Stargate Universe/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Colonel Everett Young (Louis Ferreira)

Military commander of the Icarus base, now in command of Destiny.

  • Anti-Hero: Increasingly this since "Justice". Type III.
  • Catch Phrase: "Lotta work."
  • Colonel Badass: After he recovers from his injuries sustained in the pilot.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Young is trying to repair his marriage (redefining the term "long-distance relationship" in the process) while being stuck on Destiny with T.J., whom he had an affair with (and unknowingly knocked up).
  • A Father to His Men
    • Which really hits him hard in "Aftermath" as having to lose Riley to something he can't get angry over leaves him pretty torn up.
  • Freudian Trio: Either the Superego or a second Id in the Young/Rush/Camille trio. YMMV
    • In the military one he's definitely the Superego.
  • Good-Looking Privates
  • The Hero
  • The Kirk
  • Overprotective Dad: Bonus points for the child not actually having been born yet.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Let's see: his unborn kid is dead, he had to Mercy Kill someone under his command, and now Telford has been lost. You

can hardly blame him for hitting the bottle again and again.

  • You Are What You Hate: Telford and Rush tend to despise each other, giving a special color to their respective morally ambiguous actions.
  • Your Cheating Heart: Cheated on his wife with TJ before the start of the story. She evidently caught him or he came clean. Telford uses this against him later, by claiming it's not over to Young's wife.


Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle)

Icarus' lead scientist, and the resident expert on Ancient technology. Also an Insufferable Genius who likes playing power games.

  • Anti-Hero: Type IV.
  • The Atoner: Ever since the events of "Human", Rush seems to have been taken off of his high horse and has actually been trying to help the crew.
    • For a few episodes anyway. Now he's back to being morally ambiguous, making it Aesop Amnesia. However, he can still be said to be trying to help, just trying to balance that with his own interests, which predictably isn't panning out as well as he'd like.
  • Break the Haughty: It's happening, slowly but surely. And, as of Malice, has kicked into overdrive
  • The Chessmaster: It's very rare for him not to- be plotting something.
  • Chewing the Scenery: THERE IS NO MORE POWER!
  • Consummate Liar: He doesn't even skip a heartbeat to liar in normal conversation. And he's so good, he can even fool himself!
  • Dead Person Conversation: In the second season, he speaks to his dead wife and Franklin, who may or may not have died. He claims that either the ship is creating holograms to help him or he's just gone crazy; his wife's flippant attitude toward the affair convinces him it's the latter.
    • Rush makes this even scarier because he doesn't treat this as surprising. In fact, he eventually gets tired of his wife questioning all his decisions and asks to see Franklin, because he at least is helpful when he does it.
  • For Science!
  • Freudian Excuse: A lot of his behavior is motivated by his wife's death.
  • Freudian Trio: The Id
  • Insistent Terminology: He rarely refers to Chloe by her given name, instead referring to her as "Miss Sullivan". With everyone else onboard Destiny, he either calls them by their first name or their surname.
  • Insufferable Genius
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In "Deliverance", he proves to be this, as he hands Chloe over the aliens so they can cure her, despite the fact that it'll be putting the ship in danger. As Camille points out, he's putting a single life before the mission, which contradicts what you'd expect from him.
  • Jerkass
  • Jerkass Dissonance: A number of fans actually think Rush would be a better leader than Young due to his lack of restrictions when acting for the greater good and the amount of Not So Different between the two.
  • Kick the Dog: Separating Destiny from the seed ship while Telford was still on board and fixing the problem. Dick move, Rush.
  • Left for Dead: "Dear diary, my friends left me on an empty planet all alone. FML."
  • Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate
  • My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction in "Twin Destinies" upon accidentally killing Telford.
  • Never My Fault: Occasionally invokes this after his keeping secrets has made the situation worse.
  • Pet the Dog: Despite himself becomes sort of a mentor to Eli. And has reached an understanding with Young. They may not like each other, but will hold off trying to harm the other... at least for now.
    • Episode 16, "Sabotage", very much.
    • Then again in "Resurgence".
  • Phrase Catcher: Drinking everytime you hear someone say "Whole lotta work" or "Dammit, Rush!" is not advised.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: "Malice"
  • The Spock
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Rush obviously feels this way at times. "Resurgence" is one of the best examples.
  • Token Evil Teammate: While not really evil, Rush is quite willing to sacrifice people for the greater good. Or what he considers the greater good anyway. Others might describe it as "his own convenience". He plays it much closer in the second season, where people keep getting harmed while he plays with his secret bridge.
    • Lampshaded in the last episode when Young compares them all to a family, defining Rush's position as;

Young: The, uh, slightly crazy uncle who despite everything, still manages to come through for you in the end.

