'Water' (106) General Discussion

[s09119]

Nothing... Happened... -headdesk-

Scott gets end of the episode freed from the same force that was crushing him. Bug things drink water and the crew fights against each other.

1/10

...and this is different from, say, "A Hundred Days," "Solitudes," or "38 Minutes"... how, exactly?

[Commander Zelix]

...and this is different from, say, "A Hundred Days," "Solitudes," or "38 Minutes"... how, exactly?

I don't know. But I know "A Hundred Days" makes a mockery of the drama in Water. "A Hundred Days" was much better than this episode.

[Maj_Cliffhanger]

Personally, I really liked this episode. I felt they did a good job of pacing and maintaining the tension overall. Was it perfect? No. But on a scale of 1-10. I'd give it a solid 7; definitely better than the average fair available on tv and an episode that I look forward to watching again.

Character moments that shone for me included the Young/Rush/Eli moment wherein Rush tells Young that recharging the destiny only brought them up to about 40% capacity. It makes sense. The ship has obviously been through a lot. It has obvious damage. There are ongoing mechanical issues so I would have been surprised (and disappointed) if recharging had brought things back to 100% power. And I really loved Eli saying that the 40% figure was something he pulled out of his own (Bleep!) snark! Yeah, Young doesn't trust Rush but Eli backed him up. It's a delicate balancing act going on between those two and Eli is the bridge to a certain extent. Not a comfortable place to be.

I also liked the James/Armstrong moments. I don't really get why everyone is saying Scott is such a bad guy 'chasing every skirt on the ship.' How do we know that it wasn't James who initiated things back on the base? She doesn't strike me as the shy type! Who says she didn't seduce Scott instead of the other way around? Maybe she was just looking for some fun and he took her up on the offer. Thing is, he seems to have much more of a personal connection to Chloe. That would also explain why James didn't get all possessive or anything when she caught them together; because she knew she had no prior claim other then a little free sex. (JMHO!!!)

Things I didn't like. Well, I have to agree with others here that Young kind recovered a bit quick from last episode. Just a little. We have seen him slowly improving over the last 5 and we don't know how much time passed between Light and Water - though it can't have been too much. On the other hand, desperate situations can cause people to do some pretty remarkable things. I can buy he can move around without the crutch now. I can even buy that he was capable of pulling Scott out of the crevasse (er more on that later!) As I said, desperate situations can cause a major adrenaline rush and it's certainly possible - but I would have liked to have seen him pay for it later. He should have been limping and leaning heavily on the kino sled as he pushed Scott back to the gate and should have been in more obvious pain on their return rather than simply exhausted - again, jmho, your mileage may vary!

Sand creature/bugs: A reused plot line from franchise? Maybe a bit but the cgi was fabulous. It actually reminded me a bit of 'Watergate' in Stargate SG-1 rather than the light bugs in 'Prodigy' I've seen mentioned here. 'Watergate' isn't one of my favorite episodes but I have to admit that the plot line concerning the alien entity was better handled there than here. Still, reused or not, weak or not, it did keep me on the edge of my seat a bit. The idea that creatures who needed/used water to replicate would be afraid of fire made sense - probably the only weapon that would work. Firing the gun was just stupid and didn't make a lot of sense - the guy wasn't exactly cornered or directly threatened. He could have retreated and called for backup. And as Mitchell would have said, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa! Bullets bounce!!!' vbg! (Sorry couldn't resist!) Mass conversion is probably my biggest sticking point here: if they used up that much water replicating, there should have been a lot more of them, even if a certain amount of water was broken down into oxygen and hydrogen during the process! 'Strange how they didn't try to bust out of the container until after they'd been tossed through the stargate.... As much as I wanted to like the sand creature plot line, it was definitely weak.

The sled, though I suspect someone here may have pointed it out already, should/could have been used to free Scott. Tie off the rope to it and give that nice several hundred pound sled a strong shove. Kinetic energy would do the rest! A lot more potential energy there than Young could ever manage. Course it could have broken Scott's back too, but....

And did I see a plot hole toward the end? I need to go back and re-watch it but ... if I remember right, didn't the Destiny jump into FTL almost immediately after Young and Scott got back? Didn't they say the space suits only had like 8 hrs of air and that the Destiny would jump in 12 hours? I clearly remember Eli stating that they would run out of air long before the ship left them behind - and that was with moderate exertion, not the kind of extreme exertion we were seeing from Young in particular. This part of the plot was by far the weakest for me. I like the science in scifi to be strong, and this was bending credibility too far for me.

As I said, I'd give it about a 7 overall - 'seems strange after reading back through my notes, but I stick by that figure! LOL! It did manage to hold my attention despite it's weaknesses and I am looking forward to seeing it again to catch the little nuances I know I missed.

JMHO - take it for what it's worth!

[JohnDuh]

i still don't see why everyone is eying rush he has done nothing but help them survive

Because he is not polite. See how they hate Piers Morgan on Amercas got talent, because he is not polite.

Doesn't matter what you say is true, or not you should be polite - and lie if need be


And gaa more kissing. But according to malozzi there'll be a lot and continuing stream of that and more sex - so i suppose i should get ready with the remote *g*

[JohnDuh]

About the only thing I liked was the shots of the alien planet, and the CGI of its sky.

Yes they were very pretty - wallpaper material

[JohnDuh]

U people need to stop watching and go back and rewatch sg1.it's the sixth episode of the series ifnyall can't get into the style of the episodes then it isn't for u.

