Eli isn't going to fix it.

[studio dummies]

I would certainly hope that Eli can fix it - it would be a waste with his potential as a future Dr. McKay and all. Imagine Him, Rush, and McKay eventually all problem-solving together, bickering aside of course (but I'm sure this is/has been discussed somewhere on this forum). I think a small part of his ending expression could possibly indicate "good, now I can do some work without ppl breathing down my neck constantly."

[Dee_Too]

My impression is that "Gauntlet" was written as the season two finale, not the series finale. SGU was planned as a five-year story. A novel, if you will. I read somewhere that the production schedule for a season's shoot was something like January through October. So by the time SyFy cancelled the series, the film for episodes 11–20 was in post-production, and there was no budget to re-shoot episode 2x20.

Each season, I read, covered one galaxy. The literary structure of a novel is this: introduction, rising action, the complication, the climax, and the denouement. Season one was mostly introduction, and everyone knows you have to slog through the introduction to believe in the characters and get the background you need to follow the plot. If you've read Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart, you'll know what I mean. It takes off about a hundred pages in, and then takes you on a ride. We had a lot to learn, but this story was worth it.

I think SGU's rising action started when we learned about Destiny's mission, and at the end of season two, we should still be there.

What I'd really like to know is what Brad Wright planned . . . because I'm sure he had a five-year plan. And since they would have started shooting season three in January, I'm sure he already knew how he was going to get them out of this predicament.

And it wasn't by killing Eli.

Eli is too important. In a way, this is Eli's show. I also think Rush had a point when he said that they might miss parts of the puzzle by skipping the rest of this galaxy. (I expect Rush planned to join Amanda in the computer instead of killing himself, something that occurred to Eli and not to the colonel when Rush volunteered.)

I think Eli already has a plan. He'll fix the wonky pod or find another set elsewhere in the ship and prep one. This is a big, mostly unexplored as yet, ship, and the Ancients planned for a big crew; there must be more pods somewhere. If it takes three years to cross to the next galaxy, they would have been planning to use them for that anyway. Remember the ship of Ancients found in stasis between galaxies in Atlantis? Also, why can't the two smallest people share a pod?

Then I think he'll solve the drone problem. He was really taken with the idea of being an ancestor; I don't think he'd like to leave his descendants with such a big problem if he can solve it.

So I think the season three opener would have been Eli 1) solving the pod problem; 2) solving the drone problem; and 3) waking everyone up to finish their business in this galaxy. Before leaving the galaxy, they could track down one of the colonists' sleeper ships en route to Novus Novus and get the rest of the database. Stock up. Fly through a few red dwarves. This would be boring to watch, so that, and the three-year sleep to the next galaxy, could happen off screen.

And how do I think Eli can solve the drone problem by himself? Well, there was that smile. I think he can figure out how to tell them to shut themselves off. It might mean retrieving one of the dormant ones around the destroyed command ship, to replace the one they scuttled. He figured out how to tell them to fire on each other, after all.

D2

[Trig]

Interesting, thing is would Eli try to fix the pod, or concentrate on the drone issue to save the "decendadnts" in that galaxy..

I think he's be more inclinded to try and fix the drone problem before he either dies or does whatever..

[Dee_Too]

Trig, he can do both. Why not?

D2

[garhkal]

And how do I think Eli can solve the drone problem by himself? Well, there was that smile. I think he can figure out how to tell them to shut themselves off. It might mean retrieving one of the dormant ones around the destroyed command ship, to replace the one they scuttled. He figured out how to tell them to fire on each other, after all.

D2

But didn;t both him and rush confirm that it won't work once another command ship shows up?

[blueray]

my theory is that after a day or so eli is going to realize that he can't do it on his own. and activate gin, with her program running it gives them less time to figure it out, but its worth it since the two of them would be working on it and he wouldn't be alone. and they will will fix the pod, and eli goes in.

or they find another way to stop the drones and then wake everyone up.

