Nerd heaven

The final episode of Stargate Universe Season 1 is here. In this episode, the crew fight against an invading force who are trying to take control of the ship. How will it all end?

In the second-last episode of Stargate Universe season 1, The Lucian Alliance invade Destiny. But it's going to mean some hard decisions. Is he up for the task? Let's dig in to the episode and find out.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of the Stars

And I am a nerd

This is episode 68 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the episode Incursion Part 1.

The description on gateworld reads

The Lucian Alliance manages to board Destiny, taking several crew members hostage in a bid to wrestle control of the ship.

This episode was written by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie

It was directed by Andy Mikita

And it first aired on the 4th of July 2010. 

We begin with the battle of the orders.

Camille orders Brody to let the atmosphere back in. Otherwise he’s participating in the death of both Telford and Rush.

Young tells him to disregard what Camille says, which he does.

When Telford starts gasping, Scott says “You’ve made your point.” Young says he’s not trying to make a point.

The air is evacuated. Telford gasps until he can’t gasp any more.

Camille is horrified. Young has just killed him.

Scott is pretty horrified as well. Greer just watches on stony-faced, clearly hiding a lot of emotions.

After a moment that must feel like an eternity, Young orders Brody to open the door. Young runs in and performs CPR, clearly hoping desperately to revive Telford.

When he does fortunately wake up, he gasps out “They’re coming.”

So what are we to take from all of this?

It seems that Young was hoping that a near-death experience would flush out the Goa’uld brainwashing and restore Telford to his right mind. That’s what appears to have happened.

But he could have shared that with the group. He *should* have shared that with the group.

In a military hierarchy, there are times when soldiers have to be expected to follow difficult orders, even when they don’t understand them. That’s part of military life. But I doubt that kind of thing extended to this apparent willful murder of Telford. Even if he just said “I have a plan here. Trust me.” He’s lucky Scott didn’t mutiny over what he would have reasonably assumed to be an illegal order.

But I’m no expert on the military, so maybe there are things at play here I don’t understand.

But Brody and Camille are not military. And like it or not, they’re involved. Brody is the one being asked to push the button. Camille is right when she says that Young is making him an accessory to murder. And sometimes, civilians need a little more context.Brody is not sworn to obey orders from an officer.

Young is really lucky that Brody didn’t cave and open the door. He’s really lucky that Eli didn’t intervene. I know it adds some dramatic tension, but I really feel that Young should have explained himself, at least a little.  Because what we get here is basically cheap tension. The characters holding back from putting a stop to this for no other reason than because the script says they don’t.

The mind control technology we’re probably talking about here is Nish’ta, a biological compound used to influence and control people. The hold of Nish’ta on a person can be broken with a severe electric shock, like a blast from a Zatnikatel. That shock kills the Nish’ta organism. It’s reasonable to assume that starving a body of oxygen and putting it into clinical death might be enough to similarly kill the Nish’ta, and both Scott and Greer would know about all of this. It’s probably one of the reasons they took no action. They’d figured out what Young was trying to do. So why didn’t Scott reassure Camilla and Brody?

And why didn’t they try the traditional electric shock, which is a proven cure? There must be some ways on this ship to generate an electrical charge. The danger to the body can’t be any more than starving it of oxygen until it’s technically dead. Young says his method has been done before, and I assume by this, he’s referring to the time Teal’c was brainwashed by Apophis, and Bra’tac had to remove his symbiote to put him near death.

Scott actually confronts Young about this. “If I’d known what you were doing, and why, I would have backed you up fully”. Young’s response, “So you’ll only obey orders when you understande them?” And Young has a good point here. In a military structure, you have to have obedience. Sometimes the CO can’t explain everything but they still need to have their orders followed. But, as I’ve said, I feel this is a unique situation. Military officers are also expected to question immoral orders, and Young gave Scott every reason to question his orders in this case. Young says he kept Scott in the dark so as to keep Scott out of it. And that’s not a bad reason, but it wouldn’t have worked if Scott chose to mutiny over it.

But again, I think it all comes down to the fact that the writers wanted something more dramatic. And it was dramatic. 

Anyway, they now know. The Lucian Alliance are on their way. They’re going to try to dial in to Destiny from their Icarus-like planet. Telford has the coordinates which Young passes on to Jack.

And I was right. Sam does appear in this episode. Jack is sending the USS Hammond to the Icarus planet to try to stop the Lucian Alliance. Best case scenario, she stops them, but they can still dial the gate, which means they can pass on supplies to the crew. (It doesn’t mean the crew can evacuate back to the milky way, because remember gate travel is one-way for matter.

The gate room is locked down, along with the corridors nearby. That makes good sense.

Interestingly, Young and Teflord have an opportunity to start fresh, maybe ever rebuild some of their former friendship. Poor Telford is carrying a lot of guilt over the things he did when under Lucian Alliance control. Telford wants to go back to his own body so he can spy on the Lucian Alliance again. Young wants him to rest a while. He just came back from the dead. Or is his real reason that he doesn’t yet trust Telford completely?

All civilians have been ordered to stay in their quarters, but Young wants TJ to do the same, remain safe for the sake of the child she is carrying. That makes sense to me. I don’t think any real world military would put a pregnant woman on the front lines of combat. It’s essentially endangering a civilian, right? The baby didn’t sign up for duty. Plus, TJ is their only medic and her skills will be needed once it’s all over.

If the alliance breach the ship, Young plans to evacuate the oxygen in the gate room, killing them all.

TJ has a real problem with this. I wonder if she’s being a little harsh. These people are an invading force and Young’s job is to protect his people. Is there a moral difference whether the invaders die by bullets or by suffocation? The one difference I see is that being shot would likely be a more merciful death. Gasping for air sounds like a horrible way to go. I wouldn’t want to die that way. But again, these people are invaders. 

There’s a confusing moment on the Icarus-style planet. At first, I thought Rush was pretending to be Telford back in his own body, and I thought he had convinced Kiva. But then he says “Back to work.” as though he’s still trying to help them dial the gate, so I’m not sure what that was about.

And that’s when the Hammond drops out of FTL in orbit of the planet.

Sam has confirmed that the planet has large naquadrian deposits, so looks like Kiva’s plan is solid. I love it when she mentions a pyramid, and Jack says “A pyramid, that takes me back.”

It sure does Jack. It takes all of us back too.

The complex is shielded so they can’t beam Rush up. The have to launch 302s to attack instead.

Kiva now has the same escape plan that Rush had back in the pilot. Dial the 9th Chevron to get off this planet before they’re blown up.

Eli is watching the air force briefing videos, learning about the Lucian Alliance. Remember, the videos hosted by Daniel. So there it is. For the first time since Air, we have 3 quarters of SG1 appearing in an episode of Universe. I wonder, if the show had continued beyond it’s two seasons, would we have ever seen Teal’c make an appearance? It would have been harder to work him naturally into the story, but who knows. We’ll actually see a couple of faces from Atlantis next season. I’m looking forward to that one.

There’s only one problem with Young’s plan. When he vents the air, it’ll kill Rush along with the invaders. He could save Rush by severing the stone connection, but that would kill Telford. So now he has a choice, which man does he save? But Young doesn’t know for sure that Rush is coming through the gate, so he is blessedly more ignorant than we are.

The connection has been established. They’ve dialed Destiny. Alliance soldiers start going through the gate. A lot of them will be inured. Remember, when you travel that distance through a wormhole, you get thrown our the other side pretty hard.

But now Young has seen Telford’s body on the gateroom camera. He knows Rush is on board in there.

So what does he do? This story is full of hard moral choices.

The connection is severed. Did Young do it on purpose, or did it just happen somehow? I assume it was deliberate.

It’s more valuable having Telford, a trained soldier, in there as a covert man on our side. Assuming he is on our side.

Speaking of hard choices, Sam has to leave a couple of 302s behind when she jumps out of the system. IF she waited for them to dock everyone on board would have died.

Eli and Chloe are supposed to be in their quarters. Eli makes he point that the lab IS his quarters. I guess that’s as safe as any other room, and there might be things he could do to help here.

Now that he knows Kiva brought Rush along, Young isn’t going to vent the atmosphere. He’s going to do it the hard way. So he won’t be sacrificing Telford.

Kiva is blaming Telford/Rush for shutting down the gate, and killing all those who didn’t make it through. Telford claims it was Rush, just before they switched back. But wasn’t the wormhole cut off by the destruction of the pyramid, and the gate inside it?

Telford is able to convince Kiva who he is by demonstrating knowledge Rush wouldn’t have. She accepts it.

When Eli is able to tell Young that Kiva has some device to open the doors, he orders the air vented, but it’s too late. The doors are open. I wonder where they got that tech, and how they knew it would work on Destiny’s doors?

Rush chooses this moment to be a hero. The ship is under attack. Technically he should be in his quarters with the other civilians. He’s not a fighter.

Eli is convinced that it’s time to leave the lab and go to quarters. The fighting is getting close to the lab. They portray this just as terrifying as it would be, for a civilian suddenly  about to be caught in a warzone. I sure felt it.

TJ chases Rush and ends up getting captured by the Lucian Alliance. Well, crap.

And Chloe has been shot. She and Eli are safe in an elevator, but it’s not good for her. And despite what most movies imply, getting shot in the leg can be just as fatal as any other place in the body. It’s not going to be instant death, but if she doesn’t get medical help soon, it could be bad.

Same and Jack have a moment. Jack can’t tell her if any of the invaders made it to Destiny. He hasn’t heard, and given what we know, it’ll be awhile before anybody has time to check in with the stones. There’s this sense of resignation from the two of them. There’s nothing more either of them can do. It’s up to the people on Destiny now.

Rush confirms that the stone connection was closed the minute he travelled through the gate.

Kiva has some hostages now. This has all gone about as bad as it could have.

Eli and Chloe are stuck in a random part of the ship nobody has explored yet. The lifts have been shut down so they can’t get back to more familiar surroundings. Not without walking back the long way, if they can figure out which direction to go.

Kiva gives Young two choices. They can turn over the ship to her, but remain on board the ship under Lucian Alliance control. Or Kiva will drop them all off on a habitable world. Kiva wants to be here to realise the potential of this ship.

Kiva wants to prove her seriousness by killing a hostage, and she chooses TJ. Bad choice. Young will never forgive her if she kills TJ.

Telford tries to talk Kiva out of it, saying it’ll only force Young’s hand.

He’s playing along and so far, Kiva thinks he’s still with her.

He’s still trying to convince Kiva that TJ shouldn’t be one of those to be killed. He says she’s a medic, he doesn’t tell her she’s carrying Young’s baby.

Young and Camille have both agreed the time for diplomacy has arrived, and she should be the one to try to negotiate.

She proposes a prisoner exchange. Kiva doesn’t want to give up her advantage, but Young only has 4 while they have 12. 

It’s time for Rush to play the ultimate pragmatist. They should save those they can, sure, such as the 4, but one they reach the limit of acceptable losses, they should just sacrifice who they have to in order to rid the ship of its invaders. He claims Young has already decided what that number is. It’s near impossible they can win this with no loss of life on their side.

Young is offended by this. He’s going to save everyone and re-take this ship.

I agree with Young’s sentiment, but can he do it? Or is Rush right? From a practical point of view, he might be.

In any case, emotions are running pretty high around here. Rush says he was recently an acceptable loss himself because they didn’t pull him out by disconnecting the stones.

Young has recognised their advantage. Telford. Kiva has accepted Telford as one of them. Sooner or later, he’ll make his move.

Again, assuming he IS a good guy now.

There’s a nice shot from outside the ship as Eli and Chloe approach a window. There’s no active life support in this part of the ship. They have air for now, but no new stuff is getting pumped in. So they’ve gotta get out of here as soon as they can.

Young has finally used the stone to report in to Jack.

Jack is not happy that this isn’t resolved already. Young should have vented the gateroom earlier. He basically agrees with Rush, although in a less extreme kinda way. Sam lost those 302 pilots. IT was the right call. Sometimes a commander has to sacrifice his own people to save others.

Young didn’t want to sacrifice Rush and Telford, so now the situation continues.

In defense of Young, Rush has unique skills nad knowledge. His loss would be devastating to the crew of Destiny.

Now this is the first time Jack has really started to question Young’s competence and ability. Young has been questioning his own competence since the beginning, and JAck always back him up. But now, he gives him a stern talking to. “Are you up for this Everett? Because if you’re not, somebody will replace you.”

I appreciate Jack for his competence, but I also appreciate Young as a flawed and well-intentioned character.

And Rush has noticed something weird. The ship dropped out of FTL because somebody was gating in, but there’s no countdown and Destiny hasn’t gone back into FTL. It should have. It did when the original Icarus crew gated in back in episode 1.

There are still a lot of depreassarised compartments out in the part of the ship where Eli and Chloe are. It’s pretty dangerous.

When one of the Lucian Alliance uys tries to break through a door, something weird dissolves his entire body.

My first though is the swam of little micro aliens from early in the season,but didn’t they all leave the ship to the water planet?

Nobody knows what caused this.

At least Telford gets the chance to have a quick debrief with Young.

Kiva sssumes whatever this was is Young’s doing. But he’s as much in the dark as she is. She’s not likely to believe him. When Kiva gives the radio to TJ, Young wisely addresses her as Lieutenant, not TJ. He doesn’t betray the personal connection between them, which Kiva can exploit.

Chloe is starting to give up but Eli will have none of it. He’s going to take care of her.

Young has come to the conclusion that Rush and Jack are right. They have to end this, and they have to end it now. Even if some of their people die in the process.

And with that decision, the episode ends.

Speaking in terms of story structure, this decision is a good place for the cliffhanger. A decision like this leads into a goal for the next scene to come. That will give the next episode a strong beginning.

So there you have it. One more to go. The Stargate franchise had gotten pretty good at building up to big season finale moments, taking multiple episodes to reach that point.

So next time we’ll be talking about the season finale, Incursion Part 2. We’re on a wild ride right now, and it’s only going to get wilder.

Can you believe we’ve only gone one more episode to go for season 1? It’s going to be a big one.

Don’t forget to give the podcast a review, if you haven’t. And feel free to check out some of my own science fiction. You can find it all at AdamDavidCollings.com/books

Have a great two weeks. Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

Today's episode of Stargate Universe is the beginning of the final three of season 1. Through a residual memory, Rush discovers that Telford sold out Icarus Base to the Lucian Alliance, who have a plan to open a wormhole to Destiny and take over the ship. It gets very heavy and exciting from here. (Special guest appearances from Michael Shanks and Richard Dean Anderson)

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd

This is the 67th episode of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Stargate Universe episode “Subversion”

By the time this episode goes live, Jewel if the Stars book 3 is probably close to being out, which is really exciting. I’m proud of this story, and it’s been a long time coming. Check out books2read.com/jewel3 and that’s the number 2. That link should be live by now, even if it’s just a pre-order.

