STARGATE UNIVERSE #1 & 2:AIR/Season 1/2009

[Truth Seeker]

AIR (1)

A research team studying the Stargate's ninth chevron is forced to flee through the gate when their secret base is attacked by an unknown enemy. They end up stranded on an Ancient ship named Destiny, billions of light years from Earth

AIR (2)

The evacuees from Icarus Base discover that the life-support system on the Destiny will fail in a matter of hours

[LightPhoenix]

Not a bad start, I enjoyed it. RDA... man, he didn't not look great. If their intention was to make Rush completely unlikable, they succeeded beyond expectation.

[Wycen]

Uh oh.

Being part of Stargate = cool.

Being more like BSG than ST: Voyeur = bad. And I don't even consider Star Trek Voyager a good show.

And since I figured you could use the floating cameras to close the door and the writers didn't, that's another bad sign.

[theT0rmented]

So... does everyone in the expedition have the Ancient gene? I thought Ancient technology could only be activated by someone with the gene. It's a lucky thing the senator has the gene...

And I agree about Rush; I kept hoping the soldier (who was in detention) would pop a bullet in his head. Rush was extremely annoying.

Did they explain why no one else tried the communication stones? (Maybe I missed it) Just to check and see if Rush was lying. No one seemed to trust him, yet no one checked up on his "I'm in command" statement.

[Oni]

When I saw an ad for it, my first thought was that it looked stupid, but I happened to catch the second airing last night and I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it.

Personally, while not likable, I thought Rush was an interesting character and Eli whom I thought would annoy me didn't, and in fact I enjoyed that character as well.

All in all, definitely watch it again.

[LightPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Wycen

And since I figured you could use the floating cameras to close the door and the writers didn't, that's another bad sign.

I assumed that when they said someone needed to be inside, that meant someone physically, and they tested the camera.

Originally Posted by theT0rmented

Did they explain why no one else tried the communication stones? (Maybe I missed it) Just to check and see if Rush was lying. No one seemed to trust him, yet no one checked up on his "I'm in command" statement.

Personally, I think that'll be in the next episode. However, I'm not certain anyone but Rush knows where they are at the moment. Additionally, the commander (Young) getting back on his feet helped a lot as well. After all, the first thing he did was try to dial Earth.

[Jack7]

I enjoyed the pilot a lot for these reasons:

1. It was totally different from the other, more formulaic Stargate shows. It reminded me a lot more of the mystery and darkness and frontiers nature of the movie than the shows. That was obviously intentional.

2. They are cut off form support and relieve. Totally cut off even from technological resupply. Every technological advantage they have in the future will have to be scavenged or adapted from the ship they are on. This will inevitably change their relationship with technology. On all previous shows they were masters or could become masters of the technology they built, employed, adapted, or adopted as their own. Not so here. (As a matter of fact on shows like SG-1 the technology was little better than magic and metaphysics with a thin spray paint veneer of pseudo technology. Not so here I suspect, it will be a much grittier, more desperate, survival advantage relationship with technology, less much of the fantasy tech-elements.) Here they may very well find themselves not so much masters of technology, as needing to adapt themselves to the existing technology, or at least to become a sort of biological partner with it. They will also obviously have to concern themselves with basic survival conditions, water, food, shelter, even atmosphere. And eventually they will either have to gain navigational and piloting control of the vessel, or work in cooperation with it to gain supplies.

3. Nobody knows what they are doing or how to go about it. A distinct advantage for this type of show.

4. There is a very muddled chain of command. In all other Stargate shows there is an easy chain of command/chain of expertise narrational path to the stories. In this one one of the main conflicts will be who is in charge, what is each one trying to take charge really attempting to do, and how does each one formulate a different set of objectives as a result. Rush to me is annoying (in a way), he's also extremely interesting because of his own particular motivations.

