Exclusive Interview! Diving Deeper into Stargate Universe with Producer John G. Lenic!
So today was a particularly interesting day as I got to chat with one of the producers of SGU and longtime member of the Stargate production team John G. Lenic. He joined the team in 1996 as a production assistant and has remained with all incarnations of the franchise from SG-1, Atlantis and now SGU. He currently serves as a producer of the new series.
JG and I got to really hash out some of the most talked about issues revolving around SGU and address perhaps some of the most pressing questions surrounding the show as it enters its 5th week on the Syfy Network maybe even unlocking some of those questions you have been itching for even getting some insight into possibly explorations for Season 2 of the series.
Now I want to tell you there is no major spoilers in this interview there may be some light allusions of things to come but nothing that reveals anything special in the show’s future. We do not believe in spoilers and want to be just as surprised as you the readers for the coming episodes of the show.
So Stargate Universe, I am such a fan of the series, how long have you been apart of the Stargate franchise since its inception?
“December of 1996. I was an assistant on another production, a TV movie and I had an offer to come and do Stargate and that really appealed to me because I had an opportunity to move up by working on a series but also in terms of moving up in career and position. Also find something that was going to give me a breadth of experience. No offense to shows with talking heads like Law and Order and NCIS but this was an opportunity to work on a show with visual affects, special effects, all those visual elements, huge costumes every single week will give you that great experience than just working in office buildings all day long.”
Were you a big Science-Fiction Fan going into this series?
“Not really. I had grown-up watching Star Wars and I had seen the Star Trek movies but never watched the series. I did see the movie Stargate and loved It so when I heard about the series I knew it was going to be a great show because of the scale and sure enough it has been.”
Oh yeah it has been! I always refer to it (SG-1) as the A-Team in Space.
“Yeah you are right! I never thought of that! Thats exactly what it was!”
So We Want to Dive Deeper into SGU With You, when you guys came up with Stargate Universe, what were you trying to accomplish? I mean we have already seen it but what was going through the minds of you and the rest of the production team?
“Basically we all talked about wanting to do something different. Something different from what we had been doing and go a another way that people would respond too and make it more “charactery” and slightly darker especially if we got the right cast (which we did.) People had been saving the day every episode and that was fun and there was that feel good response of being able to walk away from every episode. But also it was just wanting to go into a different look and a different feel, bring it into what was being done now in the era we are in. It was something that was talked about back when Atlantis came along but it wasn’t the right time and people thought it was squirrely to do that kind of thing. The rest of the shows on TV hadn’t done that type of thing yet and there was hesitancy based on that. I mean we went so far as to say let’s shoot it or air it as a Letterbox show and in the same aspect ratio as a feature film to make us stand out more but the network and the studio resisted that and they thought it would be too different. But now we have been able to do that and go a different way and people have been making those comparisons to Battlestar and the way it was shot and I have to say that everything has to start somewhere. They started with a look and its not that we are copying them we are actually trying to do something differently but also its a look that goes across many different shows.”
Yeah! that look in my opinion started with Firefly before BSG!
“Oh yeah, Firefly and even Friday Night Lights. Robert Cooper, co-creator and executive producer, even said that his favorite shows on TV were the Shield and Friday Night Lights and if we can get one of those guys to DP the show. So with that the onset of the show was handled with a different perspective.”
So With that, How do you Make SGU, in terms of storytelling original and do something that BSG hasn’t done, that Voyager hasn’t done? I mean I know its hard and I quote Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones, ‘You can’t write something that Mozart didn’t already do’? How do you try to keep the show original especially for older fans who have seen a lot of sci-fi, Stargate and not tread the same type of ground?
“I think the difference here is the focus and its who we are dealing with. Its about these people in the wrong place and the wrong time. You have a whole group of people that are fish out of water, they are stranded, they can’t get out of this situation. It really poses questions you have to dive deeper into. We have one episode where Rush has all these flashbacks which help him figure out a situation and they’re in and there is great character acting from Robert Carlyle and you can do that with someone like him and that is where that different dimension to the show comes from. You have this ship which is basically a character untoo itself.”
I think so, I mean, personally I think there is something on the ship, good or bad, and you do not need to confirm that but the ship is really becoming a character as each episode develops these people’s stories. Going into the star in the last episode and it seems the ship has an agenda.
