Colonel David Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips), Lt. Tamara Johansen (Alaina Huffman) and Lt. Matthew Scott (Brian J. Smith) in Stargate Universe's "Awakening." Photo by Carole Segal and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
One thing you can always count on when visiting the Stargate production offices in Burnaby, British Columbia, is a warm welcome by everyone who works there, including Stargate Universe’s Joe Mallozzi. Today is no exception. At the time of this interview (early July) the executive producer/writer was just starting work on his third and final script for the show’s second season. Prior to this, the Universe cast and crew had already completed filming two earlier season two stories penned by Mallozzi, the first one being Awakening.
“This episode is our heroes’ first encounter with a seed ship,” notes the executive producer. “We had kind of set up a premise that these seed ships were launched well in advance of Destiny. They possess the capability to manufacture Stargates, and we’ve named them seed ships because they ‘seed’ planets with these gates and then move on.
“Many, many, many years later, Destiny was sent out to follow the path laid out by these seed ships in order to gather information on the various worlds that, at the time the seed ships visited them, were deemed habitable or had the potential to eventually become habitable. When Destiny approaches one of these planets, it drops out of FTL [faster-than-light] drive and, if things check out OK, then the crew gets the green light to travel through the Stargate and explore the planet.
“At the end of the second episode [Aftermath], Destiny drops out of FTL for some unknown reason and is heading towards an indiscernible object. When Awakening opens, we pick things up right where we left off, with Destiny is still approaching this unknown object. Colonel Young [Louis Ferreira] and the others soon realize that it’s another ship and they’re on a collision course. Young radios Brody [Peter Kelamis] in the control interface room and orders him to ready Destiny’s main weapon.
“Unlike everyone else, Dr. Rush [Robert Carlyle] says, ‘I don’t think that will be necessary. We’re not going to hit it. We’re going to dock with it.’ Sure enough, Destiny slows down and there’s this great [VFX] sequence where it docks with this seed ship.
Colonel Everett Young (Louis Ferreira) in "Awakening." Photo by Carole Segal and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“The presumption is that the seed ships were unmanned, so Young assembles a team to board the ship and check it out. Of course, as a treat to fans, several things happen in this episode and we encounter our second alien species.
“To be honest, I was somewhat leery about writing this story just because it had a bit of a complex tech component to it. I always try to steer clear of tech episodes and anything involving the Ancients,” says Mallozzi with a smile. “One of the most interesting things about this episode is that James Robbins [production designer] along with Brad Wright and Robert Cooper [series co-creators/executive producers] came up with the idea that although the seed ships were unmanned, they should allow access for people to go in and fix certain systems. Overall, though, they should have a claustrophobic, almost submarine-like feel to them. A couple of days before we began shooting, I went down to have a look at the set that had been built, and the ceiling was so low that I thought I was going to bump my head.
“I remember turning to [producer] Andy Mikita, who was directing, and asked him, ‘Are you OK with this?’ and he said, ‘You know what, I’m embracing it. I think it’ll be great.’ And it was great. The ship looks fantastic, the aliens look fantastic, and we end the episode with a sense of loss. We’re going to have a few of those, ‘dun-dun-dah’ moments this season, and this is one of those moments where we ‘lose’ someone in episode three.”
The executive producer’s next contribution to Universe’s second season is the midyear cliffhanger, Resurgence. “Paul Mullie [executive producer and Mallozzi’s writing partner] wrote part two of this episode, Deliverance, which is shooting right now and being directed by Peter DeLuise,” says Mallozzi. “Resurgence was directed by Wil Waring, who I always love working with, and it’s a huge visual effect-laden piece, which I’ve been doing quite a lot of. I did Space last year as well as the two-part finale, Incursion, then Awakening and now Resurgence, which once again is ships and more ships.
Colonel Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips) saves the day in "Awakening," but at what cost? Photo by Carole Segal and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“By now in the series Rush and the others have discovered a particular section of Destiny, so they’re in this section of the ship and fiddling around with some of the systems when they pick up a distant energy signature. It seems kind of weird, so Destiny goes to check it out and discover a graveyard of ships.
“The idea is that there was this massive battle between two fleets and all that’s left is their derelict ships, which have been around for who knows how long – hundreds, maybe thousands of years. So our people go investigate, and as often happens in Stargate, things are not as they seem. It turns out that there were these two forces at war, and one side was beaten and destroyed, but the victors didn’t go away. They more or less went dormant, and when our people start exploring, they wake them up.
