How would you handle Rush? - Stargate Universe (2009) Discussion

[–] Thats_A_Print 12 years ago

Young needs Rush without him they all will die. Rush's life work is this ship and as smart as Eli is he still isn't capable to manage the ship on his own. Young is clueless about the ship so he yields to Rush as much as he hates it. Young really doesn't know what to do other than military procedures and leadership. He is dependent on Rush for guidance. I guess Young is more of a manager of people.

There was no one else to run the ship but Rush. As the series proves so many of the other scientist aren't much help at all.

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[–] ARoggen 12 years ago

I think Young is horrible at managing. He shouldn't have let Rush have so much power. Rush is an expert consultant; an employee, not king.

The way Young handled Camille was ridiculous. She was basically hysterical. She had a couple concerns and got so nutty about it, and started a war instead of trying to talk it through, although she always says that she just loves to talk and war is bad. And Young could barely handle her before or after the coup attempt.

Ironically, although Rush and Camille always said that Young was so horrible, the only thing I felt that he had trouble with was handling these two. Otherwise, I think he was doing a good job with the ship and surprise issues.

Young needed more fresh veggies so he could think straight. Or, he probably should have started sleeping with Camille to get her to not be so intense. Oh, wait, she had a gf. Well, then he should have given her special assignments, like polling the crew to find out the one thing that they would love to make it feel more like home, and then put her in charge of it. Like game night or athletic contests. Something that she could be busy at and in charge of, that made people a little happy. They Young could have been free to kick Rush's bum!

Wait! Young was also quite stupid about Simeon and that crew. Before releasing them all into the general population, he should have interrogated all of them. That tall blond man would have eventually said that Simeon was dangerous.

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[–] TapiocaSunrise 10 years ago

But what youre arguing in that the military dictatorship that Young headed up was legitimate.

In the episode where the civilians attempted to cut off the military personnel in another part of the ship, they were overthrowing the Junta, and Young should have seen that he had no legitimate authority (only that which was enforced down the barrel of a gun), and the civilians were stupid to even allow Young to resume control.

Even through non-violent non-compliance, they would have made it impossible for Young to retain any kind of power as that microcosm of society exists through cooperation. Rush would refuse to help with the computers (along with the other astrophysicist and the guy with black hair). Eli wouldnt have a clue what to do (frankly, I find his character to be overstated a lot of the time - he may well be 'math boy' but that doesnt make him any good with linguistics yet he seems to have a huge grasp of the 'Ancients' language with no study time at all), the others would refuse to help with organising food, water, etc., and then they could begin to sabotage things until Young had no option except to relinquish power.

They could then establish a civilian based committee to organise things and bring into check the militarys power. Therefore the question is not "How would you handle Rush" but how would you deal with the unchecked military authoritarianism with its constant threat of violence onboard the ship?

Its one of the things on the show I find absolutely bizarre.

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[–] ARoggen 12 years ago

I think Young should have started off keeping Rush off-kilter. He could have put Eli at the helm almost right away (the ship was on auto-pilot anyway) and assigned Rush to do long projects that were just busy work when his arrogance popped up.

Eli's main problem was that he was willfully childish. So early trials by fire and getting him in on the learning curve of the ship early on would have been prudent. Also, Young should have been in there learning about how to man the ship, too, or the young pilot. Crazy to just have Rush do it. Rush's behavior was criminal, reckless disregard for the lives of others, imho, so he should have been treated more like that, with a guard on him and Eli learning everything step by step to check his work and the pilot checking his operational decisions.

Clearly, I am thinking too much about this. Still fighting the flu and stuck with Netflix.

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[–] Thats_A_Print 12 years ago

I figured you were still sick. Waaaay too much time on your hands for SGU message board! :)

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[–] ARoggen 12 years ago

So true. Thank god for the internet, or I would have been so bored this week.

At least there are lots of new posts for other viewers to read.

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[–] evert_chin 12 years ago

if we ever receive season 3... Rush need to be eliminated at some point... he always has his own hidden agendas.. i would love to see Rush gone for good (and in a memorable way) and let Eli (give Eli some ancient knowledges via the chair?) take over.

