Nicholas Rush: Difference between revisions

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'''The following article contains SPOILERS. Proceed at your own risk.'''
'''The following article contains SPOILERS. Proceed at your own risk.'''
'''Update to:''' SGU 1.20 "Incursion Part 2"


==Summary==
==Summary==
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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")
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. ([http://spoilertv.blogspot.com/2009/07/exclusive-stargate-universe-lucid.html SpoilerTV], July 13, 2009)
His wife Gloria was happy in her marriage and in her career as a violinist, but her life was cut short by cancer. Having already gone through a fight with the disease, Gloria decided not to undergo treatment. Rush was a professor at a university when his wife's cancer returned, and at about the same time, he was contacted by Dr. Daniel Jackson concerning joining the Stargate Program and solving the power problem to dial the Stargate's ninth chevron. (SGU 1.14 "Human")
 
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''==
==Icarus Base and ''Destiny''==
===Leading the Icarus Project===
===Lead Scientist of the Icarus Project===
[[Image:sgu10101.jpg|thumb|170px|left|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")
{|
 
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu10101.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush and Lt. Gen. Jack O'Neill recruit Eli Wallace]]
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")
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu101-rush.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush watches the evacuees come through the ''Destiny'' Stargate]]
 
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu10209.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush steps through ''Destiny'''s Stargate]]
===Dialing ''Destiny''===
|}
 
During his wife's decline, Rush buried himself into his new work as the lead scientist on the Icarus Project. He became obsessed with solving the problem of locating and using a planet with a naquadria core. It took two years to locate such a planet, but in the meantime, Rush worked on the mathematical problem to safely draw the power from the unstable core to the Stargate. He worked closely with Dr. Amanda Perry and found that she provided the support he needed during his wife's illness. Gloria, in turn, found her support in her best friend Constance, who was present at the hospital when she died. (SGU 1.14 "Human", 1.16 "Sabotage")
[[Image:sgu101-rush.jpg|thumb|170px|left|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")
Rush still hadn't found the correct formula after the Icarus Base had been built. He helped to program the problem into an online video game called ''Prometheus'' in which a similar scenario was played out in the Dakara Weapons Puzzle. MIT drop-out Eli Wallace solved the puzzle and soon Rush and Lt. Col. Jack O'Neill were at his doorstep, offering him a position on the Project. Rush had a hand in getting Eli into the program, but he was envious of the young man's genius. Wallace had had no formal education and he had solved the equation that Rush, a trained mathematician, could not. Once Wallace arrived at the Base, Rush was eager to try the new formula and dial the Stargate, but the ninth chevron wouldn't lock. While Eli joined the rest of the Base's officials for dinner, Rush went to his quarters and cried over a picture of him and his late wife, distraught over his apparent failure in a project that had taken him away from her when she had needed him the most. (SGU 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.14 "Human")  


===Solving Immediate Survival Issues===
During the dinner, the Base was attacked by the Lucian Alliance. The energy blasts from their weapons caused the planet's core to become unstable. Col. Everett Young, the commander of Icarus Base, ordered that the Stargate to be dialed to Earth for immediate evacuation, but Rush realized that he'd only get one more chance and ordered that the Stargate be connected with the nine-chevron address. Eli proposed using Earth's Point of Origin as the ninth chevron, and once that was tried, the Stargate successfully connected. The base personnel had only a few minutes to gather as much as they could to take through the wormhole to an unknown destination. Rush was pleased to find that they had boarded ''Destiny'', and after Young was temporarily disabled, he tried to put himself in charge of the expedition. (SGU 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.02 "Air Part 2")


[[Image:sgu10209.jpg|thumb|170px|left|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 by far was the most knowledgeable concerning Ancient technology, and as such, became the go-to guy whenever there were problems aboard the extremely damaged ship. He found the Interface Control Room and began searches in the ship's database for any information on how to control the ship's failing systems. He learned that the Ancients had named the ship ''Destiny'', launched it from Earth, but had never boarded her. He also learned that the ship traveled using faster-than-light (FTL) technology, but would stop by any planets that met the criteria of the crew's needs. He was on the first "away team" to obtain calcium carbonate for the ship's air scrubbing systems. (SGU 1.02 "Air Part 2", 1.03 "Air Part 3")
{|
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu10708.jpg|thumb|170px|left|"The ship will not be exploding. At least not today."]]
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu110-rush-chair.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush shows his team the Neural Interface Chair]]
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu110-rush-stranded.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Young abandons Rush on a planet]]
|}
After solving the ship's air supply problem, another issue came up: the support of the human crew had drained the ship's energy reserves. Rush tried to get everyone to conserve energy, but they had tried to dial the Stargate back to Earth and drained the systems. When they found that the ship was on a collision course with a star, everyone assumed that they were about to be destroyed, so a group was selected by Young and by lottery to man a shuttle to evacuate to a nearby planet. Rush gave up his chance to go on the shuttle, finally feeling that he was where he belonged. As it turned out, the ''Destiny'' normally entered a star's corona to extract energy to power up its reserves. The shuttle was recalled and ''Destiny'' resumed its preprogrammed course, which no one could alter without the correct password. (SGU 1.04 "Darkness", 1.05 "Light")


