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We begin a new era of the podcast as we look at Stargate Universe. SGU is the third TV series in the Stargate franchise, following SG-1 and Atlantis, and the 1994 movie. It was a divisive show, and still is to this day. It was a departure from the previous two shows in terms of tone, shooting style and story-telling. But it well-loved by its fans. Today, I delve deep into the first two parts of the pilot and talk about how the pilot grabbed me with both hands and wouldn’t let go. |
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Check out all my Stargate Universe Podcasts
Transcript
Welcome to Nerd Heaven
I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars
And I am a Nerd.
This is episode 51 of the podcast. I’m really excited because today, we’re starting something brand new. We’re going to be looking at each episode of Stargate Universe, just as we’ve done with Star Trek Picard season 1 and Star Trek Discovery Season 3.
This is a very divisive show because it was a significant departure from the previous two Stargate TV shows, in terms of tone, shooting style, and story-telling. Stargate Universe was heavily influenced by Battlestar Galactica. It’s a much more character-driven show. It’s more serialised, and it’s got a darker more serious tone.
The show is hardly what you’d call grimdark, but the characters have a lot more flaws than you’d usually expect from Stargate. But in my mind, that just gives them a lot of room for growth.
I’ve loved Stargate from the beginning. I was a big fan of the 1994 film, and I loved both SG-1 and Atlantis. This third series is actually a great launching on point, so if you decided long ago that Stargate wasn’t for you, it’s worth giving SGU a try.
Now a little note for those of you watching on youTube. I recorded the bulk of this episode a few months back before I decided to show live-action video on the youTube version of the podcast, so for the bulk of this week’s episode, and next week’s episode, you won’t have to look at my ugly mug. Lucky you. But by episode 3, it’ll all be back to normal.
The description on GateWorld reads
“When a research team is forced to evacuate their secret base, they find themselves on board a derelict Ancient vessel that is many galaxies away from Earth.”
This episode was written by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper
It was directed by Andy Mikita
And it first aired on the 2nd of October 2009.
Stargate Universe was not well-received by all fans. Many bemoaned the lack of humour, the darker grittier tone, and the more morally ambiguous characters.
But let me be very clear about this. Not everyone disliked the show. Many of us loved it, and still consider it our favourite Stargate show to this day. And I’m talking people who loved SG1 and Atlantis.
My first introduction to the show was the first three episodes edited together into an extended pilot movie on DVD. It would be months, maybe a year, before I would get to see the rest of season 1.
It’s hard to put into words just why I liked this show so much, but this three-part pilot really grabbed me with both hands and wouldn’t let go.
The gritty realistic tone of the show just felt like a breath of fresh air to me. And the wonder of them being on this ancient spaceship so far from home, with no idea what it was all about, that captures my imagination.
I love the character focus. SG1 and Atlantis both followed a similar pattern in terms of their characters. They both had a four-person team who went through the gate, plus a command and support staff back at their home base.
Universe broke way out of this mould. These people are not the best of the best. They’re not all military. They’re definitely not supposed to be on this ship. In that sense, I get quite a Farscape vibe from the show. These people are not a crew, they’re a collection of people who have been forced together under unusual circumstances and forced to live and struggle together.
So, of course, there’s going to be conflict.
Add to that, Colonel Young is no Jack O’Neill. He may not be that great an officer, and he admits this himself. But, he tries. He really does. And we see a lot of growth in the character over the two seasons.
And Doctor rush, well, he’s brilliant, but a very very flawed man.
Seriously, I eat this stuff up. It’s great.
But let’s actually look at this episode.
It begins in space. A ship jumps out of hyperspace and slowly approaches the camera as the credits roll. We’ve never seen a ship like this before, but we’ll soon come to know her as destiny.
You get to see a whole lot of detail on this ship as the camera zooms in. It’s nice to see a Stargate show in high definition. It’s all pretty ominous. The ship is deserted. But then we pan into the gate room and see the gate spinning. Then the wormhole engages and people start flying out of it. It’s a mysterious beginning. WE have no idea what it’s all about. This first episode makes very effective use of non-linear story-telling.
