Along the way, Rush (Robert Carlyle) finally discovers the ship's bridge and even unlocks the ship's master control enabling the crew far more control over the ship than they ever had in the first season. This is control they will need as more interesting challenges confront them.
When Chloe (Elyse Levesque) begins to act strangely, Eli (David Blue) and Lt. Scott (Brian J. Smith) realize that she might not completely be unchanged from her abduction by the blue-skinned aliens from last season. The slowly changing Chloe becomes another major storyline as the crew wonders if she is somehow conveying their position to the hostile aliens. Meanwhile, the ship itself becomes more alive when it puts Colonel Young (Louis Ferreia) through a series of tests as he constantly goes through what appears to be a no-win situation in "Trial and Error."
One of my favorite episodes this season is "Cloverdale." Here, Scott becomes very sick and most of the episode takes place in his head where he is back on Earth and his crew-mates are various people in his life. Young is his father, he is about to marry Chloe, Rush is their Justice of the Peace and other characters take on various ancillary roles and put them in some interesting positions. I especially liked Ferreia's much lighter disposition in this alternate world.
Mid-season, the ship comes into contact with a race of automated ships bent on destroying any technology not like their own. As the drones chase them throughout the galaxy, they find themselves in short supply of power, and when those same drones learn that the Destiny is powered by diving into stars, they start to blockade any potential refueling locations. Needless to say, this puts the entire crew in a bad spot on more than one occasion.
There seem to be quite a few episodes that are very interconnected this season, at least more so than last time. In one episode, an attempt to use a star's power to send the crew home has created a second Destiny with a second Rush as the only person still on board. What we learn later is that the same solar flare that sent that Destiny across time also hurtled most of the crew thousands of years into the past, so when the current crew comes across a planet filled with their descendants, things get even weirder than ever. This particular 2-part episode, "Common Decent" and "Epilogue" is probably my favorite of the entire series.
That's right, series, not season. Stargate Universe is done, no more, it is an ex-series. Unfortunately, it doesn't end with any kind of conclusion. While its got a great season-ending cliffhanger, it's very open-ended for the last episode ever.
At least the DVD set comes with a lot of special features. None of them are long, but there are a lot to be enjoyed. This collection contains everything from interviews with some of the directors, including Carlyle's foray behind the camera in "Pathogen." There are some behind-the-scenes featurettes focusing on fight choreographies as well as some of the bigger stunts this season. Also, on one disc, there are several featurettes that focus on the Destiny itself, both in how the ship's features are supposed to work and how the creators designed the ship.
While it is a shame to see the series end, this was still a far better season than the last one. The actors are much more familiar with their characters and the stories go in some interesting directions. I just wish we could see how it all wraps up.
