Stargate Universe

Premise and themes

Stargate Universe will be set on the fictional Ancient ship Destiny, which was part of an Ancient experiment to seed the galaxies with Stargates millions of years ago. While a first ship was sent to seed the galaxies with Stargates, the Destiny was to follow a pre-programmed mission to explore these galaxies until the Ancients ascended and left the ship unmanned. In order to reach this ship, an address would have to be dialed consisting of nine chevrons, the possibility that had been unknown in the previous Stargate series.

The series begins when a team of soldiers and scientists from present-day Earth step through the Stargate to find the Destiny after their base is attacked. They are unable to maneuver the ship or even return to Earth, but they can use the Stargate to visit planets when the Destiny comes into the range of another Stargate and stops for brief periods of time. Life support including air supply is also a problem at first. There will be three major deaths in the pilot episode and one suicide by episode six. The writers have discussed the possibility that each season represents a voyage of the Destiny through a different galaxy.

Stargate Universe is written to appeal to both veteran fans and newcomers. It will be firmly entrenched in pre-established Stargate mythology without relying on it too often. Although it will still have the familiar Stargate themes of adventure and exploration, the show will focus mostly on the people aboard the ship. SGU will be more serialized than its predecessors, but the writers attempt to resolve each character story within the episode. The industry describes the show with the buzz words "dark and edgy" According to Robert C. Cooper, the essence of the story is "that sort of fear and terror of a tragedy combined with the sense that there is hope for us in the basic ways in which human beings survive". The increased levels of drama will still be balanced with humor to avoid pretentiousness. The differences between good and evil will be less apparent, as the ship will be populated with flawed and unprepared characters who were not supposed to go here. According to Brad Wright, the show will "hopefully explor[e] the truly alien, and [avoid] the rubber faced English-speaking one". There will be aliens, but not a single dominant villain race like on SG-1 and Atlantis.

Cast

Main cast

Cast of unknown status

The cast status of Ming-Na and Lou Diamond Phillips as permanent or recurring SGU actors is unclear. Neither of their respective roles was part of the leaked casting calls in September 2008, but both actors were named in a press release along with the confirmed main cast in February 2009. While Ming-Na is confirmed to appear in several SGU episodes after her character's initial conception as a potentially recurring character in the pilot episode, Lou Diamond Phillips will play the title role in a new stage musical in May 2009, taking place during the shooting period of SGU.

Crossover appearances and guest stars

From the beginning, Robert C. Cooper ruled out the permanent inclusion of any well-known characters from the two previous Stargate series, although "there will certainly be plenty of opportunity for cross over, and there certainly might be some familiar faces in the premiere and in subsequent episodes". Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) and Gary Jones (Walter Harriman) will make cameo appearances in the pilot episode. Amanda Tapping will reprise her role of Samantha Carter. Richard Dean Anderson (Jack O'Neill) will appear in multiple SGU episodes including the pilot and "Earth". Brad Wright approached Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey), who declared his interest in appearing early on in the show. Ona Grauer, who played the Ancient Ayiana in SG-1 and Atlantis, will also appear in an early Universe episode.

Christopher McDonald has been announced to guest-star as Chloe Armstrong's father, a U.S. senator who has the political oversight over the Stargate program. The Grammy-nominated singer Janelle Monáe will play herself performing the songs "Many Moons" and "Sincerely" from her album Metropolis in the episode "Earth". Carlo Rota will play Carl Strom, head of the International Oversight Advisory (IOA).

Production

Conception

Stargate producers Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper conceived Stargate Universe as "a completely separate, third entity" in the live-action Stargate franchise – as opposed to Stargate Atlantis, which was created as a spin-off from the first series Stargate SG-1. They wanted to produce a stylistically and tonally different TV series with a more mature and fresh story approach as to not get too repetitive. Wright and Cooper originally planned to write the pilot script for Stargate Universe during the summer of 2007, making a 2008 premiere possible. Since their ambitions with the previous live-action Stargate series were often restricted by the low budget and risked coming across as silly, they pitched the show as "an expensive series" to the Sci Fi Channel in the last quarter of 2007. Although the pitch was well-received, the project was put on hold because of the on-going work on Stargate Atlantis and Stargate: Continuum, and the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The series was given the official greenlight for a 2009 debut by Sci Fi on August 22, 2008, shortly after the cancellation of Stargate Atlantis had been announced. Joseph Mallozzi explained that a new series would have lower salaries and licensing fees than a new sixth season of Atlantis would have had. MGM co-funds the project.

