I have been a fan of television for about ten years now. That is to say that it has been a relatively short time since I realized how much I appreciate TV as a medium in which to tell a story … I’ve obviously been watching the ole’ boob tube for much longer than that (For the record, this realization hit somewhere around the time Jed Bartlet said the words, “…you can all get your fat asses out of my White House.”). Despite my relative short “history” as a student of TV, I know quality when I see it.
This week’s Stargate Universe blew right past quality, and bordered on perfection.
I was quite effuse with my praise of last week’s episode, “Common Descent,” that was the first half of an unofficial two parter that ended this week. When sci-fi shows take on time travel episodes, the audience sometimes gets to explore the big “what-ifs,” but is rare that the characters make it past the end credits with the knowledge of the future they gained. What the crew of the Destiny learned on Novus will most definitely inform their futures, at least in the final two episodes of the series (Nope, not bitter at all).
No characters will have to live in the shadow of this knowledge more so than the two who received the worst news: Dale Volker’s transplanted kidney looks like it is going to fail, and TJ will eventually be stricken with ALS. At least in Volker’s case, he might be able to get treatment on the ship. TJ won’t be so lucky. While the descendants may have cured ALS, that fact only served as a tease when that particular piece of knowledge did not make it in the upload from the planet’s database. Watching Young care for his quickly deteriorating wife was heartbreaking. Eli’s promise was nice, but it could only bring little reassurance.
Utilizing Chloe’s diary to frame the “flashbacks” was a great plot device. I can easily imagine the history of the world told by her voice, just as Eli makes sense as the father of all Novus science. It does kind of make you wonder if, in all of Eli’s textbooks, one might find a walkthrough for the first Portal game.
A friend tweeted that the episode “played like a love letter to the fans.” I’m allowing for the possibility that, as a big fan of the series, that I was supposed to love this episode. But the story wasn’t all positive, specifically with TJ’s arc. It wasn’t about catering to the fans, but telling, quite beautifully, a series of intertwining stories that is is some way the future of the crew of the Destiny that the audience will never get to see. The final shot of this episode could easily serve as the last of the series … but only because SGU is just another show that never properly caught on, and won’t be around to tell the rest of the story, that, as the elderly Camile Wray was telling, us, the journey is best story of all.
Notes & Quotes
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Apr 26, 2011 @ 09:23 EST5EDT
I agree it was wonderful. The marriages and babies *sob*, the elevator music *laugh*, being able to see how well they did *nods head in pride*
Dare I say it? This is the kind of ending many, many people wanted and did not get in BSG.
Lee and Kara would have had such cute kids, Baltar’s farm, etc. Alas, it was not to be.
Yeah, that would have made for a more satisfying BSG finale. In fact … I almost wonder now, looking back, if that was some of the intent. Maybe the writers wanted to tell a story of how they’d have liked BSG to have ended?
My only negative I guess was how just the mention of “ALS” suddenly makes it an easy search term in these databases, as if they’re big Google server farms or something.
Novus’s Dale Volker transplanted kidney did not fail, he died because never received surgery for a transplant.
Present-day Dale Volker got his transplant on episode 14 (Hope)
*POST AUTHOR*
I’d forgotten the timeline, but I thought Chloe mentioned the surgery in her diary…
TJ didn’t have any medical equipment & didn’t know what’s wrong with Dale! She guessed his kidneys were failing (about 13:20) into the episode
Very nice episode! I appreciate how far SGU has come in just two seasons. The characters have developed into sympathetic, flawed individuals, as opposed to just a bunch of random douchebags (which is how I saw them when the show started). The stories have settled down, become more thoughtful, less overdramatic. And I think SGU really hit its stride when it began to incorporate humor – I remember there was a specific season 1 episode when that started; I’ll have to look it up. The humor is an essential ingredient in a Stargate show – not slapstick, campy humor but a very natural humor, which makes the characters likable and relatable – and more importantly, which demonstrates that this is not some pompous show trying too hard to be taken seriously.
As cold as Rush seemed, at least he was helping their real future. Everyone else was so caught up in “their” diaries, they didn’t think to prioritize medical and scientific data, or recent history. as the first to be uploaded. Not too much of a leap for smart people if they stopped to think about it.
RIP SGU. You were brilliant.
Actually, this essentially was how BSG ended, in the sense that the humans and cylons finally found Earth and made a new life for themselves. One can easily imagine that their lives involved the exact same building of shelters, villages, towns, and eventually cities though over a much longer period of time, leading up to the 21st century when palaeontologists discover mitochondreal Eve and Head Baltar and Six read about it in the magazine.
It was a superb episode of SGU. The show should really be given a new season, and more importantly, people who are science fiction fans but aren’t watching, should watch it.
I think when they found out the show was cancelled, these should have been the last two episodes. I went away thinking that there is no way what we are going to see over the next two weeks will be as satisfying
I thought the final episode of SU was so lame. To waste all this time fighting a bland enemy (drones) when we could have seen Destiny’s crew after they got home, reuniting with their families, the blinded lady getting her sight back. Instead we get a young man bright, talented, his entire life ahead of him. he has to die. And the ending is – he smiles? That’s it? What’s the matter, after being cancelled did the powers that be figure they would stop trying?
Most people want a happy ending. Ok, sure life is not like that. But we escape to shows and movies to get away from the problems in life. We want happy endings! I am so disappointed.
I did not see it that way at all. He smiles, he’s a man now, he’s gonna figure it out. Hope springs eternal that at a later point in time the Stargate franchise will get revisited. (Contrary to what has been reported.)
I forgot to mention that whoever does not want to come back on the show/movie can have their pod malfunction.