Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

'Common Descent' (217) General Discussion

Collapse
This is a sticky topic.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    The second best episode of SGU. It's popularity and praise is well deserved; the idea of alternate people may have been done before but the idea that these are our descendents is one that grabs you in immediately. The fact that they manage to build all of this stuff, the fact that they're praising them.

    But wait, there's more. Unlike Atlantis's "The Game", this is actually taken seriously. You can see that the producers were clearly intending to lay down a wide history for these people; a planet called Novus, a fight between two beliefs, technological advancements that we haven't even thought of yet and just look at how literal the title is in the racial differences. Wray meets what is essentially an asian version of her ancestor, Scott and Chloe meet what appear to be similar people and there's even a couple of descendents from the geniuses of the pack. It is just amazing how common these people are and it provides a broader statement in how common we are from ourselves; how race and society and human nature can spawn from just one group of people. It makes us think about ourselves and the scope of things.

    The concept of this causes nearly every actor to step their game up. Wray has that inviting charm that makes her fun to watch, she actually feels somewhat like her "Mulan" character the way she interacts and the way she speaks. Eli manages to be both funny and serious, utilizing his wide imagination to rationalize these people that they met through past events and the Kino flashbacks? Everybody provides what is esentially an inviting family vibe that makes us care for these people, care for their lives; it's like icing on the cake. You know the first steps of how they got there and yet you want to know more... In fact the next episode provides you with more. TJ provides one of her best performances yet as she seems natural delivering the baby and almost convincing in her performance and it is in her next episode where her breakthrough would happen.

    Few things bring it down like the grey area of whether or not it would be viable to take them to a planet that may or may not exist (but I did like the no man left behind mantra); it just didn't do anything to make itself seem complex and it further wore out the grey area mentality that the show had and some of the comedic dialog failed to land. I did not like to hear about SimCity and Futura and I felt like they were aiming a bit to far to capture that old SG feeling, to me their type of comedy has to come naturally and has to fit in with the environment. There is just no room for such sillyness on the Destiny. Plus they couldn't decide upon an ending, is the ending them giving the food, is the ending the attack, is the ending them stranded? Pick one.

    Other than that, this episode is good, it's a fine example of SGU getting somewhere and I liked the CGI of the reveal of Novus. It was thought-provoking, it was insightful and best of all, it was entertaining. Now this is what I call progress!
    Back from the grave.

    Comment


      Watching this episode each time takes me back to April 19th 2011, the day this episode aired for the first time in Canada. It was the day after I sat in the room at the Vancouver Stargate convention listening to Brad Wright announcing that this was it with SGU, and Stargate for the foreseeable future.

      Then I watch this brilliant episode and was gutted by the fact that there would be no more. All I could think of is how much more of this fantastic series we could have had with the quality of story telling that I saw in this fantastic episode, and its even better conclusion ‘Epilogue’.

      Everything I loved about Stargate was here, the crew of Destiny fighting off the pesky drones that have eerily found a way to track them, bringing back that sense of dread and uncertainty. The crew finding that their other selves didn’t perish in the wormhole but ended up on another planet 2000 years back in time, two of the major mishaps that could happen with gate travel in one event!

      I really liked that totally unexpected first meeting, filled with awe and awkwardness on both sides. The wonder of learning about these people who created a thriving technologically advanced civilization from nothing but their determination and hard work. Young’s recorded speech was a nice one, summed up everything I like about him as a leader. The difficult dilemma of having to leave the descendants behind due to life support issues when they asked to be taken back to Novus, even though they were in the same boat as those on Destiny as far as fighting for survival was concerned gave one of those brilliant brief emotive moments that were done so well in SGU.

      For me, the endless possibilities for storylines that this new revelation could have brought made the premature ending of this show harder to deal with.

      Comment


        Midweek...another ep of SGU...

