The numbers for Stargate Universe episode “Cloverdale” have been added to our summary table below.
Season Two Viewer and Ratings Summary
Episode
Rating/Share
Viewers in Millions
HH
18-49
Live+Same Day
Live+7 Days
Intervention
0.8/1
0.5/1
1.175
Note 1
Aftermath
0.7/1
0.5/1
1.070
Awakening
0.8/1
0.5/1
1.222
Pathogen
0.7/1
0.4/1
0.974
Cloverdale
0.7/1
0.4/1
1.012
<<<< NEW DATA
Source for New Data: User MediaSavant at Gateworld forum, as our usual source has not yet posted ratings. Updated with data from TV By The Numbers.
Notes
“Just got the live+7 numbers for Intervention, the season 2 premiere. Wow. We jumped 78% from the live number, about 40% from the liv+SD. That’s a lot of eyeballs. Of course that isn’t even counting those who are viewing the show through alternate platforms (ie. netflix, iTunes, and other download options).” — Joseph Mallozzi, October 19, 2010.
CLOVERDALE offers the classic 'team gets into trouble' scenario when visiting a planet.Tonight (October 26) on Syfy at 9 PM ET: Stargate Universe episode 2.05 “Cloverdale”, written by Brad Wright and directed by Alex Chapple.
“Cloverdale is a neat story for everyone because it’s just so different from anything we’ve done so far on SGU,” actor David Blue told interviewer Steve Eramo. “The episode was written in such a way that we got to show our characters in a totally new light, and shooting-wise it was a nice break because we went on-location for some of it. Again, I’m dying to see this episode, and after doing ADR [Automated Dialogue Replacement] for certain scenes, it made me want to watch it even more.”
Interestingly enough, “Cloverdale” the episode was shot in British Columbia’s Cloverdale where the production “spent two days filming on location in Cloverdale’s historic downtown core, shooting scenes inside – and outside – the Clova Cinema and other local landmarks. Traffic was barred from the 5700 block of 176 Street for much of Tuesday, while the crew filmed a stunt sequence and other scenes.” But what’s even more interesting about this episode is the type of scenes that were shot. If you’re really curious, check out what’s under the spoiler tags at the end of this article.
VFX Supervisor Mark Savela described this episode as “EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC.” Since it was written by Brad Wright, perhaps it also is close to being what some would call a classic Stargate story: the team ‘gates to a planet, gets into trouble, gets out of trouble, and goes home. But with Universe, we know that some endings aren’t happy and that certain storylines aren’t necessarily tied up in a pretty bow at the final fade to black.
After taking in the last scene, make sure to rejoin us here for our episode poll on the front page.
While investigating a planet with his team, Lt. Scott is infected by an alien organism that affects both his mind and body.
While exploring a new planet, Lt. Scott encounters an aggressive plant-like creature that attacks and infects him. Unable to risk bringing an alien contagion back to Destiny, Tamara searches for a way to stop the alien infection from spreading. Scott meanwhile, drifts in and out of consciousness, hallucinating an ideal life back home on earth. As the infection spreads dire reality begins to seep into his dream state. With the more alien organisms surrounding the gate and closing fast, time may well run out on Scott.[/spoiler]
You might be interested in these news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below. We’ll update this article if something comes to our attention during the week.
Calendar
Monday, October 25
Tuesday, October 26
Syfy: SGU 2.05 “Cloverdale” at 9 PM ET, with a repeat at 11 PM.
Fan Nialla (writer of the Breadbox Editions) spotted the name Christopher Judge in the guest list for tonight’s NCIS: Los Angeles episode, but we haven’t seen “official” confirmation that this is indeed our Christopher Judge. If you watch this show, make sure to keep an eye open for the character named Assan Rafiq; he just might have a familiar face. The episode is “Anonymous” and airs at 9 ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.
Sci Fi/Australia: SGU 2.05 “Cloverdale” at 8:30 PM.
Space/Canada: SGU 2.05 “Cloverdale” at 10 PM ET.
Corin Nemec is scheduled to be in Booth #432 at the Long Beach Comic Con that’s starting today and running until Sunday, October 31. Make sure to visit the website for more details.
Lexa Doig (Dr. Carolyn Lam) is due to guest on tonight’s episode of Smallville. She plays Dr. Christina Lamell in the episode “Harvest”, which airs at 8 PM ET on The CW. Doig’s part is in this storyline: “Meanwhile, Tess (Cassidy Freeman) searches for a cure for Alexander (guest star Connor Stanhope), who is rapidly aging.”
