A Post About SGU That Is Actually About SG-1

[magnavox_23]

I finally managed to watch the entirety of SGU. There were some decent sci fi elements in there with signs of intelligent design in the universe’s background radiation and the search for that life being Destiny’s mission (did the ancients send probes or something less techy then a whole bloody spaceship before Destiny and the seed ships?) The character development was wishy washy, the stereotypes like Greer were painful at times, but by the end, some of the characters were a wee bit more likeable I suppose.

Now, coming to watch this show as an SG-1 fan (and a woman (gasp horror, the demographic!) won’t somebody think of the children?), the biggest question I wanted answered by the end of it was – what happened to Jack O’Neill?

I thought they would have at least mentioned him in passing when Homeworld Security was blown up by the Lucian Alliance. Was he there? Was he injured? How far away was he from the explosion? Did he get a dose of radiation poisoning from proximity? A fair amount of the episode was set in the Pentagon. I kind of madly want fic about this.

Then! Then, when they do get the stones working again, we see Telford using Jack’s office. I couldn’t see much of the background because of the way the show was shot with the zooming around and the out of focus areas, so it was near impossible to know if any of Jack’s personal effects were still in there or if he was gone, elsewhere.

Where’s our Jack?

And the other kicker is McBoobs (I can’t remember *all* the names) casually mentions that Daniel and McKay are working together at the SGC now… bleh. Daniel’s supposed to be in Washington with Jack. :P

(And can anyone remember if a Goa'uld manufactured the naquahdria on Langara, or if it was already there? Could naquahdria exist elsewhere in the milky way for them to dial the ninth chevron without a ZedPM?)

Comments

[eilidh17]

Naquadria is a naturally formed mineral on my least favorite planet in the entire known universe (and any other universe that may or may not exist, be it AU or dreamed up by some theorist with nothing better to do)... Kelowna/Langara/Planet Of Those The Ori Can Have.

Apparently, according to Solutions, the mineral can be found on several other planets as well, though I don't recall any name mentioning other than the aforementioned planet of people I'm not especially fond of.

I've watched a few episodes of Universe (Rush who? He needs a good spanking) and actually wondered why a couple of ascended Ancients didn't just go floaty floaty to some of these far out places and do the seeding themselves. You know... with all that Ancient knowledge of theirs. You'd think they might have checked in on their ships and stocked the refrigerator. Eh, maybe I should watch more episodes and buy a clue or three!

And Daniel and McKay working together? I guess they could have formed a bond between death threats from Thor's cousins and a few blasts of lethal lightning bolts... aka... zappy things.

However, the Lucian Alliance (those of far too much power and cool gadgets to be as clever as they appear) flying in and going boom on Homeworld Security could be just the thing Jack needs to move his base of operations to the SGC... so he can keep an eye on Daniel... and other very important ass-ets.

I have rambled.

Over and out!

[magnavox_23]

actually wondered why a couple of ascended Ancients didn't just go floaty floaty to some of these far out places and do the seeding themselves. You know... with all that Ancient knowledge of theirs. You'd think they might have checked in on their ships and stocked the refrigerator.

Their glowy tentacles get tired. :P

[princessofgeeks]

Fascinating!

Daniel and McKay -- working as in permanently stationed there? Working on gate teams? Now you make me want to see the transcript -- which ep was that, do you remember?

Any other tidbits you gleaned from the bombing of Homeworld Security? Which episode was that? Maybe I can read that transcript too if it exists.

I never warmed to the show but I'm always interested in tidbits about "my" characters.

[magnavox_23]

God, I think it was on the second disc of season 2 somewhere. It was an offhand comment when the women on Destiny were discussing how sleezy McKay is. The way she said it made me assume Daniel and MacKay were working Earthside, not on teams. But I guess it is really open to interpretation. Maybe it was a temp assignment together, who knows.

The bombing of Homeworld Security was the entirety of the episode 'Alliences' in season 2. Thing is, they had to find the communication stones in the rubble, and from what we saw in season 1, that set up is near Jack's office, yet Jack's office is intact after that episode, but other areas of Homeworld Security in the Pentagon are destroyed. It's a bit confusing.

