Stargate Universe Season 2.5 Episode 13: “Twin Destinies”

Preface

The episode starts out with the usual long preamble of clips from the earlier episodes to provide continuity for those just tuning in. But now those clips have become unintelligible. They do not show a progression of a storyline. But that is unavoidable, since the storyline is somewhat vague to begin with. Yeah, I know, I’m starting off on a sour note. But its not all bad. Read on…

I am going to be honest, this episode was not the worst of the 32 episodes aired to date, but it certainly was not the best. Read more »

The storyline:

The Destiny is being attacked by unmanned drones; the implication is that the Ursini lured them into the ambush. Chloe breaks away from her guard and contacts the Blaliens to come rescue them. Eli gets an idea to interrupt the communication between the drones and their command ship. It only lasts a few minutes, but is enough to allow the command ship to be destroyed, putting all of the drones into an inactive mode. Rush wants to examine a drone so Scott, Greer, and Park leave the ship in a shuttle to capture one. Meanwhile the Blaliens arrive and Rush has arranged for the Blaliens to “cure” Chloe as a trade for the shuttle that the Blaliens are blocking.

Volker Brody and Eli are assigned to work on the drone and do for a while until Rush sends Volker and Brody off to work on the depleted shields. Rush says he and Eli can now get some work done. A new command ship arrives with more drones. Scott has delivered Chloe to the Blaliens and waits until they “cure” her and returns to the Destiny, but not before taking out some of the new drones. As Eli and Rush prepare to activate the drone they have reprogrammed, Greer and another Marine arrive to destroy the drone if it begins attacking inside the ship. Meanwhile the Ursini’s seed ship does a suicide run at the drones to try to save the Destiny. Once Scott and Chloe return to the ship, Eli’s reprogramming works and causes the first set of drones to attack the second set. Young decides to chance FTL drive on 5% of shields and it works. Chloe is being kept under guard after having been checked out by TJ and discovers she still has some of the knowledge she gained from the Blaliens.

The critique:

The performances were all over the place in this episode. Rush is now soft and cuddly, Young is stoical and sweet by turns, Park is either anguished or happy- no in between at all. Rush and Camille are working together, Chloe is full of angst, Eli is confident. It seems the characters change from one episode to another. I believe most of these actors are acceptable, but they just do not make these characters “come alive” for me at all. As previously stated Lisa Park (Jennifer Spence) has two emotions and that is it! We are to believe that Rush (Robert Carlyle) is now soft and cuddly? Well bathe the man first, and then we can talk about it. Scott (BJS) scene worrying about Chloe was worthy of High School Musical and about as effective. I honestly can’t say if it is the acting, directing, or writing that is the problem.

The music was as melodramatic as ever in this episode. The music should be behind the scene not over powering it. When they discovered that more drones were on the way, the music reminding me of what was played during the silent movie era for a villain. The romantic music for Chloe & Scotts good bye scene was laughable. It seems that the music director must thing “more is better” because the music is overplayed for every scene. I have expected the old deedle-deedle-deedle-deedle (from the old Dudley DoRight cartoons) for the “risky jump.” Much to my dismay we never heard one chorus of Dueling Banjos- that would have actually improved the music.
The lighting was as always horrible. The special effects were subpar. The only “cool” shot was the second command ship arriving and releasing more drones. The scene where Chloe is suspended in the air by the Blaliens blue light was completely absurd. I had a hard time telling the ships apart in the space battle scenes. I also found the Destiny’s weapons to be underwhelming. The battle scenes themselves were very anti-climatic.

Overall the episode was mediocre for television and terrible for a Stargate episode. The characters of Volker and Brody appear to be incompetent at best. The other characters are choppy and not very well defined. Even Rush is supposed to be soft and sweet now, with Young being given a kiss from Chloe as he sends her back to the Blaliens to experiment on her some more. The Ursini suicide run which supposedly destroyed the last of the Ursini was a nod to the mass suicide of the Asgard from Sg1’s Unending (10:20). The drone storyline also reminded me of an SG1 episode: the SG1 (4:14) Serpent’s Venom where Sam and Jacob/Selmak are trying to reprogram a minefield left behind by the extinct Tobin civilization. Thus once again proving there is not an original idea left in the heads of TPTW (The Powers That Were) of Stargate. I understand that everyone rips off ideas in television, but to steal TWQO ideas from a previous series (and one that you have wholeheartedly criticized) and incorporate them into one episode is simply foolish. This episode should be missed and is completely worthy of being in Universe: Destiny as we once again never even saw the Stargate!