TV episode review
US airdate 30 November 2010 (SyFy)

The team trapped on Destiny finally begin to act like a proper crew, only to be drawn into a conflict between aliens…

Stargate Universe, as it reaches the mid-season break in its second year, seems to have finally committed to looking outward for stories. Instead of sticking with the contacts with Earth (through the magic consciousness-transferring stones) the past few episodes — and especially this cliffhanger-driven one — have looked to the ship’s present ‘lost-in-space’ location and problems for its stories.

The new bridge — once Rush’s exclusive, secret preserve, is now home to something like a Star Trek crew, except none of them know what they’re doing. It makes for a great, occasionally humorous, dynamic — and it is easy to sympathise with Rush’s past desire to keep Destiny’s secrets to himself…

Universe has been criticised for a lack of aliens: well, this episode gives viewers two alien races (although one appears to be robotic). Discovering a spaceship graveyard, Destiny’s hopeless crew are drawn into a conflict between two alien factions, negotiated by the returning Telford (Lou Diamond Philips, last seen trapped on an alien ship).

That leads straight to the cliffhanger climax, but en route we see some welcome character development for Eli (moping over Ginn) and Chloe (turning alien!), and the return of a more engaged Young.

It’s all good stuff, after a long, slow build up, making that wait until the show returns in the spring all the more agonising. Brian J. Robb

VERDICT
Episode 10: Resurgence: 8/10