SGU 1.04 "Darkness" Episode Guide

Précis

When the Destiny's power reserves drop to a critical level, the crew is ordered to use power for essential services only, but the rationing isn't enough to keep Rush from announcing that all on board will die within days.

Guide | Transcript

MGM/Syfy.com Official Summary

Dr. Nicholas Rush has been working throughout the night to try and determine why the ship’s power reserves are critically low. He reiterates his mounting concerns to Colonel Young, who advises the crew to limit their power consumption to essential services only. Suddenly the lights dim to emergency levels and everything but life support goes dead. Overwhelmed by fatigue and frustration, Rush declares that all on board will perish within days. But when Destiny's flight path towards a solar system reveals the existence of three planets, they hope that one of them is habitable.

Meanwhile Eli records individual messages from the crew in case they don’t survive.

Modified by Solutions.

Cast

Opening Credits:

• Robert Carlyle as Dr. Nicholas Rush
• Louis Ferreira as Col. Everett Young
• Brian J. Smith as Lt. Matthew Scott
• Elyse Levesque as Chloe Armstrong
• David Blue as Eli Wallace
• Alaina Huffman as Lt. Tamara Johansen
• Jamil Walker Smith as MSgt. Ronald Greer

Guest Starring:

• Ming-Na as Camile Wray
• Ona Grauer as Emily Young
• Peter Kelamis as Adam Brody
• Mark Burgess as Jeremy Franklin
• Jennifer Spence as Dr. Lisa Park
• and Lou Diamond Phillips as Col. David Telford

Closing Credits:

• Julia Benson as Lt. Vanessa James
• Patrick Gilmore as Dale Volker
• Haig Sutherland as Sgt. Riley
• Josh Blacker as Sgt. Spencer
• Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman as Airman Darren Becker
• Michael Karl Richards as Maj. Peterson
• Peter DeLuise as "Peter" the Scientist

Production

• Written by Brad Wright
• Directed by Peter DeLuise

Related Articles

Keywords

• Ancient Shuttle
• Destiny

Other

• Stargate Universe: Season One
• Previous: SGU 1.03 "Air Part 3" Episode Guide
• Next: SGU 1.05 "Light" Episode Guide

Related Links

Official

• MGM Official Website: Search Results for "Darkness"
• Syfy: 1.04 "Darkness" Guide

Fan

• Solutions News and Spoiler Blog
• Solutions at LJ: Universe Tagged Entries
• Solutions Universe Forum

