Hypotheses about Destiny's countdown clock.

[Skiznot]

I’ve been listening to the Gateworld Podcast for all of season 1 of SGU and two things occurred to me.

1) Rush said Destiny may be trying to find planets with things the crew needs but that is secondary to its primary mission thus the countdown (re: Air 2-3). In “Life” Rush finds the subspace signal from the seeder ships. So perhaps the reason Destiny has a countdown clock is so that it will never get out of range of the seeder ships. Destiny may give more time when it knows that the seeder ships are busy seeding vs. giving a little time when the seeder ships are on the move.
2) There’s this assumption that the gates are millions of years old and some should be buried. My question is, was there ever an indication for how long after the seeder ships destiny was sent out? I was thinking that it may only be 10 or even 100 years behind the seeders in which case the gates are still relatively new. If anybody has a quote to the effect of “thousands of years later destiny was sent to follow the seeder ships,” then please share, otherwise I don’t think it was stated.

I would appreciate any speculation that could confirm or refute this idea.

Thanks.

[Jack_Bauer]

In order for the seeder ships to seed a large number of planets in each galaxy before the Destiny arrives, you would expect that it would have to be a minimum of a couple hundred years between the launch of the seeders and the launch of destiny...

[Pharaoh Atem]

destiny herself just messing with the crew. she has a sense of humor

[thekillman]

well essentially Destiny has a schedule. it'll go to a planet, dial, perhaps do some sensor sweeps, and leave. untill it's fully activated, because then it'll be in full explore mode

[reddevil18]

The Ancients were "Sliders" fans.

[MattSilver 3k]

The Ancients were "Sliders" fans.

This explains so much...

[reddevil18]

This explains so much...

I no, rite?

[Gatefan1976]

I've wondered about the countdown clock as well. Here would be my guess on the issue:

When the Destineers arrived on board they needed X (power, food, water etc) and as such some form of shipboard AI said to itself "Ok, they need XYZ, I'll give them X amount of time to do it, otherwise I'll go on with my mission and these guys arn't worthy of being onboard. This changed slightly when Franklin was "downloaded" into the AI (which I believe was Rush's intent, to use Franklin as some sort of "bridge" between the AI and Himself)

Enter the LA (or slightly before?, can't remember off-hand), the clock is no longer counting down. I would guess this is due to having two different groups on the Destiny and the AI itself being unsure about which groups "Destiny" it is trying to fulfill (the Destineers or the LA) Once the two crews merge, I can see the clock coming back into play until such time as Rush finds the bridge and uses the now fused AI/Franklin construct to take direct (or limited) control of the ship. Clock goes away again as the "Destiny" now has a "master" (or more likely, now the Destiny has the abillity to communicate with it's crew, explains to Rush what it's grand mission is and Rush goes along with it)

Slightly OT, but that would be my take on it

[Gollumpus]

1) So perhaps the reason Destiny has a countdown clock is so that it will never get out of range of the seeder ships. Destiny may give more time when it knows that the seeder ships are busy seeding vs. giving a little time when the seeder ships are on the move.

I've always suspected that Destiny is more interested in hitting certain marks within a particular galaxy for efficiency reasons rather than worrying about racing after the seeder ships. Wasting time at one point in a galaxy can lead to a lot longer travel time to the last target by the time you get to the other end and planets and stars and drifted. This would drain additional energy/resources due to course corrections and the like.

regards,
G.

[Skiznot]

I've always suspected that Destiny is more interested in hitting certain marks within a particular galaxy for efficiency reasons rather than worrying about racing after the seeder ships. Wasting time at one point in a galaxy can lead to a lot longer travel time to the last target by the time you get to the other end and planets and stars and drifted. This would drain additional energy/resources due to course corrections and the like.

regards,
G.

Thanks for this take. Here's another question then. Is there any reason to believe that Destiny stopped at any planets before there were people on board? If the ships job was just to wait for the ancients to come aboard then there might not be any reason to stop at any planets. It could have reached the new galaxy, flown into the star to fill up, crossed the galaxy, filled up again then crossed the void to the next one. So much of what we learn is based on a few sentences Rush says when he himself is hypothesizing. Will be fun to see what we learn in season 2.

