Longing for a break

Well I just watched the first two episodes of the next Stargate series, Stargate Universe, and I liked it.

Stargate Universe starts off on Earth with Eli playing a computer game across the Internet with his mate, he gets to the end and all of a sudden he’s at the start of the level again. Eli and his friend sign off, and he’s of course a little deflated by the ending. A little while later Eli gets a visit of the uniform variety, namely General O’Neill, and is told that he’s needed as the game he just finished included a puzzle that was particularly difficult to complete. Eli’s handed a non-disclosure form which he rightly decides he’ll have his lawyer check upon, O’Neill remarks that he obviously means his mother, and the Eli closes the door and begins walking upstairs. As he’s going upstairs Eli’s beamed aboard one of the military’s spaceships and he has a WTF moment upon which he’s joined by O’Neill and Dr Nicholas Rush who tell him that he’s indeed on a spaceship, and yes that is Earth.

This opening to the show feels very much like when Dr Jackson is recruited to the Stargate program in the original Stargate movie, albeit altered slightly.

As they fly away towards an off-planet base Eli is instructed via video by Dr Jackson about the stargate program etc, his interest peaks when the stargate becomes activated within the video, he again has another WTF moment. At the base the three characters are joined by a raft of others, including a US Senator responsible for getting funding for the base. Using the solution discovered by Eli within the computer game, Dr Rush plugs this into the dialing program and they begin in ernest attempting to dial the 9th chevron, however the 9th chevron fails to lock. Dr Rush attempts to lay the blame at the feet of Eli is a rather casual manner, but Eli isn’t having any of it. It’s back to the drawing board.

As they continue to solve the problem the base suddenly comes under fire from space, the secret base appears to be not so secret. Eli and Rush work together to derive a solution spurred on by the fact that the planet itself is a time bomb with not long until all is destroyed. Eli suggests that the 9th chevron may in fact be the symbol for Earth, but is dismissed instantly by Rush saying that the planet they are on must be the point of origin, but Eli is insistent and they give it a go, it works, the gate dials out using the 9th chevron, and not too soon.

Everyone on base is rushed through the gate, they’ve not the time to check their destination, they have no idea where they’re headed to. At the other end the constant stream of people flowing through the gate ends in calamity with people tripping over each other left, right and centre. Once they settle down all begin to wonder where they are, they eventually come to discover that they are on the ancient’s ship Destiny, one that populates the galaxies with stargates.

They soon discover that all is not well on their ship, the Destiny’s life support is failing and there appears to be at most a days air remaining. Dr Rush and Eli begin scouring the ships systems for answers, eventually a shuttle is discovered that has a broken window through which atmosphere is venting when the shuttle window’s forcefield struggles to be maintained. Worse still, the only way to close the shuttle’s door is from the inside, someone must sacrifice themselves for the many, in the end the US Senator who is badly bruised sacrifices himself and dies. The senators sacrifice buys just hours, the Destiny’s new crew search for a means to clean the ships CO2 scrubbers, when they find them they quickly discover they’re stuffed, they use a technology for which no backup components exist.

As they continue scouring the Destiny’s databases the ship comes to a halt as it has located a suitable planet able to support life, the only catch is that they have 12 hours to find a solution before the Destiny departs automatically.

A solid start to this new series, I can’t wait for the next episode! Check it out if you’re a stargate / scifi (or is that syfy) fan.