STARGATE UNIVERSE #8:Time/Season 1/2009

[Fast Learner]

One, hate time loops, they are a cop out.

I just don't get this "time travel is a cop out" stuff (I don't mean just you, this comes up here all the time). Time travel is a time-honored type of sci-fi story, its own thing. A time travel story is a time travel story, not some other kind of story that the writer used time travel to get out of. I can see being disappointed with the use of time travel in a genre or universe that doesn't support it, but this one (and most televised science fiction) does. Accept it for what it is, I say, don't insist that the stories be something else ruined by time travel.

There's no better sci-fi format for a "what if" story, imo.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

I just don't get this "time travel is a cop out" stuff (I don't mean just you, this comes up here all the time). Time travel is a time-honored type of sci-fi story, its own thing. A time travel story is a time travel story, not some other kind of story that the writer used time travel to get out of. I can see being disappointed with the use of time travel in a genre or universe that doesn't support it, but this one (and most televised science fiction) does. Accept it for what it is, I say, don't insist that the stories be something else ruined by time travel.

There's no better sci-fi format for a "what if" story, imo.

The problem with time travel in popular science fiction is that the vast majority of stories completely ignore the implications of time travel, using it as a convenient reset button in a bottle. At its best, speculative fiction explores the implications of technology on the human condition. Rather than doing that, shows like this episode of Stargate Universe use it as a simple plot device to explore dramatic change without ramifications.

In effect, not only does the series ignore the more troubling questions of time travel, but it also drains the gravitas from dramatic character development when we know that anything truly awful can be snipped off and discarded as part of a time loop.

My first impression of the episode Time when I started watching it was that it was brilliant. The Kino gave the characters a mechanism for growth, and for confronting failure and their own mortality in a very vivid fashion. Then the writers at the end wiped that all away by having Scott's Kino be the only one sent forward to the third cycle. It would have been far better to have Eli go to the planet and send out two Kinos -- the old one and a new one with a message like the one Scott recorded.

 

[Wycen]

I thought for sure once they said, "let's go to the cave" that would be their doom. If the monsters don't like the light, what better place to hide than in a cave?

And the fact that it was time travel doesn't matter, because if we were supposed to feel the characters are more human, that apparently was successful for several of you. The character may go back to being jerks, but know you know their is more ticking underneath than before.

 

[RangerWickett]

I liked it a lot. But it would have been nice if somehow they'd sent along kino 1 with the 'bug hunters,' so that when he threw it back in time, it had both iterations of the time loop. In fact, since there's no way to know they didn't, I will assume it did happen. Take that, logic!

 

[Dire Bare]

The sad part about this episode is that the revelations about each other that would humanize them to each other were lost in the time loop. Eli's talk to TJ about his mother, Rush's movie quote, and Greer's teaching Eli how to shoot...the Kino from the first loop never made it through to the third.

Well, these character moments aren't lost, at least not to the audience. We gained insight into certain characters . . . and that wasn't magically taken away! The characters themselves have "lost" these moments, but their underlying feelings aren't changed and now the audience has a heads up on how some things might play out in future episodes.

 

[Dire Bare]

I just don't get this "time travel is a cop out" stuff (I don't mean just you, this comes up here all the time). Time travel is a time-honored type of sci-fi story, its own thing. A time travel story is a time travel story, not some other kind of story that the writer used time travel to get out of. I can see being disappointed with the use of time travel in a genre or universe that doesn't support it, but this one (and most televised science fiction) does. Accept it for what it is, I say, don't insist that the stories be something else ruined by time travel.

There's no better sci-fi format for a "what if" story, imo.

Blame it on Star Trek!

When I was into watching Next Generation, DS9, and then later Voyager I grew to HATE time travel stories. Outside of the original series, the Trek writers rarely wrote them well. The only time travel episode I almost sorta liked was an episode of Voyager that opens with Janeway ranting about how annoying and stupid time travel is . . . only for the episode in general to be as stupid as all the rest of them!

I actually don't hate the time travel in this episode of Universe, while not as in depth of a treatment as you might get in a good scifi novel, I thought it was clever and well done.

