Syfy has given the go-ahead for a second season of Stargate Universe and a third season of Sanctuary. The cable channel has ordered 20 installments of each.
Stargate Universe (SGU) is the latest series in the Stargate franchise and revolves around a band of soldiers, scientists and civilians, who must fend for themselves after being forced through a Stargate. The desperate survivors emerge aboard an ancient ship which is locked on an unknown course and unable to return to Earth. It features Robert Carlyle, Justin Louis, Brian J. Smith, Elyse Levesque, David Blu, Alaina Huffman, Jamil Walker Smith, Patrick Gilmore, Peter Kelamis, Julia Benson, Jennifer Spence, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Mark Burgess, Ming-Na, Josh Blacker, Haig Sutherland, and Lou Diamond Phillips.
Sanctuary follows the adventures of Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), a brilliant scientist who holds the secrets of a group of strange and sometimes terrifying beings that hide among humans. Others in the cast include Robin Dunne, Emilie Ullerup, Ryan Robbins, Christopher Heyerdahl, and Agam Darshi.
SGU is expected to return in April with the second partth of its 20 episode first season. Production on season two will begin in early 2010 and is expected to start airing in the fall.
The second season of Sanctuary is currently airing and expected to finish on January 15, 2010. Production on season three will start in early 2010 and begin airing in Fall 2010. This recent pickup marks the biggest order to date for Sanctuary. Seasons one and two are comprised of only 13 episodes apiece.
What do you think? Are either or both of these shows worthy of another season? Which do you prefer?
Image courtesy Syfy.
Agreed, Jim. Sanctuary is too phony and the acting is horrendous. It’s a show that begs to be canceled. Thank goodness they dropped the no-acting blonde and hired the hot little indian girl, but her part is too over the top. She’s written to talk smack about the smallest stupid thing and buck even the most basic of ideas. The rest of the show is just a fast-forward button on the tivo. SGU has great, and I do mean GREAT, bones, but the characters are all un-memerable. And the gratuitous lesbo scenes are tired and overdone. It’s like they’re just… Read more »
Tom King hit the nail on the head. We want hard science fiction, not a horror-fest.
Well to be honest I love both the SG- tv series and Sanctuary, now I’m a big fan of Stargate and believe me the greatest, but I don’t know what happen to SGA but the producers mes up on that one, I mean the show was actually getting interesting in the last couple of two seasons – it was a let down but if they had to end it then hey “no problemo”, but one thing that I did not understand of SGU is that the first season was made of such a small amount of episodes when compared to… Read more »
I watched the first six, or so, episodes of Universe and then gave up. I hae not been even tempted to watch another minute. The characters have no character at all, and the whole thing has a soap opera feel to it. No action, too much phony drama. After SG1 and Atlantis I’m too spoiled to watch this crap.
Syfy should cancel Universe and buy the rights for Defying Gravity from ABC!
As for SGU – the problem is we don’t have any real heroes. It’s too post-modernist for my taste. I think they were going for a Battlestar Galactica noir, but at least Galactica had a few heroic characters, though they pretty nearly lost me toward the end. It’s like they’ve decided it’s the “in” thing to make everyone deeply flawed. We need our Yoda’s and Obi-Wans. We need characters like Jack O’Neil, Carter, Teal’c and Daniel Jackson. They keep slipping toward, not anti-heroes, but toward non-heroes. Buck up people. Are you telling me that all men in the future are… Read more »
I agree with the post about there being a big difference between sci-fi and horror. This is something TV execs never have understood. There is a huge market out there for real science fiction and literally millions of well written stories to work from. Hard sci-fi fans don’t care much for horror or lame medieval sword and sorcery stuff. Somehow TV programmers have lumped us in with people who watch B-horror movies, wrestling and reality TV. There is actually a very intelligent audience for well thought out science fiction. Sci-Fi needs to change its name back from the cutesy one… Read more »
@ Dale “If the rest of you don’t like it then don’t watch.” LOL. You know, TPTB have told Malozzi and Wright to stop telling people that, and evidently many people have taken that advice and the ratings for SGU have basically tanked to an all-time low because of that advice. The reality is that the show has become less and less popular from episode 1 to episode 10, resulting in the lowest ratings EVER for any Stargate Atlantis episode (1.3 for “Justice” vs 1.4 for “Michael” in SGA). They have been reigned in by TPTB because the show is… Read more »
For the most part, my wife and I enjoy Santuary. Some of the episodes are really good. Some of the episodes are slow, which we attribute to either the writers, or the director – or possibly to the restrictions placed on the show by the virtual sets. With regards to SGU – oh, boy. My wife gave up, but I’m still forcing myself to watch in case it gets better. First and foremost, other than a round ring that doesn’t work like the Stargate from the original movie or the first two series, it has nothing in common with its… Read more »
It is slow, but it beats cheesy costumes and single-episode adventures where everything gets wrapped up nicely and everyone makes it home safe and sound (except for a few non-essentials). I, for one, prefer Dexter-like character-driven plots and twists where nothing is certain and the writers aren’t held to the repetitive happy ending scenarios ubiquitous in most shows. It’s refreshing to see a show willing to at least try to break away from the stale action-scifi writing, where the dilemmas faced by the characters have little to no relevance outside of the show’s own contrived storyline. It’s not close to… Read more »
love SGU. period
Could not tell you what is happening in SGU. I actually cancelled my extended cable service and catchup on the shows I like on Hulu.
Quit watching SGU, I still watch Sanctuary though online.
I don’t miss the syfy/why channel at all.
I think sgu has a good plot but is very slow. I think syfy should have kept sga going instead of starting sgu.
i am a huge fan of stargate, sg1 and sga. now with sgu…. i was thrown for a flip, a very slow pace. right off the bat. 10 episodes of character build up. im left thinking wtf? kinda disappointing that we havent been graced by something big yet. BUT then i think back, these are the same creators of the prior 2 and they have always left me with a good taste in my mouth. yes the sets are dark and dreary but then again, the ship isnt powered up fully yet. we havent seen any aliens… YET. i think… Read more »
Hahaha I agree completely
I have and always will be a HUGE science fiction fan! I love all the Star Trek series and movies and the Stargate Movie and the subsequent Stargate: SG1 and Stargate Atlantis spin-offs which I liked a lot more than SG1. I was VERY disappointed at the cancellation of SG1 but looked forward to a long-running Atlantis which didn’t happen! I began having Friday Night syfy channel withdrawals as those 2 exceptional shows were replaced with the likes of Sanctuary, (ugh!) and Primeval, (ok, but nothing to write home about), which the cable station thought COULD replace the SG1 gems?… Read more »