Stuff that bugged me in 'Common Descent'

[DigiFluid]

• I'm pretty sure Deep Space Nine did this story in 1997
• that the locals speak flawless English--including slang--after 2000 years have passed. I know English has been a continuous conceit of the franchise, but SGU has been very very good about doing away with such things. And languages evolve even across decades, never mind centuries or even millennia
• these people have been living on this planet for 30 years....and they're still living in tents?
• how is it that Wray (apparently) has descendants?
• is 80-odd people (actually probably closer to 50 or 60, subtracting casualties) really enough of a genetic base to be viable for survival?
• I can understand our people living in primitive-ish homes/cabins, but did they en masse decide to embrace Amish fashion sense or what?
• Er....volcanic winter shouldn't have any bearing on whether or not the city-planet's gate works or not (this may still be resolved in an upcoming episode, I don't know)

[BadOnion]

Wray did her duty.

[DigiFluid]

Wray did her duty.

Okay that's funny

[Pharaoh Atem]

[list][*]I'm pretty sure Deep Space Nine did this story in 1997]

yes http://ds9.trekcore.com/episodes/sea.../synopsis.html

[BadOnion]

Okay that's funny

But seriously, they would have needed her genes.

[Ingsoc]

I also remember a DS9 episode with similar concept.

As for Wray they never made it clear if she's a lesbian or a bi, if it's the later she could have started a family with a man or she could use one of the men as a sperm donor.

Another thing that bug me was that they suppose to be extremely advance (from the technological level of Earth in the series + 2000 years) and they didn't know what a spaceship is? C'mon!

[tomaso88]

one thing that bugged me was that they should be along the evolutionary time line more then us they should have powers or be close to ascending like the ancients since the asgard did once mention we were close to the ancients path since they said Jack was a step further and I would guess the rest of the humans on earth aren't far behind

[morbosfist]

Yeah, Wray seems like the type to [insert suggestive euphemism here] (god, even that came out wrong, you just can't win) if it meant the community would prosper.

Languages evolve when you have something to evolve from. With no outside influence, language is not likely to change, especially since they have video of how people talked back then.

The people on the planet have been living in tents because they don't have the resources to build homes. One must presume that they lack the skills to do so. So should Destiny's crew, but maybe someone in the crew has experience in the area.

[Wolf O'Donnell]

• I'm pretty sure Deep Space Nine did this story in 1997
• that the locals speak flawless English--including slang--after 2000 years have passed. I know English has been a continuous conceit of the franchise, but SGU has been very very good about doing away with such things. And languages evolve even across decades, never mind centuries or even millennia
• these people have been living on this planet for 30 years....and they're still living in tents?
• how is it that Wray (apparently) has descendants?
• is 80-odd people (actually probably closer to 50 or 60, subtracting casualties) really enough of a genetic base to be viable for survival?
• I can understand our people living in primitive-ish homes/cabins, but did they en masse decide to embrace Amish fashion sense or what?
• Er....volcanic winter shouldn't have any bearing on whether or not the city-planet's gate works or not (this may still be resolved in an upcoming episode, I don't know)

Well to be fair we dont really know if that was Wrays decedent. There are plenty of other Asians on the ship and the use of Wrays fathers name could stem from Wray saying the name to someone and it caught on.
Also.. Lesbians able to reproduce. Its not like they loose the ability when they come out or something.

[KEK]

The only thing that bothers me is the language staying the same. I suppose their access to the kino footage of the original crew, and their almost deification of them may have led to them holding on to it somehow? That's the only way I can rationalise it, and even that doesn't really work.

DS9 probably got it from somewhere else to begin with, the tents I can live with, being a lesbian doesn't make you infertile, genetic diversity was covered in another thread - maths checked out and yeah, I expect the gate question to be covered in Epilogue. In fact I suspect the last four episodes will be almost a four-parter.

[jdog]

simpsons did it.

