Before the 2018 Web series Stargate Origins, the last live-action project was the final episode of SGU in 2011.
If you haven’t seen the final episode of SGU yet, beware of spoilers for “Gauntlet” below!
The last episode of Stargate Universe may have left the major story arc unresolved and the crew’s fate undetermined, but it did provide some important emotional closure as fans head into the void between Stargate galaxies along with the crew of Destiny. The entire crew ended the season in stasis, ready for a 3-year journey to the next galaxy on the ship’s route — all except for Eli.
In a new interview with AOL TV’s Mike Moody, executive producer Brad Wright explained that the ending of “Gauntlet” was meant not just to set up a third season, but also to provide some degree of closure — just in case the show wasn’t renewed.
“We wanted it to be both [a season finale and a series finale],” Wright said. “I had pitched the idea of putting the crew into suspended animation — with someone having to stay behind because one pod didn’t work — because I thought it made for an interesting reset of the Earth side of things.”
Advancing the time frame three years into the future would certainly allow for some change-ups when the crew came out of stasis and revisited Earth using the communication stones, while retaining the current character dynamics on board the ship.
“A three year time cut would have been interesting,” Wright said. “The story of the person that was going to be left behind was also a great opener for Season Three.”
The final scripts were being written when Season Two kicked off with “Intervention” on its new night. Wright expressed concerns about the show’s move to Tuesdays in interviews leading up to the premiere, and those October ratings proved that his worries were well-founded. SGU averaged 1.09 million viewers over the five episodes aired that month, which ended with Syfy cancelling its lead-out partner, Caprica.
“When we saw the Tuesday night ratings on Syfy we knew it might be the end,” Wright said. “By having our leads come together for one last meal before going off into the void, we got a chance to see them as a team in the way we were always working toward. And by making the person left behind Eli, it brought the series full circle. Those two elements make it feel like a finale.”
So where was Destiny going? What was the final payoff of the show’s arc? For now, Wright isn’t talking.
“I don’t want to say where we were going to go with the story,” he said. “It didn’t happen, so the show is what it is now. I think a pretty decent two seasons of television.”
To see the rest of Wright’s comments, including his plan to compress SGU‘s story into a movie that brought together SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe (a plan on which MGM passed), check out the full interview at Mike Moody’s blog.
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Brad Wright looks like David Blue! LOL
Thanks for the link.
I'm thankful they did what they did with Gauntlet. I would not have been able to stand the episode had it been a cliffhanger like Incursion part 2 or Resurgence, with all the characters close to being killed and all 'doom and gloom'.
In fact I can not imagine a more perfect ending, personally. After all it had to give a relatively gratifying ending to the show, yet not actually end it. It obviously had to be left open just in case there was a season 3. At least I can look back at these 2 seasons which by themselves already form quite a story.. just look how far the crew have compared to what they began with.
I thank you Brad Wright and all the writers, sincerely. I loved it and while I'm sad I'm also satisfied with this ending. Thank you guys, thank you SGU.
SyFy should have given a final season! One more season SyFy, that's ALL we wanted! You could have canceled it after that and we would have been okay if you had just given us a FINAL season! It would have finished Desinty's journey, given more proper closure to the Stargate universe (and Stargate Universe) as the franchise went on hiatus...instead you axed the show and betrayed Stargate fans.
So frustrating.
Grrr im welling up again after reading “Time to start typing something else.” kinda hit home big time that its over.. Ive been waiting for Brad to say something, probably more in hope that it'll be reborn, but it wasn't what I wanted to hear..
Sad :(
not a series finale in any way shape or form. one movie is all we need to finish it ALL up.
What are the chances of a book(s) to finish up the story? I know I would buy in as would many other fans I would think.
Anyone know if this method has been tried with other canceled shows?
here's hoping that if nothing else happens, the writers who are penning the novels get a crack at finishing or continuing the story.
I watched it.. I thought about not watching it but ended up doing it anyway.
Just seemed to me they put stargate in bed stasis...literally
@duncansil. Myself and a few others are working on a short story series to continue the "show".
@ducansil with Star Trek, the books are basically continuing the series as if they never ended. Unlike books that were made during the series run, they actually can take more liberties with the characters, such as killing them off, moving them off the ship, etc.
Also, I believe that until recently the series Angel had a series of comic books to continue the story. I also believe that Firefly and Dollhouse all have comics.
Stargate Atlantis right now has a series of books set after the series, but I don't know if those are any good.