Stargate Universe cancelled

[Famous Graham]

http://blastr.com/2010/12/stargate-universe-not-be...

Bugger.

What with this, Firefly, Enterprise and Farscape (fan pressure notwithstanding), are we really that dull an audience that we need to be spoonfed "safe" stuff like True Blood and CSI?

Are distributors really that fixated on numbers rather than content?

[Famous Graham]

B5 too, now I think about it - notified for cancellation pre S4, Strazynski goes nuts tying up the loose ends, then later told it's back on, thus S5 is a load of filler nonsense.

[davepoth]

Nah, it's just that the networks in the US have to make things pay, and what's paying at the moment is vampires.

Sci-Fi will swing back around at some point.

[Halb]

Bit of a shame but SGU wasn't that great, bit hit and miss, I was starting to like the code in the universe idea.

[zapbrannigan]

According to his Twitter account, David Blue only found out about the cancellation from his agent, and he found out about it on-line; no one told him in advance.

Sadly, it's just another in a long line of excellent sci-fi shows that have been cancelled. Being spoon-fed utter drivel (which is what the masses want, it seems), is the only sure-fire way of keeping audience figures high nowadays.

A sci-fi show that is even mildly intellectually challenging gets binned in the current climate, and I don’t see that trend changing.

[davido140]

That's a shame. It was ploddingly slow at times, though and stricken with the "filler" episodes (which are guff and obviously done on a tight budget) which seems to plague so many effects based TV shows.

Couldnt agree more with the sentiments about Firefly, that was consistently excellent.

Not so sure about Enterprise, it got 4 series/seasons right? as soon as they had to start resorting to time travel episodes it was probably time to call it a day anyway. Didnt Farscape get a good few series and become a bit rubbish anyway?

[davepoth]

zapbrannigan said:

A sci-fi show that is even mildly intellectually challenging gets binned in the current climate, and I don’t see that trend changing.

Battlestar Galactica did quite well, didn't it?

[Halb]

davepoth said:

zapbrannigan said:

A sci-fi show that is even mildly intellectually challenging gets binned in the current climate, and I don’t see that trend changing.

Battlestar Galactica did quite well, didn't it?

I was just thinking that. The thing with BSG was that it was A1 material akin to the Sopranos and maintained it huge numbers. It fact the suits wanted it to go on but the producers knew when to pull the plug. Still unsure if I wanted another series.

[JagLover]

davido140 said:

Not so sure about Enterprise, it got 4 series/seasons right? as soon as they had to start resorting to time travel episodes it was probably time to call it a day anyway.

Which was in the 1st season

It was a shame they didn't have the courage to act merely as a prologue but added all the time travel nonsense.

[Halb]

JagLover said:

davido140 said:

Not so sure about Enterprise, it got 4 series/seasons right? as soon as they had to start resorting to time travel episodes it was probably time to call it a day anyway.

Which was in the 1st season

It was a shame they didn't have the courage to act merely as a prologue but added all the time travel nonsense.

They did that in SG1 as well, once it gets to time travel nonsense you know the show has had it's benchmark.

[davido140]

JagLover said:

davido140 said:

Not so sure about Enterprise, it got 4 series/seasons right? as soon as they had to start resorting to time travel episodes it was probably time to call it a day anyway.

Which was in the 1st season

It was a shame they didn't have the courage to act merely as a prologue but added all the time travel nonsense.

Was it? I didnt realise that, I just vaguely remember one. Kind of set the tone really!

I should clarify that the time travel in the new Star Trek film was fine, was integral to the plot and needed to "reboot" the franchise.

In your averge sci-fi series it's normally just a clumsy plot device to shoot an episode using costumes and sets which dont cost very much as you know they've got a st load of WW2 uniforms and props in storage somewhere!

[MattyB_]

Sci-Fi shows are expensive though - fancy sets, lots of CGI to be done over the top. Really needs to pull in big figures to make it viable.

Compare this to shows like House, Sopranos, or anything with Vampires set in the present day, you just 'find' a location that suits the needs a lot of the time. And lets not forget that "Reality Shows" when you don't have any actors to pay yet pull in huge figures (plus phone vote money) are money spinners.

Never really got into SG:U though.

[Arnold The Bat]

Gutted but not surprised. I enjoyed SG:U the first series was a bit hit and miss but it really seemed to pick up in this last series. It felt like the whole Stargate franchise had finally come of age.

[zapbrannigan]

davepoth said:

zapbrannigan said:

A sci-fi show that is even mildly intellectually challenging gets binned in the current climate, and I don’t see that trend changing.

Battlestar Galactica did quite well, didn't it?

Indeed it did. I wonder if it would get the green light today though?

[MonkeyHanger]

Good old "SyFy". They don't want to support an improving sc-fi show but they'll happily show Wrestling in the USA.

[Scraggles]

not too surprised, can only watch them via downloads

[Mutley]

davido140 said:

..
Not so sure about Enterprise, it got 4 series/seasons right? as soon as they had to start resorting to time travel episodes it was probably time to call it a day anyway. Didnt Farscape get a good few series and become a bit rubbish anyway?

I never got into SG:U, it didn't hold my attention. But is a shame when folk hear their jobs are over on the web or through others.

Farscape was a very good series with stories that excelled against the other fare on at the time(Enterprise/ST:Voyager to name 2). IIRC it was a 5 year story and was cancelled at the end of series 4 because the bean counters wanted SG:Atlantis and couldn't fund both.

[Lurking Lawyer]

zapbrannigan said:

davepoth said:

zapbrannigan said:

A sci-fi show that is even mildly intellectually challenging gets binned in the current climate, and I don’t see that trend changing.

Battlestar Galactica did quite well, didn't it?

Indeed it did. I wonder if it would get the green light today though?

BG: Blood and Chrome, which is a prequel set during the first Cylon War, was recently green-lit so someone somewhere still has faith in the SF genre....

[DevilYellowCV8]

Lurking Lawyer said:

BG: Blood and Chrome, which is a prequel set during the first Cylon War, was recently green-lit so someone somewhere still has faith in the SF genre....

Being made on a lower budget than BSG and using computer rendered images from BSG sets before final dismantling so SyFy aren't committing a big budget to it.

I would have thought producers would have learned from Star Trek:TNG. They expanded into DS9 and then Voyager. Producer (Rick Berman) of the time said Voyager would be the last Star Trek spinoff. He said "there's only so many times you can go to the well". Enterprise came out 8 years later...

[DJC]

True Blood is safe

Its weird as hell, but the books are much funnier.