Heck, no, I'm going to complain as long as there is something worth complaining about

i got the feeling the bugs might have been the reason the planet in "air PT3 was a desert. the bugs took all the water.

Ah, so a Dr. Who ripoff? Well, no wonder they were thirsty if they have been living in that desert for a long time!

the point is, let's discuss things without being crude. 'the big boobed army chick' is called Vanessa James, so try using her name please

Yes, but then nobody would know who he was talking about!

(Seriously, the people i watch the show with know the names of NONE of the actors - and they couldn't care less)

You know, she has a name. Both the character (which I'm less upset about), and the actor. It's demeaning to refer to someone as shallowly as that.

Why? That is what he found interesting, that is what he remembered - not her name or character. Why is it that women feel they are entitled to dictate what men can do?

if you kill off pricipe characters this early the series will go down the same road SGA did.

the characters define what the show is

I think that was his point - he wants to get rid of some characters so the show becomes different.

Though according to Malozzi the more people complain about a character the more the writers wish to keep them in out of spite.

So if you really want to get rid of someone complain to the advertisers

[JohnDuh]

I want the show to be character driven
I want the show to be character driven
I want the show to be character driven
I want the show to be character driven
I want the show to be character driven

*Character driven show airs*

That PLOT WAS WEAK!!!

If you want it to be character driven then why do you complain about the plot?

Or were you pretending that anyone had actually said that?

I wouldn't mind if this slow train was actually being driven somewhere.

I'm actually bonding with several characters - Rush, Greer, Young, even Eli and TJ I'm liking more, and Lt. James showed a lot of class. But Scott and Chloe I can't stand. They do nothing except make out. *yawns* They could both be written out without hurting this show a bit.

And according to Malozzies latest blog entry if you have a problem with that there is probably something wrong with you, and either way there will be a lot more of it in the future.

That is what I pointed out. When you can have a character like TJ grow like that, it really adds a lot to the ep. Strong characters can make up for weak plots, as Strong plots can make up for weak characters.

Then something is missing, be it writing, acting or directing - because I didn't see any growth at all, and certainly not a strong character. Ivanova on Babylon 5 was a strong character, this is a cardboard cutout of a girl trying to remember what to say.

[jelgate]

If you want it to be character driven then why do you complain about the plot?

Or were you pretending that anyone had actually said that?

I wouldn't mind if this slow train was actually being driven somewhere.

Its a mockery of fandom and how they are always complaining about something

[ronin36]

I got the impression some amount of time passed between the end of "Light" and the beginning of "Water" Probaby a couple weeks.

Why? Scott's line. "This the third time in as many weeks you want to kill yourself.' The first time, wanting to fix the shuttle. Second time, not going on the shuttle in "Light."

Also, somebody must have packed razors, because all the men looked at the same level of shaved/not shaved as before.

3. It looks like people are using the stones to communicate back and forth to earth (Last scene before Young's Kino log. A civilian was complaining about not being able to use the stones.)

[Commander Zelix]

I don't know how many time have past between Light and Water. I was under the impression it was just after it. The only obvious think that contract it that I remember is Young's leg which seem ok now. But maybe it wasn't broken but just sprained.

Anybody got any idea how much time has past between Light and Water? I may have missed something.

[jelgate]

I don't know how many time have past between Light and Water. I was under the impression it was just after it. The only obvious think that contract it that I remember is Young's leg which seem ok now. But maybe it wasn't broken but just sprained.

Anybody got any idea how much time has past between Light and Water? I may have missed something.

It was never bone and muscle problems. It was a nerve problem

[MattSilver 3k]

Anybody got any idea how much time has past between Light and Water? I may have missed something.

In the promo pics for Earth, it looks like Volker's arm is out of his sling... so time has passed, for sure. Maybe we'll get a mention of all the time that's passed. You know, someone may say, "We've been on this ship for blah blah..."

[Eternal Density]

Next week has to outdo The Nox and the week after has to do more than Brief Candle... should be easy.

[David Webb]

Boring...

[Infinite-Possibilities]

I didn't think it was a "boring" episode of the show per say, but still it's plodding along really slowly. I'm still waiting for something big to happen. I think Water was more exciting than Air part 3 and Darkness, but the progress of the show in general is limited feeling. The problem that arose in this episode was not present before and now that they fixed it (actually did they fix it?) they are right back where they started again.

Is it really not possible for a show to have strong plot AND character development?

I feel like we may have traded one extreme for another here. Though I hope not.

In Stargate: Atlantis, Season 5, for example. I thought arguably the most interesting of the plots in that season was Sheppard's increasingly desperate desire to save his friends at any cost. That is frankly character development that I find more intriguing to watch than anything so far in SGU. But we never really explored that aspect of Sheppard's character in detail. We got a great deal of subtle things worked into the performance of many episodes by Flanigan and many bits and pieces of "darker Sheppard's" actions in things like Outsiders and Infection, but overall it felt like that whole arc was largely in the background. Had Stargate: Atlantis been on the air for a 6th season, it would have been fairly easy to conceivably put more onscreen emphasis on Sheppard's story. It really wouldn't have needed to take anything away from SGA's overall plot, but it also would have given Sheppard some clearer emotional continuity. And he was only one example.

In the switch to SGU's case it almost feels like.

"Atlantis is a plot driven show! You don't get to see character focus here!"
"Universe is a character driven show! You don't get to see things happen here! Make up your mind! you can't have both!"

Obviously that's something of an exaggeration, but I think the general point is clear.