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[–] xxhelterskelterxx 12 years ago

That sounds boring.

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[–] Thats_A_Print 12 years ago

Agreed. BORING!!!!... Rush adds all the Drama and conflict. The show needs Rush and actor Robert Carlyle who is the best actor on the show! If anything the show could do without Eli who is more of an annoyance. Dr. Rush is one of the most compelling characters and storylines on the show.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] aniar298 11 years ago

Eh. Colonel Young really isn't my favorite character. He really does lack some..*cough* backbone? *cough*
But given the extreme in circumstances, I say it's better to have a teddy bear than an iron fist, especially with the civilians on board.

Colonel Young knows that he knows absolutely NOTHING about the ship, much less how to make it work, and has to completely rely on Rush at first.
Lets be clear on the simple fact that Colonel Young did not know Rush as well until later in the series. And we already know the Colonel doesn't feel suited for the task of leading the ship.

Rush had shown early on that he had an edge for understanding the ships systems at first, and I believe he was trying to gain a better understanding of the situation when everyone first came on board. Rush has also demonstrated for several times already on how people work.
So technically speaking, I think Rush had Young under his thumb the whole time, with nearly everyone else on the ship.

So if you were going to ask what I would do if I was Colonel Young, I would do what Colonel Young has already done as far as his dealings with Rush goes.
Unless you mean what I personally think should have been done, I couldn't tell you because I have never been in those situations before. Have you?
I'm just not the "leader" type, like General Hammond.

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[–] Thats_A_Print 11 years ago

As a woman how I would handle Rush is be his nightly entertainment ;) ;)
He is super sexy! Loved all those episode with him stuck in the ships computer and his love making sessions with that handicapped woman (forgot her name).

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[–] Belforhir 10 years ago

Eh. Colonel Young really isn't my favorite character. He really does lack some..*cough* backbone? *cough*

You're joking? The man is a violent psychopath.. All he does whenever he isn't trying to murder Rush is to seek confrontation and manipulating/sabotaging him. Especially when Rush actually tries to do good... just because Young wants to keep him unpopular to minimize his power. He's also not much better with the rest of the civilians.

If I'd been there I'd gladly keep Rush (whose many deceptions is motivated by a VERY reasonable mistrust of the military dictatorship dominating the events in the ship, regardless of the fact that not a single one of them is qualified to have any significant role in running the ship) and put a bullet in that ugly *beep* colonel's face... and Scott.. defenitely Scott. Not to mention Greer!!(now that's a murderous rampage and serial torture fest waiting to happen)

Those 3 bastards give SG personell a bad name. Only Weir has been a more abominable disgusting character in the SG Saga... even McKay at his worst is more likable.

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[–] xystophoros 10 years ago

Exactly. First of all, Young was completely inept at dealing with threats to the ship. When Destiny itself tested his mental state and ability to guide the ship through danger, Young failed miserably and descended into drunken self-medication.

And when the Lucian Alliance boarded Destiny, Young balked at killing them because Telford was with them. That mistake would have cost ALL of Destiny's crew their lives if Ginn hadn't defected and killed the Lucian leader.

Not to mention Young's well documented anger issues, which come up again and again.

Rush, on the other hand, was tasked with dealing with people who were so ignorant, they could not see major threats like the impending power loss. He was one of the most brilliant scientists in the world, yet at one point he was subject to the whim of Sgt. Grier, who held him at gunpoint because Grier (who knew nothing about the ship or its tech) didn't want him pressing buttons.

Rush also had to deal with Scott's idiocy, exemplified by the fact that Scott said, in the second episode, "It (life support) doesn't matter because you're going to figure out a way to get us home, right?"

And Rush said something very true: "That's the sort of thing they tell you to say in officer candidate school" but it has no bearing on whether the goal is even possible. No amount of morale boosting would have gotten that decrepit Stargate to dial back to Earth. It was not physically possible.

