Brad Wright talks about making the SGU season finale a series finale

[Bluce Ree]

Um, the "Kessel Run" is an area of space that isn't heavily patrolled by the Imperial fleet, hence it's used by smugglers to avoid detection while transporting contraband. It has nothing to do with the laws of physics (unless you involve a black hole of course).

Obviously you've never lived the life of a mercenary buccaneer. How sad.

Yes, sad indeed, unlike us. I remember my days as a mercenary buccaneer, flying mercenary missions, doing mercenary stuff, eating mercenary food, fighting mercenary battles. Life was good until I ran out of anti-matter one day as I flew over Gateworld and was forced to crash land there. Suddenly, I was surrounded by loads of banality, unable to escape the mundane hypocrisy that I was doomed to endure.

Marooned in a wasteland of despair, I called upon my mercenary cunning and skills from within to get me out of that situation. I hid in the shadows of the site's wastebasket until the coast was clear, then emailed myself out of there. I thought to myself, "anywhere is better than here!" only to find myself dumped onto a ship called Density filled with backstabbing crybabies obsessed with hooking up. I then realized it was high time to see what the barrel end of my weapon tasted like and pulled the trigger.

 

[Stonelesscutter]

Yes, sad indeed, unlike us. I remember my days as a mercenary buccaneer, flying mercenary missions, doing mercenary stuff, eating mercenary food, fighting mercenary battles. Life was good until I ran out of anti-matter one day as I flew over Gateworld and was forced to crash land there. Suddenly, I was surrounded by loads of banality, unable to escape the mundane hypocrisy that I was doomed to endure.

Marooned in a wasteland of despair, I called upon my mercenary cunning and skills from within to get me out of that situation. I hid in the shadows of the site's wastebasket until the coast was clear, then emailed myself out of there. I thought to myself, "anywhere is better than here!" only to find myself dumped onto a ship called Density filled with backstabbing crybabies obsessed with hooking up. I then realized it was high time to see what the barrel end of my weapon tasted like and pulled the trigger.

Heheheh. Lol.

 

[mzzz]

Yes, sad indeed, unlike us. I remember my days as a mercenary buccaneer, flying mercenary missions, doing mercenary stuff, eating mercenary food, fighting mercenary battles. Life was good until I ran out of anti-matter one day as I flew over Gateworld and was forced to crash land there. Suddenly, I was surrounded by loads of banality, unable to escape the mundane hypocrisy that I was doomed to endure.

Marooned in a wasteland of despair, I called upon my mercenary cunning and skills from within to get me out of that situation. I hid in the shadows of the site's wastebasket until the coast was clear, then emailed myself out of there. I thought to myself, "anywhere is better than here!" only to find myself dumped onto a ship called Density filled with backstabbing crybabies obsessed with hooking up. I then realized it was high time to see what the barrel end of my weapon tasted like and pulled the trigger.

True story? lol. Sell it to hollywood, it'll be a hit!

 

[Lilith]

I'm agreeing that from a business view, SGU wasn't making money and it's clear why it isn't on the air anymore. But I'm also saying that when it started it would have been difficult to see how an audience would react - would those who didn't like it be replaced by those who did? Now it is easy to see but back in the creation stage it would have been murky. Brad was probably unwilling to create another by the numbers Stargate show just to guarantee viewers. But really my point is, from a creative standpoint, I can sympathize with Brad for wondering why something everyone put so much effort into couldn't get renewed while generic junk with much higher budgets can.
As for Blood and Chrome RDM isn't even involved so I'm not holding out much hope for that one. It seems like they just created a show simply because they wanted that brand and that genre - when a show isn't born creatively it worries me.

Yeah, that's my thoughts exactly. SGU was generic junk and It made it on the air while SGA was cancelled.

 

[mzzz]

Yeah, that's my thoughts exactly. SGU was generic junk and It made it on the air while SGA was cancelled.

lol it was. People complained about reality shows and syfy becoming mainstream and generic, but SGU was heading towards the same direction of attempted mainstream generic tv. lol irony.

