After a strong opening with Air, after a few episodes, I was starting to feel the show was getting a bit bogged down by its character-heavy approach.  Specifically in terms of the stones and the frequent communication with Earth.  It seemed a bit frustrating that we had this group stranded on a nigh-self-aware ship, surrounded by probably the oldest Ancient technology we’d ever seen, and yet every episode involved someone popping home to have some angst with their loved ones.  I think part of the problem is that aside from the Destiny not getting much focus, there are various moral and ethical questions over the use of the communication stones that have so far been pretty much ignored by the production team.   Hopefully they’ll get addressed more in the second half of the season, but now that some of the relationships and personalities have been established, I’m really hoping we see a bit less of the stones.

That said, things definitely have evened out as things have gone on, and despite feeling the Stones/Earth stories were being overplayed, I thought Life was a superb episode, no doubt helped by giving us a glimpse into Wray’s character, someone who we hadn’t really seen much of yet was also present in the background.  This made for some freshness compared to another round of Eli or Chloe heading home.

SGU is doing a great job with some of its side characters.  While Rush and Eli undoubtedly steal the show at the moment, I’m really starting to find Wray and especially Greer very interesting indeed.

The discovery of the chair on the Destiny has really made things interesting onboard, and we’re starting to get hints towards Rush’s motivations.   Of course, this week saw his scheming and his antagonistic relationship with Young come to ahead, resulting in his framing Young, and Young subsequently leaving him abandoned on an alien world.

What happens next with Young should be very interesting.  He’s been abandoned next to a crashed alien ship, so you have to assume that’ll feature into however he gets back to the Destiny, and I can’t see it being a good thing for the other passengers.  Either he manages to get the ship up and running, in which case he’s got his own ship or, and I think more likely, someone comes looking for their crashed ship.  You can only hope if they do, that they’re friendly (and we know at least one other alien race has been in contact with the Destiny, from Air part 3), because we know that Rush will probably sell out Young and the rest of the passengers in a heartbeat to get back to the ship.

Aside from the obvious problems with Rush, there’s also a nice undercurrent of the problems on the ship between the military and the civilians.  Since arriving on the Destiny, the military were quick to take charge of the situation, but they’re on dubious ground with the civilian population, who are essentially finding themselves under military rule, subject to room inspections whenever something happens onboard and all signed up for bootcamp so Young knows they’re all in shape to take part on away teams to whatever planets the Destiny takes them to.  Given their situation its easy to see why the military taking charge makes a certain amount of sense, however over the last few episodes (again, especially Justice) its been nice to see Young become more aware of the divisions in the passengers and move to find more of a balancing act by subjecting himself to the same searches and stepping down and putting Wray in charge when he realised the rest of the passengers were losing faith in him.  Although whether this is enough, I doubt and I can see there being a huge bust up soon where the civilians and the military are going to have to learn to work together more effectively.  Currently its really only Eli how seems to exist comfortably with both groups (and I suppose, Rush is equally disliked by both, so that’s common ground as well).

So overall, perhaps a slightly wobbly, but none-the-less impressive start to this first season.  Despite only being 10 episodes into the show, I’m really feeling we’ve got strong feelings for who most of the characters (both main and recurring) are.   Unlike Atlantis, which remained pretty solidly the Sheppard and MacKay show up until the end, I can see other characters in this show easily starting to move to the forefront of things and rival Rush and Eli’s initial pushes.  The Destiny remains an interesting setting and I really hope that the second half of the season will see a lot more exploration of the ship and life aboard it.

A pretty short summary, but much like the previous episodes of SGU, the focus in this show is on how the characters react to the situation, not the situation itself.  For the crashing into the sun dilemma, I think at least 90% of the viewership had twigged exactly what was going to happen.  And that in itself is dangerous for the show.  While needing the basics of survival is a key starting point for a show like this, there’s a danger that “don’t worry, the ship knows what its doing” will completely remove any sense of danger the story will try to build up.   However, with the ship being such a central character in this show, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when what the ship wants, doesn’t coincide with what’s best for the passengers.

