Pain

 DVD, Stargate Universe S1 (Pain)

Highly conventional, highly traditional, very 'Stargate.' It didn't begin very well, but it soon turns into that age-old staple of this universe (and many other sci-fi series'), the hallucination epidemic/people being affected by bugs. It happened to Teal'c in 'SG-1' and I think Sheppard in 'Atlantis' (the being hijacked by a bug), but this time it's less about the bug, or in this case, bugs, and more about the effect of their venom on those affected, and the fact there are multiple people acting on these visions they experience as either positive or negative. It's so sad to see Chloe fully understanding her situation and yet begging to be allowed more time with her phantom Father - they bring back the guy who played the senator... hey, I've suddenly realised who he is! Christopher McDonald played a memorable character in a memorable episode of 'TNG': 'Yesterday's Enterprise' - he was Lieutenant Richard Castillo, the guy who Tasha Yar becomes great friends with. I can't believe I never made that connection before or recognised the face, although it was about twenty years before this episode so no wonder I didn't exactly recognise him in the role. But still, that's a fun revelation to suddenly come out of rewatching an episode! Anyway, back to the episode at hand: they bring back Chloe's Dad in hallucinated form, as well as a brief return of Greer's unpleasant Father, that's the advantage of playing with people's minds, anything can happen and anyone could reappear.

There's not really anything more to it than that. Sure, they're using the stories and arcs that have developed along the way to affect the infected, but it's a pretty simple case of characters going through strange, bizarre, frightening or heartbreaking situations and eventually those at the top realising what's happening. And then trying to stop anything too major going down. There wasn't really a lot of actual pain in the story, not until Camille is stabbed by a crazed Dr. Rush with what looked like a screwdriver (he sees her and Greer as those lanky aliens that kidnapped him previously - I didn't expect to see them again!), but it's more emotional and psychological pain in general rather than physical. The scary thing is it's all to easy for them to drift off into these dreams, whether it be Lieutenant James' jealousy over Matthew Scott choosing Chloe over her and thinking she's killed him in a fit of rage, or Scott's own encounter with his young son; Chloe desperate not to lose this time with her Father despite knowing he's fake, to Greer's paranoia creating another takeover of the ship masterminded by Camille and Rush; while Volker gets claustrophobic and Rush thinks the aliens are coming for him...

You can't really say anyone learns anything or it moves the story on, other than creating yet more tension where it already existed (Greer's guilty whenever he sees Camille; Eli can't approach Chloe because he told Scott where she was so it's his fault she couldn't see her Father for longer), and it really ends on a bit of a downer. I would still give it the benefit of the doubt, it's well shot and bizarre enough that it keeps you wondering, though not so much what's behind it (whether it were these alien ticks picked up on a recent planetary visit, some space radiation, or anything else that might spring into mind, literally), that doesn't really matter, it's just what they're going to do to cause chaos and how it's going to be resolved. But we've had a good run of episodes that have got into a rhythm of being quite engaging. I was just thinking during this episode that the series doesn't have much of anything to do with its parent series', and then this one turns out to be one of the more typical stories, just told with these characters as opposed to the old ones. It won't win any awards for originality, nor does it achieve any real development, but as a story on its own it stands with the other good ones.

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