Was the SG-U set the most "high tech" of the Stargate franchise?

[Gary7]

This is probably old news for most everyone here, but sometime in 2010 a tour of the Stargate SG-U set was given by Brad Wright. Really amazing video.

What particularly impressed me was how rooms and corridors were re-used. It wasn't just a matter of replacing walls. They constructed modular components that could be easily attached/removed, but some that actually slid out of the way. You could tell that quite a few movable parts were made of heavy duty sheet metal. Even the doors seemed "real", in terms of feel, and were constructed with elaborate gearing mechanisms to ensure both sides slid apart symmetrically.

Another impressive feat was that some of the corridors stretched on for hundreds of feet. I'd expected that in many scenes CGI was used to make it appear as if those corridors stretched on for so long. I can imagine that for the actors, the incredibly realistic sets helped get them into character, to make it feel like they were really on board Destiny.

Anyway... really sad to see how the results of so much effort got tossed aside well before its prime. The engineering that went into creating the sets was just outstanding.

 

[bullethead]

The sad part is that the cost of constructing and maintaining those sets helped doom the show. It's also sad that a lot of the time, the cinematography didn't really do much to show off the details because everything was dark and desaturated.

 

[Kelthaz]

I really wish more shows would take the Babylon 5 route with budgeting. Science fiction shows on TV just don't get an audience large enough to justify a high budget and will end in cancellation. Keep it cheap and the networks will have no reason to cancel you.

 

[Sindatur]

I really wish more shows would take the Babylon 5 route with budgeting. Science fiction shows on TV just don't get an audience large enough to justify a high budget and will end in cancellation. Keep it cheap and the networks will have no reason to cancel you.

Speaking of Babylon 5, I believe they too, had sets that they moved around and mixed and matched to make other sets from the same pieces

 

[Harvey]

It was the certainly the most expensive and the best looking of all the Stargate shows, in terms of production design. It's a shame that kind of money and creativity wasn't applied to a better overall product.

 

[AJ86]

The sad part is that the cost of constructing and maintaining those sets helped doom the show. It's also sad that a lot of the time, the cinematography didn't really do much to show off the details because everything was dark and desaturated.

The scenes on Destiny were never desaturated, only the ones on Earth during stone-use. The cameras they used for SGU probably gave an even richer image than the 35mm film used for much of SG-1, they were actually the same ones used in quite a few big budget theatricals these days.

 

[Harvey]

They weren't desaturated, but they were dark. I can remember more than a few scenes featuring the characters in close-up with nothing but a black background behind them.

 

[The Wormhole]

The scenes on Destiny were never desaturated, only the ones on Earth during stone-use.

It wasn't just during stone use, all scenes set on Earth or indeed anywhere in the Milky Way were desaturated. Granted, most of the time we see Earth or anywhere in the Milky Way it was through stone use, but there are a few excpetions All the scenes set on Earth and Icarus base in the pilot before they were lost on Destiny were desaturated. The scenes on board the Hammond in the season 1 finale were desaturated and featured no one connected to the stones. Likewise there were several scenes on Langara which did not include the stone users but were still desaturated. Also Rush's flashback/dream of his wife's death when he was hooked up to the chair and the flashbacks to Greer's childhood.

I never got why they always showed Destiny and other planets out there scenes clearly and Earth and Milky Way scenes desaturated. Yeah, it's an artistic thing, obviously, but the alarming number of shows that film in desaturated picture is rather annoying to me.

 

[AJ86]

I'm pretty sure you're wrong. None of the random Earth shots were desaturated, at least, certainly not the in the same way that the stones-shots were.

Earth shot on top, stones underneath. See?

In Seizure they actually do the transition between the two as McKay walks from the briefing to the meeting with Young, who is using the stones.

 

[bullethead]

Maybe it wasn't desaturation, but they applied some weird filter in post production that sapped a lot of the light from the picture. I think they might have desaturated the publicity photos or something, because the colors aren't all that vibrant.

 

[46379.1]

If you watch the show on DVD it isn't that dark, I suppose watching an .avi file on the computer can't match that quality.

Another great video of the set
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO4ykdxfnuE

 

[AJ86]

I loved the stuff they did for the Goa'dul pyramid and Tel'tak too, looked a lot less corny and 'plastic' than it did on SG-1.

 

[The Wormhole]

I seem to remember noticing all Earth scenes not being as crisp and clear as the Destiny scenes. *Shrug*