 

[Oni]

I normally hate time travel stories, so I was quite surprised to find myself thinking that this episode was probably my favorite so far. I continue to be impressed with the quality of acting in the show, especially David Blue's performance.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The episode was very good, it is just that they hit too soon with a time loop in my view. Time travel is okay as long as it is not used as a plot hook over and over, Star Trek went down that road. It is over used these days, which is why it rubs me, SG:U HAS to keep itself away from Star Trek.

Now that we have seen it, we should not see it again for at least two seasons.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I really liked the episode. The depth and complexity of these characters really came out in this episode, and it is that aspect which is this series' real strength. If nothing else, this is the first episode that I ever really got to understand and like Greer, which says a lot considering how much I hated him in earlier episodes. The writing and acting really is stellar.

I will agree that leaving everything so unresolved makes the ending a little hard to swallow. We didn't need to see the characters go through the events a third time, but it would have been nice to see one final scene of the characters walking through that gate and seeing a Kino on the ground, just to bring the episode full circle (which is the most appropriate end to a time-loop episode).

I disagree that all of the character development is necessarily wiped away, though. Sure, they did not send the original Kino back through the time loop, but at the same time they didn't really need to. That Kino was sent back into time before the point where time really diverged, and it could conceivably still be there back in time when the second one was later added by the second loop. That is, the addition of the second Kino doesn't necessarily mean that the first Kino went away. Theoretically, if the loop continued, there would be one new Kino for each pass through the loop. The "real" timeline not shown by the episode could very well feasibly include all of the scenes involving the characters watching the film and all of the character growth from those scenes.

Time travel can give me headaches, though...

EDIT: You know, the biggest thing this episode does for me is reinforce exactly how precarious the situation is for the people on the Destiny. It is almost literally a miracle that they had a solution to the very plausible crisis brought on by the contaminated water. Stumbling on a planet with creatures that produce an antibiotic venom is one thing. Having Lt. Scott be bitten but not killed so that he was cured is another thing. Having that incident be filmed by a Kino that is sent back in time to a point where it is still possible to avert calamity is something else entirely. And even that doesn't save them in time. Surviving that trip is not going to be easy...

 

[Orius]

Two, plot was contrived; we got bug from the water from the last stop but we don't know that because we are on another planet now. Bug on this planet can save us. All is okay because we are doing the time warp.

There WAS some great moments in this one, great dialog: Most notibly, Eli and TJ, Eli and Rush, and Eli and dead Chloe.

And what is up with the Chloe hate?

OTOH, it's interesting to see the planets not just be planet of the week, so there's dangerous organisms from ice planet that they weren't aware of, and when they were visiting ice planet there were the water bugs from desert planet. The whole jump out of FTL for half a day and never return otherwise can make the show a bit too episodic.

I don't know what's up with the Chloe hate either. Maybe it's because this is a website full of geeks, and we're all nerd raging that she's doing a love traingle with the jock and the geek on the ship?

Well, these character moments aren't lost, at least not to the audience. We gained insight into certain characters . . . and that wasn't magically taken away! The characters themselves have "lost" these moments, but their underlying feelings aren't changed and now the audience has a heads up on how some things might play out in future episodes.

I think that's supposed to be the point. This is character development so we get to know the characters better, not so they can know each other better. Presumably, they're learning to get along with each other in the scenes we don't witness.

It is almost literally a miracle that they had a solution to the very plausible crisis brought on by the contaminated water. Stumbling on a planet with creatures that produce an antibiotic venom is one thing. Having Lt. Scott be bitten but not killed so that he was cured is another thing. Having that incident be filmed by a Kino that is sent back in time to a point where it is still possible to avert calamity is something else entirely. And even that doesn't save them in time. Surviving that trip is not going to be easy...

I think perhaps the Destiny may have stopped at the planet not to let them pick fruit, but because it picked up the contaminant, and detected these creature's venom in FTL or something. Who knows?

All in all, this episode felt a bit bottly. Not much really happens, we've got the standard alien disease and time loop plots going here, and it's mostly a character building episode. Kind of average, but probably not an episode I'd watch many times.

Here's something else that gets me. When Destiny jumped out of FTL before, it was for 12 hours. This episode, Destiny stayed at the planet about 36 hours instead. Why the change?