The description on GateWorld reads

Dr. Rush and Homeworld Command investigate when Colonel Telford is suspected of spying for the Lucian Alliance.

This episode was written by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie

It was directed by Alex Chapple

And it first aired on the 21st of May 2010.

So welcome to the Stargate SG-1 podcast. In this episode, SG-1 works with the crew of Destiny to infiltrate the Lucian Alliance who have a Goa'uld cargo ship.

In my memory, Sam was in this episode. I thought we had 3 out of the 4 original members of SG-1, which would have made that joke funnier. I mean, Sam was in the recap, but she doesn’t appear in the actual episode. We get Jack and Daniel, but no Sam. Maybe she’s in the next two episodes. I don’t remember.

The recap at the beginning of this episode takes us right back to the pilot, where the Lucian Alliance attacked Icarus Base. We also see a lot of Telford in the flashbacks. We haven’t seen Telford in quite a while.

Rush is having unsettling dreams. Flashes of something happening on earth. I really like how the first person he goes to, after waking up, despite all the trouble between them in the past, is Young. Clearly he thinks there’s more to this dream than just .. a normal dream.

But I love Young’s line. “Everyone thinks their dreams are interesting.” He’s going to take some convincing.

In this dream, Rush is at a warehouse, meeting somebody, giving classified details about Icarus base to somebody with a Goa'uld cargo ship. That suggests Lucian Alliance. On Earth.

But when he sees his reflection in a car window, he’s Colonel Telford. If true, this suggests that Colonel Telford is a traitor - the one that sold out Icarus Base to the Lucian Alliance.

But is this just a dream or something more? We know that people can have residual thoughts and flashes from sharing their bodies with another person through the communication stones, and the crew of Destiny have been using the stones more than anybody in SG-1 or Atlantis ever did. So this could be real. But how do you prove that?

Scott is the only other person who has ever experienced the bleed-through phenomenon. Young tells him about Rush’s dream. Scot is concerned that Young is allowing his personal issues with Telford to colour how he reacts to all this. Young points out that before he was stationed at Icarus, Telford spent time undercover infiltrating the Lucian Alliance. There was an incident where Telford knew of an imminent attack but didn’t tell the SGC, presumably to protect his cover. The SGC cleared him of this.

But it makes you wonder.

Young also points out that the Goa'uld had mind-control technology, and that might now be in the hands of the alliance. And Scott makes a very good point. “If you start thinking that way then we can’t trust anyone.”

Rather than telling General O’Neill about this, Rush’s idea is to take Telford’s body next time he’s scheduled to use the stones and try to make contact with the Alliance. That’s risky. Young says if Stargate Command is this heavily compromised, he can’t tell anyone. I mean, what if O’Neill is being controlled. Now that’s scary.

Rush doesn’t have the training for this kind of work, but he is the one who had the dream. A dream he’s still putting together in his mind. The knowledge from that dream could be critical.

There’s a wonderfully amusing scene between Young and Camille where she questions him about bumping Doctor MOrris off the stone schedule. He keeps just saying “Yes” to her questions. Then she asks “Care to explain why?” and he switches to “No.”

See, this is the type of humour I like. Humour that plays into the seriousness of the story, not against it. With all the trouble since the civilian coup, I can understand why this bothers Camille, but knowing what Young knows, he’s absolutely right for keeping these cards close to his chest, keeping things even from Camille and Eli, who is feeling kinda put out by being excluded. Every character has their perspective here, and every one has valid reasons for what they’re feeling. It’s good character interplay.

Rush’s first challenge is to get rid of his military escort. Hope he got some hints from Young on that one.

Meanwhile, Telford looks in the mirror and notices that he’s inhabiting Rush, not Morrison. Scott makes an excuse, which Telford obviously doesn’t believe. And again we have a character whining and complaining about the clothes their host is wearing. And I find that really petty.

Despite what he said to Rush, Young also uses the stones to visit earth. He wants to talk to General O’Neill. Perhaps he doesn’t trust Rush’s dream as much as he lets on.

And we get a classic Jack Line. “Everett, I’ll have you know I’m missing a national security briefing for this.” There’s actually nothing intrinsically funny about that line, it’s just the way Richard Dean Anderson delivers it. Scenes like this show that Anderson’s trademark O’Neill humour actually blends pretty well with the dark seriousness of Stargate Universe. Because it’s a character trait.

I also like how they have a protocol for quickly and efficiently authenticating the identity of a stone user. That makes a lot of sense.

Young tells O’Neill everything. Even suggests they let Rush ditch the escort and then tail him discreetly. The most interesting thing is, he makes no mention of Telford. The way he says it to O’Neill, it’s like Rush is the traitor. On first viewing, it’s hard to know what Young’s game is right now.

There’s a nice little scene where TJ is having a baby shower. The crew are quite resourceful in the gifts they are able to make with what they have at hand.

But Volker and Brody pull Eli aside. They know something is going on with Young and Rush. So the three of them have a little meeting, trying to figure out the conspiracy. This is a big difference between the civilian and military crewmembers. A military officer in this situation would probably just think, “My CO is doing something important and they have good reasons to keep it from me.” and get on with their duty. But the civilians get suspicious and want to know what’s going on. Civilians are much less used to living with secrets.

But Telford breaks this mould a bit. He wants to know what’s going on, because he knows Scott and Young are keeping something from him, and he’s probably concerned because his body is being used for it. He confers with Camille.

Camille is not happy about being kept out of the loop. And that’s when Young returns. He has some things to discuss with Telford, but Camille is still kept out of it. She’s NOT happy.

Young questions Telford. Trying to find out what he knows. And we get some interesting new insight into both characters. Seems they were once friends. Before Telford let those people die to protect his own skin. Sounds like they’ve had this debate before. And we understand why Telford is so hurt about not being on Destiny. Sounds like command of this ship was supposed to be his prize, his reward for all that time undercover. He was supposed to lead the expedition to the ninth chevron address. That explains why there were two Colonels at Icarus. Young was in charge of the base, Telford was to be in charge of the mission.

Young just isn’t sure who to trust, other than O’Neill. In his mind, it’s still possible that Rush is the mole, not Telford. He doesn’t want to take any risks.

So Rush loses his escort. He has something to attend to, in a building. The escort says he came prepared and waves a book. It’s Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. Good sci-fi book. I never noticed that before. Anyway, it’s surprisingly easy for Rush to lose the scort, although O’Neill is kind of allowing it.

And we get a glimpse of who the tail is. Our old friend Dr. Daniel JAckson. Makes sense Jack would send someone he trusts. Presumably at this point, Daniel is still a member of SG-1, and SG-1 are the front-line time that deals with threats, both offworld and on earth. And it’s wonderful to see him. This is actually the first time we’ve seen the real Daniel in person in SGU. Previously we’ve seen him in recordings, and in Rush’s mind, but never the actual real Daniel in person.

Rush goes to search Telford’s home for clues and finds a key. The key has a number, 314. I wonder, is that meant to be a reference to Pi?

It turns out to be a safety deposit box key. The box contains a phone. A good old flip-phone. I had one very similar. Rush takes a gamble. He rings the phone and says “It’s 

Telford. I have new information. We have to meet.” The response suggests that yes, Telford is indeed giving information to somebody.

Rush is brought to the same warehouse he saw in his dreams by the mysterious strangers.

Daniel has tracked them and is watching from a safe distance. They’re using some kind of jamming technology so Jack can’t see what’s going on in there. Good thing he has Daniel. Apparently, the technology doesn’t block radios.

I’m really glad they brought DAniel back for this. It’s not a huge part, it’s absolutely the right way to do a callback to previous shows. It makes good sense in the story that Daniel would be doing this. And it’s a joy to hear him and Jack interacting like this.

Then another vehicle turns up. A woman gets out and immediately demands to know who Rush is. She knows he’s not Telford. He didn’t use the right code when he called in. This is absolutely believable. Rush would have had to be very lucky to fool these people. They know about the ancient communication stones so the woman immediately puts two and two together.

And then a Goa'uld cargo ship decloaks. 

Daniel calls in the cavalry.

AT this point, Rush’s innocence can be assumed, as can Telford’s guilt.

But they’re too late. The bad guys have flown off in their ship with Rush,

Think about how far DAniel has come from when we first saw him in the STargate movie played by JAmes Spader. At that time in his life he was so awkward. All he knew was his theories. And now, he’s a gun-toting spy. The guy has grown so much, but it’s been a very slow and steady character development. All very believable done. That’s the advantage of having a 10+ year franchise. You really get to see these people change. It’s awesome.

Next we get a great character scene with TJ. She was really enjoying her baby shower, it was all very positive. But now, as her friends have left the party, and she’s alone with her thoughts, she’s forced to confront those feelings she’d pushed away. How can she possibly give her baby a good life on this ship? What kind of life would that be?  Her child deserves so much better.

Chloe makes some good points, to comfort her. Getting home might seem impossible, but they’ve been averaging 3 impossible things per week since they arrived, so why assume the worst?

And aren’t we just so good at that? We always assume the worst. I know I do that quite often. But it’s possible they may get back some day, and the child will be able to grow up on earth.

She also says that the worst case scenario, there are lots of people on the ship who will care about the child. For all that it will lack, it won’t lack love.

So let’s think about this. Assuming the child has to grow up on Destiny, is that as bad as TJ thinks? There’s no denying that life on Destiny is hard. Getting enough food can be a challenge, and when they do find food, it often doesn’t taste great. But most of the suffering these people are going through is because of what they used to have. They miss the creature comforts of Earth. They miss their families.

TJ’s child is not going to know any life other than what she experiences on Destiny. She doesn’t know anybody back on earth to miss. She’s never been there. Earth will just be “that please you visit with the stones.” That will be normal for him or her.

I think the baby may have a better and more fulfilling life than TJ is giving it credit for.

I can’t help but think of Naomi Wildman on Voyager. That ship was her home. She could never understand everyone else’s obsession with a planet she’d never been to. Admittedly, Voyager was a luxury cruise ship compared to Destiny, but I think some of the principles still apply.

Naomi did have  an emotional need to connect with the father she’d never known, but TJ’s baby won’t even have that issue, because Young is the father and he’s on the ship.

Back on earth, they’ve figured out the identity of the Lucian Alliance woman Kiva. Apparently she’s highly ranked and brutal. It’s pretty scary to think that they have people living on earth.

Daniel is concerned for Rush’s life. Young a little less so, afterall, Rush volunteered for this. He knew the risks.

Kiva is played by Rhona Mitra. Interestingly, she was the live action model for Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider games, before the movies. I’m assuming that means she did some motion capture work for the game.

Young wants permission to get the truth out of Telford. 

Jack seems to be willing to turn a slight blidn eye to whatever means Young might use to get the information. “He didn’t say how he was gonna get it out of him.”

Now Daniel is really concerned. Telford may be a traitor, but he still has rights. Torturing him is not justifiable.

Young makes the point that the people who made the rules weren’t thinking of a situation like this. But I’m not sure I see anything about their extraordinary situation that justifies torture.

I’m kinda of shocked to see JAck so okay with all of this, but I think maybe he knows that Young won’t go that far. He trusts Young’s character.

I dunno.

Seeing the cargo ship flying through hyperspace gave me nostalgic feelings for SG-1. It’s often the little touches that excite us.

Rush is still trying to maintain the illusion that he is Telford, and that he didn’t give the code on purpose.

Rush is actually pretty clever here. He gives a reasonable explanation. “I was concerned the SGC were getting suspicious of me, so I wanted it to look like you took me by force.”

And it almost convinces Kiva. It’s handy that Rush knows her name. Not sure how.

So Young has Telford locked up and is questioning him. This whole residual memory thing seems to be something unique to Telford. Scott was swapping bodies with Teford when he saw the flash of Telford with Young’s wife. Young must have swapped with Telford at some point in the past, as well.

Young theorises that is Telford’s guit, that deep down he wants to confess.

Young isn’t ready to use any physical forms of persuasion on Telford yet, but Rush isn’t so lucky. Kiva is torturing him. She wants to know who Rush is, and whether he ‘s of use to her.

Greer, ever the loyal soldier to Young, can’t stop himself. When Young and Telford get into a fight, he comes rushing in and starts pounding Telford with his fists. After Telford throws the first punch, Young seems willing to hit him back, in an attempt to get him to confess.

At this point, Rush has admitted to Kiva that he’s not Telford. Kiva assumes none of the scientists on Destiny could endure such torture, so he’s got to either be Young or Scott. She sure knows a lot about the people on Destiny. But then, Icarus was of interest to them. That’s why they tried to take the base in episode 1.

Anyway, credit to Rush for being tough enough to not break under all this. 

Kiva gives her word that she’ll not kill him if he gives her his name. Of course, she’s the kind of person who tortures others, so you probably don’t want to put too much faith in her honesty.

But Rush can’t hold out any longer. She says she won’t kill him. He grasps onto that and blurts out his name.

It’s at this point in the episode that I suddenly realise, Rush is getting a double dose of torture. His mind is being tortured by Kiva, and his body is getting smacked around by Young. So when he returns to his body, he’s gonna have some injuries to deal with.

Young has to remember that. It’s actually Rush’s body he’s punching.

This is where we learn what the Lucian Alliance are actually up to. They’ve found another Icarus planet with Naquadrian deposits. They have Rush’s formula for dialing the ninth chevron. They’re gonna try to get to Destiny.

Young tries to guilt Telford by talking about the victims of Icarus, and the other incident, but then he offers him a sliver of hope. Maybe it wasn’t your fault. Maybe they brainwashed you. He wants Telford to search inside his hidden memories and reveal where they might have taken Rush.

There’s some really great writing and acting going on in these scenes. Not to mention impressive make-up effects with all the blood. Looks very realistic and icky.

Some people look at a show like this, they look at Young’s actions, and they dislike the show because the hero is doing bad things. For them, that ruins the show. PErsonally, I like flawed characters, so my reaction is very different. It doesn’t mean I approve of what Young is doing any more than they do, but it doesn’t mean the show is bad.

And then we see the cargo ship arrive at the planet. And there’s a goa'uld pyramid. More nostalgic SG-1 imagery. Honestly, I love these little moments just as much as the appearances by the actors.

The inside of this pyramid base is actually a redress of the gateroom set from SG-1. So was the gateroom on Icarus base in Air part 1. They do a great job because I’d never have known if I wasn’t told.

By this point, you might be noticing that all of the Lucian Alliance people are speaking english.

Now the Stargate TV franchise has always had this conceit that all aliens, and humans on other planets, speak English. They didn’t want to have to spend half of every episode dealing with communications problems, and I understand that. Most sci-fi shows come up with some magical technology to hand-wave this away, but Stargate doesn’t. It’s harder for them to come up with something because it’s set in present-day.

