How did you guys know it was ...?

[Control_Chair]

Well, it was pretty obvious that the whole thing had to do with refueling in some form.

I was quite annoyed with the fact that a self-proclaimed geek like Eli didn't see it coming, since there are numerous references in sci-fi...It was one of the things that bugged me about the episode.
Okay, so say Young & Co. aren't willing to put their fate in Eli's hands. Say they still go ahead and send off the shuttle and prepare for the end but, for God's sake, at least acknowledge the possibility.

Agreed I found it rediculous that nobody on the ship reslised what was happening untill the last minuite. Like one of the characters said in Darkness, what are the chances of dropping out of FTL on the edge of a solar system? Combine this with carying out an areobraking manouvre in a gas giant and winding up on a colission course with a sun all by chance. It defies logic that no one realised the ship was doing it for some reason --> i.e. refuel.

[Sonicbluemustang]

It seems like it would have refueled to 100% imo.

[Dain]

Only because the refueling idea seemed obvious, that didn't mean the episode failed to surprise or was too easy to predict. In my eyes, the "obvious solution" seems no different from people rightfully expecting the team to find the limestone before the end of the pilot episode.

I certainly didn't expect the Destiny to dive into the star in such an awesome way.

Agreed I found it rediculous that nobody on the ship reslised what was happening untill the last minuite. Like one of the characters said in Darkness, what are the chances of dropping out of FTL on the edge of a solar system? Combine this with carying out an areobraking manouvre in a gas giant and winding up on a colission course with a sun all by chance. It defies logic that no one realised the ship was doing it for some reason --> i.e. refuel.

That was pretty obvious, but an even larger coincidence to appearing at the edge of a solar system was the initial areobreaking-course into the gas giant. That would have needed even more maneuvering and preparation work. Since the Destiny only needed the star itself, I'm a bit confused why it didn't beeline straight to the sun. Apart from just being a cool scene, of course.

Since many people predicted seom kind of refueling process straight away, the gas giant was perhaps intended as a Red Herring: its atmosphere could also conceivably have served as fuel. I certainly thought so.

Actually, a more common sci-fi solution would have been to depressurize a bunch of compartments on one side of the ship( manually, in this case) to nudge it off course. Or maybe use the shuttle's thrusters to do the same, although that idea was quickly shot down by Rush.

Another thought just occurred to me:

Spoiler:

Atlantis had a built in self preservation mode too, even if it was due to Weir's suggestion. The whole "Rising" thing.

Well, he shot it down for the right reasons: That might have worked if you wanted to avoid an asteroid, but in the light of their short preparation time, it wouldn't have done much good in avoiding a star with its massive gravitation and a diameter of a hundred thousand kilometers.

[Eternal Density]

It has to use the Triforce to refuel completely.

[Krazeh]

Agreed I found it rediculous that nobody on the ship reslised what was happening untill the last minuite. Like one of the characters said in Darkness, what are the chances of dropping out of FTL on the edge of a solar system? Combine this with carying out an areobraking manouvre in a gas giant and winding up on a colission course with a sun all by chance. It defies logic that no one realised the ship was doing it for some reason --> i.e. refuel.

Why is it ridiculous that they didn't realise? They don't have the advantage that we do of knowing that not only will the ship survive but they will remain onboard and it will be refuelling itself within the solar system.

Given that they know the Destiny recieves information about planets from the seeder ships then it'd be logical for them to deduce that the Destiny, when apparently out of power and about to die, would try and get close to a system that contained planets which could sustain life. Working from that premise, and following thier assumption that the aerobraking manoeuvre was designed to bring them into the system, it would be further logical to deduce that the aerobraking had gone wrong (probably due to lack of power) and it wasn't intended for the Destiny to be headed for a star.

In their position I can't see how they could have come up with any other conclusion than they did. Don't think they had access to nearly enough information to even get close to hypothesising that the Destiny was gonna use the sun to refuel.

[Eternal Density]

I sure hope that next time they're in a similar situation they consider that Destiny knows what it's doing. It would be ironic if they then realise that something really is going wrong and they have to fix what would have been an easy repair at the very last minute because they assumed it was supposed to be that way.