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")
After learning how the ship drew power for its reserves, scientists on Earth hypothesized that they could redirect the power from the reserves to the Stargate while the ship was in a star's corona. Rush, however, knew the ship's condition much better and tried to stop the "experiment." He gained the support of several scientists aboard the ship, and as a team, they rigged a seeming catastrophic overload to get the Earth scientists off their ship. Their plan worked, but the IOA wanted answers. Young even suspected that Rush had lied about the disastrous outcome just so that he could remain on board, so he had Eli go through the numbers. Eli's simulations all ended in ''Destiny'''s destruction, much to Young's surprise. (SGU 1.07 "Earth")


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")
Rush's new science team, comprised of Dr. Dale Volker, Dr. Lisa Park, Dr. Jeremy Franklin, Adam Brody, and Eli Wallace, worked hard on getting the ship in the best shape possible. They opened up previously unsafe areas and discovered the Neural Interface Chair. This was the precursor to the Ancients' Repository of Knowledge, and like that device, required that the user connect his mind with the technology, a proven fatal scenario. Young knew that Rush wanted to have someone sit in the Chair, but he ordered guards on it and denied Rush access until Rush could prove it was safe. Rush resented this interference, since he believed that the Chair was the only way for them to gain control of the ship's navigation and propulsion systems. He did everything he could to regain access, even going as far as lying about a nearby Icarus-type planet to encourage his research and framing Young for the murder of Sgt. Spencer, who had actually committed suicide. Rush was the first to respond to the sound of the gunshot, and he removed the handgun from the scene and planted it in Young's quarters. Young had to step down and put IOA representative Camile Wray in command. Rush immediately gained access to the Chair room with her permission. (SGU 1.09 "Life", 1.10 "Justice")


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")
Young was exonerated when footage of Spencer's suicide was uncovered. He also discovered what Rush had done, and when they were alone on a planet to study a crashed alien shuttle, he confronted him. Rush admitted that he had done what he did because he felt Young was the wrong man for the job of leading the expedition. Rush accused Young of being weak and indecisive during crises. The two got into a physical fight, and Young rendered Rush unconscious and abandoned him on the planet. ''Destiny'' resumed its course without Rush, and Young told everyone that the scientist had fallen in a rock slide and didn't have time to get to the Stargate before the ship resumed FTL. (SGU 1.10 "Justice")
{|
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu11108.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush linked to alien's mind]]
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu11207.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush is operated on to remove alien tracking device]]
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu114trans.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush uses the Neural Interface to find the ship's password]]
|}
Rush wasn't alone on the planet for long. He gained access into the alien spacecraft and accidentally triggered a beacon that led the alien builders right to him. They captured him and placed him in a water tank for study. They had sophisticated neural probing technology and tried to access his mind. He was able to resist most of the probing and gleaned information from his captors instead. He learned that this group were obsessed with ''Destiny'' and wanted to claim her as a trophy. They tracked her from one place to another and while the Ancient ship was not in FTL, they bombarded her to weaken the shields. They had succeeded, along with time, in making most of the ship inaccessible and the power reserves incapable of holding a full charge. (SGU 1.04 "Darkness", 1.11 "Space")


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")
Rush's experience with the aliens was deeply traumatizing, though he didn't want to admit it to the others when he was successful at returning to the ship when ''Destiny'' was tracked down. Young, using the communication stones to connect with one of the aliens who had touched a stone Rush had with him, tried to free Rush, but only got as far as getting him out of the tank. Chloe Armstrong had also been captured, and together the two made their escape on one of the aliens' shuttles. Everyone was surprised to see Rush alive, and soon there were rumors that Young had abandoned Rush on purpose. But Rush and Young decided to keep their secret "for the sake of the crew." (SGU 1.11 "Space")


===Averting Disaster===
The aliens found ''Destiny'' once again and began their usual attack. Rush realized that he carried a tracking device inside his chest close to his heart. The surgery was extremely risky, but the transmitter was successfully removed. ''Destiny'' barely made it back into FTL, but the crew had some reprieve because the aliens would not be able to track them any longer, or so they thought. (SGU 1.11 "Space")


