Stuff that bugged me in 'Common Descent'

[Mr Evil 37]

Except mr evil that this particular episode had a lot of holes and is a perfect reflection of the laziness displayed by the writers. The decline of stargate is fairly evident. I like SGU don't get me wrong. But this episode was just not up to scratch.

Holes such as...?

[MattSilver 3k]

Digi. I have to save you from yourself here. Answers in bold.

• I'm pretty sure Deep Space Nine did this story in 1997 Pfft. Sci-fi tropes are all wrung out beyond all comprehension. It's how the story is told that matters, and the characters reaction. Different circumstances to DS9..
• that the locals speak flawless English--including slang--after 2000 years have passed. I know English has been a continuous conceit of the franchise, but SGU has been very very good about doing away with such things. And languages evolve even across decades, never mind centuries or even millennia Stargate translator. Duh.
• these people have been living on this planet for 30 years....and they're still living in tents?Maybe because they're ready to move at any moment?
• how is it that Wray (apparently) has descendants?I'd imagine its because she had sex with a guy in order to help things along with the whole survival thing. Not that big a deal, and I doubt there's anything bad or rape-y about it.
• is 80-odd people (actually probably closer to 50 or 60, subtracting casualties) really enough of a genetic base to be viable for survival? Yeah. Probably.
• I can understand our people living in primitive-ish homes/cabins, but did they en masse decide to embrace Amish fashion sense or what?If they had access to only cotton or whatever, they'd make clothes out of it. Who cares?
• Er....volcanic winter shouldn't have any bearing on whether or not the city-planet's gate works or not (this may still be resolved in an upcoming episode, I don't know)

Next episode, I'd bet. Volcano still erupted bro.

Digi, I'm kinda... I mean... You didn't have to start a thread, you know.

[Esquin]

Holes such as...?

The ones everyone keeps pointing out that you come and yell at them for. YOu're a fanboy, I get it. But it's time to accept that the show is dead.

[escyos]

• I'm pretty sure Deep Space Nine did this story in 1997
• that the locals speak flawless English--including slang--after 2000 years have passed. I know English has been a continuous conceit of the franchise, but SGU has been very very good about doing away with such things. And languages evolve even across decades, never mind centuries or even millennia
• these people have been living on this planet for 30 years....and they're still living in tents?
• how is it that Wray (apparently) has descendants?
• is 80-odd people (actually probably closer to 50 or 60, subtracting casualties) really enough of a genetic base to be viable for survival?
• I can understand our people living in primitive-ish homes/cabins, but did they en masse decide to embrace Amish fashion sense or what?
• Er....volcanic winter shouldn't have any bearing on whether or not the city-planet's gate works or not (this may still be resolved in an upcoming episode, I don't know)

#I imagine that because the crew of the Destiny was deified (sort of) they would keep the langauge as close to what they spoke as they could.
#they may have to move around for winter etc and to follow game
#She did the nasty in the past(y)
#If properly planned out, yes, although you would probably have to have children with many different people ( )
#It would just look odd if they were all wearing boob tubes and baord shorts in an amish village!
#Unless the gate was buried, which as we've seen can disable it.

[MattSilver 3k]

The ones everyone keeps pointing out that you come and yell at them for. YOu're a fanboy, I get it. But it's time to accept that the show is dead.

So we should stop fanboying because SGU is dead? Okay, tell that to the Atlantis fans too...

[Mr Evil 37]

The ones everyone keeps pointing out that you come and yell at them for. YOu're a fanboy, I get it. But it's time to accept that the show is dead.

Woah, I am not yelling at anyone; you're the one having a go at me. And none of the "holes" I have seen so far on this forum have actually been holes; all of them have had perfectly reasonable explanations. If you can give me a hole that actually cannot be explained, then fair enough, but even so that would NOT be a reason why the episode was bad, because it certainly wasn't.

So we should stop fanboying because SGU is dead? Okay, tell that to the Atlantis fans too...

Well said, my friend.

[Lantean General]

Has anyone considered that maybe the Novans speak a completely different language? Some sort of Ancient/Chinese/English hybrid (plus whatever else) language and that the language in their original forms has become liturgical languages like Latin here on Earth or like Lantean in the Pegasus Galaxy, used only in prayer and such forth and so maintained in the thousands of years?