Saturday, October 30
Kavan Smith co-stars in the Syfy Original Red: Werewolf Hunter, which premieres tonight at 9 PM ET. From Syfy’s press release, “A descendant of Little Red Riding Hood brings her fiancé home to meet her family and tell him about the family business – they are werewolf hunters. When the fiancé is bitten by a werewolf, he finds himself the hunted.” The movie also stars Felicia Day and Stephen McHattie.
SG-1 and SGA Portals – Each Friday, a new feature is posted to the Portal pages. This past Friday, we worked from the keyword prompt “smithereens”. What Stargate-specific thing comes to mind when you hear that word? Visit the SG-1 Portal to discuss “Good-bye to the Asgard” and the SGA Portal to discuss “Good Riddance, Asurans”. This Friday, the key word is “prophets”, so check back to find out what that means for our shows.
It should be noted that whenever spoilers come out for SGU, they are placed in the episode guides in the Stargate Wiki without much fanfare here in the News Blog. To keep on top of such updates, visit the main page of the Stargate Wiki to see the “Recent Updates” list of links.
Solutions News Blog Round-Up
Our News Blog posts since the last Stargate Planner (most recent listed first):
Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. The articles listed in this section don’t have a companion piece in our News Blog here:
For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.
Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.
For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.
“Just got the live+7 numbers for Intervention, the season 2 premiere. Wow. We jumped 78% from the live number, about 40% from the liv+SD. That’s a lot of eyeballs. Of course that isn’t even counting those who are viewing the show through alternate platforms (ie. netflix, iTunes, and other download options).” — Joseph Mallozzi, October 19, 2010.
Something's not quite right with Chloe in PATHOGENTonight (October 19) on Syfy at 9 PM ET: Stargate Universe episode 2.04 “Pathogen”, written by Carl Binder and directed by series lead actor Robert Carlyle.
“Oh! He was a fantastic director,” Brian J. Smith told Den of Geek about his experience with co-star Robert Carlyle’s helming the episode from both in front of and behind the camera. “He’s an actor, so he gets it. He understands what you’re going through as an actor and the fears you may have about the scene or yourself. He creates an atmosphere where you feel safe and you feel loved, and that you can’t really do anything wrong, which is the best kind of way to work because you’re not censoring yourself.
“He was great, he would come up to us and give us notes that were so smart and so human and so actable. The episode he had to work on, was a beautiful episode and a very intimate episode but also one that’s setting up a lot of stuff that’s going to be a major problem down the road. So, it was a big responsibility for him, but it was kind of funny to watch him having to wear two hats. He’ll be standing there in costume trying to hit his mark and act the scene out and then have to yell cut [laughs] and go talk to the DP and figure out what shot to do next and stuff like that. It was a trip, but he was fantastic. He really hit it out of the park and did a great job.”
This episode touches on a mystery that we’ve been watching since the beginning of the season when Chloe somehow miraculously healed from the gunshot wound to her leg. Finally, after it appears that some of the dust has settled from the Lucian Alliance incursion and from the encounters with one of the Ancients’ seeder ships and an alien team already aboard it—plus the loss of Colonel David Telford—we’ll see what has made Chloe superhuman. Based on the name of the episode, is sounds like she’s been infected with an alien pathogen, but from where? Stargate Atlantis fans may recall that Dr. Jennifer Keller was exposed to a Wraith pathogen that began to use her as the seed toward creating a living hive ship, so whatever’s in store for Chloe, her exposure could be just as tragic and deadly.
David Blue further added to the mystery of this episode when he told IGN, “It was probably the most emotional thing I’ve ever done.”
“It was fantastic working with David on that episode,” actor/director Carlyle added. He then revealed that this was the first time he’s directed a television episode, his experience having previously been limited to theater productions.
“Yep, Robert Carlyle is directing the first episode on the production schedule – which actually happens to be episode 4 in the airing schedule, Pathogen,” executive producer Joseph Mallozzi informed his weblog readers. “No need to be gentle with Bobby. He’s incredibly well-prepared, knows the shots he wants and, more importantly, knows how to get them. He’s also got a fantastic cast and crew backing him up. And the dailies look great!”
See for yourself tonight, and then afterwards, make sure to rejoin us here for our episode poll on the front page.
From Sky Programme Information: Anticipation is high for this second season standout directed by the space drama’s leading man, Robert Carlyle.