[[Image:sgu10708.jpg|thumb|170px|left|"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")
During the alien attacks, Young nearly crumbled under the pressure of not having the necessary weapons to properly defend the ship. Rush was afraid of Young and conspired with Camile Wray to take over the ship by locking doors that gave the military personnel access to the 'gate room and the control consoles. Young was able to gain access to the civilians' side of the ship and ended the "mutiny." He tried to act like everything was back to normal, but distrust continued. (SGU 1.12 "Divided")


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")  
Tension between Young and Rush had been building ever since the Neural Interface Chair's discovery. During the time that Young was on trial for Spencer's murder, Rush had made some headway in his research. Unfortunately, Dr. Jeremy Franklin decided to take the risk to sit in the Chair when he was alone in the lab. The interface pretty much fried his brain, leaving him in a deep cationic state. Young accused Rush of pushing Franklin to sit in the Chair and called him a coward for not sitting in the Chair himself. As unfortunate as Franklin's condition was, Rush and Brody were able to use his experience and programmed a buffering system to slow down the flow of data and target an area of the user's subconscious mind to give him control of the interface. Rush sat in the Chair and relived Gloria's death all over again, but at the same time, he was given a clue as to what the password to unlock ''Destiny'''s systems was: the code was based on the number of chromosomes in human DNA. This type of system was a precursor to the Ancients' development of the Ancient gene recognition technology present in Atlantis and the Antarctic Outpost. (SGU 1.14 "Human")


===Discovering the Neural Interface Chair===
The persistent and ever-resourceful aliens managed to connect with the last person who used the communication stones, Lt. Vanessa James, and they used her to sabotage the ship's FTL modules. Rush was reunited with Dr. Perry through the use of the stones so that she could work with him on the repairs. Along with a semi-lucid Franklin, they managed to reactivate the FTL to once again evade the aliens' attack. (SGU 1.16 "Sabotage")
{|
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu11707.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush hallucinates his alien captors]]
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu11806.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush captured by the Lucian Alliance]]
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu12004.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Rush and Brody try to regain control of ''Destiny'']]
|}
Apparently Rush was not confident that they had managed to elude the aliens that captured him. When he was under the influence of an "alien tick" that he had picked up on a planet, he hallucinated that the aliens boarded ''Destiny'' through the Stargate. The aliens he thought he saw were actually his crewmates and he stabbed Camile Wray with a screwdriver as a result. Fortunately, she recovered from the wound, and Rush and the others who were also hallucinating were cured once the ticks were removed. (SGU 1.17 "Pain")


[[Image:sgu110-rush-chair.jpg|thumb|170px|left|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.  
Rush didn't have much time to recover from this trauma before he had to go through being a captive once again. This time, it was with the Lucian Alliance. He had dreamed that he was Col. Telford as Telford met with members of the Lucian Alliance on Earth to give them information about ''Destiny''. Rush realized that this dream was based on Telford's memories that had bled through during their last connection via the communication stones. Rush and Young devised a plan in which Rush would connect with Telford again and pose as him to meet with the Alliance to find out what they were planning. In the meantime, Telford would be in Rush's body aboard ''Destiny'' where Young could confront him about being a spy. (SGU 1.18 "Subversion")


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")
Telford had been under cover for about a year with the Alliance, but he was discovered and brainwashed to become a mole inside Stargate Command. While Young interrogated him, Rush tried everything he could to convince Commander Kiva of the Alliance that he was Telford, but after being tortured with a device that looked like a hand-held version of the Goa'uld Pain Stick, he gave in and identified himself. As soon as Kiva knew his identity, she took him to her Icarus-type base to work on the formula to dial ''Destiny'' from that planet's Stargate. (SGU 1.18 "Subversion")


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")
Rush tried to stall, but he was persuaded to work on the formula in earnest when Kiva had the Alliance scientist who had been working on the formula killed before Rush's eyes. In the meantime, Young broke Telford's brainwashing and found out that Kiva planned to dial ''Destiny'' and take her by force. As Young prepared his ship for the invasion, General O'Neill sent the ''USS George Hammond'' to free Rush from the base and attempt to take the base so that they could gain access to ''Destiny''. Like on Icarus before it, the naquadria core became unstable with the weapons fire, and Rush was unable to compensate fast enough. Kiva dialed the Stargate anyway, and soon several Alliance members and Telford were aboard ''Destiny''. Her base was destroyed when the naquadria went critical. (SGU 1.18 "Subversion", 1.19 "Incursion Part 1")


