I must admit, I wasn’t a “Trekky” by any stretch of the imagination but am probably not too far off being a “Gater”. I have been thoroughly enthralled by Stargate Universe in it’s first season. As a massive fan of SG1 and SGA, I couldn’t wait for this, especially watching it in real time on tv which didn’t happen with the first two and unfortunately missed parts of them.
From facebook groups I have been reading, viewers have been split, they either love it or hate it, mostly because it doesn’t the same sometimes comical characteristics of the first two and is instead far more gritty. Some have even compared it to Battlestar Galactica but I haven’t seen it so all the better for me! I personally feel it had to change - it’s not a third season, it’s a whole third franchise! Much like the CSI franchises retained the same formula, they had different feels.
Anyway, I am digressing from what I really wanted to blog about and that is the loose ends and what will happen in Season 2. I have just read that Season 2 will reveal Destiny’s intended destination:
http://www.scifitv.com.au/Blog/2010/06/sgu-scoop-season-2-midseason-finale-destiny-has-a-destination/mission/.
Now we have several questions that need answering. At the end of Season 1, we were left wondering:
1. In Ep.16 “Sabotage”, Franklin disappears. Where has he gone?
I’d be pretty surprised if he didn’t Ascend. Stargate has been well known for their ‘story arcs’ and while the obvious over riding arc is that they want to get home, there must be a tie in to previous stargate mythology. Afterall, Destiny is an Alteran (Ancient) stargate ‘seeding’ ship so I wouldn’t be surprised if the chair downloaded the knowledge on how to ascend.
2. In the last ep. “Incursion, Part 2”, we end up wondering how the crew will survive the Lucian Alliance attack and will they survive the radiation pulses and get Destiny back in to FTL?
3. Will TJ’s baby be born and how will it get on onboard Destiny?
I’m guessing it will be born, mostly because TJ is a fairly big character but also some of the interviews I have read about their use of the baby in the upcoming season.
4. Will Eli and Chloe get it on?
Will Chloe live is probably the more pressing question as she is losing blood. I’m guessing so as Greer and Scott will probably make it back and help Eli carry her to medical or treat with a device they may find on board Destiny.
5. There is literally masses of unexplored compartments onboard destiny, what will they find?
We already know that there are mess-rooms, bedrooms, the gate room, one main control room with other sub-stations, two shuttles and the chair room. My money is on (not necessarily in S2), more technology coming to light (maybe that we’ve seen in previous SG programmes or new altogether) but the outsider bet for me is a “frozen” Alteran/Ancient on board as we have seen this kind of technology on more than one occasion in SGA. There is an episode called “Pathogen” already named in Season 2; will this be found on board Destiny or an off world excursion?
6. Will we meet the blue aliens again?
Chances are smallish as Destiny has jumped to another galaxy but Nicholas Rush did say that the aliens have been after Destiny for some time so who knows…
7. Will we ever discover who created the obelisk in Episode “Faith”?
We also know that the star does not appear on Destiny’s records, the idyllic planet is the only one in the solar system and that Destiny’s countdown timer doesn’t countdown on this world. Intriguing.
8. Ultimately, where is Destiny headed?
I would like to think there is good money on it heading back to the Alteran’s original home world - one forum writer I have read seems to think that some of the graphics in the earlier episodes show Destiny moving away from Earth. I think this for two reasons. We know the Alterans divided into the Ancients and the Ori but their home worlds have never been explored first hand in SG1 or SGA. We know Vala travelled there in SG1 and that the Arterro device was sent through but have no way of knowing if it killed the Ori. If not their home world, then a hiding place for the original Alterans who fled the Ori - hence why Atlantis was built, as a city away from their home.
This may also explain why Destiny is ‘seeding’ planets with Stargates (there are apparently, cannot remember where I read this, that there are other ships ahead of Destiny doing the ‘seeding’ while Destiny is the follow-up ship). It may be a pathway from Earth (where the Ancients eventually ended up) back home for future use.
There have been murmurings that Eli also sees a holographic image of a spaceship graveyard so could this be a battle between the Ori and the Ancients?
Wow. Wasn’t aware I had written so much. Well, the jist of it is, is that S1 was great but S2 will be even more intriguing as they have had a chance to develop the characters, now the story line should follow further in S2. Cannot wait…
It seems that the only way to get Englishmen to play at their best is to give them a drink!
Seeing as the world cup is on, I can’t help but have my say. I would like to discuss my views on the tactics being used and how I would do it differently with a diamond formation but I’m not. However, last night’s bore draw with Algeria got me thinking. The England team were booed off the pitch and, baring Argentina (at the time of writing, I am yet to see how Brazil and Holland do), there have been no real performances of note to make you think, “hey, that teams looks like they could win it!”.
My point is this. Would the team have been booed had we not been in a recession? As is quite often the case, the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle and requires us to look at 2 different points. Firstly, the recession has meant we are all watching our money and scrutinising where it goes and thus spending money on going to the world cup is a pretty expensive outlay. I would dare to compare it to looking at investing in shares in BP (a strong solid performer even in the crisis akin to England’s qualifying campaign) only for the oil-spill to occur. It is also comparable to betting your house on Kauto Star, a sure-fire winner, only for it to fall at the last hurdle.
