The Kino navigates in “Darkness” (image from MGM)
“Darkness”, written by Brad Wright, saw the return of Peter DeLuise to the Stargate franchise as its director. The original episode, “Fire”, ran long enough that the producers decided to split it into two and include some scenes that were part of the original script but had been cut because of time considerations.
After seeing the two-parter, “Darkness” and “Light”, Joseph Mallozzi wrote, “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.”
TV Guide describes the episode, “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.”
“Darkness” will be shown tonight, October 16, on the Syfy Channel (US) and Space (Canada) at 9 PM ET and 10 PM ET, respectively. The episode will be broadcast by Sky One (UK) on Tuesday, October 20, at 8 PM, and finally, on Friday, October 23, on the Sci Fi Channel (Australia) at 8:30 PM.
After viewing, you’re invited to return to the site to vote in the episode poll on the main page and discuss the episode here (in the comments), in our on-site forum, or at our LiveJournal Companion.
Guides to the Season One episodes can be found in our Stargate Wiki. And don’t forget the episode chatter that’s bound to take place from the actors, writers, producers, and the press that you can read from our Stargate Twitter Superfeed.
Last Week’s “Air Part 3” Ratings
Last week’s episode, “Air Part 3”, had a larger audience than the premiere on Syfy! The numbers were reported by SCI FI WIRE: “The second week of Stargate Universe did substantially better than the series premiere, according to Syfy, bucking the usual TV trend of shows dropping off after their debut episode. Universe showed a modest 4 percent growth in total viewers with just shy of 2.5 million people watching. But it made a huge gain of 22 percent among viewers ages 18-49 and 13 percent in the 25-54 age range.” These numbers don’t include the “Live + 7” data that will certainly up the scores.
And the report coming in from Digital Spy on the second week on Sky One in the UK is just as encouraging: “Stargate Universe continued to perform well for Sky1 last night, according to early viewing figures. The third episode of the Robert Carlyle-fronted sci-fi series, which aired during the 8pm hour, logged an impressive 765k (3.6%), making it the most-watched programme on the multichannel stations.”
Creative consultant Mallozzi commented in his weblog recently, “The ratings for the first three episodes have been solid, so solid in fact that thoughts are now turning to a prospective season two. We’ve started to pitch story ideas and vague notions with the aim to getting five scripts in play before we head off for our hiatus. … The game plan: 1) discuss the repercussions of our shocking finale, 2) confirm our general season arc, 3) establish our individual character arcs, 4) break some stories, and, most importantly, 5) come up with some good two word titles.”