[[Image:sgu110-rush-stranded.jpg|thumb|170px|left|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")
Telford, though, was free of his brainwashing and worked covertly to help Young regain control of the ship. While he tried to give Rush control through consoles in an auxiliary control room, he was discovered by Kiva who shot him at the same time that he shot her. As a direct result of Telford's incapacitation, Rush and Brody got only partial control back. Along with the Alliance incursion, they had to deal with other deadly issues, including the declining power of the shields that were standing between them and dangerous radiation bursts from a nearby binary pulsar. (SGU 1.20 "Incursion Part 2")
===Personal Life===
{|
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu11403.jpg|thumb|170px|left|[[Gloria Rush]]]]
|valign="top"|[[Image:sgu11602.jpg|thumb|170px|left|[[Amanda Perry|Dr. Amanda Perry]]]]
|}
The love of Rush's life was his wife Gloria, who died of cancer after Rush had joined the Icarus Project. When he connected to the Neural Interface Chair, he relived Gloria's last days once again. But because he knew that this was a memory, Rush was able to control his interactions and focus on finding the ship's password. His wife and Dr. Daniel Jackson became figments of his imagination, representing aspects of his personality and perhaps even ''Destiny'' herself. Dream-Gloria gave him the final clue as to how the password was structured, and Rush sat at her bedside and reassured her that he'd never forget her and would always love her. This interaction was cathartic in several ways since this version of Gloria was representative of his compassion and humanity, traits that he admitted to himself that he had shut away since his wife's death. (SGU 1.14 "Human")


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")
While Gloria was slowly dying, Rush engaged himself in his work. He befriended Dr. Amanda "Mandy" Perry, who adored Rush secretly. When Mandy was repairing the FTL modules aboard ''Destiny'' using the communications stones in a body swap with Camile Wray, she wanted to pursue a sexual relationship with Rush, but he wasn't ready to take that step after having just relived Gloria's death when he sat in the Neural Interface Chair. Mandy was a quadriplegic and hadn't been able to provide Rush with physical comfort until she had swapped bodies with an able-bodied person, but instead of engaging in a sexual relationship, Mandy offered Rush comfort by giving him a hug, something she had longed to do ever since they had become friends. Her genuine gesture of friendship touched Rush deeply, and it seemed as though he was getting closer to opening his heart to someone once again. (SGU 1.14 "Human", 1.16 "Sabotage")


==Hobbies and Other Interests==
==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")
* '''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). (SGU 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")
* '''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. (SGU 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")
* '''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. (SGU 1.08 "Life")
* '''Chess:''' Rush started carving a chess set after being stranded on ''Destiny''. Col. Young also shares a love of the game, but the two have yet to engage each other on the chessboard. (SGU 1.13 "Faith")


==Injuries, Illnesses/Sicknesses, Deaths==
==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.)
* '''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. (SGU 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")
* '''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''. (SGU 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")
* '''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"). (SGU 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")
* '''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. (SGU 1.10 "Justice")
* '''Trauma from being captured by aliens:''' Aliens captured Rush, confined him to a water tank, and attempted to probe his mind. He managed to escape, only to find that the aliens had implanted him with a transmitter. The surgery to remove the transmitter was extremely difficult, but Rush recovered; however, the trauma from the capture continued to haunt him. When he was infected by an alien tick, Rush hallucinated that the aliens had board ''Destiny'' through the Stargate. Rush even used a screwdriver to stab Camile Wray because he thought she was one of the aliens. (SGU 1.11 "Space", 1.12 "Divided", 1.17 "Pain")


==Key Episodes==
==Key Episodes==
Line 91: Line 116:
* [[SGU 1.09 "Life" Episode Guide|SGU 1.09 "Life"]]
* [[SGU 1.09 "Life" Episode Guide|SGU 1.09 "Life"]]
* [[SGU 1.10 "Justice" Episode Guide|SGU 1.10 "Justice"]]
* [[SGU 1.10 "Justice" Episode Guide|SGU 1.10 "Justice"]]
* [[SGU 1.13 "Faith" Episode Guide|SGU 1.13 "Faith"]]
* [[SGU 1.14 "Human" Episode Guide|SGU 1.14 "Human"]]
* [[SGU 1.14 "Human" Episode Guide|SGU 1.14 "Human"]]
* [[SGU 1.16 "Sabotage" Episode Guide|SGU 1.16 "Sabotage"]]
* [[SGU 1.17 "Pain" Episode Guide|SGU 1.17 "Pain"]]
* [[SGU 1.18 "Subversion" Episode Guide|SGU 1.18 "Subversion"]]
* [[SGU 1.19 "Incursion Part 1" Episode Guide|SGU 1.19 "Incursion Part 1"]]
* [[SGU 1.20 "Incursion Part 2" Episode Guide|SGU 1.20 "Incursion Part 2"]]