Ultimately, it’s a massive gamble but one that statistically can still turn sour and this is what it must feel like for those travelling fans. A large investment in very cautious times. The same investment five years ago might not have prompted such a reaction as the money would not have been perceived as an investment but more disposable income.
The other point that we have to consider is, have our expectations changed? In qualifying, England scored 34 goals in 10 games - a pretty good scoring ratio by anyone’s standards, including a 4-1 win over Croatia. Importantly, we did lose 1-0 to the Ukraine in the 2nd game and failed to take Walcot who scored a hat-trick against Croatia. In Germany 2006, England topped their group with 7 points (W2, D1 against Sweden, Paraguay and T&T), Japan/Korea 2002 only just made it through ahead of Argentina with 5 points (W1, D2) and similarly in France 1998, qualified 2nd ahead of Colombia on 6 points (W2, L1).
Interestingly for me, Switzerland qualified from the group stages ahead of France in Germany 2006, France finished bottom (behind Uruguay) and so did Slovenia (behind South Africa) in Japan/Korea 2002, and Spain did not qualify from their group (behind Paraguay & Nigeria) in France 1998.
Have our expectations changed? Not necessarily. What may have changed is our perception of who are good teams. After all, qualifying wasn’t particularly easy when you consider that we lost our second game to the Ukraine 1-0 and that Croatia were in our group who had previously prevented us from reaching Euro 2008. The difference is, in qualifying we beat the lesser teams (like Andorra and Kazakhstan and we beat them well. When the draw for the World Cup was made, it was perceived we had a relatively easy group and in effect should expected to beat these “lesser teams”. Even though Algeria had beaten Egypt (ANC winners) in a play-off to reach the WC, the USA have had good results leading up to the WC and even drew with eventual winners Italy in their group at Germany 2006.
Our expectations may have been skewed by the fact that we perceive Algeria, USA and Slovenia as lesser teams - maybe even by us winning the 20-20 Cricket WC not long ago! The argument will be not with the result but by how the team played however, as is always the case even though we have a very good change of progressing (unlike France it is worth noting). Progression is still in our own hands.
If you havn’t noticed, big teams have struggled by playing well or not - France, Germany, Spain losing, Italy drawing. Just. I was going to finish by saying that it is not just England struggling but here is a statistic also worth noting: apart from Argentina and possibly Ghana, Holland, Japan, Brazil, Chile and Switzerland (3 other groups in total), no group will be topped with maximum points - 4 teams did this in 2006, just 2 groups in 2002 and 1998!
As a side note on statistics, it is not necessarily the case that topping your group with maximum points means you win the world cup and we, as England fans, should remember this. However, topping your group is essential for winning the world cup it would seem as Italy did it in 2006, Brazil in 2002, France in 1998, Brazil in 1994, W.Germany in 1990, Argentina in 1986 - in fact, the only exception to this rule I can find is W.Germany in 1974 and 1954 where they came 2nd in their group. Sadly, this probably means, unless you’re German or we top our group by beating Slovenia, England probably won’t win the WC! Sorry folks.
Some more (and the last stats I will give you): England’s scoring rates in the last few WCs - 2006 (W2, D1, GF.5, GA.2), 2002 (W1, D2, GF.2, GA.1), 1998 (W2, L1, GF.5, GA.2) - we seem to be very similar to 2002 by these stats where we eventually ended getting to the the Q/finals and being beaten by a Ronaldinho free kick/shot.
I feel I have digressed a little with an overload of statistics here but the point is, nothing has really changed from the last few WC’s. Nadder I’m afraid but somehow we feel different. I’m afraid I don’t believe in the internet on this one in that people have more of a voice - people have always voiced an opinion on sport and it’s no different today. However, maybe we all just need a break from this recession as maybe we are all feeling a little grouchy. Maybe football wasn’t the ideal release as we had intended, well, unless we start winning that is…
The Omen’s are happening already. It’s almost predictable. Someone is going to get sent off in this tournament for England. I am willing to bet that England will also exit at the quarter/semi finals while losing to a somewhat acrimonious goal at some point. Let’s see what happens then…
Amazing ad which I am glad to see have another outing. Infact, I am not sure I would get tired of this - at least not until the ‘mandroid’ looks outdated!
I tried. For one week. Even the pull of real [possibly fake] celebrities couldn’t keep me. In all fairness Graham Swann, Jimmy Anderson and Tim Bresnan were amusing and kept me entertained throughout the cricketing 20-20 world cup but other than that, nudda! Simon Pegg and Nick Frost tried in vain to keep me entertained and even Michael Clarke’s ill-placed optimism for Australia before their final defeat amused me, but in the end it couldn’t last, it was just boring. John Prescott was just reeling out his anti-labour jibes like a spitting cobra, Denise Van Outen couldn’t stop going on about her “freebies” and bless the fellow but Stephen Fry was just championing good causes - good for him…but not entertaining! And this is where it stops really - all the other “celebrities” were hardly doing anything. Even the people I knew in person weren’t doing anything! Ultimately, it was just a portion of Facebook designed to connect “us” to the celebrity world. It didn’t work for me. Now, if Facebook could adopt it somehow…! Anyway, lets see how this blogging malarkey goes. This is my first post!
