Where will Destiny take you?
The third installment of the Stargate franchise that began in 2009 and ended in 2011.
A team of soldiers and scientists on an off-world base have finally cracked the secrets surrounding the unused ninth chevron of the Stargates (seven chevrons are used for regular trips, eight are used to travel between galaxies). With it, they are able to connect a wormhole to an Ancient ship called the Destiny. This comes at a very bad time as remnants of Stargate SG-1 villains attack the outpost. In a desperation maneuver they travel to Destiny without a proper recon of the area and about 80 people are stuck on a very old ship that is falling apart.
Because the mission was not planned, many of the main characters are not the typical specialist team that has been in the previous shows of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Besides a handful of leaders, the rest are either young and inexperienced, or untrained civilian scientists, all of whom are caught up in a situation far outside what they expected.
SGU had a couple of fairly big name actors (Robert Carlyle, known for his role in the film Trainspotting, and Ming-Na Wen, a Chinese-born actress with numerous cinematic credits, who was probably best known for her role as Dr. Chen in the medical drama ER and as the voice of Mulan).
The show was canceled midway through its second season. The cast and crew only learned of the cancellation via Twitter. In June 2017, the series got a continuation in the form of a comic book series from American Mythology Productions, picking up immediately after Season 2.
This shows uses the following tropes:
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- Abusive Parents: Flashbacks in "Lost" reveal Greer's father was this; he would lock young Greer in a closet and deny him food, forced him to stack bricks which he would then knock over, and on one occasion drove young Greer to a bad part of town then made him get out of the car to make his own way home. Greer's mother attributed this behaviour to PTSD from The Gulf War.
- Accidental Pervert: There's an episode where Chloe is using the Ancient equivalent of a shower when the power goes out. She calls out for Eli, he comes running... and just happens to shine his flashlight on her, getting a split-second of full frontal before realization hits and he stutters an apology while looking away.
- Adventures in Comaland: The eponymous Cloverdale is just a figment of Scott's imagination while he's lying unconscious.
- Aesop Amnesia: During his crossover appearance in "Seizure", Rodney McKay is arrogantly confident that using Langara to dial Destiny won't destroy the planet. One would think he would be less flippant considering he blew up 5/6 of a solar system back in the Stargate Atlantis episode "Trinity".
- Aliens Speaking English:
- Averted with the catfish aliens, who speak a Starfish Language and cannot speak English. They can apparently write it just fine, but that's because they had captured and Mind Probed Rush beforehand.
- Played straight with the Lucian Alliance. This is part of canon, after all.
- Averted again with the Ursini. Though they have a somewhat more comprehensible language than the catfish, the one the crew talks to resists even basic attempts at communication. They only learn to understand humans after Telford had been stuck with them for a month, complete with a direct neural link.
- The trope is inverted and subverted by Rush in the same episode. Telford asks Rush for help in communicating with the alien they just found, since he's the only one among them to actually have contact with aliens. Rush dryly notes, "Different aliens."
- All Gays are Promiscuous: Inverted - while the straight cast has plenty of romantic drama, the sole gay couple (Wray and Sharon) are shown to be faithful to each other.
- All There in the Manual:
- The Season 1 Kino webisodes
cover some of the little details in each episode and give background information. Some are just there for a little humor/fanservice. Others help fill in the blanks, such as the accompanying webisode for "Time". - An in-universe "manual" occurs in the form of a series of video lectures hosted by SG-1's Daniel Jackson. They appear to cover basics like what the stargate is and how it works, as well as a number of other topics.
- One point clarified in the webisodes is that the volunteers who trade bodies with Destiny's crewmembers sign consent forms allowing "personal" use of their bodies while back on Earth. Without this knowledge, there's been a fair bit of Fridge Logic Squick from fans who wonder about what these people would think.
- A comic series provides some closure to the events of the series finale, showing that the crew was ultimately able to fully repair the Destiny with the aid of a group of Ancients who had been left on the ship in stasis, allowing them to continue their journey.
- The Season 1 Kino webisodes
- The Alleged Car: Destiny is essentially this; while one of the most advanced craft ever created by the Ancients, after spending millennia drifting through space with no crew the ship is in a very battered condition due to lack of maintenance and its sheer age. The crew have to spend their first few episodes on the ship just getting the life support working again and working out how to recharge the power, and even then it's soon confirmed that Destiny is only capable of achieving 40% of its original intended power capacity, which is insufficient for the crew to dial back to Earth.
- Alternate Self:
- The crew abandoned Destiny and their mission, settled on alien planet and never got home nor found "God". Turns out they had accidentally been sent 2,000 years back in time, and their present day duplicates (wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey) learn what happened to their alternate selves.
- Subverted in the following episode, "Epilogue". Despite having lost Destiny and being forced to start over from scratch on a brand new world, the alternate Destiny crew are shown to have lived far richer, happier lives. What's more, their descendants went on to build a great Ancient-esque civilisation based the strong work ethic, curiosity and optimism of the characters. Except for that whole Cold War period they went through, but luckily extinction proved a bigger motivator than their petty differences.Old Camille: When we first arrived here, we thought we had failed. We didn't achieve the mission on Destiny. But now, looking at all your smiling faces, at this beautiful new school, I can't help but feel a great sense of pride. And success. Because as we discovered, our mission is — and always will be — the journey itself.
- Anachronic Order: Roughly the first hour of the two-hour pilot episode was not shown in order. It starts with the group arriving on Destiny and then jumps around concerning the events on Destiny and how the characters ended up in that situation to begin with.
- And the Adventure Continues: A comic miniseries provides closure to the cliffhanger in the series finale. Eli manages to revive a group of Ancient engineers who fully repair Destiny, allowing the crew to continue their journey under far better circumstances.
- Anti-Hero: With the exceptions of audience surrogates Eli and Chloe, everyone is an anti-hero in their own right. Mainly highlighted in "Divided", and even they fit the Classical Anti-Hero trope.
- Anyone Can Die: The first season had the unsympathetic sergeant Spencer and the Senator die, both non-redshirts. The second season caught the audience completely off-guard by killing Riley and later killing recurring characters Ginn and Amanda Perry. Also played with as the character you think is expendable Telford in fact survives multiple near-death trope situations and gets added to the main cast. But then he dies anyway in a way you don't see coming.
- Apocalyptic Log: Eli is smart enough to realize that he should journal everything, since they could all die at any moment. His comrades think this is silly, but it saves all their asses in "Time" and proves Young innocent in "Justice". And in "Common Descent", his Kino logs end up as a sort of big book of how to's for a civilization founded by the Destiny's crew 2000 years ago.
- Applied Phlebotinum: The mind-switching communication stones carried over from the original series, now with a handy on/off switch and much easier to use. A significant amount of screentime is spent on Earth-bound relationship issues of the characters (see Dysfunction Junction below), conveniently made possible by putting a stone on an illuminated base.
- Arc Welding: The Lucian Alliance subplot, which was left unresolved during the final season of Stargate SG-1 is picked up here.
- Ascended Extra:
- Volker was originally a one-off character. The producers liked the way the actor portrayed him so much that he was upgraded to a recurring character.
- Lt. James is relatively minor in the first few episodes, but by the second half her role has expanded.
- Dr. Brightman, a one-shot character in SG-1, is a semi-recurring character in this series.