==Gallery==
==Gallery==
Line 99: Line 130:
==Related Characters==
==Related Characters==


* [[Alan Armstrong|Senator Alan Armstrong]]
* [[Chloe Armstrong]]
* [[Chloe Armstrong]]
* [[Ronald Greer|MSgt. Ronald Greer]]
* [[Adam Brody]]
* [[Jeremy Franklin|Dr. Jeremy Franklin]]
* [[Daniel Jackson|Dr. Daniel Jackson]]
* [[Daniel Jackson|Dr. Daniel Jackson]]
* [[McCormick|Dr. McCormick]]
* [[Vanessa James|Lt. Vanessa James]]
* [[Kiva|Commander Kiva]]
* [[Jack O'Neill|Lt. Gen. Jack O'Neill]]
* [[Jack O'Neill|Lt. Gen. Jack O'Neill]]
* [[Hunter Riley|Sgt. Hunter Riley]]
* [[Lisa Park|Dr. Lisa Park]]
* [[Amanda Perry|Dr. Amanda Perry]]
* [[Gloria Rush]]
* [[Gloria Rush]]
* [[Matthew Scott|Lt. Matthew Scott]]
* [[David Telford|Col. David Telford]]
* [[David Telford|Col. David Telford]]
* [[Dale Volker|Dr. Dale Volker]]
* [[Dale Volker|Dr. Dale Volker]]
* [[Eli Wallace]]
* [[Eli Wallace]]
* [[Williams|Dr. Williams]]
* [[Everett Young|Col. Everett Young]]
* [[Everett Young|Col. Everett Young]]


Line 118: Line 149:
* [[Ancient Communications Stones]]
* [[Ancient Communications Stones]]
* [[Ancient Database in Atlantis]]
* [[Ancient Database in Atlantis]]
* [[Ancient Gene|Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) Gene]]
* [[Ancient Gene]]
* [[Ancient Neural Interface Chair]]
* [[Ancient Shuttle]]
* [[Ancients]]
* [[Ancients]]
* [[Ascended Beings]]
* [[Ascended Beings]]
Line 125: Line 156:
* [[Destiny]]
* [[Destiny]]
* [[Destiny's Planets]]
* [[Destiny's Planets]]
* [[George Hammond (Ship)|U.S.S. George Hammond]]
* [[George Hammond (Ship)|USS George Hammond]]
* [[Homeworld Command]]
* [[Homeworld Command]]
* [[Icarus Base]]
* [[Icarus Base]]
* [[Icarus Project]]
* [[Icarus Project]]
* [[International Oversight Advisory (IOA)]]
* [[Lucian Alliance]]
* [[Neural Interface Chair]]
* [[Prometheus Video Game]]
* [[Prometheus Video Game]]
* [[Repository of Knowledge]]
* [[Repository of Knowledge]]

Revision as of 03:30, 6 September 2010

Dr. Nicholas Rush

WARNING: SPOILERS

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

Update to: SGU 1.20 "Incursion Part 2"

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 happy in her marriage and in her career as a violinist, but her life was cut short by cancer. Having already gone through a fight with the disease, Gloria decided not to undergo treatment. Rush was a professor at a university when his wife's cancer returned, and at about the same time, he was contacted by Dr. Daniel Jackson concerning joining the Stargate Program and solving the power problem to dial the Stargate's ninth chevron. (SGU 1.14 "Human")

Icarus Base and Destiny

Lead Scientist of the Icarus Project

Rush and Lt. Gen. Jack O'Neill recruit Eli Wallace
Rush watches the evacuees come through the Destiny Stargate
Rush steps through Destiny's Stargate

During his wife's decline, Rush buried himself into his new work as the lead scientist on the Icarus Project. He became obsessed with solving the problem of locating and using a planet with a naquadria core. It took two years to locate such a planet, but in the meantime, Rush worked on the mathematical problem to safely draw the power from the unstable core to the Stargate. He worked closely with Dr. Amanda Perry and found that she provided the support he needed during his wife's illness. Gloria, in turn, found her support in her best friend Constance, who was present at the hospital when she died. (SGU 1.14 "Human", 1.16 "Sabotage")

