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    FAN REVIEWS: 'The Greater Good' (207)

    Visit the Episode Guide
    STARGATE UNIVERSE - SEASON TWO
    EPISODE NUMBER - 207

    When Young and Rush are trapped on an abandoned alien ship, Rush has Amanda Perry brought on board in an attempt to steer Destiny to them while keeping his secret.

    VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >>


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    Last edited by GateWorld; 01 February 2021, 11:25 PM.

    #2
    Well, things are certainly getting interesting on Destiny! I feel terrible for Eli. He finally has a chance to move on from his infatuation with Chloe, and with someone who is arguably far more attractive, and things go horribly wrong. First, Rush puts the move on Dr. Perry while she is in Ginn’s body, and then Simeon apparently decides that she needs to be silenced.

    Granted, Ginn’s physical fate is left somewhat ambiguous, but there’s no mistaking the menace in Simeon’s body language. But it does bring up an interesting point. If Dr. Perry is the consciousness within Ginn’s body, and she were to be killed, would Ginn survive in Dr. Perry’s body? I’m not sure that rule has ever been firmly established.

    Whatever the case, this episode was full of betrayals. Rush’s little scheme of controlling the ship on his own has finally been uncovered, and the consequences were as brutal as they were unexpected. An alliance between Rush and Young is a necessary thing, but can it last? Rush makes a passionate case for completing Destiny’s mission, but if he has been under the influence of either the same aliens that infected Chloe or the ship itself, his goals must be questioned.

    But he’s also correct in pointing out that Young is on the brink. He’s been falling apart since the incursion by the Lucien Alliance, and his actions are getting them no closer to bringing the crew home. Whether or not fulfilling Destiny’s apparent mission is the right course of action is, of course, a matter of debate. I can’t imagine Young will put all his eggs in the Rush basket.

    One thing, however, is very clear: no matter how scattered the storylines appear to be, the writers have a direction in mind, and they are working towards that end. It’s more apparent in this season than it has been in any other season of the “Stargate” franchise, and that may be why I’m enjoying it so much. And who doesn’t like a little real-world science in their science fiction?

    Comment


      #3
      Thank God, no pun intended (or purposefully imposed on others), but the destiny of the Destiny is now out of the bag. The world, or dare I say universe, as it matters to SGU is now set in stone. This episode makes light of everything we've been waiting to know of the true agenda behind the epic that is the ship. And, not without the character driven nuances we’ve all grown to love through the writing styles of the creators.

      The worlds of Eli, Young, Rush and numerous others are sacrificed mentally for the greater good of all involved. Simultaneously, the ultimate mission of the ship is eloquently entrusted to the spectators with brilliant personally reflective innuendos.

      Eli’s newest love interest turns out to be the real deal; which is the best thing that could happen for all those involved. He truly seems to be happy for once; well, for a little while at least.

      Even more compelling is Dr. Rush and Colonel Young’s heart-to-heart concerning Rush’s discovery and consequent cover-up of the most important aspect of the ship since Brodie’s still. The two performances are absolutely compelling with the discussion of why neither is truly meant to handle operations aboard the vessel. Although, there are fisticuffs involved between them of the likes that we have not seen sense the halfway mark of the first season. That said, there is finally coherent thoughts and agreement between the two that could further benefit the existence of the entire crew.
      As it were, the episode brought light to many plot points that were previously unsolved.

      The grandest discovery is that the Ancients originally sent their experiment to find truth behind the greatest philosophical predicament behind all mankind; is there an omnipotent or all-encompassing being responsible for the very nature of us all. This episode, while not delving into the somewhat personal issues that sometimes plague many souls, ingeniously elevates aspects of these concepts that some have strived throughout their lives to find answers to.

      The writers brilliantly succeed in all of these endeavors without once making reference to A God, or any higher being; but, simply depicting the greater nature of the ship’s destiny in terms that anyone can truly appreciate while also bringing out all the little idiosyncrasies that we have all become accustomed to during the past twenty six episodes to date. Overall this episode is enjoyable to watch for its many insights into the characters' progressions over the course of the season and series, and the plethora of personal reflections induced by its plot breakthrough.

      Also, if anyone actually enjoys this review then please PM me and I will try to make a regular occurence of them.
      Last edited by n4rc1ssus; 13 November 2010, 09:13 AM. Reason: random edits and adds
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      Comment


        #4
        The Greater Good Review [SGU 207]

        By xxxevilgrinxxx | Published: November 15, 2010 (crossposted at my personal blog)

        The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

        Throughout this series, the idea of ‘the greater good’ has played a part, both as actual dialogue and also as an underlying message. One mostly stated aloud by Dr. Rush but often echoed by Col. Young and usually in reference to actions that will affect the larger number of people aboard the Destiny.