- Automation Outlasts Civilization: Whoever built the drones are not around anymore, but their creations still follow their prime directive of destroying all alien technology. The crew of Destiny repeatedly run into trouble with them.
- Ax-Crazy: Dannic. Strangling one of your only scientists for not being able to correct a problem on the spot, getting rid of a third of your remaining men just because the guy they were loyal to wasn't Ax-Crazy, utterly refusing to surrender in the face of horrible death? He hits the qualification line full speed, then kills it for getting in his way. His defeat exemplifies this. In most other similar situations, his defeat would come about as a result of a Heel Face Turn or at least a Noble Villain. Dannic? He gets defeated because his men (including above scientist) aren't as crazy as he is. That is, they don't like the protagonists, they don't want them to win, but they also aren't willing to fly as far off the deep end as Dannic.
- Bad "Bad Acting": The failure of the Langara mission probably had a lot to do with Young and Scott's thoroughly unconvincing performance as the Administrator and his Captain of the Guard.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Simeon in a manner of speaking. While Rush executes him in cold-blood, it only comes after he'd already murdered Amanda Perry and Ginn, two military personnel during his escape and wounded numerous others whilst avoiding capture. Even worse, the planned Lucian Alliance attack on Earth he murdered Ginn for revealing, still ends up happening!
- Bathos: When exploring the archives on Novus, the dead planet of the alternate crew's ancient descendants, there is a brief scene in an elevator with the crew appropriately baffled by the cheesy muzak.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: Dr Robert Caine in the episode Visitation who holds onto the idea that God saved the lives of him and his team long after it had become crystal clear that this was nothing more than your run-of-the-mill alien abduction. Bonus points in that this is the Stargateverse. Kidnappings and resurrections via the hands of insanely advanced extra terrestrials have been a common occurrence ever since the very first film.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: This is shaping up to be Universe's hallmark. They've already had chestbursters/chestburrowers and a Giant Spider, and there's more on the way. Seems that without the Ancients around, the rest of the universe evolved some creepy shit.
- Bookends: The show begins with Destiny emerging from FTL as a speck in the distance and slowly coming to fill up screen before its internal systems all power up. It ends with Destiny shutting down its systems and slowly disappearing into FTL until it's just a speck in the distance. Almost a perfect reverse.
- Bottomless Magazines: Realistically averted. Ammo restrictions are a constant concern for the crew of Destiny, to the point it's even mentioned in several episodes.
- Breather Episode: "Faith" and "Visitation", both dealing with the god-like aliens, are non-action episodes which focus more on the difference between science and faith/religion. They come after the action-packed episodes. "Cloverdale" consists of Scott, infected by an alien organism, hallucinating a normal life in an idyllic rural town. This one leads into an action episode.
- Brick Joke: Eli's T-shirt. In "Lost" they get stranded in an underground labyrinth, and Eli laments the race that built it didn't think of making a map with a big red dot marking your location, like they have at malls. He opens his jacket and points at his t-shirt, which has the same red dot and text; Which itself becomes a Brick Joke in the very next episode, as Chloe realises that there's a repeating pattern on the wall at every junction and intersection, with minute changes each time. Turns out they really did put "You Are Here!" on the walls!Eli: "You are here!" How hard is that?
- Brilliant, but Lazy: According to the casting sheet that went out Eli is this, saying that he's brilliant at anything he puts his mind to, but that he's rarely excited enough to actually use this. Seen in a flashback where it is implied he put off going to an interview to sleep in. He solved an Ancient maths proof, written in another language, that Rush couldn't crack in over 2 years, in his spare time, because he was curious, cause the SGC put it in a video game. Later shown, even Rush has to admit that Eli being able to pilot Destiny through a Blue-Supergiant is something even he didn't think was possible to do.
- Broken Pedestal: After "Seizure", Eli seems to have stopped looking at Rush as a surrogate father-figure.
- Catchphrase: Young: "Lotta work." — particularly in regards to Rush. Seems to have dropped it in later season one episodes. Came back with a vengeance in season two.
- The Champion: Ronald Greer frequently acts as one towards the crew on Destiny, whether it be single-handedly holding off a horde of hostile alien plants in "Cloverdale" or immediately volunteering to undergo a risky transplant surgery to give Volker one his kidneys in "Hope".
- Character Development:
- As of "Space", Lt. James has made the jump from generally useless Kino magnet to semi-sympathetic third stringer, complete with basic character insight. In an episode that didn't even focus on her for more than 5 minutes.
- Greer started off looking like he would be the short-tempered Loose Cannon. But thanks to character moments he has shown humor, loyalty, and insight as well.
- Young has developed quite a bit from the somewhat overly cautious and by-the-book guy he started off as into someone quite a bit better equipped to handle the weight of command. As a sign of this, over the course of the show, his hair has gotten progressively longer from the standard crew cut. This is somewhat ironic, as later episodes will have him question his ability to command while he's been quite adamant in doing so up till now.
- Chekhov's Armory:
- Eli uses the Kino to document everything. It has come in handy many times.
- The strange, clearly un-Ancient ship that detaches and flies away from the Destiny at the end of "Air".
- Every planet/star they visit has a solution for a problem, because the ship is doing it on purpose. Since resources are dwindling and they have a time limit on their expeditions, exploration is understandably a low priority. When Rush gains secret control of the bridge and is messing around with its systems, resulting in apparently random drops out of FTL, the rest of the crew gets frustrated trying to figure out what item Chekhov is hiding for them.
- Young maroons Rush on a deserted planet in walking distance of an ancient (but not Ancient) starship. The alien race the ship originally belonged to later turns up with Rush in tow, and they're not exactly happy to see everyone.
- The holes the aliens cut in Destiny in "Space" are brought up in "Divided" as a way for the military to get to the civilian side of the ship and again in "Incursion" to fix something on the hull.
- Memory Sharing: The bleed-over from Telford to Scott becomes much more relevant in "Subversion".
- The venom of the Squigglers has been useful in three different episodes: first being the cure for the water-based disease afflicting the characters, second as an anesthetic on Rush while removing the tracking device from his chest, and finally being used as an anesthetic on the alien ticks that attach themselves to the crew. Showed up and didn't help any in "Cloverdale" while dealing with an offworld infection.
- Eli's hover sled, which he invented in "Water", comes back in "Cloverdale" as a way to carry supplies and an injured Scott. Also makes an appearance in "Deliverance" in order to carry a drone on board. Same episode also gives it an official name: kino sled. Eli apparently also made multiples.
- Openly focusing on the there-for-no-apparent-reason alien reptile halfway through "Malice". A herd of them are used by Rush to trample a wounded Simeon in the denouement.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
- Rush schemes to have Young removed from power, and for his trouble is marooned on an alien planet. Rush gets back, they make a truce, and by the end of the same episode is scheming with Wray to do it again. Something of a subversion in the second case; he did it to protect himself from Young, since there was a tracking device in his chest and he was (perhaps rightfully) afraid that Young would get him killed trying to deal with it.
- The Ursini started off on this foot, first attempting to drain Destiny's power in their first appearance (somewhat justified), then tricking them into going into battle while the ship is heavily-damaged, lest the crew change their minds. They redeemed themselves the tragic way with a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Cliffhanger: Pretty much standard for every mid-season/end-season finale.