(Speaking of which he obviously has motivations beyond the current situation. He obviously hopes to either use the technology of the ancients or the fact that the ship he had hoped to reach was so far displaced in time - remember it is literally in relation to them either billions of years behind or ahead of them in time relative to their point and time of departure - to arrive at a point to correct whatever situation he desires to correct. That he considers tragic from his past. None of the shows in the past ever did a good job of addressing this spatial-temporal displacement problem in relation to ship travel versus Gate travel versus origin points versus destination points, nor did they ever do a good job of coming up with some method to compensate for what would have really happened. It was just assumed everything in background would magically match or align with all time frames rendering a zero-sum misalignment when displacing that much space. I hope this shows will take on those questions in a far more clever and actually - at least for a TV show - scientific manner.)

5. You have a built in conflict of motivations - Exploration versus rescue/retrieval, personal versus group, survival versus adapted advantage, mystery of the situation and what is the mission of the ship versus what the party thinks it is really doing and what they think they need to be doing, a very confused command and objective structure (civilian leadership versus military leadership versus individual initiative versus necessary expertise accommodations - you even have the pre-structured "institutional expert versus the rebel kid/outside the system supposed genius with conflicting motives - though I'm unconvinced as yet the kid is anything more than one trick pony), mystery of the missing crew/or automatic station versus lack of real decay and seemingly constant or perpetual motion between galaxies (something no-one seems to have really commented on or thought about yet, but where is the energy for this machine to operate coming from and considering the huge distances supposedly traveled, what is the real energy source? For that matter if the ship is an automaton then why is it so large (unless it was designed specifically to move beyond normal time/spatial constraints and then be re-crewed at some future or even past time) and why does it even have a life support system? Is it artificially intelligent, has its mission been conscripted or changed over time, have aliens boarded and modified systems, has it had past or will it have future occupants, what is the destination, what are the mission objectives, why is it pursuing that flight path, what was its point of departure, has anything been recorded or logued other than the flight path, and so forth and so on? In this sense the ship itself reminds me both of the Anderson story the Boat of a Million Years, and the actual design of the Egyptian Boat of a Million Years, or Sun-Boat (the feathered rear of the ship especially - which makes me think there is something distinctly non-Ancient about the ship, or that it is a sort of group effort of parties not strictly limited to the Ancients).

I've hardly enumerated all of the possibilities, just some of the more obvious ones. Personally I liked that it broke with previous Stargate formulations and that it is much darker and much more confused in intention and purpose.

I'm making a near total assumption here but I'm thinking it might possibly have been designed to explore or scout places for Stargate emplacement or to reach or search out, or maybe it already has, a destination that it is not possible to reach by Stargate.

I would also be very surprised if in that expanse of time that it would have not been modified by others, maybe even by now, or by design, be Artificially Intelligent it its own right.

Anyway to me, I thought the pilot quite good.
I'll have to see where it goes but I like the inherent potential.

[Merkuri]

I liked it a lot. I knew I was going to like it when I saw the first five minutes with everyone coming through the 'gate in confusion, being hit with flying boxes and other people, shouts of "move to the side!" as the first people through realized the people coming were going to get injured or injure others if people kept lingering just outside the 'gate.

I love survival stories where the characters have to explore and scavenge to survive, and the fact that they couldn't even take for granted the air they were breathing was just excellent. I hope this show keeps along this same course.

The fact that Destiny is a moving object which apparently has a static gate address (which I think other shows have determined wasn't possible, or at least not feasible) makes me think that perhaps the ship was meant to be staffed the way it was staffed just now. Maybe it was meant to start off unmanned and its crew would join it while it was already near its destination.

I had a moment, too, when I thought the flying cameras (what did they call them? Kenos?) might be used to close the door to the shuttle, but I have a feeling that the cameras can't be controlled delicately enough to push a button. Maybe they're even designed not to collide with objects, so it would've been impossible to make it interact with any controls without taking it apart and doing some re-engineering, which I doubt they had time for. Making the cameras so that they detect objects and stay X inches away from them seems like a very valid safety feature to build into a flying sensor/camera.

In any case, I agree that they should've at least mentioned the possibility of using the cameras. You'd just need ten seconds of dialog: "Can we use the cameras to close it?" "No, they can't push buttons. I can't get them to go within six inches of a solid surface. I think it's a safety feature."

