Warning: This post contains spoilers if you have not watched this episode

One Sentence Review

A welcome return to form after the lackluster conclusion to Air

Episode Recap

The Destiny is suffering from a shortage of supplies. and the crew is having to ration food, water and other supplies in order to survive. Dr Rush has noticed that the Destiny’s power level is running low on power and is becoming extremely irritable due to a combination of stress, lack of sleep, withdrawal from caffeine and cigarettes and when the civilian astrophysicist Dale Volker is sent to help him throws hims out when he cant immediately see the signs of indicating the power problems.

Elsewhere Eli has set up Keyno’s to record short messages from each of the crew members for posterity in case they cant get back home. Later while Eli is standing guard for Chloe who is testing the Destiny’s equivalent of Showers he is called away by Lt Vanessa James who says she wants to talk to him alone. This turns out to be a lie as he is taken to an observation room where a large group of junior military staff and civilians want to know the truth about the situation as they think he is a member of the “inner command circle”, he then promises to tell them if he finds something out.

A little later the Destiny drops out of FTL and most of the systems deactivate. When Col Young goes to see Rush about this, Rush states they have no more power left and all their reserves are gone. Rush becomes increasingly angry with Col Young and eventually collapses and falls unconscious. Later Young consults with Volker, a civilian engineer Alan Brody and Eli about what to do, and Eli is the only one with a possible temporary solution to the problem in trying to use the shuttle power systems to provide power to the Destiny.

Col Young uses the ancient device to report back to Earth and is again replaced by Col Telford. Young uses the time on Earth to visit his wife who he seems to be estranged from, while Telford uses the time on Destiny to be filled on on what is going on and when he swaps back with Col Young is ordering Lt Scott to use the communication stones to report back to Earth to say that Col Young needs to be replaced, which Young thinks Telford may be right about.

Rush eventually wakes up after 10 hours and is acting more rationally after the rest, he is then informed that the Destiny has come out of FTL in a system with habitable planets suggesting that they may be saved as the Destiny is set on a slingshot trajectory with a gas giant that will take them in system towards the habitable planets. Unfortunately when they exit slingshot Rush discovers they are on a direct course for the systems star.

Thoughts and Analysis

While the conclusion to the introductory episode Air was disappointing with its overly cliched plot, Darkness is a much more enjoyable episode and acts as the “getting to know you” episode that the series needed. The main problem I have is that I did not feel that much “dramatic tension” regarding the cliff hanger type ending as it happens so early in the series that you know that things will turn out alright in the end.

While I had some worries prior to the airing of the episode that it would be badly affected by stretching it from a single episode into a two parter, this first part did not feel stretched, and while the pacing of the episode was slower than that in Air, it did not feel unnaturally slow and did a good job of showing how the characters are settling into their new home.

Regarding the main plot itself regarding the loss of power on the Destiny and the collision course into the Star, while I found this an effective plot device depending on how the situation is resolved and what the ultimate cause of the power loss is, I think there is a risk that it has been used too early on in the series as I do not think there is any risk of them not solving the problem in the next episode.

My personal suspicion is that it will be revealed that the Destiny’s AI is deliberately heading for the Star in order to either collect Hydrogen for Fuel (Power) or it can recharge itself when close to a Star. Given that the Destiny is unmanned and has a long term mission, there is a good chance that the ship has to periodically “recharge” and the Icarus team had the bad luck to arrive just before it was due to recharge, though the frequent use of the Stargate on Col Telfords orders could have hastened the process. It is also possible that the ship glimpsed leaving Destiny at the end of Air could have been siphoning power from Destiny.

In regards to character development we see Rush have a breakdown of sorts which is put down to a combination of lack of sleep and withdrawal from cigarettes and caffeine. While this is possible I wonder if it will be revealed there is something more to it that this as it was rather extreme compared to what other people are going through. I also had to question Col Young’s lack of action earlier on regarding Rush’s lack of sleep since it was obvious Rush needed sleep when he came into the mess hall, I also wondered why Eli wasn’t sent to help him since Eli has been shown to be able to work with Rush and has shown some understanding of the Destiny’s systems.

On the Eli front I was put in mind of the first season Atlantis episode “Letters from Pegasus” which involved Lt Ford filming goodbye messages from the Atlantis crew to be sent to Earth when they realise Atlantis is about to be attacked by the Wraith, and the “Keyno messages” at this point are amounting to the same thing.  The plot purpose though is different as LFP was late on in the first season of Atlantis so we already knew the crew, this time around they are used to introduce a few of the minor characters who have not yet had a chance to shine.

This brings me on to Camille Wray the IOA member with the Destiny crew, we did not see that much of her in Air and was most prominently featured in Lt Johansen’s flash back when she seems overly interested in the reason for her resigning from the military, and it is interesting that she is one of the first people she brings up with Col Young for whom she seems to be working as his aide de camp. The impression I get is that there is either some personal history between the 2 characters or that Johansen has a secret of some kind, especially as it is made clear she should have returned to Earth weeks earlier. If there is a Lucien Alliance spy/double agent amongst the Destiny crew as suggested from events in Air then Lt Johansen is at this point a strong candidate.

Going back to Eli it was amusing that he has got himself caught in the middle of a split between the high ranking members of the Destiny crew and the junior officers and civilians who are not happy with the situation. It will be interesting to see if this split becomes an ongoing plot element as there is a potential for a mutiny later on in the series if this fissure grows. It is also amusing that Eli considers himself fairly useless when he has shown himself to be anything but useless to date and that the “dissatisfied” are actually correct that Eli is close to the inner command circle becuase of this even if he does not realise it himself.

I was also glad to see that it was acknowledged that Chloe Armstrong is currently without a defined purpose on the Destiny given the situation they are in, I just hope that the show runners use this opportunity effectively.

I also wonder where the show is going in terms of the Young/Telford power struggle, while Col Telford was intended to be in Col Youngs place if everything had gone to plan his actions to date have been disruptive, and I am interested in what the chain of command would be if both Young and Telford were on the Destiny which is possible given the Ancient Stone Technology, as well as the inevitable clash of personalities. If we are using Atlantis analogies then Telford at the moment reminds me of Kavanagh with his wanting to get Col Young dismissed and how would that work in deep space?

All in all then a fairly effective episode that helps with getting to know the characters and the situation they are in. My only real complaint is that I felt the power plot may have been more effective if left for a few episodes and built as a threat rather than happening almost straight away.

Episode Rating

7/10

Destiny Death Count

This episode: 0 Missing or Dead

Total Missing or Dead: 3