Eli Wallace (David Blue)

MIT dropout who solved the problem of dialing the ninth chevron (it was embedded in a video game), and Ascended Fanboy subsequently brought onboard. Now acts as The Smart Guy and foil to Rush. Also in charge of the kinos. 25 years old.


Lieutenant Matthew Scott (Brian J. Smith)

Destiny's second-highest ranking officer. Usually leads away missions. Also in a relationship with Chloe. 27 years old.

Chloe Armstrong (Elyse Levesque)

Senator's daughter, accompanied him on a review of the original station. In a relationship with Scott.

  • Cursed with Awesome: Her transformation gave her super math skills, healing factor and antibiotic blood.
  • Damsel in Distress
  • Just Friends: With Eli although she considers that type of relationship as very important due to her realization that he's the first real friend she's ever had. So unlike the usual situation of the trope, she's aware of... you know... but she doesn't want to screw things up by getting involved with Eli.
    • That last bit probably hinges on exactly when she figured out Eli's feelings for her, compared to when she hooked up with Scott.
  • The Load: And she acknowledges this fact, which is part of the reason she sides with Rush in "Divided". Leads into the Wangst somewhat. She seems to be trying to rectify it by becoming this show's Daniel Jackson.
  • Ms. Fanservice
  • Too Dumb to Live: Aliens are cutting a hole into the ship to invade, so the first thing she did was to run to and stand right next to it like a deer in front of headlights, getting herself kidnapped.
  • Viral Transformation: She's slowly transforming into something, more than likely one of the aliens that kidnapped her.
    • This was cured later, but she retained some of her math skills.


Lieutenant Tamara "TJ" Johansen (Alaina Huffman)

An Air Force medic, and Destiny's ranking medical officer. Slated to leave the post just before it was attacked because of an affair she had with Young (with whose child she is pregnant).

Master Sgt. Ronald Greer (Jamil Walker Smith)

Short-tempered Marine sergeant.

Rush: "This is an enemy you can't fight."
Greer: "Watch. Me."

  • Honor Before Reason: While pretty reasonable otherwise, question the honor of his commanding officer or the value of his soldiers and their role aboard 'Destiny, and he tends to get... perturbed.
  • In the Blood: It's what he is afraid of.
  • Kill It with Fire: He even makes his own flamethrowers for the occasion, which says a lot.
  • Noodle Incident: It has never been completely explained exactly what Telford did that provoked Greer into striking a superior officer. Young at least believes that Telford deserved it. Though from what we know of Greer, it must have really been something to make Greer develop such a long-lasting hatred for the guy. To put it in perspective, Greer has as of "Malice" only just begun to really outright dislike Rush (in his own words, he's not going to watch Rush's back any more).
  • Odd Friendship: Greer is a stoic soldier with a deadpanned humor, Eli is an excitable Geek a little too uncertain in himself. Greer sincerely respects him and offers him advise regarding his love life.
    • In fact, Eli is one of the few civilians Greer does sincerely respect.
  • Sergeant Rock
  • Sex Equals Love: Averted with him and Dr Park.
    • Or not. Park seems to be very close to him (as of "Visitation").
  • Token Minority
  • Undying Loyalty: Surprisingly, he proves to be highly loyal to Young.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He is claustrophobic.

Camille Wray (Ming-Na)

IOA representative on Icarus (and now Destiny). Seems to have taken up the leadership of those who haven't sided with Rush or Young and otherwise representing a more humanitarian approach to things. As of "Awakening," she seems to have taken up tending to the hydroponics garden.

2nd Lieutenant Vanessa James (Julia Benson)

Another Air Force officer on Destiny. As with Riley (see below), despite being military, she seems to be on pretty good terms with the civilians and scientists compared to the drama that occurs among the more prominent members of both sides.

