Nicholas Rush

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Dr. Nicholas Rush

WARNING: SPOILERS

The following article contains SPOILERS. Proceed at your own risk.

Summary

From MGM: The scientific head of the Icarus program and a certifiable genius, Dr. Nicholas Rush is one of the most brilliant scientists of his day. Having devoted some of the most difficult years of his life to the program, he knows more than anyone the importance of what is beyond that 9th chevron address. Definitely not the most agreeable aboard the ship, he is without a doubt the mastermind behind most of what goes on, whether people know it or not. Unwilling to bend to any sort of military rule, his focus is always on discovering the secrets to, and purpose of the Destiny.

Personal Data

  • Birthday:
  • Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
  • Marital Status: Widowed, Gloria Rush
  • Children: None
  • Parents: Father worked in the shipyards of Glasgow
  • Siblings:
  • Stargate Program Rank: Civilian
  • Stargate Program Position: Lead Scientist of the Icarus Project and now stranded on the Destiny, where he has become the go-to guy concerning the Ancient ship

Before Joining the Stargate Program

Rush has a working man's background, established by his father who worked in the shipyards of Glasgow. Rush himself worked two jobs while attending Oxford on a scholarship. (Stargate Universe: 1.03 "Air Part 3")

His wife, Gloria, was a concert violinist who was happy in her career and marriage, but her life was cut short by cancer. She wanted children, but once stricken with the fatal disease, decided that perhaps it was best that she hadn't had any. (SpoilerTV, July 13, 2009)

Dr. Daniel Jackson was apparently the one who recruited Rush into the Stargate Program. It's possible that Rush was a university professor (based on location shoot and spoilers for "Human").

Icarus Base and Destiny

Leading the Icarus Project

Rush and Lt. Gen. Jack O'Neill recruit Eli Wallace

Dr. Nicholas Rush was the lead scientist of the Icarus Project, a top secret project financed by the U.S. government to discover what was on the other side of the wormhole using a nine-chevron destination address written about in the Ancient Database. Since it takes a great deal of energy to power the Stargate to get to an eight-chevron destination, Rush assumed it took even more power to dial a ninth chevron. A good portion of the beginnings of the project included finding a planet in the Milky Way that could provide that kind of power. Once a planet with a naquadria core was found, the Icarus Base was established and personnel were assigned. Even though Col. Everett Young was put in command of the Base, Rush still had access to all of the military personnel's records. Two young men, Lt. Matthew Scott and MSgt. Ronald Greer, were on the roster, but Rush wouldn't have selected them himself. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.02 "Air Part 2", 1.03 "Air Part 3")

Drawing energy safely from the core was a challenge that Rush himself was unable to solve. With $1.6 billion of the American taxpayers' money already applied to the Project, Senator Alan Armstrong had to find a way to salvage the time and money that had already been dedicated. His daughter and aide Chloe came up with an idea that saved the Project: incorporate the power problem into the Dakara Weapons Puzzle in an online game called Prometheus to find the brilliant mind who could solve it. That brilliant mind was that of Eli Wallace, an MIT drop-out. Lt. Gen. Jack O'Neill and Rush went to Eli personally to recruit him into the program. Eli was reluctant at first, but after he was beamed up to the USS George Hammond and saw Earth from orbit, he became a believer. Rush also offered a financial package to support Eli's ailing mother. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1")

Dialing Destiny

Rush watches the evacuees come through the Destiny Stargate

Rush was excited to finally get to dial the nine-chevron destination, although his ego was bruised by Eli's mathematical genius. But on the day that Senator Armstrong, Chloe, and Eli were to witness Col. David Telford's team walk through the Stargate to the unknown destination, the Icarus Base was attacked. Rush and Eli figured out that the nine-chevron destination was really a code and that Earth's was the ninth symbol, or point of origin, no matter from where the Stargate was dialed. With the core going critical and irreversibly heading toward a catastrophic explosion, Rush made the decision to dial the nine-chevron destination rather than Earth. He claimed that he didn't want to risk the explosion to translate through the wormhole to Earth, but if the truth had been known, he realized that this was his last chance to dial the mysterious destination. He wanted all of his hard work and dedication to mean something. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1")