        Where the notion of the greater good gets dicey is in who decides what’s good for everyone and this is where it tends to fail as a method of operation. All throughout history there have been people that have stepped forward onto the stage and done horrible things in the name of the greater good. Whether they have won or lost and what side they were on in relation to “us” has decided whether they were “right”, “heroes” or “monsters” but all of them at some point in their own stories chose their actions with the notion of the greater good in mind, free will of the led be damned.

        In previous incarnations, Stargate gave us gods and had us question them. In the current incarnation, Stargate gives us fate, free will and yes, Destiny itself, and has us question that. There are those that will choose to surrender their free will to the notion of the greater good, as Caine and those that stayed with him chose to do in “Faith” and echoed in “Intervention”. As terrible, as misguided, as uninformed as I may believe that choice was, at least it was a choice.

        One place where both the “Faith” entity and Dr. Rush intersect is that neither are willing to divulge much information about the choices, and even less about the information that led there. The Planet Builders may well be truly alien and therefore problems in understanding may be explainable but Rush has no such cover. He is intelligent but he has not come so far that he is a being above the others. His good intentions, as noble as they appear to be to his own mind, barely cover the arrogance behind them and they certainly don’t cover the deceit he has visited upon the crew, mostly Col. Young. In his claims to act for the greater good of the crew, without telling them, Rush has put the rest of the crew – their desires for their own fate, their identities as people in their own right, even their ideas – not only out of his mind, but beneath him. He infantalizes them, which is no different than what previous “gods” have done in the Stargate franchise.

        Rush is no “god” and all his juggling can’t keep his deceit from the rest of the crew and he stretches credulity in his efforts to continue to hide knowledge from the others. From a viewer’s point, this simply could not have gone on much longer. In his efforts, he brings aboard the one person that he trusts, Amanda Perry, to continue with his lies in his stead. It’s not a role that she takes on easily; she doesn’t like to lie to the others and if circumstances were different, if it weren’t a matter of saving lives, I wonder if she would have done it at all.

        There’s a price to be paid for all these machinations on Rush’s part in that it sets Amanda Perry, in Ginn’s body, on a collision course with Simeon. Rush has admitted to making mistakes and he has been confronted with those mistakes by Col. Young. Other than getting beaten by the volatile Col. Young or having a hard time sleeping due to a guilty conscience, his mistakes haven’t come back to affect him in a way that would make his behaviour change. He hasn’t paid a price beyond the condemnation and anger of his fellow crew, something he was willing to endure if it gave him the room to work in peace. With injury or even death coming to Amanda Perry at the end of this episode, will he finally have to pay a personal price for his lies?

        In this episode, Eli and Ginn have been working on the data from the failed attempt to open a wormhole from within a star. Also, Col. Young mentions, on the alien ship, that the concept of the mission had better not be one of Rush’s hoaxes. Both of these are important in that it shows that there is another sort of fallout from Rush’s secrecy: that when the truth finally comes out, it won’t be believed.

        The notion of a message left over from the creation of the universe may well be the truth but in coming from Rush, a man that has lied about so very much, how is it to be taken at face value? Eli is right to be angry but in Eli, the crew have a brilliant scientist that will share the knowledge, making the crew’s fate a matter of informed consent.

        In doubting Rush, Col. Young hasn’t had to travel very far but it does make any sort of respect or possible friendship “a lot of work”. And that friendship is needed. For all of Rush’s machinations, when he is being blunt and forthright, what he has to say is something Col. Young needs to hear, especially about his ability to lead. While I believe that the colonel has every ability to lead, Young doesn’t fully share that belief and with the knowledge that Rush was the one to have the ship jump in the last episode, Young’s trust in himself will have to rest on his own abilities rather than the whim of the ship. Perhaps this is as it should be and I hope that as Young continues to dry out, that he will take on the mission at hand rather than continue to look back, towards Earth.

        What is and continues to be true is that Rush and Young cannot be working at cross purposes. One way or another, they must work with each other. I believe that Young will continue to “trust but verify”, having Eli check on Rush’s work and perhaps keep the man on the straight and narrow, but once the current crisis is over, will Rush continue to work with Young? That remains to be seen.

