SGU Wraps Filming on Season 2

[adam_grif]

Villain escalation was a problem that SG-1 ran into anyway. The Ori were terrible :/

[Cecelia5578]

The Voyager comparison is more based on the premise of being stranded far away from home with limited supplies and inter-crew conflict (although Universe has done the latter far better than Voyager) with the Lucian Alliance. I appreciate that structurally speaking, Atlantis was more like Voyager in that it was set in a remote place but still managed to be season after season of more of the same.

Just to stick up for Atlantis here, being stranded in a remote place really only applied to Season 1. They changed that rather dramatically for seasons 2-5, but I always got the feeling that they were quite a ways away from home and sorta on their own. And, quite honestly, I think that was for the best. There's only so much storytelling you can do with a stranded group of people with limited supplies before you go down the DEM route.

[Cecelia5578]

Villain escalation was a problem that SG-1 ran into anyway. The Ori were terrible :/

I didn't mind the Ori as much as the cramming of tons of story material into the last two seasons. The Ori needed to be fleshed out over a much longer period of time.

[Themightytom]

I am not excited that they are ending on a cliff hanger. I don't like unfinished series, I still want to see a comeback from the aliens we saw in Daedalous variations, or the EvilGard in "The lost tribe" or hell, the Furlings. A Stargate series canceled on a cliffhanger would probably alienate me from the franchise. If a franchise can't be bothered to be realistic in its expectations given its ratings, whats the point in investing time in it.

I presume the producers have a reason to be confident enough to build a big new set, and would hate to find out they probably should have invested that money in writing or special effects to bolster other episodes.

That being said, we still have the Cameo from Atlantis coming up, as well as some pretty good looking episode summaries, so I will wait and see where this goes.

[adam_grif]

If the Atlantis movie ever materializes (by magic), I reaaaly hope the Lost Tribe are featured, because bringing them back for a one-shot pisses me off. Don't really care about the Daedalus variations ones though tbh.

[JME2]

Villain escalation was a problem that SG-1 ran into anyway. The Ori were terrible :/

I didn't mind the Ori as much as the cramming of tons of story material into the last two seasons. The Ori needed to be fleshed out over a much longer period of time.

That was one of two major reason why the Ori arc failed for me; there was too much going on to give it the time it needed to develop naturally, ala the Goa'uld arc.

The other was the twist with "The Fourth Horseman". Up until then, I thought they were an excellent twist on the SG-1 paradigm; after 8 years of fighting false gods, suddenly they were fighting beings who were essentially gods. Then Orlin opened his mouth and they became the Wraith 2.0.

[Revy]

The thing that pissed me off most about the Ori was their defeat. Granted Stargate has a long history of Deus Ex Machina, but at least when the Goa'uld fell it was because of a massive punch up involving the Tok'ra, the Jaffa, Anubis and the Replicators. Deus Ex played a part, but the Goa'uld and Replicators went out in style.

The Ori? There was no real conflict with them. The Ori went down to the freakin Holy Grail, a massively convenient Deus Ex weapon designed solely to kill them. That was bad enough, but we still had Adria, the Priors and millions of heavily armed fanatics. There was no way to win there without 'a tragic amount of bloodshed'. Except ... there was. Another massively convenient Deus Ex designed solely to de brainwash the Ori followers. And then they compound the insultingly stupid ease of that victory by making it that all the Priors were magically linked to the Doci, and by zapping him they zapped all the Priors and ... somehow, the millions (perhaps billions) of regular human followers. All at the same time. And then Morgan le Fay zaps Adria. What did SG1 actually do to earn this victory? They opened a box.

It was a hideously giant cascade of Deus Ex Magica. I actually liked the Ori as villains because they just seemed so powerful. I thought the good guys would have to pull off some truly brilliant plan, like the time they blew up the sun or Star Wars'd Anubis' super weapon. Instead ... a wizard did it. Gah!

[JME2]

Yeah, SG-1 became too reliant on the Ancient Ex Machina once the show moved from Showtime to Sy-Fy (Atlantis has the same problem initially with the ZPM's). If the arc had gone on longer than 2 seasons, the writers may have tried something different, but I was not happy at all with The Ark of Truth either.

[adam_grif]

The more I think about it, the more I want to see a "Re-imagining" of the Stargate universe, cutting out all of the crap and focussing on stronger arcs, getting rid of the stupid deus ex machinas but still keeping the trademark humor and most of the characters.

I'll probably have to wait 35 years for it, though.

[JME2]

Well yeah, they would have the benefit of applying what did and didn't work and tying it together. Not going to happen for a long while, though.

[JME2]

Joe Mallozzi has commented on what a renewal means for SGU and, well, they're hoping for more than a Season 3:

The producers of Stargate Universe hope that the show will live on for five full seasons, according to executive producer Joseph Mallozzi. He told fans at his blog that the writers have five years’ worth of story, building up to the final pay-off and conclusion of SGU.

“There are a number of arcs and elements that will figure into the ultimate finale we have planned,” Mallozzi said. “Ideally, we’d get five years to tell the entire story in satisfactory fashion but, if it came down to it, we could pay it off over the course of a single season.”