We keep flashing back and forth between the Destiny and the earlier stuff that explains how our characters got here.
At this point, we’re wondering about these people. This is not your typical SG team. We’ve got military, some guy in glasses dressed as a civilian, and a teenager in a red tshirt. The opening makes us hungry to know more.
But we can tell straight away there is something ominous about Doctor Rush. Everyone else is panicking. But he’s looking around at this ship with a quiet lust and a dark satisfaction.
The last one to come through is Colonel Young. He hits his head badly and passes out after placing Lieutenant Scott in charge. We won’t see him, other than in flashbacks, until the second part when he wakes up.
The episode does a good job of showing visually, that is this a much older stargate. Earlier technology. The whole gate spins, which is different. And when the wormhole closes, it vents out all this steam, as if the gate struggles to cool itself.
The ship jumps back into hyperspace but we have no idea what’s going on at the time. We just see a weird stretching effect on the picture, and the characters react with the same confusion we do.
Then we flashback to Eli playing a video game. He solves a difficult puzzle. And the next thing you know, Jack O’Neil is knocking on his door with Doctor Rush.
It seems they embedded a top-secret problem in the game and Eli solved what nobody else could. Lucky him.
I love Jack’s reactions here when Eli disbelieves them and is hesitant to sign the non-disclosure agreement. Jack’s got no time for this. He can just beam Eli up to the ship. No worries. This is a risk, of course. But I guess, if he still doesn’t sign, nobody is gonna believe him. But I think Jack knows people well enough to know he’ll sing.
This ship is the Hammond, named after the late General Hammond.
We learn a little about Eli. We know he’s not unemployed because he’s lazy. He’s a genius, but his mother has health issues that require him to look after her.
The ship is leaving orbit to travel to another planet. But Eli would at least like some pants before they leave.
And this is a good reminder that while this show is much more dramatic and serious than SG1 or Atlantis, it DOES have humour. This line from Eli is pretty funny and nicely in line with the type of humour we often got from Jack O’Neill.
There’s a nice sequence where Eli watches a bunch of training videos, hosted by none other than Dr. Daniel Jackson. This is a good way to get up to speed with all things stargate, both for Eli and for the audience, who may not have watched the previous shows.
We also get some important backstory. Ancient ruins were found on an alien planet two years ago. There, they found a 9 symbols address. We know that gate addresses within the local galaxy contain 7 symbols. 8 symbol addresses call gates in another galaxy, like an area code.
But the stargate has nine chevrons. So what is the meaning of the ninth symbol? Nobody has ever managed to successfully dial a 9-symbol address.
Eli gets to call his mum on the phone. He tells her he’s doing some top-secret work for the air force.
She is up on her feet, walking around the house, and it looks like she’s wearing a uniform of some kind. So she’s got a job. So I’m confused as to the nature of her sickness, and why it prevents Eli from pursuing his career. It seems if he got a job, he’d be able to help pay for her medical expenses. Anyway, the air force are going to take care of him while he’s away.
And he meets Chloe for the first time.
She’s the only other person on this ship his age, and I think he immediately notices that she’s quite an attractive young woman.
He’s surprised to find out he’s quite the celebrity on this ship.
Anyway, these two characters are immediately pretty good together.
Then we jump back to the present. Eli and Rush discover they’re on a spaceship. Travelling faster than light, somehow, but not through conventional hyperspace. Rush has identified the ship as being ancient technology. Not only meaning it was built by the aliens we call the ancients, but that it is old. Really old.
And that’s when they notice the air is thin.
The life support system is failing on this ship. And that’s totally believable. How many millions of years has it been flying through space?
We meet Colonel Young through a flashback talking to his wife before he left to go on this mission. His career with the SGC is putting a lot of stress on his marriage. He’s always off-world and he can’t even tell her about it.
It’s obvious pretty early on that Colonel Young is not cut out of the same heroic mould as O’Neil, Shepherd and Mitchell.
