On the Destiny, some of the crew are being affected by hallucinations so strong that it’s affecting their judgment and impairing their day to day activities. Lt. James hallucinated that Lt. Scot has sex with her and then leaves her behaving rudely saying that he cannot be with her. She demands that he chooses between her & Chloe but he brushes her away. She lifts a lamp and hits him on the back of the head with it and is horrified that she has killed him. Dale Volker who has claustrophobia is unable to open the door to his quarters and starts yelling. As others later open the door he chalks it off as a simple malfunction but in the hallway he finds himself trapped within walls that didn’t exist a while back.

Lt. Scot imagines that he sees his son Matthew running in the hallways and chases after him. Dunning starts scratching at an itch and gets panicky feeling that a snake is inside him and is cutting himself to get it out. Greer imagines that he sees Wray conspiring with other civilians to take over the ship and starts to spy on her. Rush sees shadows but when he approaches it there is no one there. As TJ examines the ones affected it soon becomes apparent that the ones affected have all been on a planet recently and suspects that something affected them there. Just then, T.J. radios Young, telling him she has found the cause. T.J. presents Young with what she has found; a tick-like bug is embedded in Scott’s scalp, just above the back of the neck. She passed it over on her first examination because it is so small. T.J. speculates that the ticks inject a venom causing the hallucinations, and believes that removing them is the way to solve the problem. Scot is first to go and he reacts violently at first. The tick goes from him and jumps onto Chloe, who while passing another section of the ship sees her dead father.

Meanwhile Greer sees Wray & Rush talking privately and says that he will not let the two of them conspire to take over the ship. It is Eli who finds Chloe talking to what she thinks is her father. Rush finds himself in a tank filling with water and then suddenly he is out of it but sees a blue alien stalking him. Using the venom from the squiggly alien, TJ is able to remove the ticks from the others and they are killed. Rush prevents Greer from killing Wray, although she gets a deep wound. Scot then subdues Rush who is still seeing more blue aliens and TJ clears everyone from the ticks. As the episode ends, Destiny drops out of FTL and dials to a planet that seems habitable. Young decides to send out a team, not letting the tick incident deter him. He radios Scott and orders him to ready his team.

During a meeting in the gate room Col. Young confirms to the rest of the crew that Destiny is flying across the void between galaxies. This means that Destiny won’t make any Stargate connections any time soon, so Young is imposing strict food and water rationing. Rush then informs Young that Destiny will fall short of her next jump and is beginning to conserve energy. He also suggests getting in touch with a scientist back on Earth, Amanda Perry, a quadriplegic who might be able to assist them in increasing the FTL drives’ efficiency.

Initially Vanessa James volunteers to switch bodies with Amanda but she is soon spooked by the effort it takes to use the ventilator and move in a wheelchair, so Camille Wray takes over. Camille is willing to get used to the difficulty just to get to spend some time with her lover in their home. As Amanda gets to work with Rush and the others, the ship is rocked by a violent explosion. Perry and Rush are working in the gate room, when the Stargate starts dialing in. Concerned, Rush radios Greer to send a team in.

Quickly, Greer and other military personnel prepare themselves and run to the gate room. By the time they arrive, Greer tells the two to leave, but Rush assures him that they don’t need to be concerned. To his surprise, Chloe, Eli and Scott make it through. When they lower their weapons, Greer and Scott joyfully reunite. Eli tells the others how  he noticed Destiny’s address on the bottom of the kino. Then they discover a robot who makes repairs on the ship and can fix the damaged sections which got affected by the explosion. While they wait, Brody introduces his moonshine, which he made in his lab, to the others who all relish the opportunity to have some alcoholic drink no matter how bad it is.

While taking a break from working, Amanda and Rush let their mutual attraction for each other get the better of them and they kiss. However Rush stops it as he says that he just had to go through his wife’s death again and cannot go  through with it. They do comfort each other. They also discover how the sabotage happened – when Lt. James freaked out, she left the stones with cleansing it; a blue alien also took the stones at their end and switched bodies with James and sabotaged the ship. Franklin, still in a catatonic state since using the chair, now briefly speaks to state that he wants to be led to the chair. The reason is that the alien ships start to attack Destiny and by using the chair Franklin can guide Destiny away from the aliens. However, he vanishes once the work is one.

