Kino

From SGCommand

"Flying camera ball. I'm calling it a Kino."

—Eli Wallace

A Kino, named by Eli Wallace after the Russian "Kino-Pravda" meaning "film truth", is a sleek, softball-sized, self-levitating orb designed and built in mass quantities by the Ancients. Kinos contain a vast variety of sensors, able to scan atmospheric makeup and record audio and visual input. The device's movement can be controlled by remote or by Ancient computers, such as those aboard the Destiny.

Contents 1 Overview 2 History 3 Behind the scenes 3.1 Kino webisodes 3.2 Notes 4 External links 5 References

Overview

"Why, it's marvelous!"

—Nicholas Rush

A Kino is comparable to a MALP in its use as a probe sent through the Stargate to an unexplored world; however, a Kino is far more advanced than a MALP, specifically in terms of size and portability. There are untold dozens of kinos aboard Destiny, which are dispensed by a station in the Kino room. The Kino room also serves as a central control room for them. Despite the large quantity available, there is no indication that the supply is unlimited. (SGU: "Air, Part 2", "Water")

When a Kino is deployed through a Stargate, it automatically links with the Destiny's computers, allowing the ship to track planetary details such as atmospheric conditions. As with the multipurpose consoles aboard the ship, the remote used to handle a Kino also acts as remote control for a Stargate, similar to a DHD but in a mobile format. Kinos can record data such as audio and video for later viewing, but have a finite memory. (SGU: "Air, Part 3") Kinos can be set to follow a preprogrammed course or just follow a standard search pattern; for example, when searching for a specific item such as an active console. (SGU: "Darkness")

Kinos are incredibly rugged, able to withstand the vacuum of space unprotected, as well as close proximity to a star. (SGU: "Light") They can also withstand extreme cold, at least in excess of -47 degrees Celsius. Despite their small size, Kinos can carry several times their own weight; several Kinos in conjunction with a board can carry several hundred pounds with ease, though the remote control is unable to guide so many at once. (SGU: "Water")

Kinos may be sensitive to moisture, causing the video filmed to be choppy with periods of distortion. While being otherwise relatively durable, Kinos are susceptible to damage, including projectile weapon fire. A damaged kino may still function, however, depending on the level of damaged incurred. When Ronald Greer shot a Kino on the Jungle planet, its flight capability was disabled but it otherwise functioned correctly. (SGU: "Time")

History

"It comes with a remote. I thought we could use it to look around."

—Eli Wallace

Eli Wallace first finds the Kinos during the expedition's initial exploration of the ship, and quickly makes use of them. He starts using them to record messages for posterity, including individual messages from every crew member. (SGU: "Darkness") He also uses them for pretty much anything he feels is noteworthy, such as his first use of the long-range communication device. (SGU: "Earth")

When the ship lost power, Eli Wallace sent a Kino on a general search through uncompressed sections of the ship to search for an active console. (SGU: "Darkness") Later on, when death seemed unavoidable, he set a Kino with recordings from every crew member into space in the hopes that someone would find it, incidentally giving the crew the first look at the exterior of the ship for a brief period. The Kino eventually moved out of range, never to be heard from again. (SGU: "Light")

Eli also has the idea to jury rig a dozen or so Kinos into an anti-gravity cart capable of holding several tons, done in an attempt to fly. The Kino hover board was used to help harvest ice from Hoth, helping move several hundred pounds' worth. (SGU: "Water")

Another Kino was mysteriously found on a jungle planet depicting images that hadn't yet happened. It showed a record (filmed by an alternate-timeline Eli Wallace) of the team's deaths at the hands of a group of nocturnal creatures and a fatal illness. Ultimately, it was determined that the Kino was accidentally sent back in time through a wormhole connected to the past because of a solar flare. The recording also clued them into a cure the disease: The venom of the creatures on the planet. After four people died aboard Destiny, and the rest of the planet-team died trying to capture a live creature, Lt. Matthew Scott used a second Kino to record a message detailing the illness and the cure and then purposely sent it back in time in order to change history a second time. (SGU: "Time")

A Kino was used during the Hearing of Colonel Everett Young, after some evidence pointed him to be culpable of the murder of Sergeant Spencer, to record the due process. However, evidence found in the record of yet another Kino showed that Sergeant Spencer committed suicide and Nicolas Rush deleted that entry from the Kino's database, not knowing that Eli Wallace had previously saved a backup of all its footage to his personal computer to edit into his documentary.

Behind the scenes

Kino webisodes

Main article: Kino webisodes

Kino Webisodes are a series of 30 interdependent brief episode segments that accompany the first season of Stargate Universe. These brief segments are usually continuations of an episode that aired just prior to the webisodes' release. However, some contain content relatively unrelated to recent episodes.

Notes

• In Norwegian, Danish, German, Czech and Polish, Kino means "Movie Theater". In Russian, it means both "cinema" and "movie".
• Kino is the name of video software. [1]
• Joseph Mallozzi has stated in his blog that he thinks Kino should stand for "Kinetic Interactive Navigational Orb", though this is not the case.^[1]
• The Kino concept has appeared in many other films and television series, including Star Trek, Star Wars, and even the horror genre by way of the film Phantasm.
• The Kino is also similar in some aspects to Ball Cameras being sold to civilians and militaries alike in the real world. Minus the levitation and complex scanning, of course.

External links

• Kino on the official MGM website.

References