Hope

 DVD, Stargate Universe S2 (Hope)

Amanda Perry coming back as part of the ship's computer, I remembered. Gin coming back, I did not. For all the high concept sci-fi plotting going on I must admit that the hardest part to believe was that TJ could perform a successful kidney transplant! I know, she had help from Perry, the support of their colleagues and friends, but as Greer 'reassured' Volker, 'this isn't a hospital and she isn't a doctor.' In a way I wish there had been some kind of Ancient tech involved as that would have made it a bit easier to believe in, but this apparently searchable database doesn't seem all that easy to navigate, by the sound of it! And it is a high point for TJ, performing at a level she never expected to - the usual protocol would be to bring a doctor or two aboard via the communication stones, but at the start of this episode we learn they still haven't heard back from Earth about whether the Lucian Alliance bomb went off. So that option's off the table and the pressure's on TJ. Though there is tension, this is a much quieter episode than is normal for the series, much more of an examination of consciousness. When I say 'examination' it makes it sound like a rigorous exploration of the concept, and it's not that. What it is, is more of a fumbling look from a personal nature, and that's fine.

Less important than the fact that Gin and Amanda still exist, despite the fact both of their bodies died, is how this affects Eli and Rush who both thought they'd lost them forever. Now there's at least hope (so the title works), even if it's slim. On the other side is Scott whose concern is naturally for Chloe, the only one with legitimate reason to inhabit her body. While I could have done with a more detailed drive into what it means to be a consciousness in somebody else's body, or where the disembodied go when they aren't present, 'Stargate' isn't generally that hard into its sci-fi, it tends to be surface level. It's the characters this franchise does well, so it's no surprise they lean on them for their drama. I was glad Matt wasn't getting hysterical and demanding the Colonel stop them endangering his girlfriend's body. He shows his haste to get things sorted, but Chloe is the barometer for his character and she is typically selfless, wanting Gin (as she's the only one they know about at that point), to have every chance for life, regardless of her own personal safety. She's not the only one happy to jump into the unknown for a dead person: Volker is found to have end-stage kidney failure and desperately needs a transplant, a walking dead man. He's fortunate that one of the two best matches on board is macho man Ron Greer. He's only too happy to leap into action immediately and give up one of his kidneys, doesn't even want any pain medication when they're taking a bone marrow sample from his hip! Yes, he is Mr. Macho.

Yet I believe it, and in him. I don't think he's doing it to impress anyone, he just loves to throw himself into whatever's dangerous, maybe to test himself, to see how far he can go, maybe because he knows this is Volker's best chance. I don't really know because we don't really know Greer the man underneath that toughness all that well. He had issues with his Father, a hard upbringing, we know he loves to help those he considers friends, as he did getting Eli and Gin together in the first place. He's just a naturally heroic person willing to give up things for others, just as Colonel Young would do, or Matthew Scott... It certainly is a good advert for the US army! Or maybe the SGC? It's not just limited to giving up a piece of himself to someone that needs it, either, he shows remarkable sensitivity by giving Volker an equivalent of what he's missing: sitting in his 'backyard' looking up at the stars. An agreeable Greer, how novel! However you dice it up this episode shows a lot of heroism, people stepping up to the plate to grapple with the unknown, dealing with risk and coming through. For that reason it's a very optimistic, positive watch, quite different from many episodes of the series. Who knows, if they'd had more of this along the way the series might have caught on and been given the time to tell its full story? But it's possible we needed to go through all that misery, distrust, complaining, etc, the hard times, to get to this stage of the characters working together as friends - not without conflict, but they know each other, they know how their fellows will act, and that in turn makes them act better as people.

The real issue hanging over the episode is whether there really is a genuine hope. They don't have many episodes in which to find bodies for Gin and Amanda before the series' cruelly cut short demise - I liked that it's mentioned they've known races that have the ability to download a consciousness into a body (as much as that opens up all kinds of difficult questions about whether anyone should ever die, which is problematic - something they tried in 'Picard' and then promptly failed with, almost ignoring it after that), it's just a fact that they these people aren't accessible for the Destiny. Although now that I think of it, it would have been a great way to get a familiar race (or character, for that matter), into the series: an Asgard, say, as we know some of the SGC ships had one aboard. Or maybe a Jaffa (Teal'c needed to show up!). I have no doubt as the series progressed they'd have tried to include more traditional 'Stargate' elements and connections, it's a matter of course for series' that are part of a greater franchise. They like to start off their own way, but the pendulum swings back towards recognition of established continuity eventually. As we know, this series never got its chance at that (though we will still see some key characters from other parts of the franchise before the end!).

However they were going to deal with the floating apparitions the reality is that things can never be as they were, as much as Eli thinks spending time with a disembodied persona will be like old times. That's why it's a joyful end (especially with Telford making a cameo to confirm Earth is safe and it was merely some repair work to the communication device that prevented contact for a few days), but also one tempered by bittersweetness. Are we going to see Franklin again? I'd like to see the three of them; him, Gin and Perry, talking things out, but he seemed to be more affected by what happened to him than the other two, or was it because he was uploaded from a catatonic state that he was so different, more mysterious and integrated with the ship itself? It's got a lot of story potential, only there isn't much time left to tell it in. I don't remember, but I hope they were successful. As for this one, it's another win, and it doesn't rely on action or melodrama, simply good drama and likeable people working together to solve problems. More, please. Maybe the neural interface chair is a bit of a solve-all maguffin, but it's mysterious enough and tied into 'Stargate' mythology enough that I buy it! You know the episode's going to end well whatever happens because otherwise bringing Gin back only for her to die again would be an entirely pointless exercise and a waste of an episode, unless you consider it a chance for Eli to say goodbye. But it's not goodbye for now: it's not the end, it's time to be Gin.

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