Amanda and Rush say their goodbyes and she switches back into her body while Camille bids her lover farewell and rejoins the crew back on Destiny.

Taken from Bizarro Central’s books section:

It’s Shatner VS Shatners!

It’s the first ShatnerCon with William Shatner as the guest of honor!  But after a failed terrorist attack by Campbellians, a crazy terrorist cult that worships Bruce Campbell, all of the characters ever played by William Shatner are suddenly sucked into our world.  Their mission: hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner.

Featuring: Captain Kirk, TJ Hooker, Denny Crane, Rescue 911 Shatner, Singer Shatner, Shakespearean Shatner, Twilight Zone Shatner, Cartoon Kirk, Esperanto Shatner, Priceline Shatner, SNL Shatner, and – of course – William Shatner!

No costumed con-goer will be spared in their wave of destruction, no redshirt will make it out alive, and not even the Klingons will be able to stand up to a deranged Captain Kirk with a lightsaber.  But these Shatner-clones are about to learn a hard lesson…that the real William Shatner doesn’t take crap from anybody.  Not even himself.

It’s Shatnertastic!

So when we left the series Chloe, Eli, Greer & Scott were stranded on the planet due to the tunnel caving in and Destiny moved back into FTL and left the system. Lt. Riley finds out that soon Destiny will be out of range of the planet that the 4 are stuck on and unless something is done soon, they will be lost forever as Destiny will be heading out of this Galaxy and onto the next. Within minutes of this explanation power shuts down in systems of the ship.

According to Rush, he believes the ship is going into a power saving mode, though life support is still fully operational; Rush says he will find a way to work around the problem, though Brody suggests they shouldn’t, since Destiny must be doing it for a reason. Meanwhile, Riley believes the power loss may be due to the fact that Destiny is old and that the computers are malfunctioning. Meanwhile, on the planet the 4 lost ones realize that they only have enough water for 2 days and will have to dig out from the tunnels to search for more. Eli deduces how to reach Destiny by drawing three overlapping circles; they can’t dial straight to Destiny, but if they can reach gates in between, they can catch up to it. However, there is a 50/50 chance they will go the wrong way and run into planets they already visited.

While trying to get out, a part of the tunnel caves in on top of Greer, knocking him unconscious  and he is separated from the other 3. By the time he comes the other have made their way on without him as they can’t contact him. Greer frantically manages to dig his way out and tries to catch up with them. Scott, Eli & Chloe make it outside the tunnels and go to the Stargate and dial out to another planet; Greer just misses them as he comes out of the tunnels. The other 3 encounter a dinosaur like creature on the first planet that they enter and leave immediately.  On Destiny, while rescue attempts are being made to find their lost team members, TJ informs Young that she is pregnant and that he is the father. As Greer waits at the planet’s Stargate he is met by Lt.James and team and they bring him back to Destiny.

Although Greer is returned back to the crew, they still haven’t been able to get Eli, Chloe and Scott. As the ship moves back into FTL, Greer retires sullenly to his quarters. And the 3 lost crew know that they have just missed dialing to Destiny’s stargate and perhaps can never find their way back to them.

In one of the most memorable episodes of Star Trek TNG, The Royale, the crew of the Enterprise meets up with a lost early explorer from Earth. Or rather his remains. When the debris of a 21st century NASA space ship turns up around a planet of a previously unmapped solar system, the crew is puzzled. Initial scans of the planet show it to be quite inhospitable: Nitrogen, methane, liquid neon, surface temperature -291 degrees Celsius and wind speeds up to 312 meters per second.

They are lead to a structure that surround breathable air on the planet – even more curious. Commander Riker, Lts Data & Worf beam down to investigate and are confronted  by a revolving door that leads to a 20th century hotel & casino – The Royale. There’s tons of people there, playing cards & gambling but none of them are real. They interact with the ‘fake’ people who are intent on going about their ways. On further investigation, Data finds traces of  human dna and leads the team to one of the hotel rooms on another floor. They find a human skeleton, who had died 283 years ago, under the covers of a bed. The skeleton remains belonged to a NASA astronaut, a colonel Richley, whose crew met up with the unknown aliens who created the Royale on this planet.

