Another new character has been revealed in a casting call for Stargate Universe, the upcoming television series that is to begin principal photography February 11 (moved from February 4) starting with “Air”, the three-part series premiere being penned by co-creators Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright.
Spoiler TV has this description of the character:
[COLONEL COLLINS] 35 – 40. Handsome. A born military man proud of himself with great faith in the chain of command. The intended leader of the expedition who plans to reclaim his place as commander regardless of what he must to do. Stubbornly confident and highly regarded by his superiors.sptv050769.. Supporting Lead. RECURRING. PLEASE SUBMIT HISPANIC ACTORS ONLY.
The audition sides for Collins reveal a whole lot of spoilers, so if you don’t want to know, STOP HERE!
SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS ~ SPOILERS
A lot of the story is told in flashback, which makes putting together the order of events rather confusing, so keep that in mind when you read this interpretation:
SETTINGS: Icarus Base is the off-world base that houses the project researching the 9th chevron. Solutions has referred to this project as the Ninth Chevron Project in previous reports. Creative consultant Joseph Mallozzi mentioned the two main sets for the show recently in his weblog, “Another visit to the Destiny in Stage 4 and the Icarus Base in Stage 5 shows the sets are coming along nicely. The ship interiors are particularly impressive.”
AIR (2-part premiere) (Final Draft):
Previous spoilers indicated that Col. Everett Young (Justin Louis) was in temporary command of the Icarus Base. Apparently, the intended permanent commander is Col. Collins. Collins is in the Base to meet the visiting IOA (Camille Wray, not yet cast) and US government civilian authorities (Senator Hamilton [Walker?] and Chloe, not yet cast) when the Base comes under attack.
Collins, though, ends up on the Daedalus (The audition sides originally called for Col. Steven Caldwell to be present, but Collins was given Caldwell’s part in this one scene. Whether or not the ship remains the Deadalus or is a different Deadalus-class ship remains to be seen.) He is protecting the Icarus Base during this attack. Their immediate guess is that it is the Lucian Alliance who is attacking them, but that isn’t certain because the attackers hadn’t identified themselves. The Daedalus is up against at least three Goa’uld motherships, a troop transport, and a squadron of death gliders.
Young and his team man the Icarus Base battlement, which has several rail guns pointed toward the sky, while Collins leads his F-302 squadron in space. Unfortunately, the transport and several gliders get by in the space battle and head for the Base. Collins, in his 302, targets the transport, but is unable to stop it from landing. At least a thousand troops begin to exit the transport and march toward the Base. Collins radios Young to let him know that they are about to be overrun. At this point, Collins commands that all the people on the Base evacuate to Earth through the Stargate and that they’ll rendezvous there.
Apparently, this attack happens around the same time that Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) and Eli Wallace (David Blue) are trying to figure out what the 9th chevron is supposed to be. They’ve had the eight symbols for quite some time (it took two years to find the correct properties for the site of the Icarus Base), but the Point of Origin, or 9th chevron, remained an unknown. Rush believes the 9th chevron should be the one used for the Base, but Eli asserts that the 9th chevron should be Earth’s symbol because all of the symbols on the Stargate are the constellations as seen from Earth. Rush argues that the only viable power source that they found that could power the dialing of the 9th chevron is located on the planet that they’re on, not on Earth. Somehow, the results of this experiment and the sudden attack lead the entire base to evacuate to the Destiny rather than to Earth.
AIR PART 3 (Revised Writer’s Draft):
Collins is back on Earth and swaps bodies with Young via an Ancient communications stone, located in a communications lab at a Homeworld Security facility. There are guards standing nearby, and a person named Park is with Collins. The communications lab had previously interacted with Rush, who is stranded on the Destiny like Young is. Lieutenant Tamara Jon (“TJ”, formerly ranked at captain in the breakdowns) takes Collins and Park on a tour of the Destiny while they’re in Young’s and someone else’s bodies. Apparently, Young’s body was injured (possibly during the evacuation), but Collins insists on staying with his crew to help them in their situation, no matter how much pain he’s in.
Young, in Collins’ body back on Earth, is escorted to a low rent neighborhood apartment building. The reason for his visit there is not known, but he’s being escorted by Major Peterson, who is also acting as a liaison. They are there to meet a woman. (This scenario sounds very similar to that of Michael Smith’s in the previously-published audition sides and may be a rewrite. Smith visits his wife to tell her about his situation, but that he’ll do everything to get back home. Emily’s reaction indicates that she resents his secret assignment and is not going to wait for him.)
The stranded crew aboard the Destiny are desperately seeking a way to fix their air scrubbing system. They’ve sent a team to a desert planet to find lime, apparently an active ingredient in the compound the Ancients used. It is also possible that they are looking for an inhabitable new home if they can’t get the Destiny fixed.
More information about the show can be found at Stargate Universe guide in the Stargate Wiki. The Sci Fi Channel will be premiering the first two parts of “Air” in a two-hour movie in the Fall, and Part 3 will be shown later in the show’s regular hour timeslot.
The drafts used in the auditions don’t necessarily reflect the actual story, so spoilers are extremely subject to change as the episodes are in production.