'Common Descent' (217) General Discussion

[morbosfist]

Yeesh. I can't do that with my pinky. Maybe he's got a double joint there.

[carmencatalina]

Regardless, I think this descendats' storyline is one of the coolest PTB have come with. At least in my opinion.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to agree with you. I mean, they didn't just manage to survive and left descendants for "our" Destiny crew to meet - there is this huge, empty city! Buried in volcanic ash! The visuals are amazing, and I'm so glad the story continues next week.

If nothing else, these last few episodes are turning out to be rather epic.

[Artemis-Neith]

Did anyone notice Young's finger at about 33:35

WTF

Yeesh. I can't do that with my pinky. Maybe he's got a double joint there.

Yeah, that's something I've seen before. Don't know what it is, but the finger is stiff, I think. Surely a question for the Young/Ferreira thread, I guess somebody knows.

[traylormatt]

It was a great episode. What I do hate, well not hate because I understand that it is to develop a story and what have you, but is that they came at this point. Imagine if they dropped out 50 years earlier and found the planet. How cool would that have been. I can tell you. SO COOL.

[The Destiny]

Mass celebrations all over the place!

By the way, did you guys see the statue of Young ( I think it was Young ) in the promo and sneak peak? It's there when they land. That's so cool ^^

[ross613]

Let's see....
1. very expensive to make
2. chased away the female viewers right off the bat

I don't see how/why. You'd think that Lt. Scott (Brian Smith) went around with his shirt off enough in season 1 to hold the attention of some female viewers. And there was the love triangle between he, Cloe and Eli to generate a degree of romantic intrigue...shallow analysis, maybe - but the point remains such features were present to some degree. So I'd suggest "chased away" would be, at best, unfair.

3. chased off franchise fans mid way thru first season

I can see some truth in this comment...I was nearly among them. And, given what's happened to Stargate, I'm honestly sorry I didn't turn away. But I think there was an honest effort to try a new approach borrowing ideas and ultimately success from Battlestar Galactica.

4. fear of cancellation prompted TPTB to make it watchable

Not sure what this means....TV programs should always be "watchable"; else, what's the point? Why wasn't it "watchable" to start with? (i.e. I can't agree...)

5. the women and SG fans never looked back to realize it was the SG they grew up watching
6. the show is great now but the improvements in season 2 runs a risk of losing those fans that loved season 1

See above...

7. syfy can't make money

Sure it can! It just doesn't.

8. MGM had opportunity to profit share from sales of the original showings overseas and chose to stick it to syfy
9. Syfy dropped it

I dunno; I'm more inclined to blame MGM than SyFy because MGM got itself into it's own kettle of hot water financially thanks to the inept (mis)management of its leadership. However, SyFy obviously takes a share of the blame — to say how much, I'd need to spend more time studying the relationship between the two companies and I'm not that interested in the subject I'm very likely to do that....enough of my time's been wasted on Stargate Universe, I think.

[Airlock]

okay, I don't mean this to be offensive in any way, but I noticed this during the live airing and during a few subsequent viewings: when the Destiny crew is first led into the village to meet the Descendants and Yazu invites Wray and company into his tent, just as Wray says "thank you" you can see what appears to be a mentally retarded person behind her.

Given that one of the themes of this episode is genetics and given the circumstances, it wouldn't be surprising to find some mutations, but I find it interesting the way it was presented to the viewer -- in the form of a background extra in a brief moment.

I don't believe this was an "equal opportunity casting" situation. I believe the use of the mentally retarded extra was a deliberate choice as a subliminal or subtle way of communicating the reality of genetic imperfections in a scenario such as the one facing the Destiny crew. The point hadn't been made directly in the use of dialogue, but rather in an offhanded way with a brief shot of a mentally retarded person. I found that both interesting and amusing. Did anyone else notice that?

[Ben 'Teal'c would WIN!!' Noble]

This was the best episode of the season IMO.

I think 80+ people is enough for a viable population but I have doubts.

And those two kids from the planet will be related to the entire crew as after those 2000 years everyone will share the same common ancestors. Even me and the whoever the poster above is will more that likely have common ancestors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Olson_(writer)

2000 years is a long time ago think how much we have advanced from the time of Christ. I did find it odd that it only took 10 years to build the village yet those people on the planet were there for 30 years yet were still living in tents.

[carmencatalina]

okay, I don't mean this to be offensive in any way, but I noticed this during the live airing and during a few subsequent viewings: when the Destiny crew is first led into the village to meet the Descendants and Yazu invites Wray and company into his tent, just as Wray says "thank you" you can see what appears to be a mentally retarded person behind her.

