For Cryin’ Out Loud: The SGU Trailer

For Cryin’ Out Loud is GateWorld’s new weekly editor’s column! If you have questions or suggestions about what you’d like us to talk about, e-mail the editors now.

Well now, after a quiet three months … that trailer for SGU Season 1.5 is pretty killer, huh?

There’s an alien invasion, a planet with a giant obelisk, beautiful women, exploding ships, a warning from Colonel Telford … aw heck, let’s just watch it again:

I’ve been pretty confident that the second half of the season will deliver on a lot of what fans are asking for, and the trailer seems to go a long way to support that hypothesis. There certainly won’t be expensive CGI aliens and space battles in every episode, but I think the action and sci-fi adventure quotient is going to be much higher than in the first ten episodes.

Press screeners have gone out with the next couple of episodes, and though I didn’t get one myself I do know someone who has seen “Space” and “Divided.” With no spoilers of any kind, he assures me that both episodes kick all kinds of ass. The slow build-up we’ve been watching is about to pay off.

April 2.

Now I’m going to watch that trailer again!
Q&A

Have Kurt Russell or James Spader (from the original Stargate feature film) ever commented on any of the various Stargate TV shows? Are they even aware of them? I know that the co-creator of the Stargate movie (Dean Devlin) thinks the the TV shows don’t really follow the concepts/ideas set up in the film (the Stargate only goes to one other planet, for example) but I’m wondering if the stars of the movie have ever commented on what has happened with the franchise since the original film. (Craig)

I’ve never seen anything from James Spader about the television series, but he has talked about the original movie after the fact — and rather harshly, at that. A few years back he told The Globe and Mail: “The script was just awful, and that sort of intrigued me. … Acting, for me, is a passion, but it’s also a job, and I’ve always approached it as such. I have a certain manual-labourist view of acting. There’s no shame in taking a film because you need some f—ing money.”

Kurt Russell, on the other hand, seems to remember his Stargate days more fondly.  While in Vancouver shooting the 2001 movie 3,000 Miles to Graceland Russell stopped by the set of Stargate SG-1, where he met Richard Dean Anderson and took a look at the new Stargate.  The press, of course, was there to catch it:

Do “The Powers That Be” pay any attention to the comments or suggestions posted here or are the fans largely ignored? Darren? David? Anybody? (Pioneering)

I’ll leave that one for said Powers to reveal themselves, if they so choose. We do know that they visit the site regularly, though I’m not sure how much they read comments. Since the comments have shifted to be so negative (not just critical of SGU, but too often rude and spiteful) in the last several months, I suspect that many of the show’s cast and crew have given up on them. Many have also found Twitter a good place to interact with fans directly.

I’d never say that the fans are ignored. It’s just tough to fully appreciate and engage the good comments when the site is littered with disrespectful complaining.

Is David’s aversion to doing a Stargate vs. Babylon 5 comparison due to him not having the DVDs? I’d be willing to loan mine out to him to have the conversation. I think he’d come to realize how JJ’s Lost isn’t the first sci-fi show to know the whole story arc from the beginning. It was also one of the first shows to show strong women, and show the characters in more than stereotypical arctypes. Showing their strengths and weaknesses. (Eagle1)

I couldn’t agree more, Eagle! Babylon 5 is one of my Top 5 genre series of all time. (Did you see Bruce Boxleitner in the new TRON Legacy trailer this week?) David’s aversion to doing a podcast installment about it is based solely on the fact that he’s never seen it. Yeah, he’s crazy that way. He’s also never seen Farscape (except scattered episodes I recommended before his first Ben Browder interview), or The Princess Bride. (Want his e-mail address?)

I’d find it pretty tough to compare Stargate to B5, but maybe I’ll have a go at it in a future column.
If you have questions for next week’s column, send ’em on in! We want to hear from you — what you think of the new SGU trailer, your comments or questions about Stargate and GateWorld, or whatever else is on your mind.