Stargate Universe

HOLY HELL any sci fi fan needs to see one of the Stargate shows! It is some great Science Fiction and I've only seen one of the four shows that exist about it.
Okay so what I gathered from  only seeing this one is that a Stargate is a wormhole generator that can connect with other Gates letting people travel great distances through space to other planets and far off universes. The gate were build long before man by some kind of race called the Ancients. Whether these are aliens or some long past species of Earth, I'm not sure.
So the Gates are like giant phones with 36 symboles on them and they connect to gates using sequences of 8 (I think). Now, there is a 9 digit sequence that no one seems to be able to connect with until a code in a video game is unlocked by an MIT drop out named Eli. As soon as he break the code a General from Stargate Command and a Dr. Nicholas Rush knock on his door and beam him up to a ship, traveling to another planet.
They explain that the code he broke was needed to unlock the 9th chevron or digit in the Gate adress they are trying to get to (why, because SCIENCE that's why!). So Eli is taken to a planet called Icarus (SYMBOLISM!) where the Stargate people believe they can use the core to gain enough power to dial the 9th chevron (Wait that's actually a word! Let me look that up: chevron- A line or stripe in the shape of a V or an inverted V, esp. one on the sleeve of a uniform indicating rank or length of service. Okay that makes sense as there are nine V shapes on the gate....hm OK!) So they use the planet's core to power the gate and using Eli's math dial the 9th chevron. It works, but just as an attack is launched on the planet, causing the core to overload or something and the planet near to exploding.
Now I have something to say about this. At first the dial out does not work and Rush is wondering how (mostly blaming Eli's bad math). Eli says that maybe they need to dial from earth to get the connection....five minutes later Rush dials from the same planet and gets the connection. HOW???!!!Despite that the adress gets them onto a ship. An ancient ship that, when looking back in the log, was launched from earth millions of years ago. Since then it has been traveling through space to some unknown destination. 

So we have a group of people running for their lives ending up on a million year old ship that they don't have control of (the controls are locked out) traveling through galaxies faster than the speed of light, so even if they had control they wouldn't make it back to earth any time soon, and there is limited power so they can't dial back to earth. Oh, and every time they need something the ship stops where there is a planet with a gate on it that has the things they need (seed ships were sent out before this one to place gates where needed)The ship is called Destiny and it is a pretty cool set if you ask me. Think Firefly's Serenity, but bigger and able to house about 200-300 people!
Speaking of the people, the characters in this show really drive it along, and how different they are creates a lot of conflict:

(In the order IMDB lists them:)

Dr. Nicholas Rush played by Robert Carlyle: Dr. Rush has been, for lack of a better term, obsessed with the 9 chevron adress for quite some time. When he finally dials it he does not seem to keen on leaving Destiny, knowing how much he can learn from it he believes that they all ended up there for a reason. His stubbornness to not leave Destiny and continue her mission is sometimes border line villan territory. You're never really sure just who's side Rush is on. Carlyle does great in this role and really makes what could have been an all around bad guy VERY human and likable. I found myself rooting for Rush more than not even when he is near crazy!

Colonel Everett Young played by Louis Ferreira- Col. Young is the leader of the military that ends up on Destiny. His goal is to get the people with him back home, which goes against Rush's wishes. This causes the two to bump heads often and they really have an interesting love hate relationship. Col. Young is a great leader, but is fallible. He makes mistakes and bears the weight of the consequences. Sometimes it can be too much and his ability to fulfill either mission is put into question. 

Leitenant Matthew Scott played by Brian J. Smith- Lt. Scott is Young's second in command and pretty much the poster boy for perfect soldier. He follows and gives orders and could be a perfect Ken doll if he didn't show his flaws like having a kid back on earth he didn't know about or his love for a woman on board named Chloe.

Chloe Armstrong played by Elyse Levesque- Chloe is the daughter of a Senator who was on Icarus when they all traveled to Destiny. When her father dies she is sort of left there with nothing to do or contribute until the writers decide to use some bullshit to make her about as smart as Rush.

Eli Wallace played by David Blue- Eli is the comic relief of the show, but he has his serious moments as well. He is thrust into this world and enjoys every minute of it as his previous occupation was....nothing. He is smart, but funny and underestimates himself as he is put down by Rush most of the time.

Leitenant Tamara Johansen played by Alaina Huffman- The medic of the group, quite skilled, but what she lacks in knowledge or materials she makes up for in ingenuity and a passion for saving lives.

Master Sergent Ronald Greer played by Jamil Walker Smith- the loose cannon soldier of the group. I shouldn't say loose cannon, but let's just say that if there is a fight, this guy is in it! He has a short temper and was even in jail before the move to Destiny.

Camile Wray played by Ming-Na Wen- the civilian liaison on the ship. Sort of the HR for the soldiers, speaking for the normal folks on the ship.