Our introduction to Scott comes with him having sex with a female officer in a storage room. Real classy Scott. It’s not always fair to judge people based on first impressions, but I have to say, this scene really colours the way I see his character throughout the show.
Eli, Chloe, her father, the senator, and Rush arrive on the planet that houses Icarus base.
The stargate on this planet doesn’t accept incoming wormholes, which is why they had to come here on a ship. It’s a plot convenience so we could have the scenes on the Hammond.
The puzzle Eli solved was the problem Rush has been working on for ages. He’s trying to figure out how to dial the 9 chevron address. Rush has been working on it for ages, and Eli has solved it.
Except it still doesn’t work.
This gate is powered by the planet’s core itself. Getting the energy output just right is the challenge.
While rush keeps trying to solve it, Eli is invited to a special dinner. And he’s happy to attend.
Meanwhile, we get a hint of Rush’s backstory. There was a woman who was in his life. Judging by his tears, she’s probably dead.
Senator Armstrong is pretty upset about them being on this ship and tries to order Scott to get them back to earth right away. But sometimes, you can’t just order things to be the way you want them.
Rush is trying to get life support back online, but Eli doesn’t trust what he’s doing. And emotions are very high. Grier is ready to shoot him. Especially given he blames rush for them being on the ship in the first place.
It’s a tense scene. In the end, the button does nothing, good or bad.
I wasn’t a fan of Grier at the beginning. He comes across so cocky. So sure of himself. He loves himself just a little too much. Of course, he’ll grow on me as the season progresses.
And he was actually in the brig back on Icarus. He was only just released because Icarus base is under attack by the Lucian alliance. And this is where we see that Samantha Carter is still in command of the Hammond. I believe she left Atlantis to take up this post.
This episode has a lot to do. In between all that is happening, it has to set up the backstory of a large cast of characters. Certainly a bigger cast than any stargate show before it.
We meet Johansen and Camille. Johansen, the medic on the ship was actually planning to leave to the stargate program before all this happened. And Camille is a civilian representative of the IOA, an international group that oversees the stargate program.
It’s nice to see the pyramid ships and death gliders in this first episode. They’re a remnant of SG1 and the milky way galaxy. So we won’t be seeing them moving forward.
Rush is desperate to figure out this nine symbol issue now. This planet has unique properties. They may not be able to get the address to work anywhere else, and this bombardment could literally cause the planet to blow up. This is Rush’s last chance to realise his life’s work.
They figure out, if this is not a power problem, maybe it’s an issue with the address. Maybe they’re using the wrong point of origin because the gate was meant to be dialled from somewhere else.
The gate is supposed to be dialling Earth to evacuate the base, but Rush cancels it so they can try dialling his 9 symbol address instead.
He just some justification for this beyond his own personal selfish need to complete his work. He says they can’t risk dialling earth. The energy of the explosions, if the core goes could be devastating if it travels through the wormhole. And that’s a fair point. But is there really a risk of that, or is it just a convenient excuse for Rush?
As young says, he could have dialled somewhere else, anywhere else in the Milky way.
And it works. The address connects. Whatever it leads to, they’ve established a connection.
In the end, they have to go through the wormhole to wherever it leads. Because anywhere is better than here. The planet is about to blow.
Rush finds a starmap detailing the ship’s journey. It began at Earth. IT left the galaxy, travelled past pegasus, past galaxy after galaxy. It’s impossibly far away. Several billion lightyears from home.
I got chills when I first watched this and realised just how far away they were.
Most of the people on base have to evacuate through the gate. But Colonel Talford beams up to the Hammond and remains in the milky way galaxy.
And the planet blows up, taking the Lucian alliance ships with it.
Back on Earth, Jack is working at the Pentagon, as he has since he left the day-to-day running of the SGC.
Walter is there with him. Not at the SGC.
Together, Carter and O’Neill realise that nobody came through the gate to earth. So where did they go?
Which takes us right back to the beginning of the episode, where they first came through the gate onto the ship.
And that’s the end of part 1.
So they’re gonna explore the ship, looking for whatever they can find. Scott is taking charge.
