Dr. Nicholas Rush is a fictional character in the 2010 Canadian-American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer-Syfy television series Stargate Universe, a military science fiction serial drama about the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team unable to return to Earth after an evacuation to the Ancient spaceship Destiny, which is traveling in a distant corner of the universe. He is portrayed by British actor Robert Carlyle. Carlyle, while at first skeptical towards the show, got an interest in the character of Rush because he felt Rush was a "very interesting" character to portray.
Rush is a Machiavellian scientist whose life's work is uncovering the mysteries behind the ninth chevron of the Stargate, which ultimately leads him and personnel from the Icarus Base through the Stargate to a far-away galaxy where they must fight for their own survival. Rush made his first appearance in the pilot episode, "Air", first broadcast in the United States and Canada in 2009.
Character arc
In "Air", Rush is revealed to have come from a poor background. His father worked at the shipyards in Glasgow, Great Britain. He studied at Oxford University whilst working two jobs. As a result, he believes he has earned the right to give orders to others without being questioned. In the episode "Human", Rush is seen in his flashbacks as giving a lecture at a university, and at least two people have characteristic "Cal" clothes, suggesting that he was teaching at University of California, Berkeley.
Rush is an expert in Ancient technology. His research was hindered while he was married to Gloria Rush (Louise Lombard). Since her death, he has become more dedicated to science. He spearheads the Icarus Project, his main priority being to explore the mystery behind the ninth chevron of the Stargate. Rush was stationed at the Icarus Base in 2009, in order to do research on the ninth chevron. Rush had a hand in selecting the personnel, and notes that Ronald Greer and Matthew Scott were not among those he would have approved.
During an attack on the base, Rush and Eli Wallace figure out how to dial the ninth chevron, and are responsible for sending the remaining Icarus personnel to an Ancient ship known as the Destiny, a spaceship situated in a far-away galaxy, with no way of returning to Earth. Halfway through the first season, the crew discovers an early version of the Ancient repository of knowledge, which may provide crucial details for full manual control of Destiny and a way to return to Earth. However, Young explicitly forbids anyone from using it, citing dangerous circumstances of previous encounters with such devices. In response, Rush capitalizes on the suspicious death of a crew member to frame Young for murder, thereby forcing a temporary leadership change which allows a science team to activate the device. When Young is vindicated and learns of this duplicity, he confronts Rush, eventually battering him unconscious, and strands him on a planet alone with what seems to be a wrecked alien starship. Rush then attempts to fix the craft and is captured by an alien race that is aware of the Destiny and desire to capture it. He manages to escape and make his way back to the Destiny, where he and Young make a deal not to disclose the events where Young left him to die. However, in the following episode Rush rallies the civilian population of Destiny and threatens to starve the military population into submission. It's also revealed that the Aliens had implanted a tracking device in Rush and used it to find Destiny and attacked them. In the middle of the attack the implant was removed and Destiny escaped.