'Pain' (117) General Discussion

[Daro]

Well, I believe Andromeda is about 500 million ly from the Milky Way. The average distance between stars is somewhere between five and ten ly. If Destiny were stopping at regular intervals, which it isn't, we could actually guage the time it'd take. Unfortunately, Destiny skips over many systems. Kind of frustrating, now that I think about it, that we don't know how long it took for them to cross the void. If for no other reason, than to figure out how close TJ is to popping.

[Shan Bruce Lee]

I thought on the last ep (Sabotage), they were about to go between galaxies and there was going to be a big empty space, with talk of rationing supplies until they arrive. At the end of this ep, they get out of FTL and find a planet. Did the time skip or what? It seems like the previous episode didn't happen.....

They're in the new galaxy now.

I understand what you're saying, but .....
Ugh. Okay, so character growth, investigation of more of Destiny, just STOPS for weeks......
Like so many shows, character growth can only happen on-screen

They don't have to be between galaxies to do all that.

[BobbyScars]

As a person who has rped a similar, well actually it was almost the exact same storyline aside from the ticks, I can tell you that it is not supposed to be about the plot itself, it is a device so that we can build on characters which I was expecting but got little of it. Although I loved the start of it, made you think that it was gonna give you some great fright right off the bat, problem is there wasnt much of that, they started out strong and finished weak(aside from Greer's father showing up egging him on, that was totally wicked ) but basically you have most of the infected under quarantine, only two are crazy and running around the ship, they had so much more potential for absolute insane anarchy.

Oh and I thought we would watch Chloe weep like crazy, if they had her dad die in front of her eyes when they were pulling her away, that would have been an insanely great scene. Also wouldnt it have been crazy if Young had one of the ticks? Having him weep over the dead body of Tamara with his kid still inside. These kind of things would have made the episode a million times better, they gave us the good start with Scott and then didnt follow through so not as good as SGU is capable of but I have seen worse episodes in other shows.

Btw, this is the episode that was nominated for a bunch of awards?

[Ekiel]

*Sigh*

Horrible episode. Thank god for fast foward.

I wonder what the writers would do if we stole their magic reset button.
So yes, we reached the next galaxy, which was such a big deal the last episode. Nothing to see, completely uninteresting. Why even mention it at all?
At least we got hallucinations and now know the pain some people are in! Not that anything from this ep will ever matter again...

[HaMm3r]

No but if they don't discover anything important its quite pointless. Plus we have no idea the length between galaxies

I believe in Sabotage, Rush mentions that they're going to fall roughly 50,000LY short and they say that's only about 5% of the total distance. So, that would make the distance between the two most recent galaxies roughly 1,000,000LY. Now if they ever give any indication of the time it took, speed could be estimated.

Oh, and the music montages are awesome! Need one every episode, at least.

[boo1234]

This episode was only ok for me. Did we really need a story about hallucinogenic ticks instead of something more relevant to the situation at hand?

[DigiFluid]

Loved it!

I believe in Sabotage, Rush mentions that they're going to fall roughly 50,000LY short and they say that's only about 5% of the total distance. So, that would make the distance between the two most recent galaxies roughly 1,000,000LY. Now if they ever give any indication of the time it took, speed could be estimated.

Assuming, of course, they are in a new galaxy and not just at a rogue star (system) in the void.

[AndSoItBegins]

She is, and on one hand I don't mind. On the other, characters like Eli, Scott, and Reiley seem neglected to me.

Are you serious? Eli and Scott are easily two of the four characters with the most screen time on this show so far this season. Greer, Wray and perhaps even TJ (though she's beginning to catch up) have gotten far less screen time.

[mere earthling]

Not a bad episode, I thought it was well acted, but I can say I've seen this ep before on some sci-fi show at some point in time. The concepts were not "new" or even dealt with uniquely per se, it was just their turn to put a their spin on that idea.

It was interesting to me that Rush completely gave in to the fantasy, is that a residue from his chair experience?

Chloe was predictable, no surprises there.

James was interesting too, I didn't think she felt that deeply for Scott.

Greer was just fun to watch, you know he just wanted to kill someone.

If I was Wray though, I would've stayed away from Greer......

[AndSoItBegins]

Dislikes -
- Scott and Chloe were predictable, Greer's paranoia was just plain awful. More of the "angry, black man" role, when his character has come so far.
- Rush's reactions, while a bit understandable, weren't very logical. he came across far too emotional instead of reasoning things out like he's done consistently since Day 1. (yes, not always for the better, but logically-based). I'll have to accept that the tick screwed with that, too.

