Earth

 DVD, Stargate Universe S1 (Earth)

Never heard of Janelle Monae (credited as Herself in the end credits), presumably a pop singer included to drum up interest among the 'yoof' audience, though I'm not sure 'Stargate' or indeed sci-fi in general, fit with popular music and trying to fuse the two is a bad idea, though it is interesting to see a stupid idea which had been proposed for 'Enterprise' less than a decade before this episode came out (let's have a band play in the Mess each week!), only this time they actually went for it! It sets the tone for what is a soapy, fairly miserable, and somewhat inappropriate episode, dealing as it does with Young, Eli and Chloe's trip to Earth and their realisations about what they miss or want out of life. The fact they occasionally switch back for brief moments whenever Destiny goes in or out of faster than light travel makes life more difficult, and you'd think once it'd happened the first time they'd have the courtesy to inform the visitors every time it was about to happen, just to give them a warning in case they were, say, naked. In the shower, or whatever. In Young's case he's abusing his position for intimacy with his ex-girlfriend or whatever she was (wife?), while Chloe gets drunk and Eli has fun on the dance floor. You would think there'd be tough restrictions on what is and is not allowed when you're inhabiting someone else's body, so it was quite unappealing to see these people's attitudes, let's just have fun, doesn't matter. Even what they eat should be thoroughly vetted, so going about as if they own the body they're in was extremely unethical.

If only the story had concentrated on the shipboard plot in which Telford leads a mission to dial the Stargate while refuelling in a star since that's when they have the most power. He's playing games with their lives (as are the young scientists involved), but there's a frisson of legitimacy since his orders come from above and are specifically sanctioned by General O'Neill in Richard Dean Anderson's second appearance on the series. Oddly we don't have Stargate Command any more, but 'Homeworld Command' - I can see why they'd drop the Stargate from it since they have a fleet of spacefaring ships that are used as much as the 'gates were, but is this actually some higher up organisation or is it the new name of the SGC? A shame we lose that part of the franchise if so (not that it matters, since this was pretty much the last part of the run). Good to see O'Neill again, of course it is, it always is, and he even mentions Carter, but I'm not sure it was a good enough episode to use him in, as I'd prefer he's the icing on the cake of the best episodes rather than a small role in what I would say is the weakest, in a small way. As I said, the shipboard story is by far the more interesting as Rush tricks Telford into thinking the place is about to explode and is very pleased with himself. Is he holding something back, would the experiment have worked if he'd have got behind it, and will he do everything in his power in order to remain as the brain of power on the ship? Young certainly thinks so, entrusting Eli with the task to find out if he's double-crossing them for his own ends.

Rush doesn't want to go back to Earth, he's very happy with the task or puzzle he has before him, and while he got cranky due to caffeine cold turkey in a recent episode, now he's through that he's not going to want to give up his self-imposed life's work, and it could even be that he's responsible for stranding them all there in the first place - you can certainly believe if it was in his power to do that he would have done it, it's more about whether he had that opportunity or if he's simply adapted to the situation and seen it for what it is. I'm not sure we ever found out since the series was prematurely cancelled, so speculation may abound, but he's certainly gone through his share of difficulties and unhappiness so it's not an obvious answer either way. It makes his character more intriguing and because Telford is such a boorish character you enjoy Rush's little triumph, and more so that some of the others, like Brody, appeared to be in on it. For once even Greer doesn't have anything but good feelings towards Rush, especially as we learn Telford was the superior he assaulted and landed him in hot water. In other news Eli wishes Chloe loved him. And that's about the most 'fascinating' thing you can say about that dull plot strand. They can use Eli well - when he visits his Mother but has to pretend to be a coworker is his strongest scene: he can't be completely open and has to remain at a level of boundary that Chloe and Young don't, since their nearest an dearest are in on what's happened.

The series is very much about factions, and who's on whose side, the office politics, the actual politics, and I suppose that is where they draw the majority of their drama from. Perhaps that's also why the series didn't catch on, maybe people still wanted a tight-knit little band of heroes who go off for adventures each week, with semi-recurring plot threads, races and characters to bolster the simple sci-fi. 'Universe' looks the part, it really is nicely shot and lit, the characters have a lot of potential and there's a lot to uncover about this flying mystery that is the Destiny, but naturally it is slow going because they don't want it to be 'used up' too soon. Going back to Earth might sound like a good idea, and I do like that they have some form of contact, they aren't completely alone out there, but at the same time they can easily fall into the trap of soap opera and when I think about it I often wasn't so keen on the Earth-based stories in other 'Stargate' series' anyway, so the fact this one relies on it to some degree isn't a boon. Still, nice to see the ship firing off its weapons for, I think, the first time, nice to see O'Neill, and the double dealing and power struggles are good to watch. But it wasn't quite there, and I wasn't sold on the shock cliffhanger of Telford showing up at Young's lady's place, presumably to fool her into thinking he's her man.

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