SGU: Light (Episode 5)

SGU Episode 5 “Light” Reviewed by Colonel_Ez Spoiler Potential High With a personal title of “What about the heat, the turbulence and the death?” A quick FYI, im listening to “don’t forget to breathe” again, considering I didn’t like the song when I first heard it on Air part 3 its doing pretty well on my most played songs and its becoming my review song of choice. Anyway, onto the episode! We rejoin the Destiny on its trip towards a sun, lives in danger something not all that uncommon in stargate, however – what is uncommon is that out people have given up, there are no solutions, no way forward… I find that not only is the crew of the destiny in a voyage into the unknown but so are the viewers, because this is something we’ve never seen in Stargate, there has never been complete acceptance of a no win scenario. I’m glad we got to see some Greer moments, some questions answered, I do wish a few less of his moments had been naked, but discovering why he was in confinement seeing a little of the respect and understanding between him and Colonel Young was important to me, he seems more three dimensional now. I really liked all of the Eli moments this weeks, especially “Math boy, Send it” he can affect change on the Destiny in a way he was never able to in his life on earth; it was nice to see him being confident in himself and his abilities. I don’t know how I feel about the developing love triangle, although it does give Eli some nice moments to play off. Rush was, as always excellent, I love the way he retreats into his music, I liked that while it seemed like he was settling into interacting with the crew and with Young once the crisis had passed he reverted, I cant decide whether he actually did know that the ship would recharge or whether its just easier for him to have people at a distance, the doubt is interesting. Camille Wray was very impressive, the practicality she expressed of selecting the 15 for the shuttle while still managing to express her own desire to survive, I think as a command structure begins to shape up, Young, Rush and her will be at its peak, although each of them will believe they are the peak themselves. I expected something to come of Spencer getting knocked out, I was prepared for a Spencer/Greer throw down once he came to, it seemed strange to devote time to his wakeup and nothing come of it, perhaps it will bleed over into next weeks episode. The visual effects were again, amazing – the shuttle docking was spectacular, kind of like the first time you geeked out at the Enterprise D doing a saucer separation and the Sun really looked great, I think every time we see something cool from the observation deck im going to have a new desktop background, last weeks gas giant may soon be replaced by Rush looking out over the surface of the sun. I’ll finish up with my one complaint, if I can call it a complaint and that is still my own personal adjustment to the passage of time – its been less than a week since they arrived on the Destiny but it not only feels much longer, it feels so strange to be five episodes into a show and not have things more together, I realise it’s a nitpick and its really not anything the show is doing wrong, if anything its that im eager to know more about these people but that complaint is underlined by the Greer issue, I waited and this episode they started to deliver, by the end of the season they’ll have done the same with some, most or all of the cast, my only worry about the slow introductory pacing is that we will spend more time discovering who these people were before they landed on the ship than we do discovering who they are now they are there.