        1. Forgot how much grief the drones were giving Destiny.

        2. Rush as a demon! LOL!

        3. Greer getting flattered! Fine!

        4. Sim Earth! That took me back!
        I SURF FOR THE FREEDOM!

        Comment


          Originally posted by Krisz View Post
          Watching this episode each time takes me back to April 19th 2011, the day this episode aired for the first time in Canada. It was the day after I sat in the room at the Vancouver Stargate convention listening to Brad Wright announcing that this was it with SGU, and Stargate for the foreseeable future.

          Then I watch this brilliant episode and was gutted by the fact that there would be no more. All I could think of is how much more of this fantastic series we could have had with the quality of story telling that I saw in this fantastic episode, and its even better conclusion ‘Epilogue’.

          Everything I loved about Stargate was here, the crew of Destiny fighting off the pesky drones that have eerily found a way to track them, bringing back that sense of dread and uncertainty. The crew finding that their other selves didn’t perish in the wormhole but ended up on another planet 2000 years back in time, two of the major mishaps that could happen with gate travel in one event!

          I really liked that totally unexpected first meeting, filled with awe and awkwardness on both sides. The wonder of learning about these people who created a thriving technologically advanced civilization from nothing but their determination and hard work. Young’s recorded speech was a nice one, summed up everything I like about him as a leader. The difficult dilemma of having to leave the descendants behind due to life support issues when they asked to be taken back to Novus, even though they were in the same boat as those on Destiny as far as fighting for survival was concerned gave one of those brilliant brief emotive moments that were done so well in SGU.

          For me, the endless possibilities for storylines that this new revelation could have brought made the premature ending of this show harder to deal with.
          Especially when you think, what 'could have happened' had they NOT ended it.. Could we have seen more decendants on other worlds? Could TJ have found her cure? Did the ru****es die off?...

          2. Rush as a demon! LOL!
          MUAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHA

          Comment


            Good ep.

            Those damn drones sure are persistent. Only gets worse of course.

            Meeting the descendants of the other Destiny crew is pretty cool.

            Rush the demon. Now that was funny haha.

            Since when have gates been so weak that a blast from a tiny ship can damage it so bad?

            Would have been cool if the humans on Novas had of survived. Maybe they could have found a way to dial Earth. And Earth could have had another highly advanced ally.
            sigpic

            Comment


              Who's to say they have not survived?

              Comment


                Brilliant story. One of the best episodes in SGU...


                It must be real strange to meet descendants of yourself

                I hate drones...

                Comment


                  I wonder.. we know the command crew viewed the kino footage showing who got with whom.. did the rest of the crew become privvy to that info?

                  Comment


                    Really liked this episode. I totally forgot about the duplicates creating a society of people. It was funny how two of the young people they first meet looked like Scott and Chloe.

                    I would like to see more of how they survived in the beginning. Its funny how every ai or automated machine goes around killing everybody. Be nice to see one that just went around helping people.

                    Comment


                      One thing that seems inconsistent to me is it the Destiny crew started out on Novus with nothing but the clothes on their back, and in two thousand years had advanced to the point where much of their technology and science had surpassed that of Earth.

                      Yet, the people they encountered on the first planet that was a settlement from Novus were still living in tents with a fairly primitive lifestyle (with the exception of the radios and antennas, at least that we were able to see).

                      You would think that after a few years, with no contact from Novus or anyone else and not being able to contact them, they would realize they were stranded and would have to do what the Destiny crew did on Novus and start over from scratch.

                      What also doesn't make sense is they had been on that new planet at least 30 or 40 years, which is about the same amount of time that passed from when the Destiny crew landed on Novus to the dedication of Eli's Elementary School. Yet Novus was considerably more advanced already - despite having started with nothing, they had a small town with houses, a school, etc whereas Yazoo's group was looking like they were on a camping trip.

                      Comment


                        The Destiny was populated by scientists and soldiers who may have had building experience. The group from Novus appear to have been entirely unqualified for being left on their own. Rather than compare them to the crew of the Destiny, a more apt comparison might be some of the early North American settlers who were not suited to surviving on their own and either perished or survived only because they were resupplied in time, got help from the natives, or only a small percentage of the original population just barely made it on their own.