I like how they acknowledge that this ship is really old and there could be parts that are damaged or dangerous.
And then he looks at the woman he was having sex with in the closet and says “You’re James, right?”
Ouch.
She gives him a death stare and says “Yes, Lieutenant.”
Scott has had her, and now he’s ready for his next conquest. We’ll see who that is later.
I really feel for James in this moment. He’s clearly trying to pretend he doesn’t really know her, but it feels more than that, like he’s just brutally tossed her out. Of course, nobody is buying it. Grier can see exactly what’s being said here, and what’s not.
Scott finds a door he can’t open. He orders Eli to open it. The other side is a room open to vacuum. There’s a big hole in the bulkhead. Another great reminder of how old and un-maintained this ship is. It’s a dangerous place.
Meanwhile, Rush gets out a device. One part of it might be familiar, the stone. Yes, this is an ancient communication stone, like the one that first sent Daniel and Vala’s minds into the Ori galaxy back in SG1 season 9. Although the base plate is human technology, which is interesting.
This device allows two people to swap bodies across un-imaginable cosmic distances.
This was a very cool addition to Stargate Universe. It allows the crew, stranded on destiny, countless galaxies away, to communicate with people back home on Earth. Even have little visits home.
And we get a little cameo from Doctor Lee who appeared in both SG1 and Atlantis. Apparently, like most of the former SGC staff, he’s now posted at the Pentagon in Washington with Jack. I can’t help but wonder if the SGC is till operating in Chyanne Mountain. Remember, last we saw of Atlantis, it was on Earth, and Pegasus gates take precedence over milky way gates. Meaning Atlantis could be the new SGC.
We don’t know if the city ever returned to Pegasus. We know there were plans for it to happen in stories that were never shot, but in terms of on-screen canon, it’s a total mystery.
So Rush swaps bodies with Doctor Lee and is effectively now standing in a room in the pentagon.
After his conversation, which you’ll notice we don’t actually see, he goes and informs everybody that there is no hope of rescue. The only means to dial this ship from the milky way galaxy was destroyed. And then he says “in light of my knowledge and experience, General O’Neill has placed me in charge.”
What do you think was really said between Rush and O’Neill?
I don’t think they ever outright say it in this episode, but it becomes pretty clear as the season goes on that Rush is outright lying about being put in charge.
He seems pretty hesitant to allow senator Armstrong to use the stones himself.
But the good senator is not in good shape.
So Camille doesn’t recognise Rush’s authority. As the only IOA representative on the ship, she probably feels she should be in charge.
Most people want to focus on getting home. Rush says that may not even be possible. And he IS right. There’s no known way home right now. Their primary focus needs to be making this ship habitable and safe. That will keep them alive in the immediate term.
But Rush has his own reasons for not wanting to find a way home. He’s spent his entire career trying to get here. Going home is the last thing he wants. And as we get to know him better, we’ll learn that he’s not above putting his own needs before the needs of everybody else.
Scott is able to salvage a situation that on the brink of turning into a riot. Colonel Young has put him in charge of all military personnel. They are required to follow his orders. And, as he says, if anybody else gets out of line, we’ll lock you down. Because they can.
And this is the kind of “push people around because we have big guns” mentality that I don’t really like about the military. You see it in the movie Avatar, and you sometimes see it here. But I’m not sure it’s representative of the real military. Real-world military people are there to serve. And I think most of them probably take that responsibility very seriously. I don’t think they would naturally throw their weight around unless there was a real cause for it.
Anyway, Scott has Rush’s back for now, because he knows they need him, but he warns Rush to try dialling the gate back to earth. He already knows Rush has his own agenda.
Colonel Young finally wakes up. Johansen is treating him. She brings him up to speed on the situation. When he learns that Rush claims to be in charge, he won’t have a bar of it. But he can’t do much because he can’t feel his legs.
Johansen thinks it’s temporary, but she’s not a doctor as such, she’s a military medic.
We learn that Johansen’s tour of duty had ended. She had a scholarship to study something. She shouldn’t even be here. Bad luck. If only she’d left Icarus a day earlier.