Finding a diary that the colonel had maintained, the away team learns that Richey was the sole survivor of an alien contaminant that killed all the others on his ship. He then found himself in the Hotel Royale exactly as described in the novel he found in his room. He managed to survive there for 38 years, learning that the aliens created the hotel for him out of guilt using the novel on the shuttle as a guide. Unknown to the aliens, the recreation of the clichéd and shallow characters of the book only served as a hell for the colonel. He welcomed death as it would release him from it. They crew pay their last respects to the lonely explorer and leave the planet after figuring out how to leave the hotel.

A huge favourite of Star Trek & DS9 fans in particular, I just watched the season 4 episode Little Green Men last night post download. This episode is very Quark centric, along with Nog & Rom. The premise of the episode is that Quark takes his nephew Nog & his brother Rom on a newly gifted Ferengi shuttle from DS9 to Earth, as Nog is entering Starfleet Academy. After a going away party for Nog, where the young cadet also sells of some of his belongings in order to raise some capital, Quark takes Nog & Rom aboard his new seemingly perfect little shuttle.

He has also stashed away a load of kemocite which he plans to trade at a sizeable profit once Nog has been safely deposited on Earth. However, as the reach Earth Rom finds out that the ship was sabotaged; Rom says that if he can flood the cargo hold with plasma, its reaction with the kemocite should allow him to shut down the warp core. They do so but the reaction is that they also get transorted into the past – 1947 to be exact. They land on Earth unconscious and are found by the US army.

Now 1947 humans haven’t met any Ferengi or any other aliens and initially only the scientist on the base and his fiance nurse wish to communicate with them and gain new knowledge. The army men are a whole lot more suspicious and would like to know if they have any weapons and whether there is any immediate danger to Earth in the form of an alien attack. And the universal translators do not work  at first making communication extremely tough. Frightened at first and unsure of what to do, Quark becomes more confident when the translators are fixed and the humans and Ferengi can now understand each other. Quark is sure that he can manipulate this event into his benefit and profit from the greed in humans during that period of Earth’s history.

Only the scientist and the nurse are interested in the Ferengi for good will & learning new things. The military later turns hostile and it looks like their plans for the aliens might not be good at all. However the 3 Ferengi are saved by the intervention of Odo – the shapeshifter has snuck into their shuttle in order to keep an eye on Quark and now helps them to escape back to their ship. The scientist and the nurse come to their aid as well and soon the 4 non-humans are back in the shuttle and on their way back. They usean atomic explosion to ignite the kemocite in the same way and make their way back to their own time. Nog is dropped off at Starfleet academy and Quark, Rom & Odo go back to DS9.

While entirely entertaining and funny this episode lacks credible content towards the end. It seems rushed and is too quick to resolve all the issues. This should have ideally been a 2 part or 3 part episode arc with lots more interaction between the 1947 humans and the 3 Feregis plus Odo helping them out.  The solution was too easy in the end and it left me feeling incomplete once I watched it. Don’t get me wrong, it still is a very good episode but it could have been better.

The repository of knowledge chair which was deemed to be highly dangerous and which Col. Young had asked everyone to stay away from proves to be too tempting for Dr. Rush. Taking Brody’s help Rush  finds a way to modify the chair in such a way that no harm comes to those using it, and this is the only way to unlock control of Destiny. Young is upset but Brody says that with or without his help Rush was gonna use the chair.

Meanwhile Rush is led to a visionary quest in his mind – he is back on Earth and in his house. He meets his ailing wife but goes about his way as he is aware that this is just an illusion. While at the university teaching his class, Rush sees a lot of Ancient symbols streaming in front of him. in his home office, the walls are completely plastered with papers full of notes and calculations, as well as a whiteboard filled with more calculations. Then Daniel Jackson comes to meet him at the university to talk about the Stargate program.

Rush already knows what Daniel wants to talk to him about; the Stargate program. He apparently knows what he is about to be told about the ninth chevron and the Icarus project. He admits that this already happened; he is experiencing a vision of what already happened two years ago, a side-affect of what he is trying to accomplish in the present. Young wants Rush removed, but Brody says that only Rush can disengage the interface safely; if he is forced out, it could kill him. Brody also reveals that they created a buffer to slow down the transfer of information and limit it to a small portion of his memory center; Rush is having a semi-lucid dream whilst gathering the information. Once he finds enough clues, he will simply have to walk through a certain door, and he will return, hopefully unharmed. Since T.J. believes he is stable for now, Young allows the experiment to continue, but orders Brody to pull the plug should that change.

