'Twin Destinies' (212) General Discussion

[Linda06]

The Tellford who was killed, was not connected to anyone through the stones. That's y the tellford from the alternate timeline who reached Earth wasn't killed like the other.
Unless I missed something.

Oh right, I get confused easily so I had to ask

[garhkal]

It would have been interesting though, to see what would have happened had he tried it.

[Matt G]

1. This episode involves A and B timelines. "Bandaid" Rush was from Timeline A. Timeline B Telford was the one that got killed!

2. Was surprised that Timeline A Greer and Eli would have stayed on board I mean both of them will now surely have enough credibility with Homeworld Command to get new assignments! For that matter I'm sure people would have put in a good word for Chloe.

3. Telford B getting killed - ouch! Then again, does timeline B need two Telfords?

4. It doesn't need two Rush's either though.

5. Was surprised at Lee's dismissive attitude towards Eli though.

Very solid ep though!

[garhkal]

Greer stayed as he feels loyalty to both Young and the other few Mil folk. Eli imo stayed as he didn't want to be thought of as a quitter.

[maneth]

Cool episode, really cool take on time travel. I certainly expected the other Rush to do something drastic to take himself out of the picture, but to use the chair...

[Duval]

I liked this episode, I became crazy when I saw him the first time, so at which I have him to look two times in succession. The end is sad on the other hand!

[jeri]

When Rush (he was the "older" Rush) uses the chair, I thought that I don't think I would have the courage to do that. But his curiosity was too much for him. I was thinking we may have heard from Rush #1 again in a season 3 maybe his consciousness would have made it to the other Destiny? Who knows? Would have been fun to see.

[Duval]

Oh yes, I am on that we would have seen again him, it is not possible that he finishes like that. At the same time, he had no choice either... The poor man!

[jeri]

Oh yes, I am on that we would have seen again him, it is not possible that he finishes like that. At the same time, he had no choice either... The poor man!

Yes, if Rush #1 had stayed, both of them would not be trusted by the crew. Most of them would not believe it was an accident with Telford, and Rush knew that all too well. He really had no other choice. Somehow he gets to find out the mysteries in Destiny, and save himself from more trouble.

[Duval]

In any case, even if I have to find that sad, I have to find the scene very beautiful, full of emotion, beautiful images.

[garhkal]

I would have loved to at least see whether rush's body disappeared like dr franklin did.

[maneth]

Me too... And whether he ascended in the end when the second Destiny was destroyed...

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

Good episode, average if you compare it to the rest of the season.

Good score. Loved it when we saw the 2 Destinys.

I still don't understand the whole timeline thing, more on that tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the Lucian Alliance attack on Earth.

[Energizer_Vs_ZPM]

maybe his consciousness would have made it to the other Destiny?

Or even transmitted from that destiny to the intact destiny..

[ZRFTS]

There are three best episodes for me. "The Greater Good", "Common Descent" and "Epilogue". Even though I wasn't truly impressed; this comes across as one of the good episodes for me, the mysterious 4th best episode of the show.

There's just a lot of things that make it, there's a certain kind of energy that surrounds it. Young, Rush & friends feel really compelled to go the extra mile and just duke it out in ways thus providing with interesting character vigor and oddly enough entertaining moments. The character moments are grand and engaging; hearing Rush's speech was quite possibly the best moment of his character, as he spoke about the importance of the mission and how this unknown presence holds the key to all of life's questions and seeing him ponder the unexpected shines new light to him and it provided a reason for you to care; the way it's filmed and the way it's plot flows really shows the importance that is our crew, our connection to them and it just engages us into the whole situation making us cross our fingers and pray that they get home or pray that they stay. It paints the picture that the entire crew of Destiny is the show, it's what we've been relating with the entire time and because of that, it makes the moments they get involved in more shocking.

There's also a lot of things that break it too. For instance, there are several threads which are not explored upon; threads such as the military vs. civilians thing that would of been interesting (there is the whole tensity at the gate thing you know). I was really hoping that there would be at least some person who would comment on the fact that they haven't really gotten home despite the multiple promises. A bit too much time is taken on Rush's story which is taken straight out of the pages of "Before I Sleep", it's not the story that's the problem but the fact that not much happens in the story to justify the time focused; while it does contradict the whole character thing, I feel that other issues need to be explored in order to provide a consistent character environment. In a show like this, every issue has to be explored whether it's minor or major; you can't have characters standing around a gate than saying "forget it!", it just isn't consistent and death barely seems to be taken seriously around here. (Sgt. Riley is the only true death, people would of been sad had Telford actually died.)

I find Rush's performance intriguing in that it challenges his perception. The struggle to keep his web together is an engaging one that provides a deep grasp into the character, what does Rush believe in this misson, why does he feel the need to go to great lengths, is what he doing even for the greater good and the fact that Rush looks at his alternate self and even finds himself mistrusting himself is something because this is the person who's usually hated for mistrust, who is a schemer. When he himself can't seem to share the same link as him ans when he questions his own actions, it says something about a character, it says that somewhere, deep down, there's a side that's our true selves, hidden by what we consider to be a manufactured persona. Rush "killing" Telford was good in that it showed the emotion that reigned beside him, the sort of impulse response that comes from being objected and the sort of feelings that he has and him sitting on the chair was definitely a "why not do it" moment, a facing of the type of the eventuality that he himself may have to do.

The time travel element is good in that it provides an interesting story, the alternate Destiny which provides the most energetic part of SGU yet. Seriously it's all rush, rush, rush; barely any scenes are included to interrupt the flow and the plot doesn't take any detours, it's just the crew, survival and a rush against time before the ship goes kaput but it's also bad in that it forces a sort of complexity on the viewers. One reviewer went into detail about the problem regarding getting rid of Rush and Telford as if it were calculus; here's my version of things.

1. Our destiny enters the supernova.
2. Eli dials Earth, Telford arrives and is the only one to make it.
3. The supernova causes the Stargate to malfunction, thus sending people to their possible deaths.
4. The supernova also has an effect in sending the Destiny back mere hours before Eli's plan is enacted. (oddly enough, Telford is send back in time thus creating a duplicate.)
5. Our destiny faces the Alternate Destiny which emerges from the supernova.
6. Alternate Rush boards the Destiny and tells all about his story.
7. They then decide to board the Alternate Destiny, while on the Destiny Telford uses the stones to switch with himself.
8. Rush kills now Alternate Telford in a fit of rage, not knowing our Telford is in his alternate's body (which is accepted unlike previous attempts where Gin and Dr. Amanda Perry were killed in their respective bodies.
9. Alternate Rush now in a predicament where he is unable to escape, decides to scumb to fate and sit in the chair.
10. Our crew escapes, Alternate Destiny is destroyed; thus "correcting" the thing for now.
11. Nobody realizes it but the Alternate Destiny had a massive impact in their timeline, which will be explored in a later episode.

Don't get me wrong, the complexity is good; it's that it's not as complex as it seems. It's much like every time travel episode out there, there's always something that explains this such as in "1969" regarding Hammond's Memory or "Before I Sleep" or "2010", both of which involved them traveling from a timeline in which things went wrong and correcting it by providing information that would prevent such thing from happening.

They do have the right elements and if they just tightened up the pacing than this would be the 4th best episode but as it stands, it's close but not close enough. You do have to see this episode for the crew raiding Alternate Destiny, that is definitely entertaining and fun.