Why didn't they dial Earth when...

[wargrafix]

I think they were in too much shock to really be thinking of that.

[ancientaction]

yea, When Im thrown into a vat of Liquid Fire, my first thought is "what was my old phone number?"

[Cold Fuzz]

yea, When Im thrown into a vat of Liquid Fire, my first thought is "what was my old phone number?"

For me, it'd probably be, "Hmm, I don't think this particular shade of red is going to look too good on me." Followed immediately by. "Oh ****."

[Zleet]

I want to know why they didn't use the Communication Stones for the people to say goodbye to their families like Young said to O'Neill would need to happen of they couldn't find a way to save themselves.

Glad they didn't as i've hated all the uses of the stones so far as jarring soap opera emotion.

That said I doubt it would have been a good idea because what would have happened if someone went screaming for the hills in a stolen body rather than be returned to certain death.

[YutheGreat]

They can still do this now that the Destiny is fully charged right?

[BrianD]

I have to agree I don't think the stargate is capable of dialing Earth. Keep in mind on Icarus they tapped the gate into the core of the planet to obtain the necessary power to dial the 9 chevron address. It's doubtful the ship possesses that kind of ability.

[thekillman]

no.

the power of a star is not enough. well, of the entire star probably is, but first of all, a red dwarf is the looser among stars. it's like, just able to fuse hydrogen. only a brown dwarf, or "mega planet" is below a star. above it is everything else. even a white dwarf is better.

the energy output is much lower, and not just that, somebody calculated the energy hitting the destiny (using some guess work) is 10^14 or so. it's extremely stupid to dial earth with such a small amount of power. well, it could power earth for a day or so, but it's not enough to dial to earth

[bradly08]

according to water sneak peek Dr. Rush says that the Destiny has only

Spoiler:

about 40 Percent of its original power.

.

Damm you beat me to it

[Joey]

I have to agree I don't think the stargate is capable of dialing Earth. Keep in mind on Icarus they tapped the gate into the core of the planet to obtain the necessary power to dial the 9 chevron address. It's doubtful the ship possesses that kind of ability.

Thank you! My sentiments exactly.

Even if it does become possible, when the ship is at 100% power, (from what we know about Rush) I am fairly certain that Dr. Rush really wouldn't mind letting all of the people who want to leave do so so that he can have his giant shiny toy spaceship all to himself.

Whether the writers feel that way however, is another story...

[Lord Hurin]

This is still ridiculously powerful for a starship, though. If the Ancients were capable of building such powerful shielding technology (even ignoring the insane heat absorption requirements), space battles would become complete nonsense. You'd have to hurl something more powerful than a star at the enemy to damage a ship. That's just crazy.

Well, we can pick up and use solar power here on Earth and we're X hundred million miles away from the Sun. The ship was much, much closer so it's possible that it boosted the shields en route to the sun. Being so close to a sun and (presumably) having much more efficient ways of collecting the solar energy than we do here on Earth means that the shields are probably orders of magnitude more powerful in the recharge scenario...

[cpt_ahab]

People have given all the good answers above. And in order of importance I think they are:

(1) They didn't know what was happening until it was too late
(2) Rush is aware about the limitations of the ship's power supplies
(3) Technical difficulties, e.g. the problem of gravitational distortion and unknown point of origin

What about later (S2)?

Spoiler:

Much later we do get a return to this concept when Gin mentions it to Eli. We're aware that the crew did think about this, and that the main problem now is producing the math to make it work. Now that problem #1 is no longer relevant, they just have to deal with problems #2 and #3, which for the time being (late into season two) still are apparently insurmountable.

[garhkal]

I am more in line with 2 and 3..