Review: Justice

[rachel500]

Justice is the tenth episode in Season One of Stargate Universe.

Review

While thought-provoking and complex in the issues it raises, Justice fails to deliver the dramatic tension needed to truly deliver a satisfying episode. Most of the problem is the plot which hangs together by a very thin thread of believability and just isn’t strong enough to deliver the tension required, but it isn’t helped by the camera work and direction. The production quality remains high with the acting on the whole tremendous but overall my biggest problem with it is that the episode isn’t enjoyable.

The plot is the major culprit in making Justice somewhat of a damp squib. It spends too much time at the beginning playing around with whether Spencer was killed and who might have done it, before moving swiftly into did Young kill Spencer, and subtly ignores the real mystery hinted at all the way through which is who has actually framed Young – despite being careful almost in every other scene at one point to clearly have someone state ‘someone is framing Young’.

Perhaps it was felt that it was better to underplay it to provide a bigger reveal moment at the end when it is discovered that it is Rush. In my opinion, that scene ends up being the poorer because the lack of focus on the hub of the issue creates a lack of tension preceding it. The storyline needed to commit to one mystery being the issue, to have presented real suspects in that mystery which would have enabled the build-up of tension that then climaxed with the confrontation between Rush and Young.

In addition, it’s not entirely believable that events transpire the way they do. Eli finding the gun (and what was with searching the quarters with flashlights – have they still not discovered where the light switches are?) hidden in a vent, him then only finding the deleted kino recording once he’d been made to go back through the recordings again. There is also the conversation Rush and Young are apparently overheard to have on Spencer that is thrown into the courtroom scene; it seems out of character for Young to confide something like that in Rush and isn’t believable. The whole evidentiary hearing itself just seems pointless given they knew setting out there wasn’t enough evidence to make a conclusion. If the intention was to try and create drama, to create tension, it failed for me.

I also think the wider political power play theme overshadowed the main plot. Rather than focus on the mystery, the changeover in power dynamics and the continuing tensions between civilians and military take centre stage. I don’t have an issue with the question being raised over military rule versus civilian, but here how each camp responds to the others’ rule (either with the room searches, the various discussions each has, the changeover in command) overtook the real issue of the crime and who was the perpetrator. Indeed there was more tension in the scene between Greer and Wray over his removal from the off-world duty list than there was in any scene where the possible innocence/guilt of Young was discussed.

Wray’s leadership is a nice follow on from Life and Ming-Na does a good job of playing Wray as someone who wants the power, can take responsibility but who has some self-doubt (great scene before she heads to the gate room where she looks down at her shaking hand). Elyse Levesque also gets to shine a little as Chloe stepping up to defend Young. However, Louis Ferreira and Robert Carlyle steal the show with the scene on the planet. It’s a marvellous show of rivalry and underlying hostility erupting into physical violence. It does bring their power struggle arc, which has been building through the first part of the series, to a head in a very dramatic and controversial way given Young’s abandonment of Rush on the planet. This ending provides a real shock and point of discussion that brings up really interesting takes on the morality of each man and their actions.

The fight scene between Rush and Young at the end is very well done in terms of direction and camera work but for the first time since Universe began, I found myself really irritated with both for the most part. The scene in Spencer’s quarters where they gather in the immediate discovery of the body has the camera weaving all over the place like a drunken sailor. At various points, the angle and distance chosen when there are reaction shots is poor but especially when finding the alien ship, and this decreases tension. I will say the reaction shot to Wray on seeing Spencer’s last message and the reaction shot of Rush when they manage to get Franklin out of the chair are great.

The rest of the production continued to shine. The alien planet was again very different from those seen previously; the alien ship intriguing in design. The special effects of the Destiny in FTL and falling out of FTL are well done. The sky above Rush in the final shots is fabulously beautiful. The sets of the Destiny continue to be consistent and grim - although please, they have power, they can turn on a couple more lights surely!

So Universe continues to deliver a quality hour of television. But here the episode plot just doesn’t deliver the necessary tension or drama for me to make it a stand-out. There is a lot of interesting questions provoked by the episode but interesting questions aside, I didn’t really enjoy it. I am however intrigued enough by Rush’s dilemma to come back after the hiatus.

At the midway point of its first season, I will say that I think Universe overall is delivering quality entertainment. It’s focus on how humans deal with facing extraordinary situations is creating a lot of interesting discussion and prompting many questions. It just needs to find a better balance, in my opinion, and ensure each episode delivers a great story in amongst the increased attention on character and overarching themes. I've enjoyed the first half in the main, and I'm looking forward to the second.