Next Friday, Stargate Universe is back! And if you can't wait a whole week, check out our spoiler-free review of the next episode. Can the series keep hitting the higher standards it set in the last episode?


Everything we've been asking for, plot-wise, is starting to happen. All the complaints of "You're in space in a massive and supposedly amazing spaceship, why isn't there more space action?" are getting a response at last.

Here is the official synopsis. Beyond that, I promise I won't spoil anything besides what we already know... but if you don't want to know anything at all, stop reading.

Young accidentally finds himself on board an alien vessel before quickly transporting back onto Destiny. When the expedition tries to get into contact with the aliens, they find themselves under attack.


The next episode takes off right where it left off. And understandably, everyone is a wee bit freaked out that Young either killed Rush or stranded him on a planet, probably to die. A few people think this was an accident, but not the smarter ones. The show's clever characters are all conspiring or scooching silently away from the crazy man who doesn't seem all that upset that he may or may not have killed someone he hated in the first place.

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But they have to file a report and introduce a new character, this sexy-pants guy who was apparently on board the whole time, but we never knew it.


I don't remember his name, but everyone on board just thinks he so sexy because his wife is dead — no seriously, that's a reason. But he is kinda cute — I mean, not Young smoldering good lookin' hot, but cute, to be sure. It's nice to have some new blood from whats-his-name, even if he was inexplicably on board this whole time. He's a bit of an everyman, but without the nerd-isms provided by Eli.

And yes, Eli is back filling us all with joy and dread at his hit-and-miss wisecracks. But thankfully, his jokes in this episode are solid. We're happy to have you back, Eli, especially when the drama was escalated in the premiere, allowing the Destiny to engage in a space melee, and you said what we were all thinking. Plus it was a fantastic Star Trek moment.


But back to the part of the plot that we can reveal — the aliens. Thank god for aliens. I'm not going to reveal what kind of aliens, they are but I will say they're in the trailer. Beyond that, I want you to be surprised, because they are awesome. We know SGU wrote and filmed all these episodes months ago, but it's almost as if they listened to our mid-season complaints, and then delivered. It's a big wide black world in space, and it's about damn time some other creatures popped their heads in.


I will also say that this is the first time in the history of SGU that I've been thankful for the communication stones. I'm still pretty firmly on Team "Airlock The Stones," but this episode utilized them in a different way that made me thankful they existed. I highly doubt this I will ever feel this way again, because I'm not sure what happened in this episode could be repeated again and maintain the interest, but the stones really stepped up this episode.

Besides great aliens, there's plenty of excellent action and devious plot, no doubt leading to future shenanigans. It seems like a lot of the characters are no longer willing to sit idly by and have their lives planned for them. Except for TJ — but we still have hopes for her later.


Now the big question: is Rush back? What do you think? SGU would never get rid of such a valuable actor and character, but is he back on Destiny? You'll have to wait and see.

The few, very few, things I will complain about is the cheeseball music selection yet again. I have very little tolerance for shows that pick music that blatantly announces "We feel lonely," with a montage of people being lonely. It's eye-roll-inducing and the kind of silly mallet-to-the-head approach we've come to expect from The CW... followed by a plug for every single album, after the credits. Also, I'd really like to see Chloe be something else besides the victim. Sure they might be setting her up to kick some ass later, but there's whole ship full of people. They need to stop forcing our sympathies and fears onto just her. Unless she's just the unluckiest little girl in the entire universe.