Overall Rating:3.0
This plot makes absolutely, positively, no sense. We wondered since day one why the Lucian Alliance cared to attack Icarus Base and how they found out where it was...but explaining it in these terms? One big giant "huh??"
Plot Synopsis:
Dr. Rush has a strange dream in which he - while in the body of Colonel Telford - makes contact with the Lucian Alliance. When he reports this information to Colonel Young, it comes out that Telford not only is an adulterous bastard, but has a checkered history, including abandoning a team to a Lucian Alliance attack (he claims, to keep his cover while he was spying on the alliance). Rush insists that he needs to take Dr. Morrison's place in the ancient communication stone rotation so that he can once again appear in Colonel Telford's body. Once under cover, he plans to track down Telford's alliance connections and prove Telford's culpability. Young doesn't entirely trust Rush, so he also goes to Earth to communicate his intelligence to General O'Neill and get a couple of men to tail Rush discretely.
Sure enough, Rush finds a secret phone and dials Telford's alliance contacts. Posing as Telford (while Daniel Jackson looks on from a rooftop nearby), he tries to convince Keeva (a ring leader in the alliance) to accept him as Telford and his cover is instantly blown (he failed to use the proper code to identify himself when he called his contact). Daniel calls in the cavalry but the alliance escapes in a Goa'uld cargo ship. Under lock and key, Keeva proceeds to torture Rush (in Telford's body) nearly to death to get him to reveal his identity. Predictably, Rush cracks and tells them who he is. They whisk him away to another planet with sufficient Naquadria deposits to dial the ninth gate chevron and reach Destiny. They order Rush to assist in gating to Destiny (or die trying) and kill the scientist formerly working on the project to make a point about how they're not the bad guys Earth thinks they are...oh wait a second...oops? Apparently, the Alliance feels the Tauri have no right to claim Destiny in the name of all humanity and are still bitter after the Tauri freed the peoples of the Milky Way from enslavement but then left them to their own devices.
Meanwhile, on Destiny, Telford (in Rush's body) and Young have a little confrontation about Young's former wife and Telford doing the horizontal mambo (and Telford quite rightly points out that Young was screwing a junior officer at the time, so...moral high ground? I think not). When things get just edgy enough, Young has Telford locked in his quarters and begins interrogating him. They get into a brawl and Greer busts in to kick the ever-loving CRAP out of Telford (ah Greer, you magnificent bastard!). At this point, pacifist moron (er...Camille) gets word that Telford is being interrogated and starts demanding to know what is going on - having the unmitigated gall to remind Young that secrets like this resulted in a civilian mutiny a couple of months ago (seriously, Camille? Are you that stupid?). Scott decides, at last, that perhaps they'd be better off if Camille knew the truth about Telford's possible treason, but after being informed of the stakes, Camille INCREDIBLY! continues insisting that Telford be freed (and the ancient communication stones deactivated). Young has a better idea...he orders Eli to vent the atmosphere in Telford's quarters! Muhahahaha!! This is where we are left hanging.
Writing: 2.0
The script gets one point for bringing back RDA and his usual comedic schtick. :) (I especially loved when he stoned his way to Destiny and landed in a CORPORAL'S body - quipping: "Corporal??") The rest is anything ranging from annoying to illogical to downright bizarre.
A) The Lucian Alliance was introduced to us in the 8th season of SG-1 as, essentially, an interstellar mafia. Feuding factions competing for resources and economic opportunities throughout the Galaxy as the Goa'uld became weakened and eventually were completely destroyed by the replicators. Where's the economic opportunity in taking Destiny? It's out at the ass end of the universe nowhere near human civilization...there's nothing of value to be gained unless your interest is in (say) the science of universal creation. Destiny...from my understanding, exists only to explore the farthest reaches of the universe. Why oh why would the Lucian Alliance waste time with it?
B) So let me see if I understand the complaint raised by Keeva. Before we, the arrogant Tauri, came along, all humans were slaves under Goa'uld oppression. After a decade-long battle with the Goa'uld, and the FAR WORSE two-year crusade with the Ori, the Alliance is freed from superior foes. We, the arrogant Tauri, have left the survivors alone rather than choosing to make territorial claims or take colonies on occupied worlds. And for this...we are branded as imperialists? Gibwwwaaahhh???? Keeva's whole "you take whatever you want without even considering the rest of us who you left behind after defeating the Goa'uld!" speech made absolutely, positively, 100% ZERO!!! sense. What should we have done after defeating the Goa'uld? How should we have treated the billions of lives we saved from slavery? Should we have interfered in your cultures in the name of spreading civilization like Europe did to Africa? Should we have given you technology? Oh wait...you took Goa'uld tech already. Why, exactly, did you need our help again? You seem pretty resourceful as is. I am really...really confused. Here's a tip to Stargate writers...learn from Deep Space Nine...make your villains LOGICAL CREATURES...make evil come from sources that make sense...give us reason to understand the bad guy's motivations, even if we can see the flaws in their thinking. The Lucian Alliance attacking Destiny to get back at Earth for defeating the Goa'uld makes no sense. None. PERIOD.
C) Camille Wray needs to STFU. Forever. Here's a hint, Camille...you're a f***ing diplomat...not a military officer...military officers HAVE A RIGHT to interrogate each other on suspicion of treason. And when you are billions of light years from home, you sometimes need to take extreme action to get the information you need to protect your people. Let the military do its business when it's clearly an internal military matter. Or STFU. Whichever is easier for you.
D) We need to see Colonel Young make amends for HIS adultery...knocking TJ up while still married does not leave you in a position to claim moral superiority over the man sleeping with your wife while you're billions of light years away. The writers have thus far not done anything to address this very big problem.
Acting: 5.0
Justin Louis and Lou Diamond Phillips were far...far from convincing in their duet interactions. On the other hand, Robert Carlyle does an outstanding job with his material considering he's playing opposite a HORRIBLE guest star in the role of Keeva and taking part in a script that makes no sense. All in all, the episode is an uneven, truly strange assemblage of moments ranging from engaging to purple and cheesy (Ming-Na still sucks. I don't see the appeal...in either her character or her as an actress...her screams of protest as Young begins venting atmosphere from Telford's quarters reminded me of the kind of thing you'd see in a CHILDREN'S theater production). David Blue's stuff was its usual awesomeness, though...so it's not all a travesty.
Message: 2.0
This might be a stretch...but it seems like the SGU writers are trying to say that leaving a power void (defeating a bad guy with power and then not stepping in to control the aftermath) is going to lead to terrorism and mob violence (like the Lucian Alliance and Al Quaeda)...if that's what they intended to say...then I would agree. But they said it in completely the wrong way and really screwed up the delivery of such a message. Our occupation of Japan and the Western occupation of Germany may have been instrumental in preventing a third world war (as compared to the financial disaster of UN-style economic sanctions levied on the Allies of World War I which led to the rise of Hitler and the global Depression of the 20s. Power voids are dangerous...but that doesn't make the Lucian Alliance a sympathetic voice...it makes them, essentially, Al Quaeda. You don't get to blame the U.S. for the formation of mafia syndicates or terrorist organizations and then decry us as imperialists. You can't have it both ways. They're mutually exclusive! Either we are taking territory and enforcing civilization (to prevent a power void from being our undoing) or we're not doing enough to fill the power void. It seems like, no matter Earth had done following the battle with the Ori, we were going to get blamed for the aftermath - either by being accused of replacing the Goa'uld as slave master or by the charge of negligence.
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