[Jack7]

The fact that Destiny is a moving object which apparently has a static gate address (which I think other shows have determined wasn't possible, or at least not feasible) makes me think that perhaps the ship was meant to be staffed the way it was staffed just now. Maybe it was meant to start off unmanned and its crew would join it while it was already near its destination.

To carry on your observations, there was also no sign of real furniture (for any humanoid type creature) aboard ships. Something I forgot to mention earlier. Walk on any human vessel and furniture is immdiately obvious most places. Especially at command and control centers. People have to sit and monitor and on vessels meant for long term missions, sleep and eat.

Leading me to one of these conclusions. 1. There was never any intention for the ship to be occupied for long periods of time, but rather to be visited intermittently and then abandoned again until the next necessary moment. So no real need for furniture. 2. The furniture has decayed over time, but in a hermetically controlled environment this seems highly improbable - that furniture would have been constructed to intentionally decay over time or that it would be constructed so differently as to decay when other things don't. 3. The furniture is designed to be hidden or regressed when not in use. 4. The furniture was removed when the ship was last abandoned (That is they carry in and remove any unnecessary supplies or goods, which might be explainable by power consumption rates). 5. The furniture was removed by a third patty or someone who found the ship other than the creators/users - this seems possible but unlikely to me unless the third party also removed other things on the ship, modified the ship, or perhaps even sabotaged the ship - it's possible the scrubbers were sabotaged or over extended themselves trying to compensate for losing atmosphere..

My assumptions are that nos. 1, 3, and 4 are the most likely possibilities, with 1 and 3 being my likely favorites. Because the ship has an atmosphere and obviously has controls for necessary human interactions, but no apparent furniture. Meaning no long time or long term crew-interactions. Also I would think that the life-supports systems would operate at null or bare minimum capacity when the ship is not occupied. Meaning to me that the ship was recently occupied, the crew was recently forced to abandon ship, or the ship itself was anticipating occupation, hence the available atmosphere. Meaning it is also possible that the ship either anticipated the arrival of the current crew (the humans) or life support became active immediately once it detected it had been dialed from the outside. But the time frame for that would be short indeed because not only must you compress atmosphere but you would have to generate a lot of heat (heat any occupiable area of the ship). In a space between galaxies or between stars and in motion you couldn't rely upon outside energies sources for much or any supplementary assistance. Meaning that the ship, if it had anticipated the humans, would have had to have done so long before being dialed to bring up enough atmosphere, enough heat, etc. to be useful.

Also one has to consider that they have explored very little of the ship and the ship may not be totally abandoned but has a small reserve crew, possibly in stasis or suspension, or attached to some area of the ship they cannot yet detect or have not noticed.

The fact that it dropped out of FTL once it was instructed by Rush of the situation makes me think that it is indeed at least partially artificially intelligent. And that it was indeed designed either to emplace or scout for Stargate addresses, or to reach destinations not reachable by Stargates.

Implying one of two possible missions (maybe both, maybe something else, but probably similar). Colonization throughout a cluster of galaxies, maybe any entire section of the universe, and/or exploration well beyond the home galaxy, and to the information to which that might lead.

I had a moment, too, when I thought the flying cameras (what did they call them? Kenos?) might be used to close the door to the shuttle, but I have a feeling that the cameras can't be controlled delicately enough to push a button. Maybe they're even designed not to collide with objects, so it would've been impossible to make it interact with any controls without taking it apart and doing some re-engineering, which I doubt they had time for. Making the cameras so that they detect objects and stay X inches away from them seems like a very valid safety feature to build into a flying sensor/camera.

In any case, I agree that they should've at least mentioned the possibility of using the cameras. You'd just need ten seconds of dialog: "Can we use the cameras to close it?" "No, they can't push buttons. I can't get them to go within six inches of a solid surface. I think it's a safety feature."

I thought of that myself. They're spherical (covering at least, the internals may be reconfigurable) making pressing a button on a flat panel nearly impossible (considering the control panel size and the camera size). But they could have tried tying a pen, a pointer, a magnetic arm, etc. to the sphere (as an extended arm with which to press the button), assuming it was not frictionless, which it may have been. It's all moot now, I would tried it, but it was nice to see a Senator actually do something selfless and productive for a change. So, I'm not complaining.