- Mid-season 1 finale: how will Rush get back?
- Season 1 finale. Do Scott and Greer make it to the airlock in time? Does Eli get there to open the door for them before the next pulsar burst? Is Chloe alright? Will Young and his men be executed? Is TJ alive? Is her baby?
- Mid-season 2 finale: How is Destiny going to survive the drone armada? What did Chloe do to the ship at the end?
- Season 2 finale: How will Eli survive the jump to the next galaxy? Will he fix the pod? Will he find another way? Are his calculations correct or are they screwed for good?
- Cloning Gambit: An unintentional example with Telford who, through the power of the stargate and time travel, becomes a clone of himself, which becomes handy when the "real" Telford dies shortly thereafter.
- Colonel Badass: For the first few episodes, Col. Young appeared as if his his character should've been named Col. Charlie Brown. But... after finally deciding "enough is Enough," he hauled off and kicked three kinds of ass. And he did it to the show's two resident Jerkasses, using some pretty neat cunning to pull it off, too.
- Company Cameo: In the episode "Cloverdale", Scott hallucinates that he and Chloe go to the movies. The logo seen on screen as they enter the theater is that of MGM.
- Continuity Drift: The Daedalus-class starship Hammond can make the Milky Way-Atlantis trip (2 million light years) in three weeks (the ZPM-powered Odyssey can do it in four days). Going 21 light-years from Earth to the Icarus planet, by that measure, should only take thirty seconds, although someone may have decided to take it slow to give the civilians new to the Stargate Program enough time to be given a Daniel Jackson video crash course in SG-101, and there's evidence of an efficiency factor to speed vs. distance.
- Continuity Nod:
- Anyone who has seen the later seasons of the previous SG shows knows what's coming when O'Neill threatens to beam Eli up to his spaceship. More subtly, later in the scene Rush alludes to the memory-altering technology used in SG-1.
- A few musical cues in the premiere homage the previous Stargate shows: As the names of the SG-1 guest stars appear during the opening credits, a version of the SG-1 theme plays. As Rush explains Ascension to Eli, the Atlantis motif plays in the background.
- O'Neill's run-in with the Ancient database downloader has been brought up a few times in the wake of finding a similar device aboard the Destiny, as has the Asgard saving his life, or more specifically how they're not around to save anyone (figuratively and literally) should this chair prove fatal to humans too.
- Alisen Down reprises her one-off character (Dr. Brightman) from an episode of SG-1 five years previously, as the occasional guest character whenever they need an Earth doctor.
- The events of "Divided" are brought up in "Subversion" as to why the normal military SOP can sometimes be a bad thing when you're permanently stuck on a ship and have to cooperate with a limited number of people. Brought up again in "Trial And Error" when Scott asks why Wray or Rush don't assume command.
- O'Neill's reaction to the Lucian Alliance base.O'Neill: Pyramid? That takes me back.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The entire cast is a major shift from previous shows, who were generally among the most elite and well-regarded military personnel and civilian scientists. While most of the people on Destiny are experienced soldiers and scientists they are not department heads, were not chosen for this mission and not prepared for this situation at all, leading to a lot of Headbutting Heroes and some Jurisdiction Friction. Eli in particular was a civilian recruit and this was his first deployment.
- Cool Chair: The captain's chair on the Destiny's bridge. Rush, Eli, and Young have monopolized it, likely because it is more like a pilot's chair rather than a command chair like in Star Trek. Perhaps not unintentionally, all three of them tend to mimic Kirk's posture when using the chair's communication panel. Though regardless of whether it's intentional or not, it's justified as the communication panel with microphone is where they're leaning towards.
- Cool Gate: As per franchise's tradition, the titular Stargate is a spectacular wormhole machine. The first generation gates spin entirely instead of the inner dial like in other series.
- Cool Starship:
- The Destiny, of course; it recharges its batteries by flying through stars, is absolutely covered in weapons from stem to stern, and looks to be nearly as large as Atlantis. And this is when it's a flying death trap and half its systems are barely working or broken.
- The seed ships also count, to a lesser extent. They're about half the size of Destiny and the same basic shape. Inside, there's a massive gate factory that stretches as far as the eye can see (the implication being that the factory runs the entire length of the ship). Greer and Scott, who found it, are suitably impressed. Rush, not so much, and he kicks some dirt on their enthusiasm. The seed ships really become impressive when you remember that gates are unbelievably powerful, durable and dangerous objects that humanity wouldn't be able to manufacture for centuries at least, and this ship can churn them out in a fully automated process, as well as find habitable planets in the galaxy and deploy the gates there.
- Crack Pairing: In-universe. Eli was shocked to find out that his Alternate Self married corporal Barnes. Alternate James and Varro also got married; but they have at least some interaction. The two of them teaming up to destroy a Drone stands out.
- Crazy Enough to Work: In "Blockade" when the Drone ships start positioning themselves at the type of stars Destiny usually flies through to refuel, Eli's solution is to fly through a star Destiny would normally never fly through. Its described at "utter insanity but our only hope" and more emphatic "crazy times a thousand."
- Critical Staffing Shortage: About 80 people arrive on a ship designed for many more - but it's a good thing they number so few, because the ship is falling apart after millions of years despite its Ragnarök-Proofing, and they are far less prepared than the expedition to Atlantis. Most of their time is spent trying to keep systems failures from killing them.
- Crush Parade: Simeon gets run over by a stampede of two-legged, dinosaur-like creatures triggered by Rush. Doesn't kill him, but he could barely move after.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: It looks like war between Ursini and Drones was very one-sided and eventually Drones killed them all.
- Curse Cut Short: Eli at the beginning of "Time".Eli: What. The. *Title Card*
- Volker trails off mid curse in "Pain".
Volker: Oh, for f... - Darker and Edgier: The focus of the show is on bare means of survival more than exploration. There are multiple deaths throughout the show, including one suicide. Even the hovering Kino camera probes have a grit filter on them.
- Dead Guy Junior: The alternate versions of Greer and Park named their first son "Dale" after Volker, who died from the kidney disease in their timeline.
- Dead Man Walking: In "Alliances" Camile's and Greer's host bodies were exposed to lethal dose of radiation.
- Dead Person Conversation: Scott to his priest father-figure in "Air", Greer to his father in "Lost" and again in "Pain", and Chloe to her father in "Pain". Justified in the latter episode, as they're under the influence of hallucinogenic ticks. The former might also be justified, assuming those dust bugs are telepathic. Then there's Rush's conversations with Franklin (who may or may not be dead, but definitely isn't actually there) and his late wife in season 2, which may or may not be the ship trying to communicate with him.
- Deathbed Confession: From onlooker to sick person in this case, and lampshaded. In "Time", when Chloe is on her deathbed, Eli questions why people never confess their true feelings for someone they love until that someone is on their deathbed. Then he does it anyway.
- Diabolus ex Machina: In "Gauntlet", there happens to be just enough stasis pods for the entire crew, except just one is too damaged to function properly, meaning that one of the crew has to stay out of stasis to try and fix it.
- Didn't Think This Through: Morrison, who attempts to dial the Stargate even though he is aware that the Drones are able to sense them when they're active. James punches him out for this.