Stargate Universe is the first show in the franchise to be conceived as a single, arc-based story with a beginning, middle, and end, rather than an episodic series that could go on as long as the ratings would support.

At this point, Mallozzi also said, the studio is not thinking about a back-up plan for finishing the story in another medium, should the show be canceled without sufficient warning to pay off the story. Right now “the plan is deliver the ending at the conclusion of Season Five,” he said.

The show’s ratings in its new Tuesday night time slot, however, may threaten that 5-year story. Last month Syfy Channel canceled Stargate‘s lead-out show Caprica for low ratings. Meanwhile WWE Smackdown and Sanctuary are thriving on Friday nights, blocking the likelihood of returning SGU to that night on the schedule.

Robert Carlyle as Dr. Nicholas Rush. (From ''Malice'')

The network is expected to announce its decision about SGU Season Three in December or January, following next week’s conclusion of the first half of Season Two. The second half should pick up in the spring, after production on Season Three would need to have already begun.

The show does benefit from a larger number of DVR-delayed and online viewers … which don’t mean much to the advertisers who pay to keep Syfy’s programming on the air.

“I think our audience is there but simply growing more diffuse,” Mallozzi said of the ratings. “It would terrific if the television industry found a way to catch up with the modern media’s technological advancements, find a way to make sure everyone is counted in those ratings — but barring a major miracle, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

“The only alternative to ensuring a third season is to bring more viewers to Tuesday nights, be they SG-1 fans, Atlantis fans, or fans of Celebrity Circus.”

[xt828]

Just to clarify, does that comment about online and DVR viewers indicate that they don't count towards viewership because of the medium or because they don't watch the ads?

[Slacker]

Because we don't watch the ads. God knows I haven't watched any commercials I haven't had to in years.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Ratings monitoring technology CAN tell if you're watching a recording on a DVR, and it logs it as a view.

[Slacker]

Yes, but apparently Hulu viewings don't count, which is how I've watched this entire half-season. I have a late class Tuesday night.

[Todeswind]

It's a shame if internet viewers are not being counted towards viewership. I haven't even owned a television since college, between Hulu and Netflix instant there hasn't really been much of a reason to do so.

I'm starting to suspect that the constant marathons running on TV are a strategic choice on the part of the networks to fight DVR. It's essentially a way of going "You want to DVR Law and Order? Here, take it until your DVR chokes. Good luck taping Kitchen Nightmares later."

We've adapted to consume faster then they've adapted to profit off our consumption.

[Slacker]

The problem for them is if you've set up your computer to your television, you have functionally infinite storage space.

The entire concept of how television works is going to have to change somehow.

[Chris OFarrell]

[Bump]

Just as a minor point of interest, Joe Mallozzi, one of the writers/exec-producers of SG1/SGA/SGU has a blog.

And he occasionally puts some interesting bits up there. Probably best to treat them as non-canon, even given his authority, but interesting none the less.

http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/201 ... n-kushner/

Some of the things he has said here include;

Addressing the fact that Naquadria was not a naturally occurring isotope of Naquadah, given its tendency to decay back into Naquadah over time. And his opinion that Icarus and the Lucian planet were both 'test sites' Anubis set up after he got the data from Jonas.

That we are never going to see the Asgard plasma beams in SGU, a tacit admission by the writers that they made the 304's WAY too powerful with them. Given that not showing them would simply raise the question again and again, it appears we'll never see 304's again, or at least not see them in combat/combat against big ships.

In regards to the 'rigged' ZPM Camulas gave Earth, and if Earth has had any luck 'un-rigging' it to be used...

"Alas, that particular zpm is no more – along with the planet on which it was tested."

I just love the way he says that. Good thing that there are so many letters in the alphabet to name outposts after for the SGC...

And it appears that the SGC has either been shut down, and Stargate operations moved to a new department, or the SGC itself has been moved. Or even that Atlantis is still on Earth, and all Gate activities are being staged out of it for now.

[JME2]

Addressing the fact that Naquadria was not a naturally occurring isotope of Naquadah, given its tendency to decay back into Naquadah over time. And his opinion that Icarus and the Lucian planet were both 'test sites' Anubis set up after he got the data from Jonas.

Interesting. It'll never make it on-screen, but this one of the things I've liked about Stargate as it progressed: drawing upon the mythology they set up.

That we are never going to see the Asgard plasma beams in SGU, a tacit admission by the writers that they made the 304's WAY too powerful with them. Given that not showing them would simply raise the question again and again, it appears we'll never see 304's again, or at least not see them in combat/combat against big ships.

Too bad.

In regards to the 'rigged' ZPM Camulas gave Earth, and if Earth has had any luck 'un-rigging' it to be used...

"Alas, that particular zpm is no more – along with the planet on which it was tested."

Well, that answers that question.

And it appears that the SGC has either been shut down, and Stargate operations moved to a new department, or the SGC itself has been moved. Or even that Atlantis is still on Earth, and all Gate activities are being staged out of it for now.

