Overall Rating: 5.2
People need to stop raping their hosts when they use those ancient stones...seriously. Aside from that, the plot is engaging enough to keep my attention for the most part, though I could do without the montages of people living boring, unappealing lives on Destiny...that was done for an entire episode (the worst of the season to date) and I think that was enough for the next several years, kthx.
Plot Synopsis:
As Destiny sails into the wild blank yonder between galaxies, Young informs the crew that all hope of rescuing Eli, Chloe and Matthew is gone and they have to ration food to survive the many weeks it will take to clear the void. And the news just keeps getting worse. Rush informs Young that the ship does not have enough power to make it across the void. It will drop out of FTL about 50,000 light years short of the next galaxy and drift the rest of the way. To deal with thew power shortage, Rush requests one of Earth's foremost experts in hyperdrive technology - Dr. Amanda Perry - be spirited aboard via the ancient communication stones. The catch: Dr. Perry is completely paralyzed, so whoever makes the jump must deal with several weeks without mobility and breathe through a respirator. Lt. James volunteers first, but freaks out and can't handle the respirator. In returning to her body, she inadvertently knocks the stone off the pedestal and its' connection stays active, though no one notices this. Camille volunteers next and insists on going home to see her lover Sharon.
Back on Destiny, Rush and Perry (in Camille's body) seem thick as thieves from the start. Perry gets the grand tour and they get to work on improving FTL efficiency. Their efforts are interrupted when one of the sixteen engine modules suddenly explodes, leaving them adrift in the void. At first, it appears to be an accidental overload (though the redundancies in the system make that exceedingly unlikely), and the explosion turns out to be (in the short term) spectacularly good luck. Eli, Chloe, and Matthew gate home (and scare the crap out of everyone on Destiny with the unexpected incoming wormhole), and a trip is planned to scout the planet for extra food and water to survive the time needed to repair the damaged engines (or to prepare for colonization if repairs fail).
On the relationship front, it turns out Dr. Perry has been harboring an infatuation for Dr. Rush for years (ew!) and she tries to seduce him while she's in a functioning body, but...incredibly!...Rush shoots her down, protesting not only that he's not over his wife's death (which he has just had to relive), but that he thinks it's too complicated to fool around with a transplanted consciousness. (Rush? The voice of reason?? Holy bananas, Batman!) Camille, meanwhile, has no compunction at all with raping her host body and, despite her protestations to the contrary, insists that her lover be saddled with the responsibility of caring for her in her temporarily broken state, because that's what she needs (contact with her lover, no matter how difficult it is on Sharon). Oh Camille, you are proving once again what a selfish bastard you really are!
Back to the plot that matters (sorry...I just do not give one damned shite about Camille's long distance parasitic relationship) - Lt. James has been blacking out periodically and having a dream about being in a darkened room with someone observing her. After thinking about it with friends of hers, she reports to TJ and Young that she might have been the cause of the engine failure. The crew quickly theorizes that her ancient stone stayed linked to the intergalactic information superhighway and the aliens that have been hounding Destiny hijacked the signal and made her break the ship and broadcast its location. Now aware that an attack is imminent, the crew launches into preparations for a siege and Young prepares to sit in the ancient control chair. However, while attempting to communicate with the incapacitated Dr. Franklin (the man who Rush stupidly encouraged to sit in the chair when he was busy trying to circumvent Young's authority), Franklin proposes that he be the one to sit in the chair. His connection to the chair was severed before the ship had a chance to finish what it started and he wants to finish it now. They sit him in the chair as the aliens arrive and begin bombarding Destiny's shields and sending fighters to board her. Suddenly, the control room freezes over and Franklin tells everyone to get out. Moments later, he restores power to the FTL drive and Destiny escapes. When they go to look for Franklin, he has vanished; presumably, his DNA was needed to activate the control chair and give this crew control of the ship's systems.
Writing: 5.0
If I have to put up with another long montage about how much everyone's life aboard Destiny sucks, I'm going to start hurling large objects at my TV until I make the whining stop. More Greer bad-assery, less Camille bitching and moaning and politicizing...that's my recipe for fixing what ails this show. On another note, the writers of this franchise SUCK at romance. They should just stop doing it. Period. What's weird about that is...on SGA, they sold me on both of McKay's love interests (not counting Sam Carter...LOL)...and they had a good handle on the unresolved sexual tension between O'Neill and Carter on SG1...but they SUCK AT IT all of a sudden with these characters. There's no chemistry at all between TJ and Young (yeeeecccchhh), I'm not buying into Matthew and Chloe (Eli is the guy for Chloe...sorry), Camille's relationship is really quite distasteful, and now they've got this exceedingly weird story between Rush and Perry that they kind of threw at us without any build-up and expected us to swallow.
The action plot was still good...so my negative reactions to this episode have to be kept in context compared to some of the real stinkers we've seen highlighted on this blog, but they have got to stick with their strengths and stop forcing things with all of their characters. And they have got to stop writing rape scenes into their plots...it's quite appalling.
Acting: 7.0
Ming-Na (playing two parts equally uninspiringly) drags down what would otherwise have been a solid showing for everyone involved. Well OK, Reiko Aylesworth (Sharon) didn't exactly bowl me over either. I am enjoying David Blue's scenes more and more and Elyse Levesque's scenes (sans Eli) less and less. I have to say, I am not all that impressed by Justin Louis in this episode either...I thought he was a little flat when dealing with TJ, where he should be showing more emotion. All in all, a solid, but forgettable week for the cast.
Message: 3,5
More negative credit for writer-authorized rape (the person isn't there to make decisions about their body...it gets used in sex play...that's rape...sorry, there's just no other rational way to see that unless you get suckered into pure dualism, which we certainly don't here at Right Fans), but that is somewhat balanced by their somewhat ballsy choice to make Rush the voice of moral realism. I found that pretty enjoyable from a "wow...did not see that coming!" perspective. Camille's attitude toward romance shows everything that is wrong with the way many people treat their relationships. You can lie to yourself and to Sharon all you want, Camille...you came home to be with Sharon because that's what YOU needed...you didn't give a second thought to how that might affect her...and despite your protestations of concern, when Sharon got locked out of her car and came home late, you were ready to rip her head clean off her body...shame you couldn't move, right? Real love is selfless...if you loved Sharon, you'd let her go. Period. What you're doing to her is just plain wrong.
Highlights:
One scene that deserves attention:
PERRY: Do you want to come in?
RUSH: (thinks about it) Yeah...(they step inside and she kisses him for a long moment before he pushes her away) I'm sorry...I can't do this. I just...can't. It's not right.
PERRY: Why not? (looks at herself in the mirror and sees Camille's face) Nick...it's me. I'm here, not her.
RUSH: I think you and I both know it's a bit more complicated than that.
PERRY: But it's also a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. This could be my only chance to...
RUSH: Mandy...you remember all those talks we had about my wife - watching her die? Remember how hard it was for me to get past it? Well I recently had an experience that...forced me to live it all again. Call it a dream. I can tell myself all I like that it's been years since she died, but to my heart, it's like it just happened. I can't be with you when all I want is to be with her.
PERRY: Well at least this time, I can do this. (she hugs him to show her support)
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