The nine-chevron code led them to the Ancient exploration starship Destiny, several billion light years away from home with no way to return. Even though the evacuees knew the address to get back to Earth, they didn't have enough power to dial Destiny's Stargate. They blamed Rush for their sad state and if it had not been for Lt. Scott, who was put in temporary command after Young was severely injured in the evacuation, Rush might have been mobbed. Rush claimed to have been given leadership aboard the Destiny by O'Neill himself after he contacted Homeworld Command via the Ancient Long-Range Communication Stones that Young had the presence of mind to bring with him during the evacuation. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.02 "Air Part 2")

Solving Immediate Survival Issues

Rush steps through Destiny's Stargate

Rush took it upon himself to solve the immediate problems that started to occur on the failing ship. He found that he could input their needs into the ship's computer and that Destiny would match those needs to a planet in its course ahead. Destiny's course is determined automatically as it follows the starships that were sent ahead of it to plant Stargates on various planets located in one galaxy after another. Rush learned that the ship would drop out of faster-than-light (FTL) speed to dial the Stargate to the planet that would best serve their needs. The ship gave the explorers a limited amount of time to visit the planet and would then return to its FTL course. On the first planet that they explored to obtain calcium carbonate for their air scrubbing system, Rush had a physical altercation with Greer because Greer wouldn't share his water and bossed him around. Rush also called Lt. Scott "Captain Marvel" because Scott, the leader of the away team, insisted that he go on alone to find the compound after Rush admitted defeat. (Stargate Universe: 1.02 "Air Part 2", 1.03 "Air Part 3")

Rush continued to study the Destiny's database extensively, but was still not able to access the ship's main computer systems, much to his growing frustration. When the Destiny appeared to be running out of energy, Rush panicked and ordered everyone to not turn on any unnecessary systems. He blamed the others for trying to dial Earth and draining all of the ship's reserves, something that he had insisted from the beginning was not a good idea. Seeing that Rush was highly agitated, Young tried to assign Dr. Dale Volker, an astrophysicist, to help Rush in figuring out the systems, but Rush insulted Volker's intelligence and kicked him out. Eventually, exhaustion and caffeine and nicotine withdrawal led Rush to a melt-down. He collapsed and slept for ten hours and would have stayed asleep if he hadn't been awakened to determine why Destiny had stopped where it had, outside the Stargate's range of planets. (Stargate Universe: 1.04 "Darkness")

The Destiny was on a collision course with a sun. At the time, they didn't realize that this was how the ship recharged its reserves, so the crew prepared for the worst. Seventeen of them were put on the ship's only working shuttle so that some could survive. The others who were not chosen by Young or the lottery had to prepare to say their farewells and face death. Rush himself pulled his name out of the lottery and explained to Young, "This ship…coming here, was my destiny. My life's work was to be here, not trying to survive on some rock with a bunch of strangers." (Stargate Universe: 1.05 "Light")

When Eli asked that he leave a farewell message in a kino, Rush merely stared at the kino's camera in silence. He preferred to stay alone in his quarters, listen to music, and finish the book he was reading as his way of going out. (Stargate Universe: 1.05 "Light")

Later, the Destiny stopped near an ice planet that had pure water for the crew to drink. Their supply was getting low, but more important, it was getting inexplicably rapidly low (they found out later that alien entities were depleting the water supply, not hoarders). Young and Scott went to the inhospitable planet, and when it came time for Young to make the choice to save Scott who had become trapped in a crevasse or bring in the second load of ice, Rush tried to have Young leave Scott for "the greater good." His words of wisdom to Lt. Tamara Johansen who had been given temporary command while Young and Scott were off-world, spoke to this philosophy, as well. Rush was disappointed when Young chose Scott over the second load of ice. (Stargate Universe: 1.06 "Water")

Averting Disaster

"The ship will not be exploding. At least not today."

