Stargate Universe ”Epilogue” - Detailed Analysis & Review

We continue this two-part arc was Destiny arrives at Novus - the planet where their alternate timeline counterparts founded a new civilisation 2,000 years ago. I love this episode. In the present, we get to see our heroes digging through the ruins of their descendant's civilisation like archeologists, and in the past, we watch as our heroes slowly form a new society. It's all good stuff. So let's dig in to Stargate Universe "Epilogue".

Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 89 of the podcast

Today, we’re talking about  the Stargate Universe episode “Epilogue”

 

And if you’d like to check out my original science fiction books, head on over to AdamDavidCollings.com/books

 

The description on Gateworld reads

While attempting to return a group of colonists to their home, the crew finds records of their own alternate lives -- and a planet on the verge of seismic destruction.

 

This episode was written by Carl Binder

It was directed by Alex Chapple

And it first aired on the 25th of April 2011

 

We open with a very elderly Colonel Young in his deathbed. Chloe sits by his side, and his grown son Steve approaches.

 

Then we cut to present day. The shuttle is landing in a big city square, which features a statue of Young.

 

It’s so ominous seeing this very familiar modern-day type city covered in ice and ash. Completely deserted.

 

They’ve found an underground bunker. It’s possible somebody might have survived down there.

But how do they get in?

They gonna try using Destiny’s weapon on low power.

It works.

They gain entrance and even find that there’s still working power in the facility.

 

It’s nice to know that bad elevator music is a constant throughout the entire universe.

Although, to be honest, lifts don’t tend to play music here in Australia. I’m not sure I can think of one time I’ve been in one where it’s happened. But I get the concept.

 

Anyway, it’s a mildly amusing moment.

 

In the bunker, they find an archive. The entire history of the Novan civilisation. Eli hopes they’ll find answers to exactly what happened.

 

What they find is kind of remarkable. A 2,000 year old recording of the first moment the twin-destiny crew arrived through the gate and found that they weren’t on Earth. It looks like they’re surrounded by a sand storm. Not a very hospitable place.

 

Imagine having something like this. A video record of the exact moment that your civilisation began. The moment your ancestors first walked on the surface of your planet.

It’s like finding footage of their equivalents of Adam and Eve.

 

But while Eli is geeking out over the history, Rush is more concerned over life-support supplies, like more Lime.

They haven’t found any of that yet, but there are a lot of food supplies. Canned goods.

That is huge. I can’t overstate how important and useful this is.

Imagine going two years with nothing to eat but alien vegetables that taste so bad it almost makes you vomit. And then you find a supermarket.

This will greatly improve their chances of surviving, but also be a massive boost to morale.

 

Turns out, the planet they first appeared on wasn’t Novus. But there were several gates in range. They explored and one of the worlds they found was Novus. The green trees and blue sky would certainly be a welcome sight after the caves where they sought refuge from the sandstorm.

 

When Park remarks on how they documented everything, Yaozu says “It is easier to know where you are going when you know where you have been. Eli Wallace.”

 

And I just love that. Any time Eli gets credit and appreciation for his space vlogging is gonna get a big thumbs up from me.

 

It took me a moment to realise why Yaozu was being a little weird around Brody. I was thinking maybe he thought it insensitive that they wanted to upload the data without acknowledging the pain of the Novans losing their world. And then the episode reminded me that Brody was the founder of the opposing nation.

 

And again, Valko is still giving him a hard time about the name Futura. Give it up Volker. We get it. You think the name is stupid.

Shut up and move on!

 

I love how Chloe has found a bunch of science and maths textbooks all written by Eli.

Of all the scientific minds on that ship, he, more than anyone else, would be the one to want to preserve that knowledge for the next generation.

Rush, would see the value, of course, but to actually sit down and explain science in a way that kids could understand? No, he wouldn’t do that.

 

But she’s also found her own diary.

That’s gotta be weird

 

In the next flashback, we see the beginnings of Brody’s dissatisfaction with everyone. He’s specifically angry at Eli. It was Eli’s calculations that got them stuck on this planet. The fact that he agreed with Eli’s calculations seems to be irrelevant to him. But that’s fine. This is an emotional reaction, not a rational one. And that’s completely believable given their situation.

