Everett Young

Character arc

Young is 40 years old and has been married to Emily Young since 2005. His crew was forced through the Stargate, ultimately becoming stranded on the Destiny. Young is seriously injured during their first arrival and it falls to Lieutenant Matthew Scott to lead the Icarus personnel until he is able to recover. He then becomes team leader aboard the Destiny.

However, Young has a difficult time, as he must try and lead a ship with divided loyalties. While the military personnel do not question his authority, the civilians and scientists have a harder time accepting his leadership. Even some of his superiors back on Earth are not confident in his ability to lead the crew although General Jack O'Neill says that Young was his first choice to head up the Expedition but Young turned him down. However, despite numerous power struggles and attempts to usurp him, Young has managed to stay in command. Due to the ship's divided loyalties, Scott, Greer, Johansen, and Eli are the only crew members he absolutely trusts. He even has Eli secretly use the Kinos to spy on the rest of the crew. Young has rocky relations with the civilian crew, and is personal enemies with Rush. After discovering a plot by Rush to frame him for murder, Young assaults Rush and leaves him to die on an uninhabited world in a fit of rage. When he finds out Rush is still alive on an alien ship, Young attempts to have the ship destroyed, but fails to prevent Rush from returning to the ship. However, as he freed Rush from his imprisonment aboard the ship himself and because Chloe Armstrong was still on board, it is possible he merely did this to protect Destiny. Both men then make an uneasy truce not to disclose the true events of their confrontation. Rush's distrust of Young's potential actions when he finds out he has a tracking device in his chest leads Rush to instigate a mutiny with Camile Wray, but it fails. Afterwards Young makes an effort to get along with Rush.

Meanwhile, Young leaves behind a strained personal life back on Earth. His wife, Emily, is divorcing him due to his continual habit of putting his military career before their marriage and an affair he had with his subordinate Lt. Johansen. To make matters worse, Colonel Telford tries to begin a relationship with Emily, and attempts to manipulate Emily into thinking that Young is still sleeping with Lt. Johansen. It is later revealed that Telford was brainwashed into helping the Lucian Alliance in their attempts to board Destiny - whether or not Telford's dislike of Young is a result of this brainwashing remains unclear. Young breaks the brainwashing on Telford by venting the atmosphere in the room he's in, killing him, then revives him. After being revived and free of brainwashing, Telford expresses to Young how truly horrified he was by his actions and is grateful for what Young did to free him. Also, Young has a friendlier and more comradely attitude towards Telford.

Young's affair with Lt. T.J. Johansen is not revealed until weeks after they're stranded on the Destiny, although it becomes clear via flashbacks that T.J. had resigned and planned on leaving the mission for unknown reasons. T.J.'s worried about Young's condition after he's severely injured upon arrival, which leads to Camille Wray becoming suspicious of the true nature of their friendship. Young's estranged wife later reveals he cheated on her, and via a dream Young has, it become clear his affair was with T.J. Although they are no longer sleeping together, they still care about each other and, according to Lt. Scott, exchange longing looks throughout their stay on the Destiny. After 22 weeks, T.J. tells Young she's pregnant with their child, and Young promises to take care of her and raise their child together. When the ship is taken over by the Lucian Alliance in the season 1 finale, T.J., along with others, is taken hostage. Young goes to extreme lengths to get T.J. back and it's shown he's even willing to trade his men for her. However, when a plan backfires, Young and his men are taken hostage as well and while they are about to be killed for their betrayal, T.J. is shot in the abdomen. Rush, Eli, Chloe and Brody manage to retake the ship, but T.J. loses the baby although she survives herself.

After the loss of his daughter, Sgt. Riley (whom Young euthanizes at Riley's own request), and his marriage, Young drifts into depression, drinks heavily and loses focus on his duties as commanding officer of the Destiny. He has trouble controlling his actions, repeatedly using excessive force against opponents and those who question him. In addition to his assault and abandonment of Rush, he also lies to use the communication stones to go back to earth and assault Telford, and assaults Rush on several other occasions. When Destiny itself tests his fitness to command, Young almost gives up completely until Lieutenant Scott, who is asked to take command by Rush and Wray, convinces him to pull himself out of his despair and take command once more. This, and Destiny's apparent 'bond' to him as leader cause him to regain his self-respect and his leadership abilities. When he discovers that Rush long ago took control of the Destiny by breaking the ship's codes, Young is furious and nearly kills him as a result. Rush explains his motives for doing so to Young, including Destiny's true mission, and asks Young for his support in completing it. Young accedes to the point that when the crew has a chance to return home and Rush intends to stay behind with volunteers to complete the mission, Young chooses to stay as well to lead those who stay; in an alternate timeline, Young makes a speech that helps convince people to stay.

Conceptual history

After doing an audition for the role of Young for Stargate Universe, Louis Ferreira was not sure if it was a role he wanted to take on. He wanted a sign, which eventually happened when someone dumped their boat on Ferreira's front yard. Ferreira had always wanted to own a boat in the Vancouver area. He became more interested in the role when he found out that Robert Carlyle already had a part in the series, due to Ferreira being a big "fan" of Carlyle's acting. Ferreira was also supportive of the idea to move the Stargate franchise in a new direction.

Described in the initial character breakdown as a "handsome, capable, former SG team leader" in his 40s who holds the rank of Colonel. He is "like the Jack O'Neill of ten years ago" yet has sharper edges. Young is Rush's nemesis on the ship.