By this time Destiny comes out of FTL near a planet and Lt. Scott, Greer, Chloe & Eli set out to explore it with just 6 hours showing on the clock before the ship goes off into FTL again. On the surface near the gate they find some ruins which does not look to be of a highly advanced culture. They go into a network of tunnels and run into a giant spider which Greer kills by shooting his machine gun. However the tunnel collapses sealing the team inside and Young sends another team to dig them out. Although they try to blast a new opening, it only makes things worse and Scott orders the team to go back to the ship and leave his group behind.

On the ship Rush comes out of his vision after saying goodbye to his wife. He has learned a lot about the ship while on his vision but not enough to stop the ship. As the countdown ends, Destiny takes off into FTL leaving Eli, Chloe, Scott & Greer on the planet and stuck in the dark tunnels.  Rush tells Young that he will work on gaining the controls of the ship in order for Young to get back the team stranded on the planet.

Very cool looking and exciting trailer for the new Predators movie considered a sequel to the Predator & Predator 2 films.

The tensions after the unsuccessful attempt by the civilians to take over the ship haven’t completely died down. Col. Young in an attempt to cool things down has ordered the soldiers to try and bridge back relations with the rest and himself tries to patch things up with Dr.Rush. Suddenly Destiny drops out of FTL and into normal space but there are no planets nearby and the stargate hasn’t dialed either. They notice that there is star in front of them; one similar to Earth’s sun and which Destiny was not aware off. It was the proximity to the sun’s gravity which caused the ship to drop out of FTL.

Because of this, Destiny is now performing a parabolic course around the sun, which will take a few weeks. By the time Destiny leaves the system, it will resume its course. Rush also makes another discovery; there’s a planet almost identical to Earth in size and climate orbiting the star, and it’s within shuttle range. In investigating the reason Destiny did not know about this system, Rush and Eli can find no glitch. A team comprised of Scott, Greer, T.J, and Dr. Caine take the shuttle to the planet and land near some woodland. They exit the shuttle to check the surrounding area. T.J. takes a sample of water from a stream and tests it’s purity. Discovery of a kiwi like fruit brings excitement to the team and they bring back supplies of plant life.

Rush has calculated that Destiny is going to jump back into FTL in four weeks, two days, and seven hours, and suggests they use the time to send some people on the planet. So it is decided to let a team go down to the planet for that duration in a shuttle and stock up on supplies; when the Destiny comes back into range the team will join them back. Once on the planet Lt. Scott hands out jobs & assignments and pitching of tents and shelter. As the weeks pass the people on the planet have a great time and are enjoying the outdoors, playing make-shift soccer matches and swimming in the lake. They also discover a strange & alien looking obelix which emits a strange light & radiation towards the end of the month. By this time, Lt. Scott gets the team to ready their supplies and head on their way back to Destiny – but there is a catch. Some of the people don’t want to leave the planet!

The team becomes divided and has arguments as to whether the aliens who created the planet & the obelisk would be hostile or not and that staying back would mean death. Finally, T.J. admits she is pregnant, a fact only previously known to Chloe, and she can’t bear the thought of raising her child on Destiny. Scott reports the problem with Young, who is adamant that they return. Scott tells him that, in total, eleven people have decided to stay, including Caine, Chloe, T.J., and himself. Later, Young tells the news with Rush and Wray; Scott believes he has the obligation to protect those on the planet, and wonders what to do with them. Wray believes they shouldn’t force them out of the planet; Rush believes otherwise, since they can’t risk any more losses. He believes Young should retrieve those who wish to return, and then have the rest rounded up by force. Young however, has another plan in mind.

Young decides to take the damaged shuttle which can land on the planet but will not be able to make it out of orbit again. He lets some people who want to stay, stay back on the planet provided that all the military personnel come back with him to Destiny. He will give the people who stay back on the planet the damaged shuttle for shelter and fly-overs. Most of the military personnel come as ordered, and he convinces T.J. and Scott that the crew aboard the ship need them just as much as those on the planet will. Caine and about six other civilians remain behind, while everyone else comes back without incident. Chloe decides to come back to Destiny. The ship soon jumps into FTL again and the crew, minus 7 who stayed back on the planet, enjoy a feast in the mess hall.