 

[YoshiKart64]

Yeah, that's my thoughts exactly. SGU was generic junk and It made it on the air while SGA was cancelled.

I disagree. I've been watching some older SG1 recently and it just makes me think how poor SGA turned out. Beyond the first season it was just an extension of SG1 and then in its final two seasons it just felt like a poor mans Stargate. Ultimately had the show stayed in its Season 1 mold it might have developed into its own thing, but it just became derivative. I'll admit I enjoyed the show during seasons 2 and 3 but there was none of the sharp writing seen in SG1 or the uniqueness that Atlantis had previously provided. Then it went downhill. Season 5 of SGA was the worst season of the entire franchise.

I mean I understand Universe annoying people because it is so different. But then you look at the later seasons of SGA and the mystery, exploration and all the things that made Stargate what it is are gone anyway. For me I'd rather they go in a different direction and commit to it, rather than have a half hearted effort that Atlantis turned into. I completely agree with Mallozzi when he says that Atlantis should be out of contact with Earth - that's what made it really interesting.

 

[Stonelesscutter]

I disagree. I've been watching some older SG1 recently and it just makes me think how poor SGA turned out. Beyond the first season it was just an extension of SG1 and then in its final two seasons it just felt like a poor mans Stargate. Ultimately had the show stayed in its Season 1 mold it might have developed into its own thing, but it just became derivative. I'll admit I enjoyed the show during seasons 2 and 3 but there was none of the sharp writing seen in SG1 or the uniqueness that Atlantis had previously provided. Then it went downhill. Season 5 of SGA was the worst season of the entire franchise.

I mean I understand Universe annoying people because it is so different. But then you look at the later seasons of SGA and the mystery, exploration and all the things that made Stargate what it is are gone anyway. For me I'd rather they go in a different direction and commit to it, rather than have a half hearted effort that Atlantis turned into. I completely agree with Mallozzi when he says that Atlantis should be out of contact with Earth - that's what made it really interesting.

I agree!

 

[Mr. A]

Yeah, that's my thoughts exactly. SGU was generic junk and It made it on the air while SGA was cancelled.

I don't think that's quite what Yoshi meant.

I disagree. I've been watching some older SG1 recently and it just makes me think how poor SGA turned out. Beyond the first season it was just an extension of SG1 and then in its final two seasons it just felt like a poor mans Stargate. Ultimately had the show stayed in its Season 1 mold it might have developed into its own thing, but it just became derivative. I'll admit I enjoyed the show during seasons 2 and 3 but there was none of the sharp writing seen in SG1 or the uniqueness that Atlantis had previously provided. Then it went downhill. Season 5 of SGA was the worst season of the entire franchise.

I was gonna ask if you watched SGA at all... But apparently you did, so it seems like a matter of taste. The only thing we agree on SGA is that Season 1 was one of if not its best season.
Season 4 was wild "hit and miss" and Season 5 even more so. They might not have brought the consistency of S1, but they had the best episodes of the show nonetheless in between. The REAL downhill stuff started on the second half of S5 when they sacrificed the show to experiment with "character development" for some other new direction they were planning for the franchise. Granted, "Vegas" was brilliant, but probably because of the likeable characters in any setting and the performances of JF and the guy playing the Wraith.
No, SGA didn't "turn out poor", it was thrown under the bus at the end.

I mean I understand Universe annoying people because it is so different. But then you look at the later seasons of SGA and the mystery, exploration and all the things that made Stargate what it is are gone anyway. For me I'd rather they go in a different direction and commit to it, rather than have a half hearted effort that Atlantis turned into. I completely agree with Mallozzi when he says that Atlantis should be out of contact with Earth - that's what made it really interesting.

Universe didn't annoy people - it bored them to tears.
But you do realize that it was Mallozzi himself that took over S4 and S5 of SGA turning it into what is was in the end, right?