You're tired of the angry black man stereotype. Well, black male characters tend to be negative stereotypes because all the positive stereotypes are usually preserved for white characters like Rush (super genius). I'm tired of that. But most people in the mainstream have been willing to accept stereotypical black characters that have shown up in the vast majority of sci fi TV shows for decades. So, yeah, Greer's anger issues are kind of cliche but why are some fans taking his character to task? There have been two dimensional, underwritten, stereotypical black characters in everything from Angel to Enterprise to Lost to Heroes. SG1 to SGA. Nothing new here. I would really love to know of all the other shows that don't in one way or another reduce their black characters to tokens when in comparison to their white counterparts. I think Jamil's performances have saved Greer from being a total caricature so I tend to focus on the work the actor is doing given the material he has to work with. I'm not as mad about the angry black man box that he came gift wrapped in as much as his being the least developed character of the 7 regulars which keeps him from escaping that box.

With that said TPTB really need to stop having Greer point guns in people's faces.

And I think that sums it up. There was no Eli/Chloe kiss in this, so that particular scene from the trailer isn't a hallucination like I thought it might be. Based on some things I heard that cannot be discussed now, I think I know where and when it happens. I wonder if Chloe will find out about James and Scott, and if a blowup will push Chloe into finally seeing Eli as something better. Most women do eventually learn to drop the “bad boy”.

Obviously you prefer Eli to get Chloe. And that’s fine. But to refer to Scott as “bad boy” is absurd. Scott is American pie all the way. The only thing different about his character from previous types like him is his sexual appetite. But even with that Scott has been loyal to Chloe since he has gotten together with her. He has treated her well. I find it interesting that so many people root for Eli on this issue. Why? Chloe doesn’t owe him anything. And Scott didn’t take anything away from Eli. Eli is infatuated with Chloe and frankly he needs to get a bit of a life. He’s no different from Lt. James on this front. Frankly if Chloe was a good-looking man and Eli was an overweight, average-looking female this wouldn’t even be a debate. We would expect the “Male Chloe” to hook up with the most beautiful woman on the ship, not the overweight woman. But fanboys want it the other way when it’s the guy that’s doughy and nerdy.

[Cold Fuzz]

My two favorite moments during this episode: Col. Young & Lt. Scott each crushing a tick...and hearing the oh-so-wonderfully satisfying CRUNCH of a dead critter twice. Ooooh yeah...

[KEK]

Worst episode of the season in my opinion. It was always going to be some bug or plant causing the trouble, too much of the episode was focused on how to cure the hallucinations when the real story was with Greer, Wray and Rush.

[AndSoItBegins]

*Sigh*

Horrible episode. Thank god for fast foward.

I wonder what the writers would do if we stole their magic reset button.
So yes, we reached the next galaxy, which was such a big deal the last episode. Nothing to see, completely uninteresting. Why even mention it at all?
At least we got hallucinations and now know the pain some people are in! Not that anything from this ep will ever matter again...

You must not have been a fan of the previous Stargate series because I don't recall either of them doing anything BUT reset storytelling.

[Lahela]

Was it just me, or did anyone else think the lamps were the cause of the crazy at first?

*puts hand up* Yep. They did a great job with that particular red herring. I was a bit disappointed that it was ticks after that.

*Sigh*

Horrible episode. Thank god for fast foward.

I wonder what the writers would do if we stole their magic reset button.
So yes, we reached the next galaxy, which was such a big deal the last episode. Nothing to see, completely uninteresting. Why even mention it at all?
At least we got hallucinations and now know the pain some people are in! Not that anything from this ep will ever matter again...

What reset button? There was nothing "reset" in this ep.

The point of Sabotage was not the next galaxy itself but crossing the void. Why mention the new galaxy at all? Well, they picked up the ticks, for a start. And it will provide the planets for the settings of a whole bunch of episodes to come, I imagine.

And thus far the writers have showed consistently that nothing gets conveniently swept under the rug in future eps. Consequences are what sets this show apart from many other shows on TV.

Ok, I get that you didn't like it, but at least be reasonable in your justification for it.

Anyway...

I enjoyed it but am very far from loving it. It was too Tabula Rasa for me (which was an ep that I loved, I just felt it didn't need redoing). That said, the acting was top notch, and that Ronald Greer is one scary dude. Seriously.

[Sami_]

An episode like this just makes me want to stop caring altogether.

Why spend millions of dollars and put in all the work necessary to make a big tv show just to have storylines as bad as this? I just don't get it.