stargate universe

‘Stargate’ Fans To Unite Worldwide In ReWatching All The Series

by Bruce Simmons on May 15, 2011

This falls under if Stargate fans have the time:

Gateworld, the renown website that copiously tracks everything Stargate, has introduced an interesting idea for all Stargate fans to participate in a rewatching of all of the series. This rewatch campaign will be starting with Stargate SG-1 and then working their way through Stargate Atlantis and then finish up your watching marathon with the recently ended Stargate Universe.

GateWorld wants to start this worldwide Stargate fan marathon to start on August 1st and crank out five episodes per week. Regardless of if you watch one per day or five per weekend day.

What they want you to consider is that this is a “worldwide community event.”

What they ask of you and I is that on Twitter, use the hashtag #SGRewatch when you post about it. They also asked that we post reviews of your favorite episodes on your blogs. (Or you most hated episodes.)

They’ll also be starting discussion threads for each episode over on the site. Remember, the goal is to rewatch all 354 episodes of Stargate together as a whole.

For many more details, go check out Gateworld.

STARGATE on Amazon

How TV Ratings Destroyed ‘Stargate Universe’, Not The Syfy Channel

by Bruce Simmons on May 11, 2011

I noticed that for about eight hours after the series finale of Stargate Universe aired, Google Trends had the show pop up on their charts a few times. The show broke the top-10 search criteria a few times and even hit the top-5 a few more times throughout the night. Seems crazy that enough people can make the show crawl into the top-5 of web searches for Google but not have enough ratings to survive for a third season. But then again, the series finale of Stargate Universe pulled in just over 1.1 million viewers in the ‘Live + Same Day‘ TV ratings.

To be pragmatically honest about it, as a collective, fans didn’t make a strong enough statement with numbers of viewers to make the show worth it to the Syfy channel. I don’t mean that in a mean way. Please, read on to understand what I’m thinking.

I have been saddened by the gaping hole that Stargate Universe has left in my weekly TV viewing schedule. I’m frustrated but what can I do about it? New episodes of the show are gone from the Syfy channel, the Destiny was last seen hurtling through space in that translucent wavering tunnel of shimmering bluish FTL light, continuing on its journey without the fans.

But I have to ask myself how did this happen? How did this much beloved show meet its demise? The following is a hard but pragmatic look at how this happened to the fans of Stargate Universe. I take a step back and have scrutinized the system of TV entertainment itself. End, Disclaimer.

The Stargate franchise, after 14 years, has come to an end and from what I can see, various factors came into play that precipitated this event. I’m going to take some educated guesses and look at repercussions these factors had on the show that will be no more, on the Syfy channel.

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‘Human Target’ and Others Cancelled by Fox

by Bruce Simmons on May 10, 2011

Sad day indeed. First we here at Cinema Static and our readers lose Stargate Universe to lousy ratings. (You’ll see my dissection of that scenario in a future post.) But now news on the street is that Fox has added Human Target, starring Mark Valley to the halls of canceled TV series.

I had come to enjoy Human Target and they had started developing the characters in a very productive fashion and I was enjoying it more in the second season than the first.

But alas, another Cinema Static favorite has spiraled out of control and cratered in the land of cancelled shows.

Boo. I was really starting to enjoy Jackie Earle Haley‘s portrayal of Guerrero too! We’ll be seeing more of Jackie Earle Haley in the upcoming movies, Dance of the Mirlitons, Bolden! & the Tim Burton directed Dark Shadows remake. We’ll be seeing Mark Valley in the upcoming project, Medallion, on the silver screen.

‘Stargate Universe’ Series Finale Review & A Fond Farewell

by Bruce Simmons on May 9, 2011

in Entertainment, television, tv review

This is a review of the series finale of Stargate Universe… and I take this moment to send out my appreciation and thanks to the creative forces behind the show, the series and the franchise. [Spoilers for the DVR viewers planning on watching this at a date other than the original air-date.]

In this final episode of Stargate Universe, The Destiny’s path is blocked by the drone brigades and the crew has to come up a plan or suffer the consequences. The first plan is to attenuate ship shields so they can drop out of FTL to get supplies, but the drones adapt. Eli (David Blue) comes up with a plan to skip the galaxy they’re in and jump to the next one to get away from the drones, but it will take three years and the crew needs to be put on ice. (Suspended animation)

'Stargate Universe' series finale review 04

Welcome to the Destiny. Please gather your bags and wounded and find your seats!

Dr Rush (Robert Carlyle) doesn’t like it because it’s skipping a galaxy that the ship could collect information from. Yet if they stick around the drone brigade will take them down!

They choose to start putting crew members in the stasis pods but then discover some issues that need repair. Park (Jennifer Spence) comes up with an idea that helps them get the raw supplies they need to repair the stasis pod section. It works with the sacrifice of one of the shuttles.

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Mike Dopud, SGU’s Varro, on Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome & More [Cinema Static Personality Focus]

by Bruce Simmons on May 4, 2011

in Entertainment

Mike Dopud in ECHOES

In case you didn’t know, the man who plays Varro on Stargate Universe, Mike Dopud, is a busy man indeed. This is a Cinema Static Personality Focus piece.

In an interview over on the Baltimore Sun, Mike Dopud thought he was a shoe-in for the third season of Stargate Universe, but as any fan will attest to, the very last episode of this wonderful show will be airing May 9th on the Syfy channel. He was disappointed about the developments but then put the nose to the grindstone and got to work, but as you look at his career, he’s been a very busy man, period.

Right now he’s filming a pilot for Fox called Exit Strategy, starring alongside Ethan Hawke.