I think they called the floating cameras Kinos by the way, after, I'm assuming either this, or this, or this. All deal with cameras, lighting for video production, and recording data.

Anyway, nice observations.

[Crothian]

I enjoyed the show. I don't expect it to be perfect or for the writers to think of everything because they never do.

[Ed_Laprade]

Originally Posted by Merkuri

The fact that Destiny is a moving object which apparently has a static gate address (which I think other shows have determined wasn't possible, or at least not feasible)

I've watched very little Stargate (the movie, a dozen or so scattered episodes), but whoever came up with this idea is... not too bright. Planets move, solar systems move, everything moves - all the time!

[Jack7]

I've watched very little Stargate (the movie, a dozen or so scattered episodes), but whoever came up with this idea is... not too bright. Planets move, solar systems move, everything moves - all the time!

EL, I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth but I think the implication of what was meant was an object moving at Faster than Light hyperspeed velocities. That is a relatively static gate, one at relatively slow motion in normal space-time would be unable to connect with another stargate which was at hyper-velocities relative to itself.

Which may partially explain why this address has nine chevrons, unlike all of the others. It is unique not only as to destination or end-point, but unique because the end point is moving at FTL speeds relative to all other stargate locations.

Then again we can't really be sure that the ship was indeed at hyperspeed when it took on the human crew. That might have begun shortly after they arrived and before they could verify that they were actually aboard a ship. We just don't really know yet.

But it's an interesting idea to consider given how the stargates normally operated, placed in relatively static locations. We do know that there was an attempt to dial Earth while the ship was at FTL travel, but the attempt failed. Did it fail through lack of power, because it is impossible to lock onto other gates while the ship is at FTL speeds, because Rush had already apprised it of the situation and the ship decided to over-ride any other actions, because Earth was simply out of range, etc? That we don't know yet either. All we really know is that the Earth attempt was aborted due to redirection to another target.

It's also interesting, given the above possibilities, that gate to gate contact at normal spacetime seems to trigger a countdown clock which limits that particular gate to gate contact being open, or the ship remaining in the area, or both. I have some ideas as to why this is, but it will be interesting to see what the crew conjectures it might mean and why things operate like that.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I get the vague impression that Jack7 at least is hooked.

For what its worth, creating a stargate connection between the Pegasus gate and Earth required a large amount of energy. The planet they were on was supposedly a kind of giant reactor fueling the gate, so I take that to mean that they just do not have the energy to dial back to Earth. It's basically a one-way transport unless you bring some kind of Super-ZPM or whatever or your own reactor-planet with you.

---

Otherwise, I liked it for a start. The atmosphere is different from the other Stargate shows. That might be a problem for the regular SG audience. It certainly makes the show more interesting to me for the moment. It had a vague Battlestar Galactica vibe. More complex relationships, crew conflicts, civillian/military split, bleak situation.

We'll see if it can keep it up and also maintain its audience.

...

O'Neill didn't look good. I guess Anderson is getting old.

[Jack7]

I get the vague impression that Jack7 at least is hooked.

If you say so, then I Must be. Get it... Must... oh well, nevermind. It was Ridcully of me to say that.

Seriously, I really don't know if I'm hooked or not but I can say this: I much prefer fictional media (books, artwork, films, radio plays, graphic novels, etc.) where there are mysteries, where there are no obvious answers or numerous possible answers, or where you have to decipher for yourself what might really be going on - to any media where things are simply presented to you and the authors, writers, artists, etc. just explain things to you as you go along. I guess that's the Dick in me, but I'd much rather do it myself. At one point SG-1 became so formulaic to me, despite the fact that it was often well-written, that the story was basically, present new object or situation X, then research and investigate old obscure reference pertaining to X, then present explanation A for X so that audience cannot possibly misunderstand exactly what you intend for them to see. Then, if no real explanation is available or you're still afraid they won't get it then myth or magic it up so everyone understands this is an analogue for Merlin and Camelot. Get it folks, Merlin = Ancient = Magic = Wunderscience Supersword. Or, Ori = Origin. Thanks guys for the clever tip-off, I wasn't really following you the first time around. It was all sooooo complicated.

