The long running fanboy favorite finally finishes, it’s TV run, but it may live on another way.
by Melissa J. Perenson at SCI FI Wire.
Robert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the franchise’s saga ends and begins anew in the upcoming direct to DVD movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.
The Ark of Truth will wrap up the arc begun in the show’s ninth season, which introduced the Ori and their crusade to conquer the galaxy, Cooper said in an interview on SG-1’s set in Vancouver, Canada, last week. SG-1 wraps up its 10th and last season on SCI FI on June 22, and some of the story arcs will remain open ended.
"The idea for the first movie, “The Ark of Truth” was going to be the cliffhanger ending to season 10 and the start of an arc that would have lasted most of season 11, if season 11 had been picked up,” Cooper said. “But that didn’t happen, and we revised that concept and turned it into the story for the first movie."
The second movie, Continuum, will be a stand alone story conceived by Cooper’s fellow executive producer Brad Wright. Wright, who co-created SG-1, leveraged the show’s ties with the military for Continuum.
"In some respects, Brad’s idea evolved out of the fact that the Navy had come to us and said, ‘If you ever want to shoot in the Arctic, we’d love to take you up there,’” Cooper said. “‘We have a couple of nuclear submarines you could shoot on.’ So Brad said, ‘Wow, I’m just going to write a movie around that.’ We were the first production ever to shoot that far north. It was a pretty cool experience for everyone that went.” Cooper paused, then added: “A very cold experience."
Stargate SG-1’s warm relationship with the U.S. military began in season one, when the producers needed permission to use stock shots of the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, which is the home of Stargate Command in the show’s fictional universe. Eventually, the military vetted scripts for accuracy, and two chiefs of staff had cameo roles as themselves. “As things progressed, we started to say, ‘Hey, send us up a C-130 or a couple of F-18s,’” Cooper said. “There are two F-15s that are parked out at Vancouver airport now that we’re shooting in, for “Continuum."
Fans mourning the loss of SG-1 after this season can take comfort that the franchise will live on in other ways. “SG-1 ran for 10 successful seasons,” Cooper said. “We’ve ended that run on SCI FI, and now we’re continuing the story with those characters. Our DVD packages sell so well that, if the movies sell as well as the series sells, it’s going to be a tremendous success. And MGM, which produces the series, will eagerly want more."