'The Hunt' (216) General Discussion

[traylormatt]

But that's the thing. This isn't SG-1 or Atlantis. This is SGU, this is supposed to be different and to an extent, more realistic. And they did make a deal about deaths earlier on. When Gorman died, there was a huge deal about it. Hell, when Rivers was killed, everyone on board was sad about it. But now when people die, no one really cares and just goes on laughing and cracking jokes. To me, that's the writers getting lazy and not really caring anymore.

It just completely makes no sense to me why they'd make River's death such a big deal when the guy had two appearances and one line, while Marsden's been in far more episodes with much more lines, and no one mentions a thing about his death. It's just inconsistent and lazy on the writer's end.

And also, a big reason why they really need to emphasize these losses more, is because unlike the previous two shows, there IS a crew count, and a few small one at that. The show started off with 80+ people, they added around 9 Lucian Alliance crew later on, but since then, they've lost by my count, around two dozen people already. Two dozen out of 80 is a lot of people, and they can't just keep killing more crew members without displaying any sort of reprecussions or man shortages on board. They've already lost 7 marines and I can't imagine they've got much more left. They've got to start showing how all this attrition is effecting both moral and crew duties on board.

They do make a big deal out of some of the characters but they have not cried over each and every one of those 20+ people individually. Maybe with more time in the episode it would have played out more, but with there not being enough I can see why they don't focus on it.

I think more of a deal should be made about the deaths, as you said their is a count and at this rate they would have barely made it to season 3 with any crew members left.

[Shadow_7]

Glad to see that the gate still works. And wasn't damaged in that space battle 22 episodes ago.

-----

Why do I find the on ship stuff more interesting now than any of the "other" stuff?

[colin15watt]

But now when people die, no one really cares and just goes on laughing and cracking jokes. To me, that's the writers getting lazy and not really caring anymore.

In all fairness, they were kinda pre-occupied with you know, trying to stay alive and save TJ and Reynolds. Pretty sure nobody would of been amused if they sat down and had a wee cry whilst TJ and Reynolds were eaten.
Plus, there was no real moment to discuss it afterwards, back on Destiny. Only a brief scene of them having some food, and a brief scene with TJ and Varro where TJ DID mention the loss of his people.
Haven't all the other deaths (the ones that have had big deals made about them) happened quite hastily in the episodes? Or been a longer part of a story arc, like that guy Young had to suffocate to put him out of his misery? And in Incursion, one of their team was murdered by the LA, something that directly tied into the storyline - hostage situation, people invading Destiny, so that was more pointful in influencing decisions of other characters etc.


All in all it was a good episode
After all this waiting for an off world episode though we could at least of seen them go through the Stargate haha. Oh well

Anyone else think Varro's a pretty interesting character? Wish if they'd got a 3rd season he would have more of a main role saying that...Wray's got a main role and she's just sorta disappeared into thin air!!!

And to the person that was commenting about losing so many crew members,

Spoiler:

there's a chance in the next few episodes that they might get some humans coming on board and joining Destiny, afterall, it says they find a group of colonists created by the Destiny crew 2000 years previously, and that's a long time to develop, plus with smart folk like Eli they'd develop a heck of a lot quicker!

and it might of been their plan to get a supply line to Destiny at some point during the series, where more people may have came on board? Just a suggestion.

[Kilgharrah]

Well, let's take it part by part.
Exploring Destiny: Finally we get to see some more of Destiny but just not enough. I needed more.
The predators: I don't get the whole smart thing. It's a predator. It doesn't think. It just eats. This is ridiculous.
Parks- Volker- Greer love triangle: This happens too much on SGU, the love triangle thing and I'm starting to get sick of it. Too much of anything ruins it.
Greer and his problems: I think it was the only good thing in this episode. Greer is starting to think not just do.
Eli- Brody scenes: I didn't really get them. I'm not sure whether it was Rush who froze Brody or was it Eli by mistake. I know Rush unfroze Brody, but not sure about freezing him. From what I understood, he knew they were in the stasis room, but didn't realize something was wrong until the diagnostics were done. He said they were very informative. Don't know if that's what really happened, but I'm really confused about it.

All in all, I can say that this episode was OK. Not so good and not bad, just OK.

[General Jumper One]

The predators: I don't get the whole smart thing. It's a predator. It doesn't think. It just eats. This is ridiculous.

That's a lame reason, just because its an animal, people are animals and predators and we think

[Kilgharrah]

That's a lame reason, just because its an animal, people are animals and predators and we think

I only like science fiction when it's rational. And this isn't rational at all.
In other words, this is not stargate-ish. Stargate has always been rational and based on realistic facts.

[Flibby]

If he knows he didn't push a button to close the door, and he knows the other guy didn't push a button, seems to me he might, at the very least, call the control room to see if someone up there pushed a button. Oh but we're supposed to just think he's in the "oh crap" mode and doesn't have a giant brain.