I don't mind magic at all, I like myth a lot, but when you turn everything into a "no need to figure this out, let's just throw in a mythological reference and some magical light effects, and there you go" then the story becomes more child's fairy tale with built in crib-notes than modern retelling of ancient myths with magic fairy dust for the wonder of things you can't explain. (I got nothing against magic or not explaining things, but if you're not gonna explain things rationally, then don't turn them into cheap props with stargems and unicorn horns for controls levers either. Just leave them unexplained, and let the consumer make of them what needs to be made.)

I also agree with you and others about the Battlestar Galactica references in many respects. I think that show and Lost (and others like them) will have big influences on television and film in the near future, and I'm also hoping SGU will become truly viral in the future adding new dimensions of potential mystery.

Television is undergoing a renaissance at the moment and is becoming more sophisticated scientifically and psychologically, and is simultaneously becoming deeper and more meaningful mythologically, spiritually, and religiously.

I also like scientific and technological puzzles. So if they keep this up they may indeed hook me. If they're lucky in the mouth, so I won't blab so much.

[Crothian]

I'm hoping they run into the Furlings.

[Fast Learner]

It was very strongly implied that shortly after they gated in, the ship jumped into its ftl mode: the color shift and stretch thing happened shortly after they all boarded, and again right before they stopped at the planet.

I could swear they said (or at least it was conjectured by some character) that the ship was indeed intended to travel really, really far away, and then be later crewed after it had reached something/passed a threshhold/etc. I don't think there's any need to guess at that, it was given to us.

[Merkuri]

Originally Posted by Merkuri

The fact that Destiny is a moving object which apparently has a static gate address (which I think other shows have determined wasn't possible, or at least not feasible)...

Originally Posted by Ed_Laprade

I've watched very little Stargate (the movie, a dozen or so scattered episodes), but whoever came up with this idea is... not too bright. Planets move, solar systems move, everything moves - all the time!

In very early episodes they talked on at least one occasion about how they had to use a lot of complex algorithms to take into account the natural movement of stars and planets because they didn't have a DHD (dial-home-device, the thing you punch the gate address into), which did all those calculations in a normal gate, so technically, yes, they can connect to moving gates since all gates move in one way or another.

I was referring to how gates are usually on planets, and that the gate address determines which gate to use by taking six points in space (constellations), drawing lines between them, and using the intersection of those lines, which means that, relative to those constellations, the gate is pretty much static. It's at least limited to one star system.

I have not watched every single episode, but I've spent the last few months watching up to the end of season 7 of SG-1 on Hulu, and as of that point I believe the only time we ever saw a gate on a ship receive a wormhole was when that ship was in orbit around a planet with a gate address. The ship-bound gate couldn't establish a wormhole unless it was near a planet that had a gate.

This doesn't seem to be the case with Destiny. The gate on that ship seems to be special (as evidenced by the fact that it actually looks different, and that they needed a ninth chevron and a hell of a lot of energy to dial into it). Somehow the Ancients got it to allow incoming wormholes without them knowing where exactly in space the ship was. Either that, or the ship was waiting for a crew in that one place for a very very long time, since I seem to recall the gate address for it was very very old.

Originally Posted by Fast Learner

I could swear they said (or at least it was conjectured by some character) that the ship was indeed intended to travel really, really far away, and then be later crewed after it had reached something/passed a threshhold/etc. I don't think there's any need to guess at that, it was given to us.

Maybe I just remembered that instead of thinking it up myself. I can't be expected to keep track of such things.

Originally Posted by Jack7

To carry on your observations, there was also no sign of real furniture (for any humanoid type creature) aboard ships.

Yes there was. The two heavily injured characters were in beds. I believe there were even blankets on the beds. I seriously doubt a group of people escaping an exploding planet would have through to bring mattresses with them. I remember the beds because when I saw them I thought, "Wow, I wonder how old those were. Did the vacuum of space preserve them so they didn't get all moldy and decayed?" I also recall seeing benches and seats. Not directly in front of the control panels, but they were there. I think the observation deck had couches.