Rush still hadn't found the correct formula after the Icarus Base had been built. He helped to program the problem into an online video game called Prometheus in which a similar scenario was played out in the Dakara Weapons Puzzle. MIT drop-out Eli Wallace solved the puzzle and soon Rush and Lt. Col. Jack O'Neill were at his doorstep, offering him a position on the Project. Rush had a hand in getting Eli into the program, but he was envious of the young man's genius. Wallace had had no formal education and he had solved the equation that Rush, a trained mathematician, could not. Once Wallace arrived at the Base, Rush was eager to try the new formula and dial the Stargate, but the ninth chevron wouldn't lock. While Eli joined the rest of the Base's officials for dinner, Rush went to his quarters and cried over a picture of him and his late wife, distraught over his apparent failure in a project that had taken him away from her when she had needed him the most. (SGU 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.14 "Human")

During the dinner, the Base was attacked by the Lucian Alliance. The energy blasts from their weapons caused the planet's core to become unstable. Col. Everett Young, the commander of Icarus Base, ordered that the Stargate to be dialed to Earth for immediate evacuation, but Rush realized that he'd only get one more chance and ordered that the Stargate be connected with the nine-chevron address. Eli proposed using Earth's Point of Origin as the ninth chevron, and once that was tried, the Stargate successfully connected. The base personnel had only a few minutes to gather as much as they could to take through the wormhole to an unknown destination. Rush was pleased to find that they had boarded Destiny, and after Young was temporarily disabled, he tried to put himself in charge of the expedition. (SGU 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.02 "Air Part 2")

Rush by far was the most knowledgeable concerning Ancient technology, and as such, became the go-to guy whenever there were problems aboard the extremely damaged ship. He found the Interface Control Room and began searches in the ship's database for any information on how to control the ship's failing systems. He learned that the Ancients had named the ship Destiny, launched it from Earth, but had never boarded her. He also learned that the ship traveled using faster-than-light (FTL) technology, but would stop by any planets that met the criteria of the crew's needs. He was on the first "away team" to obtain calcium carbonate for the ship's air scrubbing systems. (SGU 1.02 "Air Part 2", 1.03 "Air Part 3")

"The ship will not be exploding. At least not today."
Rush shows his team the Neural Interface Chair
Young abandons Rush on a planet

After solving the ship's air supply problem, another issue came up: the support of the human crew had drained the ship's energy reserves. Rush tried to get everyone to conserve energy, but they had tried to dial the Stargate back to Earth and drained the systems. When they found that the ship was on a collision course with a star, everyone assumed that they were about to be destroyed, so a group was selected by Young and by lottery to man a shuttle to evacuate to a nearby planet. Rush gave up his chance to go on the shuttle, finally feeling that he was where he belonged. As it turned out, the Destiny normally entered a star's corona to extract energy to power up its reserves. The shuttle was recalled and Destiny resumed its preprogrammed course, which no one could alter without the correct password. (SGU 1.04 "Darkness", 1.05 "Light")

After learning how the ship drew power for its reserves, scientists on Earth hypothesized that they could redirect the power from the reserves to the Stargate while the ship was in a star's corona. Rush, however, knew the ship's condition much better and tried to stop the "experiment." He gained the support of several scientists aboard the ship, and as a team, they rigged a seeming catastrophic overload to get the Earth scientists off their ship. Their plan worked, but the IOA wanted answers. Young even suspected that Rush had lied about the disastrous outcome just so that he could remain on board, so he had Eli go through the numbers. Eli's simulations all ended in Destiny's destruction, much to Young's surprise. (SGU 1.07 "Earth")

Rush's new science team, comprised of Dr. Dale Volker, Dr. Lisa Park, Dr. Jeremy Franklin, Adam Brody, and Eli Wallace, worked hard on getting the ship in the best shape possible. They opened up previously unsafe areas and discovered the Neural Interface Chair. This was the precursor to the Ancients' Repository of Knowledge, and like that device, required that the user connect his mind with the technology, a proven fatal scenario. Young knew that Rush wanted to have someone sit in the Chair, but he ordered guards on it and denied Rush access until Rush could prove it was safe. Rush resented this interference, since he believed that the Chair was the only way for them to gain control of the ship's navigation and propulsion systems. He did everything he could to regain access, even going as far as lying about a nearby Icarus-type planet to encourage his research and framing Young for the murder of Sgt. Spencer, who had actually committed suicide. Rush was the first to respond to the sound of the gunshot, and he removed the handgun from the scene and planted it in Young's quarters. Young had to step down and put IOA representative Camile Wray in command. Rush immediately gained access to the Chair room with her permission. (SGU 1.09 "Life", 1.10 "Justice")