Young had some 40 military personnel that he personally commanded on that ship. Rush had no one. Yet the fact that there was any power struggle at all showed who was the smarter, more effective of the two. Granted, Rush was not great at dealing with people and didn't feel the need to explain himself often, but he never really acted out of self interest. He was always acting on behalf of the ship and crew.

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[–] nomen_meltdown 11 years ago

Uh, since he was arguably the smartest person aboard-- or at least, the one most willing to apply his intelligence fully to the mission, because he wanted to be there (Eli might have been smarter, but his was always distracted or goofing off or holding back because he wanted to be elsewhere)-- I'd have tried listening to him and respecting him. Notice how much more smoothly things ran internally when Young tried that approach? Imagine if that had been his attitude all along.

I'm an island- peopled by bards, scientists, judges, soldiers, artists, scholars & warrior-poets.

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[–] fwbrown 11 years ago

I have a lot of sympathy for Rush. True, he uses and manipulates people and is willing to put them at risk to accomplish his goals. But he isn't doing all this for his own benefit. His focus is on THE MISSION above all. Col. Young's focus is on getting everyone home because "these are the wrong people." But Rush doesn't care if they're the right people or the wrong people. They're the only people who are there, and the only ones he has to work with so all he wants is for them either to help get the job done or else stay out of the way. Col. Young and others assume Rush is a coward because he preferred to let other people take certain risks, like being the first to sit in the teaching chair. But I think Rush is less concerned with his own personal safety than with the fact that he is an essential person for solving Destiny's mysteries. He knows that if anything happens to him there is no one else who will be willing to sacrifice anything and everything (and everyone) to ensure the mission succeeds.

Remember when they thought the ship would be destroyed in a star, and Rush volunteered to not even be considered for a place in the group who would try to colonize a new planet? He said he preferred to die on board the Destiny because discovering the secrets of the Ancients was his life's work and there would be no point in his survival if he couldn't do that. Even in his selfishness there's a kind of nobility, a dedication to something bigger than himself. And in situations where the success or failure of the mission is not at stake he can be surprisingly sympathetic. He seemed genuinely distressed by Chloe's grief over her father's death and the fact that she blamed Rush for it. Until that moment I wouldn't have expected him to care about her since she was of no use to him in his mission, yet he tried (in his own way) to comfort her. Of course, his focus still was on how important the mission was and how her father's sacrifice would help that to be accomplished, but you have to remember that in Rush's eyes contributing to the success of the mission was the highest praise he could give to someone. He wanted Chloe to be proud of her father's contribution and to be comforted by it.

If a time traveller from the future were to come on board Destiny and tell Rush that he would succeed in uncovering all of Destiny's secrets and in sending the information back to Earth, but that he and everyone else on board would die in the process, I think Rush would smile in satisfaction and say, "So be it," because his mission would be accomplished and his life's work would be complete.

Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg. -- Deor

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[–] mpadpy 11 years ago

I read many of the comments here and I see the same thing in real lie.

What they dont realize is without Rush there would be no mission and their life's would not last. It is Rush's project, he plans what happens and what the end goals are and how to get there. He IS the real CEO of the ship! You have some military people in there who are like security guards and there only to provide security! Not to run things! You can find min wage people to do the job! many companies think if they have a strong man at the top running things shouting orders around its great way to do business. Well that sort of works and usually the ones with the ideas and brains dont stand in the way. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are examples where jobs was kicked out but gates ran things himself. Well in most cases its pure luck that the ones shouting orders succeed. They sure dont know the limitations! All they know is they need to order peons around and make themselves look great and a great deal of money. Which is why many of these guys made a zillion times the amount of money than the actual workers who get work done.

Yea there are people who are good at managing people and run things, so those with potential can do the work that needs to get done. But that snot how it happens in most companies no matter what the perception is. Which is also why most companies are criminal! The others haven't been caught yet. Which is saying that Rush would act in the interest of the goal while the Colonel would act in the interest of some outside interest like his commander. Which would be saying those who are not willing to be disposable gets a one way trip to gitmo.

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[–] xxhelterskelterxx 11 years ago

I'd put him in charge.

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