Hello Stargate Fans!
I had the opportunity to attend Creation Entertainment’s official Vancouver Stargate Convention. I would like to thank the great people on the Creation Entertainment team for allowing me to provide coverage of the convention for WormholeRiders News Agency.
On Sunday April 17, 2011 one of the masterminds behind the Stargate franchise appeared at the convention, Brad Wright. Mr. Wright has been with the Stargate team at MGM Studios and the production facilities at Bridge Studios since the beginning, investing some 15 years of his life. Mr. Wright is truly is a beloved fixture in the epic Stargate franchise.
Mr. Wright opened his panel with the revelation that the Stargate franchise as we know it has officially come to an end. He elaborated that they were unable to secure funding for any of the three Stargate movies (Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis or Stargate Universe), and therefore the Stargate franchise will be placed on the shelf for the time being.
He did say that the people at MGM Studios are smart and at some point in the future Stargate will be back. The fans were quite supportive of this statement and it seemed that they hoped he was right as we all do.
Mr. Wright was kind enough to open the floor to the audience and answered many questions from the fans in the room. A fan asked if there was pressure from the studio for Stargate Universe to be more like “Battlestar Galactica” with the darkness and film style. Brad explained that there was no pressure applied from the studio to be more like Battlestar Galactica.
Mr. Wright went on to share an amusing anecdote about how during production of the pilot episode he received a screening copy of it to review. He sat down to watch it and the screen was nearly pitch black- you could barely make out the faces of the actors on screen.
The next day he went into the studio to check the original and it was just as dark as his screening copy from the night before. In a panic he called up one of the staff and asked what had happened. She took a look at it and said that wasn’t what they had done. In the end it turned out that the film had been run through the process that makes it darker twice instead of once!
Brad was asked what moments he was most proud of. He talked about how Stargate was a family at Bridge Studios and that he was proud to watch as the various members of the crew who started at the bottom work their way up and become something more and better.
When it came down to the shows he said really enjoyed the last day on the set of Stargate SG-1 and every day on the set of the Stargate SG-1 movie “Continuum”. He also said that he was extremely proud of the pier scene in Stargate Atlantis’ fifth season episode “The Shrine”. Brad also spoke of how proud he was of the scenes in upcoming final episodes of Stargate Universe.
Mr. Wright was also asked whose idea it was to land Atlantis outside the Golden Gate Bridge near San Francisco Bay. Mr. Wright replied that it was probably Robert C. Cooper or Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. He talked about how in his movie script Atlantis is on the far side moon where it could still be visited and help defend Earth from attack. Mr. Wright mentioned that it would be a great image with the moonscape and Atlantis!
After having heard all weekend about various jokes that were played over the years, Brad said that no he was not the perpetrator of any jokes because he didn’t want to slow down the shooting process.
A fan asked if he could share what any of the ideas for season six of Stargate Atlantis would have been and if we would see them in books. Mr. Wright replied that it would be unlikely that we would since no one outside the writing team knew what those ideas were.
In response to one fan’s comment about the introduction of Stargate Universe shortly after the announcement of the cancellation of Stargate Atlantis. Mr. Wright spoke about how proud he was of Atlantis. He said that it was a very important part of his career and that he was more proud of Stargate Atlantis than any of us would ever know.
Mr. Wright also spoke briefly on the future of the industry and how he thinks that whoever can figure out the direction that the industry is going will make a lot of money. He talked about how if he is not writing for a series he would possibly like to write a novel, most likely a science fiction novel and therefore join the ranks of those with unpublished novels.
Mr. Wright apologized sincerely for hurting anyone’s feelings, especially those of Stargate Atlantis fans. He said it was never his intention to hurt anyone’s feelings, especially those of the Atlantis fans.
When he was finished, Brad Wright received a very touching standing ovation from the crowd in recognition of his many years of work and the dedication that he put into the Stargate franchise.
In the end Brad Wright’s panel was quite informative and I enjoyed it very much. I hope to have the chance to see more things from him in the future be they a new television show, a novel or just another convention visit. Thank you Mr. Wright!
Please feel free to leave me a comment here or you can visit me on Twitter as so many of our convention friends often do by clicking my avatar below right of my text link.
As always thanks for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency here at Conventions Corner. See you all soon “On The Other Side” on Twitter!
Regards,
MacKenziesMomma (Kassandra)
great report. thank you. i saw the tweets from the cast creators and whr about this yesterday. i liked the comment by whr about “do not be sad it is over, be happy it happened in the first place. we all knew that the stargate franchise was coming to this point after joe mallozzi, james bamford and other said something along those lines a couple of weeks ago. stargate and other series fans need to learn that if they do not support their shows they will be placed on the shelf. we should thank the stargate creators actors mgm and even syfy for supporting the series for so long. i think the stargate will be back one day and the fans of the show can make a statement by watching the last episodes of sgu tweeting and facebook posting to prove they love stargate. if they do stargate may be back sooner than we think.
“if anyone can figure out where the industry is going”
I think its going to lower and lower revenues from broadcasts, as opposed to DVD sales, streaming, etc.
And this tells me the business side of production is well behind the audiences, and the ratings do not accurately reflect the consumer’s real interests.
Therefore, the business people keep making bad decisions to end good series/franchises with proven reception only to fund more failures with clearly less interesting, less viable premises.
When are the business executives and producers going to learn that just adding fight scenes, battle scenes, blood, gore and sex scenes do not make up for one bad primes after another?
Hi Kassandra,
Thank you for a superb report on the panel by Mr. Wright at Creation Entertainments Stargate convention. The images you selected for the write-up were very sweet! We all appreciate you taking the time staying up very early this morning after arriving home from Vancouver to capture the essence of his panel for our visitors!