One of the best episodes in any of the Star Trek franchises, and certainly one of the funniest, The Trouble With Tribbles takes place on Deep Space Station 7 in a section of space that has a disputed planet – disputed between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. According to the Organian treaty, each side is given a chance to show who is better suited to develop the planet’s resources. The Enterprise answers an emergency hail from DS7 but Captain Kirk is annoyed to find out that the alarm was raised to protect the storage of a grain, the only kind which can be grown on the planet. On orders from an admiral Kirk is forced to place guards to protect the grain. Meanwhile the Klingons appear, headed by Captain Koloth (played by William Campbell).

The Klingons claim that they are for shore leave and Kirk reluctantly allows them to send down only 12 soldiers at a time and he also allows his own crew to take shore leave on the station. While at the station’s bar, Uhura is gifted a tribble, a small furry creature that seems to purr in a manner that makes humans (and Spock too even though he won’t admit it) calm and affectionate towards the creatures. Unfortunately, feeding it only creates a problem – the tribbles multiply like crazy. Each tribble can deliver 10 at a time and soon they are all over the station and the ship.

While on shore leave Scotty & Chekov get into a bar room brawl with Koloth’s first officer Korax and it develops into a big fight between the humans and the Klingons. Funny part – when a drunk Korax insults Kirk, Scotty restrains Chekov from hitting the Klingon but when the drunk officer insults the Enterprise twice Scotty hit him. Equally funny is when Scotty admits to throwing the first punch and the bemused and embarrassed look on Kirk’s face when he finds out that insulting him was a lesser sin for Scotty than insulting the ship!

The humour carries on to the interaction between Kirk and Nilz Baris, a Federation official in charge of the planet development project. And the reactions to seeing lots of tribbles on the ship including the bridge. It also seems that the tribbles seem to like humans and Vulcans but do not like Klingons. This is crucial in unmasking Baris’ assistant Arne Darvin as a Klingon spy – the tribbles emit a shrill sound when in proximity to him just as they do with all Klingons. In turn the noise they make seems to make the Klingons nervous. Hence at the end, Scotty beams all the tribbles from their ship…onto the Klingon ship!

Truly classic episode and it has it’s fans far and wide. A must watch for anyone even if you are not a Star Trek fan.

After Space, the divisions between the crew of the Destiny becomes very obvious and to the forefront. Chloe suffers a nightmare that brings back her memories of the abduction by the blue aliens. Camile’s people join Rush and tae advantage of the absence of Young & Scott – who have taken a shuttle to take a look at the ship’s hull & to dislodge & destroy a alien fighter, which has docked on Destiny – and take control of the ship.

Rush has control of most of the vital systems. He seals off a series of doors, creating two separate sections of the ship; one side has the civilians, while the other contains the military. Young, Scott and Greer are with Eli in the control interface room, which is on the military side of the ship. There, Eli discovers that Rush stopped the transfer prematurely, preventing him from taking control of the ship’s life support. Young radios Rush and notes that he has his full attention, and wishes to hear Rush’s demands. Rush asks that all military personnel are to relinquish their weapons, and submit to civilian authority, since he believes that Young is running the Expedition like a military dictatorship. When Young points out that Eli has control of life support, Rush counters with the fact that, since their side of the ship is much larger, and they have the hydroponics lab that is supplying some oxygen, it would take three days for the air supply to diminish completely. By this time, dehydration would claim those on Young’s side, and no side would win.

Slowly and methodically the military takes back control of the ship. It is also discovered that the blue aliens had placed a tracking device into the flesh of Dr. Rush. Using some of the venom of the alien on the planet that they had visited, TJ removes the tracking device from Rush and destroys it. After the ship jumps off into ftl, Young orders all the civilians back to their quarters. His brief talk with Camile indicates that the struggle for power isn’t done and that leaving Rush on the alien planet wasn’t a good idea.

Exotic, sexual, a mixed background, curvy as hell, you can’t go wrong with BarBara Luna. She’s of Italian, Hungarian-Jewish, Spanish, Portuguese and Filipino descent, and what a delightful recipe this is, resulting in a beautiful, multi-talented person.

