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TV News: Stargate Universe Has Learning Curve While Picked Up For Second Season

By • December 16, 2009 • 2 Comments

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Stargate Universe has been renewed for a second season, MGM and SyfyChannel announced late last night (via Gateworld). A 20-episode season will begin filming in early 2010 for a fall premiere.  Meanwhile, the second half of Season One will return in April.  Work on the first episodes of Season Two is already underway in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the show’s writing team has hammered out storylines and already started writing scripts.

The first season of the new Syfy series from the long running franchise has had some new things never tried before by long-time showrunners and purveyors of the series and sometimes mistakes or concerns are made. Robert Cooper would be the first to admit it. In an interview with THR after the news of SGU getting renewed for a second season, Cooper mentioned some of the learning curves he and the writing team have learned in the season 1 first 10 episodes. Cooper talked about some of the main storytelling devices and elements introduced early in the show which many fans have expressed concerns over, including myself, who talked about it as a guest in a recent episode of the Gateworld Podcast.  As it turns out, some of those same conversations were taking place in the writer’s room.

Perhaps the biggest concern is the use of time between Earth and The Destiny as well the moral use of the stones that boddy swap our characters.

“It’s certainly been a hot topic of debate,” Cooper said.  “It’s very valuable in terms of tying the crew to Earth, and some have suggested the crew should be more isolated. There’s also a debate about the moral issue of how the [body swapping] stones are used and whether it’s right for a person to do certain things in the body of the another person and that’s interesting too.”

One of the other issues fans and Cooper alike mentioned is the classic use for sci-fi and the exploration of new worlds and the emergence of alien races. A staple of science-fiction and the Stargate franchise, the appearance of aliens has been small in SGU so far, really isolating itself to some type of non-corporeal being that attacks the crew and some parasite type aliens seen on a Kino episode.

The producers didn’t want to distract from the core stories about the characters, they also recognize that life “out there” is an important element of science fiction and the Stargate mythology.

“The show was always intended to be a drama and about people who are struggling to survive,” Cooper said. “There is a sci-fi element, but it was never going to turn into the ‘alien of the week.’ However, there is a big story point coming up that does introduce an alien race that’s a very cool, CG alien. It’s more along the line of a District 9-type of alien. Our interaction is handled in a very Universe way — they’re not the typical Stargate alien bad guys.”

Writing and principal photography for Season One was completed in October. Cooper tells us that that scripts are currently being written for  second season.

The full interview with Robert C. Cooper is available at The Hollywood Reporter. Cooper also talks with them about other criticisms relating to SGU’s female characters, sex on the show, the use of kino-vision and more. Stargate Universe resumes after its mid-season break in April on Syfy in the U.S.

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  • Save Scifi

    First, folks need to really know what is going on with the SGU and the former franchise series SG1 and SGA fans, the fans of SG1 and SGA were too few in number and second they were getting too old to sell to the advertisers so the folks at the franchise (and the network) decided to do two things. First a D I V O R C E had to take place to run off the old hag long time SG1 viewers so a new pretty younger viewer could be found to replace them. They started by attacking and having others attack those that they no longer want. To do that they even have NEWBYS attacking the older series as being campy, predictable and any number of other attacks to make us mad so we would just go away. Yes I am an OLD HAG fifteen years (plus) viewer and I need to go.

    The second thing going on is the “OLD HAGS” like any former wife are fighting back to try to keep something of our former marriage to the franchise. Like any long term relationship breaking up is hard to do. The OLD HAGS are not afraid of small changes but we do fear what drastic changes mean which is an end to the relationship. Some of you as fans are so desperate for any Science Fiction of any kind you will put up with anything just to try and keep it going even if (and you know you do not really like SGU ) it means accepting a soap opera without any of the familiar things that make Science Fiction worth watching.

    Just look at the hate expressed against SG1 and SGA by the new fanboys of the new non science fiction SGU.

    The network has also DIVORCED the genre (changed their name) and they completely support what is happening to Science Fiction viewers in general and us OLD HAGS in particular. So giving a second season was part of their plan from the beginning.

    Mr. Cooper said the DIVORCE was necessary because the OLD HAGS did not allow him to be creative if he was faithful to their fifteen plus year relationship.

  • Save Scifi

    First, folks need to really know what is going on with the SGU and the former franchise series SG1 and SGA fans, the fans of SG1 and SGA were too few in number and second they were getting too old to sell to the advertisers so the folks at the franchise (and the network) decided to do two things. First a D I V O R C E had to take place to run off the old hag long time SG1 viewers so a new pretty younger viewer could be found to replace them. They started by attacking and having others attack those that they no longer want. To do that they even have NEWBYS attacking the older series as being campy, predictable and any number of other attacks to make us mad so we would just go away. Yes I am an OLD HAG fifteen years (plus) viewer and I need to go.

    The second thing going on is the “OLD HAGS” like any former wife are fighting back to try to keep something of our former marriage to the franchise. Like any long term relationship breaking up is hard to do. The OLD HAGS are not afraid of small changes but we do fear what drastic changes mean which is an end to the relationship. Some of you as fans are so desperate for any Science Fiction of any kind you will put up with anything just to try and keep it going even if (and you know you do not really like SGU ) it means accepting a soap opera without any of the familiar things that make Science Fiction worth watching.

    Just look at the hate expressed against SG1 and SGA by the new fanboys of the new non science fiction SGU.

    The network has also DIVORCED the genre (changed their name) and they completely support what is happening to Science Fiction viewers in general and us OLD HAGS in particular. So giving a second season was part of their plan from the beginning.

    Mr. Cooper said the DIVORCE was necessary because the OLD HAGS did not allow him to be creative if he was faithful to their fifteen plus year relationship.