Everett Young

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Col. Everett Young

WARNING: SPOILERS

The following article contains SPOILERS. Proceed at your own risk.

Updated to: 1.20 "Incursion Part 2"

Summary

From MGM: Far into an impressive Air Force career, Col. Young took a step back to oversee Icarus security in hopes that he could spend more time with his wife. Reluctantly thrust back into a leadership role, he does his best to watch over those stranded, both civilian and military. Torn between what’s best for survival and what’s most likely to get them home, he comes into constant conflict with both Rush and Wray. Like a father figure to Lt. Scott and others on the ship, his actions don’t always follow his advice.

Personal Data

  • Birthday:
  • Birthplace:
  • Marital Status: Married, Emily Young; Extramarital affair with Lt. Tamara Johansen
  • Children: One on the way with Lt. Tamara Johansen as the mother
  • Parents:
  • Siblings:
  • Stargate Program Rank: United States Air Force Colonel
  • Stargate Program Position: Commanding officer of Icarus Base and by circumstances, leader of Destiny

Before Joining the Stargate Program

Stargate Command

Col. Everett Young was the first choice as the leader of the expedition team that would step through the Stargate to the nine-chevron address that was found in the Ancient Database (in Atlantis). He was hand-picked by Gen. Jack O'Neill of Homeworld Security, the US governmental organization that oversees the Stargate Program and all others that come from it, but Young turned him down, saying, "I don't think it's still in me, sir." (SGU 1.07 "Earth")

Young had lost his confidence after something happened to those under his command while he was the leader of an SG team (see casting breakdown in Further Reading section below). Even with this in his record, O'Neill still wanted him to be the leader of the Icarus Project's expedition, so there had been apparently no official declaration of the losses' being Young's fault. Even so, he felt the weight of it. (SGU: 1.06 "Water", 1.07 "Earth", 1.10 "Justice")

The command of the expedition was given to Col. David Telford, instead. (SGU 1.01 "Air Part 1")

Young was still attached to the Icarus Project, so O'Neill gave him command of Icarus Base, which was built on a planet that had the right conditions to draw power from its core to give the Stargate the massive amount of energy to dial the great distance a ninth chevron required. The day that Young told his wife that he was taking a new command, the two had a bad argument. Emily wanted him to have a position that gave them more time together, perhaps even resigning his commission, while Young tried to reassure her that he was not choosing his job over her and that it was just for one more year. (SGU: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.07 "Earth")

Icarus Base and Destiny

Commander of Icarus Base and Destiny

Young thrown through the Stargate on Destiny
Young stays behind to await death on Destiny
Young and Scott on ice planet

Young had been in command of Icarus Base for six months when the base was attacked by the Lucian Alliance. He ordered an evacuation to Earth through the Stargate, but Dr. Nicholas Rush, the lead scientist of the Icarus Project, dialed the nine-chevron code instead, feeling that this was the only chance he'd get. Young reluctantly approved of the evacuation since they wouldn't be able to dial out again and the planet's utter destruction was imminent. Young was the last to leave the base before it exploded, taking the time to search for and obtain the communication stones and console that would turn out to be the base personnel's only connection with Earth. As he ran up the ramp, he was caught in the explosive destruction of the base and was thrown violently through the Stargate to the Ancients' exploratory starship Destiny, billions of light years away from Earth. Before losing consciousness from a severe head injury, Young gave command to Lt. Matthew Scott, a young officer fresh out of training. (SGU: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.02 "Air Part 2")

The initial problems faced by the crew were of basic survival: air, water, power, and food. Young was willing to stay behind on Destiny by giving up his seat on the shuttle that would serve as a lifeboat when the Destiny appeared to be heading for destruction into a star. As it turned out, the ship uses energy from a star to recharge its power reserves, so the shuttle was recalled. After a short period of recovery from his head injury from the evacuation, Young not only sent teams to planets in this far part of the universe, but went on missions himself. His time as a former SG team leader defined his philosophy of saving as many of the people under his care and command as possible. He went against Rush's advice to consider the many before the one for "the greater good" by choosing to bring an injured Lt. Scott back from a trip to a planet instead of the ice they had harvested for drinking water. (SGU: 1.02 "Air Part 2", 1.03 "Air Part 3", 1.04 "Darkness", 1.05 "Light", 1.05 "Water")