I watched SGU because I wanted to see how the franchise ended. I think I have mixed feelings on it.

[paian]

Wow, I have some re-watching to do. I have no memory whatsoever of what happened with the whole Lucian Alliance arc.

Possibly the MGM site has some behind-the-scenes pics from the scene of Telford in Jack's office that might show if any of Jack's stuff is there?

[magnavox_23]

I thought all the Stargate stuff had been taken down?

[paian]

I thought so too, but it's there -- the SG-1 stuff anyway, and the little bit of SGU I glanced at over the past couple of weeks. Haven't looked at any SGA.

[magnavox_23]

I couldn't find any images of Jack's office on the site. The scene was probably shot second unit.

[paian]

Ah, that's too bad. So crazy to have an ep about Homeworld and say nothing about Jack!

[paian]

Oh also, about naquadria, according to S7 'Fallout' it wasn't native to Langara -- it was the result of a process initiated by a Goa'uld named Thanos. The same process could probably be used on any planet with naquadah, or at least with naquadah deposits similar to the deposits on Langara.

[magnavox_23]

Wouldn't it have been interesting for them to explore those options. You would think also, that there might be something in the Asgard core about trapsing across galaxies in order to reach the Destiny since the Asgard were able to do that. Hmm...

[paian]

I remember thinking back when I was watching that there were options they hadn't tried. And that Asgard database seemed to disappear from canon, unless I'm forgetting some giant leap forward they made by using the knowledge in it. There should have been a lot of leaps!

::hopes you get inspired to write some fix-its::

[magnavox_23]

There was no mention of the Asgard core in SGU.

I dunno about me writing fix its, I hope it inspires someone though!

[paian]

Hopefully it will!

I think the ptb basically just had too much canon to cope with anymore by the time all the shows ended. It's all much better off in the hands of fans anyway. ;-)

Those communication stones were so horrible and problematic in so many ways ... and maybe the biggest way is that they showed what was going on back on Earth, which means they showed all the ways the Earthsiders were failing to mount a rescue. If they'd cut Destiny off from Earth entirely, as I strongly feel they should have (same with Atlantis, same exact fundamental mistake in series development), we could just assume the folks back home were doing everything possible and being as smart as they ought to be.

[magnavox_23]

I couldn't agree more! The communication stones were subject to abuse, so much so we had to point this out to TPTB which caused the rewrite of the first Amanda Perry ep. WTF???

I do wonder if the communication with Earth was a small attempt at bringing in some characters from the other shows in order to attract some viewership? Nothig much that happened on Earth furthered the plot for the characters aboard Destiny (Besides the whole Telford is a spy thing, which was near the end of season 1 anyway). Jack was basically there to tell everyone to grow up (ironic? *g*), Sam was blowing away Lucian Alliance ships, and Daniel... was pretty with his camera, and at playing ghost.

[paian]

I think you're exactly right that the communication with Earth was an attempt to hang on to viewers from the other shows. Which means that they did not trust their own creation to hold viewers' interest all by itself. Maybe they thought it was a good idea for other reasons, too -- and whatever they were, I strongly disagree. Stranded should mean stranded.

Given that, it's VERY ironic that they ignored Jack's existence completely in 'Alliances.' I totally want fic for that ep too, and I'm kind of jazzed to write some ... but I also can't help feeling that the whole portrayal of Jack in SGU is some kind of horrible AU, so I'm not sure what I'll wind up with. But I think I will give it a shot.

A very belated reply, I'm sorry! In the meantime I actually re-watched the whole series, including seeing an ep I missed when it broadcast, 'Twin Destinies' ... and I feel even more strongly now that they should have been completely stranded on their own out there. The eps that were only about what they found out there and how they coped are the ones I enjoyed. The ones that tangled them in Earth-based and Milky Way Galaxy subplots are the ones that bored and annoyed me. And boy do I second your 'WTF???'