There just wasn't any furniture in the gate room, which I think is reasonable. Especially considering the way everyone entered at the beginning of the show it's probably best to keep the gate room as sparsely furnished as possible.

I think I might actually go back to Hulu and watch the episode again to see if there are any other "clues" to pick up on. Now that's a sign of a good show if I want to go back and watch it again within days of seeing it the first time.

[Cergorach]

Originally Posted by theT0rmented

So... does everyone in the expedition have the Ancient gene? I thought Ancient technology could only be activated by someone with the gene. It's a lucky thing the senator has the gene...

Three options:
1.) They've perfected a gene therapy, injection and you've got the 'Ancient' gene.
2.) The 'Destiny' is an old ship, a very old ship. Chances are that it was send on it's journey before they equipped all their equipment with gene sensors. Maybe it's only on a couple of very secure systems.
3.) The 'Ancients' assumed that they might not be the race that would be using the 'Destiny', they would Ascent before that or their genes wouldn't be the same by the time they would use the ship.

[Hand of Evil]

Originally Posted by Cergorach

Three options:
1.) They've perfected a gene therapy, injection and you've got the 'Ancient' gene.

This was happening in SG: Atlantis

Overall I was happy with it but could not help seeing Rush as Dr. Smith! He may be an a$$ but why do they distrust him soooo much, sure he keeps things to himself but he also seems to be VERY proactive. He is a leader, where most of the rest want to debate actions or whine about them.

I don't think the show will fall into the ST:V rut and hoped they learned lessons from SG: Atlantis.

[Jack7]

It was very strongly implied that shortly after they gated in, the ship jumped into its ftl mode: the color shift and stretch thing happened shortly after they all boarded, and again right before they stopped at the planet.

I didn't see this when they first arrived. Of course at that time my wife and kids were watching with me (when it first came on) and so it's possible one of them distracted me so that I didn't notice it. I did notice the waveform distortion at the end, after attempting to dial Earth, so, it would be consistent if it did happen at the beginning also (I take your word it did indeed happen) to think that on both occasions the ship was at normal space-time in order to make use of the Stargates. In that case it would mean the ship does apparently have to be at normal space-time to use the stargate. That would also be consistent with previous other shows, but, it still doesn't preclude FTL use of the stargate, just makes it unlikely it operates any differently based on what we now know.

I could swear they said (or at least it was conjectured by some character) that the ship was indeed intended to travel really, really far away, and then be later crewed after it had reached something/passed a threshhold/etc. I don't think there's any need to guess at that, it was given to us.

I didn't hear this either, but, there were a couple of times I walked outside during the show, mainly around commercial times, because we had a full moon. I was toying with the idea of setting my telescope up and moon-gazing then, but thought the show was good enough to skip it for one night. So I didn't, but I guess it's possible I missed this conjecture while I was outside.

If it was conjectured by one of the characters (anyone know who or at what time in the show - I would like to know who said it, in what context, and what exactly they suggested - hopefully I can see this in rerun sometime) then it would be a logical conjecture, given the other evidence, and I would agree with them. It seems the most likely possibility. (I hope though it will be remembered it is, like my deductions, and the deductions of others, just a character conjecture based on the best available evidence at the moment. A likely, though not necessarily the only explanation, and certainly not the truth - that won't be known until other evidence is gathered or discovered. And I hope this show continues to follow the path of best conjecture or best possible conjectures, rather than trying to explain everything all at once. In far too many television shows the first suggestion or conjecture is just assumed to be correct, handed to the audience as the way things really are and the plot proceeds from that point on as if the initial conjecture was necessarily the only or the only correct one. It's a juvenile, even child-like way to describe problems - especially when operating within a totally alien or unknown environment - because very rarely does it happen that way in real life. It's a way for the writer to "project what he knows" through the character without any real reason for the character to really know that thing, merely because the writer doesn't want to take the time to describe events in enough detail to fully explain the real situation. I hope instead that they will discover situations and problems, consider possibilities, gather evidence, make conjectures, and discard possibilities as it becomes apparent their initial speculations were incorrect, or at best only partially correct. Which illustrates for me what also bothers me about too many television dramas, only rarely are main characters or "smart characters" seen to be wrong in a particular situation, or to have drawn the wrong conclusions, even though it is quite justifiable for them to do so given the circumstances. Stargate Atlantis, which I liked, was nevertheless especially egregious about this regarding their smart-guy and super-dooper scientist. But real scientists are never this way, and neither, generally speaking, are smart people. Being wrong is a necessary part of becoming smarter in real life. I wish more fiction writers understood that. Instead they far too often make the smart guys or the problem solvers always or very nearly always right the first time, when that almost never really happens in life. The smart guys are just the ones who won't quit when others do, or are willing to consider all possibilities when others won't. And they learn just as much from mistakes as they do from successes.)