As I say though, the focus is very much on the characters here.  Again, Robert Carlyle’s Dr Rush probably steals things, but we also get a lot more fleshing out of the other cast.  Greer, who previously came across as an angry thug, is very well served by this pair of episodes, allowing us to see more of him as a person through his nice bonding moment with Young regarding his incarceration and through the larger medium of the Kino videos the crew record throughout the episodes as a log to leave behind when they think they’re going to die.

Again, Eli really shines as well.  The scene where Rush apologies for getting him into this situation, and he says that its ok, was really well played, and its very nice that he’s actually the one that solves the shuttle issue at the end of the story.

As I say though, Rush continues to steal the show for me.  His nervous breakdown was really well done, and reflected nicely the pressure that’s on him, as the only expert in Ancient tech to try and figure out these unfamiliar systems without anyone who’s really qualified or experienced to back him up.  Of course, his abrasive personality doesn’t really help matters, as people are inclined not to listen to his advice (such as not pushing every button on the ship just to see if its the self-destruct or not), and even less inclined to work alongside him.   An interesting aside to this seems to be  that its something he’s deliberately cultivating.  Over the course of these episodes, with death staring him in the face, we see him soften towards some of the other characters (notably apologising to Eli), however the minute the crisis is resolved, he immediately pushes away Young by hinting that he knew all along that the ship would survive.

As for that twist at the end, I have to say I’m not convinced.  I will accept that Rush might’ve had a suspicion that the ship was going to recharge, but I think his reaction when it happened was much too genuine.   I think its more about him trying to push people away from him, after whatever it was happened to his wife.

I noticed in the news this morning, that the ratings for this show are actually still going up.   That’s worth noting in my book.  I’m no expert, but in my experience, ratings usually start very, very high, and then slowly lose people over the first few episodes before evening out again (barring high publicised episodes with significant guest stars or something like that).   So far the ratings to still be increasing, really shows what a success this show is, and there’s obviously some really good word of mouth out there that’s pulling in more viewers each week.  Excellent stuff.

The episode again provided plenty of food for thought though in terms of the larger story, specifically when it comes to communication with Earth.

Despite my initial thoughts, the Ancient communications device is quickly broken out by Colonel Young so he can check in with Earth and update them on their status.  It also provides Chloe with the opportunity to tell her mother about her father’s death in the previous episode.

The way the communications device works is by swapping the conciousness of its users on either end.  So in this case, we had Young body-swapping with Colonel Telford.  As well as allowing Young to check in with Earth, it also allowed Telford (who was originally supposed to be leading the expedition) to get his first look at the situation on the Destiny, and it was clear he wasn’t happy with how things were being run (which in fairness to the character, was understandable, since he was the one specially trained for the mission, so he should have a better idea of how some situations should be tackled).

This led me to thinking though.  I wonder how long it takes before its suggested that there’s a longer term body swap via the communications device.   The Destiny crew is a hodge-podge of characters who survived the Icarus base attack versus, for example, the specially picked team that went through the gate during the Atlantis expedition.  Currently for example, the crew is light on medical staff, so maybe there’ll be the issue of whether or not some of the less experienced crew swap out with a senior surgeon for example.   With the number of injuries on board, it would at least make sense to do this kind of thing regularly, or have someone swap for a couple of weeks while the worst of the cases are dealt with.    I can’t help but think there’ll have to be some sort of limitation introduced into the device, beyond the moral dilemma of loaning your body out to someone else and living in theirs for an extended period.   It does look like there’s only a couple of the devices as well, so that will help provide limits to its use.

Interestingly as well, its confirmed that Rush did indeed contact Earth in the previous episode.  So despite appearances, maybe he’s not as shifty as originally feared (although we only know that he made contact, not necessarily the he was put in charge as he claimed).

There’s also the mystery of the swirling dust cloud that helped Scott locate the limestone they needed to fix the air system.  Was that a natural inhabitant of the planet, or was it maybe an ascended Ancient helping them along?  That kind of interference would be unusual for the Ancients though.   And in the final parting shot of the episode, we see some kind of shuttle detaching itself from the Destiny while in FTL.  Is this pointing at a new alien race that have not only located the Destiny, but also have the same kind of advanced FTL technology?  Surely a bad thing for the crew.

