Stargate Universe is about to boldly go where no other Science Fiction series has gone before, including Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. In a recent interview Brad Wright has discussed the plans for Stargate Universe, its direction and the non humanoid English speaking aliens.
You can read an excerpt of the interview below:
The original Stargate blazed a path through TV science fiction, but Stargate Universe must follow the searing intensity and urgency of Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore’s filmed-in-Vancouver allegory about war and politics that earlier this month won the TV Critics Association’s Program of the Year award.
After 15 seasons of doing something called Stargate, we wanted to do something new, something very different,” Wright admitted. “Other than the stargate itself, which is still very much at the core of our show, a lot of Stargate Universe is very, very different from the old series. We’re very, very proud of this, and excited to still be doing what is basically our 16th season of Stargate.’
Stargate Universe will take its visual template from the deliberately jittery, hand-held camera look of Cloverfield and realistic, set-in-present-day series like The Shield and Friday Night Lights – “We actually hired the director-of-photography of The Shield, Ronn Schmidt, to do our first three hours to help establish that look we were looking for,” Wright said. For more of a documentary look and feel, the Vancouver set at Bridge Studios has been designed to accommodate highly mobile film cameras, in much the same way Battlestar Galactica put viewers into the middle of the action.
One thing we decided, in our pursuit of realism, was to step away from rubber-faced, English-speaking aliens, and you will see none of those in the new show,” Wright said.
And fewer trees,” he added, in a wry nod-and-a-wink to southwestern B.C. – and Stargate SG-1’s – famously tree-lined look.
We will run into aliens. They’re just not going to be human, latex-faced, English-speaking aliens.
Cooper, for his part, felt it important that Stargate Universe not feel too self-referential – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
You can read the full interview here ยป