Stargate Atlantis continued this conceit. Even in the Pegasus galaxy, everyone they met spoke English.

Now Stargate Universe took a different tactic. The aliens we met in this show, and there aren’t many of them, were much more alien. They didn’t speak English. In fact, the blue aliens we’ve met so far don’t even have the vocal equipment to speak english words. The best they can do is make squawking noise.

However, when it comes to humans, even humans whose ancestors were taken from earth millennia ago by the Goa'uld, the show maintains the conceit of them speaking English.

This used to bother me a little. Because SGU was a much more grounded show. But thinking about it this time around, we know that humans from the Lucian Alliance have infiltrated earth. Kiva looks very much the earthling in her business suit and earrings. It is very believable that those who have been to earth have taught English to the others.

So either way, it works.

Anyway, Rush has a whole new challenge now. He has to calculate how to power a stargate on a new Icarus-type planet. IT could take him the rest of his life. And that’s assuming he gives the Lucian Alliance his full cooperation.

When Rush tells them the bad news, Kiva isn’t happy. He says Olan’s work is shoddy at best. He might have to start from scratch. So Kiva has Olan strangled to death. Rush is visibly horrified by this. He even admits he was just stalling when he said that. Kiva is living up to her brutal reputation. She’s cemented herself as probably the most hateable villain we’ve had on this show.

Camille is very concerned about what’s going on with Telford in that room. She approaches Greer in the hopes he’ll tell her something.

He just tells her it’s a military matter. It doesn’t concern her.

And honestly, that’s a fair answer. This IS a private military matter. Until they know the full truth about Telford, there’s no need to spread this throughout the whole ship.

But as Camille says, it’s that kind of talk that led to the coup. 

Scott isn’t willing to tell her anything, but when the door opens, and Young comes out, she catches a glimpse of a very bloody Rush, which of course is Telford.

And this is when he brings O’Neill aboard. This was a special thrill for me, to see Jack on board Destiny.

Jack authorised Telford to be held without charge or council, but not exactly the attack by greer. Young has also roughed Telford up, but they’ve both kinda given as good as they’ve gotten.

There’s this one moment when Telford just switches. He admits that he’s been in on this. He’s working with the Lucian Alliance. “You should look at your faces. You’re so surprised,” he says. Young really had been hoping there might be some other explanation. It’s some good acting from Lou Diamond Philips the way he suddenly turns it on and becomes a different character.

I guess that means that Telford is quite an actor as well.

So this was pretty big. Yes, Telford has been something of an antagonist in the show, but in this scene, he transitions from one of the good guys to a full-on villain. It always feels bold when shows do this.  Now we still don’t know for sure, at this point, if Telford is being mind-controlled, but either way, this character has been hiding a dark secret since before we first saw him on screen. I love this stuff.

Anyway, he starts trying to justify his actions. He says he wasn’t brainwashed, he simply came to his senses. And he makes a couple of decent points. They freed millions of people from thousands of years of slavery all over their galaxy. What did they think was going to happen? The power void left behind by the Goa'uld was filled quickly by people from those freed worlds. The strongest and most ambitious of them. The Lucian Alliance. SG-1 didn’t always give a lot of forethought to the consequences of their actions when taking down the Goa'uld. Which is not to say they were wrong to do it, but things were a little more complex than Jack sometimes was able to appreciate.

Jack has heard enough. He ordered Young to do whatever he needed to do.

That’s a little concerning. What exactly does he think Young is going to do? I’m again, a little surprised that Jack is so cool with all of this.

Scott has told Camille the truth. She knows everything. She feels Rush’s life is more important than any intel they can get. She wants to cut the connection, which would leave Telford in the alliance’s custody. But, as he’s admitted, he’s a traitor.

Young has the air pumped out of Telford’s room. Eli and Volker are hesitant to push the button, but Brody does it. I wonder, does Brody assume Young is bluffing, and they’ll put the air back in shortly, or is he actually, in his mind, following an order to kill somebody? That’s a pretty heavy thing to do, and Brody’s not even military.

Telford is convinced Young’s not going to kill him.

And that’s where the episode ends. On a major cliffhanger, which leads directly into the two-part season finale.

It could be argued that what Young has done up until now is not, in fact, torture. I mean, Telford had an opportunity to defend himself. He wasn’t tied to a chair and forced to take punches. But this? This is close to crossing the line. But how else is he going to get the information they need?

What do you think of Young’s actions in this episode? 

Torture is evil and wrong. I feel quite comfortable and confident saying that. 

What Kiva did to Rush was clearly torture. What Young did is more debatable.

Personally, I don’t think torture is ever ethically justifiable.

But there could be situations where it feels less clear cut.

What if the person being tortured is really evil. An extremely bad person. Like, even worse than Kiva. And say that your child was going to die unless you got information out of that person. It still may not be ethically justified, but as a parent, I’d find my principles sorely tested in that situation. Because I’d do anything to protect my children.

Interestingly, in this whole scenario, it’s not Telford that Camille is worried about at the end, it’s Rush. Yes, they’re trying to get intel to rescue Rush, but they could save his life simply by deactivating the stones. But Young wants more than to just save Rush. He wants to bring down this Lucian Alliance conspiracy. These people who have infiltrated Earth. That’s what’s really about, because without Rush, they won’t have any hope of dialling Destiny.

Young is probably going too far at this point. Camille might be right.

This was an incredible episode. It was wonderful to see Jack and Daniel from SG-1, and it was wonderful to have references to elements from the greater Stargate lore, like Goa'uld ships and the Lucian Alliance, but even without all of that, this was still an amazing piece of story-telling. Great writing, great acting. I loved it to bits.

So next time we’ll be looking at Incursion Part 1, where we continue this story with the Lucian Alliance. Things are gonna get  epic. Can you believe we’re here? We're almost at the end of season 1.

Have a wonderful 2 weeks, 

Live long and prosper

Make it so.

The crew of Destiny are having strange hallucinations. But what is causing them? Will these visions be the death of them, or a chance to heal some of the hurts of the past?

Join me as I delve into this latest episode of Stargate Universe.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m the Pizza Jedi

Because it’s been a bit cold around here lately.

I’m also known as Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

because I am a Nerd

And if you’re not watching the youTube version of the podcast right now, you’re likely very confused. I’m currently wearing an oddie, which is kind of like a blanket with sleeves and a hood, and it’s got prints of pizza slices all over it.

This is episode 66 Of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Stargate Universe episode “Pain”

The description on Gateworld reads

The ship's crew is plagued by hallucinations that manifest their fears and desires.

This episode was written by Carl Binder

It was directed by William Waring

And it first aired on the 14th of May 2010.

We begin with a pretty shocking scene. Lieutenant Scott and Lieutenant James are in bed together, doing what people do. They push this scene about as far as they possibly can without showing actual nudity. More than I thought was necessary personally, but anyway.

 It’s clearly on board Destiny, so not a flashback to their time together on Icarus. You can’t really tell who these people are until it’s all over, so the reveal is surprising. Once they’re done, Scott immediately starts to leave, saying “We can’t be doing this.” But, of course, he’s just done it. And the dialog suggests this isn’t the first time.

James isn’t having any of this. She won’t let Scott push her away again, but she won’t be his mistress on the side either. Scott has to choose. Her or Chloe. 

And then things get violent between the two of them.

And it results with Scott lying on the deck with blood flowing from his head.

As I said, pretty shocking.

Meanwhile, Volker is having door problems. They won’t open for him. But they work perfectly for Riley, as he stares smugly back at poor Volker.

Greer finds Camille acting very suspiciously in the gateroom. And Eli is looking for Scott.

At this point, we’re all probably suspecting that the show is using a sci-fi trope we’ve seen before. Everyone on the ship is having nightmares.

Except that Matt appears to be missing in Greer’s dream, while he lies dead in James’s dream.

Is there are connection? Is this coincidence? Or is it not a dream?

Just put yourself in James’s shoes. You’ve just killed someone, one of your fellow crew, by accident. And then the radio calls asking why you’re late.

What do you do?

You know there’s no coming back from what you’ve done. You know that Scott’s death is going to be discovered. It’s all but inevitable.

But how do you tell your commanding officer, “Ah, actually sir, I kind of just killed Matt.”

It’s a very surreal moment, as she’s paralysed by fear, regret and uncertainty.

What does she do?

She could try to hide the body, of course. Make it look like she’s not the killer. But that’s not going to be easy, especially in her current emotional state, which is pretty psychologically realistic, I’d say. Wonderfully performed.

Volker is now trapped in a hallway, surrounded by doors that won’t open on all sides.

Until he hears his name, snaps out of it, and fins himself standing in a much larger room.

So, not quite dreams. More like daydreams. Hallucinations. Scary stuff. I think I’d be more scared of the fact I was losing my mind in this way, than I would be by the scary dreams themselves.

It’s significant that the person who snaps Volker out of it is in fact Scott. He’s alive.

Good news for James. But she doesn’t know yet.

Scott is also dreaming now. He sees his son, Matthew, walking around the ship

Young and Rush go to confront Camille about her actions in the gate room. They know nothing about it. She denies ever being there. But Greer is not present. So is this the real world now?

It’s kind of hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t in this episode.

Which I think is deliberate. It’s making us feel exactly what the characters are feeling.

Another crewmember believes there is a snake under his skin, causing him to freak out.

Of course, TJ can’t find anything.

Greer’s suspicion of Camille makes sense. She lead that civilian uprising against the military.

Rush seems better able to accept the dreams as false and push them aside, given his highly rational mind. He thinks Greer is spying on him, but evidence suggests otherwise. Ok, he thinks. I must have imagined it because it cannot be. And moves on with his life.

Young finds JAmes in her quarters, sitting on her bed in tears. “I’m so sorry, she says. Of course, Young can’t see the corpse that she can see.

Scott finds his son. He knows it can’t be real. There is no way Matthew can be on board the ship. And so he is able to rationalise it in much the same way Rush does.

The trouble with James’s vision is that it’s more realistic. I don’t mean to say she’d really kill Scott, but her dream doesn’t involve any people that can’t be on board, or situations that are impossible.

She is so relieved to see Scott alive when he walks in.

Have you ever had a nightmare, where you think someone you love has died, or your spouse has left you, or you’ve made a terrible mistake, and then you wake up and realise it was just a dream. Have you ever felt that huge sense of relief? I have. It’s powerful.

But she’s still freaked out, because this means she’s been hallucinating. Which as I said before, would be really scary.

I’m jumping all over the place in my analysis today, because that’s exactly what the episode does. Lots of quick chops and changes, which adds to the feeling of disorientation.

It’s quite effective.

Now that people are starting to talk, they’re aware that many of them are seeing things. That’s good. At least now they can start to deal with it.

They talk about several crew members who were on the last away mission to a planet.

There’s a strong link between those on the away team and those having hallucinations.

So….I guess this means they’ve already arrived in the next galaxy?

I was all set to talk about how doing a ship-bound character episode made a lot of sense right now, because they’re still travelling through the void between galaxies. They can’t visit any planets, so this is the perfect story to tell, and show that travelling between galaxies takes a while.

I’m pretty disappointed that’s not what they did.

I’m not saying it’s invalid to skip over the rest of the trip and pick up the story on the other side, but I think this was a missed opportunity.

Babylon 5 used to allow for travel time. You’d see people leave the station and then several episodes later they’d arrive at their destination. It added a big sense of believability to the show. I think it would have been great to do something like that here.

Do a little character-driven story while they’re in transit, and then next week have them arrive in the new galaxy at the beginning. And have a little fanfare about it. A brand new galaxy to explore. At least one or two of these people must be able to get a little wide-eyed about that, surely.

Anyway. That’s my little rant. So they’re in the next galaxy now, and they’ve already been to visit one of the planets off-screen.

There’s a problem with their theory, though. One of the people on the last away team, Barnes, has not had a single hallucination. Maybe she’s naturally immune.

But that’s when TJ finds little creatures, like ticks, attached to the back of the heads of all of them except Barnes. That’s our connection.

These ticks are the first native inhabitants of this galaxy we’ve met.

The prospect of having the tick removed produces mixed emotions for Scott. He doesn’t want to see things that aren’t there, but at the same time, this is the only way he can see an interact with his son. And he knows it’s not real. But still….

Unfortunately, the removal failed. The tick has dug in even deeper.

Greer is still seeing Camille sneaking around the ship. Was he on the away team?

It’s nice to see the consequences of the uprising still hanging over our characters, as well it should. Trust was broken during that incident, and no matter how hard both sides have been working to put it behind them, the wounds are still there.

Honestly, Greer is probably wise to be keeping an eye on Camille and Rush, but in his current state, his natural caution is descending into paranoia. The difference is, he has no proof, not even any real evidence. Just a feeling that is overpowering him.

And surprise, Chloe is seeing her father in the cockpit of the shuttle where he died.

The effects of these ticks seem to be spreading.

Or maybe it’s not the ticks at all.

It’s a difficult emotional moment for her. In the end, she allows herself to fall into his arms, because real or not, this is the only way she’ll ever be able to embrace her dad.

The  plot of this episode allows the characters to deal with some things from their past. In Chloe’s case, it’s helping her to find some closure, by talking to her father about her feelings.

TJ is going to try to anaethsitise the tick using the venom from the time planet, but she can’t find it. Could it be that the tick transferred from Scott to Chloe?

Eli is pretty worried about Chloe when he finds her talking to her imaginary father. When he learns what’s going on, he’s understandably keen to get her to the medical bay. But Chloe doesn’t want to go. She doesn’t want her father to leave. Not yet.

She knows this is an alien parasite. She knows it’s injecting a toxin into her.

But this is a chance for her to see her father, hear his voice, be encouraged by him. She doesn’t want to give that up. And I can understand that too.

She begs Eli to give her some more time. Keep it secret just a little while, so she can have a bit more time with her dad.

Now Rush is being affected.

It’s interesting that some people experience pleasant hallucinations, while others have truly nightmarish experiences. Like Rush, who thinks he’s drowning. Pretty terrifying.

And then he sees one of the blue aliens. The stuff of his real-life nightmares.

The venom works. TJ is able to remove the tick from James. And she realises that Chloe was in the med bay earlier and might be affected. Scott goes off to find her.

When Scott finds her, and she lies to him about seeing her father, Eli is faced with a difficult decision. Lie on her behalf, like she asked him to, or tell Scott the truth so she can get help.

You can see the conflict on his face. Ultimately, I think he did the right thing by telling Scott. They don’t know what long-term effect this tick toxin has on people. It could be dangerous to let this go on too long.

She gets to say one last goodbye, but ultimately, she has to lose him all over again.

But as they drag her, screaming, from the observation room, her father begs her not to leave him. The tick doesn’t want to let go of her.