Aside from these, the other thing I’ve really gotten a feel of as I’ve mulled over this pilot, is how much the Destiny is a character in this show.  Much moreso than Atlantis was in the previous series.   Whereas Atlantis was purely a setting the characters inhabited, the Destiny has its own mission.  The crew are merely passengers that the ship will help out if asked nicely (such as Rush telling the Destiny about the need to fix the air system).    While stopped, the Destiny is only willing to stay for so long without leaving, and while Rush stumbled upon a way to buy a little extra time in this episode, from the way the ship was creaking and groaning, it really didn’t sound happy about its mission being stalled.

I really hope this is something the writers continue to play with.  The TARDIS has long been treated as a character in Doctor Who, as opposed to just the transportation with a mind of its own, and moods, and its something that will really add to the alien nature of the Destiny.   I really hope we don’t soon see the crew starting to get more and more control and understanding of the Destiny’s systems.  I quite like the idea that they’re merely passengers stranded on this ship, rather than a proper crew.

Borrowing a lot from the Battlestar Galactica remake in terms of tone and visual style, this new series follows a group of survivors from the Icarus Project.  The project’s intention was to unlock the 9th chevron in the Stargate and access an address stored in their databases.  To do this though, there was only one power source available, and they were tapping the core of a planet to power the gate.  However when the Lucian Alliance (as seen in the later seasons of SG-1) attack the planet, the crew of the base are forced to flee, and when Dr Rush (Robert Carlyle) ceases the opportunity to dial the 9 chevron address, they find themselves trapped, galaxies from home on the far side of the universe, onboard the Destiny, and automated ship that’s ancient, even by Ancient standards.

The other obvious comparison in terms of shows is Star Trek: Voyager, which similarly found a mismatched crew trapped far from home.  However that show always drew criticism for magically dodging the realism of the situation.  The kitchen was always well-stocked and the ship in tip-top condition even after 7 years stranded.  Fortunately more recent shows have ensured to learn from Voyager’s mistakes, and SGU is no exception.  The Destiny is an old, old ship and as such is riddled with hull breaches and a knackered air filtration system, so no sooner have the crew arrived than they’re immediately facing the issue of dying of oxygen starvation.

Comparisons can also be drawn with the opening of Stargate Atlantis with the team finding the lost City and immediately being trapped with the city under water and the power to the shields running out (easily solved when a failsafe kicks in and raises the city).  However in this case, the Destiny seems more alien and perhaps even a more hostile environment than Atlantis (which felt very cosy and safe almost immediately) was.

Another thing I loved was the way the show is tackling the usual cliches.  Early on, there’s a need for someone to sacrifice themselves, sealing off a damaged shuttle that’s leaking air.  The Colonel has been badly injured, and is still laid up despite slowly healing, so obviously I jumped to the conclusion that he was going to nobly sacrifice himself for the good of the men under his command.

However he doesn’t get the chance.  As the senator that was with the group, and who is also badly injured (with very ropey chances of survival) gets to the shuttle first.   Stargate (and Sci-Fi in general) has a long history of politicians being untrustworthy, self-serving types, so to see that turned on its head was a really nice surprise.

Another Stargate staple is that the main cast are by and large a trustworthy heroic lot.  Not so much here.  Robert Carlyle’s Dr Rush comes across quite ambiguous in these first two episodes, and you’re left feeling unsure as to just whether or not he can be trusted.   His actions maroon the crew on the Destiny when he refuses to dial Earth (or some other appropriate planet) to escape on Icarus base, instead driven to take his last opportunity to dial the 9 chevron address.   He’s quick to make off with the ancient communications device, the crew’s only link to Earth, and despite saying he’s been put in charge, there is a question mark over whether or not he did actually contact home.

There also seems to be a hint of a mystery in the pilot.  Although its not really touched upon, it does seem a bit of a surprise that the Lucian Alliance managed to locate Project Icarus.  I can’t help but think this is something that’s going to come up again as the series goes on, and I suspect someone in the crew may have sold them out.

All in all, a very solid launch indeed.   There seems to be a fair amount of stuff setup between the age and unreliability of the Destiny, the crew’s various secrets and perhaps some broader plot elements as well (the idea of there being further automated ships sent ahead of the Destiny for example).

Roll on next week, and the third part of the opening story.  I’m very intrigued by how the ticking clock element will affect things as the crew have to be back to the Destiny before it heads off again to the next stop on its journey.