- "Die Hard" on an X: The season 1 finale to season 2 premiere story-arc with the Lucian Alliance. It's a little more complicated than the basic version, since there's Scott and Greer climbing on the outside of the ship and running the classic McClane, Eli and Chloe are out of contact but in position to help, Telford working as The Mole, and Rush trying to gain leverage by taking control of the ship's systems. And Rush honestly doesn't give a shit about the hostages, so while Young surrenders quickly, he doesn't. And then there's several splintering factions of the Lucian Alliance. And then there's a pulsar that will fry everyone on the ship into a pile of ash.
- Discovering Your Own Dead Body: A variation in "Time". Rush discovers a skull on the jungle planet but does not realise until later that it belongs to a version of himself from an alternate timeline.
- The Dog Bites Back: Dannic, the crazed replacement leader of the Lucian Alliance after Kiva dies, tries to strangle Ginn for failing to correct a problem as fast as he wants. When he completely loses it, she shoots him in the back four times.
- Double Standard: Rush is unwilling to sleep with Perry when she is in Wray's body (partly because she is in Wray and partly because he's still grieving over his wife); but has no problems sleeping with her when she's inhabiting Ginn. This doesn't go over well with Eli.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap:
- The main issue preventing the crew returning to Earth is that Destiny is too old to achieve its original maximum power capacity; Rush estimates it can only achieve 40% of its original power potential by the present, which explicitly prevents it from having the energy to dial a nine-chevron address (and presumably means that it needs to recharge more often than it would if it was completely new, even if functions such as shields and life support are still in workable condition).
- There are also huge problems cause by the inefficient FTL drive. After the crew gains control of the ship, FTL jumps must be a minimum of 4 hours long, and there must be a wait of 2 hours and 10 minutes before jumping again, or else risk irreparable damage to the drive - obviously an issue when under fire.
- Dynamic Entry:
- In the pilot, Chloe rushes into the control room, knocks Rush to the floor, then starts whaling on him because she blames him for her father sacrificing himself.
- The cast's initial entrance onto the Destiny through the Stargate was also rather dynamic. Particularly Young, who does an impressive flight across the entire room. There's a good reason he's limping around up until "Water". Essentially repeated when the Lucian Alliance arrives.
- Dysfunction Junction: Hoo boy, so far we have Scott's parental/religious issues, Young's troubled marriage, TJ's shattered hopes of going to medical school, Young and TJ being stuck on the ship after trying to break off their affair, Greer's anger issues which had him imprisoned for striking Telford on-duty, Chloe watching her father die, and Dr. Rush's insufferable nature. It's almost funny how Eli was a misfit on Earth and yet here he's portrayed as the normal one along with the side and supporting cast.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom:
- During an attack by the Lucian Alliance on the Icarus Project base, they finally get the ninth chevron working. Six minutes later, after a massive power drain, the entire planet goes boom very spectacularly. Justified in that the planet's core was already unstable. Plugging it into the gate and having the Lucian Alliance bombard the base didn't help.
- Repeated in a role reversal in the finale when the Hammond attacks the Lucian Alliance base as they attempt to reach Destiny. They skipped out on the big boom, though, just showing surface eruptions.
- Enemy Mine: Mild version several times between the civilians and military in the first season when despite open hostility they work together, but in the second season a full blown version occurs between the nine remaining Lucian Alliance boarders and the Tau'ri.
- Eternal English: The descendants of the crew sent back in time still speak perfect English (complete with modern slang) 2000 years later, but a couple episodes later we learn that spelling did change when we see abandoned storefronts and a newspaper. They apparently spelled "Attack" as "Atak" and "Market" as "Markit", among other things. Justified as they have original recordings of the original crew, so while the spelling might change due to initial lack of written documentation, they would have a lifetime and more of video recording with spoken word. In other words, the language became more of a phonetic (spelt as it sounds) language since they only had verbal records and only later, written.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Lisa Park has sex with whoever she feels like, and Scott and Chloe waste no time in having a sexual relationship as soon as they admit their attraction (despite there presumably being a very short supply of condoms and birth control pills). Alternate Greer and Alternate Park had a lot of kids... and its implied even when they're older and have a bucket-load of grandkids, they're still very "active".
- Everyone's in the Loop: Maybe it's the close environment, but people on the Destiny don't keep secrets for very long.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Everything. The Destiny is mind-bogglingly old and thus falling apart at the seams, virtually every planet they've been to has either vicious creatures or deadly parasites, and the first alien race they've encountered seems to view them as little more than an infestation. The second nearly drained Destiny's power.
- Evil Power Vacuum: In "Subversion", Telford complains to O'Neill and Young in regards to Earth's "protect ourselves first" policy, arguing that toppling the System Lords without concern for the fate of their slaves led to the creation of the Lucian Alliance.
- Excessive Steam Syndrome: For some as of yet unexplained reason, there are CO2 vents on the floor of the gate room of the Destiny. They fire every time the wormhole closes. It seems to be some kind of thermal venting system, as a Lucian Alliance soldier caught in one screams in pain like he's being cooked.
- Explosive Decompression:
- Averted. When the senator sacrifices himself to seal a hull breach in the shuttle, there's no implied "pop." It's actually portrayed as kind of a peaceful death. They even mention that his body is still there, which they eventually get to. However, it was more like decompression on an airplane, since the shuttle's weakened shield should be able to hold back a small amount of atmosphere from escaping.
- Also averted in "Space" when the aliens cut holes in Destiny. A nearby soldier had to hold on tight to avoid the strong wind, but other than that was fine. Destiny was able to seal the relatively small leak with a shield in short order anyway.
- Expy: Jason and Ellie in "Common Descent" seem to be this to Eli and Chloe. Justifiable as they're descendants of the "Twin Destiny" crew.
- Failsafe Failure: Averted. In addition to having technology way ahead of its time, Destiny also has manual-power breakers in each section in case a nasty power surge turns it into an electrified deathtrap. In the S1 finale, there are also manual switches on the shield generators/projectors (which are on the outside of the hull) of all things. They really did think of everything.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Getting back to Earth. Unlike other instances, though, it is at least somewhat justified (for the moment); it's not that they can't dial back to Earth, it's that they lack the power and infrastructure to do so in anything close to a safe and predictable way. In addition, due to the well-established mechanics of the show, having home find a suitable power source (another Icarus-type planet) doesn't help them in any; it may give them occasional supplies, but it can't bring them back. More to the point, they simply can't succeed at going home because it would mean abandoning a core premise of the show, which won't happen.
- Fake Shemp: Kiva appears in "Intervention" for a single shot, from the shoulders down.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Goes hand in hand with their use of Big Creepy-Crawlies. Victims of said things tend to die in really unpleasant ways. Then there's the guy in "Incursion" who gets burned into ashes by the gamma radiation of a binary pulsar.
- Fanservice: Chloe in the shower and a pond, Greer in his quarters, and Lt. James in... anything. Someone attempted to use a Kino to spy on Lt. James in the shower, so she's fan service for the Destiny crew, as well. Although she's developed into a stronger character lately, she also has appeared to have lost her uniform top and walks around in either a tan t-shirt or tank top. Unlike a lot of fanservice characters though, James dresses appropriately as the situation dictates such as full combat apparel in the Season 1 finale.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the final episode, when Rush is busy scribbling on the walls with chalk, "Fuck the French" can be seen written on the wall at the left edge of the screen. Apparently a production oversight rather than an intentional bonus - when fans pointed out this shot, the producers were not amused and profusely apologized.
