Rogues (301)

[Alex Rubit]

Stargate: Horizon - Season Three
"Rogues"

"Rogues"
Ep: 3.01
Release Date: October 26th, 2006
Written by Alex Rubit

Two months after the events from "Revolution," Horizon finds itself surrounded by the ongoing Vorian civil war. Meanwile Major David Connor has returned to Earth, happily reunited with his wife Julia and their daughter Caitlin. However, the peaceful family life soon comes to an end, when David finds himself haunted by his Horizon-related past.

[Alex Rubit]

The great moment has finally arrived, and the Season Three premiere has been unleashed to the public!

On behalf of the entire staff I'll say we're all very happy and proud to be launching Season Three today. We hope you all enjoy it, and we look forward to seeing your thoughts, comments and reviews!

[Lt. Colonel Ryu Gaia]

I'm on Act 3 now. It's looking pretty good so far - the first few acts were a little slow, but it's picking up. Expect a full review within the next three hours.

Hm, okay. I've finished reading it right now. I find it interesting that we're picking up the Circle now, no doubt it has the location to the book in it and we'll be seeing that search sometime in the midseason two-parter. The episode wasn't very tense - it was a little bit of 'In Times of Despair' crossed with some build-up to the next part. I don't think we felt the Kih'Andari/Vorian war as much as we should have, although I'm sure we'll be seeing it in the future. The Enoly barely even got mentioned, so there was not much of an antagonist in this episode. The whole plot with David being kidnapped by the shadow organization is interesting, but it felt somewhat slow. The pacing in this episode was okay, but I felt like it wasn't quite as explosive as it should have been. In retrospect I like the pacing, it feels good to know that things are steady, it's not going to be something that's going to begin and end in a blip.

Overall, a decent episode for Horizon, and a good ringer-in for Season 3. But still, it didn't kick off an arc so much as it slowly began it.

**1/2

8/10

[SierraGulf1]

I'm on Act 3 now. It's looking pretty good so far - the first few acts were a little slow, but it's picking up. Expect a full review within the next three hours.

Hm, okay. I've finished reading it right now. I find it interesting that we're picking up the Circle now, no doubt it has the location to the book in it and we'll be seeing that search sometime in the midseason two-parter. The episode wasn't very tense - it was a little bit of 'In Times of Despair' crossed with some build-up to the next part. I don't think we felt the Kih'Andari/Vorian war as much as we should have, although I'm sure we'll be seeing it in the future. The Enoly barely even got mentioned, so there was not much of an antagonist in this episode. The whole plot with David being kidnapped by the shadow organization is interesting, but it felt somewhat slow. The pacing in this episode was okay, but I felt like it wasn't quite as explosive as it should have been. In retrospect I like the pacing, it feels good to know that things are steady, it's not going to be something that's going to begin and end in a blip.

Overall, a decent episode for Horizon, and a good ringer-in for Season 3. But still, it didn't kick off an arc so much as it slowly began it.

**1/2

8/10

The way I've looked at it, having read the first few episodes, is that the events of "Rogues" and "The Circle" initiate a chain of events (slowly, as you said). "The Search" sets the gears rolling full speed, which leads into the season itself. The midseason two-parter then sets things into full motion.

I agree that we might not have seen much of the war yet, as much of the action took place on a smaller scale (David and Saunders, with the team seeking them). "The Search" picks up on the war aspect heavily, and it becomes the main focus in several episodes, namely "My Enemy's Enemy."

Glad you enjoyed the episode, and I look forward to reading your comments as the season continues to progress. I'm also looking forward to more comments on the premiere.

[Elitenova]

Best episode ever.

[Alex Rubit]

I'm on Act 3 now. It's looking pretty good so far - the first few acts were a little slow, but it's picking up. Expect a full review within the next three hours.

Hm, okay. I've finished reading it right now. I find it interesting that we're picking up the Circle now, no doubt it has the location to the book in it and we'll be seeing that search sometime in the midseason two-parter. The episode wasn't very tense - it was a little bit of 'In Times of Despair' crossed with some build-up to the next part. I don't think we felt the Kih'Andari/Vorian war as much as we should have, although I'm sure we'll be seeing it in the future. The Enoly barely even got mentioned, so there was not much of an antagonist in this episode. The whole plot with David being kidnapped by the shadow organization is interesting, but it felt somewhat slow. The pacing in this episode was okay, but I felt like it wasn't quite as explosive as it should have been. In retrospect I like the pacing, it feels good to know that things are steady, it's not going to be something that's going to begin and end in a blip.

Overall, a decent episode for Horizon, and a good ringer-in for Season 3. But still, it didn't kick off an arc so much as it slowly began it.

**1/2

8/10

I'm glad you've enjoyed the episode.

