SGU CANCELLED!

[Cataclysmus]

Dangit! And after they FINALLY found the bridge of the ship...

Lofty ideas like deep "character development" and gritty drama for the sake of gritty drama can't carry a show for the entire first year and a half by itself. There needs to be more payoff as you go. Simple as that.

 

[Saquist]

1. I'm aware that SGU (and Caprica) had a lot more problems then simply having end season cliffhangers when you know the ratings are poor. I was commenting on the specific problem of not have series closure.

2. I wasn't surprised at the cancellation, it was to be expected, although I had hoped (perhaps foolishly) the show could squeak out a third season before SyFy scraped it. I was preparing to hear it was cancelled after the mid-season 3 finale this time next year. Just came sooner then I'd expected.

3. I hope that you are right and this isn't the end of the franchise. I'd like more Stargate shows but what needs to happen to achieve that? Go back to the standard formula, as you mentioned, a new formula, new writers/producers? It may seem heretical to long term Stargate fans, but perhaps people have just grown tired with the whole Stargate franchise and have moved on.

I say go with the 24 format in a new series like a Stargate Earth where you can do all the same things in SGU with better guest stars...high paced Drama but a lot of suspense and action to reveal the Stargate Program to the rest of the world and the massive conflict between nations that insue.

I mean everything else is gone...The Gould, the Ori, the Wraith aren't an issue until you're ready to deal with them. I say it's time to do a show on the home front. I mean really...Atlantis is already here...

The fans are whining but this Franchise has TREMENDOUS potential right now...not just two years down the line

The idea of basing a show about the public revelation of the Stargate problem is so riddled with fanwank it will never see the light of day.

Dude you don't get it.
This isn't based on revealing the program that's a Leverage Point like the EVENT on nbc did.

Do you realize with a series like Stargate Earth...Stargate could literally go on forever changing hands JUST like Dr. Who? You could work SGU's angle...the SG teams like SG-1 and SGA all in one show?

Do you realize the military drama this could create?
This would be like Tom Clancy kinda a stuff.

You have got to have VISION for these shows to last 7 to 10 years.

 

[RoJoHen]

Not that I'm at all surprised, but I really wish more shows got to end on their own terms.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Well, there goes the only real space show in Scifi on TV, and the only shot Stargate had to grow into something with some legs.

I'd much rather have no sff--space show or otherwise--on tv than crappy uninteresting recycled ones like SGA, SGU, Caprica, V, FlashForward, Haven, Invasion, Surface, Eureka, Bionic Woman 2.0 etc. With few exceptions like Lost, BSG or ENT's third and fourth seasons--sff in the last decade has been awful. In fact, I have a newfound appreciation for what I once considered a mediocre show like Voyager after trying to watch the garbage that has been produced in the last ten years.

Everybody who did nothing but bitch and cry about how offensive it was because SGU required an attention span

SGU was hardly an example of complicated storytelling--the only problem I had with my attention span was attempting to sit through one of its plodding laborious episodes that barely held it. It was warmed over BSG/VOY lite with poorly drawn characters. Even by SyFy standards it was pretty subpar.

 

[arch101]

You know, Scifi used to have me for 1/7 of all my TV viewing time when they had me for all of Friday evening, sometimes later if I watched the reruns of prime-time programming (which I often did).
Now, they don't have me at all. Not for a single advertisable minute.
I can't believe I'm an isolated case.

 

[RoJoHen]

You know, Scifi used to have me for 1/7 of all my TV viewing time when they had me for all of Friday evening, sometimes later if I watched the reruns of prime-time programming (which I often did).
Now, they don't have me at all. Not for a single advertisable minute.
I can't believe I'm an isolated case.

Indeed. I am exactly the same way.

 

[nickyboy]

no real space based sci-fi left on tv now that this has gone.

I will miss it, but it is not totally unexpected. The show was never as good as it could have been. Also it took far too long to get going

 

[Agent Richard07]

I did think they'd try for another season.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Acheivement Unlocked: Dead Franchise Status obtained (?)

Unless Brad Wright holds some ongoing title at MGM other than as a producer of Stargate TV shows, his job isn't "on the line;" he's out of a job when this series ends just like every actor, carpenter and key grip on the show.

Unless he's got some fixed contract that has some time left on it, like Rick Berman.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I wouldnt say they botched it, sure, they had a wobbly start but as i've said many many times - almost every single show does.

