'Time' (108) General Discussion

[SamanthaJenniferChloe]

Hello!

I thought that the use of time travel in this episode was done in a very different way.

It was interesting that we get to learn more about Eli's past. I felt badly that everyone got to hear it though at least in that timeline.

I thought that Rush's thoughts on death were intriguing. Rush is a very fascinating character.

I really did not like those bad creatures on the planet.

I felt badly for TJ when Chloe died in the timeline where she was on the ship.

I really like Chloe, Scott, and Greer. I think that each one of them will develop as time goes on.

[ZRFTS]

Many fans claim this is the best episode of the season. I tend to disagree but I do think it's not without it's merits.

This is obtensely the episode which they put their characters in a situation and try to explore them, the progression is admirable, it starts off slow allowing us to get into the most common moments of life such as conversation and exploration, many of which allow a viewer to get into the sense of the world but then as it pushes along, it shows the deeper binds of the character in survival, leadership; Greer here gets the most development in that he definitely shows the sense of fearlessness and confidence that would come to define him, he stands out in front, never bothering to show fear but bothering to show something else hidden inside and Young, well lets just say he knows how to analyze the situation and make choices, choices that aren't always popular and as we enter unmeasurable depths, we get to see the emotional side of the characters, the tears, the screaming, the personal admittance. Rush does will with his desperation, his willingness to do anything if only to fix the situation and Scott, well let's just say his yelling is one of the better parts of the episode; I didn't know he had that emotion in him. Eli wastes the moment with a recycled situation about H.I.V. and him being 14 at the time, something of which we were shown than insisted before.

The idea of having the characters work under the assumption that something on the planet is causing this rather than the true cause is a good one, it provides a good background but much of the episodes faults for me lies on the usage of the Kino as a gimmick rather than a storytelling device. The various glitches to me seemed really unconvincing compared to the likes of Lost who's glitches were almost hauntingly real and they often got in the way of the actual story itself, serving to yank me from whatever moment I may have been enjoying at the point. Additionally, the Cloverfield/Doom usage didn't serve to do anything to the story and instead served as a display of edge which this series is supposed to have. I don't want to have to watch Eli wave around a gun like it was an FPS and I certainly don't want to have to watch attempts at making this look like home footage, I just want to know the characters. Additionally barely any of the characters in the present really reacted decently to the situation, Chloe's death scene seemed more like a pulling of the heart tugs and less like any show of real character (Eli seemed disinterested, additionally Eli and Chloe didn't have a natural connection.) and barely any of them ever showed any real emotion or opinions about what they saw, which was odd seeing as how these characters were watching themselves.

The time travel thing was admirable but it wasn't a major praising point in the episode for me. It was interesting but I somewhat knew how this would turn out due to what I know about Time Travel. I didn't think that the moments in this episode didn't matter because it didn't happen technically, the point of this episode was to show us their subdued side, their talents, their history, their emotional outbursts. It is these things that make the character human and to see them do these things is just a wonder for them as a whole but they don't go farther enough with this, there are many moments which are wasted simply because they needed a bit of action to spice things up or an uncertainty in order to create moral ambiguity. I get that you want to seem deep but this is about the characters, not about who's wrong and who's right. Oddly enough the premise lacks one thing the most, the moral discussion. (which would be underexploited and overused) They missed a real opportunity to question whether or not they could change their personalities and whether or not this was a sign of who they truly are; there are certain parts of humanity we aren't aware of, we're aware of ourselves yes but we're not aware of our maternal instincts, those that ultimately define us as a whole and that exploration could of made this into an exceptional episode.

Alas, there were no true intentions to have the characters learn from what they saw; not when there are plots like conflicts and trails and tension to do so they send Scott out there, kill the characters forgoing their military skill and weapons expertise and have Scott send out the most overdone and cliched message in history through a retconning of solar flairs (so you know one is happening) thus allowing TPTB to keep doing the things they want to do to the characters.

I can understand why fans would like it (time travel, action, dramatic moments, kinos, the whole premise) but this was a poor attempt at exploiting the characters but the next episode to me would be an unexpected surprise for the show.

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

A good ep.

A pretty dark ep at times as well.

Chloe seeing herself die. That has got to creep you out.

Those creatures were pretty damn vicious.

Poor Eli talking about his mum. That was a sad moment.

I like how it wasn't even a happy ending. Or an ending at all really. Just left us hanging.

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

EDIT: No idea why it posted twice.

[min min light]

I thought this episode was brilliant but I didn't enjoy it. That's the weird paradox of Time for me. It was truly clever but it was also sad and horrifying, and the relief that the "real" characters were safe did not make up for the tragic end of the "fake" ones, like the other Scott dying alone on the planet of terror.

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

Damn this was a freaky episode, it's a good episode, but I'm not a fan of Alien-like episodes.

Tomorrow, another Earth-based story that will give us some backstory.

[Krisz]

This one had it all I guess! Time travel, nasty alien creatures, nasty illness, nasty weather and death!