Luna is famous for her appearance as Lt. Marlena Moreau & the alternative universe version of Moreau in the episode Mirror, Mirror. In this episode Kirk, McCoy, Uhura & Scotty are accidentally beamed to an alternative universe’s Enterprise. In our world Malena is a recently assigned Starfleet chemist for the USS Enterprise, while in the alternative universe she is also Kirk’s lover. Apparently she was the Captain’s partner in every way, and privy to all of his most private secrets. Lt. Moreau knew her Captain’s most sensitive secret of all: that he hid the deadly “tantalus device” in his quarters, and that with it, he could kill any enemy with the single touch of a button, without them even knowing what hit them.

Marlena is fueled by ambition in this mirror universe and that’s why she is with the captain. However, even knowing that something was amiss with the captain, in that he was not her Kirk but one from an alternative universe, she still came to his aid. When Kirk, Scotty, Uhura & McCoy are about to beam back to their world, she initially asks to come along. But it isn’t possible as the beam can only hold four lives. She stays back on her ship as our four heroes beam back to theirs.

Continuing on my theory that women in the 1960s were hotter than women of any other decade, let me present to you the absolutely charming, sexy, beautiful & demure Leslie Parrish who played Lt. Caroline Palamas in the classic episode Who Mourns For Adonais? Palamas was the archeology & anthropology officer of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk’s command and thus when the ship was confronted by a powerful alien being who dressed like, appear like and claimed to be an ancient Greek god, she joined the away team who met the being.

The alien who calls himself Apollo (an ancient Greek god) as moved by Palamas’ beauty, and quickly became infatuated with her. He transformed her standard uniform into a long peplos, which he felt was more appropriate attire. Appropriate for her and intoxicating for her male viewers. Wow, she is a sight to behold in that skimpy outfit which hides none of her curves.

On several occasions, Apollo left the remainder of the landing party alone, taking the young lady elsewhere to entertain her. This created tension between the alien and Scotty, who was also interested in Palamas; on two occasions, this drove Scotty to attack Apollo, with unfortunate results for the ship’s chief engineer. And, she began to develop feelings for Apollo, in return. Kirk knew that Apollo fed off attention and especially Palamas’ attention. So he ordered the young Lt to reject the “god”.

Heavy-hearted, Palamas left to meet with Apollo at his call, and on her captain’s orders she rejected him, pretending that her entire association with him was part of her study of alien civilizations. Apollo was first confused, hurt, and then enraged. He expended a great deal of power to impress her, summoning a storm and crafting a gigantic image of himself in the sky.

About this time, Spock and the Enterprise crew managed to pierce Apollo’s hand in places, and they attacked his power source through these holes. Apollo, having expended much of his energy in his rage, was unable to prevent the destruction of his temple. Without it, he was powerless, and he “spread himself on the winds”, joining his old companions in oblivion, an event that left Palamas weeping. But look at her power – she brought down a so called “god”!

A week passes by after the events of Justice (in reality for us a few months as the network wanted to wait until after the 2010 Olympics had ended) and Col Young is coming to terms with his decision of leaving Dr. Rush on the barren planet. Camille suspects that Young may have killed Rush due to tensions between the two and she confronts the former about it. When Young decides to report to Earth by using the communication stones, instead of his mind being switched with the body of a Stargate Command personnel,  Young finds himself on an alien spaceship!

He watches a blue alien on a platform in the ship. Meanwhile the alien who is now in Young’s body attacks the crew of Destiny. The stone is replaced and the minds are reversed back. What we later find is that Dr. Rush took one of the stones with him and he was found by the blue aliens on the barren planet, when he accidentally triggered a distress signal on the deserted ship on the planet. The aliens have probed Rush’s mind and are now interested in Destiny.

After the ship drops out of FTL drive, they see the aliens mothership following them and soon attacking them by using several smaller ships. One of the smaller shuttles breaches Destiny’s shield and cut a hole on the ship. They abduct Chloe and then take off in their ships. . Scott requests that they send the shuttle back out to retrieve Chloe, as the ship hasn’t tried to depart. Young denies the request. He also believes that the attack may have been a distraction to take prisoners. He wants to rescue her his way, by using the communication stones.

