So, they announced a 3rd StarGate series? That and the upcomming SG online RPG have got me interested.

A third series???

Is the name Stargate: Milking the Franchise?

No, no, it's Stargate: Flogging the Dead Horse.

IMO, SG-1 was last good at the end of Season 7 and jumped the shark mid Season 9. Atlantis started off very promisingly with its darker attitude, faded in Season 2 and while Season 3 has had some simply superb single episodes, recent news about the potential change in Executive Producers for Season 4 and the loss toward the end of Season 3 of one of its most popular characters suggests, to me anyway, that it's raidly losing its way. I firmly predict that Season 4 will be its last. Haven't TPTB learned anything from Star Trek?

The new series has the working title "Stargate Universe" and it apparently deals with the ninth chevron. Cool, I've been wondering about that thing for ages. Alternate universes, time-travel, etc.... They have a projected release date of early 20008. Seems a bit... fast there.

The year 20,008, Merat? Seems a little far away to me. ;-)

Time travel, my lad, time travel....

IMO, the new series needs two things:
- a budget at least equal to Atlantis, and...
- a distributor other than the Sci-Fi channel. I know Stargate isn't exactly prime-time network material, but how about the CW? Maybe MyNetworkTV could use it to dig themselves out of the profitless misery that is (dramatic pause) telenovellas!

I heard a rumor the other night that the show would star either Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson or Ben Browder as Cam Mitchell. Any idea if these are true?

I've heard that the rumor about Michael Shanks is false. I've yet to hear anything about Ben Browder, though. Apparently, however, Farscape is returning as a web series, so he might be busy with that. You never know, though. It's still early enough that either could be cast.

(Michael Shanks info can be found here. One of the last user comments dispels the rumor: http://stargate-sg1-solutions.com/blog/?p=720).

The Farscape webisodes are a few minutes long only.. so I guess that won't make him too busy..

They're hoping that the webisodes will lead to a sequel series, though. Time will tell. (Interesting bit of trivia: Ben Browder turned fown the role of John Sheppard because it conflicted with the filming schedule for Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars)

Personally, I hope that Michael Shanks gets a starring role on the new series. Apart from Jack O'Neill, Daniel is my favorite character on SG-1. Plus, Cam Mitchell just isn't an interesting character, IMO.

Any new *confirmed* info on whether it's about a parallel universe(s) etc..?

They've been very very quiet about this lately.

Latest info here.

Stargate: Voyager, um, I mean Universe, gets the green light

I didn't realize that Atlantis was ending after this year.

Oh dear. That does sound suspiciously familiar.

First hint of the crew here. I'm not inspired so far!

You know who'd be about the right age to join this team? Jaack O'Neil, the clone from "Fragile Balance".

Ooh, cool idea! Is Michael Welch available?!

Are any of the team from Proving Ground still around (apart from Elliot, obviously), or are they already too old for this young hip series?

Well, he's still acting and doesn't seem to be a regular on anything, so I'd guess he is.

As for "Proving Ground"...
Grace Park (Lt. Satterfield) is still acting, and I've heard that while she was a regular on some other series, it's come to an end and she's free again.

Elisabeth Rosen (Lt. Jennifer Hailey) hasn't really been in much since SG1 and may be unavailable now, although she'd be a good choice for this new series since her character has already been pretty well established.

David Kopp (Lt. Grogan) is still acting, but seems to be the lead actor in another show, jPod, so is likely unavailable.

Actually, Grace Park (Lt. Satterfield) would be great for this role!

Tamara Jon
20-25, all ethnicities (Asian Preferably). SGC Field medic, Captain grade. Off world experience. Beautiful, tough, smart, capable. Paramedic level training. Able to triage serious injury. Modest background. Dreamed of being a doctor but couldn't afford medical school and the Air Force was her best option. She ends up being the most medically inclined person on the ship but is overwhelmed by the lack of knowledge and experience treating seriously wounded and ill patients. She also lacks the medicine and supplies and has to make do. SERIES REGULAR;

First casting news, and the Brits should be excited about this, though the rest of the world might be asking, "Who?!": Robert Carlyle playing what sounds like the Rodney McKay role!

Info here.

Hamish Macbeth in Stargate! For the first time I'm a bit excited about this show.

Callie, when I heard the name, I thought, "Who?" and had to go look him up on IMDB. Unfortunately, the first thing I saw there that I recognized was "Eragon" which wasn't a good sign. Then "Full Monty" and my reaction was, "Oh, ok, its the guy from Full Monty." Then... "Hamish Macbeth". Verbatim, I said, "Oh my god, Hamish Macbeth is on Stargate!"

Gateworld has some more details of Universe casting...

http://www.gateworld.net/news/2009/01/the-characters-of-stargate-universe/


The Colonel Young bit says, "Colonel Young requested to serve the remainder of his commission on Earth upon marrying his wife, Hailey, two years ago, but for now he commands a secret off-world base."

I doubt it, but Jennifer Hailey?

It would have been an ideal time to bring Hailey back, but is she too old now?!

I read yesterday that Robert Carlyle was actually in the running for the vacant role in Doctor Who but decided to go with Universe because it was a lot more money.

