If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Or so the story goes for the crew of the Destiny. Now that they have air, they’ve lost all power. Who could have seen that coming? Well, Dr. Rush, of course. Unfortunately, as we’ve learned in earlier episodes, his personality and demeanor are so off-putting that they’ve become as big an obstacle for the crew to overcome as anything else. In the midst of this latest catastrophe, we also started getting some more background on a bunch of different characters through Eli’s little video project.
Starting with Dr. Rush, this episode didn’t really take us much farther in figuring out why he is the way he is. But it did start to offer up an explanation for how he continues to operate that way. As Young told Rush, he’s the best they’ve got. And, at this early stage, most everyone is willing to put up with “a lot of work” in the hopes that Rush is going to be the one to find the answers they need. Of course, it’s not quite that simple.
There have been mentions of people not trusting Rush before, but this time Young came right out and said it. He suggested that Rush could be starting fires just so he can be the one that puts them out. Although, to be fair, he did also offer the possibility that it could actually be that Rush really is that far ahead of everyone else. If I was betting, I’d guess that Rush will eventually come around, and be part of the team. If tonight was any indication though, going by his post breakdown behavior, I wouldn’t look for it to happen any time soon.
As for the power outage, the real question here is, “Is there really a power outage at all?” As with Young and the crew, we’re forced to take Rush at his word for now. I believe that he really believes all the power is gone. However, he also said that so far he hasn’t been able to access the main systems. So, it’s perfectly within reason to think that there are more power reserves. The ship is just not making them available to the crew. Essentially, they’ve tripped a million year old breaker and have no idea where the Ancient fusebox is.
The habitable planets are an interesting diversion in that in this situation that option would be very attractive to many of those on board. I particularly liked how that was shown as Park gave her rundown on the possibilities of living on a tidal locked planet. After listing all of the problems that would come with that, a smile, and “It might be nice!” At the end of the day though, this is Stargate: Universe, and not Stargate:TLP. So, I’m not too awfully concerned with the idea of settling on any of those planets.
Elsewhere, it would seem there is some political intrigue brewing back at Stargate Command. I was caught completely off-guard by Telford’s order to have Scott report that Young needs to be replaced. Granted, you could make the case that Young has come across as a bit of a pessimist in the early going. He seems all too resigned to their impending doom at times. Still, give a guy a chance, right?
Eli’s video project was a good idea for making introductions of all of the characters to the viewer. It is a large cast, and there just hasn’t been time to give everyone enough to do to make you identify with them right away. Most of that is just a matter of time. As we get 20 and 30 episodes into the series it won’t be an issue. For now though, I welcome the heads up.
All things considered, “Darkness” was another solid episode. More character based than anything else, as the big events for the ship were pushed to part two next week, but moving things along rather nicely.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Oct 16, 2009 @ 23:04 EST5EDT
I get that Young is a no-nonsense sort of guy, but would it hurt him to throw just a little respect in Eli’s direction? I thought the “drop-out hacker” right in front of him and then the “you want a gold star for that” cracks were out of line.
Oh, and are we going to have a poignant good-bye scene (courtesy of the ancient stone comm device) every week, not to mention a chance for Telford to barge in and cause trouble?
Young is my favorite character by far at the moment.
Why aren’t they using the communication stones to bring some other experts on board, say Carter or McKay?
Hmmm. McKay might actually get them into more trouble. :)
they did an awesome job visualizing the ship passing through the gas giant.
at least it wasn’t as simple as the ship sucking up gas giant matter to recharge the batteries … heading towards the star is an interesting twist (although I wouldn’t be surprised if that ends up charging the batteries) … doubt the ship would commit suicide.
“…doubt the ship would commit suicide.”
Agreed. However, if the ship is headed toward the inner planets, then it would necessarily have to head toward the sun. There’s no reason to believe it’s headed into the sun. Easily, it could still sling shot around another planet to take it to some safe destination.
Considering the nature of the show, there’s not much suspense about whether they’re dying or getting marooned on some planet. They’ll get power back and fly off again. Just depends how many episodes they want to drag it over.
This show has really captured my imagination. Is the Destiny and its forward Stargate planting and scouting probes on an exploratory mission of the universe, or is the ship (and the Ancients that were going to be on the ship) looking for something in particular?
The special effects are friggin first rate awesome on this show.
And I’m digging the characters and the way the stories and situations are being told (through the Kino). And we’re seeing the political intrigue on Earth and the political intrigue on the ship.
Dr. Rush is either batshit nuts, batshit brilliant, or some combination of the two. Carlye is the perfect actor and steals the screen when he’s on it.
And last, but not lease, is Lt. Vanessa James (Julia Anderson). Holy giddy up!! That’s one fine ass woman.
YOU GOT IT GOING ON WORK IT. YOU GO BOY.
Still enjoying the show a great deal but I do share some of the characters derision of Eli. Every time he’s in a scene it it’s another show. I thought I could stand his presence, but it just seems to me that they are pandering to a certain demographic with him and it’s difficult to suppress an eye roll.
If I could wish away the silly stones, I would be happier still. Everywhere I read there are very good arguments like: Why don’t they stone in a Dr., A Specialist on (fill in the blank). Yep, they need to be rendered useless somehow.
The show needs a lot of work.
This is really the first episode outside the three part pilot and it wasn’t very good. The characters are not at all like-able, they used the stones for stupid Earth BS instead of getting more science help. Plus I wonder if the ship will go into the sun in the third episode! The whole episode lead nowhere, and the “twist” at the end was quite stupid.
Eli is the only one I can stand, everyone else is just “ehh” and does nothing to help.
This episode made me a fan of Young. He may be pessimistic about their chances, but he doesn’t let anyone stop trying to find solutions. I love the way he told Eli, “You want a gold star for that?” It was a challenge to Eli – don’t let your biggest achievement be that you were a MIT dropout; do something important now. Being smart is useless if you don’t use your intelligence to solve problems.
On another note… is Rush a jerk or what? Other TV jerks like Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Gregory House usually can get away with it because they are not only extremely smart; they are extremely funny. I suppose with SGU they’re trying to get away from the humor in order to make it more “dark and edgy,” but the result is that I feel no sympathy for Rush at all. In fact, I really want someone to punch him.
I do wonder why Young didn’t send Eli – even Rush said if he really wanted to help he would have sent him.
A lot of comedy this week. Rush yelling at techs that he left those consoles off for a reason, but didn’t bother to leave a note on them, or actually tell anyone he suspected low power reserves until after they had spent days messing with all the systems.
I was waiting for the Sergeant that Rush kept brushing off in the corridor to actually have vital information to tell him, but that was never paid off.
The cook from the pilot that still doesn’t get any respect and has nothing else to contribute was priceless.
If Eli had been helping Rush the whole episode, we never would have gotten the shower scene and the peeping Kino. The show definitely knows its priorities.