We see a Kino for the first time. A little ball floating down the corridor.
Eli found them. They’re remote control flying drones.
Eli named them, after a Russian rock band, I think. He says “after the Russian..” and then Scott cuts him off. But a google search for Kino Russian leads us to this band.
I’m not sure if there’s any significance to flying cameras, or if Eli just likes their music. If anybody knows more, let me know in a comment or an email to adam@adamdavidcollings.com
Anyway, they have a whole supply on them on the ship. They will prove useful to check out what’s on the other side of the stargate. Much like a MALP.
Rush has figured out that the CO2 scrubbers are failing. Which makes a lot of sense given how many millions of years old this ship is. I really like that they spend so much time in early season one dealing with stuff like this. Just struggling for the necessities of life on this ancient ship.
Unlike SG1 and Atlantis, which were quick to introduce the new “Big Bady guy” this show takes a different tack.
Senator Armstrong has a real problem. He’s badly bruised. If he takes his heart medication, he’ll bleed internally. But if he doesn’t take them, he could die anyway.
Chloe takes the pills, making the decision for him.
They have some serious problems related to air. First of all, they have to seal off all the leaks, to prevent loss of atmosphere. If they can do that, they’ll have a day or two before the build-up of CO2 kills them, due to the failing scrubbers. They need to replace the failed compound that treats the air.
The main air leak turns out to be one of the shuttles.
There’s a problem with the shuttle door. It can only be closed from inside the shuttle.
Rush is quick to say “somebody needs to go in there and close it”. Thus, sacrificing their life. Of course, you know he won’t volunteer to do it himself.
Eli has started vlogging using the Kino. Scott finds this annoying, but Eli points out this needs to be documented. Maybe someday, someone will find the ship and know what happened to them all. He’s right.
But he’s possibly having a little too much fun with it.
But why not? Let the guy have a little fun. He’s probably gonna be dead soon anyway. Eli’s interest in film-making will continue throughout the series.
Anyway, Scott’s point is that they should be focusing on staying alive, not leaving messages behind for after they’re dead.
They have a dilemma to solve. Who is going to give their life to seal the door?
Rush is immediately coldly pragmatic about it. He looks at the list of people, noting those who are injured. He wants to find out which ones have valuable skills that could come in useful.
I mean, he’s not wrong. And yet, he’s suggesting they find the expendable, he’s reducing people’s lives to an assessment of how useful they are to survival on this ship.
That’s cold. REALLY REALLY cold.
Young’s approach is to sacrifice himself. He can’t ask anybody to make a sacrifice like this (Although military personelle do sometimes order their people to their death). Scott won’t let Young sacrifice himself. He’s the leader and they need him.
While everybody is arguing about it, Senator Armstrong leaves his room, armed with a gun. He’s going to do it. He’s probably going to die from his injuries anyway. He’s gonna close the door.
This is a heart-breaking moment as Chloe runs through the corridor screaming “Dad No!” as he gives his life to save everybody else.
It’s pretty powerful stuff.
What other show has ever portrayed a politician as so noble a hero. This breaks all the stereotypes.
So in her grief, Chloe goes and starts hitting Rush. She blames him, not entirely fairly. But his attempt to comfort her quickly turns into a justification of his innocence. Why none of this is his fault.
Rush admits that as human beings, everyone is invaluable. Which I agree with, but I’m not sure he really believes that.
Young is back on his feet now, against medical advice, but he needs to help solve their problems. He asks Camille to keep people calm. She’d be good at that.
Scott spends a little time sitting with Chloe, trying to comfort her.
He wants to hear about the senator. “The man died so I could live. I’d like to know more about him.”
I get on Scott’s case a bit in this episode, and I’ll have some more negative things to say about him, but I like this moment. I think, in this moment, he genuinely cares and wants to help Chloe.
Anyway, it’s a nice character scene.
Rush has learned the name of the ship is destiny. He’s also learned that it was sent out un-manned and automated. The plan was that they’d eventually use the gate to get to the ship once it was far enough out.
They never did. They probably learned to ascend before it happened.