As the hallucinations get more and more worrisome, Rush is finding it harder to dismiss them. He’s caught up in it all.

And now Greer is seeing the aliens too.

Young tries to talk him down, but in the hallucination, Young’s voice says something very different. So now he’s running around the ship believing he’s been given permission to use deadly force. That could be a problem if he sees his crewmates as aliens.

Even worse, he thinks Rush is working with the aliens.

And Rush is seeing Greer as an alien.

TJ theorises that the away team brought back more than one tick, which explains how Greer and Rush are infected.

The people in the medical bay are also making theories. The ticks target the lymbic system which is linked to human emotions. It draws out Scott’s guilt over not being there for his son. Chloe’s grief over her father. Volker’s claustrophobia. A fear of snakes.

Things get really awkward when they look at James and say “and you?”

So….deep down, does James want to hurt Scott for the way he played with her heart and then abandoned her? Has she fantasised about killing him?

There are times when we really don’t want our inner-most thoughts and feelings to be exposed to those around us,.

Camille is wounded and losing blood. Greer has been pretty rough with her because he believes she’s taking over the ship, in league with Rush and the aliens.

\And another little callback. Greer sees his father, telling him to shoot Camille.

Scott tries using C3 on the door that Greer has locked.

I always get very nervous when people use explosives on board a space ship in stories. It’s never a good idea.

Scott is able to diffuse the situation before anyone gets hurt.

But those who experienced the hallucinations are all facing the uncomfortable after-effects of their experiences. Perhaps this stuff wasn’t so healing after all.

At the end of the episode, they encounter a new planet. Everyone seems a little hesitant to send a team, after what happened last time.

Young is feeling it too, but he pushes past that. “Our luck’s gotta change at some point, right?” he says.

Three episodes left. Next time, we’ll be talking about Subversion. That will lead us directly into the two-part season finale, Incursion. We’ve got a big new plot arc that’s about to take off next time. You won’t want to miss these next few episodes. I’m really looking forward to them.

Please consider leaving this show a review, wherever you listen to it, because that helps to spread the word.

Thanks again for listening to Nerd Heaven

Have a great two weeks

Live long and prosper

Make it so

In the Stargate Universe episode "Sabotage" we find Destiny stranded in the void between galaxies. Is it just an engine malfunction, or is it more? An old friend of Rush, Doctor Amanda Perry comes aboard to help with repairs, but that makes somebody on the ship must inhabit her quadriplegic body.

This episode examines themes of disability. It also sees the return of our lost crewmembers and the aliens.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 65 of the podcast. Today we’re talking about the Stargate Universe episode Sabotage.

The description on Gateworld reads

When problems with the F.T.L. drive threatens to leave Destiny stranded, the crew calls upon an expert from Earth to help -- a quadriplegic woman who temporarily takes over Wray's body.

The episode was written by Barbara Marshall

It was directed by Peter Deluise

And it first aired on the 7th of May 2010.

Young is going about his daily activities, but he’s finding it hard. The loss of Scott, Eli and Chloe weighs heavily on him. As well it should.

The remaining crew have assembled in the gate room.

He explains the situation to the crew. They’re now on strict food and power rations. He tells them that all hope of rescuing Eli, Chloe and Scott is gone.

I think they were going to have something of a memorial for them, but Rush calls Young to the control room. It’s rather typical of Rush that he’s not at this gathering. Young pounces on this. Maybe he’s found another option. He dismisses the crew and joins Rush

But it’s not good news. Rush knows exactly why Destiny is going into power saving mode. They’re going to come short of their target, in their journey to the next galaxy. Destiny won’t make it across the void. And that’s probably the worst thing they could discover. There’s nothing like the prospect of getting stuck in the void between galaxies to make you appreciate how good you had it being stuck in an alien galaxy surrounded by stars and planets.

This raises an important question. Why is Destiny even trying if it’s not going to make it? We’ll find the answer to this in a second, and it’s pretty cold.

Destiny just passed through a star so they should be well stocked with power. But as we recall, the first time we re-charged at the start of the season, the ship didn’t fill up all the way.Records show that destiny only just made it the last couple of times it tried to travel from one galaxy to another. And they’ve sustained a lot of battle damage since then.

The ship is on a predetermined course. Since they haven’t taken control yet, it’s going to continue following that course. It can drift the last bit of the way and eventually arrive, but the crew will be long dead by then.

Brody suggests trying to improve the efficiency of the engine, but Volker sounds a caution. They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re not experts on ancient engine technology.

Rush admits this, but he says he knows a few people who are.

That’s interesting.

While the Atlantis expedition did find an ancient warship or two, so those systems could have been studied, nobody back on earth has ever seen the engines used by Destiny. Remember, the ship travels faster than light, but not through hyperspace. It’s a completely different form of propulsion. So the people on Destiny are the only living humans who have ever seen this technology.

Rush’s suggestion is Amanda Perry. She was to work on the next generation of hyperdrive technology for Earth. So this engine will still be new to her, but maybe she’ll know a little more about how ancient technology works. She might have the skill to pick up a thing or two. It’s pretty rare that Rush admits that somebody else is more knowledgeable than he is. It does happen, but it’s got to be somebody who has earned his respect. Amanda Perry is one of those people. This is why Rush struggled with Eli so much. He can respect Eli’s mind, but he can’t respect Eli’s lack of education and motivation.

But now it’s Rush’s turn to sound a word of caution. Amanda Perry is a qudraplegic. She requires a respirator to keep her alive. She has a full-time carer to look after her. That means whoever swaps bodies with her is going to be in for a rough time.

Young assembles a group of female crewmembers, looking for a volunteer to swap bodies with Perry. Have you noticed they always match the sex of the people exchanging bodies? It makes sense to do that, but this scene is confirmation that this is a deliberate choice.

This is going to be a difficult assignment. Lieutenant James says she’ll do it, if it means she can see her family.

For Amanda, this is a wondrous experience, more so than for most. Not only is she in somebody else’s body, on an alien spaceship in a distant galaxy, she’s able to move her body. She’s free of her disability. And that must be truly wondrous.

But for all the wonder Perry is experiencing, James can’t take the horror of her situation. It frightens her so much she pulls the plug. 

“I’m sorry, Sir,” she says. “I can’t do it.”

It’s hard to judge Jamest too harshly for this. Suddenly finding yourself in that kind of situation would be really scary. Not everyone would have what it takes to do it.

But then, Amanda Perry never had a choice, did she? She has to live with it every day of her life, and she can’t just pull the plug and return to an able body.

Now Camille volunteers. She is immediately introduced to Mary, her carer.

Camille only has one thing on her mind. Going home to see Sharon.

James is feeling pretty guilty at her failure. She feels she has let Colonel Young down. When Perry walks into the mess hall, she can’t face her.

Perry wants to try one of the alien fruits. The ones that look like cherry tomatoes. Unlike most people, she doesn’t spit it out. What she says next is very telling. “This is the first food I’ve been able to feed myself since I was 6.”

Sharon has taken some holiday time from work so she can spend time with Camilla while she’s on earth, and help look after her.

She’s a little afraid of breaking Camille.

Something in the engines explodes and Destiny is thrown out of FTL. I’m a little surprised they didn’t brief Perry on the possibility of the connection being interrupted briefly if they leave FTL. Sure, they weren’t expecting it to happen this time, but you’d think there’d be a standard briefing that everyone always gets when using the stones for the first time.

Something is up with James. She was walking through the ship, and then blacked out. She doesn’t remember what happened but when she came to, the engines had failed. Did she have something to do with that?

And then we get a surprise. Franklin walks into the medical bay. Awake. He’s a little spaced out, but he’s awake.

Sharon is trying her best to adjust to all of this. HAving to care for Camille in such a vulnerable state. Meanwhile, Mary, the professional carer seems to be taking everything about alien spaceships and body-swapping in her stride. I wonder how long she’s had clearance.

There’s lots of little things to get used to. Sharon is talking to Camille while she eats, fed by Mary. But the distraction causes her to choke on her food. Camille is worried that this is freaking Sharon out. I wouldn’t blame her if she was a little freaked out.

This is when the gate dials.And of course, it’s our missing crew members. They assumed that the crew had found a way to drop out of FTL so they could dial in. They knew they could try again because the kino controller lit up once she ship dropped out of FTL

Of course, we know it wasn’t the crew. It was the engine malfunction.

In the grand scheme of everything going on in this episode, the return of our lost crewmembers feels almost a little anticlimactic, after that shock ending last time. But they had to get them home somehow, and this all ties in with the threat that will be introduced later in the episode.

There’s a cool shot of Destiny floating in intergalactic space, with the galaxy they’ve just left in the background. Of course, for them to be far enough away that they could see the entire galaxy like that, well, they certainly wouldn’t still be in range of the gate. So while it looks cool, it’s very unrealistic.

If we hadn’t already figured it out, we find out that Perry and Rush know each other pretty well. They were colleagues at the SGC before he moved to Icarus base. She calls him Nick.

They had long talks after Rush’s wife died. I think her friendship was one of the things that helped him through that time. It was nothing romantic. They talked about the ancients, ascension, that kind of stuff. Although it seems she had a thing for him. He didn’t seem to see the chair. She dropped a few hints but he didn’t pick up on them. I don’t blame him. He was still mourning the loss of his wife, and we blokes don’t pick up on subtle hints at the best of times.

Eli is surprised when Perry shares this with him. At first, she feels a little offended, assuming he thinks disabled people can’t have feelings. No doubt she’s had to deal with that kind of attitude before. But no. Eli is just surprised that anybody could be interested in a man like Rush.

Perry also says she’d give anything to be on Destiny. I think sometimes Eli forgets what a wonder it is to be on the ship.

It turns out, the FTL failure was a blessing in disguise. There are a bunch of components that all work in parallel together, but they are constrained by the efficiency of the weakest link. That weakest link was the one that exploded. Therefore, Destiny now should be able to make it to the next galaxy with no problem.

That’s very lucky.

But there’s still some repair work to be done.

They think they can use the robot they found in a recent episode.

There’s another option they can fall back on. By sitting in the chair, they might be able to access the core systems and bypass the damaged engine with a single command. That would be easier.

The robot looks pretty cool. Like a big metal insect.

They’re planning a mission through the gate back to the planet where Scott, Eli and Chloe were. If they can’t repair the ship, that’s where the crew will end up living. It’s not clear exactly what the aim of the mission is. I mean, the lost crew members have been there. They already know what it’s like. They thought they were stranded so they must have done some analysis of its suitability for long-term settlement.

TJ wants to go on the mission. She wants to see the planet where she may have to raise her child. 

They send a kino through to see what’s up before they go through. Eli thinks it’s a waste of time because they were just there. He’s in the middle of saying “you military types are too attached to your procedure.” when they get an image from the planet. It’s our old friends, the blue aliens. They’re shooting at the kino. I guess that procedure wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

The good news is that the aliens don’t have a remote so they can’t dial the gates.

The bad news is they can’t go through the gate. They have to fix the engines. There’s no other choice now.

Three weeks go by.

Which means that’s three weeks Camille is stuck in this disabled body.

Sharon is afraid to leave her side. But Camille wants her to get out of the house for a little while.

But when she takes a long time to come home, Camille panics. And then goes into some kind of convulsion.

Franklin might be out of his coma, but he’s definitely not back to normal. He’s not really aware of what’s going on around him. He has to be hand fed.

Brody is making grog in a still.

Rush introduces Perry to the stuff. It seems pretty potent.

It’s going to be hard for Perry to return to her own body. She’s loving being able to walk around.

Perry asks Rush outright if he knew how she felt about her. He thought she just felt sorry for him. 

She invites him into her quarters.

This is another of times that we examine that theme of how you treat another person’s body when you’re inhabiting it. This time around things are a little more nuanced.

For her, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for her to have a proper physical relationship with someone.

She really wants to be with Rush.

And he wants it too. But there are complications. He knows that’s Perry in there, but he also knows it’s Camille’s body. I can’t imagine she would approve of her body being used in this way.

And as for Rush, he’s recently had to relive the experience of losing his wife. That is still very raw and fresh for him. 

They’ve basically decided not to do anything. At least they can hug. And that’s when TJ surprises them. You can tell by the way she looks at them that she has concerns.

James has been having weird dreams. She thinks she may be responsible for damaging the ship. It seems when she abruptly ended her stone connection at the start of the episode, she didn’t erase her imprint from the stone. One of the blue aliens used their stone to temporarily control her to sabotage the ship. The alien host body was obviously encased in a small dark room, so James wouldn’t know what was going on. Clever. They’ve probably been trying this for some time.

Ironically, by doing this, they allowed out missing people to get back to the ship.

At this point, everyone has to assume the aliens know Destiny’s position and they are coming.

Not good, considering their engine is still undergoing repairs.

Camille has recovered from whatever was happening to her. PErry might be coming back to her own body soon, so Camille has to return to an airforce facility.

The crew of destiny are preparing for her. They’ll do what they can to protect the ship.

It’s time for Young to risk using the chair.

That’s when Franklin speaks. Two words. The Chair.

The aliens arrive. It’s getting very exciting.

James takes a leap of logic that Franklin thinks he should be the one to use the chair. He knows something but can’t communicate it effectively.

So now we have a debate about who should sit in the thing. Young or Franklin?

In the end, it’s Franklin who goes in.

Something new is happening. The temperature in the chair room is dropping rapidly. Franklin tells the others to leave.

Just as they’re about to be boarded, the FTL drive powers up and they jump.

Good timing.

Things are looking good. They’re gonna make it. They’re safe.

Sadly for Perry, that means she’s going to have to go home.

Camille is very glad to be home. It can’t have been easy for her.

It’s now time to see what’s going on with Franklin. But when they open the door, he’s not there. The room is empty, save for some mist.

I think we’ll have to wait until season 2 before we find out what’s actually happened to him. ALthough I might be wrong.

So this episode was a lot more exciting than I’d remembered.

The arrival of Perry, and Camille’s experience in the wheelchair were pretty cemented in my mind, but I’d forgotten this was also the episode where the lost crew returned, and I’d also forgotten the alien involvement.

Next week we dive deep into our characters, and let the crew come to terms with some of the stuff they’ve been going through, in the episode Pain.

Have you heard that Amazon is offering to buy MGM. That means that Amazon Prime Video could be the likeliest place we’ll see the new Stargate show that Brad Wright is trying to get greenlit. I think Amazon would be a good home for Stargate. At present the only original sci-fi they really have is The Expanse and Star Trek Picard, and they don’t even have Picard in North America. 

Anyway, there’s still nothing official. If we do get a new show, it’ll be a while before it happens.

Thanks again for listening to Nerd Heaven

Have a great two weeks

Live long and prosper

Make it so

In the Stargate Universe episode "Lost" we follow Eli, Scott, Chloe and Greer as they struggle to find a way back to Destiny before it's out of their reach forever. It also delves into Greer's backstory.