- The Future Is Noir: Even though it's technically the past in-canon. In contrast to their uber-bright later designs, the Ancients apparently felt lighting wasn't terribly important when making a ship designed to traverse the universe. Semi-justified in that the Ancients were pragmatic, since it was sent out unmanned to be populated later, why waste the power on superfluous lightning?
- Genre Savvy: Eli, being a sci-fi geek, often assumes some alien creature will kill them on an alien planet, especially if it looks nice. He was actually right in "Time", right down to the Chest Burster reference.
- Giant Spider: There's a large spider in "Human". Greer wastes very little time shooting it.Scott: There was... a spider.Young: (flatly) A spider.Scott: It was a sizable spider.
- Going Cold Turkey: The main cast are sent on a one-way trip to an ancient ship galaxies away. As a result, they now find themselves lacking a lot of amenities, like coffee. Thus, all the coffee drinkers were forced to go cold turkey and experience caffeine withdrawal. Dr. Rush has it even worse, as he was also a habitual smoker and had to go through nicotine withdrawal as well.
- Going Critical: Icarus Base and the Lucian planet both suffer an Earth-Shattering Kaboom; Destiny is repeatedly destroyed in the Unwinnable Training Simulation and Langara refuses to let the SGC try to dial Destiny with their gate for this reason, as their Naquadriah core is already somewhat unstable and they're afraid that they'll suffer the fate of the two planets mentioned above.
- Grand Theft Me: There is an ancient communication device that requires this to work. The stones are also a "Freaky Friday" Flip device, as the users switch bodies while communicating with people at the other connection's location. Played much straighter in "Seizure". To take control of the Langaran Stargate facility, Woolsey tricks the administrator into touching one of the stones, causing him to switch with Young. Young then plays the part to do a test-dial to Destiny.
- A-Team Firing: Rush, who fires almost an entire magazine at Simeon at fairly close range and doesn't even come close to hitting his target. His aim probably wasn't helped by the fact that he broke apart his glasses earlier in the episode to disarm a bomb.
- The Great Repair: Given the state of Destiny when the expedition arrive, various episodes are focused on the crew trying to repair various functions.
H-M
- Heroic Sacrifice: For a ship with a limited crew, the number of Heroic Sacrifices in this show is rather startling:
- First, Senator Armstrong, suffering from internal bleeding due to his heart medication being a blood thinner, enters a shuttle attached to the Destiny that is venting atmosphere, as the only way to close the door is from the inside. Also note that his sacrifice pre-empted Col. Young's sacrifice.
- Lt. Scott: in "Time", when his entire squad is slaughtered by the very creatures needed to save the ship, he realizes that he does not have the manpower or time to save the ship, and thus decides that it's time for another go-round, knowing that it will cost him his life. Dude's hardcore.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The US Air Force hid an Ancient equation in a World of Warcraft-like MMORPG and monitored anyone who tried to solve it for the purposes of recruiting them for the Stargate Program. Lampshaded by Eli:Eli Wallace: So you guys really embedded a top-secret problem into a game, hoping someone like me would solve it?
General O'Neill: Yep. - Hotter and Sexier: Some of the promos for the show outright said it would be sexier than the other series. This aspect of the show was downplayed not long into the series, instead playing up the interpersonal conflicts.
- Hypocrite: Young's wife, Emily, is galled when he assumes that she slept with Telford, who he thought was passing himself off as Young by virtue of the communication stones, sarcastically thanking him for not 'jumping to conclusions.' Literally the next thing she does after this is accuse Everett of sleeping with T.J. again aboard Destiny, based entirely on what Telford, a man she's known for at most a week, has told her.
- Hypocritical Humor: Rush calls Young mentally unstable after he nearly choked a guy to death. Rush says this to a hallucination of his dead wife. Of course, we later find out that it's a hallucination created by Destiny after scanning his mind in "Human", meaning Rush was essentially arguing with the ship in that scene. Which is only slightly less insane on the face of it.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The entire first season uses one-word titles that describe the main problem or theme of the episode. The second season follows this tradition to a point, but several episodes do have two-word titles.
- Idiot Ball: Morrison in "Blockade" freaks out that the Drones are on the planet they're on. Naturally, as they search and destroy any technology they come across, and can track an active Stargate, he attempts to dial. He is promptly punched out by James who quickly shuts it off.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Specifically averted in "Time" when Greer is showing Eli how to fire their firearms. He is shown not having his finger on the trigger, lifts the weapon only waist high to demonstrate aiming and explicitly tells Eli the same as well as making sure Eli fires his practice burst in the complete opposite direction as the group to avoid ricocheting bullets. You can even see Eli lowering the weapon away from Greer when the soldier passes in front of him.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Eli is familiar with the Ancient language because of an SGC-made MMORPG.
- Improbable Piloting Skills: According to Lt. Scott, himself, in regards to the shuttlecraft aboard the Destiny in the episode "Darkness". Pointed out by others to be highly unlikely. It clearly doesn't take that much skill because Scott does just fine one episode later — computer control was a factor.
- Inappropriately Close Comrades: The show depicted way more fraternization to increase the level of personal drama amongst the Destiny crew. The pilot episode shows that at least two separate illegal relationships were taking place on the base among the military staff, one between Colonel Young and Lt. Telford and another between Lt. Scott and 2nd Lt. Vanessa James. In the former case, this even resulted in a pregnancy.
- Incredibly Obvious Tail: Sort of. Young asks Eli to watch the crew with the Kino to figure out who can be trusted. Naturally, a floating camera ball is not a very subtle way of performing such a task. It could have been subverted in that Eli's already made a habit of recording everything, so people are somewhat used to Kinos in every corridor, but one of the two people he is spying on instantly recognizes who's really behind the camera. Eli gets better about it later by having the Kinos spy through the vents.
- Inscrutable Aliens: The crew aboard the Destiny is chased by Starfish Aliens (
dubbed the Nakai by executive producer Joseph Mallozi) that only transmitted the word "surrender" as a constant enemy, and the crew ends up finding little (if any) information about them during the course of the series. - Instant Death Bullet: "Malice" uses the "instant incapacitation" variant and subverts it in the same episode. At the start, four people are shot center mass and drop instantly. These are soldiers, it must be said. One died from an apparent lung wound, but the others lived. Later in the same episode, two of the primary characters are each shot once, albeit in extremities, and stay awake throughout.
- Irony: In "Seizure", the SGC attempts a subtle short term takeover of an allied planet by using the communication stones to hijack people much like displaced Goa'uld.
- Is This Thing On?: Lt. James sees Dr. Caine through Kino vision. Despite Eli's attempts to dissuade James as he notices the camera, she goes into a detailed explanation about how hot she thinks Caine is, and that being a widower means he's got proven reliability to commit, but is single through no fault of his own. Problem is, Eli just established two-way com with that particular Kino, and Caine heard the whole bit. Oops.
- Jerkass: Telford is unreasonable nature notwithstanding, he earned the spot when he started driving a wedge between Young and his ex-wife right after Young reconciled with her. Telling her that Young is still sleeping with TJ, along with who knows what else? Not cool. Handwaved later when it's revealed he was brainwashed; he's a lot more reasonable after that. Then we get "Twin Destinies" and he seems to have reverted back, ends up getting almost the entire crew killed, himself and Rush sent back in time and gets his past self killed as a result. Telford is just as bad as his future self and is partly at fault.