Yeah, we were definitely going for a more "slow" opening, rather than doing the explosive type. Which is probably what you wouldn't expect, following "Revolution." But I think that's one of the great things; it goes to show that with this series you'll never know what to expect. And that's what we're going for. An episode could be anything from action-packed to character drama, or comedy, or maybe a creative mix of all sorts of things.

But it definitely starts off with building up towards a climax. There were too many character beats that needed to be addressed in this first episode, so that felt like the right way to go. But rest assured, before this four episode arc ends, we'll be having another space battle at our hands.

The Enoly, interestingly, have taken a bit of a back seat in early episodes of the season. That again might come unexpected, but makes sense considering the losses they've suffered at the end of Season Two.

[Alex Rubit]

Best episode ever.

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[Alex Rubit]

Good news. The episode has now been added to the website; you can check it out right here!

If anyone's got any more comments and/or reviews on the episode, it might be interesting to see those.

[Lt. Colonel Ryu Gaia]

Yeah, Alex, it seems that the entire VS community is very much in a slump. The combined total ratings on SGO for both Horizon and Destiny this week ammounts to a resounding total of 11. Unique votes, I'd guess probably about five or six. I'm thinking we're looking at a massive-scale loss of interest in VSes in general - I mean, of all weeks for scores to be low, it's the one that has the release of the first episode by a new writer on Destiny, and the season premiere of Horizon's third year. Clearly, something's off here.

[Alex Rubit]

Yeah, Alex, it seems that the entire VS community is very much in a slump. The combined total ratings on SGO for both Horizon and Destiny this week ammounts to a resounding total of 11. Unique votes, I'd guess probably about five or six. I'm thinking we're looking at a massive-scale loss of interest in VSes in general - I mean, of all weeks for scores to be low, it's the one that has the release of the first episode by a new writer on Destiny, and the season premiere of Horizon's third year. Clearly, something's off here.

I don't think that the interest in virtual series is lower than usual; it's probably just a matter of people reading the episodes, but not posting any comments, which, unfortunatly, happens a lot.

As for why that happens, I think a lot of people don't do that for a specific reason. They may just enjoy an episode, but they won't put too much time into telling people what they thought of it. It's a shame really, since seeing what fans think of an episode is really the only reward any of us get from having put the time and effort into it. The only reward other than the fact that we greatly enjoy putting the time and effort into it; at least in my case I know that's true. Not to mention the reward of enjoying the final product ourselves.

But I would encourage people to post some more. I also find people tend to not talk about small little details, which on television shows would be a big deal. Say the fact that Bill Connelly is now the President. We made sure to not leak that until the episode is out, and I must say I was surprised so far that no one's mentioned that. It may not have been a surprise, since we knew we'd be going for that ever since "Path of Revelation." But you have to wonder what this means for the long-term future.

Anyway. It's always great to see comments or reviews. So maybe we just need to give people some more time. After all, a lot of people who usually do post their comments haven't said anything so far either.

[Lt. Colonel Ryu Gaia]

Yeah, I've noticed that too. People totally freaked out about that whole zat-shot-across-metal-shelf in Memento Mori, but no one seems to have discussed the little things that subtley affect the plot out here. Espescially such that Grant is now directly connected to the president (perhaps a carryover from his career on 24?). That's going to have a ripple effect in the future, I think.

[mentalmichael]

Right, just got back from reading the ep and overall I was impressed. I was somewhat dissapointed with the scale of the war - it seems like Horizon was able to ward off the enemy fleet relatively easily and the battle scene didn't seem like a big deal. It's good to see that you're bringing the circle of the ancients back - and how the hell did it move planets?

[Alchemist]

As Alex said on SG-U, [link] the war was only background noise in this episode. It would have been much too crowded if there was a large amount of info on the war included. I think the idea was to make it similar to our current day wars, that are shown on the news most nights, but after two months are not front-page material any more.

The attack on Horizon in the prequel was only a small scale battle. There was a large contingent of Vorian ships present, and the Horizon station can hold its own pretty well. Horizon is not (currently) the front line in the war, and so does not see much action in its own right, well not yet anyway

[Alex Rubit]

Yeah, in this episode and the next one the war doesn't play too large a role. It will move more into the foreground in "The Search, Parts One and Two," and later episodes in the season. There's one episode that's in early development stage, which will be all about the war.

The premiere was focused mainly on character beats and setting up what is to come, as I also talk about on the podcast. The story really starts picking up with "The Circle."

[Alex Rubit]

It's good to see that you're bringing the circle of the ancients back - and how the hell did it move planets?

It was located on the Vorian homeworld for some time after the pilot. The team had brought it with them from Thalos Five, and the Vorians held onto it ever since. Eventually it was moved to the base on Covinar, which then was "taken over" by members of the rogue Kih'Andari.