I'm re-watching it now, and I just realized that Rush had glasses that broke when he boarded the Destiny. As a glasses-wearer myself I gotta say that must absolutely suck for him. I hope they're a light prescription. If that happened to me on my way to a place where I might never be able to get glasses again, I don't know what I'd do. I'd be completely useless. I wouldn't be able to recognize people's faces until they were within about five feet of me.
It would have to be timed really well though so as not to consume a whole lot of unnecessary power.
I think that was the intent. But it didn't work out as planned.
It also seems strange to me that large sections of the ship seem inaccessible. As if intentionally blocked off.
Well, obviously something happened to the ship between Earth and where the Earth folks met up with it. The ship seems to have intelligence of some sort, so it doesn't seem unreasonable that it would try to seal itself off from damage, trying to protect the still habitable sections of the ship. I think this type of thing is even possible with normal real-world technology. You detect a loss of pressure and you start to seal hatches. I think a lot of real-world ships do this when they detect water inside the hull to try to limit the amount of water getting in.
And the damage to the shuttle and the open doorway to that shuttle area. If the shuttle had been damaged by disaster or attack from outside then the door should have either been damaged from the outside, crumpled or blown inwards, or simply still shut. Yet the door was open as if someone from inside had tried to access the shuttle.
There were two doors there. It looked to me like one of the doors (the one that was half-open) was damaged enough to prevent it from closing, but the door on to the shuttle itself was open at the time of the attack, so it was protected from damage.
But the ship itself, well, you don't open and shut doors, or leave them halfway open if your intent is to secure the ship, and you don't expose atmospheric leaks, you seal them. And you don't close off parts of the ship if you're simply expecting your normal crew to arrive. Something occurred in the intervening time and positioning of the ship. Something that looks at least very much like an intentional breach, an invasion, or a boarding.)
It looks to me like it intended to close off all leaks. I think they said the only leak left was from the shuttle, whose door seems to have been damaged. I highly doubt the ship's intention was to only half-shut that door.
And why would you not close off parts of the ship that are damaged if you're expecting crew? You don't want that crew to get sucked out of hull breaches. Better to amputate the limb (or seal off parts of the ship) than sacrifice the whole body (or ship).
He said, "that gate (the gate they dialed from) was the only way to dial this ship from our galaxy."
Because of the unique properties of the planet it was on, not the gate itself. And they needed the planet for the power requirements. It's true that that was probably the only gate in the galaxy capable of dialing the Destiny, but only because it was the only gate supplied with enough power. If they could generate this much power on another planet (like Earth) then they could dial Destiny again.
Another odd thing I noticed. No furniture except on what they call the observation deck, and that looked more like a dining area.
Again, there were beds. And benches against the walls in some of the other rooms. I'm not surprised that the control panels had no chairs. There are some modern ships and control areas that prefer their operators to stand while on duty. Helps keep them awake. I think it shows that it was designed for those working to have little distractions, but there were still comfortable areas (like the observation deck) for people off duty.
Right now though I'm gonna say the on-board ship cannot receive or send in FTL, that entirely unique gates are needed to dial into it, that it was boarded at one time, and that it has some kinda on-board AI, or at least a remote controlled one. I'm also not sure one way or another whether the other parts of the ship are occupied, and if so by whom. But right now I'm gonna say it looks like someone else has been aboard at least at some time in the past.
I don't see any evidence of past boarding. My guess is that the ship was attacked in passing, maybe because it passed near a civilization that didn't know what it was and decided to attack first and ask questions later. I highly doubt there's anything living still on the ship. Why would it have let the life support get so run down?
The ship definitely has some sort of AI, but it may just be the rudimentary AI we have nowadays, not anything lifelike.
I will say it's reasonable to say the ship cannot establish a wormhole (incoming or outgoing) when in FTL.
Watching the beginning again, the way Rush walks up the stairs and looks out on the confusion of everyone pouring through the gate makes me think he had some idea already of what was beyond the ninth chevron. I think we'll find out in later episodes that he knew much more than he was letting on.
They also mention around the middle of the show (end of part 1, I presume) that they don't know how the go'auld found the base where they were attempting to dial the ninth chevron. Dare I suggest that Rush tipped them off, knowing it would force an evacuation to the Destiny, assuming he could get it open? I don't know enough about his character yet to say whether he's capable of such a thing. If he did do it, though, he probably believes he did it for some greater good.
Edit: Regarding furniture, there's a chair in one of the bedrooms and one in the room where Eli found the Kinos. When we look through the first Kino you can see chairs and tables behind them.
Edit2: I also noticed that the button to open and close the shuttle door is a touchpad. It may require a human finger to operate it, something with body heat. They might require these so that things can't fall on the panel and accidentally open the door. A pencil strapped to a kino, even if it could be controlled well enough, might not be able to hit the appropriate combination.