[Greenfire32]

I'm pretty sure Deep Space Nine did this story in 1997

So? Pretty sure they also did the "Lost in space" meme too....

that the locals speak flawless English--including slang--after 2000 years have passed.

Again, so? This was most likely done to make the viewer go, "Woah! What is going on here??" As you've pointed out, SGU has done a great job getting rid of the "all aliens look like humans in suits" and "they all speak English too by the way" and I totally agree with you here. What I disagree with is that when you say "sloppy mistake" I say "plot device."

these people have been living on this planet for 30 years....and they're still living in tents?

They did say there were other settlements. Perhaps these people are on "Gate detail" and are stationed here for temporary periods of time (sort of like patrol shifts) in order to either guard the gate or try and make contact to Novus.

how is it that Wray (apparently) has descendants?

If I'm not mistaken, her lady parts still work. Remember, when you're in a situation as desperate as the Destiny's, reproducing for recreation is thrown out the window. You don't do it for fun, you do it for survival.

is 80-odd people (actually probably closer to 50 or 60, subtracting casualties) really enough of a genetic base to be viable for survival?

Our species came from somewhere. And our ancestors came from somewhere. And Their ancestors came from somewhere....

I can understand our people living in primitive-ish homes/cabins, but did they en masse decide to embrace Amish fashion sense or what?

Have you ever been on a week-long trip where you lived on nothing but what's provided by the land? You start to adopt and even respect "Amish" way's of living. Work with the land, not against it. They didn't have the materials nor the means to make super futuristic zip ties and nylon wind brakes. They had cloth. And their combs were probably made of bone.

Er....volcanic winter shouldn't have any bearing on whether or not the city-planet's gate works or not (this may still be resolved in an upcoming episode, I don't know)

Or maybe the gate was at a volcanic epicenter? We saw that the Destiny-class Gates are relatively fragile compared to Milky Way and Pegasus gates, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to assume that the gate was simply rendered inert by the forces of nature.

I don't disagree with you often Digi, but this is one of those times. The only thing that bugged me about this episode is that it had an ending. Seriously, this was one of those episodes that sent shivers down my spine at times. The last episode to do that was SGA's "Before I Sleep."

[Browncoat1984]

Yeah, my mom and I were watching and re: Camille mom: "how can she have children, she's a lesbian" me: "um, being lesbian doesn't make you infertile lol."

[Mr Evil 37]

1.) I don't know if DS9 did this episode and I don't care; originality is very rare these days. I am content with the Stargate spin on the story.

2.) These are not humans seeded by the Ancients; they are the actual descendent's of the Destiny crew, who all speak English. I agree that there are likely to be some linguistic evolutions over two thousand years, but since they were already speaking a fully developed language, I don't think that it's too hard to believe that English remained pretty much the same. And in fact there was a lot of development; the whole "country of Young" = "country of the young" thing is testament to that, along with Rush being seen as either a demon or a savior.

3.) They never intended to stay there; they were always holding out the hope that they could return to Novus, and I doubt many would have been content with simply setting up a new civilization there without any support from their home world.

4.) I'm sure that Wray put aside her homosexuality for the sake of the colony.

5.) If every couple had three or four children, then the population would quadruple in roughly half a decade, and would continue to grow exponentially since they had setting up a colony as their goal. I don't think there would have been any problems at all. Plus, the way Scott gets through women he could probably sustain the colony all by himself.

6.) Their "fashion sense" is dictated by whatever materials they could find on the planet. After thirty years, I doubt that many of the clothes from Novus themselves survived, and even if they did, they would have had to make new clothes for the children being born on the planet.

7.) We still do not know what happened to the gate; this will likely be resolved in the next episode, "Epilogue". For all we know the gate could have been right on top of the super volcano.

Stop picking holes and just enjoy one of the best episodes of the entire series.

[Esquin]

Except mr evil that this particular episode had a lot of holes and is a perfect reflection of the laziness displayed by the writers. The decline of stargate is fairly evident. I like SGU don't get me wrong. But this episode was just not up to scratch.