        Rating: 9 1/2 out of 10.
        sigpic


        SGU-RELATED FANART | IN YOUNG WE TRUST | FANDUMB

        Comment


          #5
          After two very strong episodes, Stargate Universe serves up another polished offering but, despite the excellent performances and quality sheen, the main plot of “The Greater Good” is on very shaky ground with that feeling of we’ve been here before again with no surprises and a vague sense of let-down. What works incredibly well though is the sub-plot with Simeon and the Lucian Alliance which seriously gave me nightmares.

          I’m going to start with the main plot though, because really that is the meat of the episode. After having two episodes where the storyline has taken centre stage with the story arcs doing their thing in the background, this episode is more of a duet combining multiple arcs (I count the power play arc, Young’s breakdown arc, Rush’s secret control of Destiny arc, Eli’s math arc, Perry’s crush on Rush arc and Brody’s increasing annoyance with Rush’s absence arc) with the main plot of Rush and Young getting stranded on an alien ship thus leading to revelations, heartfelt discussions about trust and honesty, and a rather girly fight.

          In many ways, this was supposed to be the big pay-off to some of the arcs: Young finds out about Rush’s control of Destiny and there is the big confrontation. But there are three problems with this: one, Rush and Young have already battled for control and had a big confrontation in season one complete with shouted words of mistrust, head-butts of doom and wrestling around on a dusty planet so when the secret breaks and Young attacks, it’s really not at all a surprise that there’s shouted words of mistrust, head-butts of doom and wrestling around in a dusty ship. I think I commented a few reviews ago that in some ways, season two feels like a reboot of Universe with everything repeating but in a better way - and this is better than the previous confrontation; there’s more truth in the character motivations and reactions that makes it more believable. But it does feel like repetition. The second problem though is mostly to do with pay-offs; given the build-up was any pay-off going to be enough? It feels anti-climatic but that could just be me expecting something bigger. But the final problem is the shaky foundation of the episode plot.

          I’ve never been a big fan of Stargate episodes where the leader suddenly decides it’s a good idea to go wandering off-world. Hammond rarely went off-world in SG-1, and whenever he did, he had a damned good reason story-wise. Weir’s off-world jaunts always hung on a precarious thread and were made all the more bizarre because of the fact that she often went with Sheppard and McKay, resulting in all three of the senior command staff of Atlantis in danger at the same time. So, I wasn’t really happy in Season 1 when Young toddled off-world with Scott in “Water” or with Rush in “Justice”. And again, just how ridiculous is it that Rush and Young head to the deserted ship together after what happened last time? The story admittedly tries to address this with Young’s discussion with Scott about trust and the promise not to leave him behind again but the whole premise just isn’t believable to me and thus, the plot falls down before it’s even started.

          The performances though are excellent throughout. Louis Ferreira gives another fabulous performance, shifting from depression (and it is good to see that Young hasn’t miraculously gotten over that even if he’s stepped back up to his command duties) to anger as the story progresses. Robert Carlyle also gives a tremendous performance. The two men play off each other really well and really make their scenes work. Kathleen Munroe also delivers a solid performance as Amanda Perry. She and Carlyle have great on-screen chemistry, and they portray the friendship, respect and admiration their characters feel for each other really well. As an aside, the moment where Eli confronts Perry about remembering she’s in someone else’s body is quite amusing given the controversy last season. But again, it’s good that the show is tackling that head-on.

          The other performance that has to be mentioned is that by Robert Knepper as Lucian Alliance bad-guy Simeon. The sub-plot of Simeon’s growing distrust for Ginn because of her relationship with Eli and her use of the communication stones is minimally threaded through the main plot but it packs a powerful punch mostly due to Knepper. He does an amazing job of projecting a not-so-subtle aura of violence especially in the scene where he confronts Perry thinking she is Ginn. As a result, the ending with him entering Ginn’s quarters with only Perry there is truly horrifying just in the suggestion of what Simeon is there to do. It is the first time Stargate has actually given me nightmares.

          If this episode isn’t as successful as it might have been, it’s not a disaster by any means. Universe always delivers a polished product and with that last scene, it certainly hooks the audience into seeing what happens next.

          Previously published at GeekSpeak Magazine
          sigpic
          Women of the Gate LJ Community.
          My Stargate Fanfiction. My LiveJournal.

          Comment


            #6
            The Greater Good

            For most of the season, I've been waiting for the moment where Season 2 finally becomes good, the moment where SGU suddenly becomes the underrated series that was cut so soon... Well it's here and with SGU's first episode starting with "The", steps are finally taken to further the series and flesh out it's potential.

