Now that you have a better understanding of which characters brought the show up and which brought it down, let's see them in action with an episode selection.
The Best: The good episodes of Universe stand out by successfully integrating the story elements from previous Stargate incarnations into the new, bolder tone that defined the series.
- Divided: This episode climaxes the story arc of the conflict between the civilians and the military personnel that had been brewing over the first half of season 1. All the characters' motivations fit perfectly and their actions reflect that. Rush, angry over being marooned by Young, allies with the disgruntled Wray and traumatized Chloe. While Eli and the military side with Young because they respect him more, regardless of his actions. Despite having less action than its predecessor Space, the stakes in this episode are higher. The military want to fall back on their training, but they can't just kill their opponents since they are supposed to protect them, while the civilians, despite having the moral high ground, aren't trained for the situation. In true Stargate fashion, the military wins the day, but it's not a clean victory. They're left with the question of if a mutiny will happen again and if the breach of trust will be overcome by either side. This episode is a fine example of the show's tone, that of a space survival story where there are no easy answers or techno-babble escapes or happy reset buttons at the end. Actions have consequences and everyone has to live with them. The episode is further propped up by its buildup from previous episodes like Air, Justice, and Space, and the interpersonal drama is at its finest for the same reason.
- Darkness/Light: Now I know this is two episodes, but I love the two-part story so much, I had a hard time choosing. It's a great character story. In part 1, we see how the characters react when the very technology they usually rely to get them out of trouble starts to fail them, while their stress increases as they deal with little things like caffeine withdrawal and Eli's new documentary. Part 2 is a great finisher as we see Young make some hard decisions about conducting a lottery contrasted to Wray's moral logic. Each character that is left behind has a unique reaction to their pending death and each is very touching and believable. Now, despite my misgivings about the Chloe/Scott relationship, you may be surprised I like this episode even though it's when they get together. It actually doesn't bother me here. At the time, one or both of them had good chance of dying, and their coupling is simply a 'no time like the present' attitude. Their relationship doesn't bother me until the next episode when no one bats an eye about it, including James when she catches them kissing. The story finishes when they realize how little they know about the ship, and the whole time, they were trying to save themselves from being saved by the ship. Every last one of the characters is at their finest in these episodes as we see their struggle for survival, their stress from being out of their element, and their reactions to the thought of death. In addition we get a little space action. All make a fine episode by Stargate standards and that fits well into the new direction of the show.
- Blockade: I put this episode as an example of a good action episode. Some other action episodes like Space, Time, Incursion, Deliverance, or The Hunt had issues in pacing, suspense, or character use. This episode has no such issues. It returns the characters to doing what they all do best. Rush, Eli, and Park serve their scientific roles to save the ship, with Rush making the hard calls for Eli. Meanwhile, the crew goes on a supply run but runs afoul of the Beserker Drones. What I like is the difference between the action in this episode and any episode of SG-1 or Atlantis. The action in the other series tended to be very shooty, with a lot of running around among bullets and energy blasts. On Universe, the characters have limited ammunition with no backup or resupply, and their actions reflect this. First they hide from the drones, then they try to run, eventually they have no choice but to shoot them down and retreat through the gate. On the ship, Eli and Rush successfully complete their task, but it's not a clean save. The hydroponic garden is lost and Park is blinded. This continues to show how difficult their situation is, all the crew can manage is to scrape by, but they always lose something in the process. It's a shame the show was canceled by the time this episode aired, as it and Gauntlet were both great episodes and served as great conclusions to the story arc of the season's back half.
The Bad: Most of the bad episodes of Universe are in the second season where the show's direction became uncertain and there seem to be an indecisiveness about what kind of stories to tell. Mostly there is too much focus that weren't high on the audience's list of things they wanted to see.
- Cloverdale: Before I bash this one, know that I am aware this episode had higher ratings than the ones before and after, but that doesn't make it a good episode. Star Trek Enterprise's A Night in Sickbay had very high ratings, but was so bad, the ratings went into free fall for every episode thereafter. I lump this episode into the same category. First of all, it's a Scott/Chloe episode with no separate B story. Given how I feel about these two, this is not a winning start. Then we spend most of the episode watching a hallucination about an alternate Chloe and Scott getting married. Now, I would be more excited to see this if not for two things. First, there were nearly no obstacles for their relationship. They were already a happy couple in real life, so seeing a marriage doesn't really change anything. In contrast, the Farscape episode Dog With Two Bones also has an imagined wedding, but it has more weight because it explores the pending question, could these two people successfully get together? Watching a marriage of two characters where there has never been a real question of their future together is just plain boring. Second, the hallucination doesn't change anything. All Scott learns is that he loves Chloe, which we already knew. Chloe learns that she loves Scott, which we already knew. The bulk of this episode is just a waste of airtime. It's like watching a wedding video that was recorded over an action movie; a lot of slow everyday stuff that most of the audience isn't tuning in to watch, and occasionally we catch an interesting action story and wish we could see the whole thing.
- Visitation: After watching this episode, I just thought, 'WTF did I just watch?' It continues two established stories from previous episodes and its massively disappointing on both counts. First, we have the people left behind on the artificial planet in Faith. I was really looking forward to seeing more of this story, and I was particularly keen to see the aliens. This episode is one giant step backward for their development. Not only do we not see the aliens at all, but the reason for ever hearing from them again is completely removed. Now it's possible for them to come back in at some point, but the audience has no reason to expect it. The aliens appear to wash their hands of the Destiny crew, and it felt like the writers did too. It's almost as if the writers just didn't know how to portray the aliens, so they just decided to close the book on them once and for all. The mystery of the crew figuring out what happened to the returning crew is very interesting at first, but the payoff is disappointing and just plain depressing. The B story deals with Chloe's progressing infection. This is just one scene after another of crew members visiting her, expressing sympathy and hope, which Chloe shoots down, then they leave. It's boring and repetitive. The only one that had anything interesting to say is Greer when he says he's sorry if he will have to kill her (I like how he thinks). This episode is just too slow and disappointing. It abruptly closes an interesting story arc while drawing out another far more than necessary. In addition, it flatly destroys the hopeful ending of Intervention that foreshadowed more great stories to come.
- Aftermath: This episode began the season two trend of mismatched A & B stories with the focus on the wrong thing. First of all, the title is very deceptive, as the "aftermath" of the Lucian Alliance incursion is the B story and, quite frankly, does some damage to that storyline. The writers made the same mistake that the writers of Star Trek Voyager made by removing such an obviously powerful source of conflict. While Voyager cleanly integrated terrorists into their crew, the SGU writers simply kicked most of them off the ship, while the rest became willing allies (mostly), making it near impossible for them to be a major issue ever again. I had hoped their continued presence would affect and reshuffle the military/civilian conflict of season one, but no. With that shortcoming in mind, let's talk about the A story of Rush fiddling around on Destiny's bridge and sending a shuttle crew on a doomed mission. This gets very drawn out, mostly due to how long it takes Riley to die. Frankly, I wasn't that phased by Riley's death. He was a recurring red shirt at this point and wasn't really missed. Can you imagine if Sgt. Harriman had been killed after the 1st season of SG-1? You wouldn't have really cared that much and the same goes for Riley. His significance just wasn't high enough to warrant such a long, drawn out death, unlike previous deaths like Daniel Jackson, or Jacob/Selmak. On top of that, it pushed Young's character in a direction that really hurt his audience likability. This episode did serious damage to the series direction and format, from which it would not recover until the end of the season, far too late to stave off cancellation.
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