In today's Stargate Universe podcast, we talk about the episode "Human" which features Michael Shanks guest starring as Doctor Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1. Rush is trying to figure out how to unlock the computer on Destiny, in order to control the ship. But to do that, he must relive the most traumatic moment of his life. This episode does some wonderful character exploration and development for Rush.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 63 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Stargate Universe episode “Human.”

The description on Gateworld reads

Rush uses the neural interface chair to try and access Destiny's systems, causing him to recall the events which led to his recruitment into the Stargate program.

This episode was written by Jeff Vlaming

It was directed by Robert C Cooper,

It guest starred Michael Shanks as Dr. Daniel Jackson

And it first aired on the 23 of april 2010.

The first thing we see in this episode is Rush waking up in a very normal human bed next to a woman. This is his wife, Gloria. She goes about making breakfast while he works, listening to classical music. This is clearly an earlier point in his life.

Even in his life before being a space traveller he was still a workaholic. He was up very early because he had things to do. But, it seems he found someone who could tolerate his eccentricities.

They do some interesting things with the camera during this sequence to show us this isn’t the present, and is likely a dream. Lots of very extreme closeups on things, and they let a whole heap of light into the lens so everything seems a bit over-exposed. These are the kinds of tricks that directors use to show us that “something is off”.

I love that first look we get at Rush’s home office. There are pieces of paper covering literally every square centimetre of his walls. It nicely demonstrates his obsession. But what is he obsessing over at this point in his life? We don’t know yet.

But he pulls out of an appointment with his wife. He won’t be able to make it today.

And it seems that like all true academics, Rush doesn’t just do pure research. He teaches as well. He’s a lecturer. This is very common. When you work at a university, you tend to do both teaching and research. Universities actually have two missions. One, pass on knowledge to the next generation, that’s the mission of every school, but it’s the second mission that sets them apart from a high school or a primary school. They are tasked with generating the knowledge that is passed on.

Another woman, Constance, is concerned that he’s not with Gloria. “I thought you’d be worried sick,” she says. “I am,” Rush replies in his deadpan dismissive way. Rush doesn’t like to betray much in the way of emotions, especially the emotions that are sometimes perceived as weakness, such as sorrow.

And he’s seeing these symbols floating in front of him wherever he goes. It’s very distracting to him. He’s constantly writing things in a notebook. This is our first hint that we’re not just looking at a flashback from Rush’s past.

When Gloria rings him to tell him that ‘it’s” back, I think we can all figure out what she’s referring to. She’s got cancer, but Rush doesn’t seem to care. He acts like she’s telling him what they’re having for dinner. She asks if he’s coming home and he fobs her off like he cares nothing for her. If you’re watching this for the first time then you likely want to punch Rush in the face and tell him to go home and be with his wife.

This is our second hint that this isn’t just a flashback. It’s something more.

When Rush finally does arrive home, we see what might have attracted him to Gloria in the first place. She’s playing violin. He’s a real sucker for classical music. But he doesn’t even go to her, he just walks off, probaby back to his home office.

When we next see him, he’s out and about, noticing something about a car’s number plate. And that’s when a  very familiar man comes running across the road. “Doctor Rush, I’m Doctor Daniel Jackson.”

“So you are.”

Rush doesn’t have time for this. “You’re going to tell me about the Stargate program, and your dilemma of how to dial the ninth and final chevron, namely, how to generate sufficient energy to do so.”

Daniel is understandably confused, as we probably are too. “How do you know this? These details are highly classified.”

“I know because it’s already happened. You’re just a figment of my imagination. A memory I’m having to relive in order to achieve what I want.”

I love Daniel’s face when Rush tells him this and then walks away. How are you supposed to respond when somebody tells you that you don’t exist?

That’s when we see Rush in the chair. He’s finally worked up the courage to sit in the thing himself. Brody is there monitoring him, but it seems Young and Eli didn’t know.

The chair hasn’t put Rush into a coma-like it did with Franklin, so apparently, he’s learned how to use it safely. He couldn’t risk his own life in it otherwise.

So he’s trying to figure something out while in this hallucination state. This explains why he’s being so cold to Gloria. That’s not how it went down originally. The last thing he wants to have to do is re-live what was probably the most painful experience in his life. It’s all a distraction from his goal.

Constance behaves like any real person would if she saw Rush ignoring his dying wife like she was a distraction. She’s a part of the dream’s narrative, so she can’t understand what’s really going on here.

I understand that none of this is real, so Rush is not actually hurting Gloria’s or anyone else’s feelings. That Gloria doesn’t actually exist. She’s just a piece of his memory. But it still must be really hard for Rush to act the way he’s acting.

Back in the real world, Chloe joins Eli in the mess hall. He’s been ignoring her ever since the civilian uprising. Eli feels that Chloe betrayed him so he hasn’t been spending time with her. Let’s see if they can resolve this broken relationship in a more satisfying way than they did the Chloe/Scott relationship.

Chloe apologises wholeheartedly. She expresses how much his friendship means to her. She needs to know they’ll be okay. She promises to never betray him again.

He’s mostly silent. He doesn’t promise they’re all good, but when the ship drops out of FTL, he does invite her to join him in seeing where they are now.

The gate has dialed a planet that has stone ruins of buildings. Cool! This is the first sign of civilisation they’ve found out here, well, other than the obelisk, but that was different. That was something constructed by intelligent beings, but no sign of an actual civilisation.

They haven’t detected any life signs on the planet with the Kino. They have 6 hours to check it out.

Eli wants to go check it out. Of course he does. Eli jumps in straight away and says she wants to go too. I think she just wants an excuse to spend some time with Eli and try to rebuild their friendship. And credit to Eli, he helps make her case for her, claiming that she’s been studying Doctor Jackson’s work. And apparently, it’s the truth because he tells her to say something archeological and she immediately replies with “Stratification.” It’s an amusing little scene. I think Young is quite amused by their attempts to sway him when they really don’t have to. He has no problem with them going.

As usual, I’m much more invested in the Chloe/Eli relationship than I am in the Chloe/Scott relationship. But this time watching through, I’m less concerned with wanting them to be a romantic pairing. I’m just enjoying the friendship that the writers are developing between them.

Rush is making good use of his university teaching. Rather than just see his class as a distraction, he’s trying to get them to help him crack the encryption. But they don’t have the answers so he tells them to leave. What use are they? They’re not really people, afterall.

That’s when Daniel shows up again.

This whole dream is Rush trying to solve the encryption on the ship’s computer, that is keeping them from controlling the ship’s path.

We learn that in reality, when Gloria really was dying, Rush became consumed with trying to solve the mystery of the ninth chevron. In the end, his wife died alone because he was away.

We begin to see, as we look at Rush’s backstory, why he is the way he is. Rush can be a massive jerk, but he’s been through a lot. These are the things that made him a jerk. There’s a whole lot of hurt and pain behind everything he says and does. We also learn how he really feels about Eli. He’s threatened by this big kid with no meaningful education who spends most of his time playing ridiculous games. It really bothers him that Eli succeeded where he failed.

This is all a good reminder to me to think about what’s really going on in people’s lives. It’s easy to dislike somebody because they’re a jerk, but sometimes we need to dig a little deeper and realise that there’s so much more going on inside them. Perhaps a great deal of hurt.

I’m not saying past hurts are justification for being a jerk, but often we fail to exercise enough compassion, because we don’t take the time to see what’s really going in people’s lives.

Daniel tries to empathise with Rush. He lost his wife too. There was nothing he could do to save Sha’re and that hurt him a lot.

This is really interesting. This is absolutely something the real Daniel would say, but this isn’t actually Daniel. He’s just being conjured up by Rush’s mind. That means that Rush must know about Sha’re’s death, because otherwise, the dream wouldn’t be able to include this particular piece of dialog. I imagine Rush has read every SG mission report from both Earth and Atlantis.

Rush dismisses this. “My wife isn’t the answer,” he says.

The data is coming more slowly from the chair so he has time to process it, but he’s not understanding it.

Again, Daniel urges Rush to spend time with his wife. She’s more important than all of this right now. But from Rush’s point of view, she’s not, because she’s not real.

And then his nose starts bleeding. That’s TV code for “This process is damaging his body in the real world.”

The nosebleed is actually happening in the real world. TJ is doing what she can for him, but there’s only so much she can do. Young is considering pulling the plug, but nobody can speculate on whether that would kill him or not.

The away team have arrived on the planet. Eli and Chloe are thrilled. The ruins look kind of greek/roman esque.

Gloria has some surprising things to say. “You have work to do. Don’t get distracted by me. There are lots of things you can change, but one thing you can’t change is what happened to me.”

Rush is with her because it doesn’t seem to matter where he is as long as he’s working. But she has to remind him that she’s not real. Interestingly, she’s giving the exact opposite advice to Daniel.

On the planet, there’s a little debate going on. Eli has investigated the tunnels under the city with the kino, but he and Chloe want to go down there. Scott and Greer can see no practical reason. Eli and Chloe just want to explore. They want the thrill of maybe finding out who lived on this planet. Scott says, “How would that help us?”

This actually reminds me of the different ways that Vulcans and humans explore space in Star Trek Enterprise. The Vulcans explore for purely practical reasons, but humans have this emotional need to know what’s out there.

Chloe points out the real possibility of finding advanced technology. A lot of advanced races found in the milky way and pegasus galaxies live in what appeared to be primitive stone architecture.

In the end, the thing that convinces them is that Eli has lost the kino in the tunnel. They can’t get the footage unless they go down and find it. So apparently, even though the image is relayed to the controller, it doesn’t get stored there. The footage is stored within the Kino itself.

There’s an awkward moment when Eli jokes with Greer about being scared to go in the caves. He meant no malice by it, but it turns out Greer is a little claustrophobic. Clearly something happened to him as a kid. Just a little hint into his character, which I believe will be further explored in the future. When you look at a tough-guy like Greer, it’s easy to forget they have weaknesses and flaws just like everyone else.

Despite his dismissal of Daniel’s words, and despite Gloria’s own urging, Rush is spending time with her, working in her company. Out for a walk or in the hospital.

Gloria was apparently a Christian. She was drawing comfort from her faith during her last days. Rush has no time for religion but he sits with her, working as always, just to be with her.

Chloe gets caught in spiderwebs and wants to go back. But Greer spots what can only be described as the giant spider from hell. It’s nasty. And he does what we’ve always wanted to do when seeing a scary spider. He shoots it with a machine gun. Of course this spider is as big as a medium dog, so the machine gun makes sense. The bad news is that the gunfire also collapsed the tunnel, trapping them down there.

I’m pretty amused by Scott’s line to Young, “it was a sizable spider, Sir.”

Rush has the information he needs from Destiny, but he can’t understand it, and he doesn’t think staying in this dream any longer is going to help. He reaches for the door that will wake him up.

But Daniel asks “How’s the wife?”

Why is Daniel so insistent on Rush spending time with her.

Apparently, today is the day she dies. No wonder Rush doesn’t want to stick around. How could you live through that again?

Rush starts to wonder why Daniel keeps saying he should be with Gloria. Daniel says it is the 6th of April, but Gloria didn’t die on the 6th of April. The address of his house is supposed to be 4, but it says 46. He’s been seeing the number 46 everywhere since the dream started.

In the real world, Rush has suffered a cardiac event. Staying in this chair is going to kill him eventually. Even Brody is starting to think it might be best to try waking him. The rescue team, Young sent to get the away team out of the tunnels are not going to complete their work in time, but if Rush has figured out the master code to the ship, he might be able to stall the ship going into FTL, to buy them time to complete the rescue, but that means risking Rush’s life to save the others.

But then, if they leave him in the dream, he’s going to die eventually anyway.

Young faces quite the difficult decision. I’m glad it’s not me.

James is gonna try blowing a hole in the roof of the tunnel with C4. It’s risky, but they don’t have time for anything else.

The resulting visual of the tunnel collapsing over a wide area tells us all we need to know. James has made it worse. There’s no way they’re gonna get the team out of there now.

Scott orders them to abandon the rescue and return to Destiny while they still can.

Rush goes to see his wife in the hospital. He doesn’t know what 46 means yet but he assumes being with his wife is important somehow.

So now he has to sit here and watch her die. There could be nothing harder in life.

Gloria has some hard things to say to him, about the person he’s allowed himself to become. How his loss has made him twisted and bitter. Rush is no longer the man she loved. He’s become calloused. He says that man died with her, but she’s having none of that. “I was never your conscience, Nick.” That’s a cop-out.

“I know how much you loved me, stop taking it out on everyone else.”

This whole experience is actually a healing one for Rush. He’s had to face some hard truths about himself, about the person he’s become.

That’s when he wakes. Young grabs him immediately. “We’ve got five minutes to stop this ship from going into FTL. People’s lives are at stake. But Rush can’t do that. He never did crack the code.

Young tells Scott they can’t do anything more. Scott understands and acknowledges. Young tells him not to give up. It’s not over.

But the timer runs out and Destiny jumps.

So Scott, Greer, Chloe and Eli are stranded on an alien planet.

That’s got to be a gut-wrenching realisation for them. Once again, the show is stranding main characters on an alien world with no way to get back to destiny, and no way to make the ship return for them.

Rush doesn’t have all the answers, but he does have 46. That’s the number of Chromosomes in human DNA, apparently. Remember the ancients were essentially a previous iteration of humans. Most ancient technology is protected by a special gene which only they had. A select number of humans also have the gene, but Destiny was built much earlier. It doesn’t use that gene. But the ancients still tied the security system in the ship's computer into their genetic code somehow.

Now they have a place to start. Perhaps in time, they’ll be able to finally control the ship’s navigation systems.

And that’s where we leave the episode.

It was good fun to see the return of Daniel Jackson. He was used effectively in this episode. Technically, it wasn’t really Daniel, but we did get some hint of how the real Daniel was involved in recruiting Rush for the Stargate program. And that’s pretty cool.

This is a great episode. It does some beautiful exploration of Rush’s character. I love how it impacts him personally. We get a lot more insight into who he is, and why. It’ll be fun to see how he changes over time, if he’ll really take Gloria’s advice to stop taking his pain out on others.

And what about those people trapped on the planet. Will we ever see them again?

We’ll have to keep watching to find out.

Next time, we’ll be looking at the episode Lost, which will deal with what happens to the away team.

It should be fun.

If you haven’t checked out any of my fiction yet, remember that you can read my prequel story Fall of the HMAS Adelaide for free. It’s a nice little stand-alone story in my Jewel of The Stars universe that details first contact between humans and aliens, and how it went wrong.

Just go to adamdavidcollings.com/free to get your copy.

Have a great two weeks, live long and prosper.

Make it so.

