History Series / StargateUniverse

* BrilliantButLazy: According to the casting sheet that went out Eli is this, saying that he's brilliant at anything he puts his mind to, but that he's rarely excited enough to actually use this. Seen in a flashback where it is implied he put off going to an interview to sleep in.

* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Everyone on the shuttle in "Visitation".]]

* {{Catchphrase}}: Young: "Lotta work." -- particularly in regards to Rush. Seems to have dropped it in later season one episodes. Came back with a vengeance in season two.

* BoobsOfSteel: Lt. James has an incredible rack and is the only female character to have engaged extensively in combat. She's good at it, including hand-to-hand -- reference the brutal butt-stroke she deals out in "Divided" and when she "kills" Scott at the beginning of "Pain".

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Literally in the first episode from Greer to Rush after some insensitive remarks by Rush about Scott. Happens again in "Justice", though not literally, when Colonel Young beats the living hell out of Rush for attempting to frame him and being totally unapologetic about it.
** Seeing [[spoiler:Simeon getting stampeded in "Malice" after he killed Ginn and Amanda Perry]].

* DramaPreservingHandicap: The main issue preventing the crew returning to Earth is that ''Destiny'' is too old to achieve its original maximum power capacity; Rush estimates it can only achieve 40% of its original power potential by the present, which explicitly prevents it from having the energy to dial a nine-chevron address.

* AbusiveParents: Flashbacks in "Lost" reveal Greer's father was this; he would lock young Greer in a closet and deny him food, forced him to stack bricks which he would then knock over, and on one occasion drove young Greer to a bad part of town then made him get out of the car to make his own way home. Greer's mother attributed this behaviour to PTSD from [[Useful notes/TheGulfWar]].

* Abusive parents: Flashbacks in "Lost" reveal Greer's father was this; he would lock young Greer in a closet and deny him food, forced him to stack bricks which he would then knock over, and on one occasion drove young Greer to a bad part of town then made him get out of the car to make his own way home. Greer's mother attributed this behaviour to PTSD from [[Useful notes/TheGulfWar]].

* AppliedPhlebotinum: The mind-switching communication stones carried over from the original series, with a handy on / off switch and much easier to use. A significant amount of screentime is spent on Earth-bound relationship issues of the characters (see DysfunctionJunction below), conveniently made possible by putting a stone on an illuminated base.

* MsFanservice: Second Lieutenant James' role has been mostly limited to secondary character one-liners, and being large breasted. Though that's been countered a few times, such as her long standing deal with [[TriangRelations Scott and Chloe]], her saving people from electrified corridors by ''running straight through them'', and a subplot dealing with some inadequacy issues around Colonel Young and her own abilities in the back half of the season.

* AnyoneCanDie: First season had unsympathetic sergeant Spencer and the Senator to die among non-redshirts. Second season caught audience completely off-guard by killing [[spoiler:Riley]] and later killing recurring characters [[spoiler:Ginn and Amanda Perry]]. Also played with as the character you think is expendable [[spoiler: Telford]] in fact survives multiple near-death trope situations and gets added to the main cast. [[spoiler:But then he dies anyway in a way you don't see coming. Good thing there's an extra at the time.]]

* BookEnds: [[spoiler:The show begins with ''Destiny'' emerging from FTL as a speck in the distance and slowly coming to fill up screen before it's internal systems all power up. It ends with ''Destiny'' shutting down it's systems and slowly disappearing into FTL until it's just a speck in the distance. Almost a perfect reverse.]]

* CriticalStaffingShortage: Less than 50 people arrive on a ship designed for many more - but it's a good thing they number so few, because the ship is falling apart after millions of years despite its RagnarokProofing, and they are far less prepared than the expedition to Atlantis. Most of their time is spent trying to keep systems failures from killing them.

* UnusualUserInterface: The communicator back to Earth involves FreakyFridayFlip as it's primary operating principle.