Justice

 DVD, Stargate Universe S1 (Justice)

They dispense with Spencer, and Rush is no longer in a rush, stuck on a planet... This one was certainly eventful, with political ambitions and scientific ones motivating various people. I'd have to say for most of it Young comes across very well, both as a leader and as someone willing to obey the rule of law when he's under suspicion of murdering the unstable Spencer. Before this episode I thought the soldier committed suicide, but this story threw doubts on it and I really couldn't guess who might be responsible unless it was some kind of cop-out where it was someone we'd not known before, like the guy who gets a few lines on the planet about his shoes, but whom I don't ever recall seeing previously. But in fact my original remembrance was correct, and at the same time someone we know was responsible for casting suspicion on Young: Rush. I should have guessed. Although they've become fairly civil in more recent episodes Rush isn't one to forget a grudge, so I can well believe he did frame him. My only slight suspicion was that the chubby scientist who had an altercation with Spencer recently might possibly have felt strongly enough to have done it, but then that falls flat since Young was the one to put Spencer right when he was pushing the other guy around. But Rush makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is that Young ends up as badly behaved as his nemesis. It was one thing for the doctor to implicate Young when there was no real evidence other than the gun being hidden in his room, but quite another for the Colonel to respond by beating him unconscious in a fistfight and leaving him to die on a planet the Destiny is warping away from. The saving grace is that Rush has the necessary tools to get back since the whole reason he was willing to push it was because they've discovered the first evidence of (physical, not forgetting the sand entity), alien life with a crashed ship. If anyone can get inside and get it working again, especially when his grudge is solidified even more, it's Dr. Rush! And since I knew he wasn't being written out of the series, it's bound to happen. But that doesn't let Young off the hook - while he's proved many times he's a fair and reasonable man, and again in this episode, he still obeys the higher authority of Earth even though he could just as easily clamp down and declare martial law, that doesn't give him permission to vent his anger. The Stargate programme, for all its civilians, is a military operation, and though the brainies are integral and important to the success of the mission (and now everyone's survival), they are under the authority of their military superiors, but equally that can't equate to Young bullying those in his care, which, to be fair, he's been very good at handling so far.

The opposing sides had always been a mode of approaching drama, that conflict between civilian and military, science and violence perhaps, but it's never been quite so stark as it is in this series. It was sad to see Young give in to his worse nature and strand Rush, even though he had strong reason after all that had been done to him, a sort of coup that he had to accept or use the military and end any sense of democracy and rules of law, cutting off from Earth which he, and they all, need as a last connection to their old lives. Rush wanted to work on the recently discovered chair and chubby guy (can never remember his name), sits in it of his own volition and goes into a coma, or something. So Rush gets all he wants, even firing off a barb that Young isn't capable of leading the mission since he turned down the post of SG leader (is that the role O'Neill has now?), not wanting the responsibility. But still, it's hard to see this constant bickering or meaningful looks between people. After all they've been through, Young risking his life to bring back the water, for example, many times having to make difficult decisions that have got them to where they are, and some people still don't trust him. Who should be in command and why was quite an issue, but Young has proved himself plenty of times.

It's the story that doesn't quite do it, going from murder mystery to courtroom drama to... something else, but never really exploring each aspect enough, like it feels the audience don't have the patience. I must admit solving a murder isn't the most interesting idea, any police or detective series can do that, and while a courtroom can provide plenty of great drama (see the many Trek episodes in that vein), it can also be a bit predictable. The aftermath, then, of Colonel Young's self-imposed stepping down, must be the most interesting part, but it doesn't last too long and as I pointed out, ends in ignominy. Up to that point I'd have said it was quite a 'suitable' episode in terms of content, but then you have the brutal fight on the planet so even what little innocence (if we leave aside Spencer's suicide, which is tastefully not shown), is offed. I don't know, I keep getting the feel of a series that is unsure about itself, rarely going below the surface, relying on stylistic and contemporary choices to make it work, and so it remains at the level of not quite succeeding where any other 'Stargate' would have given us a few good episodes by this point. They're a little handicapped by the serialised format, despite the immense promise of the premise.

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