With most of the initial emergencies taken care of, Rush had more time to study the Ancient's ship. He had already determined that it pre-dated the Ancients' implementation of the Ancient Technology Activation Gene (ATA Gene) that was necessary to initialize most of the systems found in the Antarctic Outpost and Atlantis. He also determined that the Stargate on Destiny was the oldest model that they knew of, even of those currently in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies. Destiny was launched from Earth millions of years ago and before the Ancients took Atlantis to Pegasus, which was somewhere between five and ten million years ago. As a matter of fact, Pegasus was one of the first—if not the first—galaxies visited by Destiny. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.04 "Darkness"; Stargate Atlantis: 1.01 "Rising Part 1"; Kino 1.04 "The Stargate Room")

Other scientists were also studying the ship, but from afar. Drs. Williams and McCormick were working with Homeworld Command and the IOA on getting the marooned personnel home via the Stargate. They proposed that they could send some of the energy that Destiny gathered while flying through a star to the Stargate to dial Earth. Rush immediately expressed concern and warned that their procedure would cause the ship to explode, since Destiny was not functioning at 100% of its capabilities. The Earth team didn't heed his warnings, claiming that all of their test scenarios worked fine, but Rush knew that they didn't fully understand the dilapidated ship's condition. Rush, with the cooperation of several of the other scientists and engineers aboard Destiny, rigged an imminent overload to get Col. Telford, Williams, and McCormick off of their ship. Subsequent studies conducted by mathematician Eli supported Rush's claim that the ship would have been destroyed if the "experiment" had actually been executed. (Stargate Universe: 1.07 "Earth", 1.09 "Life")

Discovering the Neural Interface Chair

Rush shows his team the Interface Chair

Rush and his team managed to get a room that had hitherto been inaccessible, and they made a significant find: an Ancient Neural Interface Chair that was the precursor to the Repository of Knowledge, a device that downloads information into the user's mind. Like the Repositories that followed, the Neural Interface Chair was meant to be used only by Ancients with their special physiology, which is different than that of humans of today. Rush felt that the find was key to unlocking the currently password-protected systems of the ship, specifically those of navigation and propulsion.

Col. Young felt that the Chair was too dangerous and challenged Rush to prove the device's worth without risking someone's life. He even went so far as to place a guard on it. Rush faked data about a planet with the same characteristics as Icarus that was a year away so that he could gain everyone's support for studying the Chair to obtain the control codes to alter Destiny's course. His deception was discovered and the crew's morale suffered greatly because their hope had just been taken from them. (Stargate Universe: 1.09 "Life")

When Sgt. Spencer committed suicide with a handgun, Rush was the first on the scene. He took the opportunity to undermine Young's authority by framing him for murder by planting the handgun in Young's quarters. Young was forced to step down in favor of the IOA's Camile Wray, and Rush immediately got unrestricted access to the Chair room to study it further. He quickly led his team back into the room and stated that it was now their top priority. Dr. Jeremy Franklin theorized that because the device was created earlier in the Ancients' evolution than the Repositories that maybe it was closer to modern humans' physiology and was simply a pilot's seat. He sat in it when he was alone in the room, and unfortunately, he was left in a deep catatonic state. (Stargate Universe: 1.10 "Justice")

Young abandons Rush on a planet

Young was angry at Rush and accused him of pushing Franklin to sit in the Chair. What's worse is that Young discovered that Rush was the one who planted Spencer's suicide weapon in his quarters. When the next planet visited by Destiny revealed a crashed alien spacecraft, Young offered to go with Rush to study it. Young ordered the primary team to get back to Destiny since they had a short time left on the countdown. This left the two men alone on the planet where Young could confront Rush about his actions against him. Rush bluntly told Young that he was the wrong man for the job and he didn't believe in the mission. Young started a fight and asked a shaken Rush if they were done, to which Rush replied, "We'll never be done." Young knocked Rush unconscious and abandoned him on the planet as the Destiny resumed its course without him. (Stargate Universe: 1.10 "Justice")

Young told the crew that Rush had fallen in a rock slide and couldn't make it to the Stargate in time. The crew assumes that Rush is dead. (Stargate Universe: 1.10 "Justice")

Hobbies and Other Interests

  • Classical Music: Rush enjoys listening to classical music. One such track was "Vissi D'arte" from the opera Tosca by Puccini (sung probably by Maria Callas). (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1")
  • Movies: When Rush is faced with certain death, he quotes, "For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble," from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The love of this movie is something that Rush shares in common with Col. Young, but that's not enough to make these two men friends. (Stargate Universe: 1.08 "Time")
  • Ascension: Rush is fascinated with the Ancients' ability to ascend, the shedding of the physical body to live eternally as a form of energy (to become Ascended Beings). Although he doesn't believe that he himself can accomplish this evolutionary feat, he joined the Stargate Program to search for how the Ancients managed to do it. (Stargate Universe: 1.08 "Life")

