Copyright © 2009 by Sarah Stegall
Stargate Universe
“Air, Pt. 3”
Syfy, Fridays, 9PM
Written by Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
Directed by Andy Mikita
Warning: this review contains some spoilers. If you’d rather not know what the episode is going to include, bookmark this page and read it after viewing.
Yes, that says “part 3”. Apparently, last week’s pilot episode for Stargate Universe counts as two parts of the same three-part story. We’re already in a new universe, where one is two and two is three.
Having established that the Destiny is unable to scrub carbon dioxide out of the air, Dr. Rush organizes a scouting party to beam down to, er, use the Stargate to travel to Tatooine, er, a desert planet. Yes, this is all starting to look rather familiar. I will admit that those acres of blinding white sand did a lot to dispel the gloom of last week’s two hours of unrelieved darkness. There is the usual squabbling, trust issues, testosterone duels, and temper tantrums familiar to anyone who watches people under stress. What struck me about this episode was that, in order to find the calcium they need to refresh the scrubbers, the team uses chemistry. Yes, plain old ordinary Erlenmeyer flasks, powders, water, and heat. No tricorders, no fancy analyzers that give off electronic beeps, just high-school chem lab basics. I loved it.
On the other hand, this episode really made use of some magic stones. It turns out that the communication stones Colonel Young was so happy to find last week are not just radio/television transceivers; they actually allow users to swap consciousness with others over real-time billions of miles. This decisively trumps the lame attempts of shows like Defying Gravity to show real-time radio communication between a ship near Mars and Earth. Under the rubric that any sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic to the less advanced, the communication stones pass my plausibility muster. I don’t need to have that “magic” technology explained, as long as someone on the writing staff is paying attention to the fact that there’s no way the people on Destiny could speak, real-time, with anyone on Earth. Nice solution, guys.
Having started with a conveniently large set of characters, the show immediately starts paring them down by attrition. One man died in the pilot; in this one, two characters decide to use the planetary Stargate to go exploring on their own; they vanish and do not return. I expect to see them again in a later episode, though.
Lt. Scott (Brian J. Smith, Red Hook) gets center stage in this story, as he leads his fractured and fractious team in their search. Staggering in a thirst-induced haze across the desert, he encounters a whimsical whirlwind, the ghost of a former mentor, and a cross. Several flashbacks inform us that this Catholic boy has sinned and not forgiven himself. Apparently his sex-in-the-closet scene in the pilot doesn’t bother his conscience as much as some vague failure with the priest who raised him. Scott finds the chemicals they need and stumbles back to the Stargate just as time runs out: the ship is leaving. (Which confuses me—can’t the Stargates operate when the ship is moving? Or else how did all these people get on board to start with?) To prevent the gate from closing, Eli sticks his hand into the event horizon (shiny water), hoping there’s a safety mechanism that keeps the Stargate open even after it’s supposed to close. He’s right—this time—and the day is saved. The air is scrubbed, and the limp survivors on board begin to revive, to the tune of Alexi Murdoch’s “Breathe”.
And while everyone’s attention is elsewhere, a long shot of Destiny shows a shuttle coming to life and leaving. Was it pre-programmed? Who was on board? Will they be back? Nicely done suspense.
So far, I’m inclined to like this show more than I thought I would. The science is not all gee-whiz futuristic tech, Dr. Rush (Robert Carlyle, 28 Weeks Later) is a believable mad scientist with Dark Secrets, and Colonel Young (Justin Louis, Grey Gardens) is exactly the kind of man I’d like to have leading this rag-tag bunch of crazies: strong, tough, and quiet-mannered. If Eli Wallace (David Blue, Moonlight) is a bit of a cliché right now as the lovable, pudgy nerd, at least he shows an edge now and then not usually seen in stock characters. I have hopes for him, and for this show.
We’re still getting to know characters, so it’s no surprise that this story moved slowly. We need time to grow attached to them before Stargate Universe kills them off. I like Master Sergeant Greer (Jamil Walker Smith, Supernatural), whose simmering anger is not only justified but useful; his beating of Dr. Rush, who stupidly wastes his water and then arrogantly demands Greer’s, was savagely short and efficient. I hope to see more from the likes of Ming-Na (ER) in future; this series could use some more female input that didn’t consist of shrieking.
The first “regular” episode of Stargate Universe improved on last week’s stellar performance by racking up 2.4 million viewers, with a 1.8 share. It also beat Dollhouse in total viewers and key demos head-to-head at 9PM. That makes me happy. Dollhouse may be more innovative, but Stargate Universe has better legs.