The Stargate franchise has tackled themes of religion and spirituality in the past, but today's episode might just be one of the best examples. Stargate Universe "Faith" presents us with a massive science fiction mystery. The episode delves into questions of faith and duty. Join me as I dig into this wonderful episode.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

This is episode 62 of the podcast.

The description on gateworld reads

It was written by Denis McGrath

Stargate has been examining questions of religion and faith since the very beginning. From the original movie and into SG1. Atlantis leaned on it less but it was definitely still there. But these shows rarely used subtlety and nuance on the subject, although they did some interesting stuff with the Ori inn seasons 9 and 10. Today’s episode has more of that subtlety and nuance than the Jaffa’s faith in the very obviously false gods, the Goa’huld.

When TJ wakes up, she’s got really long hair. And I’m thinking, didnn’t she have short hair up until now? That seems to be the military norm. But when we see her later, I realise that it’s all kind of tied up. So I guess she’s always had long hair. I’m not very observant about these kinds of things.

They’re all working to repair the ship, seal off the breaches in the hull from the alien’s boarding parties.

For all his faults, Young is trying, really trying, to get along with Rush and find a way to work with him. Young has always been the more gracious of the two. It’s really hard to know what’s going on in Rush’s head, because he doesn’t betray a lot. I don’t think he cares anything that Young is trying, again, to extend the hand of peace. I think, to Rush, Young is irrelevant. Beneath him.

It seems Chloe and Scott are not currently speaking to each other. Which is correct. If this was a 90s show, they would all be back to normal now, resuming their relationship, with no memory of the coup that happened last episode. I’m so glad that TV moved to a more serialised medium. Although, as we’ll see later, they’ll still resolved their relationship a lot quicker and easier than I think they should have.

Scott is trying to make an effort to follow Young’s orders regarding the civilians. Greer doesn’t like it, at all. TJ doesn’t seem keen either, but she may have bigger problems. Scott thinks she looks sick.

The ship drops out of FTL in empty space, and the gate isn’t dialing. That’s a first. Young says there are no planets, no stars. He says this based on the records in the computer, but those looking out the window can see there is clearly a star out there.

It would seem that Destiny’s records are out of date. The seed ships are supposed to relay information back to Destiny about the various star systems.

Destiny has already plotted a parabolic course around the star so it can resume its course. It’ll take a few weeks, but here’s the exciting  part. There’s a planet. Just one. Same size as earth and by all accounts a perfect paradise. They can’t gate to the planet but it’s within shuttle range. They usually only have about a day to investigate a planet, but in this case they have weeks.

This is a big mystery. According to scans, the planet is a few hundred millions of years old. So why didn’t the seed ship see it and drop a stargate on it? The seed ships aren’t that far ahead of Destiny. Even weirder, they think that given the age of the star, the planet should be a ball of molten rock.

The planet does look beautiful. Like Canada, in the truest tradition of SG1, but it still looks a little different, because of the way they shoot it.

Greer is an idiot. He finds a fruit that looks exactly like a kiwi. He takes a big bite rather than waiting for a scientific analysis to determine whether it’s poisonous. Anyway, this is the first alien food they’ve found that actually tastes good. And there’s fresh water down there too.

But Scott sounds a little word of caution. They haven’t detected any animals, especially dangerous ones, but who knows what comes out at night.

This is a nice subtle callback to Time, where the nice jungle planet became a living hell at night because of the creatures that emerged. I like the big connective story arcs in shows like this, but I also appreciate these little subtle moments that you might not even catch if you’re not paying attention. The first season of Farscape did a lot of this kind of thing and I know people appreciated that.

This planet is wonderful. They’re all feeling it. TJ especially. It reminds her of childhood camping trips. Scott has to practically drag her away when it’s time to return to the ship with their findings.

And this is when things get really interesting. They’re flying over the mountains and they spot an obelisk. Bit tall stone thing, not quite Egyptian, but very eye-catching. Who could have put it there? It’s just sitting there in the middle of the wilderness.

Rush says the planet, and the star, were placed here after the seed ships passed by. He doesn't actually explain his reasoning, other than the fact that there’s no stargate and it’s not in the records. There could be other explanations.

But assuming he’s right, for a race to have created this star and planet, they would be more advanced than any race ever encountered in the Stargate universe, more advanced than the Goa'uld, the Asgard, even the Ancients. One of the things I like science fiction for, is the sense of wonder, the sense of awe. And this episode really delivers on that.

Clearly, this planet bears deeper investigation, but they’re almost out of shuttle range. Rush suggests sending a team down now and then picking them back in a month when Destiny loops back around on the other side, on it’s way out of the system.

That’s a risk, of course, because there could be aliens down there we haven’t seen yet, but oh man, it’s compelling. And the food and medicine alone makes it worth the risk.

Surprisingly, it’s Eli who argues against this. At first, that might seem odd. He’s the geek, just like us. He loves science fiction. His imagination would be just as captivated as mine is, but facing real aliens is a whole different thing to watching them on TV or reading about them in books. Eli has less experience with aliens than anyone else on this ship. He didn’t even know about the Stargate program until the day he left Earth. The history of the show so far has shown us that Eli has reacted with understandable fear in the face of their few aliens encounters so far. So he’s actually being very consistent with his established character right now.

Camille would like to go down but she’s not sure about Rush’s calculations. She asks TJ “can he be trusted?” and TJ’s reply is “You tell me.” I think this is a bit of a dig at Camille for her involvement in the civilian uprising with Rush.

Chloe is going down to the planet, and so is Scott. That could be awkward, but at least they say a few words to each other.

Eli is remaining on Destiny, really not happy about people going down there.

Tensions are still pretty high. The military are very much running the show on this mission, but there’s some real resentment. One officer tells a civilian to dig a hole for the toilet. He refuses. Greer is kind of amused but annoyed that the officer made the civilian do this dirty job. So he makes them do it together. In his own Greer way, this is him trying to live the new spirit of cooperation as ordered.

Chloe has also noticed that TJ doesn’t look well. Given how little they get to eat on Destiny it’s no wonder they’re all not sick.

Camille asks Eli what he thinks about the planet. Is it really possible to make a star? Eli says the star appeared out of nowhere. And the planet’s age doesn’t line up with what it should be.

And I find that very interesting. Evidence of extra-natural creation, if not supernatural creation.

And then Scott has a chat with Caine down on the planet. He appreciates that Scott is one of the few military that seem to really mean it when they say they want to mend fences, and now they’ve been given the perfect opportunity to work it all out. Time to really think and talk, and work together. Through unbelievable circumstances. How can this be anything other than a miracle, he asks.

And I agree. Now you can debate the source of this miracle as long as you like, but I don’t think anyone down on that planet could really argue that the word miracle doesn’t apply here.

This leads to a bunch of the people down on the planet discussing issues of a spiritual nature. Is there such a thing as fate? Is there a God with a plan? TJ is holding her personal cards pretty close to her chest. Chloe seems to be leaning slightly toward the spiritual side of the argument, rather than the naturalistic view of the random scientist guy.

There are a couple of amusing scenes in this episode where Brody and Park are trying to repair the second shuttle, remember, the one Senator Armstrong died in. Whenever Young asks for an update, Brody says “Oh, it’s going terrible,” and at the same moment, Park says “It’s going great.” These scenes get a good chuckle out of me. And I totally get it. I see these extremes in my own work as a software developer.

You see, developing a software product, or repairing an alien shuttle, is a project that needs to be broken down into steps. My computer science teacher used to ask the question “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer, “One bite at a time.”

Anyway, It’ll certainly be handy to have two shuttles instead of just one when it’s time to get the people and supplies back up.

Scott and Chloe seem to be talking again. Things seem to improve after Scott catches her swimming naked in a lake. Because, you know, sexy feelings are all it takes to overcome differences apparently.

I think one reason the writers may have fast-tracked this reconciliation is that they needed Chloe and Scott to be willing to stay on the planet, or return to Destiny, for each other. Their relationship needed to be fixed so that we could believe they’d both be willing to make their respective sacrifice.

This is when we learn that TJ is pregnant. 15 weeks. Just before she arrived in Icarus apparently. It seems pretty obvious that Young is the father. There’s those inconvenient consequences again.

One of the reasons they wrote this particular plot arc is that Alaina Huffman who played TJ was pregnant in real life. I worked out pretty well, though, because the writers were already toying with the idea of having a pregnancy, figuring it would be interesting to see a character have to struggle with the idea of raising a child on destiny and all the extra complications that would bring.

Anyway, TJ was kind of the perfect character to use for the poregnancy story, because it was already established that she’d had a prior relationship with Young, and this whole thing only complicate’s Young’s situation with his wife further.

It was pretty common for TV writers to have to find creative ways to deal with actor pregnancy. It happened on Star Trek a lot. There’s a reason Doctor Crusher and B'elanna Torres suddenly started wearing big flowing coats over their uniforms, although they did write B’elanna’s pregnancy as a holodeck simulation into one episode. In DS9, they had a bit more fun with it, transferring the maby of Miles and Keiko O’Brien into Kira’s body due to a medical emergency after a runabout accident.

Rush is exploring new parts of the ship while they’re not in FTL and he’s found some kind of big device that James describes as a robot. That’s interesting.

Chloe admits to Scott that she’s starting to see things Caine’s way. Somebody put this planet here for a reason, maybe for them. Be it, God, or an alien of some kind. Maybe there is some higher power in the universe that knew the crew of Destiny needed help.

Sadly, it’s about time to start preparing to return to Destiny. They’ve gathered a lot of food

Rush is feeling that same sadness. He doesn’t need to be down on the planet experiencing it like Volker, but he hungers for answers just as much as anyone else.

TJ is thinking of staying on the planet. A few others are as well, but TJ is determined. Caine thinks anyone capable of creating this solar system could certainly help them get back home. Greer and Scott assume such aliens would be hostile. Chloe, and Canine seem to assume the opposite.

Caine says “This planet was created for us. We were led here for a reason.” He says it so emphatically.

Now, I’m a person of faith. I don’t try to hide that. But faith has to be anchored in something. A collection of scriptures, somebody’s teachings, eyewitness accounts of something miraculous. In order to have faith, you need something to put faith in.

So they have hard evidence of what can only be assumed to be miraculous. A level of technology so far beyond what we can understand that the word miraculous would seem to apply.

But Caine is convinced he knows why the planet was made, who it was made for, and that it is part of a larger plan that involves the humans. But he has absolutely nothing to base that on. 

So it’s hard to even call what he’s exercising faith. It’s actually closer to imagination. He’s just making stuff up.

So while Caine is putting all his hope on the return of the aliens, TJ is okay with them never returning. This planet has food and water. The winters get cold there, well below freezing. Okay. I live in Tasmania. We get below freezing in winter, but I’ve been watching some videos from my favourite travel vloggers recently. They’ve been staying at Yellowstone National Park. And that place gets way colder than we ever get in Tassie. They’ll need much better shelter, but there are plenty of trees to cut down.

And that’s when TJ finally tells Scott she’s pregnant. That’s why she can’t go back to the ship. She doesn’t want to have her baby on Destiny. What kind of a life would that be?

When Scott finally makes contact with Young, as Destiny draws close, he tells him there are 11 people that want to stay behind. Caine and TJ we know. Chloe wants to stay as well, and so does Scott. He says he feels an obligation to help the people survive down there, but I think he probably wants to stay because of Chloe. 

And this is where we have to face the question of personal rights versus responsibility to the group. TJ is their medic. She’s the closest thing they have to a doctor. Nobody else comes close. If she stays on the planet then the crew have no medical care at all.  Does she have the right to deny them that? Do they have the right to deny her a change to raise her child on the planet?

I think in the case of TJ and Scott, they do have an obligation to follow orders. They’re military personnel. They have a duty to their commanding officer. But then, TJ technically finished her tour of duty. She was gonna head back to earth before they ended up on this ship. So how does that fit into it?

Hard questions.

So now we have Camille and Rush offering different perspectives. Camille feels the people have the right to choose whether to return or not. Rush believes that Young should round them up at gunpoint and force them back on board for the good of the crew.

Young says not all of them have the right to choose, which brings us back to the duty of the military people.

Scott hasn’t told Young about TJ’s pregnancy. That’s her job. Scott knows about their prior relationship, but apparently not anyone else on the ship does.

Young has made his decision. He is gonna let some of them stay, and he’s giving them the second shuttle. The damaged one. He flies it down himself, which is quite a risk. The shuttle may not do them much good, as it may never be able to be fully repaired. But it does make it down in one piece.

I was surprised to see Greer as on who wanted to remain behind.

Young tells Rush he’s sorry he didn’t get his wish. Aliens smart enough to build a solar system. Finally someone Rush can have a decent conversation with.

Scott asks  Young a very important question. “What if that planet was a lifeline and we just let it go?”

And despite Caine having no evidence for his assertions about the aliens wanting to help us all, it is an important question. That planet was perfectly suited to human habitation. It was right there when they needed it. It’s very possible that somebody did put it there for them.

In the end, there was one reason why Young argued for staying on Destiny. Because he believes it’s still the best chance to get home. And without anything to corroborate Caine’s theories, he’s right.

But maybe building a new life on that planet is a valid alternative to trying to get home. They could live the rest of their lives there. It might be a better life than forever clinging to the faint hope that they could get home.

Star Trek Voyager addressed this question in the episode The 37s. Not a bad episode, but I think this one explores the question more deeply. In Voyager, nobody chose to stay, but I think they had more reason to hope they’d make it back to earth in their lifetime than the crew of Destiny do.

The episode closes with the contrast of Young everyone else smiling and laughing as they have their first good meal in a very very long time, while TJ sits alone in the medical bay with tears streaming down her face.

Yeah, I really feel for her.

I really like this episode. The created planet is one of those great science fiction concepts that inspire the imagination, and it raised some thought-provoking questions about faith and duty.

If this had been a Star Trek original series episode, they would have solved the mystery. They’d have found out who made the planet, and why. And that is certainly a valid story to tell. And it would still have had a sense of wonder to it. But Stargate Universe doesn’t do that. It leaves us in the dark, setting things up to be further explored in the future. Stargate Universe is playing the long game. And I love that.

What really sucks is that the show didn’t continue long enough to give us more answers and explore it all deeper. It’s looking like there’s a strong chance we’ll eventually get a new Stargate Show, and I know Brad Wright has plans to address the fate of Destiny. I can only hope that we learn more about this mysterious planet and whoever created it. And that those answers are satisfying. That’s always the danger with these big set ups. It can be hard to pay them off satisfactorily.

But there you have it. Faith. I’m remembering how much I enjoyed the second half of this season.

Next week, we’ll be looking at an episode called Human. It’ll take us on a deep dive into Rush’s backstory, which is cool, and we may even see a familiar face.