Young was exonerated when footage of Spencer's suicide was uncovered. He also discovered what Rush had done, and when they were alone on a planet to study a crashed alien shuttle, he confronted him. Rush admitted that he had done what he did because he felt Young was the wrong man for the job of leading the expedition. Rush accused Young of being weak and indecisive during crises. The two got into a physical fight, and Young rendered Rush unconscious and abandoned him on the planet. Destiny resumed its course without Rush, and Young told everyone that the scientist had fallen in a rock slide and didn't have time to get to the Stargate before the ship resumed FTL. (SGU 1.10 "Justice")

Rush linked to alien's mind
Rush is operated on to remove alien tracking device
Rush uses the Neural Interface to find the ship's password

Rush wasn't alone on the planet for long. He gained access into the alien spacecraft and accidentally triggered a beacon that led the alien builders right to him. They captured him and placed him in a water tank for study. They had sophisticated neural probing technology and tried to access his mind. He was able to resist most of the probing and gleaned information from his captors instead. He learned that this group were obsessed with Destiny and wanted to claim her as a trophy. They tracked her from one place to another and while the Ancient ship was not in FTL, they bombarded her to weaken the shields. They had succeeded, along with time, in making most of the ship inaccessible and the power reserves incapable of holding a full charge. (SGU 1.04 "Darkness", 1.11 "Space")

Rush's experience with the aliens was deeply traumatizing, though he didn't want to admit it to the others when he was successful at returning to the ship when Destiny was tracked down. Young, using the communication stones to connect with one of the aliens who had touched a stone Rush had with him, tried to free Rush, but only got as far as getting him out of the tank. Chloe Armstrong had also been captured, and together the two made their escape on one of the aliens' shuttles. Everyone was surprised to see Rush alive, and soon there were rumors that Young had abandoned Rush on purpose. But Rush and Young decided to keep their secret "for the sake of the crew." (SGU 1.11 "Space")

The aliens found Destiny once again and began their usual attack. Rush realized that he carried a tracking device inside his chest close to his heart. The surgery was extremely risky, but the transmitter was successfully removed. Destiny barely made it back into FTL, but the crew had some reprieve because the aliens would not be able to track them any longer, or so they thought. (SGU 1.11 "Space")

During the alien attacks, Young nearly crumbled under the pressure of not having the necessary weapons to properly defend the ship. Rush was afraid of Young and conspired with Camile Wray to take over the ship by locking doors that gave the military personnel access to the 'gate room and the control consoles. Young was able to gain access to the civilians' side of the ship and ended the "mutiny." He tried to act like everything was back to normal, but distrust continued. (SGU 1.12 "Divided")

Tension between Young and Rush had been building ever since the Neural Interface Chair's discovery. During the time that Young was on trial for Spencer's murder, Rush had made some headway in his research. Unfortunately, Dr. Jeremy Franklin decided to take the risk to sit in the Chair when he was alone in the lab. The interface pretty much fried his brain, leaving him in a deep cationic state. Young accused Rush of pushing Franklin to sit in the Chair and called him a coward for not sitting in the Chair himself. As unfortunate as Franklin's condition was, Rush and Brody were able to use his experience and programmed a buffering system to slow down the flow of data and target an area of the user's subconscious mind to give him control of the interface. Rush sat in the Chair and relived Gloria's death all over again, but at the same time, he was given a clue as to what the password to unlock Destiny's systems was: the code was based on the number of chromosomes in human DNA. This type of system was a precursor to the Ancients' development of the Ancient gene recognition technology present in Atlantis and the Antarctic Outpost. (SGU 1.14 "Human")

The persistent and ever-resourceful aliens managed to connect with the last person who used the communication stones, Lt. Vanessa James, and they used her to sabotage the ship's FTL modules. Rush was reunited with Dr. Perry through the use of the stones so that she could work with him on the repairs. Along with a semi-lucid Franklin, they managed to reactivate the FTL to once again evade the aliens' attack. (SGU 1.16 "Sabotage")

Rush hallucinates his alien captors
Rush captured by the Lucian Alliance
Rush and Brody try to regain control of Destiny

Apparently Rush was not confident that they had managed to elude the aliens that captured him. When he was under the influence of an "alien tick" that he had picked up on a planet, he hallucinated that the aliens boarded Destiny through the Stargate. The aliens he thought he saw were actually his crewmates and he stabbed Camile Wray with a screwdriver as a result. Fortunately, she recovered from the wound, and Rush and the others who were also hallucinating were cured once the ticks were removed. (SGU 1.17 "Pain")