I wonder if he may regret his decision if his current job only lasts a year ...?

I dunno, she was playing early 20s seven years ago, so she shouldn't be too old for it...

That reminds me, we have the first three or four episode titles if you want to put them up, Callie.

Air
Water
Earth
Fire (Not announced, but a pretty safe bet)

Episode 5 is called Earth?! Sounds like a short series if they get home that quick! ;-)

Thanks for the alert, Merat. Season 1 sub-folder is now up.

Well, then you're really gonna hate episode 9's title, "Everyone Dies. No Really, They're All Dead. End of Show."

Presumably followed by the webisode "Robert Carlyle starts stalking Matt Smith".

Looking at the latest recruits to the Destiny, my immediate thought was, "Oh my God, most of them look about twelve!" Then I discovered that one of them was born only 5 years after me, so maybe I'm looking better for my age than I thought ...

Neat, Lou Diamond Philips is going to be Col. Telford! I have to wonder if the Ming-Na character was originally supposed to have been the same one played by Tamlyn Tomita on Atlantis since the character seems so similar.

Jack and Daniel will apparently make cameo appearances in the first episode in a desperate bid to drag in some viewers.

Sky 1 have bought the series for the UK.

They're going with one-word episode titles, are they? Interesting.

Yes.

;-)

No, there's no episode titled "Interesting" .... yet.

No, there's no episode titled "Yet" either.

No, there are no episodes titled, "No", "There", "are", "episode", "episodes", "titled", "There's", "or", or "either", either.

Well, "Either either" would be a silly episode title. Plus it would break the one word rule.

What about "Either²"? ;-)

It's not particularly good news, IMO, that Amanda Tapping has confirmed that she'll appear in at least one episode; and Richard Dean Anderson is apparently going to be in several episodes, not just the pilot.

I suppose that, with the new crew universe-hopping, any past characters can crop up as alt-versions of themselves, but is that a good thing or not? Either the new crew can hold their series on their own, or they can't and they're going to rely on old favourites to drag in the fans. An occasional surprise appearance of a familiar face might be fun, but if we're going to be forever having episodes where an old friend pops up it's going to quickly become Stargate SG-1: Universe rather than Stargate: Universe.

question: how are any of the original SG1 characters going to appear for guest roles on a series about a crew stranded on the other side of the universe? I thought the whole suspense is that they have no way of getting home. should be interesting to see how they pull it off.

It's my understanding that they're not stranded on the other side of the universe; they keep jumping to alternate universes. Therefore many of those alternate universes will have developed in a similar way to our own, hence the same characters will keep reappearing. So it won't be our Jack O'Neill, for example, just a Jack O'Neill with a similar (but not necessarily identical) background to the Jack that we know.

well that is interesting. I had not read that take on it yet. so far all the info I have seen on the show said they would be trapped aboard an ancient ship that is cruising through the universe seeding stargates as it goes.

I thought it was in our universe, too.

Callie, just an FYI, they've changed the titles of some of the episodes. Fire is now a two part episode called "Darkness" and the other half "Light".

Thanks, honey. Darkness and Light were originally later in the season.

I was reading the About the Show blurb again while I was over at Gateworld, and I really can't get excited about this new series.

nor can I. SG-1 started to loose steam around season 7 for me. I have always been luke warm about Atlantis. I am happy to watch the shows but I never rushed out to watch them. This one.. I guess I will know what it is like when it eventually makes it to DVD.

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It's my understanding that they're not stranded on the other side of the universe; they keep jumping to alternate universes. Therefore many of those alternate universes will have developed in a similar way to our own, hence the same characters will keep reappearing. So it won't be our Jack O'Neill, for example, just a Jack O'Neill with a similar (but not necessarily identical) background to the Jack that we know.
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Ah, so it's Sliders SG-1.

Please permit me to be thoroughly uninspired...

Well, since Sliders took their interesting premise and ran it into the ground pretty quickly, maybe it's just begging for the patented humorous/adventurous Stargate treatment! :-)

Latest trailer here. I know that Previews Always Lie but this does actually look a bit good at present!

The series starts on 2 October.

I will give it a season. lately most of my favorite shows start off with a bang and sizzle out after a season.

"Well, since Sliders took their interesting premise and ran it into the ground pretty quickly"


Well, what happened there was studio interference ruined a great show. The first two seasons of Slider, that were shot in Vancouver (where the Stargate franchise now calls home) were the best. This was where the show stuck to the original premise, visiting Earths that might have been (such as the Soviet Union winning the Cold War).

Once production moved to Los Angeles, all that change, because Fox stuch it's nose in. Creator Tracy Torme left the show, citing studio interference, and Sliders deteriorated into "let's see what movie we can rip-off this week." The third season finale had them on a island where a mad scientist was turning animals into people. I'm surprised that H.G. Wells wasn't credited (I wonder if his estate sued them for this blatent stealing of his idea).

Hopefully, since this show is not on a mainstream network (but rather on the Sci-Fi Channel in the U.S. and Space here in Canada), that won't happen. As long as the original creator stays and keeps control, I think it will be okay.