- Just in Time: Subverted. In "Lost", Eli, Chloe, and Scott just manage to get the gate in time to get to Destiny, but are cut off because Rush's team dials in even Justier In Time. Whoops.
- Kid from the Future: "Common Descent" features the descendants of the ship's crew from the alternate timeline in "Twin Destinies".
- Kill It with Fire: Greer's proposed solution to water-stealing alien bugs on the ship. Seen again in the season two episode where Greer is more than a little excited while wielding a flamethrower against fungus tree tentacles.
- Limited Destination Time: The ship decides on its own how long it will stop at each planet, and this is out of control of the crew. At least in the first half of the series.
- Limited Wardrobe: Zigzagged. The crew, generally speaking, never change their clothes, since they only have the clothes they came on-board with. However, when a scientist body-swaps with Eli, the guy manages to find a fitting shirt by some means after expressing his distaste for Eli's regular attire. They also have fitting gym clothing for what appears to be at least a quarter of the crew, including Eli, though this might be justified as being part of the expedition supplies. Likewise with the extra military apparel, which Telford specifically asks for in one episode. Rush, though part of the same scene, can be excused because he was last seen wearing a desert uniform, so his regular clothes would still be on board. Also at the end of "Space", Young has started sewing holes in his socks.
- The Load: Chloe, in the sense that she has arguably the least-useful skill set out of the entire crew given the situation. She tried to address the problem in "Human" and "Lost" by trying to take up the role of archeologist, but it didn't really pan out since they don't find enough places like that for it to matter. While she was mutating into an alien, she gained the ability to do complex equations but became even more of a load since they had to guard her and confine her to quarters. After getting fixed up she seems to have shaken off most of the "Load" status, since she managed to keep a good bit of the knowledge gained from the experience and can help run the ship.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Downplayed. While the primary characters tend to be the leaders, the other characters play prominent supporting roles and often get rather significant amounts of dialogue and screen time, often as much as with the primary characters as with each other.
- Make Room for the New Plot: The issue of the stranded team in "Human" and "Lost" is resolved ten minutes into "Sabotage", by coincidence no less, so they can get on with the plot.
- Married in the Future: One episode features an alternate universe video log where multiple characters find out who they marry and have kids with.
- Mercy Kill: Young suffocates Riley on request, since he's got both legs pinned, can't be moved without dying of blood loss, and is in terrible pain.
- Mind Screw: Destiny has the ability to actively affect the dreams of anyone on the ship, apparently at will. The ship's AI created a plausible scenario to help TJ get over her child's death faster. If it can do that, there's just no telling what it is capable of.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: When using the communication stones, both sides keep a mirror or camera nearby so the host knows their actual physical appearance. As with both series before it, the viewer always sees the person occupying the body, not the body being occupied. Reflective surfaces and monitors, however, do show the body that is being physically inhabited.
N-S
- Naming Your Colony World: Of the symbolic kind: Caine and his friends called their new home Eden. By contrast, the alternate Destiny crew from "Twin Destinies" named their new home "Novus", a shortened form of "Novus Mundus" ("New World" in Ancient).
- Neglectful Precursors: The race that build the Drones left them with one instruction. Destroy all alien technology. Various races keep getting destroyed because they accidentally activated the Drones.
- Never Found the Body:
- Another version of the expedition traveled through the gate and vanished. It later turns out that they didn't die, but traveled back in time and exited at another gate.
- In "Air" with Palmer and Curtis, who gated to another nearby planet but failed to respond to radio attempts. Given the local wildlife of several other planets later encountered, one can hazard a pretty clear guess what happened to them and why circumventing the lock on that Gate address was not a good idea.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:
- In "Seizure", Earth tries to use Langara as a staging point to send supplies to Destiny, but the Langaran ambassadors feared that the dialing attempt would result in an Earth-Shattering Kaboom like the last two times. When Earth suspects the Lucian Alliance is making a deal with Langara, though, they concoct a plan to take over the facility and dial Destiny to show that the plan is safe. Turns out the Lucian Alliance had tried to make a deal... which Langara rejected out of hand every time to preserve their alliance with Earth. Oops. They're forced to abandon the attempt and ended up using their original bargaining chips for the use of the Langaran facility just to return home safely.
- In "Space", Young's decision to leave Rush behind in "Justice", as well as order Eli to go over Rush's work with a fine tooth-comb come back to bite him in the ass. Eli, who's been left exhausted and irritable, is forced to figure out a way around Rush's lockouts to try and bring the weapon's back online, during their first space-battle.
Young: I need this ship working now!Eli: Maybe you should have thought about that before you got rid of Rush! - No Ending: The whole series ends on the Destiny crew going into stasis for anywhere from 3 years to eternity, no guarantee that they'll ever complete Destiny's mission, and Eli left to fix the last remaining stasis pod or die when the life support shuts down. And then the series got canceled. In the followup comic series Eli discovers several Ancient engineers in stasis in a hidden section of the ship. With their help, Destiny is repaired back to peak condition, giving the crew a realistic shot at either returning home or completing the ship's original mission.
- Noodle Implements: Some awful tasting fruit that the crew came across apparently found a use, but we don't learn it before the ship comes under attack.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain:
- This show took the ineffectual Lucian Alliance and made them legitimately badass. This is established in the first episode, where they managed to kick ten shades of stuffing out of the Hammond in a dog-fight, despite Earth having inherited the entire wealth of knowledge belonging to the Asgard at this point. Word of God is that since the Ori left, the rest of the galaxy have been very busy catching up.
- The Ursini, the race that controls the Seed Ship, are essentially a race the size of small children and are equally as fragile-looking. The Destiny crew underestimating them manages to screw them over in some pretty big ways.
- This show took the ineffectual Lucian Alliance and made them legitimately badass. This is established in the first episode, where they managed to kick ten shades of stuffing out of the Hammond in a dog-fight, despite Earth having inherited the entire wealth of knowledge belonging to the Asgard at this point.
- Novelization: Has of the pilot "Air", by veteran Stargate author James Swallow.
- Offscreen Inertia: It's stated in "Gauntlet" that the crew would remain in stasis for 3 years, 1000 years, or forever. Then the show was canceled.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Everett Young beat the crap out of Rush and left him to die on a desolate planet. The civilian population on the ship didn't take it too kindly.
- Only a Flesh Wound:
- Averted. Injuries are usually portrayed realistically. Franklin was shot in the shoulder at the end of third episode, and was suffering from the consequences episodes later. Young was limping for a decent chunk of the first season. Greer spends a few episodes with an arm sling after getting shot. In the season finale, Chloe gets shot in the leg and the bullet goes straight through. For the rest of the finale, Eli has/wants to carry her. She's also bleeding to death.
- Wray somewhat plays the trope straight, in that while she was stabbed in the shoulder by a screwdriver and had her arm in a sling, she's fine by the next episode. Of course, it's unclear how much time passed.
- Only Sane Man: Eli and Greer, who seem to be the only people trying to keep everyone alive on the ship, instead of attempting to seize power.
