Stargate Universe Air Pt 3: dudes wandering the desert plus spoilers

At what I consider to be the absolute lowest point of the Stargate Atlantis filler episodes there was a story which when broken down was pretty much about three people who fell in a hole. In the second week of Stargate Universe we have people wandering around Tatooine… ahem I mean a desert getting thirsty and cranky.

Oh and something happens at the very end to remind you that it might be worth while sticking around even though you’ve already seen Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek Voyager and SG1/SGA.

If you didn’t notice the spoiler warning in the title then you should consider yourself warned now.

It’s not that Air Part 3 (I’m confused at this stage if I refer to this as the second episode or just charge ahead with third?) is a bad episode, it’s just a neutral episode or as I commonly refer to a LOT of non SG1 Stargate episodes, a filler. So what do we get in this episode:

some backstory on Matthew Scott in the unique and fresh way of dying man in the desert seeing flashbacks
twister alien or as I like to refer to it the whirlywind alien
Dr. Rush getting kicked
Roland Greer kicking Dr. Rush
Roland Greer generally being a psycho jerk that no one wants to sit next to
Eli getting sunburned
Two people I don’t care enough to find out their names getting stranded on another planet… let’s call them redshirt one and two (I don’t even remember if they got rescued now)
Science guy getting shot by Roland Greer
Colonel Telford being a jerk
Chloe Armstrong went to tell her mother that her father died… I went to the bathroom and got something to eat whilst this was happening so I can only assume…
The scrubbers were repaired and a song talking about breathing was played subtly over the montage of everyone enjoying air again… I liked the scene in Total Recall better, it had mutants.
In a mind blowing scene that will be discussed for days around the water cooler the hatch finally opens and… oh sorry um a shuttle flew away from the Destiny.

I think that about sums up what I took away from the episode, a lot of the crew are jerks and some people got sunburned in the desert.

Sigh.

Name

SGU IS SO BORING - DEAR GOD HELP ME - THEY ARE TRYING TO BE LIKE BATTLESTAR AND FAILING SO BADLY - BLOODY STUPID WRITERS - WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU - DEAR LOAD IN HEAVEN STAR GATE UNIVERSES IS BEYOND THE PALE. FOR ONE THING THEY WOULD USE THE COMMUNICATION DEVICES TO TAKE OVER EVERYONE WITH TOP NOTCH SCIENTIST TO REPAIR THE SHIP AND INVESTIGATE - THIS IS WHY NON SCI FI PEOPLE HATE US - AWFUL AWFUL SHOW

tytrophen

actually i like this show, i hope it shows us the early technologies of the Ancients and how it progressed... i think the pod was an automated collector, i am thinking the Ancients made a system that would automatically go out and acquire materials needed for power and other things that is what i think we will find out this Friday. In the pilot they said that the Destiny was the mother ship and that two other ships were out ahead of the destiny installing star gates and sending all data on what they find back to the destiny. I like Universe i hope it grows more and gets more into detail about how this ship works compared to the Aurora class ships.

xavier

I have a feeling that the ’shuttle’ at the end of the episode was a pod carrying a new Stargate, I think i remember them saying in the Pilot that the ship was a manufacturing plant for new gates hence why it was been sent all over the universe.

Lee

I completely forgot about the Stargate manufacturing idea on SGU, maybe you're right although the shuttle should technically be moving ahead of the Destiny.

Arjan Beens

after today's episode we're sure it wasn't the senators pod, they mentioned his body was still there and not going anywhere..

Jeff

Okay, I can't disagree with anything here. I don't think I was quite as bored as you... I didn't leave or anything... but yeah... not the best way to resolve the premiere.

Btw, I think RDA did a decent cameo as Jack this time around, given his dialogue. He had the right level of snark at the appropriate time. So that was nice.

At the moment I'm working on the assumption that they'll follow up on those red shirts. So I'll reserve judgment on that for now.

One thing I expected them to do, and was thrilled they didn't, was have someone sadly looking in to the shuttle where the dead senator is presumably still sitting comfortably dead during the 'air' montage.

Maybe it's his shuttle that took off and he's going to be reanimated and come back as a zombie senator. OH! That's who the big bad guys are going to be in this one... Zombies!

Lee

RDA was a lot better in this episode, I'd still like to see him in more of an active role though - breaking down exactly what they need to be doing and seeing the team assigned to assisting the Destiny crew.

Oh yeah I'm really surprised they didn't do that exact scene in the montage!

I did wonder if it was his shuttle taking off, maybe they worked out a way of detaching it and burying him in 'warp'.

Arjan Beens

couldn't sum it up better. I was really really disappointed that they came up with this..., let's call it CRAP. I'm normally someone who is very easily entertained and keep following stuff that others describe as garbage..but I really hope they put the emo-razorblades back into storage and show an episode where something actually happens.

The desert was boring. The red-shirts went away and weren't mentioned again..oh ah nevermind..they were just guest appearances probably. Maybe they'll pop up later as prisoners from some alien race? The ship leaving the big ship..erm..ok and there aren't any messages about this coming into the main computer? Something like: mini-spacecraft A is leaving.

I really hope they turn around next week because I feel like we've been kicked in the nuts.

Lee

Dude I'm so glad that you saw the same crap that I did. I didn't even start in on the actual holes in the plot/story because frankly at this stage you can drive trucks through them. That's all cool too I willing to overlook plot holes as long as it is interesting!!

Funny you suggest that with the red shirts because the same shit happened on Voyager.

Jayne

Oh NO!!!
Eli got sun-burned...? :P
Haven't seen it yet but if Dr Rush was getting his arse kicked that's 5 mins of watchable entertainment :P

Lee

I had to replay some of the episode because there was so much excitement over Eli getting sunburned. I think he also made a pop culture reference too, not about the sunburn unfortunately.

I want to revise my predictions, I expect Eli to get frost bite at some stage too.

I would have thought Rush getting kicked in the arse would be entertaining too, it wasn't particularly but he also got sunburn!

I think another episode might need to delve into their tanlines.

Jayne

I can see them being oh-so-scientifically-topical...
"Destiny knew we needed something from that planet and we did.
We needed...a good old dose of Vitamin D cos Dr Rush looked like he left his horse at the door cos he was developing Ricketts!"

Marita

It was boring, really really boring. I paid more attention to stitching cream x's on this http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/IbYaO88u... and found it more fullfilling and satisfying viewing.

Not a happy camper I'm not. Those communication stones are pissing me off, I can't see how it is good for my daughter in someone elses body to come and tell me my husband died. Just stupid and what level clearance did the wife have? Are wives of politicians usually privy to top secret alien tech info? Really?

Did the whirlwind alien come on board with the crew?

Leechboy was unimpressed that they didn't follow up the red shirt storyline. Particularly with Stargate franchises previous 'no-one gets left behind' plot device which was the key reason that fuckwit in Atlantis went off to rescue his leader and woke up the Wraith in the first place.

Lee

The communication stones seem to be a poor addition to a show that was promising non Stargate fans that it's a good time to get on board. If you don't know any of the history behind those stones then I assume they must seem really odd. For me it is going to be like the holodeck, I want to see it really rarely!

I don't know what happened to the whirlwind alien, I guess they can bring it up later and say it was on board all this time if they want to. Maybe each week the whirlwind alien will force a new person to confront their past. I wouldn't put it past them at this stage.

I really wanted to use the line: this new Stargate is already as stale as the air on Destiny.

Leechboy is forgetting that apparently the crew are made up of jerks.