'Air, Part 2' (102) General Discussion

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

It wasn't as good as part 1, but the series has had a strong start so far.

Senator Armstrong's dead was kind of shocking, you don't see that very often on Stargate (you know a heroic sacrifice).

I really loved Joel's score when they were trying to gate back to Earth was awesome. It's one of my favorite score, so far in the series (we're only 2 episode in).

Monday, the conclusion to this 3 part series opener.

[Krisz]

Bit confusing trying to watch parts 1 & 2 as they are together on the DVD. I usually watch the extended version so watching it in parts for the rewatch is a bit awkward.

Anyway, one thing that I found interesting was how different the whole feel and the filming style of SGU compared to the brighter sedate filming style of SGA is after coming straight from that series with the rewatch. Since I didn't really watch SGA before SGU first aired I didn't really appreciate how startlingly different it was. Now I can sort of understand what a shock it was to those who avidly watched SGA and were looking forward to another Stargate adventure and got something so unlike any Stargate that had gone before. The darker scenes and jumping from one thing to another does a great job of unsettling the viewer and so throwing you a bit and getting you to feel as unsettled as the characters. It worked for me, but evidently is not everyones' preferred kind of viewing as subsequent rating figures proved.

This middle part of the Air trilogy was pure 'new' Stargate. It focuses on the characters, we don't know them, they don't know eachother and here we all are on a ship that has seen better days! They are scared, confused and already bickering, Rush is the one constant, he's the only one who 'planned' on going there. He's the only one who has some idea of what they are faced with and he knows it! He uses it to his advantage by putting himself above any of the others and therefore not really subject to the same rules the military decide to impose on everyone.

Already you can see what tension and suspicion this will cause. The ship and its problems seemed so much more immediate and real than the same sort of fatal problem Atlantis was faced with when the power was failing and it looked like the water would swallow them. In true Stargate style you knew there would be something that would save them, and it did in great dramatic style when the city initiated an emergency rise to the surface. SGU is not this, Destiny has problems and can't initiate the means to save this group of people, only give them some basic tools to work with and it's down to them.

The sense of danger and genuine helplessness was more immediate as a result for me in SGU. The problems are there to be seen. The Co2 scrubbers clogged with a decaying sludge and the broken windows through which precious air is escaping. and really no way to do anything about it. Destiny offers some hope when it stops at a planet, but how, it's not a guaranteed thing? This is what I liked, these characters are going to have fight tooth and nail for basic survival and the first big test is being able to continue breathing!

Will they find what they need on the planet? I really liked this total lottery idea, it actually reminded me of the facing the unknown and not being sure of how to deal with it that the early seasons of SG-1 had. If anything it had more of the feel of the original movie that had the total unknown waiting in dark places for the first team led by O'Neill to Abydos.

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

Rush, up to sneaky stuff right from the get go.

That soldier stealing rations. Tut tut.

The communication stones already being put to use. They end up playing a big part in Universe.

Kino's. Easily one of my favourite things about Universe. They're so neat. Way cooler than the MALP.

Those C-02 scrubbers. Eww.

The Senator sacrificing himself to save everyone. Very noble. And then Chloe going to beat Rush up. Understandable.

And a team goes through the gate on the first mission of Universe.

[ZRFTS]

So we finally get a look inside Destiny. I thought the exploration of it was nice; the dankness of the ship combined with the sheer mystery of it, though Destiny reminded me a bit like a videogame with it's design which took away from the experience. They expanded on the characters a bit but it just seemed like they were trying to create some sort of random chaos to make the situation tense, which took away from what they were trying to do with the characters who weren't doing much to keep my attention; seeming generic compared to the development they received later on. (Young and Rush are prominent examples) The stones that were used further took away from the worry in that they knew they were alive and knew that it worked which gave them less worry since there was no uncertainty regarding their status and given the resilience of the Stargate team... Chloe proved to be the best character of the episode (though generic) and the technical stuff gave the show some scientific weight but there really should of been some exploration of the characters in this part on the ship, some establishment.

[Matt G]

October 2009: By this point well...there had been plenty of controversy regarding this new SGU(partly from Atlantis fans who were expecting 10 seasons of that show). We all knew how different we were expecting it to be, now it was time for the speculation to stop.

1. "Do I look like someone who would knock on your door without knowing everything about you first?"

2. Rush already seems to be slightly nuts.

3. Liked the chat between Scott and Eli.

4. Young was ready to sacrifice himself?

So far a solid start.

[garhkal]

Though on #4, since young was badly injured, i feel his desire for self sacrifice was in keeping with his mil training.. Not really cause he felt it was the best thing, but cause training showed it would be.

[Don Pantaloons]

Even though I enjoyed the first episode, I didn't really enjoy this one. If this is going to be a character driven series, then I'm out. I don't like any of the characters.

[jelgate]

Their is a flaw in Rush's rationalization that he makes to Chloe about its not his fault after Senator Armstrong died. He did create the problem. Obviously he did not tamper with the life support system. However the reason Senator Armstrong died was a direct result of him dialing Destiny when Icarus was being evacuated. He may not intended for him to die but it is of his actions that Sen. Armstrong making him responsible for death. Moving on this is the exploring the ship episode for the series premiere. It shows us the orientation of the ship as we explore it to solve our problem with life support ultimately climaxing in Greer finding a hole in the shield by a broken shuttle. I remember finding the part with Sen. Armstrong dying to be quite sad. Joel did a great job at tugging at the emotional strings which I think was further well acted by Elyese. It felt real in how she lost her father Nothing else really shoots out at me. Just that I thought it was an average episode. It flows better when viewed with Air I.

[Cluas]

I know this was in part one, but the way the got through to Destiny, was really exciting, certainly different from the other SG shows.

I loved the design of Destiny.

When Young volunteered to go to the broken shuttle, I knew somehow that Armstrong would take his place. It was very well written though. And Rush trying to explain it wasn't his fault... Damn, everything was because of him...

The writers came up with lots of new tech stuff, that I also thought was a real improvement:
The stargate countdown, Kino's, and the communication stones... Three very essential things to why I liked this very much...


My only disappointment was that Telford didn't have a bigger role. Diamond Phillips has always been a fave actor of mine, I would have liked to see him abord Destiny.

[Baron Of Hell]

One of the things I like about this series is most of the episodes aren't self contained. This episodes builds off of the previous one and foreshadows things yet to come.

I loved the senator's sacrifice and the Summer look a like reaction to the death. Eli continues to be my favorite character. The ship is developing a personality at this point.

I don't have anything bad to say or things I thought could have been done better.