Nitpicking as I watch...

-Why is everyone working out? They have limited food and water, and exercising will only deplte the body of nutrients faster.

-Having TJ give psych evaluations is a BAD idea. She's had ONE undergrad psychology course? If anything, she'd be more prone to misdiagnosing the crew than someone with no experience because she knows the terminology, but not how to use it.

-More body switching. That's okay. I'm sure our characters have matured a great deal over the past three episodes. Nothing to worry about...

Looks like things worked out okay from last weeks episode, everyone is alive and well, including Chloe (sorry Chloe haters). Looks like Trek is not the only Sci-Fi Franchise with a Reset Button.

Anyway...

They just couldn't stay away from those damned stones, could they. Once again we get an episode bogged down with endless scenes on Earth. Hello, let's get back to the ship, people. The only plus was seeing Young beat the living tar out of Telford.

I wonder what Rush would have said if Eli hadn't stumbled upon his ruse. A year hence, when they saw there was no planet, would he have said "My bad." Would Young have protecte him from the lynch mob that would follow?

So, what is that chair all about? Will we see it in the next episode?

It will be two weeks before the next episode airs here in Canada. Is Sci-Fi preempting it too in the States?

I'm pretty sure they said "Next week on Sci-Fi (sorry, 'Sy-Fy')," so its probably just Canada.

Two more sex scenes? We're not even halfway through the season and we've had, what, 7 scenes so far? You can only keep an element like sex interesting on a show for so long before it becomes dull. At this rate, we should reach dullness sometime around the season finale.

Of course, this opens up some interesting storylines for season 2:

-Venereal diseases sweep the Destiny, overwhelming TJ.
-Several crew members become parents due to the lack of contraceptives on board.
-The crew uses the stones to attend divorce court back on Earth once their spouses find out about the goings-on aboard the Destiny.

What was the song that played at the beginning and the end. It seemed to fit the episode quite well and I really liked it.

I also liked seeing Col. Telford getting some of what he deserved. It is too bad; I like LDP in Numb3rs but in this show he is just a rat.

Even if he was on a super top-secret mission, Scott would still need his pay so to tell the girl (forget her name already) that he does not need it so she can have it was a stretch. He should have just allotted her a portion of it.

And I agree that there is too much use of these stones. More than half the show was about them; they are supposed to be lost in space!! Keep this up and the name needs to be changed - so far it is not all that much about the universe. Either that or bring Sam or Daniel aboard; they could figure out how to control the ship quickly enough. Or maybe even Sheppard; he has the gene after all, even if it was said the ship was built before the gene existed.

I love your Season 2 suggestions, David! But this whole body swap thing is going from bad to worse: we can be pretty sure that Camille and Sharon had sex, and even if they only cuddled, there could still potentially have been an F.T.L. drop-out on Destiny at any moment that caused Camille and her counterpart to re-swap temporarily at an awkward moment. And Young is about to get into a fight with Telford while in Roberts’ body but then the stones cut off, so Roberts is going to jump back into his own body and, at best, crash into a superior officer and possibly send him flying and, at worst, get punched in the face by that superior officer for no good reason. Then later, Young lies about who he is and gets Lucas’ body into a full-blown fight with Telford. It’s a fast scene and the fight is reflected in dark glass so it’s not clear, but I think that Telford got in at least one punch, so Lucas is going to return to his body and find his face and his hand inexplicably bruised. This behaviour really can’t go on and is an insult to the Stargate franchise.

Though that gave me another thought: if a left-handed person swaps with a right-handed one, do they struggle with the change?

Beth – the song “The Worst Day Since Yesterday” is by Flogging Molly and the whole thing can be heard here.

All the crew’s resources are limited. While hopefully it should never be a matter of life and death whether they have a large sheet of paper and a biro, nevertheless it seems very wasteful that Camille (now apparently with two ells after early press releases spelled her name ‘Camile’) should be wasting paper and ink doodling.

Why have the establishing shots of Earth switched to generic scenes of Washington rather than the Pentagon? Has Homeworld Security moved, or did the director get bored with stock footage?

After Telford’s recent behaviour on board Destiny, and the way that certain crew members got together to get rid of him, why is Jack O’Neill allowing him to still be part of the team who waits by the stones?

It’s nice continuity that Franklin still has blood on his shirt but that seems to suggest that they haven’t yet found a laundry on Destiny. In that case, and with a water shortage, all those people who are running around the ship and exercising are getting really sweaty but aren’t able to clean their clothes afterwards. Or can they wash them in the mist showers which will remove some dirt and sweat but can’t shift bloodstains?

Nice acting, or nice directorial touch: Eli waving “hi” to Scott (and Scott returning the wave) while Scott is talking to Young. It’s a nice everyday gesture that actors/directors wouldn’t normally think to include in a show like this.

The writers of this series are falling into the same mistakes that Atlantis writers did. Not everyone watching Universe used to watch the earlier franchises, so when Rush says that the Chair is a precursor to a device which SG-1 found, some viewers are not going to have a clue.

All the psych evaluations seem to take place in the Infirmary. Where’s Riley? (This is likely to become a repeated mantra until they show us!)

