Stargate: Universe – Recap & Review – Water

photo: syfy

Stargate: Universe
Water

Original Air Date: Oct 30, 2009

Em – TwoCents Reviewer
em@thetwocentscorp.com

The newest problem of the week aboard the Destiny is water. There was only a limited quantity of the stuff in the first place, but now their water levels have dropped. Young posts a guard, but it hasn’t stopped them from losing half their supplies.

Young, Rush, and Eli attempt to have a brainstorming session, but it quickly devolves into Young and Rush arguing again about dialing Earth. Young thinks they should try again since the ship’s recharged, but Rush says it’s only recharged about 40 percent. Young steals Eli away to spy on people with the Kino so he can know who he can trust.

It turns out that Destiny picked up a stowaway – that weird cloud alien that Scott met on the desert planet. The ship drops out of FTL and dials up the only planet in range, an ice planet with deadly atmosphere.

Young radios Scott to get ready for the mission, but can’t get through to him. Scott’s turned off his radio to get some quality smooching time in with Chloe. Really, Scott? You’re actually an awful soldier, at least when it comes to keeping your pants on while on-duty. Vanessa has to go find him, which is more than a little awkward.

There are some Ancient spacesuits onboard, but only two of them are in working order, so its just Scott and Young going on the ice run. Young leaves TJ in command. The planet is gorgeous, despite being completely fatal. They test the ice nearest to the Gate but find that it’s poisonous and they’ll have to go further afield. Eli fetches a levitating sled he invented so they’ll have an easier time carrying the ice when they find it.

TJ goes to check on the water and finds that the levels have dropped again. She orders a search to see if anyone’s taken it. While searching, she comes face to face with the cloud creature, which dissipates when Greer radios her.

Spencer’s making trouble again. They find water and food in his room. He claims that he brought them with him through the Gate, and TJ has him locked up until Young can deal with him. The water in his room isn’t nearly enough to account for their losses, so they keep looking. Greer searches Chloe’s room, and it’s pretty clear there are no hard feelings between them, but Franklin comes barging in to defend her and accuse the military of invading everyone’s privacy. Mostly I think he’s still bitter about Greer shooting him.

TJ tells Eli and Rush about the cloud thing. Eli’s somewhere between freaked out and skeptical, but TJ thinks they aren’t hostile, that they just want to communicate. She decides to confine people to quarters, and her decision not to tell them about the aliens surprises Rush, as does her request for advice. He simply tells her always to consider the greater good.

One of the soldiers, Gorman, finds the cloud creature, and gets spooked. He immediately fires at it, which does nothing but make it angry. The creature attacks him, cutting up his face and hands.

Scott and Young find a frozen waterfall with pure ice and they send a batch of ice through the gate. Eli tells Young about the aliens, and he wants to come back to deal with the situation until Rush tells them that Eli is overreacting and that the situation is under control. Eli gets mad at Rush for lying, and Rush stop acting like a child.

Greer wants to torch the swarm with a flamethrower he made. TJ and Rush advise caution, but Eli says they can’t afford to wait while the aliens drink all their water. TJ sends Greer out to look for the alien with strict orders not to torch them.

Scott and Young load up the sled for the second run, but disaster strikes as Scott falls into a crevasse. He gets wedged in, which prevents him from falling any further but also means Young can’t pull him up. He reports back to the Destiny, but they have no help to offer, and he asks about the aliens. TJ tells him that it’s nothing to worry about, and Eli glares silent accusations at her.

Vanessa hears about Scott’s situation and brings the news to Chloe. Chloe sneaks into the command center and hears the news that Scott’s suit is damaged and he’s losing air pressure. Rush advises Young to consider leaving Scott behind, and Chloe gets furious with him – I was hoping she would tackle him again, but alas, no such luck.

Greer finds the swarm of aliens, herds them into a room, and locks them in. The aliens get mad about being locked up, and a few of them find a way out. Greer starts torching them to keep them back.

Young still can’t pull Scott out, and with less than an hour of air left, Scott tries advising Young to leave without him. Young’s not having any of it. Scott loses consciousness and there’s another tremor, which knocks him loose. Young yells at him to wake up and he does, managing to climb back out of the crevasse with Young’s help.

TJ brings a barrel of water as bait, opens the door, and seals the aliens in the barrel when they go for the water. They dial the gate back to the planet to toss the barrel onto the planet just as Young hobbles his way back to the gate. He gets Scott back to the ship, where TJ pronounces that Scott will be fine. Young deals with Spencer and records a message about Gorman’s death.

I’m curious about that last shot of Young. Are we going to have a KinoVision captain’s log or something? Personally, I’m in favor of the idea. The KinoVision scenes have all been pretty good – and short – so I would not in the least object to the show continuing to do more of these, particularly if they happen in place of the Earth scenes.

This was a solid episode overall, if a step down from “Light.” I’m still getting used to the pacing of the show, how slowly it moves. It works when they get small details of expression and atmosphere just right, but when they miss, “slow” becomes “dragging,” and some scenes succumbed to that this time around.

What really worked was changing roles on the ship. While TJ did not make the most convincing commander, it was interesting to see Young in the field. Again with the details – Scott’s impressed questions “you’ve done this before?” changes from amusing to heartbreaking when he asks Young to leave him behind.

How do you guys feel about it? Who else wants to see Greer and Eli working on a project together? Give me your two cents!