Stargate Universe had a big presense at this week’s Television Critics Association (TCA) summer press tour in Los Angeles. The producers (Brad Wright, Robert Cooper) and some of the cast did a short Q&A and gave other interviews. The most extensive coverage of the Q&A is this article at IGN. Here is a snippet:
As to the producers talking about the more ambiguous characters, Carlyle said his Dr. Nicholas Rush was “Very different from characters you would find on most science fiction shows. He’s a very dangerous man. He generally only talks to people if he needs something from them. He’d happily get rid of everybody on the ship, but he needs them. He does some really dodgy stuff.” Carlyle also said that the other characters would gladly “put him in an airlock” if they didn’t have need of his knowledge.
Lou Diamond Phillips was characterized as reassuring Stargate fans in this SciFiWire article:
“The Stargate is at the center of it,” Phillips said in an exclusive interview Wednesday at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif. The show will also focus on the combined military and civilian exploration of space, much like SG-1 and Atlantis before it, he added.
He also said, as others have, that there would be different elements:
I think audiences today are looking for something that’s a little more grounded, so to speak, even when you’re doing sci-fi,” Phillips said. “It’s grittier. It’s darker. It’s very much character-driven. It’s about the dynamics between very real people in an extraordinary situation and not so much about heroes and villains, you know?
Several press outlets reported that Universe strives to be as good as Battlestar Galactica, such as this one from the LA Times Blog:
“Make no mistake, ‘Battlestar’ is a quality show, and, yes, we want to make quality too,” said creator Brad Wright.
“Stargate SG-1” ran for 10 seasons, “Stargate Atlantis” ran for five, but “Universe” will be something new. “Other than the Stargate [ship] [sic], which is still very much the core, a whole lot is different from the old series,” creator Robert Cooper added.
There was more coverage, but those articles give one the gist of it!