                        Here's a quote from the episode:

                        YAOZU: We were supposed to build a colony, but only with the help of our homeworld and an open Gate with providing ongoing support and supplies.

                        ELLIE: We're surviving, but just barely.

                        YAOZU: We have struggled through great hardship.
                        At an earlier point, the sight of Rush elicited fear in some of the colonists and we got this line:

                        YAOZU: There are those somewhat less enlightened among our people who believe he is a demon who rips souls from human bodies and takes them to hell, where they suffer for all eternity.
                        Like with some the earliest people to try to establish colonies in the Americas, the Novus colony does not appear to have been populated with their civilization's best and brightest. They volunteered to give up lives in a highly developed civilization in order to try to lay down stakes on a completely undeveloped planet. It's very easy to imagine that they may have been motivated by a mix of religious beliefs and/or problems they had on Novus.

                        It could be that although most of their initial expedition was unqualified, there were some technically inclined individuals who didn't survive a famine after being cut off from Novus or that Novus intended to assist the colony by sending qualified people to help build up their infrastructure and train the colonists for short periods of time. In the latter case, skilled individuals could have been paid well by Novus to go from colony to colony, helping unqualified groups establish settlements, so it may not have been in their interest to get tied to any one colony.

                        Also, the area around the gate looked like a northern forest, so seeing them survive for 30 years in tents may have seemed odd, but whether tents or more permanent structures were the best option depends on local conditions. For the crew of the Destiny who did not have any shelter upon arrival, were facing harsh winters, and obviously settled in a location where producing enough food to support their population through farming was possible, permanent structures made sense. For the Novus colony, it depends. The environment could have been temperate enough for tent living to be comfortable for them. Building permanent structures without the proper tools requires a large investment in time and energy. If you're having problems finding enough food to support your population on a consistent basis and the climate doesn't require you to build better structures for survival, your time and energy is better spent on food.

                        Similarly, the way they supplied their population with food may have dictated a quasi-nomadic lifestyle regardless of the weather (think Mongolia). We know there were three settlements by the gate, but we don't know if they're always there. For example, in warmer weather it may suit them to pack up their tents and move to fertile hunting grounds, then retreat back to established sites by the gate when the weather gets colder. This would create the impression that they're less advanced, but a sedentary lifestyle is not always the best way to ensure survival. Plenty of real world colonists have failed to understand that at their own peril.
                        Last edited by Xaeden; 10 January 2020, 02:41 PM.

                        Comment


                          Yazoo's group had to leave Novus at some point (them or their predecessors -- post-Destiny crew). It makes sense since the atmosphere on the planet was completely screwed and by the end, the whole computer facility goes down. Everyone had to basically climb from the bottom of the underground facility to get the hell out of there since the whole place was already collapsing on itself. They even tried to salvage the computer database, but managed to get only a portion of it since the black hole stuff was already happening. Which means if they wouldn't come along with another Novus-like computer facility that only God knows where, which contains the same database and if the cure for ALS was not in the portion of the database that got downloaded to Destiny's insanely huge hard/flash drives, then T.J. wouldn't be around for much longer.

                          And since JM posted that they were considering the three years in the future scenario and if Woolsey would finally get the Langarans to allow them to use their Gate to send reinforcements and re-supplies to the ship, I suspect we'd be seeing a new nurse/doctor on Destiny in SGU S3 unless fans wouldn't come in and the writers would be forced to do another Carson-magic-comeback-like story, which would totally piss me off.

                          Comment


                            Her condition is stable as long as she is in the stasis pod. They could cure her
                            - with a Goa'uld / Tok'Ra symbionte if the ship could be taken over during the years
                            - leave her in the pod
                            - search for solution in an alternate reality where the Novus civilization is still there
                            - Vanirs could enter Destiny and maybe they could clone a new body for her
                            - they could use some stem cells to heal her
                            - she would have a false test
                            Anything can happen in a scifi.
                            "I was hoping for another day. Looks like we just got a whole lot more than that. Let's not waste it."

                            "Never underestimate your audience. They're generally sensitive, intelligent people who respond positively to quality entertainment."

                            "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all."

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X