By Owen Quinn author photos copyright of MGM
As the second spin off show from the Stargate SG1 ten year run, Stargate Universe came as Stargate Atlantis was cancelled after five seasons due to cost and behind the scenes turmoil.
This series would be very different to the others as it would be set upon a spaceship, the Destiny, an Ancient ship that is preprogrammed for a very special mission. What that be revealed in time but this time, the crew would be unable to return to Earth in person. Stranded, alone and on a ship they could not control, this new SGC team were very much on their own.
The very first episode opens with emerging from a starfield. The camera then slow pans through the corridors of the ship until it rests upon a stargate that erupts in that familair liquid sheen. From it comes a lone solder, played by Brian J Smith, Lt Matthew Scott. He is alarmed by his location but others begin tumbling out of the stargate behind him, distressed and confused, literally crashing into each other. People are hurt and demand to know why they didn’t come out on Earth. It is clear it is a mix of civilians and army and one man ignores the cries of the wounded and climbs to a higher level and calmly observes the chaos. Immediately, we have questions raised and mysteries established on this dark ship full of distressed people. We meet Eli (David Blue) whom Scott demands help him find Rush. Eli says he only did what Rush told him to.
This is a really good way to open a series and with no rousing theme tune like its sister shows had, Universe has nothing. The clever structure of this episode allows you to relax into the story and become familair wiuth this new crew we will be joining.
We cut to a flashback where Eli is “recruited” by Jack O’Neill and Rush himself. Like The Last Starfighter, Eli solved something in a game that drew him to the SGC’s attention. We learn that Rush wants him on a mission but they have no idea how long he will be away but his mother and her health condition will be well taken care of. He is beamed abord the Hammond, a ship name after the late, great General Hammond. Actor Don Davis had passed a couple of years earlier due to a heart attack and the ship had debuted during the Stargate Atlantis run. Another nice addition is the Daniel Jackson training videos which explain what a stargate is and what it is all about. Add to that Sam Carter in command of the Hammond and kicking ass in space. It feels right that these familiar elements should launch this show as they are where it all began.
In Eli’s flashback, we meet Chloe (Elyse Levesque), who is the daughter of senator Armstrong who funded this project. Played by Christopher McDonald from Happy Gilmour and Yesterday’s Enterprise.
Flash forward and Eli is able to recognise some of the writings from the game. They discover they are in fact on a spaceship which Rush says is ancient in every sense of the word. This ship was launched hundreds of thousands of years ago and somehow is still going. From Rushs’ behaviour, we get the sense that he knows far more than he is saying and you may well be right.
It would be easy to label Rush a Doctor Smith character but he is so complex that Carlyle gives us a man driven by knowledge and dead set on finishing the mission no matter what. He is a visionary that can see beyond what the others can but make no mistake, he is not to be trusted right now. The simple separating of himself and being found alone on the bridge could be seen as selfish but in fact, he paving the way for his own personal mission. His and Eli’s relationship is a more adult spin on the Dr Smith and Will Robinson one with Rush almost in awe of Eli whom he knows can help him solve the puzzle which we will discover more about later.
Rush will become a running adversary for Colonel Everett Young (Louis Ferreira) so his flashback is next where we learn he is in a rocky marriage and having health episodes. He is leader of the Icarus base where we learn Rush placed a puzzle in Eli’s game and it was the solution to powering this particular stargate’s ninth and final chevron. We also meet Colonel Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips) whom is quite frankly, one major pain in the ass. Gone are the security of a core team that like and respect each other. These are scared people thrown into a situation by a zealous scientist’s selfishness where they may never see their families again.
What is a nice touch is the conflcit between the team which is not resolved after one episode. It is the heart of the show which evolves in really unexpected ways. This was something Star Trek Voyager tried and failed miserably at between the Maquis and Starfleet. The scene where Rush has a gun pointed at his head for trying to fix the ventilation system as everyone is losing air is tense. They are holding a gun to a genius they had known but not liked for months over Eli, whom they don’t really know. These are really complicated relationships made worse by their plight.
We learn the Icarus base was attacked by aliens. Rush persuades Eli to help him fix the ninth chevron resulting in a desperate charge into the stargate or die in an exploding planet. Hence their arrival aboard the Ancient ship. It is clear Young is furious as he knows full well Rush could have dialled anywhere else but did what he wanted to do.
The effects are as good as ever and you can tell just from this episode that this is going to be a very different kind of Stargate show. This is like roughing it. Unless they can control the ship then they are helpless. They only have limited supplies both fod and medical and limited means to defend themselves. There isn’t a flawless performance and it is clear the writers put a lot of thought into making Universe different from what has gone before. This is no happy crew holding hands on a spaceship. Universe became a mirror to really show and explore humanity under a mirror where they are stripped of nearly everything they take for granted.
We also got a younger cast to cover the demographics which works well with the older, more seasoned characters.
To be honest, I found the first season hit or miss then Universe got its space legs part way through and quickly became unmissable.
This first episode sets it all up in a cleverly executed fashion that makes you go into episode two. And like the mystery of the Ancient ship (not yet named), we peel off layer after layer with each episode. Great start to a show that came to an untimely end.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 