Young's command was put to the test when scientists on Earth thought that they had found a way to power the Stargate to dial home. Young asked for a delay in the procedure while his crew investigated its feasibility. Lt. Gen. Jack O'Neill said that the order to implement the procedure came from the President, so Young was forced to obey, even with grave reservations. Rush warned the scientists that they were going to blow up the ship instead, so he and his team sabotaged the procedure. After this failure, IOA representative Dale Strom suspected that Young was the saboteur and wanted to put conditions on the Destiny crew's use of the communications stones as a way of punishment, but O'Neill interrupted him on Young's behalf. At that moment, Young felt that the crew would have only themselves to rely upon if they wanted to get home safely. (SGU: 1.06 "Earth")

Young abandons Rush on a planet
Young swaps bodies with an alien to rescue Rush
Aliens attack Destiny

Young and Rush continued to have disagreements, but the one that sealed their mistrust and hatred for each other was when Rush was the first to find that Sgt. Spencer had committed suicide. Instead of reporting it, Rush took the handgun from the scene and placed it in Young's quarters. The discovery of the weapon led to Young's having to step down while awaiting trial. Camile Wray took command and Rush used this to his advantage by gaining full control over his investigations. The highest priority for his team was the unlocking of the Neural Interface Chair that Young had stationed guards outside of because he knew it was dangerous to use. With Young out of the way, Rush was able to devote his team's efforts to studying the Chair. Dr. Jeremy Franklin decided to sit in the Chair when he was alone in the room and paid dearly for it: he was left in a deep catatonic state. Young accused Rush of pushing Franklin to sit in the Chair and once again, the two men were at odds. (SGU 1.10 "Justice")

When another great discovery in the form of an abandoned alien shuttle was found, Young took the opportunity to be alone with Rush on the planet to confront him about Rush's framing him. The two men got into a physical altercation that left Rush unconscious. Young abandoned him there, claiming that Rush had fallen in a land slide and couldn't make it through the Stargate in time to beat the Destiny countdown. (SGU 1.10 "Justice")

Rush managed to get inside the abandoned ship and accidentally triggered a beacon. He was captured by the ship's alien builders, who took him to their mothership and placed him in a tank. They attempted to probe his mind. Young wasn't aware of this until after he used the communication stones to report the recent casualties to Earth and was connected to one of the aliens instead. Rush had taken a communication stone from the set and the aliens now had possession of it. Because of their proximity, Young and the alien swapped bodies when the link was established. Young discovered Rush in the tank and released him, but the connection was discontinued before he could help Rush escape. Rush killed the alien and managed his own escape, rescuing a captured Chloe Armstrong in the process. (SGU 1.11 "Space")

The aliens that captured Rush and Chloe were obsessed with the Destiny and were following it as best they could. Their aim was to weaken the shields in order to board her, so every time they encountered the ship, they bombarded it until the it returned to FTL. The attacks did help the crew to put aside their personal differences and unite, but Young's yelling at the civilians to get the shields up and ordering the firing on the ship when they knew Chloe was aboard didn't win many over to his side. (SGU 1.11 "Space", 1.12 "Divided")

The Destiny managed to escape from the aliens during this attack, regaining Rush and Chloe in the process, but the aliens had a new way to track the elusive ship: they placed a transmitter inside Rush's chest. (SGU 1.12 "Divided")

Rush and Wray conspire to take control of Destiny
Young interrogates Telford about Lucian Alliance
Young is taken hostage by Lucian Alliance

Young's command style often brushed the civilians the wrong way. He knew that there were those who were conspiring against him, so he asked Eli Wallace to use the kinos to spy on them. His suspicions turned out to be true when Dr. Rush and Camile Wray, Icarus Base's IOA human resources liaison, attempted to separate the military from the civilians. Young managed to infiltrate the civilians' side of the ship and the coup was ended. Some of the hard feelings were smoothed over when some of the crew had a month-long stay on a planet that seemed to have been created just for them. As a matter of fact, Young helped the civilians who wanted to stay by giving them the second shuttle in trade for taking back all of the military personnel. (SGU: 1.05 "Water", 1.11 "Divided", 1.13 "Faith")(SGU: 1.11 "Space")

Even after the transmitter implanted into Rush by the aliens was discovered and destroyed, the aliens turned to another method of tracking the Destiny: they still had the communication stone and were able to hijack Lt. James to commit sabotage that caused one of the FTL modules to explode. The ship could not get back into FTL until they repaired this damage, and in the period of several weeks, the ship drifted in the void between galaxies. The aliens discovered them there and attacked, but once again, the ship was returned to FTL when Dr. Franklin reawakened long enough to volunteer to sit in the Chair once again. But then, the man inexplicably vanished after saving the ship. (SGU: 1.10 "Space", 1.15 "Sabotage")

