One Sentence Review

A reasonably enjoyable filler episode, though I am getting increasingly fed up with the Soap Opera-ish elements of the show

Episode Recap

The episode opens with short clips of people’s normal routine on the Destiny. Back on Earth Col Telford is continuing to man the communication stones and has formed a relationship with Col Young’s wife.

Eli is busy with checking simulation’s of Telford’s plan to get them back to Earth, which gets him in trouble with Rush when he asks for his help. Later he tells Col Young that all of his simulations end with catastrophic failure of some sort.

Lt Johansen tells Col Young that she has spotted a potential psychological problem with Sgt Spencer, which results in her being ordered to evaluate the entire crew.

Elsewhere Greer is busy checking new parts of the ship with Rush monitoring via Kino, Greer then finds a chair which Rush thinks is an early version of the ancient data repository. Due to the risk Col Young does not want anyone using it.

On Earth Camille is on a personal visit to Earth when she gets intercepted by an IOA representative. The representative then tells Camille that she should try to form her own camp regarding control of the ship.

Lt Scott is also on a personal trip and is shocked to get a letter from his ex girlfriend who wants to see him. When he goes to her house, he is shocked to find a child there alone. He later gets another shock when it turns out the child is his and he has a son (he though she had an abortion when they were 16) and that she is working as a “dancer”. He tries to get her to change by offering to pay in his salary but she insists that she is in control.

On the Destiny, Rush has accessed the database of planets seeded by the advanced Destiny ships. He then claims to have found a planet 1 year away which has properties similar to the Icarus planet which should allow them to get home if they can work out how to control the ship. Word of this discovery quickly spreads.

Lt Scott is back on Destiny and is having strange dreams of Col Young’s wife which he tells Col Young about. This causes Col Young to return to Earth where he discovers Telford with his wife, Telford has told his wife that Young is still having an affair with Johansen, which causes Young to go after Telford but Telford has made a call which gets Young disconnected from the communication stones. Young later returns to Earth pretending to be Dr Volker and attacks Telford.

When he returns he gets even more bad news from Eli. Eli has found out that Rush faked the Icarus planet data, unfortunately this revelation gets overheard by Camille Wray so everyone will know. Rush justifies it by saying it boosts morale and that he could find one if someone was allowed to use the chair. Young then says Rush is free to use it himself but knows he wont.

Thoughts and Analysis

Stargate Universe finally gets around to showing us the standard daily routine of the Destiny crew, and along with the standard intrigue and deception from Rush, there are also the awful soap opera elements of the show which I personally cant stand in such high doses.

On the intrigue side of things it appears that Eli despite his relative closeness to Rush is in what Camille Wray would call the Col Young camp as he is going over the data from Telford’s failed attempt to dial Earth whilst the ship is recharging which in a slight surprise it appears Rush was actually telling the truth over. Though given how the episode ends, I don’t know if there is even a Rush camp after he gave people false hope.

This too me was slightly out of character for Rush as he is smart enough to know that few people trust him to begin with, he should also know by this point that Col Young does not trust him so would have Eli or someone else in his camp double check the data. The only reason I can think of him lying like this are if he has another plan beyond the obvious or is so obsessed with gaining access to Destiny’s systems that he has lost common sense.

As for the ancient chair, I am not even sure if Rush is telling the truth about it being a data repository as to me (and other people if you check forums), it looks more like a prototype control chair. In fact when I first saw it I straight away thought that they had found a control chair. If they were going to do an early data repository device you would have thought the prop team could come up with something which makes you think data repository and not control chair. Given that Rush did not use it (which you would think he would if he thought it was a control chair) then I have to assume he was telling the truth.

Unfortunately a large proportion of this episode was devoted to the increasingly insipid soap opera elements of SGU. This time round it was the ongoing Young Telford dispute which now involves Telford trying to further estrange Col Youngs wife, Lt Scott learning he has a son and Camille Wray reuniting with her lesbian lover.

It’s got to the point where I wish a character would steal the communication stones and jettison them out of an airlock as they are making parts of SGU intolerable. Sure it is nice to see Earth from time to time but they are not even being used realistically.

Firstly there seems to be no restrictions on what you can and can not do with another persons body. Second linked to this the respective partners of people also do not seem to have a problem with being intimate with people while there in someonelse’s body which I find hard to believe. What makes this worse is that there has not even been any debate on the show covering what is and is not acceptable for people to do or even an acknowledgement that there are moral and ethical issues even if the end result was that they decided not to restrict people’s activities. I would also like someone to refuse to use the stones on grounds similar to these.

The other problem is that aside from in Earth, the stones have not been used realistically by the people on Earth. If I was deciding who should man the stones, then for scheduled visits I would want to send people to Destiny who could be of use while there.

A case in point is that TJ was expected to perform a cursory Psych check on the crew despite only having a bare minimum level of training. Given the Destiny’s situation I would have thought that Earth would provide someone for this purpose, it would also help with the awkwardness issue of having to face someone everyday who could know embarrassing and intimate details about you.

A final related issue is the sex on Destiny and do they have birth control available since if not then Chloe or Dr Park should probably fall pregnant by the end of season given how they seem to have been going at it.

Despite these gripes I still found Life to be a fairly enjoyable episode, as there was enough intrigue in it to keep my interest and despite feeling that the Soap Opera elements could use with toning down and having less attention put on them I did enjoy the Young/Telford confrontation. The problem I have is though, while these elements do have their place they should not be the main focus of a Sci-fi show which at the moment I feel like they are.

Episode Rating

6/10