  • Boobs of Steel: She's among the few female military personnel shown and the only to be shown in a combat role. Seems to be the second-in-line for command of away teams after Scott.
  • Hot Amazon
  • Made of Iron: She takes a blast from an alien lightning storm (okay, so it was a few feet away but close enough to knock her back) and comes away none worse for wear. Maybe she's just immune to electricity.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Even more so than Chloe.

Colonel David Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips)

Air Force officer who was assigned to Icarus, but got out on the Hammond instead of going through the Stargate to Destiny. He seems to be Colonel Young's designated body-swap partner.

Dr. Lisa Park (Jennifer Spence)

One of the scientists (astrophysicist, to be precise) on Destiny.

Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson)

Runs the Department of Homeworld Security back on Earth.

Sgt. Hunter Riley (Haig Sutherland)

Essentially a combination of Siler and Walter from Stargate SG-1. He is usually seen supporting the staff at various points. He seems to be good friends with pretty much everyone on the ship; he, among the rest of the military, seems to be particularly competent with Ancient tech as he's identified the address to send them to Earth, helps with major repairs, mans the Stargate console on occasion, and can interpret Ancient. In one of the webisodes he even rigs one of Destiny's consoles to show a false self-destruct signal as a prank on Brody. He died in the second episode of season two.

  • Heroic Sacrifice: Though he didn't actually die, he shoved Brody out a corridor with an overloading power conduit so Brody wouldn't get caught by the blast. He was also trying to fix it so the ship wouldn't blow up. Didn't quite get far enough to keep himself out of harm's way, but he saved the ship. It puts him out of action for the latter half of the first ten episodes. He lampshades all of these incidents before his death; having survived an improbable number of incidents, he assumed it just it just wasn't his time yet.
  • Killed Off for Real
  • Mauve Shirt: His purpose really. He's not quite as widely seen as, say, Brody and Volker, but every time he appears helps to paint him as practically the one guy on this ship who's taking the whole thing in stride. That's why, when they kill them, it really hits home.
  • Mercy Kill: Young gives him one upon request. Not a quick kill, either. Young has to suffocate him because Riley isn't willing to take a bullet. Not because he's afraid to, mind you, but because he doesn't want the others to know that Young killed (or helped kill) him.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Used to perfection when he dies. That is to say, there is no sound at all. Just complete and utter silence until Young finally lets out the breath he was holding. And it's that much more tear jerk-ing. It doesn't stop there. This episode doesn't even have the usual song ending the others do; instead we get Riley's video diary, which is almost as depressing as his death.

Airman Darren Becker (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman)

Runs the mess hall, more or less, and as a result is the go-to guy for meals and making alien food palpable.

  • Camp Cook: But to be fair it's not his fault since he has to work with such low-grade crap. He actually does pretty good, all things considered.

Adam Brody (Peter Kelamis)

An engineer and computer expert. Friends and prank rival with Riley (he gets turned purple for his efforts). Also runs a still used to make alcohol in a makeshift bar for the crew. According to The Other Wiki, Telford's gambit to dial Earth and thus getting Riley injured was why Brody sides with Rush against the military. Which explains why a guy that probably isn't all that violent is willing to space Telford in "Subversion" - hurting Riley, blowing up Icarus, etc. There is the implication that Riley's death has hit him particularly hard out of the secondary characters due to their friendship. As of Season 2, he's also started to get a bit more of an active role in things as well as developing somewhat of an angry snarker personality (though for good reason).

  • Ascended Meme: Has the Numa Numa song on his iPod.
  • Berserk Button: Hates that the crew have come to nickname the Control Interface as "The Applecore"... or "APLCR Unit"
  • Deadpan Snarker: "Awakening" has him comment on some of the alien food they've been eating. "Tastes like crap." They then feed it to an alien, which spits it out. "Told ya."
  • Military Moonshiner: Despite not being military, he's filled this role.
  • Never Live It Down: Alternate Brody naming a nation "Futura"

"Its a font!"

  • Those Two Guys: With Volker to Rush, though a fairly light version of the trope as they're pretty involved in the story as side characters go.

Doctor Caine (Tygh Runyan)

An I.T. tech who shows up near the end of the first half of the season, apparently just to remind us there are more than ten people on the ship. James tries to hook up with him but he turns her down, then he decides to stay on an alien planet because he thinks the people that built it (long story) have a better chance of getting the crew home.