Injuries, Illnesses/Sicknesses, Deaths

  • Eyeglasses Broken: Rush needs to wear eyeglasses to correct his vision and his only pair were broken during the evacuation. Fortunately, only the frames were broken and Rush created a new arm with twisted wire, but he only wears the glasses when he's doing close-up work. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1", etc.)
  • Heat exhaustion and sunburn: As a member of the first away team on a desert planet, Rush suffered from heat exhaustion and sunburn. Both of these conditions were treatable once he got back aboard Destiny. (Stargate Universe: 1.03 "Air Part 3")
  • Exhaustion and Caffeine and Nicotine Withdrawal: As a smoker and heavy coffee drinker, Rush suffered from the headaches and other symptoms associated with withdrawal. Adding exhaustion and his frustration on not being able to solve the ship's energy problem, Rush ultimately collapsed after having a spectacular emotional breakdown (Sgt. Riley called it a "nervous breakdown"). (Stargate Universe: 1.04 "Darkness")
  • Injuries from fighting with Col. Young: Rush doesn't have confidence in Col. Young's leadership and feels that the military man gets in his way in exploring Destiny. When the opportunity came to force Young to step down, Rush took it. He framed Young for Sgt. Spencer's murder by planting Spencer's suicide weapon in Young's quarters. The charges against Young were dropped after recovered Kino footage exonerated him, but Young challenged Rush while they were studying a crashed alien ship on a rocky planet. With precious little time remaining, Young and Rush got into a physical fight that left Rush unconscious. Young left Rush behind on the planet as Destiny left without him. (Stargate Universe: 1.10 "Justice")

Key Episodes

Gallery

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Further Reading

  • "What we know so far is that he’s been married, but his wife is dead. The fact that he was married is the only thing that actually roots him in reality, because he ‘lives’ in a different type of reality, one, I believe, in his own mind. Rush is by far the biggest expert on Ancient technology, and when his wife dies and he gets the chance to go on this exploration of the universe, he jumps at it because there’s nothing left for him [on Earth]." (Robert Carlyle, Official Stargate Magazine, Issue 29, July/August 2009)
  • “Dr. Rush is certainly a complex individual. You’re never sure what his motives are, and to be honest with you I don’t know what’s happening with the character either. Brad Wright and Robert Cooper [Stargate Universe creators and executive producers] are obviously telling me everything I want to know, but I’d rather not know it all, which is how I’ve worked over the years. When you know how your character is going to end up, you’re tempted to play his heroic side. In fact, what you should be doing is playing the moment and each scene as it is, which is fresh. Just like you shouldn’t look too far ahead in your [real] life, you shouldn’t look too far ahead in your acting life." (Robert Carlyle, Reprint: Official Stargate Magazine Interview, Issue 29, July/August 2009)
  • "As far as our story and where our people end up, it’s Rush who tells them that there’s no chance they can ever go back, and he thinks there’s nothing greater! This is the best potential for exploration that mankind has ever known. That’s what’s driving Rush; and therefore he’s probably not to be trusted by anyone on the crew." (Robert Carlyle, Official Stargate Magazine, Issue 29, July/August 2009)
  • "If we start at the top in terms of crew ranking, Colonel Young is my character’s nemesis, there’s no doubt about that, and it’s quite serious. These guys are not having a petty conflict. Without giving too much away, there’s an episode, which we’ve yet to shoot, where a tragedy takes place aboard the Destiny and Rush tries to frame Young. They hate each other that much. Young is a soldier, while Rush is a scientist, and they just don’t get one another. As soon as they end up on the Destiny, the colonel is all about getting everyone home, and Rush is all about ‘How do we avoid that?’ So they’re against each other from day one and that’s been developing beautifully over the past six or seven weeks of filming." (Robert Carlyle, Reprint: Official Stargate Magazine Interview, Issue 29, July/August 2009)

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--DeeKayP 23:09, 10 July 2009 (UTC)