Resurgence

Summary | Production | Transcript | Fan Reviews

The crew's new-found control over Destiny's flight path introduces new risks when they find themselves in the middle of a war between two races.

RATINGS SCORECARD
OUR RATING -
FAN RATING - 8.73 
NIELSEN - 1.094 mil. 
EPISODE #210
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11.30.2010
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 11.14.2011
WRITTEN BY: Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
DIRECTED BY: William Waring
GUEST STARS: Mike Dopud (Varro), Peter Kelamis (Adam Brody), Patrick Gilmore (Dale Volker), Jennifer Spence (Lisa Park), Julia Benson (2nd Lt. Vanessa James), Lou Diamond Phillips (David Telford), Jacob Blair (Cpl. Baras)
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Drs. Adam Brody, Lisa Park, and Dale Volker work at consoles on Destiny's bridge. Nicholas Rush joins them. He notices Eli Wallace's absence and an annoying alarm coming from Park's station. He fixes it, and sits in the command chair to work. When Brody spots a distant energy signature on the sensor readings ahead on the ship's path, he turns his station over to Rush. Summoning Colonel Everett Young, the scientists discuss whether to divert Destiny from her mission to investigate. Volker reminds them of how disastrous their past encounters with aliens have been. But Young decides that the potential rewards are worth the risk.

Rerouted off its flight plan, Destiny drops from F.T.L. flight into a floating debris field of a large space battle. The battle must have taken place long ago, and there are no survivors evident here. But one of the derelict ships is similar to the battle-damaged vessel Young and Rush recently boarded ("The Greater Good").

Lt. Matthew Scott visits Chloe Armstrong, still under lockdown in her quarters, to tell her of their discovery. Her transformation is continuing, and she reveals a patch of alien-looking skin on her chest. She insists that he stop denying her reality – that she will become a threat. When Young summons Scott to form a boarding party, Chloe cries over her fate.

Meanwhile, Camille Wray corrals Eli. Worried by his recent lapses, she wants to talk. Having been plucked from his mom's home and video-game lifestyle, Eli feels entitled to a little bit of depression. Riley's loss ("Aftermath") hit him hard. But when Camille brings her up, he refuses to discuss losing Ginn ("Malice").

Scott, Brody, and MSgt. Ronald Greer suit up. Using the restored shuttle ("Visitation"), they approach the familiar derelict ship. Anchoring a line, Greer leaps across a gap separating the vessels. Once Brody joins him, they start to explore into the corridors.

Varro, confined to quarters since Simeon killed Ginn and escaped Destiny ("Malice"), watches from his porthole. He is surprised when Lt. Tamara Johansen visits. As she shares news of the deception surrounding her baby's death ("Intervention," "Visitation"), they both see something move rapidly past the porthole. T.J. radios and informs Colonel Young: there is something else out there.

On the bridge, Eli's battle simulation pieces together the fragments in the debris field. He shows the results to the others on the computer display: what they previously thought were fragments of larger ships are really smaller vessels – intact and dormant. As more ships awaken, Young orders the away party to return. He has Eli try to broadcast a message conveying that Destiny is not hostile, even as shields go up and weapons come online. The unmanned drones strafe Destiny with weapons fire.

Rush seals a hull breach. Park reroutes power to weakening shields. Multiple overloads drain power from shields and weapons. Rush wants to jump away into F.T.L. – but the shuttle hasn't made it back yet, so the Colonel refuses.

In the time it takes the shuttle to clamp down on Destiny, the F.T.L. engines are damaged. Weapons are failing. Several areas have gone dark. The shields are weakening. Destiny is no match for the 20 or so small ships, and tries to escape using sub-light engines.

Suddenly, the Ancient seed ship where Colonel David Telford was stranded several months ago ("Awakening") appears out of F.T.L. Telford's voice crackles over the radio, and the seed ship leads Destiny into the nearby sun. The intense heat and radiation destroy the pursuing drones. Destiny deploys power cells and recharges its power stores. Watching from ports in their respective quarters, Varro turns away ... while Chloe stares into the intense light.

Telford has bought them some time, as Destiny remains damaged and in the star system, but the drones must fly around the star to reach them. Once through the corona, Telford boards Destiny. He explains that the aliens on the seed ship – called the Ursini – are not hostile, merely desperate to get home. They had inadvertently awakened the drones, just as Destiny did, and have been fighting them ever since. Their search for a way home and a method of defeating the drones led them to the seed ship. Sharing nutrients with Telford, they also used their stasis pods to download their history directly into Telford's mind. While direct verbal communication remains impossible, he was able to learn who they are and what they want.

The Ursini need Destiny's assistance to destroy the command ship controlling the massive fleet of automated drones. Wray, Rush, and Young discuss Telford's plan to dock with the seed ship and let her F.T.L. engines carry them to safety. Once Destiny is repaired, they can attack the command vessel together. Rush wants to double-cross the Ursini and leave as soon as Destiny's F.T.L. engines are fixed. Wray opposes this. Young suggests they might instead to use the seed ship's power to dial the Stargate to Earth.

Eli shares this information with a non-responsive Chloe. She comes to long enough to warn him not to trust the Ursini. Back on the Bridge, Eli gets a lecture from Rush about not getting beaten down. Even if he could get revenge on the man who killed the woman he loved, it wouldn't change the fact that she's gone. Before Eli can respond, the others arrive and Telford's plan is put into action. The docked ships jump away together.

