Stargate Universe: Here and There

Stargate Universe Banner from MGM

Principal photography for Stargate Universe started February 18, 2009, with regular cast members Robert Carlyle and David Blue filming their first scene on Stage 3, home of the Daedalus-class starship set, the Travelers set, and the Midway Space Station. Consulting producer Joseph Mallozzi wrote in his weblog that while everyone else was on set, he was working in the production offices on his first SGU script, the first part to the mid-season two-parter.

Yesterday and today, however, the crew is on location. We don’t know exactly where, but Mallozzi reassured fans that there weren’t going to be any Vancouver forests in the first several episodes.

As a matter of fact, even though Mallozzi would like to share in the excitement of producing a brand new television show by publishing his pictures from the sets, MGM has asked him not to do that just yet. He took pictures of the Destiny set during its construction and could only leave these tantalizing hints: “So I was on the Destiny set Thursday and had to walk up the spiral staircase in order to get some video and snaps of the rotating gate. Holy Crap! We weren’t even that high up and I was clutching the handrail, my knees turned to jelly. All I could think was ‘There’s no way I could ever compete in The Amazing Race.’ Climb down the side of a building? Hell, why not just ask me to French kiss a komodo dragon?”

That’s all we’ve got thus far, unless you’d like to see a swatch of possible floor coverings that they were mulling over a few months ago. You really would? Visit Mallozzi’s November 20, 2008, entry for that sneak peek!

Mallozzi said that they’ve tried to increase security on the set by stamping everyone’s name on every page of their personal copies of the scripts. That won’t stop those of us with access to breakdowns or audition sides, he frets. Hey, it’s what we do.

So, to that end, if you’ve visited our main site recently, you’ve probably noticed that we have taken the extra steps of letting you know that we’re keeping a close watch on the spoilers for the upcoming season. You can find our treasure trove of info at the Stargate Universe Guide in our Wiki, accessible from our updated pull-down menu (and currently the subject of our “Features” box). We’ve created individual episode guides for each of the named episodes (the first seven), while the production notes for all unnamed episodes are still on the show’s main page there.

Enjoy!