Speculation/Discussion about the Destiny (Spoilers through S2)

[ciannwn]

How do you know it's older than Atlantis?

http://www.gateworld.net/news/2008/0...has_a_go.shtml

Stargate Universe is set on board a massive Ancient ship called the Destiny, millions of years older than even the city of Atlantis (story). The Ancients launched the automated ship millions of years ago to seed Stargates throughout many galaxies, with a second ship planned to follow it up and explore those planets. But they got busy with ascension, and never followed through on the plan.

It's all a little confusing because even though the above suggests that the Destiny is the seeding ship we then get the following further down the page -

The crew will travel to the far reaches of the universe, connecting with each of the previously launched Stargates, thus fulfilling the Destiny's original mission. Challenges will arise though as the ship comes into range of Stargates placed centuries ahead of the Destiny and the crew is unable to control the ship's navigational schedule. If someone is left behind, there is no way to go back for them, adding to the drama of encountering new races, enemies and adventures.

So is the Destiny the gate seeding ship or the second exploration ship?

[Yaskaleh]

The Destiny is probably more advanced IMO. The pegasus Ancients always felt more primitive and devolved than the older Milky Way Ancients.

[unluckynumber11]

A Psychotic computer AI that has been all alone for millions of years refuses to let them off of the ship

343 guilty spark?

[Raj_2006]

The Destiny is probably more advanced IMO. The pegasus Ancients always felt more primitive and devolved than the older Milky Way Ancients.

Thts wht i always thought, tht the Lanteans may had the most advance tech out out of all the ancients but they were not very smart plus the Alterans/Ancients/Atlanteans or Lanteans did survivie for millions of years.

[JeBuSBrian]

So is the Destiny the gate seeding ship or the second exploration ship?

That's exactly what I thought the first time I read it... And the 50th time. I'm guessing the description got screwed up. The ship they're on must be the 2nd ship, pre-programmed to follow after the first (the gate-seeder). Else, why would they mention a second ship at all?

[amconway]

Because Carter and/or McKay aren't there.

[kufan76]

As far as going thru the gate, the MALP would obviously detect the DHD, however the odds of them knowing that the ship is not controllable as far as effecting repairs or running ancient tech, thats precarious. In "the Pegasus Project" Weir tells Daniel that "there are sections of the city, and entire systems that we know nothing about." That would imply that they've found stuff that they don't have a clue what it's for. Also, In SGA season 3 "the return" the ancient lady was able to activate a pedestal, immediately take control of atlantis, shutting everyone else out, McKay made the comment, what is that, I've never seen that before.

So while the Destiny may be much much older, doesn't mean that sg personnel would be able to affect how the ship operates.

Also the ancients would have programmed the ship to defend itself against external, and internal threats.

[ciannwn]

That's exactly what I thought the first time I read it... And the 50th time. I'm guessing the description got screwed up. The ship they're on must be the 2nd ship, pre-programmed to follow after the first (the gate-seeder). Else, why would they mention a second ship at all?

It would make more sense for them to be on the exploration ship which was intended to have a crew.

I did wince at the -

But they got busy with ascension, and never followed through on the plan.

This gives the impression that the Ancients had the attention span of gnats. Even so, millions of years later they set off to the Pegasus galaxy on Atlantis.

In "the Pegasus Project" Weir tells Daniel that "there are sections of the city, and entire systems that we know nothing about." That would imply that they've found stuff that they don't have a clue what it's for.

A very useful plot device. The characters could find something new whenever a scriptwriter needed them to - an exploding tumour machine, the control console in 'The Game' and an Ascension Machine.

Also, In SGA season 3 "the return" the ancient lady was able to activate a pedestal, immediately take control of atlantis, shutting everyone else out, McKay made the comment, what is that, I've never seen that before.

"How can Helia take control of the city?"

"Easy. She just conjures up a console which nobody has ever seen before. It rises from the floor."

"Why didn't anyone suspect that there was something set in the floor? Didn't the edges show?"

"Um... let's hope that the viewers don't ask awkward questions."

[lunarleviathan]

Chances are they'll come up with some simple reason and then not bother to explain it very much. The show is supposed to have less emphasis on tech & the mythology, so I doubt they'll bother to try and come up with a reason why this Ancient ship is more difficult to control than any others even though it's older.

I like the idea of the ship having no kind of control interface at all other than a simple AI, making it probably almost impossible to reprogram without the appropriate equipment.

[Prior_of_the_Ori]

The way I see it, it might be that there will be several reasons why the Destiny (the exploration ship and not the seeding ship) got stuck on its course.

Its either governed by an AI or advanced computer system which prevents an alteration of its course. So perhaps over the course of the season or two, they might get to subtely alter the ships navigation system but it won't return home.

Or its possible that during the course of the first episodes, an alien race attacks the Destiny and damages its navigation system thus locking it into place.

EDIT: Its also possible in regards to the Ancients being busy with Ascension, perhaps it meant that they discovered Ascension finally and simply decided to join their Ascended kin.

[AVFan]

I'm not sure why, if you're on a ship you can't control, taking you to a place far from home you know nothing about, you just don't blow an easily fixable part of the hyperdrive with C4. My guess is that the ship would start off in the MW galaxy seeing as they hadn't gone to the Pegasus yet. Or maybe even still in the Ori galaxy (assuming we kept some people in the Ori galaxy). Either way, you could get off some sort of subspace message for a rescue.

Of course, the ship may still go at max sublight, but a ship with a hyperdrive could still easily mount a rescue.

But that wouldn't make much of a series, would it?

[s09119]

343 guilty spark?

Or HAL.

"How can Helia take control of the city?"

"Easy. She just conjures up a console which nobody has ever seen before. It rises from the floor."

"Why didn't anyone suspect that there was something set in the floor? Didn't the edges show?"

"Um... let's hope that the viewers don't ask awkward questions."

Yes, just because our crude cutting methods leave obvious edges must mean that the millions-year-old ancient alien race can't make something without visible edges.

Totally.

[ciannwn]

Yes, just because our crude cutting methods leave obvious edges must mean that the millions-year-old ancient alien race can't make something without visible edges.

Totally.

It would have been nice if somebody had said something like "Ancient craftsmanship is amazing." This would have indicated that the scriptwriter had actually thought about.

[Platschu]

Maybe a wild idea, but what if the Destiny could transfer itself through an opened wormhole? So there is a stargate on board, than they will dial an other gate and while the wormhole is open, the whole ship transform herself and the whole crew like an Asgard beam type technology through the wormhole, than she will rebuild herself on the other side, while she left the old stargate behind and the new stargate will be on the board. The crew could see only a flashlight, while they are changing places. Naturally the Destiny has smaller space vehicles or can fly with ZPMs. So Destiny could be a "baseship", because she can act like a fast moving cruiser or a not-movable base at the same time, but if they want to change places through wormhole than the special technology is depleted and Destiny can't move for weeks.

[The Prophet]

Well, even if they could alter the Destiny's course, where would they go? I assume they're millions of lightyears away, so even if they did reverse course it would still take a million years to arrive back in the Milky Way. The only thing to do would be to follow the trail of Gates, otherwise it'd just be the blackness of space with the occasional un-gated Planet here and there.

Also, I'm guessing that the Destiny makes jumps every period of hours/ days to the next location, possibly if this jump is bypassed it overloads the drive and destroys the ship due to some irreplaceable blown fuse. Thus they have a period of time to explore the nearby Stargate and region of space before they have to be back on the Destiny again before it enters hyperspace.

Sort of like Slider's with the handheld devices used for Sliding.