 

Meanwhile, Scott has found some nasty animal life, so they’re gonna need walls around their city.

It’s like they’re playing a real-life game of Civilisation.

 

I love watching this episode. I love fantasising about being one of them, settling a new world. Building a new civilisation.

In reality, it would suck, of course. But fantasies are not meant to be realistic.

I’m not saying the portrayal of the show isn’t realistic. Just my desire to be among them, and conveniently ignore the harsh realities.

 

I’d actually watch an entire show about this. The people who have to build a new life on an alien world. But then, I kind of have seen that show already. It’s called Terra Nova. And rather than an alien planet, it was the distant past, with dinosaurs. It only ran for one season, despite its popularity, because it was expensive to produce. It was shot here in Australia. But if you haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend Terra Nova. Seriously, check it out. I may even cover it on the podcast someday.

 

6 weeks in, they have their first death. It’s Volker. Probably his kidneys, but without any medical equipment, she can’t be sure.

And that’s one of the big harsh realities. It might be fun to plan out where in the forest you’re gonna found your city, but having to go back to the stone age, medically speaking, that’s horrific.

 

Volker is there looking over Chloe’s shoulder as she reads about his funeral.

How weird would that be?

He looks pretty confronted by it. It’s not his future, of course, but it’s a sobering reminder that he has a medical condition that is difficult to manage so far from Earth.

 

Young, of course, is beating himself up over this. TJ tries to encourage him. And that’s when they finally allow their prior feelings to come back out again. They’ll be trapped on this planet for the rest of their lives. He’s divorced from his wife now. So there seems little reason for them not to pursue it all.

 

Keep in mind, Varro is on the planet with them. I wonder how he’s going to react to TJ choosing Young over him.

 

They’ve got a shuttle-load of supplies they’re sending up to the ship.

It’s funny. As horrible as all this was for the crew in the previous timeline, the whole twin destiny thing has been pretty good for the crew in our timeline. This is the second time we’ve managed to benefit heavily from supplies left by that crew. First Destiny itself, and now all this stuff left behind by their ancestors.

 

Eli has figured out what happened to the people.

Many of them escaped through the stargate before it was buried in lava by a volcano, but those that remained needed another way off. Both countries realised they stood a better chance working together, so they built huge ships together. But they weren’t capable of FTL.

 

They set off for one of the planets they’d previously sent expeditions to.

Destiny could get there in a few days but it’ll be a 200-year journey for the Novans. I guess they figured out cryogenic stasis. So that’s good news. There are survivors. They didn’t all completely die out.

 

Back in the past, Scott finally works up the guts to talk to Lieutenant James about their past, and how he used her up and threw her away. The reason - he’s getting married to Chloe.

James, for her part, is surprisingly forgiving. I guess she moved on a long time ago.

Anyway, nice to see these two finally put it all to rest. 

But I wish, instead of just saying “Y’know, we never talker” he could have said, “I’m sorry.” 

 

Anyway, during the ceremony, Varro gives James a look. So I think she’ll be okay.

 

A lot of this history is about people hooking up. But that kind of makes sense. They’re a community of people living on a planet now. They kinda need to perpetuate the species if they’re going to survive.

So marriage and children is an important part of Novus’s history.

 

Eli actually remarks on this in one of his kino vlogs. Every else is getting together.

Except him.

 

Chloe is pregnant. Scott is building them a house. They have a bit of a township going on now. They have what look like stables.

 

I laughed at the montage of various children being born. Rapidly cutting from one screaming face to another. Chloe, TJ, James, and Park are all now mothers. The tribe is growing. Park is with Greer, obviously.

 

Eli is truly happy for all of them. But still feeling very lonely and left out.

And then Corporal Barnes sits next to him.

Cut to Barnes giving birth to their first child.

The editing of this section of the episode gives us some great comedic storytelling.

 

But the best bit is when we see Eli and Chloe watching this vlog together. And Chloe says “Something worth pursuing.”