Ascension, of course, is a process the ancients learned millennia ago, where they transform from physical beings into beings of energy and thought. They go to a higher plane of existence. We learn a lot about this in SG1 and Atlantis.
At this point, I’m wondering about how all this fits together in the timeline.
So I’ve looked it up.
The ancients were originally known as the Alterans. They came from another galaxy. A group of them left that galaxy, after a big divide between them and others who called themselves the Ori.
Between 50 and 30 million years BC, the eventually settled in the milky way galaxy, choosing to live on Earth as the first form of humanity.
It was after this that they launched Destiny, before they had even seeded the milky way with stargates
Later, they built Atlantis and left for the Pegasus Galaxy.
So there was at least 20 million years between the launch of Destiny, and the time the Ancients ascended. In all that time, they never gated to the ship. Had it still not reached the location where they wanted to board, or were there other reasons?
We still don’t know why the ancients launched the ship. Not yet.
Riley has found the address to dial the gate back to earth. It wasn’t hard to find. Young assumes Rush already knew but didn’t tell anyone. They don’t know the point of origin so they’ll have to use trial and error. They have 36 tries, but they could run out of power before they find the right combination.
The issues become moot when the ship drops out of FTL and the gate starts dialling on its own.
This is part of what the ship is programmed to do.
Rush believes the ship has detected a stargate on a planet nearby that may have what they need.
The ancients sent other unmanned ships out before destiny to seed planets with stargates, so that the crew could easily visit planets once they arrived.
So this gives the show a familiar yet different concept. Destiny is on auto-pilot. It flies from system to system. There are stargates out there, which means the characters can still go through the gate and explore, just like any Stargate show, except the gates are much shorter range than those in the milky way and pegasus. And Destiny leaves orbit after a certain time limit, which adds a ticking-clock element.
This all makes it feel familiar and yet fresh. I love it.
Rush has made the reasonable assumption that whatever they need is on the other side of that wormhole. The kino tells them about the atmosphere of the planet on the other side.
There are four other gates in range. Rush is convinced this is the planet they need to look at, because this is the one the ship chose.
So Young assembles a team.
Palmer the geologist. Franklin, a civilian scientist, Rush, Scott, And Eli wants to go too.
Rush and Scott are both hesitant about Eli going. He’s not trained for this. But Young points out that in order to survive, everyone, regardless of training or position, are going to have to step up. Young needs to know what Eli is made of.
Eli really is the heart of this show. He’s the character we can identify with. He’s a normal guy, and he’s a fellow nerd. Plus, he’s the good moral down-to-earth bloke amongst all the melodrama of the other characters.
I really like him.
And that’s where part 2 ends, as they step through the gate.
As I said, I originally watched this 3-parter as one big movie, but I think I’ve yabbered on for long enough.
We’ll save part 3 for the next episode.
I should be out getting some steps for my walk to mordor challenge, but it’s so hot at the moment. Summer doesn’t usually hit Tasmania until January, and it’s definitely hit the last couple of days. Maybe I should swim to Mordor.
I will do another Walk To Mordor episode some time, but probably not for a little while.
If you’re new here, you might be interested to hear about my book series, Jewel of The Stars. Just like Stargate Universe, it focuses on a group of people trapped on a spaceship, who weren’t planning for a long-term voyage. Unlike Destiny, it’s a luxury cruise ship. They were only supposed to be on board for a week, but while they were away Earth fell to an alien invasion, so now they can’t go home. They’re travelling through un-explored space. They may be the last free humans in the galaxy.
The series is structured like a TV series. Seasons of 6 episode. Each episode is a 30,000 word novella, so while shorter than a novel, it’s still a decent read. There is an on-going story arc through the whole series, but I aim to make each book a satisfying experience in its own right.
You can check out the first episode for just 99 cents by going to books2read.com/jewel and that’s the number 2.
Or you can get a free prequel story by going to AdamDavidCollings.com/free
I’ll be back next week to talk about Air Part 3.
Until then
Have a great week
Live long and prosper.
Make it so.
by 