- Open Heart Dentistry:
- TJ is assigned the task of giving psych evaluations to the crew despite being a medic and only doing undergraduate level psychology during college, something lampshaded by her as she mentions how it hardly makes her qualified to carry them out.
- When TJ is asked to perform surgery on Rush. She isn't qualified, so a surgeon from Earth is called in using the stones. They fail, so TJ has to finish the job.
- Opening Narration: "Destiny. The design is clearly Ancient."
- Power Perversion Potential:
- In "Darkness", Eli and Riley Hunter try to use the Kino to spy on Second Lieutenant James. They almost make it. All they and the audience get to see is James in a tank top and boyshorts.
- The communication stones, people can and have used the bodies they inhabit for a little "recreational activity" before switching back; according to a webisode, the people on Earth sign waivers permitting those who switch with them to do such things with the on-loan bodies so long as it doesn't negatively impact their lives.
- Precursors: Destiny was made by the Ancients, and "The Greater Good" established that the ship's primary mission is to study evidence left behind by even earlier, more advanced precursors.
- Previously on…: Every episode until sometime in season 2 has a short opening, recapping any events that are even relevant to the plot of the current episode.
- Prophetic Names: Off-Earth base researching Stargate tech is called Icarus. The planet gets blown up by the Gate's charge. In "Human", it looks like Rush was the one who came up with it, but then he reveals that he's just reliving memories in a dream and wanted to skip past a conversation.
- Quit Your Whining:
- When Young locks himself in his quarters after the ship tortures him with visions of Destiny's destruction, combined with the Trauma Conga Line he had already gone through, Scott invokes this to snap Young out of his funk.
- After Simeon kills Amanda and Ginn, Eli begins suiting up in fatigues to hunt Simeon down in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Colonel Young catches Eli and points out that Simeon has killed three people so far and used booby traps to injure two of the trained military personnel sent to capture him. Young also explains to Eli that killing someone profoundly changes you-no matter who you are. After considering Colonel Young's words, Eli returns to his station.
- Race Against the Clock: Happens in virtually every episode. Whenever Destiny stops, it brings up a countdown clock with a random amount of hours for the crew to do whatever it is they need to do. Once the countdown ends, the ship jumps back to FTL, regardless of whether or not the crew has made it back to the ship. When there's not a timed scenario, that usually means something is wrong.
- Ragnarök-Proofing: For a ship that's been actively traveling the universe for over a million years apparently without maintenance, the Destiny is actually in amazingly good condition. Well... sorta. It's more that it's simply amazing that it works at all, and systems are going to be crapping out every episode for most of the first season.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The whole idea behind the series is that, unlike the carefully selected "best of the best" team sent to Atlantis, the group on Destiny is there by accident. The crew simply consists of everyone who happened to escape Icarus Base through the Stargate.
- Ramming Always Works: When Destiny adapts its shields to the Drones' weapons, they just start doing suicide runs. Even this isn't enough to put Destiny down, though. The crew turns this back on the drones by ramming a shuttle set to overload into one of the command ships, utterly destroying it.
- Really Gets Around: Park has slept with most of the Marines to deal with the stress of being stuck across the universe.
- Refusal of the Call: Eli is completely unconvinced when O'Neill and Dr. Rush show up on his doorstep, informing him that he is their Chosen One. They teleport him to a space station to make their point.
- Retool: With respect to the rest of the Stargate franchise. Apart from the whole Darker and Edgier aspect to SGU, choosing a setting that's billions of light-years away from Earth and all of its advanced alien tech helped to curb the Plot Leveling that had set in over the years.
- Retroactive Precognition: Inverted in Common Descent when TJ discovers that she has Motor Neurone Disease from a recording of an alternate version of herself who had been sent into the past and died from it
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: We will never find out anything about the race that once lived near the gate from "Human", what happened to them, and why they felt that building an underground labyrinth was a good idea.
- Running Gag: Destiny continually conspires to keep David Telford off of Destiny one way or another.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Senator Armstrong commits a Heroic Sacrifice in the first episode.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Rush in "Time." When the alien attack gets really bad, he just runs for the Stargate and jumps through it, despite knowing its unstable. [[spoiler:He gets sent back in time and killed for his efforts.''
- Seinfeldian Conversation: These occur frequently between Brody and Volker, such as the debate over whether a particular piece of music ought to be referred to as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey or "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss
- Serial Escalation: How do you top plugging a Stargate into a planet's naquadria core? By plugging one directly into a star. Admittedly, SG-1 / Atlantis already used black holes to power the Supergates, and also used a black hole Gate to nova a star. When they found they could no longer go to a regular "safe" star to refuel, they instead flew through a Blue Hypergiant!
- Shout-Out:
- Eli, being the resident geek, is fond of these. There was the Planet of the Apes reference in "Air", then again in "Darkness". He has to explain this one, if only because no one seems to find it funny.
- "Water" contains one for The Empire Strikes Back when Eli mentions that they've "entered the Hoth system," in which he also takes a jab at the prequel films by refusing to call it "Episode V".
- In "Earth", Eli, having taken over the body of a scientist back home, goes to his mother's house and (not expecting her to understand the mind-swap thing) tells her his name is Philip Fry.
- Dr. Rush, surprisingly, does one in "Time" with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, saying Butch's famous last line as he dives through an unstable wormhole, then again when it is revealed they're all going to die soon. Young recognizes the quote and explains that the film is a favorite of his, too. The quote itself also foreshadows the Bolivian Army Ending to the episode. In keeping with the role reversal, Eli does not get the reference.
- Eli in "Life" references Ghostbusters (1984) when he describes the catastrophic effects attempting to dial home as "dogs and cats living together."
- In "Faith", Eli yells out "the Genesis device" when a planet is suggested to have been built by aliens. He's rather annoyed that no one in the room gets it.
- In "Human", when Rush realizes that the number 46 has some significance, Daniel Jackson comments that it's not the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything - that would be 42. Which he then ruins by explaining the reference.
- When Eli is carrying a wounded Chloe through the unexplored parts of Destiny, he says he once "climbed the Redridge Mountains with a full pack on his way to Stonard." Chloe doesn't recognize the names, so Eli has to confess that they're areas in World of Warcraft.
- Eli jokingly refers to an energy signature in "Resurgence" as a black monolith.
- When Young orders Eli to send a signal out to what appear to be attacking aliens, Eli asks whether it should be in Ancient. Young responds, "Ancient, English, Bat-Signal, and whatever else you've got."
- Shown Their Work:
- The student's answer to Rush's question in "Human". They might as well have used some technobabble, but instead it was a completely accurate description of Shor's algorithm pulled straight from The Other Wiki.
- A lot of astronomy and astrophysics concepts are presented realistically (e.g. Park's explanation of some of the barriers to habitability for planets orbiting red dwarf stars), or at least in a way that isn't technically impossible (such as the behaviour of the binary pulsar in Season 1's multi-part finale).
- The student's answer to Rush's question in "Human". They might as well have used some technobabble, but instead it was a completely accurate description of Shor's algorithm
- Sliding Scale of Continuity: The series was heavily arc-based, which had the misfortune to occur at the same time Syfy changed its scheduling strategy to where it would air part of a season, then replace it with another show, then bring the first show back, and so on. The SGU showrunners partly blame the series' cancellation on the resulting confusion driving away viewers.