“In terms of visual effects, we have a big space battle in this episode, and it’s our first real, I think, all hands-on space battle, We had one in Space, but in this story we really get into it, so I guess I’ll dub myself the ‘Space Battle King’ for now,” jokes the executive producer. "So Resurgence is a fun episode with a bunch of surprises along with some really nice character beats, specifically for Eli [David Blue], who’s got to deal with some issues that unfold. There are some very dark turns that Eli has to come to terms with in season two. Overall, I think Resurgence is the type of episode that the fans will enjoy. If they liked Space, they’ll like this one as well, probably more so because there a lot more ships, and a lot of different ships. We also end up establishing a new villain. Well, not so much a villain, but an antagonistic force that will dog us from this midyear two-parter right through to the end of the second season.
“And now I’m working on the opening teaser of what will be my last episode this year. It’s called The Hunt and it’s going to air as number 16. In it, we go off-world, and two of our people go missing, so it then turns into a rescue op. Although it’s called The Hunt, because obviously there’s a ‘hunt’ element to it, there are other things going on in the story. One is this sort of debate about the potential intelligence of animals and whether it’s right to kill them. There’s also this other [story] element involving one of our characters and something he or she experienced in an earlier episode. This has an impact on their response to a situation in The Hunt and they have to come to terms with it.
Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) in "Resurgence." Photo by Carole Segal and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“While all this is happening on the planet, back on Destiny, Rush, Brody and Eli make another significant discovery. Season two is fraught with discovery, and, again, very early on we came across a key part of this ship, and then in this episode we find something else that is going to play into our season finale.
“Production-wise, I think The Hunt will probably be the most challenging of the three I’ve written this season just because we go off-world, which means we’ll be going on-location, and we have to find the right location. So far we’ve steered clear of forested planets. We did visit one last year in Faith, but since then we haven’t really done anything like that. We visited a desert planet this season in Malice; those scenes were shot down in New Mexico and the episode looks stunning. We want The Hunt to look just as unique, which means we’ll probably be going a little bit out of the way for a location, although still in British Columbia. So that should be interesting.”
Having written countless scripts for both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, how would Mallozzi compare that to writing for Universe? “I think some of us on the writing staff find they have an easier time writing for this show,” he says. “Paul Mullie has done, I think, his best work on Universe. He wrote Divided and Subversion last year as well as had some fair input into Justice. Then this season, Intervention, the premiere, is fantastic, as is episode six, Trial and Error. When I read the first draft of that episode I said to Paul that it was the best script he’s ever written.
Colonel Young (Louis Ferreira) is forced to take Destiny into combat in "Resurgence." Photo by Carole Segal and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“So Paul has an easier time writing for this show, where I, on the other hand, have a slightly harder time of it. Obviously SGU has far less humor than either SG-1 or Atlantis, and one of the things I loved about both those shows was their sense of humor. Just yesterday I was going through my old discs and I came across some outtakes from the SG-1 episodes Memento Mori, Counterstrike and Morpheus. There was a whole bunch of Claudia Black [Vala Mal Doran] stuff, and I thought, ‘My God, I really miss her character.’
“Even in the midst of the darkest moment, there was that lightness, I guess you could say – which some Sci-Fi fans didn’t like, and I understand that - but there’s really no room for humor on SGU. I mean, yes, there are limited opportunities with Eli and occasionally Sergeant Greer [Jamil Walker Smith], but not the sort of humor we had in SG-1 or Atlantis. Unlike the final season of SG-1, you’re not going to have an SGU episode where someone like Rush mistakenly ends up at a reading of The Vagina Monologues,” says Mallozzi with a chuckle. “I could get away with that on SG-1, but not with SGU.
“So that’s probably the biggest thing for me, just because I’m always trying to look for the humor in things, and with SGU I sometimes find myself having to pull back a bit. That said, I still really enjoy writing for this show, but I find it much more challenging than SG-1 or Atlantis.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, all photos by Carole Segal and copyright of The Syfy Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Hello,
As a huge Stargate fan (I even read the books and volunteer at the conventions),
I was wondering if the scripts of the movies will be released in book form?
If a script is done for both SG-1 and SGA just release it as an e-book for download. I am sure you thought of this already however.
Hope to hear back and Happy New Year!!!
Posted by: Tom | 01/06/2011 at 12:33 AM
Hi Tom - Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Hope you enjoyed the interview. I'll pass on your question to the Stargate guys and see if I can get you an answer - Steve Eramo
Posted by: SciFiAndTvTalk | 01/06/2011 at 12:36 AM