posted
Yeah, I have to admit that I don't see what the fuss is with the lesbian aspect of the bodyswap (how often do you get to write that sentence down?). The person inhabiting the body was straight, and had feelings for Rush and wanted to sleep with him. Similarly, the person inhabiting the body back on Earth happened to be a lesbian and she wanted to go and spend time with her partner. Again, not something I have an issue with. The person (as in the intelligence, personality, mind, soul, whatever you call it) is separate from the body during the swap and I don't think that the show is guilty of being offensive with this one.
The casting sheet was insensitive with the "useless" comment. The point could have been made with a great deal more care.
If there is a conscious will at work in Destiny, of whatever form, why wouldn't it try to make contact with the crew? Or could that be what it's trying to do through Franklin?
-------------------- Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
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quote:If there is a conscious will at work in Destiny, of whatever form, why wouldn't it try to make contact with the crew? Or could that be what it's trying to do through Franklin?
Well if it's an ascended being then he/she/they probably wouldn't try to communicate; they're like that. As far as the other options go, I suppose it's possible that if there is a facility for ship-to-crew communications then it could be either damaged, inaccessible or as you postulate, the chair could be it and a human brain can't cope with it the way a Altaran brain could. Hence Franklin's condition. On the other hand there's the possibility that the ship wasn't meant to have an AI but somehow developed one on it's own and therefore doesn't know how to communicate with the slow, squishy organic things, but it's aware of them and their needs and is doing it's best. Might even be the reason why Destiny was never used, sort of a 'Destination Void' type scenario perhaps. The ancients somehow found out the ship had grown a mind of it's own and didn't want to run the risk of it turning out to be nasty (like the replicators) and left it well alone? But I'm just wildly speculating now.
posted
I'm not sure I buy the ascension idea. I thought the whole premise of the Destiny in the first place was that they launched it before they started their work on ascension? Why would they build such a feature in to the ship anyway?
I think it's more a precursor to the control chair, and the body+chair got moved into cold storage. (Pardon the pun.)
But there's definitely some sort of AI at work... After all, we saw Daniel talking to Rush last week, and that was either Rush's subconscious figuring it out on its own, or else the ship was trying to give him a hint.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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posted
I don't think he ascended either. They didn't even toy with techno-induced ascension until around the time of the original Wraith war. The Destiny, if it's Stargate really does pre-date the milky-way gates probably dates back to just after the Alterans arrived at Tkarra (sp?). Well, actually since it was said to have been launched from Earth it was probably a while after that, but still relatively early days, before they started seeding the 2.0 gate network or started terraforming (or is is Celestisforming?) the known universe with pine trees.
As for "Jackson's" input, it was rather ambiguous so I can see it going either way.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I'm not suggesting the technology was intended to cause ascension, only that perhaps it did. I can't recall if they mentioned when the Alterans began to seek ascension; maybe the first few ascended did so as a result of a sudden enlightenment from having tons of knowledge dumped in their brains by prototype control chairs. And now who's speculating wildly...
Dakara is what you're looking for, Rev.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
^Yeah that was it, the one with the cross country motor race from Paris.
As for the ascension idea, I don't see how getting your brains scrambled by an overloaded digital copy of "intergalactic travel for dummies" drilled into your skull is likely to induce one into a hight state of being. The 2.0 model may have given O'Neill magical healing abilities but at not point was it said that he was in danger of becoming a glowy squid thing. On top of that I'm pretty sure it's established they didn't even start looking into ascension until the latter part of the Wraith war but didn't crack it until they abandoned Atlantis and fled back to the Milky-way after the Plague was gone, so it was within the last 10,000 years or so. WAY after Destiny was launched.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
Well, I have a huge problem with ascension in general; the way you get there by "increasing your brain activity." Seems like another format of the "we only use 10% of our brains" nonsense. So if they're going to be that unscientific about it, maybe it is just a matter of knowing a whole lot of stuff. I don't think it'd make sense, I just thought maybe it was something they might do.
Gonna go watch the last ep now so I can see how wrong I was about this
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I think the increased brain activity is more a symptom of approaching ascension than a cause. Doesn't mean ascension is plausible of course, but it's the kind of sci-fi concept that's meant to be a little beyond what we know...not unlike hyperspace travel, wormholes, alternate universes and anti-gravity. So it's hardly out of place on the show.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
That's an interesting take. I also just remembered how Rodney was going to either ascend or die (in "Tao of Rodney"); maybe it is indeed a symptom, and a lethal one. After all, using all your brain at once is pretty much a grand mal seizure, right?
Registered: Jul 2005
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