[droid327]

I dont know why Rush didnt volunteer to sit in the chair right off the bat. That's usually been his first reaction to dire situations this season. Plus, unlike Eli and Young, I doubt Rush cares about ever getting home or even leaving Destiny ever again, so its not like it'd make a difference if he was a hologram stuck in the computer

But of course Eli is going to fix it. He's got two weeks to pore through all the records etc. He's got his PdH, plus he can scavenge parts from the rest of Destiny as needed - there has to be other pods somewhere that maybe were nonfunctional but still have what he'd need to get the one pod active.

We see them solve problems in days or even hours. And this isnt even really a problem, its just fixing something thats broken. I bet he fixes it in 4 days, redoes his power calculations, and figures he easily has 2 or 3 days' worth of power to boot up Ginn and have some fun with the ship to themselves. Maybe set some practical jokes for Rush to discover when they wake up.

[the fifth man]

I am of the opinion that Eli will indeed fix the final pod. There is no way his character would have been killed off like that.

[Trinary]

If Eli can't fix the broken pod, there is another solution. Wake up James and modified her pod to support 2 peoples. It will be the best stasis moment for Eli...

[Trig]

But didn;t both him and rush confirm that it won't work once another command ship shows up?

Yes, but, and think back to SG1 here, would it not be possible to dial all the gates in that galaxy at once (something to do with gates dialing eachother up for periodic updates, cant remember the episode) and broadcast to each of the command ships that are at the local gate (we know that there is a command ship "at every gate between here and the edge of the galaxy"....

Granted Eli might not think of this as his gate knowledge is probably not going to include more technical stuff like that, and I doubt that Jacksons "Intro to the Stargate" video's covered that sort of thing...

[Trig]

I am of the opinion that Eli will indeed fix the final pod. There is no way his character would have been killed off like that.

Well I still havent seen the episode yet but I agree that killing Eli off would of been a no go, him fixing the pod on his own would have to be confined to the ship tho and him on his own due to not wanting to effect the ships power requirements.

I'd say he'd spend a while reading the "manual" for the pod and then go wondering around the ship and finding something that'd save the day, the fact that theres not really many in the expedition, on such a large ship, there seems to be very few pods, I'm guessing theres other pods around there somewhere or at least some sort of spares in one of the many rooms that haven't been explored yet.

Perhaps the idea was to have a Kino record the last few days of Eli's life with a few others on "seek" mode, one Kino comes back while Eli is essentially giving his goodbye speech, this Kino has found another room of stasis pods or something else life saving, Eli says c'ya later to the kino and goes off to see whatever this other kino has found, the crew once revived find the goodbye kino and presume Eli is dead, what they dont have is the seek kino which Eli uses to find whatever ends up saving his life. Queue the crew saying goodbye and having some sort of service, two weeks later Eli turns back up having come out of his stasis pod (he miscalculates his own stasis by two weeks as he had to manually enter the stasis time and forgot to include the two weeks that he had been on the ship and the rest of the crew had been in stasis)..

[Trinary]

Basically, destiny fates is on Eli's hand now. He could do pretty much anything such as wake up all the others except Rush, Young and Wray. He could make the younger generations of the crews to take charges of the destiny well being and make decisions to fit them in facing any threats.

[Nth Chevron]

But we know Eli wouldnt do that, as he has Rush's intellect and more, mixed with Youngs morality and then some of that too.

He is like the best of both worlds, without the military experience of Young. Or the PHD of Rush.

I dont knwo about James but she definitely has a PH - DD

N.C

[garhkal]

PH-DD.. man that was a laugh

[Dee_Too]

But didn;t both him and rush confirm that it won't work once another command ship shows up?

I don't recall that, though it makes sense. But they're vulnerable to software manipulation. Surely there's a master code to shut them down? I'd guess that Eli is a more than competent hacker. I'm remembering that Rush was concerned that Destiny was skipping so much of the galaxy, because all the experience mapped for them might affect the end of Destiny's mission. That they were picking up pieces to the puzzle on the journey, and missing pieces might mean failure. And then there are the dopplegangers' descendants, and they deserve to thrive. Destiny woke up the drones and the drones are attacking the galaxy they just left. This is a direct analogy to what happened in Pegasus, when Atlantis woke up the Wraith. And this time, the human population to be destroyed has DNA based on the Destiny crew.

So if there's any way to shut those drones down . . . or at least make them go dormant again . . . give the descendants a fighting chance . . . I think Eli will take it.