  • Chekhov's Gunman: He started as a random guy sent on a mission because main characters had another thing to do. As the beginning of season 2 he became some kind of higher force's messenger. Or not. Who knows?
  • Is This Thing Still On??: Has to remind James of this trope when she starts going on about how attractive he is over an open Kino line.
  • Preacher Man: Becomes this in "Faith". Leading to...
  • Put On A Planet: Willingly stayed behind on an alien planet with no Stargate and no way off, believing that advanced aliens (or God, which he pretty much admits to earlier) are trying to help them.

Doctor Jeremy Franklin (Mark Burgess)

A scientist who, straight from the beginning, just has the worst luck.

  • Brain Uploading: this is what the chair did to him. His body's disappearance is still a mistery.
  • Heroic Sacrifice/Put on a Bus: He surely did the first in "Sabotage". The second is because we don't know exactly what happened to him. Possibly Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence. It remains to be seen. He's still gone, though.
  • Idiot Ball: There's really no other excuse for him sitting in the chair which downloads a ridiculous amount of information into the user's brain, which is potentially fatal.
  • Spirit Advisor: Assuming Rush isn't just insane, which we really can't rule out, Franklin serves this role to him in "Aftermath".
  • The Woobie: This man cannot catch a break. He gets shot in the pilot for heaven's sake, though admittedly he did bring it on himself. It gets worse from there.

Doctor Dale Volker (Patrick Gilmore)

Astrophysicist and one of Rush's core team of scientists.

  • Ascended Extra: Originally intended to be a simple side character, the actor' portray impressed the showrunners enough to make him a more in-depth and involved character. Probably a CMOA for the actor considering how little most side characters have to work with.
  • Just Friends: With Park.
  • Only Sane Man: At times. At the very least, he has a thread of common sense some of the other scientists seem to lack, though one may attribute this to being overly cautious.
  • Those Two Guys: With Brody to Rush, though a fairly light version of the trope as they're pretty involved in the story as side characters go.

Dr. Amanda Perry (Kathleen Munroe)

Quadriplegic physicist on Earth; joins the crew via the communication stones in a number of episodes to work on the ship's drive. Love Interest to Rush (whose nickname for her is "Little Miss Brilliant. NOT Killed Off for Real along with Ginn by Simeon. Since she was killed while connected to another body via the stones, her consciousness stuck in the ether, then linked to Chloe and was downloaded to Destiny. Yes, it's quite a Mind Screw.

Varro (Mike Dopud)

The leader of what remains of the Lucian Alliance takeover force. His wife was killed during a rainstorm when the shelter she was in collapsed. He seems to have a thing for TJ.

  • Punch Clock Villain: Win or lose, he just wants everyone to get along now that they're stuck together. While he is now free, he remained the only Lucian Alliance member alive due to a hunting accident.

Ginn (Julie McNiven)

A scientist in the Lucian Alliance and one of the handful that were allowed to stay on board the ship. She was forced to join the Lucian Alliance or have her family killed.

Simeon (Robert Knepper)

A soldier in the Lucian Alliance and one of the handful that were allowed to stay on board the ship.

  • Badass: When he wanted to silence Ginn, he ended up killing three people (including Ginn), wounded four others, escaped the ship, and evaded around a dozen people tracking him for the better part of a day.
  • Enigmatic Minion: We don't see much of him, and he usually only speaks up to make quips. He interrogated Telford about how Kiva was shot and obviously didn't believe his story, yet made nothing of it. He also tried to get rough with TJ; he regretted it.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence

Destiny

Yes, the ship. It actually has enough oddities that it must be considered a character.

  • Cool Ship
  • Mind Screw: Destiny can play around with the crew's brainwaves. Confirmed hallucinations include Young's dreams, while TJ's baby and Rush's wife are possibilities, but unconfirmed yet.
  • Setting as a Character: Destiny is definitely a lot smarter than your average spaceship, Ancient or other. Rush has asserted that it doesn't actually have any personality, but apparently just freakishly appropriate deductive reasoning. One way of looking at it would be like your desktop computer with all the different programs on it (anti-virus, word processor, USB ports, etc) only more powerful and advanced. It has no real emotions or whatnot, but the complexity of it all can sometimes mean that when it tries to do something non-routine or something changes in its environment, something crashes (and usually when you're doing something important).
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