The return of Stargate Universe is a very curious one for me. After years of counting myself as a Stargate fan, the first half of Universe‘s inaugural season never really grabbed me. Sure, I kept watching, but that probably had more to do with the 300 hours I’d invested in the franchise before Universe showed up than anything else. Despite all of that, when I saw the trailer for the Universe return start popping up, I was again curious. And now, I’m happy to report that “Space” was a step in the right direction. I’m not ready to call myself a Universe fan, but if you gave up on the show in the initial run, you might want to give the second half premiere a look.
So … where to begin. Let’s start with our new alien friends. First, we finally have an answer to just what that ship was at the end of episode three. If you go back and check the pic in the post for that episode, the ships are the same. That gives some credence to Rush’s theory that what they are really interested in is the Destiny. The fact that these aliens have been following the Destiny all along also works perfectly as a vehicle for the return of Rush. It wasn’t how I expected it to go down, but I like it.
There were some rather confusing bits as far as the communication stones were concerned. For one, we’ve previously learned that the stones do the translating for you. And how were they operating with only one stone in play? For now, I’m willing to chalk those up to “crazy alien technology” and move along.
Away from the aliens, the return of Rush played out as I expected, with him confirming Young’s account of the events to the crew. Rush is a smart guy, and he has to assume that Young still has the video that proves he planted the gun. There’s no way he’s going to win a he-said/he-said argument with that hanging over him. It’s the quickest way to having nothing to do with the Destiny, and he wouldn’t jeopardize that. Not yet, anyway.
The battle lines are clearly being drawn. It was smart that they ran “Justice” right before the premiere. Much of what Young was doing there was to avoid just such an occurrence. Of course, he is also the one that left Rush to die, and again fired on him here, so he’s not exactly innocent in the whole thing either. The intriguing bit is how the whole thing has united Camille and Rush in their common goal. As the previews show, things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.
The wild card in all of this would seem to be Eli. Up to now, he’s consistently come down on the military side, with Scott and Young. But there are at least hints that his resolve could be cracking. The fact that he chastised Young for getting rid of Rush is just one such example. I’ll be very curious to see the part that he plays in the rebellion.
So, there we have it. Space battles. Aliens. Political power struggles within the ships crew. Finally there is some adventure to this whole thing, and we’re getting some real character stories to work with. Universe is still my third favorite Stargate show, but it is definitely closing the gap.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Apr 03, 2010 @ 09:17 EST5EDT
It does finally feel like something is happening. As for leadership, I favor Young at this point. Camille and Rush think far too much of themselves and it seems unlikely that they could do a better job at it.
If you watch the episode very closely, there’s a scene where they show the alien right before Young did the communication stone connection thing. There’s a quick flash and the alien is holding its own communication stone.
I’m definitely digging SGU now. The first half was sloooooow character development. I hope the rest of the season and series is the better for it. Stargate is about, well the Stargate, ships fighting it out, exploring, firefights, cool aliens, etc, etc. This series really sets the whole mythology waaaay the far out there. I’d like to see an episode or 2 where they really find out how far out they are in the universe.
*POST AUTHOR*
Good eye Mack. I had to go back through that scene twice before I caught that he was holding the stone. That does bring up yet another question though. It looks like the alien is surrounded by his own tech team when he has the stone. So why did they just let Young walk off unsupervised?
what I don’t get is if the Aliens are indeed interested in Destiny … they seemed to have no problems with landing on the ship and cutting a hole in the roof … why didn’t they do that before?
*POST AUTHOR*
Fear of the unknown? The Destiny is a pretty intimidating ship. It could be that Rush wasn’t able to resist their mindprobe as well as he said, and he gave them something that made them more confident. Or, if he was able to completely resist all the probing, maybe this was their attempt at getting someone who wouldn’t be able to resist.
Call me easily entertained, but I’ve enjoyed Universe from episode 1. Actually, I am pretty forgiving when it comes to genre TV as I have no problems with Flash Forward, either. I am enjoying what looks to be a faster pace for the second half of the season, though. Glad to know it’s already gotten a 2nd season. Now if only Flash Forward could get one…
Much, much improved.
I may even start watching it live.
Camille is worthless. Maybe I’m forgetting, but I really can’t understand what her problem is, and why she thinks she’s more qualified to be in charge.
What I don’t get is how Destiny can be strong enough to float through the fires of a sun, but it takes one hell of a beating from laser fire.
Good point. When it was flying basically “in” that star it had to be withstanding and absorbing massive amounts of energy that one would assume to be far greater than any laser could produce. I hope there’s an explanation because that was kind of a big deal now that you bring it up.
Oh logic can be such a killer.
*POST AUTHOR*
I don’t think that’s such a big jump. We have to accept that the people that built these ships are far more advanced than our current technology, right? Well, even though we’re nowhere near flying anything into the surface of a star, we’ve already created lasers that are able to heat things much hotter than the surface of a star. So, there is at least some logic in the possibility that the directed energy of the weapons systems in the SGU universe could be more damaging than flying into the surface of the star.
The thing I think Keith is forgetting is that the weapons on the Destiny are taking power away from the shields as Eli told Young. When they were flying into the star, ALL the power was diverted to the shields in order to be able to fuel up.
The ship is very old without proper maintenance and I think it would be less believable if there were no damage systems even without some of the evident prior battle damage.
Ok I have seen most of SG-1and spent this past month watching every episode and commentary on all 5 seasons of Atlantis And while I am left wondering what will Ronan and Amelia’s children look like, I took the next step and checked out my first episode of SGU. It was a dismal disappointment, but I have heard from other fans it is worth giving this team time to grow. I am not sure who their intended audience is I am hopeful it will rise above its apparent early target of teenage Klingons.
*POST AUTHOR*
Tim, I can’t say whether SGU will ultimately be successful, but I do think it’s worth giving it a little time. Also, I have to give you bonus points for the “teenage Klingons” line. Very funny.
As to your question about Ronan and Amelia’s children. My money is on gorgeous.