utterly dire. I don't think that would have happened otherwise. Of course, Eli and Chloe shouldn't have been there anyway (see below ).

It's not about aptitude.
Eventually every man may end up on the front line civilvian or not...( so to speak)

I don't agree. Most of those people will, or should be, on the ship out of direct harm's way. I have no idea why they took Chloe and Eli to the planet in 'Time'. Unknown planets shouldn't be considered a nice outing. The only people that should go are tho ones who can be directly helpful, and not by picking fruit. It makes more sense to train people on the ship's systems that they have access to, and to teach them Ancient, than to teach them to fire weapons. They might be needed in a battle on the ship, or in repairing systems, but it's highly unlikely that they'll end up in a planetary firefight.

[Jper]

Relvence to Life? Its not like our Eli remembers that.

I was just commenting to the conversation about the military trying to "educate" the scientist or non-military-enlisted people on the use and workings of weapons and fighting and such.

Doesn't matter if Eli remembers it or not. The relevance is not to Life, but to the conversation...

[Jper]

You mean in the conversation about civilians handling weapons? Well, that was a pretty unusual circumstance--Scott was out of commission, that put them a soldier down and freed up a weapon. Circumstances were utterly dire. I don't think that would have happened otherwise. Of course, Eli and Chloe shouldn't have been there anyway (see below ).

Yup.

Yeah, it was unusual, but it does show a certain intention of sharing knowledge, or accepting all help they can get as to defend themselves. So I thought it was very relevant.

[amconway]

Yeah, it was unusual, but it does show a certain intention of sharing knowledge, or accepting all help they can get as to defend themselves. So I thought it was very relevant.

To me, not so much. If anything, it said the mission was badly planned in the first place. Hopefully what they took from that was not to send so many unnecessary civilians to planets. It puts them and the team at undue risk. Also, it was Greer that made that decision, and he's hardly the master of cool rational thought.

[Girlbot]

To me, not so much. If anything, it said the mission was badly planned in the first place. Hopefully what they took from that was not to send so many unnecessary civilians to planets. It puts them and the team at undue risk. Also, it was Greer that made that decision, and he's hardly the master of cool rational thought.

I beg to differ. Greer has shown extraordinary rational thinking. He could have blown sky high lots of times, but he has managed to control himself, excet for Telford, who deserved it. He did shoot the scientist, but he just wounded him, knowing that it was necessary to stop him.

[Jper]

To me, not so much. If anything, it said the mission was badly planned in the first place. Hopefully what they took from that was not to send so many unnecessary civilians to planets. It puts them and the team at undue risk. Also, it was Greer that made that decision, and he's hardly the master of cool rational thought.

Well, there's only so much you can do to determine the safety of a planet. They would be able to use all the help they could get to gather useful stuff on the planet, which was deemed safe after the Destiny scanned it, and the Kino explored the near vicinity to the gate.

I don't really agree with you on that.

They just had the misfortune of people getting ill and then the solar flare messing up the wormhole-travel, however in the end it did save/help them.

[amconway]

I beg to differ. Greer has shown extraordinary rational thinking. He could have blown sky high lots of times, but he has managed to control himself, excet for Telford, who deserved it. He did shoot the scientist, but he just wounded him, knowing that it was necessary to stop him.

Sorry, but failing to kill people when you feel like it doesn't say anything except that he's sane.

Well, there's only so much you can do to determine the safety of a planet. They would be able to use all the help they could get to gather useful stuff on the planet, which was deemed safe after the Destiny scanned it, and the Kino explored the near vicinity to the gate.

Which is exactly why it shouldn't have been anyone but botanists and soldiers, at least in the first group.

[wuzup4jc]

Ok guys im sure that you have all heard this 1000 times but I NEED to have a forum for my complaint....so here it goes:

My biggest issue here is that I love the Stargate Universe. No, not the show, but the 15 seasons of SG-1 and SGA that define what we know of the Universe in this SciFi Epic. SGA wasn't different from SG-1...it didnt have its own identity for a reason. This reason is that SG-1 didn't just define a universe but a "view" of that universe. In this universe you have heroes and you have villains and while the lines can turn to gray they are usually pretty solid in the black and white categories. Action / New tech / Crazy new Aliens / Awesome adventures. THIS IS THE STARGATE UNIVERSE.

This show they seem to have taken all the backstory and RIPPED OUT the guts of what makes stargate Stargate. They have instead replaced the innards with a giant "soap opera" even MORE boring then BSG.

Now, I will admit one thing. Had this show begun the universe. Had it defined it from the beginning. Had their been NO SG-1 or SGA I would actually find this show semi-interesting. No more however. Unfortunately I enjoy a plot that is fast moving and isn't solidly centered around character development. I like the fact that we only knew the basic backgrounds / life stories of the characters in SG-1 and SGA and it took us 15 seasons to learn as much as we have learned about the SGU characters in 9 episodes.

I think that sums up my opinion (and yes its just an opinion). In conclusion, I simply could not stand this episode because there was only a solid 4 minutes of ACTUAL plot development while the rest was awkward silences, pointless non-developmental scenes, whiny crying babies and adults acting like teenagers. I could ALMOST stand all the drama if they would actually begin to focus some more on the tech / aliens and other cool things that makes this SCI FI.

Lets point out some stats shall we?

How many new aliens have we met? 1

What did we do when we met these aliens? We stare at them and then continue to shoot them with homemade flame throwers. Yes, real smart.

How much new tech have we discovered? None. Oh wait no. We discovered weird little flying cameras that give us dizying and annoying camera shots. Oh and then there is the ship of course...however the one key to opening the ship nobody will touch in fear for their own life! What happened to the heroes of SG-1? Where is the Col. Oneil? Why didn't Young throw his head in it ONCE even though Oneil had the balls to do it TWICE! Why? I'll tell you why...because he was too busy pining away over some two bit woman. I'll take the Oneil character anyday.

Now, the sex...ok I get it...people have sex. Did you see any of it in SG-1 / SGA? No! Did people have sex in those shows? Im sure they did. It just did not further the story line in any way and therefore was not made a dominant feature in their plot line.

Ok im really concluding now. I think this episode would have been great if they had focused more on A) the progress made on the plan sent to them from earth B) young had put himself in the chair C) A little more attention had been dropped on the new discoveries that are being made on the ship. Kinda like when the crew first got on SGA and they started playing with all sorts of new toys (like the hilarious personal shield). D) I've received enough character development to last me 10 seasons of this. Please stop developing the characters and making the show about "who slept with who" and "this person has a kid he didnt know about" and more about "the chair" and "the ship".

[Jper]

Which is exactly why it shouldn't have been anyone but botanists and soldiers, at least in the first group.

And the first group that went though was Eli, to operate the Kino, with Rush, to do the scientific observations (I don't think they have an actual botanist, but Rush would do fine for further risk-assessment, botanists are more part of the second group) with Young and Greer for their protection.

So what's the problem? Like I said, you can only do so much to determine the planet's (un)safety. When you only have 36 hours, you need to move on...