“yes, yes it does and you know and as we move into season 2 of the series we will explore that and more of the ship and places we haven’t seen and that is really important as well.”
So one of the questions I have been itching to ask and some of our readers have been wanting to know the answers too is the ‘ancient communication stones’ that was such a clever add in to the show and device.
“Very complex and complicated (laughing)”
yeah thats one of those things I have heard people say and that even the stones being great can somewhat hurt the show possibly meaning what is to keep you guys (the production team) from ’stoning in’ Carter or McKay onto the ship and they can figure out the problems of The Destiny and get them home quicker?
“I know I have seen that question come up a lot and you know have to look at their characters. They are busy doing other things. Carter is captain of the George Hammond space craft, she’s not on Earth, she is faraway from Earth and getting back there would take some time so she has no access to the communication device. McKay, we wanted to, I think the objective was to not limit us for when the Atlantis movie happens. (Oh yeah when are we gonna see that? When is that going to happen?) I am not sure. But back to McKay there is that but really and theoretically this whole Icurus project could have happened before the Atlantis base came back to Earth and with that he just would be to far away and again no access to the stones plus in that timeline we know where McKay is and what he is doing (Season 5 of Atlantis meaning he was not aware of the project).”
Is that something you guys plan to address subtly throughout the series and this season and maybe next? Especially to keep those fans happy?
“Well I think people need to get away from thinking that. We are trying to make a different show and in the essence of trying to do that. Yes we had Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks those were to get us off to a good start, pass the torch, they were all there for plausible reasons as well and they were not critical to the series. But also speaking bluntly having the Atlantis guys involved in anyway creates financial issues and is a heck of a lot of money after 5 seasons with that those actors get their quote up per episode and don’t have the budget to spend on that especially being a first year series we want to use the money we have to focus on other aspects of the series and what we have established. Also its difficult to ask an actor we have relied on for many years to come back and do a show at rate.”
Oh I agree I totally understand that! Is Chris Herydahl available? Any roles for him in SGU?
“Sure I guess. I would love to say yes but he is so busy with Sanctuary and he is even in the new Twilight Saga. It was great to have him on Atlantis but also because he was so critical to the other series that its hard to introduce him into another role, sure he had prosthetic makeup. I think potentially down the road if we find a role that we think is good for him we may reach out.”
What is the biggest thing you would tell SG fans about the new show? What have you been itching to tell them? Based on something you have read on the internet? the buzz?
“We are trying to start a new show with a new cast. People are constantly trying to compare it to Atlantis and SG-1, it is a new show take it for what it is and its not going to be the same. We branched out for the reason of making a new show with different qualities and better qualities in some ways and that kind of thing. But I can’t stop saying how awesome! and I mean awesome how it has been working with this cast this year from the lead nine all way down to the supporting cast – Julia Benson, Patrick Gilmore, Peter Kelamis. I mean Robert Carlyle what a pleasure to come to work with every day. Thats the biggest thing how all these people come together and the cast rocks.”
“Also the success of ‘Universe and its survival really hinges upon you all the fans and even the new fans! Let it get its legs and with that opportunities for an Atlantis film and more SG-1 films will come with that in fact its essential that for those to happen SGU needs to survive.”
So here is some fan heavy questions:
Cheyenne Mountain? Its closed in real life? Is there plans to bring that into the show?
“Absolutely I think maybe in SGU subtly but definitely in another SG-1 film if that gets made.”
So we have heard rumors and rumblings from Dean Devlin (co-creator and writer of Stargate film) about continuing with the feature films and bringing about a sequel, a Stargate 2? Do you know anything about that?
“Yeah I have heard that. I know him and Roland Emmerich brought it up but I really do not see it happening as MGM seems to be happy with the TV series and where we are but I am not really the one to ask thats more of a studio question but i have heard that rumor.”
Well what else do you work on besides Stargate? Is there any other projects you have been working on besides SGU?
“Actually yes! though Stargate is my life now and my focus is always on the series but David Hewlett (McKay) and I pitched a pilot for a 30-minute comedy series that goes behind the scenes of people working for a sci-fi show. Syfy has been interested and we are pursuing that but other than SG nothing else.”
It was a real pleasure to speak to John and he has been a real bright spot with the series and his creativity along with Cooper, Wright and others on the production team have made this a memorable series and we hope to speak with him again in the future as SGU and the franchise moves forward.
