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.”
Stick with GateWorld for the very latest, and be sure to watch the final episode of the fall season this Tuesday night at 9 p.m. (8 Central)! Visit GateWorld’s Season Two episode guide to learn more about “Resurgence,” and be sure to visit Joe’s blog for more from the SGU writer/producer.
The JMS/Babylon 5 approach: make a long-term plan and stick to it no matter what. There’s a very real danger of the show ending before the story is finished, but if it works, it pays off dividends and becomes a brilliant example of what the medium of television can be.
“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.”” You see, you just don’t say that. People will take it to mean that what you currently have planned is so bloated with filler and not watch it or that you don’t have enough confidence in your own show that if it came too it you can cut enough content to fill 20 episodes and again, people wont want to watch something that cut up. Its… Read more »
This sounds like desperation to me. Its like they’re saying to the audience ‘stick with us PLEASE, we will eventually get to the point honest gov, after all we’ve got to, the show’s only going to last another 3 years please please please please please (with a cherry on top)’ secretly behind the scenes they’re saying ‘if we can get away with selling this for 5 years we’re geniuses’. I’ve loved stargate since the start but we’ve been short changed on this one guys. The producers, directors and writers are suffering from battlestar envy and we’re being made to suffer… Read more »
the bbc did a star trek night 10 or 15 years ago or so and there was a song on there that sums up exactly how I feel about the produces of the new stargate show. Its a brilliant song by the brilliant adam and joe, just type in adam and joes star trek song into youtube and look for the numpty dresses like a klingon sat in front of a keyboard and enjoy, its pure class!!
The fact that the producers have a concrete plan for SGU is exactly what I want to hear. The absence of a plan in SGA was blatantly obvious and what took away from an otherwise entertaining show. A perfect example is the complete lack of a long-term story-arc solution to the Pegasus replicators…. half of S.4, really? ok… we did that… uhm… where do we go now???
I would absolutely love for this show to be told the proper way, unlike “Ark of Truth” for SG-1, which screamed for an 11th season.
i agree, JM is surprisingly frank, too frank. Saying they could pull it off in one season is probably true and Joe knows if they get anything, it will be a one season and thats it. A show with this kind of ratings doesnt go on for five seasons.
I sincerely hope that SGU gets its 5-years. I’m enjoying the show immensely and definitely feel that this story NEEDS to be told.
Is it me or do they beg us to watch the show or stop putting out our opinions that “taint SGU” or the Atlantis fans who are “Punishing SGU” but this seems like another way to beg viewers.
To me is shows that they know what they’re doing. It can be really beneficial to have a show planed out and know the ending instead of pissing off the fans with a rushed ending later on.
@Eagalis: Don’t put words in people’s mouths.
@Gaeth i’m not putting words in their mouths they blamed sga fans for punishing sgu.
They may very well have five years of plot material in the works. But after admitting grave mistakes with the show’s manner there were to have been widely applied fixes in order to retain those viewers that ran from this gloomy SGA replacement. The failure of these fixes if any is now borne out in the current static ratings.
They can pontificate about a five year run all they want but it won’t change the fact that this experiment has not captured the viewers or critical acclaim that was hoped for.
@Mentat: None of the series ever got much critical attention
perhaps a follow up movie called Epilogue.. seriously I paid for the entire iTune season and even on-demand I’m drifting further behind on my watch list, these days i get around to it. The story it seems to be going no where.. slowly, great acting (i think) production values are pretty good, FX are really decent. But the story and chracterizations.. I feel bad for the actors and actresses because of what they put them through. I feel positively depressed after watching each episode.. sad.
Wasn’t Mallozzi just answering a fan question on his blog. I don’t think he issued a statement of desperation for people to watch.
@ib1117: Maybe not but SG1 and SGA got the ratings. SGU seems to be getting neither at the moment.
SGU will probably get a third season unless the ratings for the next episode are more abysmal than usual. It would seem the SyFy network executives are dragging their feet on canceling the show indicating they want to let it continue. The slight upward movement in ratings for the past few episodes most likely will get it a third chance. Though a fourth and fifth season appears to be unlikely.
Oops my last comment was directed at ib1117’s comment on the other series not getting critical acclaim not their last post (didn’t notice the last post) – just to avoid confusion. :)
Why doesn’t Syfy move SGU to Fridays when Sanctuary isn’t on? If they could be benefiting from WWE Smackdown why not try it for the 3rd season of SGU? Or would that be too simple?
Wow, they basically told SG1 & SGA fans where we could go and now they are begging us to watch. I am sorry….I thought you were going to pull in so many new fans with your wonderful new show that you didn’t need us. Ok…that’s what I thought!
