Category: Universe

KRQE.com has posted additional information about the Farmington, New Mexico, shoot that will take place May 17-21.

Originally, we thought that the shoot was for Paul Mullie’s “Trial and Error”, but KRQE shed further light on the episode’s identity by stating, “The episode will be written and directed by Robert C. Cooper.” This means we were off by a few episodes as Cooper’s season two episode is “Malice”. Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi wrote in his weblog, “Rob will be racking up the airmiles when it comes time for him to direct Malice.” After reading the script, he added, “Geat script! It’s going to be one hell of a location shoot!”

The shoot will be using local talent, both in front of and behind the cameras. KRQE reporter Bill Diven wrote, “A statement from Gov. Bill Richardson’s office says a majority of the crew working on the Farmington shoot will be New Mexicans.” He listed the familiar Vancouver producers John G. Lenic, Robert C. Cooper, Brad Wright, Joseph Mallozzi, and Paul Mullie, and then added to the list David Greathouse and Sam Childs, both of whom will serve as supervising producers for this episode. Childs previously worked with SGU as unit production manager for “Air Part 3”, which also shot in New Mexico.

“Malice” currently sits in the eighth episode slot in the 20-episode season, so look for it to premiere near the end of 2010 on Syfy.

ETA May 14: There is much more detail about the shoot at Daily Times, including information from Childs that says that the Farmington shoot is supposed to be an alien planet rather than an Earth-based location.

The numbers for last Friday’s Stargate Universe episode “Sabotage” have been added to our summary table below. Thanks go to Travis Yanan at pifeedback.com forums for the data this week:

Season One Viewer and Ratings Summary
Episode	Rating/Share		Viewers in Millions
	HH	18-49	Live+Same Day	Live+7 Days
Air (Parts 1 and 2)	1.5/3	0.9/3	2.346	2.8
Air (Part 3)	1.5/3	1.0/3	2.447	3.0
Darkness	1.3/2	0.9/3	2.099	2.6
Light	1.3/2	0.8/3	2.015	2.7
Water	1.3/2	0.8/2	1.974	2.6
Earth	1.1/2	0.7/2	1.626	2.3
Time	1.1/2	0.7/2	1.802	2.5
Life	1.2/2	0.8/3	1.891	2.4
Justice	0.9/2	0.5/2	1.340	2.0
Space	1.0/2	0.6/2	1.486	2.1
Divided	1.0/2	0.6/2	1.600
Faith	0.9/2	0.5/2	1.422
Human	0.8/2	0.4/1	1.313
Lost	1.0/2	0.6/2	1.578
Sabotage	0.9/2	0.6/2	1.391		<<<< NEW DATA

[Thanks to jelgate for the tip!]

According to the The Daily Times for Farmington, New Mexico, Stargate Universe will be returning to the state to film an upcoming episode for the second season. If you’re a local and would like to break into the filming business, here’s your chance to start off as a background actor! The pay is $8 per hour plus overtime.

The last time that SGU shot in New Mexico was for “Air Part 3” when they used White Sands as an alien terrain. This time, the unnamed episode appears to be using Farmington as an Earth-based location, but you never can be too sure since this is a sci-fi show, after all.

We can guess, based off of Joseph Mallozzi’s hints in his weblog, that the Farmington episode is “Trial and Error”, written by Mallozzi’s writing partner Paul Mullie. But, that’s not confirmed. The show has also been doing location shoots for Brad Wright’s “Cloverdale”, as well. The production crew has been known to film episodes out of airing order simply because locations, actors, or directors are not available until a certain time. Mallozzi, however, did write in his March 1 entry that they were specifically discussing location possibilities for Mullie’s and Wright’s scripts.

The production will be on location from May 17 to May 21. The Times article doesn’t provide casting details, but advises, “Those interested are asked to upload their headshots at www.egcasting.com. For more information, e-mail lorielatham@comcast.net.”

ETA May 11: A later report from KRQE.com has revealed that Robert C. Cooper is both writer and director for this episode, which leads us to conclude that it is “Malice” that is filming in New Mexico. (See story)

ETA May 14: There is much more detail about the shoot at Daily Times, including information that the Farmington shoot is supposed to be an alien planet rather than an Earth-based location.

Stargate Universe episode “Sabotage”, written by freelancer Barbara Marshall and directed by Peter DeLuise, premieres tonight (May 7) on Syfy at 9 PM ET and on Space at 10 PM ET!

The Story

Lt. Scott, Chloe Armstrong, and Eli Wallace got left behind when the Destiny jumped into FTL (faster-than-light) again! What’s worse, the ship has made its last stop before exiting the galaxy and now has the void between galaxies to traverse. Unfortunately, as Dr. Nicholas Rush pointed out in last week’s episode, this means that there will be no planets until the ship reaches the next galaxy. So, there will be no stops along the way to gather supplies or to recharge the reserves.

But in the ship’s current condition, just reaching the next galaxy successfully is extremely unlikely. Before the crew boarded it, the Ancient ship had enough power to traverse such distances, even if not operating at full capacity, because the life support systems were not activated. Now that the Destiny must support its human passengers, it could run out of power and be left to drift in the void, dooming everyone aboard.

This type of situation calls for the bringing in of an expert who can help squeeze the most out of Destiny‘s FTL drives. While Dr. Amanda Perry is on the Destiny helping the crew save the ship and renewing her acquaintance with Dr. Rush, Camile Wray gets to see her life partner Sharon once again on Earth as the two women swap bodies using the Communication Stones.

The Story Behind the Scenes

Back when the spoilers came out for this episode, the show hadn’t even premiered, so there was some controversy concerning the situations in which the body-swapping characters found themselves. Now that fans have seen what Communication Stone sessions look like and how they are conducted, some of that controversy should die down. Still, to give even more background information about the use of the stones, this timely Kino Webisode, “We Volunteer To Do This”, might be helpful:

Watch and Rate

Once you’ve seen the episode, make sure to return to Solutions to vote in our front page poll and to read the chatter that’s sure to take place on our Stargate Twitter Superfeed.

NOTE: Viewers in Australia will be getting “Sabotage” on the Sci Fi Channel on Friday, May 14, at 8:30 PM, and the UK’s Sky One viewers will see it Tuesday, May 18, at 8:00 PM.

[spoiler intro=”Official Episode Summary”]With three crewmembers stranded on a planet, Destiny continues in FTL about to cross from their present galaxy into the next one, leaving any hope of rescue behind. But Dr. Rush calculates that even with the ancient ship’s recent attempts to conserve its power, Destiny will still fall short of their next destination and be set adrift.

In an effort to increase the efficiency of the ship’s drive technology, they use the communications stones to bring aboard an expert in the field of hyper drives – Amanda Perry, a brilliant scientist with whom Rush has a past.

From IGN.[/spoiler]
[spoiler intro=”Syfy’s Episode Preview Trailer”]

[/spoiler]
[spoiler intro=”Syfy’s Sneak Peek Video Clip”]

[/spoiler]
[spoiler intro=”Images and Other Videos”]The set of images that MGM has posted on their Official Website tells a huge amount of the story (Spoiler TV also has the images for fans outside the USA), and so do Ming-Na’s brief segment on NBC’s Today show from May 5th and Movie Web’s exclusive Q&A with Robert Carlyle about Rush’s relationship with Amanda Perry, so be careful when viewing those items.[/spoiler]