Stepping behind the camera, Carlyle cuts his teeth with an episode revolving around Chloe’s increasingly erratic behaviour. While searching her quarters, a worried Scott makes a shocking discovery: a journal with alien script. Scott shows it to Young and Rush, and the latter is particularly intrigued. Recognising the complexity of the journal’s contents, he asks Chloe to look at some mathematical problems he’s been working on, with surprising results. Meanwhile, Eli is called back to Earth to deal with his mother’s worsening medical condition.[/spoiler]
You might be interested in these news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below. We’ll update this article if something comes to our attention during the week.
Calendar
Monday, October 18
Tuesday, October 19
Syfy: SGU 2.04 “Pathogen” at 9 PM ET, with a repeat at 11 PM.
Sky1/UK: SGU 2.03 “Awakening” at 9 PM.
Sanctuary makes its Season Three premiere with Paul McGillion returning as Terrence Wexford in the conclusion to “Kali” on the UK’s Watch at 9 PM. Details about his return and about this new season in general can be found in our previous blog entry.
Cartoon Network’s Tower Prep premieres tonight at 8 PM ET/PT. Michael Shanks is due to appear in the third episode as Professor Literature.
Sanctuary episode “Firewall” on Space (9 PM ET) and Syfy (10 PM ET). Guest Cast: Paul McGillion: Terrence Wexford.
The movie My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend premieres in the United States today exclusively at MegaPlex 17 at the Jordon Commons in Sandy and MegaPlex 20 at The District in South Jordan, Utah. Beau Bridges co-stars with Alyssa Milano in this film that was shot in its entirety in the state of Utah, so this first screening holds significance to local production crews.
Michael Shanks, Ben Browder, and Torri Higginson are scheduled to appear at the Armageddon Expo this weekend (October 23-24) in Auckland, New Zealand. Make sure to visit the event’s website for the rest of the guest list and schedule.
Kavan Smith (Maj. Evan Lorne) can be seen in Hallmark Channel’s new movie Growing the Big One at 9 PM ET (repeats at 11 PM ET). Shannen Doherty, Aaron Pearl, and Smith co-star in this story about a woman (Doherty) who needs money to keep her grandfather’s farm from foreclosure. She decides to grow the largest pumpkin to win a $50,000 prize. Her neighbor (Smith) helps her with the project, but they end up “cultivating something much more evergreen.”
Sunday, October 24
News Notes
News Flashes and Brief Follow-Ups
SG-1 and SGA Portals – Each Friday, a new feature is posted to the Portal pages. This past Friday, the episodes that our readers chose as their favorites in our seasonal polls were covered. Visit the SG-1 Portal to discuss “The Torment of Tantalus” and the SGA Portal to discuss “Vegas”. This Friday, the key word is “smithereens”, so check back to find out what that means for our shows.
It should be noted that whenever spoilers come out for SGU, they are placed in the episode guides in the Stargate Wiki without much fanfare here in the News Blog. To keep on top of such updates, visit the main page of the Stargate Wiki to see the “Recent Updates” list of links.
Solutions News Blog Round-Up
Our News Blog posts since the last Stargate Planner (most recent listed first):
Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. The articles listed in this section don’t have a companion piece in our News Blog here:
For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.
Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.
For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.
Watch out, Greer! A creepy AWAKENING cannot possibly be a good thing!Tonight (October 12) on Syfy at 9 PM ET: Stargate Universe episode 2.03 “Awakening”, written by Joseph Mallozzi (and Paul Mullie) and directed by Andy Mikita.
Actor Brian J. Smith called this episode “a real creepy story,” which seems to be a niche for Mallozzi who brought creepy to Stargate Atlantis in the episode “Whispers”.
Apparently, however, the writing of creepy stories doesn’t come easy, as Mallozzi’s many weblog entries during the episode’s production cycle will attest. His readers were taken along for the ride from concept to final mix as he agonized over the script and had to rewrite it several times, both before and after receiving notes from his fellow writers and Syfy. On top of that, there were budgetary concerns with the need both to build an impressive new set and to create an extensive number of VFX shots.
When Mallozzi walked onto the new set, he wrote, “My first reaction upon laying eyes on it was ‘OMG!’. That was my internal dialogue. I can’t remember what it was I actually said, but it was more or less the same sentiment expressed in much more colorful terms. Director Andy Mikita assured me he looked forward to the challenge of pulling it off.” What exactly is this set? If you’ve watched the promos or read the spoilers, you know (see our collection at the end of this article for the spoilery details).