[Skiznot]

I've wondered about the countdown clock as well. Here would be my guess on the issue:

When the Destineers arrived on board they needed X (power, food, water etc) and as such some form of shipboard AI said to itself "Ok, they need XYZ, I'll give them X amount of time to do it, otherwise I'll go on with my mission and these guys arn't worthy of being onboard. This changed slightly when Franklin was "downloaded" into the AI (which I believe was Rush's intent, to use Franklin as some sort of "bridge" between the AI and Himself)

Enter the LA (or slightly before?, can't remember off-hand), the clock is no longer counting down. I would guess this is due to having two different groups on the Destiny and the AI itself being unsure about which groups "Destiny" it is trying to fulfill (the Destineers or the LA) Once the two crews merge, I can see the clock coming back into play until such time as Rush finds the bridge and uses the now fused AI/Franklin construct to take direct (or limited) control of the ship. Clock goes away again as the "Destiny" now has a "master" (or more likely, now the Destiny has the abillity to communicate with it's crew, explains to Rush what it's grand mission is and Rush goes along with it)

Slightly OT, but that would be my take on it

Hi Gatefan. Based on what I saw I got the impression that the reason there was no countown when the LA arrived was because the pulsar radiation was messing with the computer or just messing with the sequence to return to FTL. I'm not sure how aware the ship is of the people on board. I thought that it was going to some planets that had things the crew needed because rush directly asked it to via console and the fact that the crew dialed in the 9 chevron code is why they have any access at all. Its seems the ship ai would be very confused that these people aren't sitting in the chair. Like your computer saying to click on something when you don't have a mouse. Depending on the program you can do things with the keyboard but it can be very limited.

I agree about Franklin. I'm guessing he will become a part of the ai to facilitate working with the humans.

[Gatefan1976]

Hi Gatefan. Based on what I saw I got the impression that the reason there was no countown when the LA arrived was because the pulsar radiation was messing with the computer or just messing with the sequence to return to FTL. I'm not sure how aware the ship is of the people on board. I thought that it was going to some planets that had things the crew needed because rush directly asked it to via console and the fact that the crew dialed in the 9 chevron code is why they have any access at all. Its seems the ship ai would be very confused that these people aren't sitting in the chair. Like your computer saying to click on something when you don't have a mouse. Depending on the program you can do things with the keyboard but it can be very limited.I agree about Franklin. I'm guessing he will become a part of the ai to facilitate working with the humans.

Just on this bolded part:
From the trailers I got the impression that the Main bridge did not have a "chair device", but was more like a "classic starship bridge" with either some form of "holo emmiters" or "mental projection" type tech so the "captain" can interact with the ships AI. As to "mouse vs keyboard", I see the "Chair device" as more of a way to upload a compatible OS, rather than a program. I guess we will find out soon enough though

[Gollumpus]

Thanks for this take. Here's another question then. Is there any reason to believe that Destiny stopped at any planets before there were people on board? If the ships job was just to wait for the ancients to come aboard then there might not be any reason to stop at any planets. It could have reached the new galaxy, flown into the star to fill up, crossed the galaxy, filled up again then crossed the void to the next one.

I can go you one better. If the ship's job was just to wait for the ancients to come aboard, why did Destiny ever leave the Milky Way in the first place? There are a large number of galaxies behind it. Why would the ancients miss an opportunity to see what's going on in them?

I would assume that Destiny has previously stopped at various planets. I believe this because of the Blue Aliens. How else would they become aware of Destiny, and then try to take control of it if they had not previously seen it in "normal" space? Further, if they were aware of where Destiny was going to be it suggests they were aware of a flight plan, which suggests that Destiny had stopped prior to the folks from Icarus gating in.

regards,
G.

[Ben 'Teal'c would WIN!!' Noble]

I can go you one better. If the ship's job was just to wait for the ancients to come aboard, why did Destiny ever leave the Milky Way in the first place? There are a large number of galaxies behind it. Why would the ancients miss an opportunity to see what's going on in them?

I would assume that Destiny has previously stopped at various planets. I believe this because of the Blue Aliens. How else would they become aware of Destiny, and then try to take control of it if they had not previously seen it in "normal" space? Further, if they were aware of where Destiny was going to be it suggests they were aware of a flight plan, which suggests that Destiny had stopped prior to the folks from Icarus gating in.

regards,
G.

Maybe the blues saw Destiny when it was refueling?

[Gollumpus]

Maybe the blues saw Destiny when it was refueling?

I suspect not. The sun would get in their eyes... D'UHHHH!!!!

regards,
G.