Please consider giving Nerd Heaven a review wherever you listen to podcasts, and spread the word to anyone who might be interested.

Have a great two weeks.

Make it so.

The show has been building toward this for a few episodes, but here it is. We're facing a civil war between the civilians and the military on board Destiny. and if that wasn't bad enough, those aliens we met last episode are still out there and will certainly be trying to find us again.

There's lots of think about in this episode of Stargate Universe. Let's dive into it together.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 61 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Stargate Universe episode “Divided.”

The description on gateworld reads

Colonel Young's opponents launch a coup to take control of the ship, pitting the military against civilians.

This episode was written by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie

It was directed by Felix Enrique Alcala

And it first aired on the 4th of September 2010.

Chloe is wandering the ship at night. She is clearly still trying to come to terms with her abduction last episode. That’s totally believable. It’s the kind of thing that would give you nightmares, if you could even fall asleep at all.

The frightening images accompanied by the heavy rocks music is a very effective combination.

So she is managing to get to sleep, but she has nightmares every single time.

Scott wants to help her, but honestly doesn’t know how.

So instead she ends up in the mess hall with Rush. He’s the one person who can at least understand what she’s going through.

These two seem to be bonding over their shared experience. Remember back at the beginning of season 1? Chloe hated Rush because she blamed him for the death of her father.

They’ve both come to the conclusion that the aliens will find them again. They’re not safe.

We get a solution to the big mystery from last episode. Why did the communication stones connect Young to the alien ship?

Young’s theory is that when he first opened the box in episode 1, Rush took one of the communication stones for himself. Some kind of insurance policy. He had it on his person, and so when the aliens took him on board their ship, they touched it, and that’s why the system connected Young to one of them, instead of a human back on Earth.

Rush doesn’t confirm or deny it. I think we can safely assume that Young’s theory is correct.

Rush is more interested in how the aliens found us in the first place. He’s been having flashes since his experience, much like Chloe is. He’s convinced the aliens have put a tracking device on Destiny’s hull. That they’ve been tracking the ship long before humans showed up on it. Destiny is something of an obsession for them. I can understand that. This mysterious advanced ship without a crew flying through space.

Imagine how they must have felt when the humans suddenly appeared on the ship, which could even be a holy relic to them.

Destiny will be out of FTL for several hours so this is the perfect time to search the hull.

The hole cut by the boarding aliens provides a very convenient exit route for the Kino.

Greer has a frank conversation with Young. He doesn’t know who put the gun in Young’s quarters, but he has strong suspicions, and he still thinks the ship is better off without Rush. He’s willing to stand with Young if anything goes down.

Young doesn’t say anything. This kind of conflict is the last thing he wants.

While Eli is searching with the Kino, Rush is mysteriously showing an ancient research lab to Camille. “Do we have to do it now?” she asks.

“We’ll never have a better time,” Rush answers.

It’s clear Rush is up to more than he’s let on to Young. He tells Camille to get her people in position.

The Kino has found an alien shuttle mounted to Destiny’s hull. That’s how they’ve been tracking the ship. It’s been there since before the humans arrived. Young and Scott go out in a shuttle to destroy it.

Brody is in on this thing too. He’s a little shocked when TJ enters the lab. He does a very clumsy job of trying to explain the call to her.

The tension builds nicely as the ominous music plays. Young’s shuttle won’t lock to the ship. Eli is locked out of the computer so he can’t help. This is a big problem for Young because if the shuttle’s not locked down when they go to FLT, it won’t be enveloped by the bubble. Worst case scenario, they get left behind. The more likely scenario, the shuttle gets vaporised.

It’s pretty clear at this point that Chloe is either involved or at least knows something about it.

Young orders Greer to find Rush. Chloe tells Rush to stop whatever he’s doing. Apparently, the inability for the shuttle to dock wasn’t part of the plan, and she doesn’t want Scott to die.

Eli is in a really sticky situation.

Rush admits that he’s in the process of taking control of the computer system away from Eli. Eli can’t stop that, but his efforts are delaying the process. Right now, nobody has control, so nobody can save the shuttle.

If Eli stops his efforts, Rush promises to lock the clamps down once he has control.

But Young orders Eli not to listen to Rush, but to keep trying to wrest control back.

What a situation! I’m so glad I’m not in Eli’s shoes right now. Even putting aside the question of who he should side with, it’s hard to know what to do. If he keeps trying, there’s no guarantee he’ll succeed. But if he gives up control to Rush, there’s no guarantee Rush will keep up his end of the bargain.

Eli is stuck right in the middle of the power struggle.

So who is going to blink first? Chloe and Camille, who are on Rush’s side, want him to shut it down and release control back to Eli. That will put an end to everything they’re trying to do.

In order for Young and Scott to live, somebody is going to have to relinquish control.

In the end, Rush is the one to give up. Eli engages the clamps and saves Young and Scott.

So what we have here is basically a civilian uprising against the military forces on the ship.

Brody hasn’t been able to do what he’s supposed to do because TJ, who is military, is in the room.

Camille has taken control of the ship and locked most of the military out of key areas. A couple of people are stuck on the wrong side of the wall, including TJ and a no-name soldier. Eli is on the military side, although he knew nothing of this uprising.

Camilla says Young’s actions have given her no choice.

TJ outranks the soldier. As she says, “Well, we’re not gonna go and shoot everyone, so put the gun down.”

Young assumes this is just a personal thing between him and Rush, but this is so much bigger than that. Almost all the civilians on the ship are in on this.

The civilians have all the food and water supplies, but since Rush released control prematurely, the military side have control over life support.

Poor Eli is stuck in the middle as usual. “Am I the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on here?” he asks. From Eli’s perspective, he can’t understand why people can’t just get along.

The civilians have about 3 days of air in reserve. The military would have to go that long without water. It’s a standoff.

They trade some food and water for Eli. Young agrees to this because there’s another way into the other side.

Eli is shocked that Chloe is going along with this.

Chloe’s position is that Rush was an inconvenience, so Rush left him alone to die.

Young has admitted this was a mistake. He shouldn’t have done it.

But that doesn’t take away the consequences.

You see, that’s what I love about serialised shows like Stargate Universe. Consequences.

Consequences in fiction are fantastic.

Camille has an interesting point. In every civilised society in the world, the military answers to a civilian government. If you view Destiny as a small community of people then technically, what we have right now is a military dictatorship.

So where do you sit on all of this? I’m honestly interested in your thoughts, so please feel free to leave a comment on youTube, or podbean, or tweet me at @adamcollings

I’ve always been torn, watching this episode.

On one hand, I’m very much a follow the rules and do what’s right kinda guy. So the idea of revolting against the leadership of any community, be it a ship, a state, a country, goes against every grain that is in me.

On the other hand, I am a civilian myself, so I kinda feel some sympathy for the civilians on the ship. I’ve never liked the way the military throw their weight around in the second half of this episode. I understand why they do it, but it makes them feel kinda like bullies.

If I were in Eli’s position, stuck in the middle between these two sides, I don’t know what I’d do. I’d just be really mad, as I think he is, at both sides for letting things come to this.

Rush is wanting to get as much power as he can to direct into the shields. He says we’re gonna need it.

Two of the military personnel are walking in spacesuits on the hull in an effort to covertly enter the civilian part of the ship. 

And that’s when the aliens show up again. That’s why Rush wants the shields.

The alien shuttle was only one tracking device. There’s another surgically implanted in Young’s chest. That’s awkward.

Rush knows a lot more about the situation with the aliens than he’s let on. For a long time, the aliens have been attacking destiny, trying to get on board. The ship’s automated defences stop them, and they give up for a while.

They’re attacking now because they’re hoping the human crew will make a mistake. Rush believes that if they can keep the shields up long enough to jump away, the aliens will give up their pursuit.

It seems logical, but it’s by no means certain.

Young and Greer have made it into the other side of the ship.

TJ also makes a good point. This isn’t just about listening to others points of view. The minute the civilians took over the ship, they made it war, and that’s what the military are good at. They’ll re-take the ship. Guaranteed.

And she’s right. Young isn’t going to listen to anything they have to say, not now. Oh, he’ll be willing to have discussions once this is resolved, but as long as the civilians are rising up against them, he has only one goal. Put them down.

There has always been an uneasiness between civilians and military in the Stargate world. Senator Kensey spent years trying to wrest control of the Stargate from the US Air Force. Then there’s the whole IOA thing. They were constantly trying to interfere with the Atlantis expedition.

But it’s never come to a head quite like this.

So while all of this is happening, the aliens are now shooting at Destiny.

Greer has opened up the door to allow Scott and the others into the civilian side.

Scott says “use force if you have to, but remember, we still have to live with these people tomorrow.” That’s smart.

There’s an awkward moment when Scott walks inn and rescues TJ. Chloe doesn’t put up any resistance. How can she?

She and Scott just kinda look at each other, two lovers on opposite sides of this conflict.

The scene where Greer and the other soldiers burst into the room yelling, pointing guns and knocking people to the floor, that kinda makes me angry. I’m not necessarily saying they’re in the wrong, I just don’t like the way they go in throwing their weight around. They have the strength, so what they say goes. It feels very much like Bully kinda behaviour. I think that attitude is why a lot of the civilians on the ship are feeling very upset about the whole situation. But they’re soldiers. This is what they do. You don’t try to out soldier a bunch of soldiers and think they won’t put you down.

Young has arrived in the control room, and, of course, he and Rush disagree on how best to handle the situation with the aliens. Rush believes the best option is to keep the shields up. We’ve already talked about his plan.

Young disagrees. I wonder how much of his disagreement is solely because it’s Rush saying it?

He comes seriously close to shooting Rush. If Scott hadn’t turned up, he might have actually done it. But that would hardly help his reputation around here.

Eli tells Young about the transmitter in Rush’s chest.

So they’re gonna use the stones to bring in a qualified surgeon from Earth. She’s in Chloe’s body.

TJ has used some of the venom from the aliens back in the episode time, to knock Rush out. It’s the closest thing they have to anaesthetic. Gotta use what you can, right?

The surgeon is a little taken-aback by the makeshift nature of everything. A surgical camera made from a modified Kino, alien drugs. She obviously has clearance, so probably works for the SGC, but even so, back on Earth, under Cheyenne Mountain, they have all the normal human conveniences.

Eli thinks Rush is right about his tactic, but the shields don’t have enough power. They won’t hold long enough.

Young wants to shoot back but that’ll just drain the power faster.

The doctor found the implant, which is gonna be hard to remove, and then they lose the connection. Poor Chloe finds herself there with her hands figuratively in Rush’s chest.

And even worse, Rush wakes up mid-operation because the alien venom is an untried anaesthetic. They manage to knock him out with another dose, and TJ has no choice but to take over. She removes the tracking device from Rush’s chest.

The tracker is gone, but the aliens are still firing at them.

The timer runs out and they jump. Finally free of the aliens.

I like how in the midst of all this, all the conflicts between the military and civilians were set aside. They worked together to stay alive.

But now they have to address what happens next.

Greer is worried about guarding them all, but Young says it’s over.

Once again, Young admits to Camille that he knows he shouldn’t have left Rush behind. I really like this moment, the way Young says “You think I don’t know that.”

This is why I love Young. He owns up to his mistakes and he tries to be better.

The episode closes with the acknowledgement that it’s not really over.

Learning to move forward and work together after this is going to be tough.

I love how this episode pits groups of people against each other, both with legitimate points of view. In the end, I don’t think we’re really supposed to root for one side or the other. We’re just supposed to lament how badly things have broken down.

This is great drama.

Clearly, Young has some things he has to address. Rush is a troublemaker, and even Camilla can be problematic, but if even people like Chloe, Brody and Volker were willing to go along with this, then the civilian population of the ship have some legitimate grievances, which Young is gonna have to work through.

But the way the civilians went about it was wrong. They should have talked.

And questions of ethics aside, trying to take over the ship from military personnel was doomed to failure right from the start.

Very interesting times.

Let’s see how this continues to unfold as the story progresses.

Next week, we introduce a whole new plot element which will become important, in the episode “Faith”.

I’m looking forward to revisiting it with you.

I recently sent an email out to my list explaining that the publication of my next Jewel of The Stars book is on hold indefinitely because of my family’s current financial situation. I’d had to use all my publication savings just to survive while we went through a period of only one income.

But thanks to my birthday, and the generosity of my family, things are looking a little better. So I feel like I’m getting back on track. I can’t wait to share book 3 with my readers. 

Don’t forget, if you haven’t checked out Jewel of The Stars yet, you can get it anywhere you buy ebooks for just 99 cents, or in paperback from places like Amazon and Book Depository.

Have a great two weeks.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

We have our first true encounter with aliens in the Stargate Universe episode Space. And they're pretty cool. True aliens. But why is Colonel Young suddenly connecting to them with the stones rather than Earth? And will we ever see Doctor Rush again?

Things are really starting to heat up on the show now. Let's dig in and talk about Space.

----more----

Welcome to Nerd Heaven. 

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd

This is episode 60 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Stargate Universe episode “Space”.

I’d like to give a little shout out to Melanie who tweeted me recently to tell me how much she’s enjoying the podcast. Thanks Melanie. Your message was very encouraging and meant a lot to me.

And thanks also to Briz_bree who left a review on iTunes. Thanks so much. Reviews are so valuable because they help other people find the podcast.

I’m recording this on my 43rd birthday, which means, I am now officially older than life, the universe, and everything. And my birthday happens to fall on Easter Sunday this year, so it has even more special meaning to me.

The description for week’s episode on Gateworld reads

A mishap with the communication stones sends Colonel Young's consciousness to an alien vessel, provoking the crew's first extraterrestrial encounter.

This episode was written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie

It was directed by Andy Mikita

And it first aired on the second of april 2010.

I believe there was a break between the last episode and this. Kinda of a mid-season pause, which they seem to do in America. Last week left off with what must have felt like a big cliffhanger, with Rush stranded on an alien planet and Destiny leaving the system behind.

The little voiceover bit they do at the beginning of each episode is different now. They seem to change it every half season, so this is the voiceover we’ll have for the rest of season 1.

TJ is encouraging Young to talk about his feelings regarding the recent losses of people under his command. He feels like he let Spencer down. So does she. She understands that one. And she points out there’s been a lot going on between him and Rush, but she doesn’t know the half of it. He doesn’t want to talk about it because he needs to keep it secret that he deliberately left Rush behind.

And I understand him needing to keep his secret, but he really should talk about Spencer. No doubt he’s got a lot of guilt regarding Spencer’s death. He needs to address that, and he needs to make sure it doesn’t happen again to anyone else on the ship.

Camille is already on to him. She doesn’t have any proof, but she suspects there is more to the situation than what he is telling her. Young thinks she’s just trying to get control of the ship back.

Greer thinks they’re all better off without Rush. Which is pretty harsh really. As Doctor Caine points out “well what’s the criteria? If you don’t measure up you get left behind?”

