I was confused about one thing, though. Stop reading if you don’t want spoilers.

A couple of episodes ago, they escaped the aliens that were attacking them only because Destiny was headed into the space between galaxies.  The thing about that intergalactic space is that there’s nothing there.  And yet, in Incursion, their power problems arise because they dropped out of hyperspace within range of a particularly dangerous binary star system.

Did they enter the next galaxy without telling us?  Or is there just randomly a binary star system in the middle of nowhere?

Colonel Young makes a fatal mistake partway through the episode, which is the root cause of everything that happens afterward. He gets chastised by O’Neill for it, but it’s really too little too late. Honestly I think it’s the kind of mistake that should cause him to lose his command. Whatever the resolution is now, it won’t possibly be as clean as the one he chose to skip.

Eli finally gets some bonding time with Chloe. They’ve had some moments before, but as of one of the last two episodes she’s still sleeping with Lieutenant Scott in their as-yet-unexplained relationship. (Seriously… can anyone tell me where their relationship was established in this series?) That is to say, Chloe gets to see Eli being the nice guy he actually is, underneath his self-deprecating jokes, because he’s forced to actually take care of her so she won’t die.  (I hope that’s not too much of a spoiler.)

And of course the ship starts behaving oddly.  (I’m sure Eli will be the one to figure it out and fix it, since he and Chloe end up wandering unexplored parts of the ship.  He’s in the best position to do so, plot-wise.)

I’ve waffled about this series.  It seems there haven’t been many mediocre episodes; I hope they figure that out before next season.  A show shouldn’t waste time on poorly-written episodes.

This episode was much, much more interesting than the last several, for a couple of reasons:

1. We’re involved with Earth again, and with Earth’s enemies – which makes sense, since Destiny is out in between two galaxies and will be for quite some time, so there’s not a whole lot the writers can do with the other galaxy’s aliens.
2. We find out how the Lucian Alliance knew about the Icarus project.
3. We get to see some familiar faces, and it looks like we will continue to see them for at least another few episodes.
4. Things actually happen.

Also, Richard Dean Anderson is getting fat.  It makes me sad

I’m sure I just missed some offhand comment that would satisfy me, but one question keeps plaguing me as I watch this show.  Back at the beginning, they were trying to dial Earth, but they couldn’t because the ship didn’t have enough power.  But since the ship replenished its power to full capacity (more or less), they have not tried even a single time to dial Earth and see if they can get back home.  Why not?

At any rate, the show is going downhill rather quickly.  I don’t see how they can keep the series going.

The resolution of the episode (such as it is) feels a bit contrived and convenient, leaving us with no doubt as to what will happen in the coming episodes.  In other words, they’re obviously going to gain full control (or at least more control) over the ship soon.

At this point I’m two episodes behind, so nobody post any spoilers in the comments

It was obvious from the beginning that TJ would want to stay behind.  She needs to patch things up with Young – oh wait, he’s married.  That could get messy (messier).

I hope they’ll bring back this episode’s mystery later on; it could prove to be quite interesting.

I’m also a bit confused about Eli’s loyalty for Colenel Young.  Is it just that he’s a kid who looks up to the military?  Is it that he doesn’t really like Rush?  I’m not really sure.

And of course there’s the obvious just-in-the-nick-of-time escape that’s completely out of their control.  Wouldn’t the ship realize it’s under attack, and jump early?

(If you don’t want spoilers, stop reading…)

Back in November I mentioned this:

Did anyone else notice a ship detaching from Destiny at the end of the first or second episode and flying away?  What was that?  Did they ever give any other indication of what that might be?

As it turns out, the answer is not “Dan, you’re crazy and you were seeing things.”  The answer is, “Gee, Dan, you’re very observant.”

What that means is that the show’s creators aren’t making it up as they go along.  They do appear to have a longer-term plan, at least for the season as a whole.  A couple of the episodes last year had me worried about that.

Once you understand the premise of this episode, though, it does turn a little predictable.  When they answered Eli’s message in English, rather than in Ancient or in gibberish, it was obvious that they had captured Dr. Rush from the desert planet and therefore knew enough to tell the humans to surrender in their own language.

What they didn’t explain yet is why the communications stones stopped working.  My guess is that the alien ship prevented it somehow while it was in the near vicinity; that does still leave the question, why did the stones work for just that one alien?  Obviously we’ll have to watch and find out

Stargate Universe is very much a departure from the standard Stargate format, but I think if they keep going the way they are we’ll get a decent show out of it.

I don’t want to give anything away – you should watch it yourself, it’s on Hulu for the next few weeks – but let me say that stuff happens.

Now I’m actually excited about the next episode

I’m getting more and more irritated with this show.  Not only did they put in two completely unnecessary sex scenes, but they had to make one of the characters a lesbian, too, so they could have some girl-on-girl kissing.

This is less and less like Stargate, and more and more like… I don’t know… something else.

This episode didn’t further the plot at all (other than establishing contact with the ships seeding planets with Stargates).  It did little more than increase the already ridiculously high level of tension among the crew members, and (yet again) expose Rush as a liar.

The more I watch this show, the more I want it to get canceled, if only to keep it from doing any lasting harm to the Stargate franchise.