Not surprising given the Pegasus Gates supersede the Milky Way Gates and they've got the most advance pieces of technology in the universe sitting on San Francisco Bay (I think I can see it from my apartment... )

It does make me wish that Extinction eventually gets made. SGA was a flawed sister show, but it wasn't terrible and the Tau'ri-Wraith War deserves closure.

[CaptJodan]

That we are never going to see the Asgard plasma beams in SGU, a tacit admission by the writers that they made the 304's WAY too powerful with them. Given that not showing them would simply raise the question again and again, it appears we'll never see 304's again, or at least not see them in combat/combat against big ships.

I have some really mixed feelings about that one. On the one hand, I'd hate to see them dumb down the Asgard beams just for the sake of making the humans less powerful to keep up the tensions.

On the other hand, SGU had a pretty decent thing going in that they are so far removed from Earth that we don't have to see or deal with the Asgard beam stuff. Except they keep trying to make Earth relevant. They have this LA attack in the works, for example. Now, if the LA attack consists of NecronLord's plan of cloaked TelTaks and bombs or viruses, then great. Shows the LA to be smart in getting around the advancements Earth has, be it Asgard Beam 304s or Atlantis. If it's some kind of ship to ship engagement, then they either have to show 304s not using the weapons we know they have, or the battle happens off-screen, which given the buildup for this LA attack on Earth, is poor lazy writing.

In my opinion, they shouldn't have ever given Earth the Asgard core, period. The Asgard mega-death was pathetic for such a good race, but they added "here's all our tech, but you can't actually use it or learn from it" to the mix, since nothing has come from it since. It was probably time for Earth to get some kind of energy weapon, but it should have been pretty low grade. First generation Goa'uld style weapons or something, not uber beams of doom. But since they made that mistake, I'm not sure trying to sweep it under the rug is the best solution either. On the other hand, keeping the conflict and threats in Universe confined to Destiny as opposed to "impending threat number 183 to Earth" would have solved the problem just fine for my tastes as well.

[Chris OFarrell]

I wanted (but didn't get of course) the idea that Earth doesn't have a hope in hell of reproducing the Asgard plasma beams, as they are simply way too far ahead of where Earth is, and even with the ASgard core, its a case of building the tools to build the tools to build the tools to build the weapon.

Now, the way Earth gets around this is that the Odyssey was outfitted with a dozen of the weapons, but Earth simply strips the Odyssey of eight or so of them, and installs pairs of the weapons on the other 304's (Daedalus, Apollo, Sun Tzu, Hammond). Still giving them the power, but its a very limited 'sharing' of the technology if you will. And if you want to lessen their impact, have ships damaged in combat take hull damage to the weapons themselves and destroy them beyond any possibility of repair (say that either Daedalus, Apollo or Sun Tzu lost them in the engagement with the Uber Hive for example).

Add to THAT then the fact that Odyssey with the ZPM is the only 304 that has enough power to fire the beams at full power constantly. So that the lesser ships can charge the weaposn to full and get off a terrifying first strike with them, but then it takes a degree of time to charge and fire the weapons again (its half implied in 'Be All My Sins', 'The Last Man' and 'The final episode of Atlantis that must not be named' that this may in fact be the case on the non Odyssey 304's)...

[CaptJodan]

Even that was somewhat nullified by the whole "If you give the core a schematic "close enough" the core can figure out the gaps and make something virtually" that we saw in Ark of Deux Ex Machina and the creation of the Replicators. Were the Replicators highly advanced tech per say? No. But Carter pretty much nixed the idea by stating that the core can pretty much get you there if you have the specs for something. And since the core WOULD have the specs for all of the Asgard stuff (claimed by Thor) then....

Yeah, the core and the weapons were a bad thing. So was killing off the Asgard, but...whatever.

[JME2]

Yeah, the core and the weapons were a bad thing. So was killing off the Asgard, but...whatever.

It was a frankly stupid decision; I understand the production team's desire to see humanity become the Fifth Race and finally move into that title, but I hated that it was at the expense of a key part of the SG mythology.

Anyway, as it's the Holidays...

[PREDATOR490]

I would be more interested in finding out why limited efforts have been taken to develop GROUND based technology. Its kinda stupid Earth can build these massive ships complete with the most decimating weaponary currently available but they cannot employ even the most basic concepts into their ground arsenal. Simple things like replications of staff energy weapons or Goa'uld personal shields.

Although one would have expected the first thing they would look at would be trying to replicate Asgard power systems or trying to get the Asgard Core to spew out the designs to build their Intergalactic Drives. One would expect the Asgard Core could even provide an equivelent defence system similar to the Tolan Ion Cannons or the Goa'uld defence net Daniel designed.

[Chris OFarrell]

Even that was somewhat nullified by the whole "If you give the core a schematic "close enough" the core can figure out the gaps and make something virtually" that we saw in Ark of Deux Ex Machina and the creation of the Replicators.

Well we can just say that the Replicators blew up that system when they tried to eat the Odyssey