[Marsuvees]

seriously i never saw that coming. it looked like an accident of sorts. i mean whos sane enough to have a ship go through a star? the thought of it collecting some weird matter from stars came to mind but not in this episode, only in the pilot.

The show was not going to end on the 5th episode. And as someone said elsewhere, where are they going to find a power source on a planet that can power the destiny.

[Captain Obvious]

The only thing that is strange is that with all the shield breaches we saw in the other episode. It didn't seem to affect the Destiny as it dipped into the Sun.

Those weren't holes in the ships energy shields, they were gaps in the internal shields/containment fields. 2 completely separate systems. The ships outer shields make a bubble around the whole ship, the smaller containment fields fill in gaps in the hull to keep the air from leaking out.

It seems like it would have refueled to 100% imo.

I will copy someones analogy - after years of use, a laptop's rechargeable battery doesn't last nearly as long. after thousands of years, I can easily see max power storage being 40% or so on just the batteries. They most likely still have to try to get main power online instead of running straight off battery reserves.

[s09119]

I sure hope that next time they're in a similar situation they consider that Destiny knows what it's doing. It would be ironic if they then realise that something really is going wrong and they have to fix what would have been an easy repair at the very last minute because they assumed it was supposed to be that way.

Exactly. Were we in the crew's position, we wouldn't just go "Oh, it's gonna refuel! Don't worry, guys, go about your business as we fly into a star." We'd panic and try to find a way to escape, too. Even if they figured out what it might be doing, why risk the lives of everyone aboard on a hunch?

[Saquist]

Given its age maybe it was incapable of refueling to 100%

What does that mean,sir?

[jelgate]

What does that mean,sir?

Take a look at your cell phone and its battery. After a years or so that battery won't last as long as when you originally bought it. Now apply that scenario to the Destiny. Old age has prevented the Destiny from refueling to 100% of what it originally had back when the Ancients launched the ship

[JoshuaJSlone]

They spent so much time in the first few episodes going on about how the ship was doing things for a reason that their change of heart to "Oh, it's going to the star but this must be a mistake." wasn't very convincing.

What I want to know is why it didn't go into a star sooner. I hope not every time the thing refuels it bothers to go through a period of ultra-low power and slingshotting around planets just to make it to a sun. I know I don't wait until my car is running on fumes to coast into a gas station.

[Captain Obvious]

They spent so much time in the first few episodes going on about how the ship was doing things for a reason that their change of heart to "Oh, it's going to the star but this must be a mistake." wasn't very convincing.

What I want to know is why it didn't go into a star sooner. I hope not every time the thing refuels it bothers to go through a period of ultra-low power and slingshotting around planets just to make it to a sun. I know I don't wait until my car is running on fumes to coast into a gas station.

I am under the impression that it might specifically use red giants for this purpose, less odds of damaging an advanced civilization, since the expansion to a red giant would wipe out and move the " Goldilocks zone" for any system and decreases the odds of having life in the system. If we roll with this theory, then destiny really hadn't planned for the reserves to get this low, but the presence of humans on board made her change her plans.

I am going to roll with the suspicion I have that the AI on the destiny is rudimentary at best. It seems to be a very basic logic engine " If X happens, Do Y".

[Eternal Density]

What I want to know is why it didn't go into a star sooner. I hope not every time the thing refuels it bothers to go through a period of ultra-low power and slingshotting around planets just to make it to a sun. I know I don't wait until my car is running on fumes to coast into a gas station.

My guess: it was cruising in low power mode so it would have lasted quite a while longer if the evacuees hadn't showed up. Then it prioritised fixing the air problem over refuelling. Perhaps it could have reached the refueling point sooner if it hadn't stopped off in range of the desert planet, but then everyone would be dead. I wonder if the countdown timer is the Destiny's way of keeping on schedule for future planned refueling and alignments of things it intends to visit.

Captain Obvious: its a red dwarf, not giant.

[Arwis]

seriously i never saw that coming. it looked like an accident of sorts. i mean whos sane enough to have a ship go through a star? the thought of it collecting some weird matter from stars came to mind but not in this episode, only in the pilot.

Everyone was speculating that ships needs some sort of power... And when at the end of darkness they showed up a ship heading to star it was more than obvious what is going to happen in the next episode.