Brad Wright pitched the series and its first five episodes to the Stargate Atlantis writers and producers in mid-September 2008. Wright, Cooper, and Carl Binder produce the show, while Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie serve as writers and consultant producers Stargate Atlantis writers Martin Gero and Alan McCullough contribute scripts, but are not part of the regular writer staff. New writers are being auditioned for freelance scripts and possible staff positions. Author and blogger John Scalzi was hired as a creative consultant, "a background rather than foreground sort of job". Most of the Stargate Atlantis crew such as stunt coordinator James Bamford and composer Joel Goldsmith move over to Universe.

Casting

Short character breakdowns for the series regulars (created for casting calls) leaked on the internet on September 17, 2008. Joseph Mallozzi explained the largely negative initial fan reaction as a passionate response to the preceding cancellation announcement of Atlantis. Brad Wright dismissed negative comments as a sole reaction to the wording of the network; character breakdowns are written to aid casting directors and agents in the pre-selection process, and "always sound shallow, and if they're written to appear 'deep' it's just ridiculous". Robert C. Cooper replied to concerns of young age that the SG-1 cast was also quite young in their first season. The producers were "looking for people who are a little more identifiable and contemporary," with an "everyman on the street point of view" after being challenged by the situation. Martin Gero considered Stargate Universe as an ensemble show, more than the previous two Stargate live-action series were.

Auditions were held in Los Angeles. The producers were looking for well-known names for the lead roles, but intended to mostly cast "either new faces, or people you've seen in other stuff but maybe aren't as aware of". BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actor Robert Carlyle was the first announced series regular in mid-December 2008. The casting of Justin Louis, David Blue, Brian J. Smith and Jamil Walker Smith as series regulars was announced in mid-January 2009. The casting of Alaina Huffman and Elyse Levesque was announced in late February 2009, along with other actors whose status as regular or recurring cast has not been established. The cast is American (Blue, B. Smith, and J. Smith), Canadian (Louis, Levesque, and Huffman) and Scottish (Carlyle).

Writing and filming

The writers started spinning stories for the first season in mid-November 2008. The United States Air Force and Marine Corps review the scripts. The projected film start of Stargate Universe was initially slated for February 4, 2009, but was moved to February 18, 2009. The show is filmed on stages 2, 4 (Destiny set) and 5 (Icarus Base set) at The Bridge Studios (SG-1 and Atlantis had been filmed at stages 5 and 6) and on location in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. Parts of an early episode will be filmed in and around Alamogordo, New Mexico from late April through early May 2009. Stargate Universe will show computer-generated worlds filmed in digital sets. Stargate Universe will have a markedly different shooting style for more reality and immediacy with inspiration from Cloverfield, as if "a documentary crew were to ride along on this adventure to outer space".

Pre-broadcast marketing

Sci Fi Wire published concept art of the Destiny in October 2008. The first promo picture of the cast (out of costume and in casual clothing) was released on March 20, 2009. The same day, the Sci Fi Channel began airing thirty-second trailers of Universe, showing various clips of the Universe team aboard the ship and the SGU Stargate with the first visual effects. Joseph Mallozzi, who often posted behind-the-scenes photos of SG-1 and Atlantis on his blog, said in March 2009 that MGM would keep the set under wraps for the foreseeable future.

Episodes

Stargate Universe will have stand-alone episodes and multi-parters, but will have more season-long plot and character threads running through every episode than the other Stargate series. Brad Wright is hopeful that Stargate Universe will last three or more seasons.^[11] The first season is planned to consist of 20 episodes. Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper wrote the three-parter series opener named "Air", which was originally planned to be a two-parter. According to Joseph Mallozzi, "although it is, effectively a three-parter, from a story standpoint the first two parts can (and probably will) serve as the premiere." Stargate Universe is expected to premiere on the US Sci Fi Channel in October 2009. British channel Sky1 acquired the exclusive free and basic pay UK rights to Stargate Universe and will begin airing the series in the autumn of 2009 as well. The series will also air on SPACE in Canada.