More boring machinery, even though they didn't open any of them(except the one that eli started to look into) ?
How in the world would they know what's in them without opening them? Ship manifest(oh but wait, that would require someone writing a line of dialog like "we'll look at the ship manifest" which never happens in this show).



How about flash lights then instead of boomsticks? Surely these creatures with mastery over light would seem intelligent to the creatures?




He had one wife, doesn't make him a ladies man. The speech just seemed dumb coming from him, imo.



Yet they both clearly knew that they didn't push a close button.



If I sit down in a chair at work and it magically falls apart cause someone removed the screws.....and then half an hour later someone walks up to me in the break room at work and says hey man, why aren't ya sittin at your desk(or something similar) it rings a bell in my mind that something is up. Guess that's just me.



He was looking at the screen, it clearly indicated to hiim someone was down there, so of course rush knew the only people who could be there would be the 2 other people who knew about the room. I don't know if the statis pod had sensors or what, but it clearly signalled something to him.



No, I got it, just the speech felt like it came from the wrong person.



Ok, so ignore the guns, clothes, etc....but flash lights? Light in a contained space directed wherever the creature holding it wants....?
I gotta imagine even if the creature shrugged off the other stuff as skin/thunder, that a freaking flashlight would seem pretty intelligent/magical to it.



Suddenly rush knows everything about stasis pods and the risks involved? Surely there's lots of way for going into a pod to end badly.



I guess not on a ship as advanced as Destiny.....lol



Not on a ship as advanced as Destiny, or so it would seem.....rofl



Which in 10+ months you'd think he'd have learned by now.

.....

Again I'd like to reiterate that overall i liked this episode more than last week's, but man some stuff still just bugged me.

I can't really respond to this considering that you mislabeled most of the quotes and it appears you only have interest in seeing the bad side of things.

[sgc]

I think when Rush said "gathered some valuable data" about the stasis pods, he was more referring to the fact that he taught a lesson to Eli and Brody. And I don't think he was trying to pull a prank or be mean either, he knew they wouldn't listen, and they would do what they want. He just wanted to show them that sometimes bad things happen when you don't know anything about it.

And yes, it bothers me how many people died and nothing was said about it.

There was stuff said about it, but they aren't main characters. They never kill off more than 2 main characters at a time if they are going to be dead permanently. They never make a big deal about it unless it's a main character/recurring character, and while that's not exactly right, they don't know them personally as they might know the main characters. The other characters may be upset about it because they may know that person, but they don't focus on their feelings, because they aren't main characters.

I had a couple of issues with the episode. The ending didn't make a whole lot of sense with the space cat figuring out the people were intelligent. You'd think the heavy weapons, explosion, use of tools, clothing, and language would be a slight hint. But no, it's fire.

It's the case of the monkey trying to understand us. They may recognize we are intelligent, but they don't classify us as humans and themselves as monkeys. They don't have clothing or heavy weapons or sophisticated language to understand that we have those things. They are intelligent, and possibly sentient, but like the minor Goa'uld in the SG-1 episode where Skarra was on trial for his life on Tollana said, a species is sentient because someone deems them to be.

People seem to think Rush's prank was harmless fun, but I saw it as a way of putting Eli in his place. Eli is as smart or smarter than Rush and Rush needs to maintain dominance over him as much as possible. As soon as Eli started showing some backbone, he decided to knock the kid down a few pegs, putting another man's life in jeopardy in the process.

Rush doesn't do anything without a reason. It was harmless fun, but it had a point. He didn't put Brody's life in jeopardy, and he needed to make Eli follow the protocol for such a situation. If Rush told him not to be so reckless, then Eli would ignore him or even confront him. This way, everybody wins. He knew that Brody would be fine.

And also, with the count down timer... Gloria or Franklin told Rush that it is very complex, so maybe they decided just not to mess with it.

They're probably still working on it.

Ok, the creature probably didn't understand advanced tools like guns, clothes it probably thought was color variation in skin, explosions are thunder... Fire in a cave and contained. Easily recognizable to primitively itnelligent beings because fire is primitive itself.

How do stasis pod's put a man's life in jeopardy? He wasn't knocking Eli down, he was teaching him that sometimes things go wrong when you don't know enough about something.

Col. Young still loves TJ some, and he is feeling threatened, it is perfectly normal.

Park and Greer haven't had any action for a while, and they aren't "official" or anything, so maybe Chloe was just being friendly. I don't think there was any malicious intent in her words.

This is fairly accurate.

But this isn't SG1 or A, in SGU they do make a big deal about it every time someone dies.

