During a recent group interview to promote the upcoming “Stargate: Universe,” actor Robert Carlyle revealed a lot of details about what fans can expect from the first season of the series.
What he said is mild to heavily SPOILERy for the first season, so if you don’t want to know anything about the third installment in the “Stargate” franchise, please don’t continue reading.
“I was floating in a tank, and that was kind of bizarre, in actual fact,” Carlyle said, referring to the most recent episode he’s worked on. “A bunch of aliens actually got me. Of course, Rush is left on a planet, which is what he deserves, and then the aliens come and pick him up and stick him in a tank. So that’s where you suddenly pick me up again, floating in it. So that was quite cool.”
“We do all die, and then we come back to life,” Carlyle revealed. “It’s a very, very interesting episode written by Robert Cooper called ‘Time.'”
Carlyle also revealed that actor Richard Dean Anderson will reprise his role as General Jack O’Neill during the first season and said it was “lovely” to work with Anderson.
“He was very humble about the whole thing, in fact. I think he also understood, very quickly, that this is a different thing,” Carylyle said. “He said it was a different show from the one that he had been used to, and, of course, Gen. O’Neill comes back. I think that he’s in four or five of the episodes, but you don’t actually need to know who the guy is at all. He’s so solid with his character, and that’s fantastic to act with.”
As for the show, Carlyle says that the production team is working to make sure that it honors the tradition of the franchise, but still remains accessible for new viewers.
“”I don’t think it’s necessary to have watched any of that, at all, in fact. I mean, I guess you have the issues of this general, and even if you hadn’t seen him before, he would just seem like another character, so we don’t have to be familiar with the past to take on the future,” he said.
The series kicks off in October on SyFy.
I have to say that is is one new series I am looking forward to. And, with Anderson being prominent, at least in the first season, I am anticipating it even more.
The cast of SGU (as well as the writers) really need to walk a fine line between putting distance between themselves and SG-1/SGA and tying themselves in. Across the globe, there’s millions of fans of the old franchise who will be willing to give SGU a chance but not if they diss the former shows. Conversely, if SGU wants to survive, they must attract new viewers who would never have considered watching SG-1/SGA.
Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.
i understand the need of splitting the show off from sga / sg1 – but they also do not need to make the situation with the show always a bunch of craziness of the mind. with that they will not gain fans. the second episode of most of the show walking through the dessert reminded many of the long and drawn out seen from the original star trek movie. too long – too insignificant.
the one item that always kept the other stargate shows topline, was the core group. always getting into a problem and fixing the situation.
Having now watched the first 5 episodes, I am struck by how real this show is. It doesn’t jump to epic alien battles and fantastic cgi moments. I have been a long time SG fan and have always enjoyed the show, but I am glad(and i hope it stays this way) that they have a 100% earth bound crew. The producers tried to mimic the alien team chemistry from SG1 in SGA with Ronin and Teyla. While I enjoyed the show, it seemed like a cheap imitation. It is clear that they are shooting for some similar archtypes with this current cast and I just hope that it does not try to imitate SG1 or SGA too much. The basic premise of the show has given the writers license to cast off all of Earth’s technology super powers gained at the end of SG1 that always seemed odd not to have really surfaced in SGA. Love the new show!
I miss atlantis I have not seen one episode i have enjoyed since universe started.