They'd barely come to terms with being on a strange spaceship fraught with danger and we now find the already traumatised lost characters in another totally different environment. An environment that looked so benign to start with that the horrific events that ensued made this episode riveting to watch. You couldn't help but be stunned by what was happening to these people and how they couldn't do anything to stop it. It just showed how fragile and tenuous existence can be!

The time travel component was wonderfully mind bending...going to a planet and finding you'd been there already. Rush looking at the skull was an awful moment of realisation that their fate was sealed. In how many time lines did they die before the final kino was sent back in time that gave the final lifesaving solution? Great stuff!

A great way of learning more about the characters as they reveal more deep seated thoughts and memories when faced with the end.

[ZRFTS]

They'd barely come to terms with being on a strange spaceship fraught with danger and we now find the already traumatised lost characters in another totally different environment.

The environment wasn't that different compared to those in previous episodes.

An environment that looked so benign to start with that the horrific events that ensued made this episode riveting to watch. You couldn't help but be stunned by what was happening to these people and how they couldn't do anything to stop it. It just showed how fragile and tenuous existence can be!

To me it wasn't about existence or not being able to do anything about it, it was about survival where both a mysterious illness and mysterious creatures were out there and all they had was assumptions rather than hard facts.

The time travel component was wonderfully mind bending...going to a planet and finding you'd been there already. Rush looking at the skull was an awful moment of realisation that their fate was sealed. In how many time lines did they die before the final kino was sent back in time that gave the final lifesaving solution? Great stuff!

I'm guessing 1 or 2; there were no instances of multiple timelines. You could chose to interpret it as a time loop (in which guy finds kino of themselves, they try to get the cure, get killed send kino, crew goes to planet, does the same thing shown in kino, rinse and repeat) but there was nothing that ever suggested they'd gone though multiple timelines. I didn't view their fate as sealed, more so as altered for dramatic effect and to give Scott a dramatic moment. This wasn't their destiny, this was just an unforseen event caused by something they didn't realize was even a threat, which was the water.

[Matt G]

Midweek, another ep of SGU:

1. This was a wierd ep to rewatch.

2. Ah, this is when we found out Eli's Mum has HIV.

3. Watching the ep alone, it would still have been nice to see ten seconds just to see the chars in timeline C solving the problem.

Wierd, but good.

[VampyreWraith]

This episode is one of my favorites from season one. It was kind of creepy. I like creepy lol(I'm a big fan of sci-fi/horror). I liked the time travel/time loop aspect of the episode. We got some insight into some of the characters, it was interesting. Overall, it was a really good episode; one of the best in season 1(imo).

[jelgate]

If I had to complain about anything of this episode it would be the resolution of how we see the characters die a second time and then the episode end. Yes I can put 2 and 2 together with Scott's KINO message which is why it only a minor compliant. Solar flares affecting gate activity is hardly a new concept which is why I think this episode excells so much is in the characters. These little tidbits about the characters as they struggle with the dangers of the planet is what makes the episode. Even something as small as Greer liking heavy metal was hilarious. Their were more important things like Eli's mom having AIDS or Rush's philosophical speech about death and Ancients ascension. I remember when this episode aired we pondered the possibility of Rush being able to ascend which I found just crazy. But not everything on the planet was what made this episode interesting. I found Eli's death speech to Chloe and Greer's anger about seeing him fail his friends interesting. That is worst part. The stuff on the ship getting erased. The stuff on the planet is still valid through the KINO but the stuff we say on the ship is no longer valid with the timeline reset. Speaking of the KINO I really liked how they showed the path from the perspective of the KINO. Someting new

[Mnikolic]

I agree.

But there's one particular thing that does bother me: When the timeline gets reset over and over again, how does that affect the Earth and the friends and relavites of the crew, not to mention the SGC (i.e. Homeworld Command)? Are the crewmembers on the ship officially dead or are they officially alive? And if they're officially dead, how does that affect the crewmembers and their beloved ones back on Earth?

But otherwise, this was a great episode indeed!

[ZRFTS]

But there's one particular thing that does bother me: When the timeline gets reset over and over again, how does that affect the Earth and the friends and relavites of the crew, not to mention the SGC (i.e. Homeworld Command)? Are the crewmembers on the ship officially dead or are they officially alive? And if they're officially dead, how does that affect the crewmembers and their beloved ones back on Earth?

It doesn't. In the case of "Time", life will go on. It's only being resetted at the point when they go through the gate if it was being resetted at all. In one timeline, they would be mourning and grieving while in the next they'd be back communicating regularly in the SGU; and that's if there actually manages to be two timelines caused by their actions.

In the case of all the other episodes, certain people may make minor choices. They didn't really imply that history changed that much. In "Mobius" all we got was a second time jumper and in "1969" it was implied to be predefined destiny (since Hammond remembered the crew there.) There may be slight differences but overall these time resets don't seem to have a major effect in the SG universe.

[Cluas]

I really really liked the way the intro was done with the Kino.
Great stuff. And creepy.

Time travel always leaves me totally confused. It was double confusion having two time travels in one episode, and having the viewer guessing in the end.

Overall great episode. I liked to watch the whole crew die twice, but I could have done without Eli's speech to Chloe...

[CarrieAnn]

What was that all about? I didn't like that episode *hides from other fans*