Production Notes

• "Brad has laid claim to #4, a story that is right up his alley." — Joseph Mallozzi (November 11, 2008).
• "Of the first ten episodes broken, we have a grand total of 0 forested planets. I’m not saying we won’t, eventually, come across one but, for the time being, the emphasis is on the ship and some locations atypical of Stargate. As a matter of fact, Executive Producer Robert Cooper and Director Andy Mikita are in New Mexico as we speak, scouting a cool-looking alien setting." — Joseph Mallozzi (December 19, 2008)
• "Brad, meanwhile, is motoring along on Fire." — Joseph Mallozzi (January 30, 2009)
• "Brad is working on Fire and, from what I hear, is very happy with the way it’s coming along. It’s a great story and, as I’ve already said, right up Brad’s alley. Looking forward to reading the first draft. This episode will see a certain fan favorite retake the director’s chair." — Joseph Mallozzi (February 12, 2009)
• "Brad reports he should have a first draft of Fire sometime next week." — Joseph Mallozzi (February 17, 2009)
• "We received a visit from a Stargate veteran who will be making a return to the franchise with Stargate Universe’s fourth episode: Fire." — Joseph Mallozzi (February 27, 2009)
• Ytimyona writes: "Would this be a *different* veteran than the guest star you chatted with like 3 days ago? Or the same one?" Answer: "This one will be working behind the camera. The other one will appear in front of it." — Joseph Mallozzi (March 1, 2009)
• "Reading "Fire"...BW sure can spin a yarn. Can't wait to start seeing cuts." — Martin Gero (March 9, 2009)
• "Brad’s script, Fire, is also out and it is pure BW: action, humor, and enough angst to trigger an anxiety attack in even the most composed of viewers. The scene about halfway through with the characters when the thing happens (sorry, I can’t be anymore specific) is a real nailbiter!" — Joseph Mallozzi (March 13, 2009)
• "A good day today. I spent the entire morning sitting in Director Peter DeLuise’s office talking about past experiences on the Stargate franchise and looking ahead to Universe - and the episode he’ll be directing, Fire, in particular." — Joseph Mallozzi (March 18, 2009)
• "Yesterday, I was over on Stage 2, watching Peter DeLuise direct the shuttle sequences in Fire. Boy, that shuttle is a beauty. Someone referred to it as “a puddle jumper on steroids”. Anyway, enjoy some shots of Peter in action." — Joseph Mallozzi (March 20, 2009)
• "Peter DeLuise is in the editing room working on Fire..." — Joseph Mallozzi (April 2, 2009)
• "Later in the afternoon, we sat down to watch the director’s cut of Fire. Now I usually dread watching cuts after 4:00 p.m. as, late in the day, my mind tends to wander while my eyelids seem to put on about six pounds a piece, but this episode was absolutely riveting. GREAT - except for the fact that it’s about twenty minutes too long, and this isn’t even taking into consideration a bunch of scenes that Brad actually wrote but had to cut at the script stage for fear that the episode would run long - which it has anyway. And yet even though the running time is long, the episode is tight, moving along at a surprisingly brisk pace. So congrats to Director Peter DeLuise on his triumphant return to the Stargate franchise." — Joseph Mallozzi (April 7, 2009)
• Ytimyona writes: "Any chance Fire might turn into a 90 minute episode? If it’s a tight script, why not? I hate to see significant parts of the story disappear because of a time limit! If all 20 minutes end up being cut, any chance it’ll be put on the special features of the DVD (like with Morpheus in SG-1)?" Answer: "We’re looking at all possibilities. Like I said, the episode is pretty damn tight and even feels like it’s missing a couple of scenes and sequences I would love to see." — Joseph Mallozzi (April 8, 2009)
• "And speaking of character moments - today, I read Brad’s finished version of Darkness and Light. This one has got me very excited as well, particularly for the remained climactic sequence." — Joseph Mallozzi (April 21, 2009)
• "Brad Wright shifts gears after putting out both Darkness and Light, looking to hammer down the story for episode 13." — Joseph Mallozzi (April 23, 2009)
• "One of the things I’m really loving about the new series is the colorful cast of characters: Rush, Young, Armstrong, Scott, Telford, Wray, Eli, Chloe, T.J., Greer, James, Brody, Franklin, Volker, Park, Spencer, Kane and Riley. I told Brad that Darkness and Light do a wonderful job of offering the viewer insight into these varied individuals thrown together by circumstance, glimpses of their respective personalities only the kino can capture." — Joseph Mallozzi (April 29, 2009)
• "From there, we headed over to the Destiny set where Peter DeLuise was directing Bobby, Louis, and David in scenes for Darkness and Light." — Joseph Mallozzi (May 19, 2009)
• PG15 also writes: Fire, being so over the time limit, was split into 2 episodes. Those 2 episodes were renamed Darkness and Light. Question: Am I right?” Answer: Yes, you are. Congratulations, Columbo. — Joseph Mallozzi (May 24, 2009)
• "Lots to watch at work these past few days: ... Brad’s cuts of Darkness and Light. ... Meanwhile, Robert Carlyle tears it up big time in the Darkness and Light two-parter. Love his “for a fact” scene. Truth be told, there are incredible performances throughout these two episodes: Minga Na and Justin in the red room scene, Peter Kelamis and Patrick Gilmore in their kino scenes, Jamil’s stoic warrior acceptance, Elyse in Chloe’s farewell, and Alaina Huffman’s turn as T.J., a character whose cool professional exterior belies genuine charm and a wicked little sense of humor." — Joseph Mallozzi (May 27, 2009)
• "While I’m waiting, I’ll shift focus to other producerly pursuits – like watching Rob Cooper’s dailies on Human and a Day 2(?) mix of Darkness (a terrific episode that offers all kinds of insight into our various players, big and small). Sitting in with us on the screening was the fab director himself, Peter DeLuise, who was in the office today prepping his next episode, Sabotage." — Joseph Mallozzi (August 12, 2009)

Further Reading

• Joseph Mallozzi's Blog
• Martin Gero's Twitter

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--DeeKayP 14:28, 14 February 2009 (PST)