Faith (Stargate Universe)
Encyclopedia
"Faith" is the thirteenth episode of military science fiction
television series Stargate Universe
. The episode originally aired on April 16, 2010 on Syfy
in the United States
, and on SPACE in Canada
. The episode was directed by William Waring who directed two other episodes for the series. The episode was written by Denis McGrath
, and this episode represents his first foray into the Stargate franchise
.
In this episode, the Destiny finds herself drawn to the gravity well of a sun, leading the ship off-course. However, there is no trace of the sun in the database, and as the Destiny uses a parabolic manoeuvre to correct its course which will take roughly a month, the crew uses this time to explore a habitable planet and collect supplies.
(Robert Carlyle
) believes that the ship has dropped out of FTL in order to correct its course by performing a parabolic maneuver
, which will take a month. In the meantime, a team uses the opportunity to explore the planet; the team finds fresh fruit, water and plants with medicinal purposes, which the expedition could bring back with them. Also, during a flyover from the shuttle, Scott
(Brian J. Smith
) spots an artificial obelisk
at least 2000 feet high.
While Destiny is out of shuttle range for the next few weeks, the team on the planet settles in. Rush uses the time to explore more of the ship, where he and his team find numerous new discoveries. Adam Brody (Peter Kelamis
) and Lisa Park (Jennifer Spence) repair the second shuttle where Senator Armstrong sacrificed himself to save the crew. Eli
(David Blue
) and Wray (Ming-Na
) discuss the possibility that the system might have been built by possibly the most advanced race in the Universe. Tension between the military and civilians since the coup passes. On the planet, T.J.
(Alaina Huffman
) is revealed to be pregnant
with Colonel Young's
(Louis Ferreira) baby.
During the last days, the team on the planet see the obelisk sending a beam of light into the night sky. By the time Destiny is back in range, Young learns that several of them wish to stay on the planet, including Robert Caine (Tygh Runyan
) who believes that a higher power is responsible for creating the planet as a "lifeline" for the expedition, as well as believing the race responsible will find them and return them to Earth. Young goes down on the planet with the near-repaired shuttle, and offers it to those who wish to stay, as long as all the military personnel return to Destiny, otherwise everyone will be returned by force. With the military personnel back on Destiny, a few civilians remain on the planet while Destiny jumps back to FTL. In the end, the expedition enjoy a feast from the food they brought from the planet.
's Ramsey Isler was much more negative than Carl England, describing the episode as "a return to the slow stuff, and it really killed a lot of momentum." Among the complaints that Isler had was the re-bonding of the Destiny crew which he understood because of the recent mutiny but said, "it makes perfect sense, it just doesn't make for good drama." Isler also found the pregnancy of Lt. Johansen a little cliché citing he does not, "like that this is somewhat of a stereotypical role for a woman to be thrown into." Meredith Woerner from io9.com generally favoured the episode. Woerner had felt a little slighted by the ending of Divided but said this episode, "didn't attempt to end everything with a big shiny reset bow forcibly tied on in the end. And I loved it." She goes onto say it was, "a healthy dose of reality as soap dishy as it was." Woerner praised the character development of Lt. Johansen stating that, "we watched TJ, a normally calm and cool character, unravel for obvious reasons. Then we the audience got to weigh all the possible options with her. And even though we never really knowing the full story we assumed by her attitude you knew it couldn't have been pretty." However Woerner did have her complaints; citing Dr. Caine, "lunatic ramblings about the obelisk alien overlords."
Military science fiction
Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which the principal characters are members of a military service and an armed conflict is taking place, normally in space, or on a planet other than Earth...
television series Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe is a Canadian-American military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. It follows the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team traveling on the Ancient spaceship Destiny many billions of light years distant from the Milky Way...
. The episode originally aired on April 16, 2010 on Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and on SPACE in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The episode was directed by William Waring who directed two other episodes for the series. The episode was written by Denis McGrath
Denis McGrath
Denis McGrath ' is a dual-citizen Canadian–American screenwriter and producer. Born in New York City, he currently resides and works in Toronto....
, and this episode represents his first foray into the Stargate franchise
Stargate
Stargate is a adventure military science fiction franchise, initially conceived by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Stargate. It was originally released on October 28, 1994, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco, and became a hit, grossing nearly...
.
In this episode, the Destiny finds herself drawn to the gravity well of a sun, leading the ship off-course. However, there is no trace of the sun in the database, and as the Destiny uses a parabolic manoeuvre to correct its course which will take roughly a month, the crew uses this time to explore a habitable planet and collect supplies.
Plot
Destiny mysteriously exits FTL in a star system that the ship does not recognise; the seeding ships never informed Destiny of the system, and the habitable planet orbiting it. It would later be revealed that the star is only 200 million years old, which is too young to start a system. Dr. RushNicholas Rush
Dr. Nicholas Rush is a fictional character in the Canadian-American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer-Syfy television series Stargate Universe, a military science fiction serial drama about the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team unable to return to Earth after an evacuation to the...
(Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle, OBE is a Scottish film and television actor. He is known for a variety of roles including those in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later...