Rush didn't have much time to recover from this trauma before he had to go through being a captive once again. This time, it was with the Lucian Alliance. He had dreamed that he was Col. Telford as Telford met with members of the Lucian Alliance on Earth to give them information about Destiny. Rush realized that this dream was based on Telford's memories that had bled through during their last connection via the communication stones. Rush and Young devised a plan in which Rush would connect with Telford again and pose as him to meet with the Alliance to find out what they were planning. In the meantime, Telford would be in Rush's body aboard Destiny where Young could confront him about being a spy. (SGU 1.18 "Subversion")

Telford had been under cover for about a year with the Alliance, but he was discovered and brainwashed to become a mole inside Stargate Command. While Young interrogated him, Rush tried everything he could to convince Commander Kiva of the Alliance that he was Telford, but after being tortured with a device that looked like a hand-held version of the Goa'uld Pain Stick, he gave in and identified himself. As soon as Kiva knew his identity, she took him to her Icarus-type base to work on the formula to dial Destiny from that planet's Stargate. (SGU 1.18 "Subversion")

Rush tried to stall, but he was persuaded to work on the formula in earnest when Kiva had the Alliance scientist who had been working on the formula killed before Rush's eyes. In the meantime, Young broke Telford's brainwashing and found out that Kiva planned to dial Destiny and take her by force. As Young prepared his ship for the invasion, General O'Neill sent the USS George Hammond to free Rush from the base and attempt to take the base so that they could gain access to Destiny. Like on Icarus before it, the naquadria core became unstable with the weapons fire, and Rush was unable to compensate fast enough. Kiva dialed the Stargate anyway, and soon several Alliance members and Telford were aboard Destiny. Her base was destroyed when the naquadria went critical. (SGU 1.18 "Subversion", 1.19 "Incursion Part 1")

Telford, though, was free of his brainwashing and worked covertly to help Young regain control of the ship. While he tried to give Rush control through consoles in an auxiliary control room, he was discovered by Kiva who shot him at the same time that he shot her. As a direct result of Telford's incapacitation, Rush and Brody got only partial control back. Along with the Alliance incursion, they had to deal with other deadly issues, including the declining power of the shields that were standing between them and dangerous radiation bursts from a nearby binary pulsar. (SGU 1.20 "Incursion Part 2")

Personal Life

The love of Rush's life was his wife Gloria, who died of cancer after Rush had joined the Icarus Project. When he connected to the Neural Interface Chair, he relived Gloria's last days once again. But because he knew that this was a memory, Rush was able to control his interactions and focus on finding the ship's password. His wife and Dr. Daniel Jackson became figments of his imagination, representing aspects of his personality and perhaps even Destiny herself. Dream-Gloria gave him the final clue as to how the password was structured, and Rush sat at her bedside and reassured her that he'd never forget her and would always love her. This interaction was cathartic in several ways since this version of Gloria was representative of his compassion and humanity, traits that he admitted to himself that he had shut away since his wife's death. (SGU 1.14 "Human")

While Gloria was slowly dying, Rush engaged himself in his work. He befriended Dr. Amanda "Mandy" Perry, who adored Rush secretly. When Mandy was repairing the FTL modules aboard Destiny using the communications stones in a body swap with Camile Wray, she wanted to pursue a sexual relationship with Rush, but he wasn't ready to take that step after having just relived Gloria's death when he sat in the Neural Interface Chair. Mandy was a quadriplegic and hadn't been able to provide Rush with physical comfort until she had swapped bodies with an able-bodied person, but instead of engaging in a sexual relationship, Mandy offered Rush comfort by giving him a hug, something she had longed to do ever since they had become friends. Her genuine gesture of friendship touched Rush deeply, and it seemed as though he was getting closer to opening his heart to someone once again. (SGU 1.14 "Human", 1.16 "Sabotage")

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). (SGU 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. (SGU 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. (SGU 1.08 "Life")
  • Chess: Rush started carving a chess set after being stranded on Destiny. Col. Young also shares a love of the game, but the two have yet to engage each other on the chessboard. (SGU 1.13 "Faith")

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. (SGU 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. (SGU 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"). (SGU 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. (SGU 1.10 "Justice")
  • Trauma from being captured by aliens: Aliens captured Rush, confined him to a water tank, and attempted to probe his mind. He managed to escape, only to find that the aliens had implanted him with a transmitter. The surgery to remove the transmitter was extremely difficult, but Rush recovered; however, the trauma from the capture continued to haunt him. When he was infected by an alien tick, Rush hallucinated that the aliens had board Destiny through the Stargate. Rush even used a screwdriver to stab Camile Wray because he thought she was one of the aliens. (SGU 1.11 "Space", 1.12 "Divided", 1.17 "Pain")

Key Episodes

Gallery

Related Characters

Related Articles

Keywords

Other

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)

Actor


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