SGU: Lost (Episode 15)

SGU Episode 15 “Lost” Reviewed by Terry (Colonel_Ez) Spoiler Potential High With a personal title of “I wanna be somebody” I’ve said it so much in recent reviews and podcasts that people are probably fed up of reading or listening to me go on about it but, I am loving how we are giving small nods to the SG-1 and SGA format that had been missing from early episodes. This episode was largely a “gate dilemma” one of the cornerstones of stargate that we haven’t really had yet in SGU and it was beautifully done. The first thing I want to say, the first thing I got excited about is the fact that they finally (finally) explained something, they told us how the current gate network works and why we cant gate around the galaxy we are in like we have always been able to. I know for lots this isn’t a big deal but for me and im sure for the hordes of techie nerdy fans out there it is, I’m a fan of knowing how things work and as I’ve been saying since the show began all it takes is a few seconds of dialog to appease me, in this episode through Riley and the Kino we were given that explanation and it means that for the first time for a while I have no technical rant. Now, while this episode was great, unfortunately it wasn’t the outstanding “who is Greer” episode I was hoping for, I don’t know why I cant get fully on board with the character but I just cant and while this episode was full of Greer info and nice Greer moments it just didn’t give me what I needed to start identifying with the character. I love that Rush seems to have mellowed somewhat since Human, he’s still Rush but we see throughout this episode little concessions he gives to other people and other peoples feelings and advice, while this was the case it was also nice to see during his scenes with James on the crystal planet that the old Rush is still in there, personally it got me thinking about whether Rush mellows to the people he deals with, he’s had little to nothing to do with Lt. James so he was the same old Rush with her, but in his dealings with Colonel Young, Riley & Brody he was definitely a slightly less “Rush” version of himself. It was nice to see both Eli and Chloe step up a little in the off world environment, I don’t know if its in the cards for a front line team to be established for the Destiny crew but the idea of Scott, Greer, Chloe & Eli definitely seems more plausible after these last two episodes, I know people have issue with Chloe not having the proper training to fill the “Daniel Jackson” type roll but honestly, we know she was involved with the stargate program through her father for a while at least, she had access to reports and could have gleaned from them enough knowledge to know what to look for in this type of situation. Really all she did here was notice something the others didn’t notice, which is ideal as for Eli, I have issue with how much he knows, but it’s a nagging issue that I can shrug off, we know he’s been going over research from the failed attempt to dial back to Earth, we know he was working on figuring out everything Rush was working before Rush returned to the ship, its not impossible for him to now be informed enough to make a comment like “people don’t realise how big a galaxy actually is” even though we haven’t seen him progress to that level. I loved how we went back to the planet the alien ship was on, im starting to believe more and more that just as the emotional character development side of things in the early episodes was groundwork for things to come as the show progresses, the things that seem to be loose ends at the moment will get tied up as we go along, it never seemed right that the ship was just left there, another unanswered question and even though we learnt no more about it in this episode than we did in its last appearance it was nice to see something established in the past episodes referenced. I also have to wonder whether we should read anything into the fact that the terminal wasn’t shut down when they left but it was when they arrived, if the fish aliens return to the ship (as they did when Rush used it) they will find the terminal open with a map of the gates, we don’t know whether that was the case before. Also, how did Chloe know what the symbols meant, im wasn’t convinced that the ship is the same tech as the fish aliens until I recognised the console design, but even if the ship is Fish Alien technology – during her abduction (as far as we know) she wasn’t connected to a receiver like Rush was so how would she have gained any of their knowledge? The effects in the episode were, as usual outstanding – the spider made me freak out a little again and the dinosaur, could not have looked more epic – even though it kind of looked like a lanky Rancor… As this episode ended I found myself once again expecting things to wrap up in the last few minutes, as I should have come to expect by now it did not and im really left wondering how the rest of the team will make it back on board, since the Destiny is now on a journey out of this galaxy and into the next… To finish up for this week, I want to say that I really hope anybody who gave up on SGU during its first ten episodes gives these last ten a go, as every episode since the mid season hiatus have been amazing, so if you have any friends who aren’t watching that you think should be – give them the hard sell, because if its this good now… imagine where we will be as this season comes to a close. Colonel_Ez, Out