) believes that the ship has dropped out of FTL in order to correct its course by performing a parabolic maneuver
Parabolic trajectory
In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics a parabolic trajectory is a Kepler orbit with the eccentricity equal to 1. When moving away from the source it is called an escape orbit, otherwise a capture orbit...
, which will take a month. In the meantime, a team uses the opportunity to explore the planet; the team finds fresh fruit, water and plants with medicinal purposes, which the expedition could bring back with them. Also, during a flyover from the shuttle, Scott
Matthew Scott (Stargate)
First Lieutenant Matthew Scott is a fictional character from the science fiction television series, Stargate Universe, the third live-action series in the Stargate franchise, which centers on a group of soldiers and civilians trapped on the Ancient vessel Destiny. He is portrayed by Brian J. Smith...
(Brian J. Smith
Brian J. Smith
Brian J. Smith is an American actor who is known for his role as Trey in the 2006 independent film Hate Crime and as series regular Lt. Matthew Scott in the military science fiction television series, Stargate Universe....
) spots an artificial obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
at least 2000 feet high.
While Destiny is out of shuttle range for the next few weeks, the team on the planet settles in. Rush uses the time to explore more of the ship, where he and his team find numerous new discoveries. Adam Brody (Peter Kelamis
Peter Kelamis
Peter Kelamis is an Australian-born Canadian actor and comedian.-Life and career:Kelamis was born in Sydney, Australia of Greek origin. In 1985, Kelamis enrolled in the University of British Columbia...
) and Lisa Park (Jennifer Spence) repair the second shuttle where Senator Armstrong sacrificed himself to save the crew. Eli
Eli Wallace
Eli Wallace is a fictional character in the Canadian-American television series Stargate Universe, a science fiction drama centering on the adventures of a present-day, multinational scientific team unable to return to Earth after an evacuation to the Ancient spaceship Destiny, which is traveling...
(David Blue
David Blue (actor)
David Blue is an American actor, writer, producer and director. He is best known for his portrayal of Cliff St. Paul on Ugly Betty and Eli Wallace on the Syfy series Stargate Universe.-Early life:...
) and Wray (Ming-Na
Ming-Na
Ming-Na is a Macanese-born American actress. She has been credited with and without her family name, but most credits since the late 1990s have been without it...
) discuss the possibility that the system might have been built by possibly the most advanced race in the Universe. Tension between the military and civilians since the coup passes. On the planet, T.J.
Tamara Johansen
First Lieutenant Tamara Johansen is a fictional character in the Canadian-American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer-Syfy television series Stargate Universe, a military science fiction serial drama about the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team unable to return to Earth after an...
(Alaina Huffman
Alaina Huffman
Alaina Huffman is a Canadian film and television actress, also known professionally as Alaina Kalanj ....
) is revealed to be pregnant
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
with Colonel Young's
Everett Young
Colonel Everett Young is a fictional character in the Canadian-American Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer-Syfy television series Stargate Universe, a military science fiction serial drama about the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team unable to return to Earth after an evacuation to the...
(Louis Ferreira) baby.
During the last days, the team on the planet see the obelisk sending a beam of light into the night sky. By the time Destiny is back in range, Young learns that several of them wish to stay on the planet, including Robert Caine (Tygh Runyan
Tygh Runyan
-Life and career:Runyan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. His father is an environmental science professor at the University of British Columbia, and his mother is a poet...
) who believes that a higher power is responsible for creating the planet as a "lifeline" for the expedition, as well as believing the race responsible will find them and return them to Earth. Young goes down on the planet with the near-repaired shuttle, and offers it to those who wish to stay, as long as all the military personnel return to Destiny, otherwise everyone will be returned by force. With the military personnel back on Destiny, a few civilians remain on the planet while Destiny jumps back to FTL. In the end, the expedition enjoy a feast from the food they brought from the planet.
Reception
Carl England of Den of Geek found the episode more inclined to the dramatic side of the series, but noted, "it shouldn't ward off sci-fi fans, as it teases many alien-related plot points to come back to in later weeks." Overall, England said that "this episode may not have been as great as last week's, but it's a really good entry in the season one catalogue." IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Ramsey Isler was much more negative than Carl England, describing the episode as "a return to the slow stuff, and it really killed a lot of momentum." Among the complaints that Isler had was the re-bonding of the Destiny crew which he understood because of the recent mutiny but said, "it makes perfect sense, it just doesn't make for good drama." Isler also found the pregnancy of Lt. Johansen a little cliché citing he does not, "like that this is somewhat of a stereotypical role for a woman to be thrown into." Meredith Woerner from io9.com generally favoured the episode. Woerner had felt a little slighted by the ending of Divided but said this episode, "didn't attempt to end everything with a big shiny reset bow forcibly tied on in the end. And I loved it." She goes onto say it was, "a healthy dose of reality as soap dishy as it was." Woerner praised the character development of Lt. Johansen stating that, "we watched TJ, a normally calm and cool character, unravel for obvious reasons. Then we the audience got to weigh all the possible options with her. And even though we never really knowing the full story we assumed by her attitude you knew it couldn't have been pretty." However Woerner did have her complaints; citing Dr. Caine, "lunatic ramblings about the obelisk alien overlords."