One Sentence Review

Another run of the mill episode that could have fared better if built up to over previous episodes, and then there is the big problem with the “conjugal visit”

Episode Recap

Col Young is awoken from an erotic dream featuring Lt Johansen to use the ancient communication stones to attend a meeting on Earth. In the meeting he is given a big surprise when General O’Neill informs him that they may have found a way to return the Destiny crew to Earth.

The plan entails dialling Earth when the Destiny is recharging in a star as in theory the ship will have the star as a power source. The plan is not without risk and Col Young wants time to think about it, despite being given a direct order. The next day Col Young returns to Earth along with Chloe and Eli only to find that he has swapped with Col Telford and the 2 scientists in charge of the plan, which is going ahead despite his reservations and without telling them.

On the Destiny the crew are less than enthusiastic about the plan as there is a chance the ship could explode. Rush is opposed to the idea of using the ships weapons to drain power due to the condition of the ship. His fears are proved valid when Riley is badly injured when trying to repair the ship.

Col Young, Eli and Chloe are allowed out of the base on Earth and Eli and Chloe use the time to catch up with their mothers (though Eli hides who he is). Later he and Chloe go out with some of Chloe’s friends with Chloe posing as her cousin. Col Young uses the opportunity to catch up with his estranged wife.

Chloe becomes upset on the night out as she discovers some of her friends were using her for advantage, and her best friend is dating her ex boyfriend. Eli on the other hand is having the time of his life as he gets to dance with an attractive woman. They then suddenly find themselves back on the Destiny as the stones were disrupted when it dropped out of FTL, this is especially unfortunate for Col Young who is in the middle of making love to his wife. After they automatically revert to swapping bodies Eli takes Chloe home as she is upset and drunk.

Back on Destiny, Col Telford’s plan to drain power is proceeding and Camille Wray talks Rush into helping. A little later the ship jumps to FTL again causing Telford to swap with Young as his wife is explaining the problem she is having with Young being trapped on a ship with “her”.

The Destiny is eventually drained of power and goes into a star to recharge, and the gate is dialled to Earth. The plan does not go as planned and they are forced to attempt to abort, which fails. This causes Telford and the scientists to swap back to their original bodies, when this happens Rush then quickly returns things to normal as the failure was actually staged, though he assures people who work it out that the ship would have been destroyed if the plan had gone ahead.

Later on Col Young talks to Eli and asks him to learn all he can about the data gathered while dialling Earth as he thinks Rush may be hiding something. While on Earth Col Telford goes to see Col Youngs wife.

Thoughts and Analysis

For the second week in a row I found the episode of Stargate Universe to be less than inspired. Thankfully the episode was not another “we have run out of this resource” episode, but I found that the episode as a whole felt slightly disjointed and could have used expanding into a 2 part episode so that some of the issues raised, on a personal stand point and a technological standpoint could have been addressed better.

One problem I had was the rescue attempt plot felt rushed and forced, while the Destiny crew are in a bad way as far as I could see there was no good reason for the attempt to be forced through in a matter of days as it was in this episode. Given that the Destiny is old and in need of repair I am in agreement with Rush that before you go ahead with the plan you try to get as much of the ship fixed as possible, now if he was telling the truth or not about it being destroyed if they actually went through with the plan is another matter.

The other issue I had was why was Eli sent back, from the episodes so far aside from Rush Eli has the best understanding of Destiny and its systems and is someone you would want on board to help, especially if you doubt Rush is going to co-operate. Given that you are planning to replace Young with Telford, a better candidate for the body swap would be Sgt Greer who just sat confined to quarters for most of the episode given his history with Telford.

The only reason that I can see for Eli being sent back was so that he could have more bonding time with Chloe, and I have to say I was confused by the kiss. On my initial viewing I thought it was real but suffered from a bad editing, but on subsequent viewings it appears clear that it was imagined by Eli. Either way it could have done with being made clearer.

On the other hand it did make perfect sense to send Chloe back, and given her social status it actually made sense that her friends were just trying to take advantage of her. I just hope this leads to some meaningful plot development and not just more infatuation with Kirk (Lt Scott).

We also learn more about why Col Young is estranged with his wife, it appears he was having an affair with Lt Johansen. This could also explain why she suddenly decided to go to med school or possibly why she did not leave when she should have. It also leads me to my biggest problem by far with this episode that he had sex with his wife while in Telfords body not to mention the unintentional temporary reversion to each others bodies.

First off imagine all the controversy and complaints this would raise if it had been a female character in that situation, who suddenly found themselves having sex with a man they did not know. Even if it did not have the aspect of “souls” temporarily returning to original bodies there are still a raft of moral and ethical issues. While I can understand why Col Young would want to have sex with his wife, their is also the issue of why would she agree to it or propose it while Col Young is “borrowing” another mans body.

The whole issue of what is permissible while body swapping has so far been totally ignored, while people cant be expected to do nothing, there is a whole raft of problems that can arise. To take the situation in this episode, what if Col Telford is married and his wife wrongly suspects him of having an affair and is having him followed by a private investigator. Ignoring the whole marriage already in trouble aspect, from this episode Col Young would have given Telfords hypothetical wife proof of an affair. Or what if Telford has an STD or Col Young’s wife becomes pregnant? Col Young was totally out of order in having sex with his wife but the way the show is going I doubt there will be any consequences for his actions.

All in all a very flawed episode which felt disjointed while watching and also seems to overlook the moral and ethical issues of borrowing peoples bodies. If this continues I worry about the future of the series and the more I think about the episode the less I like it.

Episode Rating

3/10