Stargate: Universe – Recap & Review – Light

photo: syfy

Stargate: Universe
Light

Original Air Date: Oct 23, 2009

Em – TwoCents Reviewer
em@thetwocentscorp.com

If you have to die, at least flying directly into a sun is a pretty cool way to go. That’s what Greer tells himself, and he isn’t the only one trying to find something good about the situation. Young might have it worse than anyone, though; he’s in charge, and that means he has to make the tough calls.

They still have one working shuttle, so Young decides to use it to send seventeen people out to one of the possibly habitable planets in the system. Young will choose two of the people based on necessity, and the others will be picked at random. Everyone’s a little upset at this news. Scott and Chloe deal by sneaking off and having sex. I guess Scott and Vanessa aren’t actually an item, then?

Camille tries to get Young to change his mind because thinks he shouldn’t leave it up to chance who will get on the shuttle. They argue, and she leaves when he threatens to take her name out of the lottery.

Scott is pretty confident that he and Chloe are the two that Young is going to pick. Chloe’s not so sure of her chances of getting on the shuttle, though, and she wants Scott to know how much he’s meant to her for the last few days. Eli explains to some others his plans to send a kino out into space as a “message in a bottle,” which should also give them a look at the Destiny from the outside. Scott and Chloe join them, and Eli is upset to see them together.

Rush checks out the readings on the planets; one of them is too cold, one of them is too hot, and the other one is too far away for readings. It might be habitable, though, because it’s orbit is in between those of the other two. Rush asks Young to take his name out of the lottery; coming to this ship was his Destiny, and he’s going to stick with it until the end. Young apologizes for not listening to Rush’s warnings earlier, and Rush says it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Since he’s being so nice, Young tells him he’s picking Scott and TJ for the shuttle, because of their piloting and medic training.

Young assembles everyone for the lottery. Some familiar names are called: Becker, Camille, Vanessa, Riley, Brody. Camille starts crying as soon as she gets to the shuttle. Spenser starts yelling at Young, but before anyone can join him in a revolt, Greer knocks him unconscious. The shuttle leaves, and they all try to find something to do with themselves as they wait for the end to come. Some play cards, others pray. Rush reads, Chloe and Eli stare out the window on the observation deck, and Greer takes off his clothes, deciding, I suppose, to leave the world the way he entered it: naked.

Aboard the shuttle, Riley realizes that it’s past midnight and therefore his birthday. That is one depressing birthday. They’re close enough now to run an analysis on the planet. Technically, they can survive there, but it doesn’t have much vegetation and the temperature mostly stays below zero degrees.

Rush looks at the time and starts laughing and cheering. Eli asks what he’s so happy about, and Rush says that they’re going to live; if they were going to die, they already would have. Apparently, the ship isn’t completely out of power the way Rush thought it was; the shield is still up. They start flying through the sun, and not only are they not melted or torn apart, lights start coming on all over the ship. The ship is solar powered and replenishes its reserves by flying through stars.

They have to get the shuttle back now, before the ship jumps to FTL. Rush gets the communications working and they call the shuttle, where everyone is glad to hear from them. The celebrating is a little premature, though; Destiny is accelerating much faster than the shuttle, so they can’t intercept them. The shuttle can’t go fast enough, and the crew have no way of slowing down Destiny.

Rush and Eli calculate a path for the shuttle to do a slingshot around the planet to increase its own velocity. That sets them on the right course, but the shuttle is still moving too slow and going to crash into Destiny rather than land neatly atop it. Scott fires the maneuvering thrusters and manages to land them – not smoothly, but in one piece.

Several of the crew hang out in the mess, celebrating being alive and teasing Scott. Rush arrives in dark mood and points out that they’re right back where they started. Young congratulates him on all the great things he did; among others, that he gave up his spot in the lottery. That was a real sacrifice…unless Rush knew that Destiny was going to make it. Rush neither confirms nor denies the accusation, and everyone else tells Young to let it go, but the party is well and truly ruined.

This was by far the best episode SGU has had so far – which, granted, doesn’t carry a whole lot of weight when there have only been five episodes. Let me rephrase: if this is SGU finding its stride, and not just a lucky fluke, than I will be one very happy Stargate fan. “Light” finally succeeded at hitting the emotional response that previous episodes have fumbled repeatedly. We weren’t left with a handful of scenes that rang hollow; at most, there was one. (I rolled my eyes through Chloe and Scott’s tender love scene, because all the time I couldn’t stop thinking that they have known each other for two days, maybe three. It’s possible that some less cynical romantic types were more moved by that scene.)

There weren’t any communication trips back to Earth, and only one very short flashback. Again, probably too earlier for generalizations, but the communication scenes have all been rather disappointing, and I can’t help but feel that the lack of any in this episode made it stronger.

This was also a very successful portrayal of Rush. His character has fluctuated quite a bit, but in “Light” he had all the same selfishness and manipulation of the previous episodes with a definite subtlety that he had lacked. Not to mention, he’s much more intriguing as a character and more convincing as an anti-hero when he isn’t throwing temper tantrums like a five-year-old.

How did you guys like it? Too cold, too hot, or coasting along in the Goldilocks’ Zone? Swing on through and give me your two cents!