- Someone Has to Die: The possibility is invoked in the series finale when the final stasis pod fails, leaving the odd one out with two weeks to try to repair it or die when the life support gives out. Eli volunteers to take the risk.
- Space Friction: In "Common Descent", where when Destiny cuts power to the sublight engines while they're trying to keep their distance from a threat, the ship is stated to have "slowed down", which not only makes no sense in space, the ship wasn't slowing down other times it dropped out of FTL.
- Spaceship Slingshot Stunt: One of Destiny's shuttle attempts the maneuver around a planet to catch up to Destiny itself.
- Spectacular Spinning: The Stargates installed on the Destiny and on the planets seeded by the ships ahead of it all spin.
- Spin-Off: Universe is a bit further removed from its parent show than Stargate Atlantis ended up being, and not just in the literal sense. The entire main cast was created for the show, while previous cast members are limited to guest appearances. General O'Neill is a semi-recurring character, but he has an office at the Pentagon rather than bringing back the SGC. Rodney McKay and Richard Woolsey show up late in the second season, as well.
- Suicide, Not Murder: Spencer killed himself, but it was made to look like murder.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The civilian personnel try to take over the ship and coerce the military into surrendering. It works about as well as one would expect, it doesn't.
- A small group of people were left behind on a planet with an approaching winter, as they felt the aliens that created the planet would provide for them. They all died horribly of hypothermia because they didn't have the skills to survive. Except Val, who got a tree dropped on her.
- Rush, a self-admitted habitual smoker and caffeine addict, at two separate points ends up in a brawl with Greer and Young, respectively, the two most experienced soldiers on the crew by far. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.
- * Superhuman Transfusion
T-Z
- Temporal Paradox:
- "Twin Destinies" takes this up to eleven: the crew salvages everything they can from a temporal duplicate of Destiny, and even get its duplicate shuttle. Destiny is literally being repaired with itself.
- It becomes even more zanier in the following episode "Alliances" where Future Telford returns to Earth, having gated back from the Future Destiny, while Present Tlford is dead.
- Time Abyss: The Destiny is truly ancient in the sense of the word: she was launched from Earth at least 50 million years ago. But even she pales in comparison to what she was sent to explore: The cosmic microwave background radiation itself contains a repeating pattern even the Ancients couldn't understand - one that implies that there actually is a God - or maybe an extremely advanced civilization that is to the Ancients what the Ancients are to the Tau'ri - that existed some 13.8 billion years ago, at the very dawn of time and existence itself.
- Too Dumb to Live: A group of particularly religious civilians decides to stay behind on a habitable planet despite the fact that there is an oncoming winter and they lack the necessary survival skills and equipment to weather it. Even the shuttle Young leaves behind for them doesn't help much. That they didn't even consider building shelter around the shuttle, creating a basic roundhouse with a fire pit to redistribute warmth is incredibly ridiculous, when you consider that these people were mostly scientists.
- Took a Level in Badass: Sadly, for our heroes, it seems the Lucian Alliance, last seen in SG-1 has gone from being a loose alliance of criminals, to have become a space terrorist nation and are quite willing and capable of kicking Earth's ass.
- Tricked Out Time: Pretty much the plot of "Time": with each iteration the crew get things a little more right with the help of the information left behind by the crew in the previous iteration, and eventually they avert the crisis all together.
- Uncanny Valley: An in-universe example with the shuttle occupants in Visitation. Young wonders why he can't stand to be in a room with any of them for less than a minute without wanting to run away, and Morrison brusquely tells Rachel not to touch him. This is a case of Came Back Wrong, where (according to Word of God) the Planet Builders discovered the bodies of the colonists and attempted to bring them back to life; however they had no idea how human physiology worked and went with their best guess, which wasn't good enough.
- Unwanted Assistance: When Amanda Perry is trying to fly the ship in "The Greater Good", Eli, Brody, and Volker all try to micromanage her. She eventually gets fed up and tells them to shut up. Then Scott and Wray come in, do the same, and Eli yells at them "Not now!"
- Unwinnable Training Simulation: In "Trial and Error", the ship takes over Young's dreams and presents a nightmare scenario in which the ship is either destroyed or invaded by aliens no matter what he does. It's suggested that the ship was trying to test his effectiveness as a leader, but we'll never know since Rush ended the program before its purpose could be completed.
- Viewer-Friendly Interface: Large wall-mounted displays are visible in every room/corridor/shuttle aboard Destiny counting down to the next FTL jump. They're large and obvious enough that they're clearly there for the viewers to see.
- We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: When the opening word from the alien contact is "Surrender", sent in English no less, you know talks aren't going any further.
- Wham Episode: 2x07 "The Greater Good". We learn Destiny's true mission, the rest of the crew finds the bridge, and Rush and Young appear to have hashed things out... and the ending? Lucian Alliance baddie Simeon has slipped his guard and looks about to kill two birds with one stone. He does.
- What Have I Done: Future Rush has a realization in "Twin Destinies" when Present Telford accuses him of being the person responsible for the disaster that wiped out the entire crew of the Alternate Destiny.Future Rush: Take your hands off me!*Pushes Telford against the wall*Future Rush: YOU are the coward! YOU are the one who didn't believe in the mission! YOU are the one that killed them!*Rush suddenly notices that Telford has landed on the conduit he'd earlier warned that had 1000 volts passing through it.*Future Rush: *Utterly horrified* Oh no...
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"??: Amanda Perry builds a simulation in Destiny's computer so she and Rush can actually touch each other. Rush ends up trapped in the simulation because one of the base parameters was the condition that he loves Perry as she loves him. Rush insists that the program is simply wrong about his feelings. One theory as to why this happens is that Perry may have defined "love" within the program to mean that if Rush really loves her he will not want to leave her. Rush, however, whether or not he loves her, wants to keep living in the real world, so of course he wants to leave.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Rush gets these from all sides in "The Greater Good". Perry calls him on hiding the bridge from the crew, Young calls him on getting Riley killed, and Eli actually says "What the hell?" when he discovers Rush knew about the bridge.
- When Trees Attack: "Cloverdale" features an attack by alien trees which spring from the ground with almost no warning and can infect anything they touch with a fast-growing fungus.
- Worst Aid: When Varro falls from a ladder to a solid floor at least a story or two down, Young brings him back up by tying a rope to him and having him dragged up. Justified since the place they were in was falling apart and they didn't have time to rig up a stretcher.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Poor Eli... he finally gets the girl, but she gets brutally murdered two episodes later. But then we discover Ginn and Perry apparently were stuck in the stones and get downloaded into Destiny. Then the very next episode Eli is forced to lock Ginn and Perry out, to rescue Rush, who got trapped in a virtual scenario accidentally by Perry. He is furious about this.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Considering Destiny is millions of light years away from Earth, trans-galactic transport is not an option. The only way they have of getting enough available power to dial the Stargate all that distance is horrendously complicated, and even one tiny hitch can screw you over entirely. Add in the fact they cannot use the suns to power a trans-galactic Stargate without destroying the Destiny.
- You Had Us Worried There: In "Aftermath", a shuttle is about to enter the atmosphere of a planet with possibly shuttle-destroying turbulence. Rush informs them and they decide to give it a go. After a tense few seconds, the shuttle calls back to tell Rush they're ok... then drops out of the sky like a stone.