 

Barnes is a character that is sometimes around, but we really don’t know much, if anything, about her.

 

The one person who hasn’t hooked up is Camille. Not because she can’t find anyone, but because she already found her soul mate, back on Earth.

 

Park has discovered that the black hole theory is right. The planet will soon be torn apart. They may have to leave before they’ve got all the data uploaded.

 

They’ve found one of those ships that the Novans built. It’s still in the factory on the planet. It never left. That’s convenient. If it’s operational, it could take the entire group of descendants.

 

TJ has made a disturbing discovery. Her counterpart developed a disease she was pretty sure was ALS.

I always thought ALS was just what Americans called MS, but according to Google they’re two similar but different conditions.

Which is interesting, because I don’t think I’ve ever heard Americans talk about MS, and you never hear about ALS here in Australia. Either way, it’s a pretty horrible thing.

And it’s really scary for TJ. It means she will develop a deliberating disease in her future. It could be a few years away. It’s not something you contract. She’s carrying it in her right now. And there’s no cure.

And that really sucks

 

I actually lost an aunty to MS. It’s a horrible thing.

As interesting as it is for them to see what their other versions of them got up to, it can be kind of disturbing. In some ways, you’re better off not knowing.

 

TJ has about 5 years before she’ll start displaying symptoms. She’ll die a few years after that.

Volker is looking in the ship’s database to see if the ancients had anything in there about this, or similar conditions.

 

The scenes of Young nursing and caring for his wife to her eventual death are heartbreaking.

But then there’s some good news. The Novans had a cure for ALS and many other diseased. Developed over 200 years ago. It’s in the archive.

 

But some bad news, the spaceship factory is now a river of lava.

So everyone is gonna have to cam back onto Destiny. How long will the air filtration system hold out?

 

Rush has found something interesting. Some kind of foam. He’s keeping pretty quiet about what it is, but he certainly seems to think it’s important.

 

Back in the past, while most of the crew are enjoying being grandparents, Camille is drafting a constitution. Their fledgling township is becoming a nation. 

 

And Brody is turning into a grumpy old man. He hasn’t broken away and founded Futura yet, but he’s cranky and doesn’t appreciate the kids running on his lawn.

 

For various technobabble reasons they can’t search the database until it’s finished uploading, or they stop the transfer. They’ve uploaded a third of the data so far.

They might have it, they might not.

 

But they’re gonna have to leave soon.

 

The bunker is falling apart around them.

The ladder is coming apart as they climb it. Varro helps TJ but falls in the process. They have to pull him up. Fortunately, he’s alive.

 

On his deathbed, Young apologises that he never got them home. Chloe tells him what is obvious at this point. They are home.

 

Rush finally reveals that the special foam he found is for C02 scrubbing. Their problems have been solved. Much more effective than lime. It’ll last for years.

Volker has an interesting remark for Rush. It burns you up that we did okay without you.

He’s probably right. They’ll be dropping off their descendants on a nearby planet shortly.

 

Eli hasn’t found the ALS cure in the data they were able to upload. Nothing in Destiny’s database either. It’s hard because different cultures have different names for diseases, but it doesn’t look good.

 

Still, this is sci-fi. There’s lots of other medical knowledge they can learn from. They can figure out a cure. That’s what Eli believes.

 

I love how Eli’s grandson has named the school after him. Eli is gone now, but one crew member remains alive.

Camille.

 

The makeup job making her look really old is pretty great. I was quite moved listening to her speak to the descendants of her friends. Seeing how proud she was of the civilisation they’d created.

 

The final shot of the townscape changing over the centuries is a fitting end to the episode.

 

I really enjoy this one. I think it might actually be my favourite episode of season 2.

Joseph Malozzi mentioned in his blog that this episode actually would have made a great finale for the show, and I agree, but at the time, they planned Gauntlet as a season finale, not a series finale.

 

Two left to go. It’s time to see how our heroes will deal with those drones.

 

I’ll see you next time for Blockade.

 

Have a great two weeks

Live long and prosper.

 

Make it so