#SGU really likes its time loops

[bagheerita]

On of my least favorite episode types in Stargate, especially SGA, is the plot-cul-de-sac-fetch-quest, where nothing happens to advance the plot or character development except that we've obtained a MacGuffin to help Solve whatever Issue we currently have. So I was really "excited" to get 4 of these in a row on SGU.

But somehow... each episode is slightly better than the one before it? And actually tries to do this whole newfangled "character development" idea.

"Visitation" is not great, I think mostly because TJ dealing with her grief is something the show has already handled, and there's not really anything else happening here except stomping out any remaining hope she, or the audience, might have. This is a dark, gritty show dammit, you can't have hope. Also the universe can't be mysterious unless it is also terrible. But we added a working shuttle back to our inventory, so yay!

"Resurgence" and "Deliverance" are kind of a 2 parter; we find Telford again and "fix" Chloe without actually removing her use as plot device, so check those off the to-do list. But overall there's not much happening as far as developing the world; we get to actually meet the Ursini just in time for them to all die from machine like they speed ran the entire Asgard plot in 2 episodes. But we do get some really nice little character moments, especially from James, Park, and Greer.

And then "Twin Destinies" is absolutely fantastic in the way that it completely owns the fetch quest idea. Once again we've got a whole episode where very little changes as far as the world and the character development. I mean, we lost Telford again, but honestly this ship isn't big enough for 2 colonels, and we got some pretty good Rush moments where he got to talk to himself. But now we're literally stripping our own corpse to Solve The Issue of having no spare parts, and it's amazing, no notes. Also, I do really like the insight into the characters we get in the "who would stay" future-that-didn't-happen AU.