I miss SG1 and SGA, but I won’t be depressed if SGU gets canceled at the end of Season 2. I don’t hate it, but it’s failed to engage my interest like the other Stargate series. I just don’t understand why they’ve tried so hard to distance themselves from the previous shows. Stargate is a long running franchise, if they wanted to start over as a separate entity they should have picked a new name and premise. The only thing that would make me a regular viewer would be more crossover episodes with SG1 and SGA characters. My favorite episodes… Read more »
I absolutely love the old Stargates, but I must say that unlike the older shows it is noticeable that this show actually has a direction for it’s story arc. This season has me totally hooked. I didn’t like it as much for the first half of season 1, but slowly it’s starting to come into its own.
I want to find a way to watch this show from Belgium on tv and support them just because I’ve been a stargate fan all this time. But on the other hand I’d like the show to wrap up as I’m not intrested in drama fillers that serve no purpose. However this doesn’t mean that the main story line is of no intrest to me, I think it has great potential but I tought that I was watching a sci-fi show and not drama 101. The only actor on this show that’s actualy considered good in my eyes is Robert… Read more »
I don’t know why ppl are hating so much on SGU… yeah I was sad to see SGA go but, I rather have a Stargate series then not have one. I wish that there was a movie for SGA, and I really wished there was a season 11 for SG1… but sometimes we can’t get everything we want. I’m really liking season 2. I wish I lived in the USA for the sole purpose of contributing to the ratings, but i don’t, instead I live in Canada. I just wish that syfy would consider their investment else were as well.… Read more »
I think SGU is great! I want to see all 5 seasons (or more).
@Sam and Jack Shipper: They have NEVER said they didn’t want fans of the old shows (as a whole group) watching.
I think that a five year arc is a great idea. I LOVE Babylon 5, I own all five seasons, all the movies (including Lost Tales) and Crusade on DVD (won’t touch Legend of the Rangers, its terrible). Is the show perfectly? Of course not, it has its flaws, and by today’s standards watching it on an HDTV it definitely shows its age with the visual effects, but at its heart are the story and characters and B5 did to this day what no show has done – a fully mapped out arc with beginning, middle and end and it… Read more »
Sorry, ratings are too little too late. They lost me after the first half of season 1. Couldn’t bear to watch anymore. Even if it’s better now, just can’t get myself to watch. More Eureka for me, and if they’re smart, more SGA and SG1.
I can’t go back to SGA.
I can see Syfy giving SGU a third season to finish up, as they have a long relationship with the franchise.
I heavily doubt they’ll be given three more seasons though.
I have no prediction as to whether they will cancel this show or not. I’m sure they want it to continue, but it has to be making them a profit or garnering critical acclaim to make it worthwhile.
I do know that if they renew it with an average rating this low I’ll remain bitter that they cancelled Atlantis with better ratings.
This show has made a connection between scifi and religion in such great fashion. It really has been a very unique show for me to watch, and am very proud that it is a Stargate series. So for the show to receive it’s 5 full years to tell the story the way it should be told would mean a lot.
Keep it up guys, the writing has been great. It definitely makes me think about the topics that were brought forth in the episodes.
I have liked the change in direction over the last few episodes. [**SPOILERS**] That is except for the gratuitous killing of Gin/Amanda. The comparison many people are drawing between the five year plan Joe is referring to and Babylon 5 is interesting because Joe likes to throw curves.The initial premise for Crusade seemed to be that they’d simply spend the entire run of the show looking for a cure, when in fact the plan was to have everyone believe that they had found it before the end of the first season when they actually hadn’t. Babylon 5 wasnt’t a rigid… Read more »
I’d love for the full 5 seasons so that they have time to tell the story at its own pace, but if that doesn’t work out then at least we can follow the real-life version of the story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11837869
the irony is of course that their so called. arc could be paid off in one episode
First off I would like to say that I am a huge stargate fan love sg1 and sga both. I own all ten seasons of sg1 and all five seasons of atlantis on dvd and both sg1 movies. But I have a question for the sg1 and sga fans who don’t watch sgu. Why do you get on here week after week and bad talk a show you don’t even watch? Seriously what is the point? And also to sg1 and sga fans who don’t support sgu: let’s go ahead and say that sgu gets renewed for a third season… Read more »
So Mallozzi wants five seasons to tell Destinys’ story.
Five seasons would be nice, but with the current ratings, we’ll be by lucky to make it to even a third season.
If the show was doing as good they hoped, I don’t think it would have been moved to Tuesday for WWE to replace it on Friday. The executives gave it a last chance by allowing it to show on Tuesday. When I watch Stargate, i want to know that I’m watching Stargate–not BSG. If I wanted to watch BSG then I would. SGU has strayed so far away from what Stargate is, that it might not be posible to bring it back to the Stargate world. I’m not knocking BSG–because I do think its a good show, but instead of… Read more »
Not to mention, they fought off the Ori–albeit the Ori never attacked earth. And how is it that an earth vessel can be damage so quickly in a battle with a gould mothership when it can survive attack from Anubis flag mothership–and this was before any upgrades from all the knowledge of the Asgard. For those who don’t know, I’m refering to Col. Carter as captain of a spaceship during battle on SGU.