 

[stclare]

I disagree. I've been watching some older SG1 recently and it just makes me think how poor SGA turned out. Beyond the first season it was just an extension of SG1 and then in its final two seasons it just felt like a poor mans Stargate. Ultimately had the show stayed in its Season 1 mold it might have developed into its own thing, but it just became derivative. I'll admit I enjoyed the show during seasons 2 and 3 but there was none of the sharp writing seen in SG1 or the uniqueness that Atlantis had previously provided. Then it went downhill. Season 5 of SGA was the worst season of the entire franchise.

I mean I understand Universe annoying people because it is so different. But then you look at the later seasons of SGA and the mystery, exploration and all the things that made Stargate what it is are gone anyway. For me I'd rather they go in a different direction and commit to it, rather than have a half hearted effort that Atlantis turned into. I completely agree with Mallozzi when he says that Atlantis should be out of contact with Earth - that's what made it really interesting.

No, that would be sgu for those few who actualy tuned in to watch it.

 

[YoshiKart64]

I don't think that's quite what Yoshi meant.

Yeh not quite .

I was gonna ask if you watched SGA at all... But apparently you did, so it seems like a matter of taste. The only thing we agree on SGA is that Season 1 was one of if not its best season.
Season 4 was wild "hit and miss" and Season 5 even more so. They might not have brought the consistency of S1, but they had the best episodes of the show nonetheless in between. The REAL downhill stuff started on the second half of S5 when they sacrificed the show to experiment with "character development" for some other new direction they were planning for the franchise. Granted, "Vegas" was brilliant, but probably because of the likeable characters in any setting and the performances of JF and the guy playing the Wraith.
No, SGA didn't "turn out poor", it was thrown under the bus at the end.

I honestly thought that it lost focus after Season 1. When they connected to Earth the show was basically the same as SG1, only with a cast built around the original premise. My feeling was why bother being SG1 but worse, when the show could have been something different. Letters from Pegasus really exemplifies what Atlantis should have been.

And yes there were good episodes in Seasons 4 and 5, but as a whole the seasons were pretty poor. Carter didn't fit, Keller was awful, Carson came back as a clone (Seriously - a clone) and the show was going nowhere. The magic was gone by then and the show just wasn't up to scratch. While on that topic I do blame Mallozzi for that somewhat, he was the showrunner after all; I also blame all the writers that created these stupid scripts.

Universe didn't annoy people - it bored them to tears.
But you do realize that it was Mallozzi himself that took over S4 and S5 of SGA turning it into what is was in the end, right?

For me Universe was compelling but each to their own. Ironically I thought Universe got things back on track after the final few years of Atlantis.

Yeh, as I mentioned above Mallozzi should be blamed as the show really did tumble under his control. How much was that down to the bad decisions (i.e connecting to earth, Beckett killed etc) made beforehand, it's hard to say. Overall though everyone screwed up there.

No, that would be sgu for those few who actualy tuned in to watch it.

Again I disagree. I was a big fan of Atlantis when it first started and I thought it was a great companion to SG1 - then it kind of became SG1 lite (while SG1 was itself changing), then it became bad. Just my honest opinion on it.

 

[Lilith]

I disagree. I've been watching some older SG1 recently and it just makes me think how poor SGA turned out. Beyond the first season it was just an extension of SG1 and then in its final two seasons it just felt like a poor mans Stargate. Ultimately had the show stayed in its Season 1 mold it might have developed into its own thing, but it just became derivative. I'll admit I enjoyed the show during seasons 2 and 3 but there was none of the sharp writing seen in SG1 or the uniqueness that Atlantis had previously provided. Then it went downhill. Season 5 of SGA was the worst season of the entire franchise.

I mean I understand Universe annoying people because it is so different. But then you look at the later seasons of SGA and the mystery, exploration and all the things that made Stargate what it is are gone anyway. For me I'd rather they go in a different direction and commit to it, rather than have a half hearted effort that Atlantis turned into. I completely agree with Mallozzi when he says that Atlantis should be out of contact with Earth - that's what made it really interesting.

Season 5 was the least enjoyable and on the rewatch I skip 3/4 of the episode. I just kept waiting for the writers to listen to the fans and get back to exploring the city or find a zpm. They could have changed direction with SGA rather than start a whole new series.