Are you implying that there was an actor/actress with Down syndrome in the episode? Otherwise, I'm not sure what you mean by "appear to be mentally retarded". I didn't notice any such person.

FYI, Down syndrome is NOT caused by inbreeding. It is caused by a trisomy (an extra chromosome) of chromosome 21. It is more likely to occur in the children of older mothers (because their eggs are older and this apparently increases the chances of trisomies). It would NOT be more (or less) common in a population that had limited genetic diversity. Down syndrome children can be born to people who have no close genetic relationships at all - again, inbreeding and Down syndrome are two completely different issues.

There is a lot of misinformation regarding Down syndrome - if this is not what you meant, then I apologize, but I do my best to make people aware of the realities of genetics rather than spread further misinformation.

[Airlock]

Are you implying that there was an actor/actress with Down syndrome in the episode? Otherwise, I'm not sure what you mean by "appear to be mentally retarded". I didn't notice any such person.

FYI, Down syndrome is NOT caused by inbreeding. It is caused by a trisomy (an extra chromosome) of chromosome 21. It is more likely to occur in the children of older mothers (because their eggs are older and this apparently increases the chances of trisomies). It would NOT be more (or less) common in a population that had limited genetic diversity. Down syndrome children can be born to people who have no close genetic relationships at all - again, inbreeding and Down syndrome are two completely different issues.

There is a lot of misinformation regarding Down syndrome - if this is not what you meant, then I apologize, but I do my best to make people aware of the realities of genetics rather than spread further misinformation.

thanks for the academic lesson, but i think you missed the point of my post. the rest of my post i made my point. I wasn't trying to mislead anyone. The point of my post was that if the director and producer were trying to showcase the very real possibility of retardation or 'down syndrome' or whatever you want to call it (debating the semantics isn't the point), then they chose an interesting way of communicating that. Just because YOU didn't notice it doesn't mean it wasn't there. And if you didn't notice it, than how can you call it down syndrome without even seeing what I'm talking about? The person I saw had none of the visual symptoms of down syndrome and yes, appeared mentally retarded. It's not meant to be cruel, it's just a simple observation -- one that I tested numerous times by watching the scene over and over again. It is most definitely a person with a mental disorder. And yes, I think that was a deliberate choice of casting (or acting) to subtly communicate genetic imperfection.

[Shylodog]

I didn't see anyone with any form of mental or physical abnormalities behind Wray. I saw a man with very pronounced features saying hello or nodding to someone, but I would never have characterized him as you did. I think you may be a little too critical of other people's differences than your own. Your quick judgement of someone only given a second of airtime makes me want to make a quick judgement of you based on your singular comment above.

But...

I respectfully won't. I will simply say that I think you are sorely mistaken in your judgement.

[LtColCarter]

I didn't see anyone with any form of mental or physical abnormalities behind Wray. I saw a man with very pronounced features saying hello or nodding to someone, but I would never have characterized him as you did. I think you may be a little too critical of other people's differences than your own. Your quick judgement of someone only given a second of airtime makes me want to make a quick judgement of you based on your singular comment above.

But...

I respectfully won't. I will simply say that I think you are sorely mistaken in your judgement.

I'm with ya on this one...I didn't see that either.

[Ian-S]

I saw a guy who looked like a tall version of Rush.

[Airlock]

I didn't see anyone with any form of mental or physical abnormalities behind Wray. I saw a man with very pronounced features saying hello or nodding to someone, but I would never have characterized him as you did. I think you may be a little too critical of other people's differences than your own. Your quick judgement of someone only given a second of airtime makes me want to make a quick judgement of you based on your singular comment above.

But...

I respectfully won't. I will simply say that I think you are sorely mistaken in your judgement.

oh please, this isn't me being critical or insensitive. you can't say anything these days without people demanding political correctness or skewing someones words for their own benefit or interpretation.

i observed something and i'm asking if others observed it as well. if not, fine. i didn't pass judgment on the person. you all obviously missed my point and it sounds like you're going out of your way to criticise me for something i never implied. YOU are the one passing judgment here. i had a legitimate observation and a legitimate point and i wasn't trying to make a statement, unlike yourself.

[geddarkstorm]

On the subject of them speaking english, remember that they had the kino footage and presumably all learned it in 'school'. That footage would crystallize that civilization that grew up around it.

Yeah, that's still just a hand wave, but makes it completely plausible. It's one thing to translate old, important books into a new language as time goes, but can't do that with footage.

Kinda sad that Novus had apparently been destroyed. So many possibilities... But this is typical of all stargate (something really cool is hinted at or found and immediately taken away).