Once again Young uses the stones and switches bodies with an alien on the ship. In the blue alien’s body, Young explores the huge ship and finds to his surprise, a tank in which a very much alive Rush is kept. He frees Rush and convinces the scientist that he is Young. Meanwhile, Young’s body is kept restrained but the stones stop working due to the influence of the alien’s devices. Now the alien on the ship attacks Rush, who overpowers and kills it.

The alien ship begins to attack Destiny again, this time more aggressively. Knowing through Rush that Chloe is also on the ship, Rush goes in search of her and rescues her. Having learned the layout of the vessel, he takes her to the fighter bay. Meanwhile, Greer and Scott, having yet to launch the shuttle, notice that the fighters are retreating again, except for one. Rush and Chloe are in it and climb back aboard the Destiny and reunite with the crew.

In the mess hall, Rush tells Eli, Chloe, Scott, and Volker that after he was able to “free himself” from the “rock slide”, going along with Young’s claim, he entered the crashed ship, and began checking the systems and explains how the aliens found him. Later Rush & Young agree to put aside their differences for the sake of the crew. In the final scene, Rush meets with Wray in the hydroponics room. They both agree that Young is dangerous, and Rush points out that he was nearly killed when he tried to do something about it. She assures him that “Next time will be different.”

Justice is the 10th and mid-season finale of the first season of Stargate Universe. Spencer is found dead in his quarters, seemingly like a suicide with however one issue: there’s no gun. Greer, who found the body, reports back to his superiors and an investigation is on. Colonel Young has everybody meet in the Gate room, and announces their findings to the crew. Eli, Brody, Matthew Scott, Lisa Park and Vanessa James were playing poker in the Mess hall at the time of the murder, meaning they have an alibi, so they are put in charge of the investigation.

Eli & Scott find the gun in Col. Young’s room! Despite it being obviously a plot to undermine his authority, Young steps down as commander of the crew and puts Camile in charge. A hearing is called for with Camile prosecuting and Chloe defending. While the investigation is going on, Rush comes to Camile and asks that he will report to her but wants complete control of his science team. She agrees. Later Franklin sits in the chair and he is found convulsing and two electrodes stuck on the sides of his head.

Rush is berated by Young as being too scared to sit in the chair and hence encouraging Franklin to test it out. Destiny meanwhile comes out of FTL and the crew plan to visit a planet for supplies and anything useful. By then the Kino’s files, which have been tampered with, is recovered via backup by Eli and Young watches the screen as Dr. Rush is clearly shown removing the gun from Spencer’s room and placing it in Young’s quarters to frame him. The rest of crew is shown only Spencer committing suicide – not the part in which Rush enters the scene.

Camile relinquishes command to Young who decides to join the team that has gone down to the planet and confront Rush. The away team has found an alien vessel lying on top of a small hill. Their attempts to enter it is in vain but Rush wants to keep trying. Young sends everyone back to the Stargate and stays back with Rush in order to confront him. A scuffle occurs and when Rush refuses to agree to stop, Young head-butts him unconscious….and leaves Rush on the planet. As he steps through the gate into Destiny, he tells the others that a landslide caught Rush and that he was unable to save him.

The others do not believe Young, especially Eli, Camile and the scientists. However the crew settles back as the go to FTL. Later Rush is shown regaining consciousness and realizing in horror that he has been left behind on the barren planet.

Quite a few months late but I finally got to watch District 9, the much talked about, praised and discussed film by director Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson. For those who have not seen it, it’s very realistic shot; a lot of the movie is like a news documentary with some news footage & interviews thrown in. With themes of xenophobia, racism, segregation of sections of society, District 9 is inspired by events that took place in District Six, Cape Town during the apartheid era.

As you may know, a large mother ship approached earth and is stuck hovering over Johannesburgh after a peice of vital equipment drops onto our planet. The arthropod-like aliens are given refuge on Earth and are forced into slum like area called District 9. Humans have racist attitudes towards the aliens and derogatorily refer to them as ‘prawns’.  Sharlto Copely does a fine job as Wikus van der Merve, an MNU employee who is promoted to lead the movement of the aliens to a new area, district 10.