But the idea of the waiting starship, or the starship in situ, does have a number of problems that will also need to be addressed. Like if the ship is only visited rarely then why was the life-support operational just coincidentally when the humans boarded (unless it was being tested or prepped to receive a crew, and if so, then tested by whom, and where is that crew)? Otherwise it would be a large waste of energy to run it constantly. Why was it inactive (as to motion), but had an active life-support system? Was it long abandoned - after all the assumed builders are long gone for the most part - and just sitting dead in space, but with the life support still active? That's an illogical means of operating considering power consumption rates, unless the crew had abandoned ship in an emergency and the ship had expected them to return quickly.

Another thing that is bothersome is this - was this the only type of ship like this? Was it a prototype or unique ship design, so that only one was ever built? I mention that because of the fact that as far as anyone knows yet there was only one gate and one gate location capable of dialing the ship. Why? That's incredibly risky if the ship is unique or a prototype because if anything happens to the one gate then you have in effect lost not only your means of boarding the ship, but also presumably your means of contacting an unmanned ship. If it was a manned ship then this would demand other gates so that you would have safe means of retrieving your crew if necessary. Otherwise lost or even just malfunctioning home gate and you've no way of direct contact with ship gate, and the suggestion thus far is that ship gate is ranged when dialing out. (Meaning home gate somehow picks up the slack on return gate voyages back home, or the ship as we know it is barely functioning at real capacity because of real damage or because it is simply just not fully active, or Rush is lying about on-board ship capabilities. Maybe all of those.) Surely, just as a security precaution, if you went to such expense to build such a vessel, and the mission was important at all, you would have built in redundancy means of reestablishing contact through other gates.

If there are other ships of this type or class, undertaking similar missions then naturally you could not risk them all being accessed by a single, unique stargate. That would be extremely risky. A real security threat. Either way I would not risk access to either a unique prototype or a fleet of ships through a single access point. I guess they (the writers) could say the one location for the nine chevron stargate has very unique properties, but in all of the universe, including all of the other galaxies visited by this one ship, they could not replicate conditions enough that they could only build the one peculiar portal? It seems very unlikely to me. Even more than one "Atlantis" was built, for obvious reasons. I'd build in more than one method of accessing such a ship. Even if I only built one such ship.

2.) The 'Destiny' is an old ship, a very old ship. Chances are that it was send on it's journey before they equipped all their equipment with gene sensors. Maybe it's only on a couple of very secure systems.
3.) The 'Ancients' assumed that they might not be the race that would be using the 'Destiny', they would Ascent before that or their genes wouldn't be the same by the time they would use the ship.

Interesting conjectures. For one thing they might have very well anticipated human occupation if no. 3 is correct. Something I intuitively feel is a real possibility, I just have no evidence to support the idea. I cannot say why exactly but I just feel as if either the builders, or the users, or the ship itself was anticipating the human occupation.

If 3 is not correct then where are the users of the ship, and how long ago did they make last contact. And if the mission of the ship was to place stargates in other galaxies then, and Earth was the ship departure point (I think someone aboard ship suggested it was - Rush?) then was Earth the real departure point or merely the first plotted colonization point on the starmap they accessed? (Did Rush assume the starchart he examined was the only starchart or navigational chart or the first one and that meant Earth was the departure point? If it was then was the ship built there? )

The show has a number of interesting possibilities as far as the storyline goes. I hope they continue to unfold more mysteries as often as they start reducing others.

Well, I've got to prep for flight training. See you guys later.