Young has to make his report. 

But this is new. Young doesn’t wake up on earth. He seems to be on a spaceship, but not Destiny. He’s wearing some kind of suit, and then he spots an alien. A real honest to God honest. Blue skin, elongated head, the works.

This is our first alien species on Stargate Universe. Apart from the swarm thing, of course.

But if Young is in the body of a mysterious alien, then….that means there’s an alien in his body, on Destiny.

And that can’t be good.

It immediately starts attacking the crew. Lucky Scott and Greer are there. They can handle themselves. Caine thinks quickly and removes the stone, severing the connection.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen Caine before. It took me a while to figure out why he was doing here. I thought he was using the stones to go to Earth, just as Young was. He says he’s an IT technician. That might sound like a useful person to have on the ship, but as he says, he fixes earth computers. Imagine how different computers built by another species millions of years ago would be. What kind of operating system would it have? What would its machine code be like? Would it even have machine code? Would it operate even remotely like what we know today?

It’s at this point where I finally figure out Caine’s role. He’s operating the stone communication device. Riley usually does it but he’s still injured from the ancient chair.

That makes a bit more sense.

Now here’s one of the things I like about Stargate Universe over the previous two shows in the franchise. It really does aliens. Sure we saw aliens in the previous shows, but most planets they visited were populated by humans. Even in the Pegasus Galaxy. When we did see aliens, they were the typical 90s Star Trek alien. Humans with a bit of rubber on their faces.

I love 90s Star Trek, but what we get in SGU seems more …. Well…..alien.

They really took their time introducing aliens in this show. I think some people were frustrated that they had to wait so long, and I get that, I really do. But I think the way they handled it, by the time we finally saw aliens, we were primed to really feel a sense of awe about it. This ship is so far from home. Any species we encounter are going to be so different, so unknown to us. They’ve never encountered a human before, so we’re as alien to them as they are to us. And I love that.

Anyway, nobody knows why the stones took Young to an alien ship so until they figure it out, the communication stones are off limits. That seems a wise precaution.

Camille finds it very convenient that the stones happened to malfunction just after their recent talk, when she was planning to shed doubt on his story of what happened to Rush.

She’s wrong about Young here, but I don’t blame her for thinking what she’s thinking. It is awfully convenient for Young. But is he really going to cut them off from Earth’s support forever? Because unless he’s willing to do that, faking a stone malfunction is only going to delay the inevitable, so there’s no real point.

Camille was never the biggest fan of Rush, but she is really taking up his cause right now, because if Young DID kill him, or strand him, then that’s an injustice that can’t go unpunished.

They’re starting to get some food supplies on the ship. No doubt they’ve had a couple of planetary excursions that we haven’t seen on screen because nothing went wrong. They still have to get used to the unusual tastes, but at least they have real food they can eat.

Eli is pretty grumpy. Young’s had him working day and night trying to understand everything Rush was up to.

And this is when we learn that the entire ship is rife with rumours. Everyone is debating whether Young killed Rush.

The seeds of something have been planted and are growing toward what will come to a head next episode.

Camille is talking with other civilians. The military personnel are the ones that call all the shorts. What we eat, where we sleep. “Yeah,” one of them points out. “They’re the ones with all the guns.”

I’d forgotten this was foreshadowed here. I love serialised continuity like this.

Anyway, Eli has heard their little conversation through the kino.

And the ship drops out of FTL.

They’ve found a rather alien looking planet with purple plants. Pretty cool.

This show really does make an effort to put a little more science in the science fiction.

No sooner have they sent a kino through the gate to investigate the planet, another spaceship shows up. An alien spaceship.

How cool is that?

They’ve also abandoned the convenient “Let’s just pretend all aliens speak english” thing that both SG1 and Atlantis. I get why they did that, and in fairness SGU kinda continues that idea with any race from the Milky Way. For example, all the Lucian alliance people speak english, even though they’re not from Earth. They really should have their own languages.

But the aliens, the real aliens, they don’t just magically understand our language.

In fact, from memory, I’m not sure we even hear them speak out loud.

I’m bringing this up because Eli wants to communicate. He knows how to broadcast a signal from destiny, but there’s no way the aliens will understand English.

Eli hopes they understand ancient. But even that’s a pretty huge long shot.

Young suspects this is the same ship he was on this morning.

Young suspects the aliens have been keeping an eye on them for a while. That’s the only way they could have found Destiny so fast.

And then they respond to Eli’s message. One single word. Surrender. And it’s in English.

Clearly they know more about us than we do about them. Remember at the very end of Air Part 3, we saw some kind of shuttle detach from Destiny and fly off into space?

Well Young has decided the time for talk is over. Clearly the aliens aren’t interested in a peaceful exchange.

So he orders the ship’s weapons brought on line. We know the crew have access to the weapons because they used them a few episodes back to drain the ship’s batteries.

I really feel for Eli in all of this. With Rush gone, all this comes down to him. As he says “Hey, first space battle here.” The world always ends up resting on the shoulders of the computer guy. I’ve definitely felt that pressure in my day job.

The aliens are launching smaller ships, so Scott heads off in Destiny’s one working shuttle.

And it’s so cool to finally be seeing a space battle. Ships flying about, lasers blasting. And they very much use the Battlestar Galactica method of shooting the visual effects like a documentary. The camera has trouble tracking the fast-moving spaceships as if it were a real camera operated by a real camera person. I don’t mind that effect.

Young says to Eli “Everyone on this ship is counting on your.”

I think he means it to be motivating, but it’s the last thing Eli needs to hear. So much pressure. I totally get that.

Young switches into a slightly more encouraging mode when he says “you can do this,” but Eli counters “No. I can’t.”

So then he tries being all commanding. “I need this ship working now, as if raising his voice will somehow make things work better.”

And Eli hits him where it really hurts. “Well then you should have thought twice before you got rid of Rush.”

Yeah, they’re all thinking the same thing. And Eli isn’t pretending otherwise anymore.

Destiny seems to be reasonably well armed. The weapons are not as powerful as the drones we’ve seen on Earth and Atlantis, but they’re effective against the alien ships. But there’s a lot more of them than there are of us.

I love how they use the sparks and the rapid camera movement to build up the suspense and sense of danger as James and TJ run through the hallways of the ship.

One of the alien shuttles has gotten through our weapons fire and docks with Destiny. They drill through the hull and drop in right next to Chloe.

The aliens make kind of a squawking noise. That’s likely their native form of communication.

Nice to see that when the alien shuttle leaves, Destiny is able to seal the hulk breach with a forcefield. The ship is heavily automated and good at taking care of its own needs.

It had to run for millions of years without a crew, afterall.

So it looks like the aliens have taken Chloe, which kinda sucks.

Chloe is in some kind of tank filled with fluid, a breathing mask keeping her from drowning.

It’s like the alien abduction scene from all our nightmares.

As she panics, trying to get out, she spots one of the aliens. And we get a decent look at it this time. The alien actually looks somewhat fish-like. It has tendrils handing off his lower face that look kind of like facial hair. The head is quite tall and is distinctly non humanoid. It seems to have a semi-translucent skull. The eyes are much bigger than human eyes, though not black like the classic grays, which are actually Asgard in this universe. It’s very cool. Very alien. I’m a sucker for a CGI creature.

It emits a screaming noise in Chloe’s mind.

There are a lot of wounded and even Camille has turned up in sickbay to help out.

Scott asks a very good question. “Why are we the enemy?”

Young won’t authorise a mission to rescue her with the shuttle. It would be suicide, but he’s got a plan. He’s going to infiltrate the alien ship using the stones. He’s making the reasonable assumption that the ship next to them is the same one he visited earlier. There’s no conclusive proof, but it seems likely.

They need to keep Young firmly secured before he uses the stone, because while he’s over there, the alien he swaps bodies with will be on Destiny.

Young is wearing the same uniform as the alien watching over Chloe.

It’s interesting to note that the ancient communications stones work across species. The alien’s brain must be very different to ours, but there must be enough similarity for the device to do its wo9rk.

Young sees a group of aliens going about their business at various consoles. They pay him no attention.

At this point, we don’t yet know why the stones are connecting to the aliens rather than Earth. It’s a fascinating mystery, which I’m sure Young is keen to solve. But that’s not his first priority. He needs to find Chloe and figure out a way to get her back.

One of the aliens gives Young a bit of a look for a moment but then goes back to its work.

Scott and Eli are trying to communicate with the alien. It sent an english word in response to their message, which was in Ancient, so it not only knows our language, it knows we are not ancients.

The creatures don’t just make that noise mentally, they emit the squeaking sound out of their mouths. So that’s their language. Again, I love how alien this is. These guys are more exotic than most aliens on sci-fi TV.

Young has found the fluid tank, but inside, he doesn’t see Chloe. He sees Rush!

At this point, we can conclude that the alien shuttle they found last episode probably belonged to this species. They must have found Rush on the planet with their shuttle and abducted him.

Young smashes the tank and frees Rush, but to Rush, he looks like a blue alien.

He’s pretty freaked out, but when young uses a calming gesture, Rush immediately recognises it.

Rush knows more about their technology than Young does. Makes sense. But from Rush’s point of view it must be weird that he knows more about their technology than one of their own. Anyway, he senses the Young aliens want to help him so he puts the translator-mind reading thing onto his head and gives the other to Young, who can’t actually speak english to Rush, because he doesn’t have the appropriate vocal chords.

Rush is able to read enough from Young’s mind to figure out who he is. But it’s all too much for Young. The stones stop transmitting, and now Rush is there with a genuine alien who immediately attacks him.

It seems humans are physically stronger than the aliens. Looks like Rush breaks its neck. And Rush isn’t a fighter. Young kicked his butt. He’s a scientist.

With the alien host body dead, Young is no longer able to connect with the stones, but he may have done enough by freeing Rush. Rush has seen in the alien’s mind that they have Chloe on board.

But the aliens are attacking again. It’s not looking good for Destiny. Young orders Eli to return fire, even though Chloe is on board. What else can he do? If he doesn’t fight back, everyone on Destiny will die.

Rush rescues Chloe from her tank. That’s the easy bit. Now they have to find a way off the ship somehow.

The aliens retreat, with just one of their shuttles heading toward Destiny.

It’s not clear why they retreat. They clearly had the upper hand in the battle.

Scott and Greer are ready for a fight when they see the hole cut into the ceiling, but they get a nice surprise when Chloe drops down. But a big shock when Rush follows her.

“Rush said you were dead,” Greer says. “Killed in a landslide.”

So Young’s secret is out. No more pretending now. But Rush, very graciously, plays along with Young’s story. “No no, he rightly assumed I was dead,” he says.

After being abandoned, Rush managed to get the shuttle’s power working, but that triggered a distress call, which is what brought the aliens.

Rush doesn’t remember much of his time on the ship. Only that they were probing his mind.

Rush was able to get useful information out of them, like how to find the shuttle bay, and how to fly their shuttle.

The aliens aren’t interested in us, they’re interested in Destiny.

This was all a good way to have that epic moment last time, with Young leaving Rush behind, but not writing him out of the show. We’ve got a believable way for Rush to return. It all works quite nicely.

So why do you think that Rush does this?

I suspect he knows he’s gonna have to bury the hatchet a little with Young, if he expects to be allowed to remain on board. He pushed things too far with Young by framing him for murder. They’ve both done things they regret.

Rush goes to meet with Young and talk it out.

It’s actually a really good conversation. I like it when these two genuinely try to make it work between them.

Young believes Rush deserved to be left behind, but he regrets losing control and becoming somebody that he could no longer respect.

Rush admits he provoked Young.

Now they just have to try to find a way to work together.

The people on this ship doesn't need to doubt their leadership and they all need to get ready for the next alien encounter.

They agree to put it all behind them for the sake of the crew.

I really like that.

The relationship between these two characters is a really interesting aspect of this show, and I really regret not being able to see it develop further as the show went on.

There was a moment early in the episode where Lieutenant James accidentally talked about how she was attracted to Caine while he was listening. He plans to just stay friends, because if things go badly it would be awkward, being stuck on the ship with someone you’d had a bad relationship with. At that moment, Young walks in and hears Caine talking about this to TJ. Young and TJ, who are stuck on this ship, having had a difficult relationship in the past.

Anyway, despite her exterior toughness, James is really broken about this. My heart hurt a little watching the shot of her crying. Much credit to actress Julia Benson for getting that across in a way that touched me so.

The musical montage at the end of the episode manages to get quite a lot of information across in a short period of time.

I think there might be some residual trauma for Chloe and Rush following their experiences on the alien ship.

Regarding that little meeting of the civilians who are unhappy with the military leadership on board, Eli chose to show it to Young. He may be a civilian, but Young is in charge of Destiny. Battle lines are being drawn, and everyone is gonna have to choose a side soon.

And despite his words to Young, Rush is meeting with Camille. “Young is Dangerous,” he says. And she agrees. “I tried to do something about it.” She knows. She knows he tried to frame Young, but she seems to think Rush was justified.

Things will be getting very interesting next episode.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that Stargate Universe started slow at the beginning of season 1, but if you hang in there, it gets better. I think this is the moment they are referring to when they say it gets better.

While, I don’t entirely agree, because I love the whole show, and have really enjoyed most of what we’ve covered so far, I’m beginning to understand what they mean.

The pilot was especially strong for me. I love Air.

But many of the episodes in the first half of season one have been quite character -focussed, and some of that character exploration has gotten a little soap-opera-ish, and I’m mainly referring to the stuff with Young, Telford, and Young’s wife.

I don’t remember that plotline being followed up on much from here, so it’ll be interesting to see if that feels resolved, or like a hanging threat as I go through it this time.

There have been a couple of clumsy moments so far, but overall, I still maintain that the quality of this show is very high. 

I can see why some people don’t like it, though. The tone is so different.

And I think another reason some fans disliked the show was the way it took over from Atlantis.

Stargate Atlantis was never given the chance to end properly. It was cancelled prematurely. And just after they announced the demise of Atlantis, they announced Stargate Universe, which they promised would be a very different kind of show.

I had mixed feelings at the time, I mourned the loss of Atlantis, but I was excited for Universe. Not everyone felt the same way, though. Some even vowed to boycott the new show before it even aired.

Regardless of whether you like SGU or not, I think we can all agree that this transition was not handled well. And that’s a shame, because this show really does deserve a chance.

So next week, those battle lines we saw forming will be drawn. It’s all gonna come to a head for our characters. It’ll be an exciting one.

I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on Divided with you.

I’m loving how nicely the serialisation of the show is working now. The plots of one episode are leading naturally into the next. It’s great.

Thanks again to all of  you who are taking the time to listen to Nerd Heaven. I value and appreciate it very much.

Have a great two weeks.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.