As the movie unfolds, Wikus is exposed to a dark liquid that the aliens use to power their ship. It is also has an adverse effect when some is spilled onto Wikus – it mutates his DNA into that of the ‘prawns’. He is soon treated as a lab experiment, as the MNU scientists discover that Wikus can now operate the alien weapons, which previously no human could do. When they decide to cut him open, Wikus escapes and as a fugitive finds shelter in District 9 and with ‘George’ and his son.

George & Wikus break into MNU and get the liquid fuel. After a tremendous stand off with the soldiers, Wikus let’s George & his son escape into the spaceship. George promises to come back in 3 years and help a mutating Wikus get back to be human again. Soon Wikus’s mutation is complete and he resembles the aliens completely. He makes metal flowers as gifts to his wife who hasn’t set eyes on him since the first signs of mutation. The illegal experiments on the aliens is brought to light and they are successfully moved to District 10.

Will the aliens return? Will they attack? Will George keep his promise and help Wikus? Unanswered questions that this wonderfully acted but dull at times film poses at the end.

I’ve often thought what I would do if I were on the TNG era USS Enterprise or the USS Voyager of Star Trek fame. Let’s say that I was a Lieutenant (well at age 33 I’d better be either a Lieutenant or Lieutenant-Commander atleast) from the Federation’s Starfleet assigned to one of these ships. I’d go about my duties and try to do my best to serve my planet and the Federation.

Once my duty shift was over, other than head back to my quarters and relax: what else would I have to do for fun? Head for the lounge area (10 forward) or the mess hall? Play games of poker along with my fellow officers? No, I’d go to one of the Hollow-suites. Ofcourse in this vivid imagination of mine, my dog Shawny is still alive and with me on the ship.

So I’d take my dog with me and head to the hollow-suite. I’d program the computer to run a relaxing simulation – a woods type area with lots of lush green grass and plenty of cool breeze. We’d walk down the path to a small lake or pond. I’d say “Computer, add boat” and a beautiful boat would appear on the lake – it will have soft cushions and arm rests too. We both would get onto the boat, where on one end my dog would curl up and lie down on her big cushion and one the other end I’d sit and recline back onto big pillows.

Something’s missing – ah yes food. From the replicator I’d get a big bowl of strawberry milk with huge strawberries in it for my dog and some dog food in another bowl. While she chowed down on that, I’d get a beer and a big ham sandwich. We’d eat our food and relax on the small boat, enjoying the water and the cool breeze until the time ran out on my time in the hollow-suite.

Or until I hear the code red alarms as those damn Borg attack us!

The episode stars with Chloe doing yoga in the observation room. Lt.Scott and the military men led some of the others in a physical training session. We also see Dr. Lisa Park getting intimate with one man and then later on ignoring him and having sex with another. TJ is worried about Spencer’s mental health.

Rush has Eli use the kinos to help search new sections of the ship that they have recently opened up. They discover the chair (pictured above), which is known as a Repository of Knowledge and connects to a person through nero-circuitry and may hold the master code to the ship’s systems. Meanwhile Col.Telford has struck a friendship with Col.Young’s wife Emily.

TJ is asked by Young to do pysch evaluations of everyone as he is worried about the crew. Using the stones, Scott goes to see the girl he got pregnant and finds out he has a son. He tells the girl that Scott wants to transfer his pay to her account so she can quit exotic dancing and go back to school, but the proud girl refuses. Camille Wray meanwhile, in the body of a young Caucasian soldier, goes to meet her lover Sharon. It takes little convincing for Sharon that the young lady in front of her is Camille.  They enjoy a day of good food, wine and sex.

Young finds out that Telford is visiting Emily and confronts the two. Emily says that he is just her friend but she also believes that Young is having an affair with a woman on the ship (believed to be TJ). Before Young can attack Telford, the latter has someone removed the stones, thereby severing the link. Later on Earth, Volker arrives in another body via the stones. Telford is seen exiting a house. He’s then assaulted by an airman. It is revealed that it wasn’t Volker but Young using the stones all along, so that he could assault Telford.

Rush is caught in a lie – in order to get someone to sit on the chair and activate the neuro-link, he falsified data about a planet, one year away, from where they can dial Earth. The brief happiness in the crew is brought down to a sudden death when they learn that the data is false. Thus ends a bad day, as Young puts it.