Rush himself managed to interface successfully with the Chair by buffering the flow of information into his subconscious mind. He learned that the password to the ship's systems was based on the number of chromosomes in human DNA, forty-six. The scientists programmed a routine to try all of the combinations, but something like that could take years to be successful. In the meantime, the crew continued to settle into life on the ship until they discovered that Col. David Telford was the spy who gave away their position on Icarus Base that led to the Base's destruction. Telford had worked undercover with the Lucian Alliance for about a year, and apparently he was discovered and brainwashed. Young broke the brainwashing by taking Telford (who was in Rush's body during a communications stone link) close to death by having the air taken out of his quarters. Rush, in the meantime, had been captured by the Lucian Alliance and was forced to work on dialing Destiny from another naquadria-rich planet. (SGU: 1.14 "Human", 1.18 "Subversion", 1.19 "Incursion Part 1", 1.20 "Incursion Part 2")

While Young was interrogating Telford and then suffocating him, MSgt. Ronald Greer and Lt. Scott were guarding the door. Scott began to question Young's actions, but Greer remained steadfast. The difference between these two young men was trust: Greer trusted his commanding officer unconditionally, while Scott questioned his commander's motivations. Scott was angry at Young for not telling him that the brainwashing could be broken by such drastic measures, but at the same time, Young made it clear that he was the commander and that Scott should have followed his orders without question. It was supposed to be a secret what was happening to Telford, but Scott had divulged the information to Camile Wray, hoping that she'd be able to stop the torture. (SGU: 1.18 "Subversion", 1.19 "Incursion Part 1", 1.20 "Incursion Part 2")

Telford told Young that the Lucian Alliance were planning to board Destiny and claim it as their own. With Rush's help, Commander Kiva's group successfully dialed the nine-chevron code, but at the same time, Col. Samantha Carter was bombarding the planet from her Daedalus-class starship Hammond. Like Icarus Base before it, the Alliance base blew apart because the naquadria in the planet's core was highly unstable and subject to the energy blasts from Carter's ship. (SGU: 1.19 "Incursion Part 1", 1.20 "Incursion Part 2")

The Alliance group gained control of the Destiny and separated the military personnel from the civilians after Kiva and Telford were discovered shot and unconscious. The Alliance's second-in-command Dannic thought that Young's group had attacked them, but in reality, Telford and Kiva had shot each other when Kiva discovered Telford attempting to give control of the ship back to Rush's team. Dannic was so angry that he declared that he was going to "put an end" to the conflict, apparently by executing all of his military hostages. (SGU 1.19 "Incursion Part 1", 1.20 "Incursion Part 2")

Personal Life

Emily Young
Lt. Tamara Johansen
Col. David Telford

Young's personal life is defined by his relationships with two women: his wife Emily who is back home on Earth and Lt. Tamara Johansen with whom he had an affair that left her pregnant.

When he was first marooned on Destiny, Young desperately tried to convince Emily that he'd do everything he possibly could to return home. He was able to visit her by swapping bodies with Telford through the use of the communication stones. While Telford attempted to remove Young from command, Young used this time to convince Emily that he still loved her and needed her. The two even had sexual intercourse while Young was in Telford's body. During the act, the communications link was temporarily severed, and Telford experienced first-hand the intensity of Young's and Emily's relationship. Since he wanted to have command of Destiny and was indeed intended to be the leader of the expedition, Telford decided to undermine Young in as many ways as possible. Telford saw the opportunity to weaken Young by using his free time to get to know Emily and gain her trust. He tried to put a wedge between them by insinuating that Young had resumed his affair with Johansen. Young took advantage of a swap with a strong, able-bodied soldier to beat Telford down to the ground when he discovered Telford outside Emily's house. (SGU: 1.03 "Air Part 3", 1.07 "Earth", 1.09 "Life")

As the only medic aboard the ship, Johansen was basically the ship's chief medical officer and had the authority to override Young's orders if she felt it necessary. She executed this authority when she disabled Telford with a sedative when he was abusing Young's body during a communications stone link. Johansen was also in the command chain, so when both Young and Scott were on a planet, Johansen was put in charge of Destiny. Young trusted Johansen to conduct physiological analyses of the crew and to report to him if there were any problems. When he learned of her pregnancy and that the baby was his, he promised his support. He grew protective of her and didn't wish for her to go through the Stargate on missions, but Johansen insisted that she be treated as an officer and as a contributor to the survival of the group. (SGU: 1.03 "Air Part 3", 1.06 "Water", 1.15 "Lost")

