Stargate Universe - "Alliances"

Col. Young (Louis Ferreira) aboard the Destiny.

Photo Credit: Syfy

Review by Paul Steven Brown

'Stargate Universe'
Season 2 - Episode 13
"Alliances"

Wray and Greer have bumped heads on more than one occasion since the start of 'Stargate Universe'. While their differences have never escalated into a physical altercation, as with Young and Rush (twice), There has always been a notion that their situation would eventually come to a head. While Young and Rush have had problems seeing eye to eye as far as the how the mission was to be handled, Wray and Greer's conflict has always been about personality differences.

To Greer, Wray is a nosey pencil-pusher that can't earn his respect due to her not serving in the military. She's a civilian that has no business telling soldiers what to due and should certainly stay out of their personal business. To Wray, Greer is an angry loose cannon, that needs to be addressed before he gets himself of someone else killed. He's unreasonable defiant and physically threatening to many around him.

"Alliances" plays out the cliche of two conflicting personalities being forced to work together to overcome a common problem and in doing so come to learn something about the other as well as gain some mutual respect. These types of episodes usually end with a quiet moment shared between the two parties to signify what was learned. This hour ticked off all the boxes and was made even more lacking by the use of those damn communication stones.

There were a lot of predictable elements to "Alliances", too. As soon as Airman Evans showed up, I was hoping that he would have been a red herring and not an undercover Alliance agent. No such luck. We even got a sharp object to hostage throat showdown that revealed his true colors. Once the communication stones glitches came up, it was a certainty that the senator and/or the scientist were going to be ones to dismantle the bomb.

At least this episode gave Varro something to do other than flirt with T.J. This character had so much potential and has been grossly underserved. I wish there could have been more light shone on his (and other Lucian Alliance members) reasons for betraying the Lucian Alliance. Ginn spoke of conscription, but I don't think there has been enough development in this department to give Varro's allegiance change any really credibility.

I'm sure that these episodes were written with the idea that another season would be available for 'Stargate Universe', but other than "Twin Destinies", the post-hiatus hours have been a bit underwhelming. Hopefully the tension will ratchet back up as the season (and the series) heads to conclusion in seven episodes.