Drones unexpectedly attack Destiny as she comes out of FTL. The senior crew argues a bit about making a quick jump and Rush reminds them that the last time they did that they damaged the ship. They make the jump and get far enough away from the drones. When they come out of FTL they dial a nearby planet with a gate and are greeted by two people who know Lt. Scott and Greer. When Scott asks how they know their names the two people respond that they are their ancestors from 2,000 years ago. WHA????
Eli is intrigued to find out more. He posits that the “other” crew that was lost in the wormhole was actually sucked back in time to that location by a freak of the solar flare. but Young, Rush, and some of the others aren’t buying it yet. (I love the line when Chloe says “You played lot of Sim City as a kid didn’t you?” and Eli responds “Actually, this is more like Sim Earth.” +10 geek points to the writers.)
Eli, Camille, Chloe, and Scott go back to the planet where they are greeted with reverence by Jason and Ellie (the two they met earlier.) They find out that the original settlement was on a planet called Novus and came this planet via the gates to find additional settlements, but have been stranded for at least 20 years. When they reach the small camp of people, the inhabitants are rather stunned, but polite. Both parties have questions for each other, but settle to drink tea. Camille interprets a Chinese (?) proverb that the old man makes which is a little incredulous that not one, but two languages would remain that intact after two thousand years. :-/
Back on the ship, we learn more about the two factions on Novus (a population of millions.) One that followed Col. Young and one that thought Rush was back on Destiny and would one day come back to rescue them as their savior. Oh boy! When some of the planet’s inhabitants visit the ship (while bringing supplies aboard) they meet Rush who is rather stand-offish. That’s when we find out that those who don’t believe he’s the savior see him more as Satan. Now we’re talking!
Eli plugs in a “thumb drive” from the planet’s people and starts watching some Keno footage
The planet’s people make one last request to have Destiny take them back to Novus, which 30 years ago was wracked by earthquakes and volcanoes. The colony is in trouble. They are barely scraping by. Eli tells them that they could make it in a week, but Young says they cannot take that many people on board and Rush says they don’t have enough resources to make the trip and would be stuck. And don’t forget the drones might still be on the way. Young agrees that the planet is on their way (to whatever) and they can at least get there, check it out, and they might be able to help fix the gate and rescue their own people.
We find Eli, TJ, and Chloe watching keno footage of TJ giving birth to a boy (fathered by Young) – the first baby born on Novus. The next keno scene jumps ahead to Eli 10 years later regretting that his mother couldn’t see him or her grandchildren. The next scene is an older Young telling those around him that they need to stick together. Young watches that last part and is still of the opinion that they can only do so much, and it falls short of what they can do – just get Destiny to Novus and try dialing back. Suddenly the colony is attacked by drones – and so is Destiny. OUCH!
They get as many colonists aboard Destiny as they can when one of the drones damages the gate on the planet beyond repair with Scott, Eli, Greer, and Camille still trapped there while Destiny continues to take a beating. Col. Young gives the order to make the jump. Back on the planet, the team figures out that the drones have likely been tracking them by locating actives gates. That means the could soon be attacking (or have already attacked) the other colonies sent out from Novus years ago. The crew aboard Destiny figures the same thing – they’re safe as long as they don’t dial. They can’t risk going back for the others either. When Col. Young tells the planet’s survivors aboard Destiny, they are crestfallen.
Eli thinks that he can use a subspace signal from the damaged gate to reach Destiny without triggering the drones (who zero in on the gate event.) So far all he can do is turn it on and off. Eli uses that to send a Morse code message to Destiny where, fortunately, Young gets the message and comes back with a couple shuttles to pick up not only Destiny’s people, but the rest of the planet’s inhabitants.
When they get to Novus, they send down a shuttle and ominously don’t pick up any radio signals. As they get through the significant dust and debris, Scott reports that it’s very cold and comes across an intact modern city, but there’s no sign of life or people. They think it might be a nuclear winter, but more likely a super volcano. Where did the Novus inhabitants go?
Editor’s notes: I found the story line a bit predictable, but still pretty good. It was interesting to see Eli’s eternal optimism in hoping for the two factions of Novus making peace with each other, but the others are more realistic. The look at humanity and “should/can we help them” was intriguing. It will be interesting to see how this all wraps up in just a couple more weeks. FWIW, I read news today that there’s no plan of an SGU movie. Darn!
Rating: 8.0/10