I’ve got to cry “No way!” on the ‘dream’ that Scott had. Surely the only way that Scott’s mind ought to be linked with Telford’s is during moments that Telford is actually using the stone, not when he’s himself. There’s no way that Scott ought to be seeing Telford with Emily unless we’re talking full-blown telepathy.
Also, why is Young so convinced that this is Telford’s memories that Scott’s seeing? Wouldn’t it be more likely that this was a flashback of Young’s time with Emily while in Telford’s body? (I mean, we know that Young and Emily weren’t drinking red wine when they were together, but was Scott really that detailed in his description?)

Why does Young keep tolerating such insubordination from Spencer? That’s twice that Spencer has refused to answer him or has done so completely insolently and Young has let him get away with it.

I wondered if Telford was phoning the speaking clock while Emily and Young were arguing because it looked like he never said a word throughout the duration of the call. It was only when I was reading the Gateworld Forum that I realised that – theoretically at least – Telford was calling someone at Homeworld Security and getting them to pull the stone off the box.

Why does Young storm out of the Communications Lab instead of waiting to see if the box can be fixed and he can get back into Roberts?

In an early interview and before filming had taken place, Robert Carlyle said that there would be a suicide by episode 8. Although we’re now at episode 9, when Spencer ran out of pills I was pretty convinced that this would be the suicide episode, but then began to wonder whether it would be him or Volker, who also admitted to being at the end of his tether – or maybe even Franklin after his encounter with Spencer. In the final montage, I was practically on the edge of my seat, convinced there was going to be a sudden shocking twist, and was almost disappointed when there wasn’t one. I don’t know whether that episode is still to come or whether the producers changed their minds before the episode went in front of the cameras.

"This behaviour really can’t go on and is an insult to the Stargate franchise." - Callie

I have to agree, but its par for the course. Universe was touted to show more "realistic" characters than SG1 or Atlantis but, just like the earlier shows, the characters wear their emotions on their sleeves, without any subtlety or nuance.

Like most episodes of Universe, I felt rather unsatisfied with the ending. Since this show is supposed to be one, long plot and highly serialized, I decided to compare it to one of the most highly serialized show out there: 24. I realized that the reason why 24 was so successful was because, in addition to having a "neverending cliffhanger" format and season-long plotlines, each episode had a specific sublot that would be resolved by the end of the episode. None of the characters were safe. With Universe, there's no such luck. Plot lines and character interaction are set up, but are irrelevant to the next 1-2 episodes before getting some tiny bit of resolution, and even that's not very satisfying. The Telford-Young dynamic is a good example. It was set up in Earth, left hanging in Time, and barely resolved at the end of Life. Nobody of any importance has died, and the "survival" problems that the crew are facing are irrelevant. We knew that they were going to find water. We knew that the ship wasn't going to fly into the sun. Its the first season, for crying out loud! Note to producers: a dramatic series typically requires you to put your characters in some kind of realistic peril.

So, how long are these communication sessions with Earth? (I almost wrote "stoned trips" there) Are they staying for days, or does everyone have loved ones living in the vicinity of Washington? Are people being flown or beamed across the country?

Thanks Callie - I rather like that song. Is Flogging Molly an Irish group? I have never heard of them but then I generally listen to country . I am always open to finding new Irish music though

The plodding scenes on Earth bring to mind another show that was on recently, Defying Gravity (ironically filmed in the same city as Stargate, Vancouver). Anyway, it was supposed to be about this manned expedition around the solar system, but every episode they had these annoying flashbacks to them back on Earth. Brought the story to a screeching halt (I fast fowarded through those flashbacks, that sometimes took up half an episode, every time). When I heard that DG was cancelled, I wasn't surprised.

Time for that communications thingy to break down and we have no more Earth stuff. Destiny is own her own. All the other lost in space shows had no regular communcations with Earth (except for Voyager, and that only happened as the series was winding down). Ever Gilligan's Island did this concept right (no communications with civilization). The scenes on Earth are taking up time that could be used to move the story forward on the Destiny.

"All the other lost in space shows had no regular communcations with Earth (except for Voyager, and that only happened as the series was winding down)."

Universe is hamstrung with the mandate to be less "campy" than previous sci-fi outings. No more rubber-mask aliens, and no more humans now that we're beyond the ancients domain. Voyager, had lots of rubber-mask aliens, and Gilligans Island was a half-hour comedy series. The budget's not big enough to allow for CGI aliens on a regular basis, and they couldn't exactly introduce new guest stars every week, so we'd be stuck with the characters on the ship for the most part. The stones may be annoying, but without them the producers would wind up telling the same stories over and over and over again.

"I don’t know whether [the suicide] episode is still to come or whether the producers changed their minds before the episode went in front of the cameras." - Callie

They made several changes to the production order--splitting the "flying into the sun" episode into a two parter and switching around a couple of episodes midseason. I fully expect the suicide to occur in "Justice".

Did anyone else catch the mention of naquadria when Rush was describing the Icarus-like planet? I guess it is naturally occuring after all! Plus, it explains why the planet exploded so easily in "Air".

"the producers would wind up telling the same stories over and over and over again"


Well that's what happens when you make a show about people isolated from other people. However, there are quite a few people on Destiny. Combine that with a visit to a new planet every couple of episodes, and they won't need to go back to Earth all the time to tell stories.

How did Young know that he wouldn't jump into Telford's body when he went back with the sole intention of beating him up? With the way that Telford hogs the stones, there would be a large probability that Young would end up in Telford's body. If that had happened, would he have beaten himself up and then left a note saying, "Ha ha. Love and kisses, Everett"?!