Colonel David Telford played by Lou Diamond Phillips- a Colonel on earth who wanted to be part of the Icarus project but Young sort of beat him out of it.

Adam Brody (Peter Kelamis), Dr. Dale Volker (Patrick Gilmore), Dr. Lisa Park (Jennifer Spence) and 2nd Lt. Vanessa James (Julia Benson)- all part of the major character group, but not really filled out as the rest. A few smart guys and one more soldier.

These are all well rounded characters and both have funny and serious moments, giving them more interesting personalities. Also the stories are driven by how different all these people are and how they cope with having to live with each other on a ship going god knows where. The acting is also spot on. I cannot find a weak player in here! The actors give it their all and are fun to watch!

Now I have heard that this is the darker of Stargate shows and perhaps that is what I like it. Conflict creates interest in the characters and stories of shows and this show has a lot of conflict. I may try the other shows, but I really don't want to screw up how I feel about the cannon with a new cast of campy comedy induced characters. I like my brooders thank you very much!

Between going on planets for supplies and meeting the creatures there and dealing with problems and things breaking on the ship the writers have a lot to work with, but let's go through one of my favorite episodes: Season 1 Episode 11 Space.
In a previous episode Colonel Young beat Rush and left him for dead on a desert planet (he had his reasons.....many).
The ship has in their possession five Ancient stones that can connect to earth. They do this by trading consciousness between one person on Destiny and someone with the other set of stones (usually on earth).

Some pretty good alien design from the episode Space

This time when Col. Young uses the stones he trades with an alien from a nearby ship. They all try to fix this problem while suspicion on the ship is that Col. Young killed Rush.

A ship appears soon and it turns out it is the same ship Young was just on. Destiny gets a message to surrender and when they don't an attack is launched. Destiny fights back as best they can, but one of the enemy shuttles gets through and takes Chloe.

Young uses the stones to try and find her and finds...Rush. He is trapped in a tank of water with an oxygen mask on. Young uses a pipe to shatter the tank and free Rush. The aliens do not speak anything close of our language so Young, in the alien body can't speak. Rush uses some of the alien tech to receive Young's thoughts, so he knows it's him. Something happens to the stones and the connection is lost, leaving Rush with the thoughts of the alien now. Rush fights the alien, killing it and goes off to find Chloe. Young orders Destiny to fire on the ship and another battle occurs while Rush finds the girl and frees her. Now why Young orders the main ship fired on when Rush AND Chloe are still on it isn't really clear: is he killing Rush to cover his tracks or saving the ship from being destroyed by the aliens?
The aliens run off and Rush and Chloe return to Destiny, much to the surprise of most on board.
So here is the interesting part: Rush goes along with the story that he was caught in a rock slide and Young thought he was dead. Young also keep the secret that Rush framed him for the previous murder of a soldier who killed himself. They do this for the good of the ship, but it creates great tension between the two as they are both strong leaders with followers of their own and two different missions. This is one of the best relationships in the show.

Now, this is not my favorite episode that one is Time (1x8) , but that includes time travel and I don't want to confuse anyone! If you have Netflix, check it out!
I will say one thing about Time, it has one of the BEST lines I have heard in a while:
Eli: Well at least things can't get worse!
Rush: I think that is a failure in imagination!
Best response to that line EVER!!

BAD ASS CAST!

With engaging settings, rounded characters and great writing this show is great.

There is one other thing I need to say: the ending. SPOILERS!!
So the series ends with the ship having an enemy they cannot beat, so they decide to run, not drop out of Faster Than Light speed (which no enemy seems to match) and just keep going. The problem with this is that life support and food cannot last the three years it would take to get away from the enemy. So they use the stasis pods recently found on the ship, putting everyone to sleep until they are out of danger. The only problem is that one of the pods is not functioning properly. After a drawn out debate Eli decides he is the best to stay behind for a minimum of two weeks (the amount of power he can use before eating up what will be needed to travel the three years out of the galaxy) trying to fix the pod. The ship goes dark, leaving Eli alone and the show is over.
WHAT?!!! Now myself, like many others I'm sure was about to jump onboard the fanfic wagon and write a movie much like Serenity that concluded the story as best I could, but that was before I noticed something.
The writers knew that the show was ending a few episodes before this. You can just tell. And I remembered a quote from one of them: "...Our mission is and always will be the journey itself."
The writers knew that Destiny was not going to reach it's destination, not on screen at least. They were telling us that the ending we got was the ending they wanted and we should be satisfied. Should we stop writing our own endings? No and I may still write mine, but that isn't what the show was about. It was about people and a journey.
So here's where that leaves us: Destiny is still going. Either Eli fixed the pod and three years later they woke up to continue the journey or Eli died trying to fix it or screwed up, using up to much power and Destiny drifts through space, a ghost ship. I like to think the former! There are possibilites for an ending, but it's about the journey, not the end. Much like life if you want to get philosophical about it!