What is it with sci-fi villains and black leather? Really, if you’re going to be bad, you should be bold with your fashion choices, too. Look at Ming the Merciless. Now there’s a villain who’s not afraid of color.
Not only does he go for head to toe red lame, he goes for gold accents and a standy uppy collar of doom. Anyone who puts that ensemble together must be unpredictable and a bit insane. His whole look screams hot hail hurling badass.
Now, let’s look at the Lucian Alliance.
Black leather. Yawn.
All the bad guys wear black leather anymore. Even the blue jellyfish aliens from earlier in this season wore black leather! What ever happened to villains with a sense of personal style? Villains like Ming? Or villains like these:
Ra from the original Stargate
Or Khan
Or Auntie Entity
Those last two didn’t even have the benefit of a mall or strong creative economy and they still managed to piece together villainous ensembles that not only had style, but were also memorable.
Now, I don’t actually know much about the Lucian Alliance, having not watched SG1 or Atlantis. All I know came from the orientation video that Eli was watching for a minute in this ep. Predictable fashion choices aside, I’m not all that impressed so far with their ability to be villainous. Although, Kiva’s willingness to execute an obviously pregnant woman is pretty evil.
While the Lucian Alliance successfully raids Destiny, Eli and Chloe make a break for it, winding up in an unexplored part of the ship. Chloe has been shot in the leg, and Eli is carrying her to the best of his ability. I really like the way their relationship has developed now that it’s moved past that annoying puppy love dynamic.
Meanwhile, everyone is running out of patience for Col. Young. He wouldn’t cut off the communication stone link between Telford and Rush. He had a plan then didn’t follow through with it. He wasn’t willing to sacrifice Telford and got reamed by Richard Dean Anderson about it; however, I do wonder if Young would have followed through if it were still Rush in Telford’s body. I can’t tell if Col. Young has it in him to be that bad. He’s so hard to read; his eyes are always on the verge of crazy.
The Lucian Alliance and the Destiny crew are at a standoff for most of the episode. They’re each holding sections of the ship, they each have hostages. It’s not until Telford – recovered from his brainwashing trip – is leading a small Alliance team that things start to get really complicated.
One of the members of the Alliance team gets vaporized, burns down into a pile of black ash. Right afterwards, Destiny’s systems start going crazy.
So we have all systems fluctuating and a vapo-ray both targeting the villains, but not controlled by Col. Young and the gang? Is this further evidence that Destiny is sentient? Is there a disembodied Franklin flitting about the circuits of the ship?
Or, considering how much of the ship is still unexplored, could there be yet another faction hiding out somewhere? From a story perspective, I can’t think of another reason for Eli and Chloe to be wandering through those parts of the ship. Sure, it does a lot for their emotional development, but there’s got to be a story reason for it, too.
I’m really curious to see how this all plays out in the finale on Friday.
Lisa Fary is a graduate of the creative writing program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She’s angry that it’s 2010 and she still doesn’t have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
I've watched all three Stargate series, so I can shed a little light on the Lucian Alliance backstory and costumes. They started out as disparate bands of smugglers, theives, and petty gangsters, so their unofficial uniform of black leather was originally a practical concern. They provide durability and a measure of stealth in situations that require sneaking. When the Goa'uld (Ra's race), the former overlords of the Milky Way, were defeated by Stargate Command, this loose underworld alliance started forming an official power structure and making plays for control of former Goa'uld territory. Since the previous regime was so ostentatious in dress, I imagine that the Lucian Alliance has elected to keep the leather look in order to distinguish themselves as a different kind of authority. Also, the Alliance members do their own fighting, while the Goa'uld had an entire race of genetically engineered soldiers to do battle on their behalf. [/SG geek]
I thought that Incursion 1 was an action-packed episode, and can't wait to see how it turns out this week. There are some tough military and moral choices that need to be made, and from the way the cast and crew have been talking about season 2, it should be a doozy of a time getting them out of this jam.