Each time I rewatch Stargate (and with 17 seasons and a handful of movies, that’s something of a time commitment), I forgot just how much better Stargate Universe season 2 is than season 1. And I already liked Season 1. But 2 is where things really get on their own. The crew trapped on Destiny is really learning how to use the ship and making it their own, finding new (huge) mysteries, and actually getting a few big bads on a scale with the Goa’uld/Ori/Wraith. And with how things end up… it’s such a bummer it has to end. I’m going to have to check out the follow up graphic novel this time around, official canon or not.
Well worth the watch!
Now I have to find something new.
Mini-reviews (potential spoilers for previous episodes, but they should be minor):
Intervention: Well. I suppose that’s one way to deal with the Lucian alliance–not to mention TJ’s pregnancy. There’s a fair bit of mystical going on here, which I certainly hope they’ll ground at some point…
Aftermath: Rush trying to save everyone by himself–and making choices/seeming to go mad in the progress. He’s a fascinating character, alternatively likeable and very much not even within single episodes.
Awakening: A Seed Ship! Aliens! Now that’s what I’m talking about! Also trying to figure out what in the world to do with the Lucians is an interesting thorny problem.
Pathogen: Giving Eli and his mom a chance was a worthwhile exception to be made; the mysterious mess going on with Chloe is… a fascinating thing to deal with. It’s interesting how people have still not made the connection between how it wasn’t just Chloe that was taken by the aliens…
Cloverdale: Well that started surreal. Not a huge fan of Earth episodes. I like the alien bit! Nicely creepy. Chloe has some issues…
Trial and Error: Groundhog Day, only darker. Interesting. The Destiny is a pretty cool ship. TJ and Young have issues.
The Greater Good: Alien wreckage! Ginn! Dr. Perry! Rush has issues… but we all knew that.
Note 1: That ending though. That mystery, a message in the cosmic microwave background… right there makes me really wish Universe had continued.
Note 2: Eli has a point that they haven’t dealt with nearly enough—relationships using another person’s body. Oy that is complicated.
Malice: Oy. The Lucian Alliance (or at least one thereof) back to cause trouble. I’d forgotten just how ‘complicated’ it was before.
Visitation: Starts mysterious and takes a quick turn into horror. Universe does that a bit. Few answers, but still fascinating.
Resurgence: More aliens!
VOLKER: Do I have to remind everyone what happened the last time we encountered an alien life form … or the time before that … or the time before that?!
More PTSD:
WALLACE: When your whole world collapses down to less than a hundred people in a confined space, it all becomes important to you, Camille. Riley was part of the ship, and losing him - it wasn’t just … it wasn’t just sad, it was wrong.
And more surprises. I did not expect to see Telford again.
Deliverence: Something Destiny has been missing: a Goa’uld level continuous threat. They tried with the Lucian Alliance, but these Drones have a lot more potential. SGu really reaching a good pace.
Twin Destinies: Another chance to go home! But with everything they know… can they? And it doesn’t stop there!
RUSH’s VOICE (over comms): Again, this is Doctor Rush. I need assistance with the docking procedure. I know you can hear me.
RUSH: Have we responded yet?
VOLKER: No, not yet.
RUSH: Well, best not to keep me waiting.
RUSH: Hello, this is also Doctor Nicholas Rush. How can we be of assistance?
RUSH’s VOICE: Tell them not to try and dial Earth. It won’t work. If they go through with it, they’re all gonna die.
YOUNG: This is Colonel Young. Doctor Rush is sitting right next to me.
ALT-RUSH: Yes, obviously. We’ve just spoken. The only reasonable explanation is that, somehow, I’ve come back through time.
That is a solid episode.
Side note: Dr. Lee back in Eli’s body? Awesome.
Alliances: Boo, back to Earth and the a Lucian Alliance. It’s a tense enough episode and does something I wish they’d done from the first.
Hope: Well that’s a fascinating and mildy terrifying side effect of the communication stones…
Seizure: McKay! Missed him. And a glimmer that we could possible have had more! Plus Rush and Dr. Perry have a while Virtuality thing going on which deserves some time itself—although of course it goes poorly.
The Hunt: Meet’s back on the menu—or perhaps Destiny’s crew is… Fairly low tech, but a fine episode.
Common Descent: Now that’s an interesting take on time travel. Seeing how stories drift over 2000 years… but in the end people are people. It is kind of weird that after 2000 years they ended up at our modern day.
Epilogue: Filling out the beginning of 2000 years of history. A different feel, but fascinating building a civilization out of modern knowledge but no resources otherwise.
Also… oh that childbirth montage with a baby a few days old at home.
Blockade:
YOUNG: So Sergeant Greer was bang-on in his assessment. The drones cannot track us, so instead they’ve blockaded the stars from which Destiny recharges.
TELFORD: They can’t possibly be waiting at every star in your path.
Oh boy. That’s a ride. Well, crazy times require crazy solutions…
Seeing yet another galaxy inhabited by humans is both cool and kind of weird. We just keep spreading.
Gauntlet: And so it ends.
RUSH: You’ve come a long way from that video game slacker I discovered a year ago.
WALLACE: Thanks. You’ve been pretty consistent.
Man that’s a solid season finale. Sucks as a series finale, but so it goes.