Stargate Universe Recap 1.07: Earth

On Earth, life is even more complicated for the crew and passengers of the Destiny than their uncertain existence on the ship. That’s the lesson for this week. Man eating dust devils, no water or air and sun surfing, those are easy. It’s relationships that are hard.

I can understand this. You don’t really choose who you love and you for sure can’t decide who your parents are going to be. So tough luck. In Space, the Destiny continues to roll on and on. In the Destiny, it’s business as usual. This week is Earth week as Chloe, Colonel Young and Eli get a trip aboard the funky traveling stones that allow them to switch bodies, instantly, across billions of lightyears, with folks planetside. This little gimmick has taken me a bit to get used to but I think it works. It’s neat that nobody pretends to know how any of this stuff operates. It’s nice that the audience isn’t the only ones that are confused.

These traveling stones allow you to switch bodies but of course no one will know it’s really you, lurking around inside unless you spill the beans. Also, Eli finds out another nifty feature of the switch is swapping bodies with someone better looking than you. Chloe finds the switch an excellent tool for checking up on her boyfriend as he sleeps around with her best friend. Chloe’s reaction seems pretty hypocritical since she is busy getting busy with Lt. Scott, the harlot. I was shaking my head at this and preparing to whip the writers senseless for committing stupid when it occurred to me that this is a pretty likely reaction for her to have. It’s immature obviously, but I’ve seen it before with my own eyes.

Eli visits with Mom and they have the out of body version of a lovely Mother Son chat. Mom never knows Eli is in there, driving the machinery of the body in her kitchen. It’s a bit creepy but just barely cheesy. I continue to enjoy David Blue’s work. He’s the light touch that is absolutely needed in this show. Colonel Young visits with his wife again and continues to beg for forgiveness for what we finally find out is his lecherous foray with Nurse Johansen. The real fun in this episode starts when the traveling stones begin to demonstrate glitches when the Destiny goes in and out of FTL. For a few seconds, everyone body surfing gets dumped back to home-body. This is pretty fun stuff. Colonel Young keeps swapping with Colonel Telford. Colonel Young seduces his wife with Telford’s body, which is pretty kinky. It’s like cheating, but not. During the little FTL glitch Telford gets jumped back into his own body just as a certain act is enthusiastically underway. Lou Diamond Phillips does an amazing job reacting to all this.

What’s been going on on the good ship Destiny? The propellerheads Earthside may have a way to dial Earth. Drain the ships power they say, make Destiny sundive and during the burn, fire off some of that extra juice to the Stargate thus allowing it to be able to dial home. What could go wrong? Dr. Rush thinks it’ll cause the ship to go poof. But he always thinks that. In the end, Dr. Rush fakes a massive fail and the experiment is aborted. Could it have worked? I’m thinking maybe. There is a lot more to Dr. Rush than meets the eye. It’s time for some illumination. He never uses the stones. How come? Maybe because there’s no one left at home. Maybe that certain someone is elsewhere, someplace only the Destiny can lead to. If the Stargate opens, Dr. Rush will be forced to Earth. I’m thinking he has a considerable interest in making sure the Stargate never phones home, a possibility that Colonel Young obviously understands as well.

Less treading water this week. A bit more forward momentum. Still no bad guys besides Telford. Ming-Na also took a trip Earthward on the stones but nothing really happened. I’m not sure what the writers are trying to achieve with her character. You’d have to call her one of the major actors on the show. Lets hope she gets a bit more involved at some point. Hey, a female villain would be awesome.  No clues to what the Destiny is all about or what may be going on in other areas of the ship. I suppose we’ll get there eventually. The next episode called “Time”, looks tricky. Looking forward to that one. Until next week.