Only the times when a main character dies because it effects the main characters more. If someone they didn't know died, they won't have such a strong feeling about it. They will be upset, but won't make such a big deal about mourning. If someone you know personally dies, it is a lot more painful than if someone you don't know/an acquaintance dies. I'm not saying they feel they are less important or that you don't care, but that it has more impact, and is therefore more relevant.

I dont know about anyone else, But if I see a rabbit near a fire, I think, 'There's a rabbit close to a fire'. If I see a rabbit wearing clothes, carrying a weapon, and setting explosives while planning an attack with it's friends, I think 'That's a pretty smart rabbit'.

And the questions is , how -don't- stasis pods put someone life in danger? Their entire function is to stop your life until it starts it back up again. Key word is 'stop'.

Why does Eli need to be taught a lesson about caution? This is the same Eli that had to lock up his girlfriend in a computer because RUSH wasn't cautious. They're on Destiny in the first place because RUSH decided to dial the ship when they didnt have all the information. Eli isnt the one who needs to be taught a lesson about caution, And Rush is the last person to be teaching anyone.

* LOL

* They don't stop your life. They slow your life down so that you may live longer to the outside world.

* Eli wasn't following protocol. Rush dialed the 9th chevron because they had all the information they could get.

Glad to see that the gate still works. And wasn't damaged in that space battle 22 episodes ago.

-----

Why do I find the on ship stuff more interesting now than any of the "other" stuff?

They used it in Twin Destinies, but I did feel they should've at least showed the gate the other episodes. It's Stargate.

[morrismike]

Matchmaker? All she was doing was getting Volkner to admit his feelings for Park. Nothing wrong with that.

Perhaps she is bored now that she can't manipulate Eli any more and decided to have a little fun with Volker.

[Jumper_One]

A final round of behind-the-scene pics of Stargate: Universe’s “The Hunt” as the episode airs in Canada tonight. Tomorrow, I start weighing in with my thoughts on the episode. Tune in tomorrow to find out:

- Why I think this episode goes a long way toward, not only rehabilitating Rush, but making him downright lovable.

- Why Varro is a better match for T.J. than Young.

- How I channeled fellow writer/Executive Producer Carl Binder to write one particular scene.

- What happened to those planned T.J. flashbacks and what did you miss?

http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/...sgus-the-hunt/

[morrismike]

That's a lame reason, just because its an animal, people are animals and predators and we think

+1
It very well was a very intellegent creature, just lacking hands which made our rise possible.

[jelgate]

Perhaps she is bored now that she can't manipulate Eli any more and decided to have a little fun with Volker.

She was never shown to mantipulate anyone

[Detox]

In all fairness, they were kinda pre-occupied with you know, trying to stay alive and save TJ and Reynolds. Pretty sure nobody would of been amused if they sat down and had a wee cry whilst TJ and Reynolds were eaten.
Plus, there was no real moment to discuss it afterwards, back on Destiny. Only a brief scene of them having some food, and a brief scene with TJ and Varro where TJ DID mention the loss of his people.

I'll use SGA's Conversion as an example. When the team, Lorne and two random marines went to try and grab an Iratus egg, the two redshirts were killed in the process. After they escaped the cave, Beckett said they had to go back in there and Lorne told him that two men just died and that the plan has to be scrapped. I wanted to see that during The Hunt.

Of the 10 on the search party, 4 were killed in the ambush, 2 others were wounded. In ANY military scenario, that would be a huge failure and no right minded commander would continue the operation after suffering a 60% casualty rate. It just completely makes no sense. They were clearly outnumbered and outsmarted by those creatures, yet after losing most of the team, they decided it was a good idea for only 4 people? Only 3 of them armed to continue onwards?

If that isn't downright stupid, then I don't know what is.

[LtColCarter]

I only like science fiction when it's rational. And this isn't rational at all.
In other words, this is not stargate-ish. Stargate has always been rational and based on realistic facts.

Yes...its realistic to have a huge ring that works with control crystals to send people light years across the galaxy.

[Kaiphantom]

She was never shown to mantipulate anyone

Much like people don't quite know what Rush's mindset is and how that would play into his actions, it could easily be said that Chloe is manipulative, even if subconsciously, from a certain point of view.

Anyway, as far as all the deaths go, SGU isn't the only one guilty of showing things at the end as "Woohoo, we saved two people! Let's celebrate!" while completely ignoring the half a dozen or more than died. Hardly a celebratory atmosphere. At best, I'd expect it to be somewhat muted, acknowledging those who died. It's like the dead don't really matter, because hey, they were red shirts.

As I said, SGU is far from the only offender in the field, but it's a trope/cliche that I have really grown to dislike. I guess it's a matter of wanting to see more realistic and intelligent writing. It would have been better to show only people injured with no deaths, with a line that everyone came back alive; that would have been worth celebrating. Instead, it really feels like deaths are kinda just one more item on the list "okay, what's next on the list... oh yeah, have to kill some red shirts... done and done..."