This article contains spoilers for “Stargate Universe”.
Syfy’s “Stargate Universe” unfortunately marked the end of the “Stargate” franchise, but this two-season series showed real potential before being prematurely axed. Season 2 ends with a Really dark cliffhanger (which continues in an ongoing comic book series, but they are not considered canon), where the central space crew decides to initiate a three-year void jump, leaving only Eli Wallace (David Blue) awake inside the ship.
For context, the crew aboard “Destiny” discovers the mysterious origins of the universe, but is constantly attacked by automated drones no matter where they go. To limit the problem, everyone except Eli (who is monitoring the jump into the void) goes into stasis to survive. However, Eli’s acute loneliness isn’t the only problem here, as the ship is operating on low power mode and the only available escape pod is malfunctioning. Before we can anticipate Eli’s fate, the credits roll.
In an interview with GateWorld, Blue jokingly talked about pitching an… interesting idea for a potential third season, where Eli’s fate would be revealed with a dramatic focus on his physicality:
“And then I joked with [Producer Brad Wright] about two or three weeks before the end, and I was like, “I have a pitch for season 3.” […] “Okay, so they’re all sleeping in their stasis pods.” They wake up three years later and no one can find Eli. And they’re like, he must be here somewhere because we’re all still alive, right? And they just go from room to room, and they can’t find it anywhere. And they finally get to this room and open it, and for no reason, fog comes out of the room. […] Eventually everything clears up and they just see this person doing pull-ups – all you see is their back!'”
David Blue’s dedication to Eli is an extension of his love for the franchise
Blue’s joke mentioned above makes sense in the context of the preparation he was doing for the character since season 1. In the same interview, the actor mentions how he had “intentionally lost weight” to convey that Eli lives in a world where survival is the main goal. With that in mind, the dramatic idea of Eli’s fog reveal acts as a fun subversion of expectations, as Blue becomes quite colorful with the details informing us of what the character did during the three-year waiting period:
“I wasn’t even in good shape at the time […] [the idea of Eli] do pull-ups, and then [he] drops down and turns around with like a wooden leg, a gun, maybe an alien on his shoulder, a patch, and he says, “It’s been three long years.” I liked this idea that we see him and that he is different. What happened? We never had to do that, which was funny. But that is why this hiatus between what would have been [Seasons] Two and three, I started training even harder, because I just liked the idea of ”Ooh, now what?”
Now this seems fun, because it alleviates the anxiety surrounding Eli’s doomed circumstances, but it doesn’t quite fit the tone of the series. Sure, Eli is the only comic relief in a series full of melodramatic stakes, but such an elaborate gag reveal wouldn’t have worked at all. Either way, Blue’s humorous idea is intertwined with a genuine dedication to Eli’s growth as a character, which is emblematic of his love for “Stargate” as a whole. Unfortunately, Eli’s fate is currently limited to the comics, and we will never know what really happened to him or the crew aboard Destiny.