            Of course, they don't manage to reveal it instantaneously; they instead use the first act to set up another kind a plot, a plot involving an abandoned ship. Now exploring a ship has always been a common sci-fi trope dating back to when the genre was invented and nearly every show has had an episode where they explore a ship. SGU does not take this lightly as they use it in a decent way; using ropes, the slow buildup and the unknown to build up the anticipation aspect of it. Of course, it gets boring; the slow buildup can almost turn viewers who watch this episode off, mainly because barely anything is happening that's keeping their interest. It is somewhat offsetted by what happens on the ship and the way they explore the ship but nothing can prevent the fact it gets boring. The ship is also the moment where SGU has finally mastered the art of surprise, providing a moment that no one can predict, even if one has watched the episode; it really sets up the situation well, sending them adrift, putting the people in situations that more then represents their characters and well... giving them an opportunity to put their skills to use.

            Much of the first act is dull and plodding, serving to turn this into yet another episode of SGU; the crew is doing their thing, they're not putting much into their performances, there's little to care about, even the appearance of Dr. Amanda Perry does little to relive the dullness of these scenes. It is nice to see her and she's as good as ever, providing the chemistry between Rush that brings out the best in both characters. Dr. Perry's worrisome and moralistic acting is countered by Rush's determined and stern acting and yet they go together like peanut butter and jelly... The same could also be said for the LA woman (who Dr. Perry inhabits) who manages to be as decent as ever with her performance furthering some traits in Eli such as his friendliness and compassion; things may seem like they're at a dead standstill but it finally become amazing when Rush's thin line vanishes, leaving him out in the open, exposed and vulnerable for some character growth. It also brings out the best in characters who seemed to be sleepwalking through the first half, with the aggressive tone, the loud yelling, the real sense of being pissed off that you can feel; Eli shows this very well, in fact you could say that you wouldn't want to be face to face with him in that state. He's that good.

            The second half of the episode contains some of the best moments of the episode, including the fight between Young and Rush that is meaningful, purposeful and is actually better then the one featured in "Justice". The fight is done in a realistic fashion, they actually have emotions and they actually have a reason for punching each other rather then because they're rivals or something; this leads to us care about the fight rather then criticizing the fight or calling it cheesy as we did in seasons past. It is awesome to see these two actually come together in a meaningful way; regrets, bloody faces, true emotion, now this is how they should of done it in Season 1! And what's best about it is that they manage to really do something substantial in terms of character when they're on the ship; Young and Rush's conversation reveals things about them and vise versa, Young's inability to let go and desire to do what he thinks is best for the people and Rush's interest in Destiny, the mission, the potential; each of those things are done in a way that don't seem tacked on and seem true to their characters. Rush with his stern tone combined with dreamer talk and idealistic views and Young with his aggressive tone combined with disbelief, listing off flaws, listing off beliefs, makes it satisfactory to see them come face to face and then come with terms with themselves.

            The most important thing is the stuff revealed that gives SGU hope, that shows that these people know what's good for SGU and that is the background microwave code. It is a really interesting concept that supports the whole "unlikely crew binding together thing"; just a bunch of people letting go of home for a chance to save the world with their unique talents, this is what will make people watch the crew, this is what will interest the writers and the actors to go the extra mile and do things they haven't even done before. The whole complexity to save the world thing that has massive potential and could really lead to wonderful things for SGU had the show continued on; in fact had this been included in the first season, it would of had less filler, the crew would of been more relatable and put into situations which better suit them and even more people would come to love Rush, Eli, Young, Greer, maybe even TJ but alas, what's done is done and we can only move forward in this world. Things get bumpy near the end but the message thing is good enough to excuse the dullness of the moment where Rush and Young jump back onto Destiny (which felt odd despite what happened before.) and the scenes involving the bad egg of the LA who is still one dimensional and unlikable despite their efforts to make him into a more substantial character, if only for the potential that background microwave code holds.

            This is by far Season 2's best episode yet; it isn't a masterpiece but at least it finally shows us the moment where everything changes for the better... hopefully. The first half is somewhat dull and tough to get through but once you get to the second half, then everything becomes better with a Young and Rush plot that reveals both about their characters, revelations that radically change the series and a true sense that the series is finally going somewhere. It could be better but I'm just glad they finally removed the line and gave us what we wanted; and for that I'm grateful.

            7.0/10
            Back from the grave.

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