The Stargates in SG:U

[Checkmate]

So... we have these fairly advanced aliens who have been tailing Destiny for at least as long as the crew has been onboard. So, uhm, like... why haven't they tried to snag one of the stargates on the myriad planets they've doubtlessly found (we know they were near at least one courtesy of the crashed shuttle), and try to reverse-engineer or at least figure out how to use it?

 

[David cgc]

In one of the teaser trailers for this half of the season.

Spoiler: It's a trailer. Seriously, now. But, still...

We see the aliens walking through the stargate onto the Destiny. So, yeah, they've probably at least figured out how to turn them on, or will capture an unwary offworld team and make use of their handy dandy handheld DHD.

 

[Brent]

So... we have these fairly advanced aliens who have been tailing Destiny for at least as long as the crew has been onboard. So, uhm, like... why haven't they tried to snag one of the stargates on the myriad planets they've doubtlessly found (we know they were near at least one courtesy of the crashed shuttle), and try to reverse-engineer or at least figure out how to use it?

How do we know they haven't? We know very little about the aliens.

Maybe the Stargates aren't even important to them, moreso they want the Destiny itself.

 

[Brikar99]

Do these gates have any way to be dialed other than the handheld devices we've seen the Destiny crew using?

 

[Checkmate]

Maybe the Stargates aren't even important to them, moreso they want the Destiny itself.

You mean like the Stargate inside Destiny? Or that they've been monitoring the ship for a while, which opens up wormholes every time it stops? Or that they obviously knew of them after having landed (or crashed, or whatever happened) near one?

I'm saying why haven't they been able to figure it out? If our primitive asses were able to figure out how to manually dial, why wouldn't an uber powerful race with FTL capabilities and a strong desire to see it happen?

It's just kind odd.

 

[David cgc]

Again, how do you know they haven't? They could be using stargates all the damn time. Just because they haven't used one on a planet Destiny's picked out (and it may be using "presence of hostile aliens" as a factor in it's "should I let the crew ass around here for a day?" algorithm), and they haven't figured out Destiny's address doesn't mean they don't know gate.

In fact, come to think of it, Rush never mentioned finding any bodies on the crashed shuttle. Maybe they escaped the planet via stargate.

 

[Checkmate]

My point was about using it to get onboard the Destiny, since that's apparently their driving goal. If they've figured out how the system works, which they apparently have as you've pointed out, it shouldn't be all that difficult for such an advanced race to figure out the address to the Destiny herself. Especially since we know gates tend to remember previous addresses.

What's more, they've clearly been on the ship before. They knew how to get in to kidnap Chloe, and one or more were likely onboard when the crew first gated in before they made their quiet escape at the end of the episode.

It just seems weird that, with all that in mind, they rely on tracking devices to keep up with the ship.

 

[Blueicus]

They could've learned about the innards of the ship from reading Rush's mind.

 

[F. King Daniel]

What I want to know about the SGU gates is: Why does the Destiny gate shoot steam when it turns off but the planetside ones don't?

 

[Brent]

What I want to know about the SGU gates is: Why does the Destiny gate shoot steam when it turns off but the planetside ones don't?

The one on Destiny is older maybe?

It could be that the seeder ships are capable of learning as well, we've seen that Destiny has an AI and can think about what its crew needs, maybe the seeder ships are capable of learning as it travels and can build better planet side gates.

 

[JarodRussell]

I have missed a few episodes. Who put the Stargates on all these planets? The Destiny? Why is she travelling back to them?

 

[Brent]

I have missed a few episodes. Who put the Stargates on all these planets? The Destiny? Why is she travelling back to them?

There are seeder ships ahead of the Destiny building Stargates on planets, the Destiny is the followup ship the Ancients planned to use to explore those planets the seeder ship seeded. How far ahead the ships are we do not know. The Destiny is following their course.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Not to turn this into SGU Q+A, but how come Destiny, older than Atlantis and the Ancient ships we saw in Atlantis, has this awesome FTL drive whereas the (relatively) newer ships have the much slower hyperdrive?

 

[Brent]

Not to turn this into SGU Q+A, but how come Destiny, older than Atlantis and the Ancient ships we saw in Atlantis, has this awesome FTL drive whereas the (relatively) newer ships have the much slower hyperdrive?

It is the other way around actually, Destiny's FTL appears to be different than Hyperdrives, it isn't in Hyperspace like more modern Asgard or Ancient drives. In fact, it appears to be closer in form to Warp Drive from Star Trek. It seems that, this technology predates Hyperspace engines, its slower than Hyperspace. It's like the first step to Interstellar flight, with Hyperdrive improving upon it in great strides. I think of it as Warp Drive speeds (though maybe a little faster), the only reason why the Destiny is so far out is because its been doing it for millions of years, so it is wayyyyyyyyyyy out there, but it would take them millions of years to get back to Earth with Destiny's standard FTL drive. That's why they call it FTL, it isn't Hyperspace.

In Summary - FTL Engines on Destiny < Hyperspace Engines

 

[The Wormhole]

Hyperdrive can get a ship to other galaxies in a matter of weeks. Destiny's FTL takes a couple of weeks just to get to another solar system.

 

[Brent]

Hyperdrive can get a ship to other galaxies in a matter of weeks.

Or 3 days to Pegasus with a ZPM installed, and the Asgard seemed to be able to get to Earth in a matter of minutes from their home galaxy.... which makes me think that if they can ever pin point Destiny's location, they could equip a ship with a ZPM and actually have a chance at getting to it.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I was under the impression that every time Destiny dropped out of FTL it was in different galaxy. I'm sure that during one of the first episodes they were looking out at the little dots outside and someone said that they weren't stars, they were galaxies, and that they were in the void between at the time.

Have I had it wrong all this time?

 

[Brent]

I was under the impression that every time Destiny dropped out of FTL it was in different galaxy. I'm sure that during one of the first episodes they were looking out at the little dots outside and someone said that they weren't stars, they were galaxies, and that they were in the void between at the time.

Have I had it wrong all this time?

Yes, in the first episode they showed several galaxies that Destiny has been through in its time (remember its been going for millions of years), but each stop is not just a once stop in a galaxy, they are not traveling the void of galaxies. The seeder ships are delivering gates on planets in each galaxy it travels through, througout the whole galaxy.

Keep in mind also the range of these Stargates isn't like the range in the Milky Way. In the MW galaxy any Stargate will transport you to any other Stargate in the entire galaxy. However, with Destiny's gates it seems there is a much shorter range of the gates, they are only able to gate to other gates within a certain distance, not within the entire galaxy itself. Everything is in a smaller/slower/shorter scale with Destiny than we are use to.

FTL is slower than Hyperdrive, by a lot. Think of it like Warp Drive and the analogy will make more sense.

 

[The Wormhole]

You know, one has to wonder why they just don't try to modify the wormhole drive from the Atlantis finale to send an Earth starship out to Destiny, rescue everyone, and return home.

 

[Brent]

You know, one has to wonder why they just don't try to modify the wormhole drive from the Atlantis finale to send an Earth starship out to Destiny, rescue everyone, and return home.

I get the feeling they don't exactly know where they are right now in the Universe, like it is hard to locate them. But yes, a good point.