While doing that, he snuck away to film his part in the pilot for the project Echoes. That’s being prepared by SGU alumni creative team of Mark Savela and Ken Kabatoff.

But also of interest is that you can catch him in the upcoming movies on the silver screen, Mission Impossible 4, Rise of the Planet of the Apes & This Means War.

For the Battlestar Galactica diehard, he will be playing an integral role in the upcoming prequel/spinoff on the Syfy channel called Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome.

Like I said, the man is busy and that’s a great thing because we here at Cinema Static like him.

In that interview he touched on how Varro was becoming a trusted member on board the Destiny in SGU and that he hinted at Varro and TJ maybe getting together, at least if it had gone into a third season.

While Syfy Takes A Beating with Viewers, It Seems Dave Howe is Doing His Job

by Bruce Simmons on April 28, 2011

Cinema Static disclaimer: This observational piece does not mean I am on their side. This is a neutral observation, motivated first by frustration as a viewer, but tempered with the business minded eye of the writer.

Albeit, everywhere I look, the Syfy channel is taking a beating in the social network circles everywhere I go. It ranges from polite observations to the more visceral reactions. But through it all the shift we’re seeing at Syfy is signifying that when NBC/Syfy hired Dave Howe way back in what, 2001, is doing his job, as expected and promised.

With the cancellation of Stargate Universe and the moving of Sanctuary to the doomed slot of Monday nights, Syfy channel can’t seem to make a move on a social network without taking a beating about it.

Over on Facebook, Syfy cranked out a note trying to pump up the theme of sci-fi Mondays. It looks like a tactical move to support SGU and the newly appointed Monday night show, Sanctuary. That didn’t go too well. The Syfy account took a trashing with 208 funderful comments. Still, there were 384 folks who ‘liked’ the reminder.

In another post, to remind folks about Stargate Universe‘s upcoming episode, they pretty much took 214 trasher comments about bringing the show back or not cancelling it. Meanwhile 456 folks ‘liked’ the reminder.

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May Network Finale Dates ['Smallville' 'Supernatural' 'SGU' 'Justified']

by Bruce Simmons on April 26, 2011

Though I did say the following list is a compilation of Network (not cable) finale dates for all of your favorite shows in May, I did sneak a few cable dates in there.

The first list is sorted by show name. If your show starts with the word ‘the’, look for the main name to be alphabetized. The second list is sorted by date, if that’s your thing!

By Show


90210	May 16
30 Rock	May 5
Amazing Race, The	May 8
American Dad	May 22
American Idol (Performance)	May 24
American Idol (Results)	May 25
America’s Funniest Videos	May 22
America’s Next Top Model	May 18
Big Bang Theory	May 19
Biggest Loser	May 24
Blue Bloods	May 13
Bob’s Burgers	May 22
Bones	May 19
Breaking In	May 18
Brothers & Sisters	May 8
Castle	may 16
Celebrity Apprentice	May 22
Chicago Code, The	May 23
Chuck	May 16
Cleveland Show, The	May 15
Cougar Town	May 25
Criminal Minds	May 18
Criminal Minds Suspect Behavior	May 25
CSI	May 12
CSI Miami	May 8
CSI NY	May 13
Dancing with the Stars (Performances)	May 23
Dancing with the Stars (Results)	May 24
Desperate Housewives	May 15
Event, The	May 23
Extreme Home Makeover	May 15
Family Guy	May 22
Fringe	May 6
Glee	May 24
Gossip Girl	May 16
Grey’s Anatomy	May 19
Hawaii Five-0	May 16
Hellcats	May 17
House	May 23
How I Met Your Mother	May 16
Justified	May 4
Law & Order SVU	May 18
Mad Love	May 16
Mentalist, The	May 19
Middle, The	May 25
Mike & Molly	May 16
Modern Family	May 25
NCIS	May 17
NCIS LA	May 17
Nikita	May 12
Office,The	May 19
One Tree Hill	May 17
Parks and Recreation	May 19
Private Practice	May 19
Raising Hope	May 17
Rules of Engagement	May 19
Saturday Night Live	May 20
Simpsons, The	May 22
Smallville (Series Finale)	May 13
Stargate Universe (Series Ending)	May 9
Supernatural	May 20
Survivor Redemption Island	May 15
The Good Wife	May 17
Undercover Boss	May 9
Vampire Diaries, The	May 12
Wipeout (Jill Wagner‘s Last Season)	May 19

‘Stargate Universe’ Cast – Where Will They; Are They Going?

by Bruce Simmons on April 25, 2011

in Entertainment, movies, television

With the cancellation of Stargate Universe and the fact that there’s no Stargate Universe movie coming our way, I was curious if we’ll get to see our trapped space travelers in any other project.

Here’s what I discovered of our Stargate Universe cast fates have fallen:

Robert Carlyle (Dr. Nicholas Rush) is rumored to be in a movie that’s in the development stages called Dogs of Law.

Louis Ferreira (Colonel Everett Young) will be in an upcoming TV movie called The Fairly Odd Parents, coming in July.

Brian J. Smith (Lt. Matthew Scott) will be in the upcoming Syfy channel movie, Red Faction: Origins.

David Blue (Eli Wallace) is noted to be part of an executive production team for the movie called Fireflies, that’s in production right now. It’s a small movie, produced by Badass Haircut Productions.

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‘Stargate Universe’ episode “Common Descent” – Observations

by Bruce Simmons on April 19, 2011

When Stargate Universe‘s episode titled “Common Descent” started, I was groaning in sympathy for the crew as those pesky drones were back “in town”…

SPOILERS are abound if you have not seen this episode of Stargate Universe yet!