I would love to see this show make 5 seasons, but putting this show on Tuesday nights at 9 is not the best time slot in my opinion. They are fighting NCIS: LA, which has high ratings.
>> They lost me after the first half of season 1. Couldn’t bear to watch anymore. Even if it’s better now, just can’t get myself to watch. I’m with you there zigger, that’s exactly how I felt. The negativity and patheticness of the characters made it very difficult for me to watch. However I did give season 2 a chance. The negativity of the characters has subsided somewhat (I guess Wright and Mallozzi took the critisicm to heart), but the show is just really boring. I find it not surprising that people don’t tune in to the live broadcast. It… Read more »
Some thoughts… 1) For the people who don’t watch the show and still come on here and complain about SGU, I get it… you’re just voicing your frustration over a lack of commitment to your fan base after all this time. I get it, and I feel your frustration– to a point. 2) I, too, am in the camp that I like the premise of SGU but I don’t like the long, “boring” pace they’re taking. The difference, right now, between SGU and BSG is that even the story-driven BSG had a lot of activity going on from episode to… Read more »
@GoodThings2Life, about BSG, yes the first seasons were action packed but the last 2 seasons were slow, tedious, boring and smeared. Barring the 2 episodes where there was a mutiny (in the last season) which were very tense. In general, I think BSG towards its end tried to start a ‘new trend’ in SciFi – a drama ridden uber-slow plot type of thing. SGU seems to try to follow those footsteps. As was evident with Caprica and with SGU to an extent, the audience doesn’t really like this kind of ‘post modern SciFi’. The writers may think they’re oh so… Read more »
B5 did this but there wasnt the online viewers to worry about. The show struggled every year and only now it gets the recognition it deserved. Difference is though things did get better after the 1st season. The viewers were starting to see where the show would go and everyone had a rough idea where it was going to go. It had the whole shadow war coming and at season 3 things really kicked off in to action. Good thing was, the solo episodes were alright but the big episodes were impressive and B5 had nothing compared to the budget… Read more »
Well I love SGU an it episodes. An I find many areas, cinematography, music, acting, CGI, characters that simply better than anything we got in SG1 an SGA, there is not a character that comes even close to Rush in the other two shows. I also think the show is improving episode after episode, as long since surpassed anything SG1 or SGA put on air an is far more enjoyable than BSG. Now we are starting to gain control of destiny, crew starting to work together I hoping pace of the overall arc increase, which is looking likely. I hope… Read more »
I am afraid for me, SGU falls into the same bracket as say, Lost or The Event. I was bored by halfway through season 1, and I did not like the characters, bar Eli. I found Warehouse 13 and V The New Series instead. Ok, neither is Shakespeare, but the former is fun with engaging fun characters and humour, the latter retains the distrust and backstabbing intrigue of Galactica, like a bad soap. Plus of course there is Sanctuary when I can gt it! I think the writers of SGU will need to stick to their guns. They wanted to… Read more »
@vcs1988 I like this show fine,but reading comments over here and talking to people,even many of my friends,for example think that BSG was better at this kind of storytelling and that something called Stargate should have kept it’s own approach to things and it’s own parameters if you will. As I’ve said I don’t have that kind of problems with SGU,although I loved BSG..but I can understand where they’re coming from. My problems have mostly been about the main story progressing too slow,but I kinda feel that changing now. I guess if the producers would upon that bring in more… Read more »
@mythos You remind me of an issue I had with some people,that call themselves Stargate and even sci-fi fans,although they evidentely don’t even understand what the sci-fi as all about. Don’t get me wrong,you remind me of that,but in a positive way. You are a perfect example of what I was talking about..don’t remember when,in which thread or comments section,amyway a perfect example of a SG-1/SGA fan who has some issues with this show and with whom I don’t agree 100%,but whom I understand. I simply like it when people are able to eloqently and with arguments express their opinion..what… Read more »
“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.” Ummm… what?! I sure hope he isn’t implying that they think they need to cater aspects of SGU to attract friggin Celebrity Circus fans just to increase ratings for a third season O_o Stick to the first 2, getting more SG1 and Atlantis fans to tune in. Do a mid series reboot, dial up the action, adventure, science/scifi, and scrap 95% of the soap drama. Don’t go 5+ episodes without ever seeing the… Read more »
I have finally started warming up to SGU, thus it would be unfortunate for the show to be flipped off after this season. I think that the whole Illusian(SP?) Aliance attempt to take over the ship was a bad start to the season, and honestly it only got interesting after that crap ended, though sadly w/ Gin’s death… she had so much to offer. The writers took something good and made it trite. Ok so all that aside. The tell is that the move by SyFy to Tuesday night has typically been the kiss of death to any series on… Read more »