Later in the production process, Mallozzi let his readers in on his departmental meetings. “When VFX Supervisor Mark Savela presented us with the visual effects budget for the episode, I thought Producer John Lenic was going to pass out on the spot. My buddy (and Exec. Producer) Carl wasn’t fazed when he heard the number. He merely shrugged and said: ‘Hey, we knew it was going to be big.’ Well, yes. Big. Not BIG! And so, to ensure we have enough money left to make the remaining fourteen episodes (or alleviate the need to make that special clip show three-parter), Director Andy Mikita and I spent an hour going through the script, tightening up here and there, trimming where we could, and shaving down that number. As a result, the VFX budget for Awakening now falls somewhere between big and BIG. BIg I guess. But what an episode it’ll be!”
And finally, after the filming and post-production were done, the producers got to sit down and watch the Day 1 Mix: “I just phoned Joel Goldsmith to congratulate him on the wonderful job he did scoring the episode. Congratulations should also go out to director Andy Mikita, the cast and crew, and – oh, boy! – Mark Savela and the VFX team! I repeat. Oh, boy!” After seeing the final VFX, he added, “I think it’s their best work yet.”
To spill on some of the specifics of these VFX shots would be to give away a really spoilery plot point, but needless to say, Mallozzi was impressed. He did leave this little teaser for those curious about the actual story: “Awakening boasts some of those incredible(r) VFX I was referring to (especially one complicated sequence many had reservations about that turned out nothing short of amazing) in addition to the discovery of a little something certain fans have been asking about since first season.” We’ll have to find out what that discovery is when we watch the creepy episode!
After you’ve seen it, make sure to rejoin us here for our episode poll on the front page.
The crew encounters a ship, similar in ancient design to Destiny, which may provide the means to return to Earth.
The Destiny is set on a collision course with a ship of similar ancient design found floating in space. Panic turns to wonder as the ships dock with each other. As they review the data stream, they learn they have come upon one of the Stargate seeding ships that the Ancients sent out ahead of the Destiny.
Col. Young dispatches a team to investigate while setting Dr. Rush and Eli to analyze the flood of new data. Once aboard the seeder ship, Lt. Scott and his team discover that it might hold the energy to power the Stargate for a connection back to Earth.
Realizing this might be the key to getting home, Col. Telford convinces Young to let him join the team aboard the mysterious ship. But just as the energy transfer is underway they discover there’s more aboard the ship than power.[/spoiler]
You might be interested in these news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below. We’ll update this article if something comes to our attention during the week.
Calendar
Monday, October 11
Today is Columbus Day (Observed) in the USA and Thanksgiving Day in Canada
Sci Fi/Australia: SGU 2.03 “Awakening” at 8:30 PM.
Space/Canada: SGU 2.03 “Awakening” at 10 PM ET.
Sanctuary returns to Space (9 PM ET) and Syfy (10 PM ET) with “Kali III” — “Conclusion. Two ships are wrecked and a tidal wave races toward the coast of Mumbai, India, following Wexford’s attempt to kill “Big Bertha.” When Wexford tries to kill the creature again, Magnus risks her life to intervene in the Season 3 premiere. Guest Cast: Paul McGillion: Terrence Wexford” (TV Guide).
David Hewlett – Last week we reported that Hewlett was filming an episode of The CW’s new show Hellcats. Hewlett tweeted soon thereafter that he was actually going to be filming two episodes. No more details are available, other than that Hewlett enjoyed the location shoot that was near his home and that “this Hellcats is almost like work! Alarmed to discover these kids are as nice as they are good-looking!”
It should be noted that whenever spoilers come out for SGU, they are placed in the episode guides in the Stargate Wiki without much fanfare here in the News Blog. To keep on top of such updates, visit the main page of the Stargate Wiki to see the “Recent Updates” list of links.
Solutions News Blog Round-Up
Our News Blog posts since the last Stargate Planner (most recent listed first):
Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. The articles listed in this section don’t have a companion piece in our News Blog here:
For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.
Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.
For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.
The numbers for Stargate Universe episode “Aftermath” have been added to our summary table below.
Stargate Universe
– 1.070 million viewers
– 0.7 HH
– 0.5 A18-49
– 0.6 A25-54
– 0.8 M25-54 [ranked 12th in this demo of all primetime cable on this night]
and Thanksgiving Day in Canada 
