handful_ofdust

Robert Carlyle makes most things better. I also really like the actor formerly known as Justin Louis, who's now reassumed his given name of Louis Ferreira. Carlyle plays the main scientist on board the Destiny, a massive, ancient alien ship that's currently travelling a ridiculous trajectory with no fixed course in mind through the (ta da!) universe, trapping a combined scientific/military team, plus some civilians, as its reluctant passengers. Ferreira is the military leader, while Ming-na (once Ming-na Wen) is the civilian leader. Nobody trusts anybody else, for good reason--resources are scarce, politics are brutal, every technological step forward they make seems to come with a quirk that sends other things two steps back. At the halfway mark in Season One, Ferreira and Carlyle's dislike for each other erupted into open hatred/war; Carlyle tried to frame Ferreira for "murdering" one of his own crew, so Ferreira beat Carlyle up and marooned him on a desert planet. How he got back on board the ship is whole 'nother story, but I love Carlyle's portrait of a man under incredible pressure who nevertheless just can't bring himself to cultivate normal human relationships--ie, the kind that might win him friends and influence people on his behalf. Whereas Ferreira is moral yet conflicted, a man used to having the bully pulpit to fall back on, just as damaged as Carlyle, but with a completely different machine behind him. Oh, and Ming-na is gay and married to the very lovely Reiko Aylesworth, and nobody bats an eye; she's also a massive, Machiavellian corporate bitch. People shit on Universe because another of its characters is a nerd selected for space duty on the strength of his theoretical skillz, in true Last Starfighter style--but you know what? I like Eli a lot, so fuck 'em. Oh, and people screw up on this show constantly, and bad things result--I also like that. As you know.;)