SGU: Human (Episode 14)

SGU Episode 14 “Human” Reviewed by Terry (Colonel_Ez) Spoiler Potential High With a personal title of “Say something archaeological” I’ve realised in the last few weeks that I am running the risk of being redundant in these reviews, the episode quality since the shows return from mid season hiatus has been so high that I’m less reviewing the episodes and more having a page and a half long geekgasm about the awesome each episode contains. Human was no exception, I’ll confess to having a few misgivings going into the episode since it had been touted around the internet as a flashback to Rush joining the stargate program and flashback episodes in almost all shows have a habit of being hit and miss. This was however not the case and we got to see a glimpse of Rush’s past in a new and interesting way. I loved getting answers to some questions about Rush, when his wife fell ill he immersed himself in work and it seems that is something that he never stopped doing, I was also hugely telling during the explanation of the chair modifications that the system targeted a specific memory and there was a possibility that those memories could be lost. I like the idea that Rush may have chosen those memories because at the very least, if it didn’t work he may lose those memories. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded sooner than one might expect in an episode of this type, we discovered very early that this wasn’t a memory or a flashback in the traditional sense, for that to be revealed so early was unique. I want to talk about the secondary storyline in this episode and then wrap things up, as most of you know I’m a big fan of the idea that eventually, things on the Destiny will settle down and they will begin establishing a system that works so the scenes in last weeks episode that echoed the briefing room scenes from SG-1 and Atlantis were a huge deal for me, as was the team dynamic on the planet in this weeks episode. Sure it wasn’t perfect but it was as close as we’ve gotten to an SG-1 team moment in SGU and most importantly it was funny, SGU is definitely a darker stargate but even in a darker show it’s nice to have an episode where people crack jokes. The spider in the ruins freaked me the hell out, but I’m not good with spiders anyway, even as I write this now I’m starting to itch and my peripheral vision has kicked into overdrive, I do what I can to avoid specifics in spoilers so I had no idea it was coming, no idea it was going to look like that and yeah it freaked me out big time, credit to the guys in effects for designing a big spider that actually looked like a spider. The cave in and the team being stuck on the planet, again were things I had no idea were coming so I found myself watching the time tick away expecting some great solution in the last minute, surely we couldn’t leave Scott, Chloe, Eli and Greer behind – nothing about that added up, but we did. If I was going to have one overall niggle about this episode or more specifically on the topic of leaving people behind, its sometimes predictable In TV shows that certain people are always going to be around, so when they aren’t for whatever reason you know that they will eventually make it back – not counting the obelisk planet folk we’ve now left people behind on three occasions (group from Air part 3 who went to the other planet, Rush and now Scott, Chloe, Eli & Greer) we know Rush made it back and, we can safely assume that those left behind in this episode will as well – like bringing characters back from the dead, stranding and then rescuing people on multiple occasions can cheapen the act, its not something I really worry about with SGU at the moment because if Rush’s return to the Destiny is anything to go by, next weeks episode is going to be great and by the time we’ve seen it none of us (myself included) will be thinking about how convenient it is. That being said, I almost think that the next time somebody doesn’t make it back to Destiny, that should be it – they shouldn’t make it back – I feel its important to remind us that we have no control here, to remind us of the stakes. I want to sum up by talking about the music in this episode, the choices were phenomenal – how and when the music was used was perfect and it’s a developing pattern with SGU that the music they use fits the tone of the episode perfectly, I know some have had issues with the use of current music in the show and that by doing so it dates things and limits the shows repeatability, but I’ve found myself adding every song they have played on SGU to my collection (apart from Flogging Molly) If it isn’t part of my collection already, for me at least their musical choices have been spot on. In this episode the classical component of the music was ideal, I’m a nut for this type of music anyway – I actually got into it through this very song so it was of great personal resonance to hear it in this episode and for it to be the backdrop of some wonderful scenes with Robert Carlyle reminding me once again why I have a man crush on him, he doesn’t need to speak he just needs to look a certain way and you understand what he is trying to convey, I love it every time he is given an opportunity to do so on the show and this episode was filled with opportunities. Well, for now that’s me – sorry for this being so late – last week was a busy week and everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong so I’m still playing catch up. See you all next week!