Most network shows get six episodes on the weekly schedule to prove out, if that. Cable and syndication may be a bit more forgiving because there's less money and lower advertiser expectations to begin with.

 

[MPH]

Will there be any kind of campaign to atleast finish off the story? This has worked in the past. TOS was axed but brought back, Farscape got a mini series and Firefly got a film and over here in the UK Primeval got axed but is now coming back next year for a new series. If enough people bitch and moan to syfy then we might get another season.

 

[Saquist]

Will there be any kind of campaign to atleast finish off the story? This has worked in the past. TOS was axed but brought back, Farscape got a mini series and Firefly got a film and over here in the UK Primeval got axed but is now coming back next year for a new series. If enough people bitch and moan to syfy then we might get another season.

I think if anything they'll work SGU into the next series or it will have a minor part in the DVD movies....That would be fair.

 

[Saquist]

Re: Acheivement Unlocked: Dead Franchise Status obtained (?)

Unless Brad Wright holds some ongoing title at MGM other than as a producer of Stargate TV shows, his job isn't "on the line;" he's out of a job when this series ends just like every actor, carpenter and key grip on the show.

Unless he's got some fixed contract that has some time left on it, like Rick Berman.

He's a Co Creator for SG like Berman was for Trek DS-9...he can be chopped...anybody can. I'm not saying he will but I wouldn't be surprised if he did

 

[MPH]

Will there be any kind of campaign to atleast finish off the story? This has worked in the past. TOS was axed but brought back, Farscape got a mini series and Firefly got a film and over here in the UK Primeval got axed but is now coming back next year for a new series. If enough people bitch and moan to syfy then we might get another season.

I think if anything they'll work SGU into the next series or it will have a minor part in the DVD movies....That would be fair.

There won't be a next series as this franchise is dead.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Acheivement Unlocked: Dead Franchise Status obtained (?)

Well then, he's probably going to be out of a job when this show wraps. Producers are hired and let go based on projects; they're not generally part of studio management. If you don't have a development deal of some kind already they're not going to keep you around on the off chance that they'll decide at some point to do more Stargate.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It's certainly true that of three Stargate series only one was as successful as MGM would have liked. SG-A simply wouldn't have been cancelled to make way for another series if SyFy had been satisfied with its performance.

 

[Jax]

Re: Acheivement Unlocked: Dead Franchise Status obtained (?)

SG has no home so I doubt we will see the franchise on TV ever again. SYFY wants less SCI FI tv on its network and when it does air Sci Fi, it wants cheesy popcorn crap that makes SG-1 look like Emmy winning drama.

SGU had ratings issue from day one and we all have to accept that as fans but if SYFY kept it on friday nights, the simple fact is we would not be having this discussion. SYFY's idea that because summer shows can get good ratings, that SGU/Caprica could perform on a Network night was stupid...Warehouse 13 & Eureka would shed many viewers on a fall tuesday airing. Syfy what was the point in getting rid of SG-A to get some closure and make SGU then seemingly find a way to cancel it and the entire franchise.

Stargate is probably dead on TV forever like many other sci fi shows of the past, its not Star Trek and its not Star Wars. I find it amazing in the space of several years SYFY took a franchise hitting new peaks and managed to screw that up along with BSG...

remember the old must see friday stuff those were the days.

 

[Saquist]

It's certainly true that of three Stargate series only one was as successful as MGM would have liked. SG-A simply wouldn't have been cancelled to make way for another series if SyFy had been satisfied with its performance.

That wasn't a Syfy decision that was a Stargate decision.
Atlantis had satisfactory ratings.

This why there is a good chance they could return to the series and have kept the sets for Atlantis intact even through the Auctioning. I'm not saying they will but it's not out of the question but that really falls on the fate of the franchise itself which we know according to the Bankruptcy report...the Franchise will move so the Dead Franchise Toe Tag is extremely premature.

 

[timelord1010]

As I said in another post, there should be a law that requires a cancelled show to make a decent finale episode.
Not a "F" You to the fans like "These Are The Voyages" on Star Trek Enterprise.

 

[MPH]

As I said in another post, there should be a law that requires a cancelled show to make a decent finale episode.
Not a "F" You to the fans like "These Are The Voyages" on Star Trek Enterprise.

Atleast that series got some sort of closure, SGU is ending on a cliffhanger