[Mr Evil 37]

Has anyone considered that maybe the Novans speak a completely different language? Some sort of Ancient/Chinese/English hybrid (plus whatever else) language and that the language in their original forms has become liturgical languages like Latin here on Earth or like Lantean in the Pegasus Galaxy, used only in prayer and such forth and so maintained in the thousands of years?

That could make sense, but it doesn't explain how the Destiny crew are able to communicate with them. And when they first went to the planet, Scott clearly said, "You speak English."

[Lantean General]

Possibly because she recognised him, used her knowledge of English to reply?

Honestly, it's probably a writing oversight that the writers thought would take too long to explain. This is the only idea that I have that could explain it in universe; if anyone can thing of a better idea than I'll follow that

(hope that didn't sound rude btw)

[DigiFluid]

It amuses me that, because I criticise, people think I didn't enjoy it.

[Nathan Reynolds]

The only thing that trully bugged me was that T.J. had a son with Young and not Varro. :-)
T.J. and Varro storyline was interesting and they just throw it out the window. IMO it would be much cooler if the baby was Varro's.

[thekillman]

language changes because of several factors including other languages and the need for new words.

a lot of conditions for language to change simply don't exist on Novus.


the only real problem i had, was the genetic pool.



anyway, as to DS9, i know the story and it was VERY, VERY different. including the circumstances. furthermore, SGU actually touched upon the subject of what you pass on.


like rush becoming a savior icon to some and a demon to others.

[MattSilver 3k]

It amuses me that, because I criticise, people think I didn't enjoy it.

Meh, I don't doubt that. Again, I'm just a little weirded out by you of all people doing a "this is what bugged me" thread, because, I dunno, seems weird. I'm conflicted.

[traylormatt]

The language was not an oversight. So when the British settled in different countries it must be safe to assume none of them speak English. America and Australia, parts of Africa...none of these speak English right?

Sure they could have given all of the characters different accents to the people on board Destiny but it really is a far cry fro a "plot hole" and nor is it ad writing. I think it is safe to assume that the descendants would speak English. Sure they would have developed some new slang words and stopped using other words like we have done over the last 500 years. but it's really not the end of the world they didn't do that, unless you would like complete realism and for the entire episode spent translating what each other means - they don't have Daniel Jackson on board for this stuff.

In England 500 years ago we spoke different types of English, but since the introduction of mass communication and the first dictionary in the 17th century, the language has become more and more standardised. Spelling is sometimes different of the odd word (trousers - pants. Thru - through, aluminum - aluminium etc) and I am sure much of language will stay the same, at least the general language, maybe a few true slang words will change, but even those often drop out of the dictionary within a few decades, the core language stays the same.

I think the tents aspect is fair. I would have liked to see what was brought through on the original trips through the gate when they settled this little colony. If they brought through the radio towers with the tents etc then col, but if they built the radio towers somehow before they built shelter then that is absurd. I do think in 30 years they would have built a few things for better way of life, just log cabins etc. You would assume that people will the know how would be sent through, some scientists and some military. Unless they took the gate travel for granted ans assumed they could just send through scientists and civilians.

As others have said, Wray may just have laid back and thought of Novas. Or a others had said, maybe she is bisexual and she met a nice man on board. We just don't know.

The genetics has been discussed and if controlled it could e fine. Other threads go into it and I don't want to just copy and paste.

The Amish life style would just be the most convenient. They would also be working from an understanding of their history, they would be able to make tools similar to that to start off with and they would work from there. They would not need to go back to the stone age or anything, so they start at a level which is practical given the resources available.

We will have to wait and see about the gate and why they couldn't dial.

[thekillman]

Sure they could have given all of the characters different accents to the people on board Destiny but it really is a far cry fro a "plot hole" and nor is it ad writing. I think it is safe to assume that the descendants would speak English. Sure they would have developed some new slang words and stopped using other words like we have done over the last 500 years. but it's really not the end of the world they didn't do that, unless you would like complete realism and for the entire episode spent translating what each other means - they don't have Daniel Jackson on board for this stuff.

given that every crewmember seems to speak perfect english and that other languages are only really used for certain circumstances, traditions and uses, it's pretty obvious that English will remain pretty much the same.


as to the tents:

there were other settlements so it's possible the one we saw was an outpost or so.