SGU: Air Parts 1 & 2 (Episodes 1 & 2)

SGU Air Parts 1 & 2 Reviewed by Colonel_Ez Spoiler Potential: Moderate Ok, first – im Terry, although most of you will know me as @Colonel_Ez and this is the first proper review I’ve ever written. I decided early on in the SGU build up that I was going to review the episodes, will the reviews be read? Meh, who knows but I decided I would do it so here is me, doing it. Note: to anybody wondering how I have already seen it and reviewed it or preparing to yell at me for doing so (I’m looking at you @DavidBlue) I did cheat, but I will be making up for it by also watching this live on Tuesday on Sky1 I’ve just finished watching Air parts one and two and, I was stunned – everything I had seen, everything that I had heard had prepared me for these two episodes to be good but, I don’t think anything had prepared me for exactly how good they would be! I was reminded instantly that this is not the stargate we have been used to like a punch in the stomach, its an evolution, graduation day – people flying out of the gate, hitting people, supplies, confusion, those few seconds of shock and confusion from Lt Scott (Brian J Smith) while its all going on really sold it in my opinion, and those elements are part of what I feel is going to make the show work. Stargate in the past has introduced us to people who know the stargate is there, who understand it or view it the same way we view a bus, train or aeroplane – just part of the daily routine, or it has introduced us to people who don’t get it for a few minutes before just accepting it and moving on – this is the first time we’ve been taken through the WTF moments that I’m sure, all of us would experience in the same position. Despite the detachment from Earth, present day that a show set billions of light years away will inevitably have, I feel that these moments, sometimes nothing more than a look, phrase or reaction will be the key to linking this to us, to the idea that this could be happening right now, we just don’t know it. It was nice to see from the outset that people didn’t just get on, that there were levels of relationships between most of the characters established, this wasn’t the beginning of something, we’ve joined these people part way through and it may be weeks or months before we fully understand what some of the exchanges mean, or why our characters implicitly trust one person, while strongly distrusting another. It was also nice to see that, as much as I’m a sci fi geek and I personally enjoy the science of a show like this that the things I find myself thinking about now that its over aren’t science related, but more real concerns – this is not Atlantis, this is not a group of people happy to fall in line, civilian and military personnel alike, martial law was already declared “step out of line and we will lock you down” how will these groups interact in the future? To finish up this portion, I want to say that its definitely not the stargate we know and love, but I think its better, I’ll always have a place in my heart for SG-1 and Atlantis but this is JJ Abrams Star Trek for the Stargate franchise, its more raw, its more real and a hell of a lot more compelling, chaos is chaotic, trauma is traumatic… one (or two) of my favourite episodes of SG-1 in the two parter Heroes, it is my favourite because what happens seems more real, we see the ripple effects and we see more of how this affects the characters – its going to be a constant emotional investment for the viewer – but that’s good TV. Now, for my random cast bits and general feelings I didn’t like the fact that it was Lucien Alliance who attacked the base, it wasn’t explained or plausible based on what we know of them but, then when I put it in context with the show itself, that’s what we were going for, we the viewers are meant to feel a part of the Icarus base crew, we know what they know – its limited, its sketchy and its heat of the moment, I also find myself thinking now that their identities weren’t confirmed, we assume them to be Lucien alliance, because they were using Goa’uld tech, but we never saw them, nor do we know why they would have any special interest in this base David Blue (Eli Wallace) is possibly the best actor I have seen in recent years at acting normal, maybe that’s a blessing of his character or one of character design I don’t know but he was natural and it felt natural for him to ask some questions that a new viewer may be asking, rather than have somebody explain the mechanisms of the stargate in an artificial way – I hope with him, which is a hope I share for many other cast members that he never totally accepts the specifics of the situation he finds himself in, that he is always the guy, standing on a platform on an alien world, explosions all around him, thinking through a problem and giving a solution or suggestion while part of him doesn’t really believe this is happening. Robert Carlyle (Nicholas Rush) was outstanding as expected: he played the character exactly as it was meant to be played – the potential benefits of discovery outweigh the potential risks, but this isn’t a character like McKay who never learned how to deal with people because he was too busy learning, this is somebody who’s suffered a very personal loss and has thrown himself into his work no matter the cost… we have seen this portrayed in other shows as a bad thing that inevitably gets resolved (Angel & Smallville being good examples of this) I get the impression its going to be different here, Rush is this way for the long haul, this isn’t a phase, this is who he is now – having somebody we don’t really trust but need at the same time is compelling and is personally exciting to watch. Brian J Smith (Matthew Scott) I was wowed by this guy, unlike the rest of the cast I’ve never seen him in anything else but I felt he did an amazing job of carrying the story from start to end, although he was easily the most prevalent cast member in the opening two parter it wasn’t so much his screen time or runs of dialog that made him so impressive but those few scenes, those few looks, movements or just the inflection of his voice at times – while the standard and, somewhat predictable way of expressing the fish out of water feeling the Lt was meant to experience upon being thrust into this command position would have been for him to privately break down for a few minutes and then come back, this way was much better – those small cracks in the composure, those moments where his training would have told him to react to something a certain way instantly and he paused – im excited to see how this character progresses, I’m looking for him to make mistakes, it will be compelling to see how he deals with them and, it would be unrealistic to assume that a new officer in a command position before he is ready to do any different The moment on the observation deck with Chloe was unexpected and touching, again the obvious choice here would have been for TJ or Camille to go, or even Eli given their moment on the General Hammond, its nice to see that the obvious choice was once again ignored in favour of one far more interesting to watch. Alaina Huffman (Tamara Johansen / TJ) I think it was smart to not have too many serious casualties here and to kill off the one that wasn’t going to get better, there wasn’t enough time in these first few episodes to show how out of her depth she was, so it was smart not to try, beyond a few mentions of only being a medic Justin Louis (Colonel Young) I liked the personal connection he seemed to have with both TJ and Lt Scott, although I suspect the connection with TJ will be revealed to be a bit more involved than that with Lt Scott, or if not revealed, will become so eventually – Everybody else seemed to step up a notch in their scenes with him, I look forward to seeing how things progress between him and Dr Rush On these two episodes, this is really all I have to say, being a character driven show with such a large cast im sure the other cast members will get moments to shine through as the ones I have singled out did in Air 1 & 2 – I really look forward to seeing this unfold To close, I just want to say that, a little under a year ago when SGU was in its earliest stages and things like “younger cast” and “not your typical stargate” started coming out – I was one of the haters, I didn’t see how it could work and was right there with the crowd things that this was going to become Stargate: 90210 – although reading more and hearing from the cast daily on Twitter about the quality of the show and how proud they were of it had done most of the work in turning me around on this assumption, seeing these two episodes drove it home – I’m infinitely pleased that I was wrong, that this was, as we should have known it would be – top quality stargate Also, sorry for rambling on for so long Colonel_Ez, Out