Again, Eli visits Chloe. But while he is with her, Destiny drops from F.T.L. flight – not in a safe place to make repairs, as the Ursini had promised, but instead close to the command ship and the many drones defending it. The Ursini have double-crossed Destiny first. As Eli starts for the bridge, Chloe convinces Eli to take her with him. Her guard insists on checking with Young, but Chloe slams him against a bulkhead and escapes. Her alien programming seems to be taking over, and Eli has inadvertently let her out.

Stunned, Eli reports her behavior. Colonel Young has Brody seal off that section of the ship and orders Lt. Scott to find her. Meanwhile, Telford returns to the bridge, unaware of the Ursini double-cross. The drones attack Destiny with ruthless efficiency, and injured personnel flood the infirmary.

Chloe breaks containment. Scott finds her working at a console in the Control Interface Room. When he touches her, she comes out of her trance. She tells him it's too late.

The battle rages outside the ship, where Destiny and the Ursini-controlled seed ship are clearly no match for the enemy forces. With weapons and shields failing, and the Ursini refusing hails, Destiny begins to falter under the drones' relentless bombardment. The ship's destruction now seems all but certain.

- S. Fetter

PRODUCTION NOTES

  • Check out this cool concept art of a "space graveyard" discovered by Destiny, now at Joseph Mallozzi's blog!
  • "As I reported yesterday, I finally have a (rough) first draft of my script, 'Resurgence,' episode #10. I'm going to go over it a few more times, tighten up the dialogue, and try to strip away some of the visual effects. As it stands, I count thirty-five visual effect shots – which would be fine in the old days of SG-1 when two-thirds of them would end up being simple zat blasts, but in this case, there ain't nothing simple about some of these sequences. If ever there was a candidate for an episode to receive to the 3D treatment, 'Resurgence' would be it." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)
  • "As mentioned, I'm still working on episode #10, 'Resurgence,' that visual effects extravaganza." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)
  • "... The 10:30 a.m. Visual Effects meeting was fairly tame in comparison – which is kind of surprising given the number of visual effects in this episode. 17 pages worth in the initial VFX Budget hand-out! Will and I trimmed out those shots we felt were unnecessary, but there is still plenty of eye candy for the discerning space battle aficionado." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)
  • "Speaking of pretty damn cool ship sequences – we spotted 'Resurgence' as well and that episode is chock full of spacely operatic goodness. Another visual effects extravaganza for the first part of our mid-season two-parter." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog
  • "[I] approved a multitude of spectacular visual effects for 'Resurgence.' This one is BIG!" (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog
  • The crew's new-found ability to steer the ship will play into the mid-season finale. "That takes us to the big part one of our mid-season two-parter called 'Resurgence,' where we find something off the path, and now that we have control of the Destiny for the first time we explore something that we soon find out we shouldn't have. And we end up basically caught in a war that has been going on between two races."

    "And, of course, during all of this, Chloe is still transforming. During everything that I said. That is a big part of the 'Visitation' story and this story as well, and even in the second half of the season, which is the back 10." (Executive producer Brad Wright, in an interview with Blastr.com)
  • "Watched the Day 2 mix of #210, 'Resurgence,' with the VFX finals. Wow! An explosive episode to take us into the mid-season break." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)
  • "Finally got to see a cut of the mid-season finale. Mark Savela has designed some of the most intense battles EVER in this one! Wow." ("Matthew Scott" actor Brian J. Smith, in a post at Twitter)
  • "The events of tonight's episode will have significant and shocking repercussions that will reverberate through the rest of Season Two and beyond." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog
  • "I particularly enjoyed this one because it allowed for opportunities for humor. When Volker says, 'Are you kidding? That's exactly how you judge a neighborhood,' he's actually channeling yours truly. I'm really enjoying writing for some of the supporting players (specifically, the geek squad of Brody, Park, and Volker) and they really shined in this episode."

    "... We've established a burgeoning friendship between Wray and Eli ('Faith,' 'Pathogen'), so I figured Wray would be the best person to approach Eli about his recent loss. It was an issue that needed to be addressed, one that would, no doubt, deeply affect someone like Eli. I thought it was particularly interesting to imagine the scenario he refers to, his whole world being distilled down to less than a hundred people in a confined space, and how any change in said scenario would be greatly magnified. In retrospect, even though he avoids talking about his true feelings, Eli demonstrates incredible emotional strength in the face of tragedy.

    "Scott is his own worst enemy, something we came to learn in Cloverdale, and as much as he may want to do the right thing, his own subconscious may betray him – as is this case here where he outwardly insists he’ll support Chloe only to have her point out that he’s already started pulling away from her. When the time comes to make the hard decision, will he be able to step up and be honest with both her and himself?"

    "... Also, love the obvious chemistry between Varro and T.J. As much as I love Young as a character, I think he's bad for her. But, of course, Everett disagrees – which will make for some interesting dramatic developments later this season."

    "... Things come to a bit of an emotional head for Eli here and he receives a boost from, of all people, Rush. What's Rush’s game? Clearly, he needs Eli to be on his game and he sees a lot of exploitable potential in the boy – yet the advice he offers Eli is as much an insight into his character as Eli's. When he says, 'I'm sure you were so blinded by rage you imagined getting revenge on the man who killed her, besting the bully on his terms. But even if you had, it wouldn't have changed a damn thing. You'd wake up every morning and she'd still be dead,' he's not only dousing Eli with cold reality, but offering a glimpse into his own vulnerabilities. It wouldn't have changed a damn thing and he should know because he did best the bully and it didn't change a damn thing. I love writing Rush when he's indirect, unfathomable in his motivations. Is he motivated by empathy here or is his motivation self-serving? Check out a parallel bridge scene in episode #214, 'The Hunt,' and get back to me." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in an interview with SciFiAndTVTalk)