Since neither Young nor Telford reported the fight that they had in front of Emily's house, Telford was free to pursue Emily. After Young broke Telford's brainwashing, the two men seemed to return to being the friends that they had been from years ago. Their trust of each other came to the fore when Telford pretended to be loyal to the Lucian Alliance after they boarded Destiny and devised a plan with Young's support to help Young regain control of the ship. Unfortunately, Telford was discovered by Commander Kiva and the two simultaneously shot each other. Kiva's second-in-command Dannic concluded that the two were attacked by Young's soldiers, so he gathered Young and his military subordinates into a room with the apparent intention of executing them. (SGU: 1.19 "Incursion Part 1", 1.20 "Incursion Part 2")

Hobbies and Other Interests

  • Movies: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (SGU 1.08 "Time")
  • Games: Chess (SGU 1.13 "Faith")

Injuries, Illnesses/Sicknesses, Deaths

  • Injured during evacuation of Icarus Base: Young was the last to leave Icarus Base through the Stargate because he stayed behind to look for and obtain the case containing the Ancient Communications Stones and their console before going to an unknown destination. As he was running up the ramp, he was thrown violently through the Stargate and clear across the 'gate room aboard the Destiny. His injuries were serious. He had several cracked ribs, was severely bruised, and had a concussion that resulted in neuropraxia. He suffered a seizure and temporary paralysis and had to resort to using his Hekler & Koch UMP submachine gun as a crutch. When Telford first did a body-swap with him via the Stones, Lt. Johansen gave him a strong sedative to prevent Telford from doing more harm to Young's body. Telford was more accommodating during his next swap by using the crutch Young asked him to use in a hand-written note he had left near the Stone's console. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.03 "Air Part 3", 1.04 "Darkness")
  • Cuts and bruises from a fight: When Young confronted Rush about Rush's framing him for the murder of Sgt. Spencer, the two men were alone on a planet. Their argument ended with a fist fight and Young abandoned an unconscious Rush on the planet. Young returned to the Destiny in the knick of time, claiming that Rush fell during a rock slide. Young's own cuts and bruises backed up that claim. (SGU 1.10 "Justice")
  • Cuts and bruises from Lucian Alliance invasion: Young and most of the military and civilian population aboard Destiny were taken hostage by the Lucian Alliance who managed to invade the ship. Alliance commander Dannic struck Young across the face, producing a cut across his nose. Young was only temporarily subdued from the blow. (SGU 1.20 "Incursion Part 2")

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Further Reading

  • Col. Everett Young: 40’s handsome, capable, former SG team leader. Like the Jack O’Neill of ten years ago, but Young’s edges have tended to sharpen over time. He requested permission to serve the remainder of his commission on Earth upon marrying his wife, Hailey, two years ago, but for now he’s temporary commander of a secret off world base. The loss of two members of his team several years ago has taught him never to take anything for granted, and be prepared for anything. He stays on top of his team so they stay alive. (Casting Breakdown)
  • "Colonel Everett Young is the commanding officer on Icarus Base when this series of events forces us through the Stargate and they end up aboard this ship, the Destiny. And then, of course, within that, I, as the colonel, certainly take it seriously the responsibility of that. But boy, do I respect the man that I play; there's a lot of strength and stillness in him." (Louis Ferreira, MGM Character Profile video)
  • "If we start at the top in terms of crew ranking, Colonel Young is my character’s nemesis, there’s no doubt about that, and it’s quite serious. These guys are not having a petty conflict. Without giving too much away, there’s an episode, which we’ve yet to shoot, where a tragedy takes place aboard the Destiny and Rush tries to frame Young. They hate each other that much. Young is a soldier, while Rush is a scientist, and they just don’t get one another. As soon as they end up on the Destiny, the colonel is all about getting everyone home, and Rush is all about ‘How do we avoid that?’ So they’re against each other from day one and that’s been developing beautifully over the past six or seven weeks of filming." (Robert Carlyle, Reprint: Official Stargate Magazine Interview, Issue 29, July/August 2009)
  • "TJ had an affair with her colonel so that's kind of a very icky subject because he's her senior and that relationship is sort of dealt with and it's a little bit of an elephant in the room. You're military and then you're stuck on a ship in the middle of space with a guy you had an affair with, that's weird." (Alaina Huffman, Moviehole interview, August 11, 2009)

Actor

--DeeKayP 10:17, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

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