Best Regards
Nice report. Thank you for taking your time to share with us.
Hello Leslie,
I come here a lot and while I agree that the ratings system needs improvement it is reality at moment and fans need to deal with reality not lay blame. You should read the blog by David Blue about this subject at http://www.david-blue.com/Blue/Blog/Entries/2011/4/6_McKay_McRib_-_Limited_Time_Only.html
The reason so many shows fail including Stargate is due in large part to the massive illegal downloading of the programs. Fans make all kinds of excuses to get the episodes of lots of shows illegally. Read what David said and I think you will agree this is the largest problem. If the networks cannot pay for the programs there will be more cancellations. There was a report earlier by Wormholeriders about the plague of illegal downloading internationally, but I forgot to save it. Maybe the people here can re-post it for everyone to read?
Also I am surprised they approved your comment. You could have at least thanked the author who according to another comment stayed up all night to do her report and go through her pictures to share with us all before you ranted about things that had nothing to do with the Stargate convention other than misquoting Brad Wright out of context.
Anyway there is my comment in response to yours. I thank the author for a great report and pictures about the Brad Wright panel at the Stargate convention.
Alexandra,
No I’m not going to apologize for my post or my comments, and there was nothing said in the link about illegal downloads, but thanks for the reference.
Of course I appreciate everyone who works on the blog for their efforts, and I thank them for it.
My comments are germane since they point to the root issues I am sure others care about as well, issues that affected the several Stargate series, and other great scifi series equally, and I am sure I am not alone in the disappointment that so often great series are ended, replaced with poorly considered series, one after another that fail, even when the producers employ every gimmick in the genre. I don’t expect any series to last indefinitely, but clearly SGA, SGU were cut short.
I personally do not know one person who illegally downloads videos, but I know lots of people who buy DVDs or stream content and do not watch the original live broadcasts, and as to the factual big picture statistics I am not claiming any expertise. I just about never watch the original broadcasts.
The inevitable decline of revenue from broadcast media, I believe, is the root business issue and ratings related issue that goes unanswered. I expect that revenue source to continue to shrink and clearly it affects the decisions to continue a series or not, seemingly from my viewpoint well beyond reasonable judgment.
I will be happy to learn from anyone where I am wrong, on any of these points.
Thanks
Hello Alexandra,
Thank for your comment. Here is the link to a comprehensive report about the problem of illegal downloading per your request that is causing many shows to fail. http://documents.envisional.com/docs/Envisional-Internet_Usage-Jan2011.pdf
I agree with Gene (thanks for your comment as well). To that point there is also a great post by Craig Engler of Syfy about the ratings system and how it works. http://blastr.com/2011/01/the-truth-about-tv-ratings-online-viewing-and-sci-fi-shows.php
Much has changed in the ratings system in 2011 for the positive including counting on-line views and on-demand viewing proportional to the advertising content that is actually what pays for the shows we love and admire. (see links above why she has drawn a conclusion not based in the facts)
The fact of the matter is that a television broadcast or cable network’s “job” is to sell advertising to be able to pay for the actors, production costs for the programming itself and make enough money to stay in business. If not enough viewers are watching a particular show AND the advertising, the advertising sponsors take their money elsewhere. Critically when people break the law and illegally download they only make matters worse since many of these torrent sites not only have the advertising removed, there is no way to accurately count the views.
Lastly, we approved Leslie’s comment because we do not censor comments unless they are spammy with links to porn, blatant unrelated content or advertising, or contain foul and abusive language which hers did not. While I do not agree with her conclusions about programming cancellations, she is entitled to her opinion
Be at peace everyone and please watch your shows LIVE, On-Demand or on-line legally if you want them to survive. Thanks.
Best Regards
Thank for being so quick in posting this. I usually attend this Con but sometimes real life has to take a higher priority. Oh well. I had a feeling that there was going to be an announcement at the Con about the end of Stargate. I had been keeping my fingers crossed for the franchise but I am a realist.
Slam
Hi Leslie,
I work a swing shift and just saw your reply. Thanks. I think we are going to have to agree to disagree. Many programs succeed including new shows like Body of Proof on ABC with over 13 million live viewers. Others with less viewers also succeed in the same market place.
I was not asking for an apology and respect your opinion. I am glad you and your friends do not illegally download. All i was saying is that illegal downloading is ILLEGAL and wrong. If those people would watch or obtain the programs like Stargate Universe legally the views would be counted.
The links by the editor here do point out the problem with illegal downloading as does the David Blue post (near the end of his post). The Blastr article also point out the problem with torrent sites that help kill shows. Its illegal to download from any place other than the authorized sources like iTunes. The legal downloads are counted with the new techniques used by the ratings company Nielsen and the networks. So do on demand, DVR and streaming views from places like Hulu and the networks as discussed in the article by Craig Engler.
Stargate Universe was one of the highest illegal downloaded shows. WormholeRiders wrote about a group that wanted more Stargate Atlantis so bad they campaigned to watch SGU only by illegally download telling everyone to watch that way. And so it became, no more Stargate for now 🙁
Anyway to end on a positive note, I liked the statements by Brad Wright that Stargate will be back someday! I have read a lot of other articles and have seen that only here. But maybe I missed others who posted the positive statements by Brad Wright?
Alexandra
Alexandra,
I understand you are upset about the illegal practice of downloading and distributing produced media without the user purchasing the rights. Its entirely understandable that you, and any reasonable person, would be upset about that.
And in particular clearly the campaign mounted against SGU by disappointed SGA fans produced significant collateral damage.
But I have to point out that campaign would likely never have occurred if the viewers who wanted SGA to continue had not been ignored and taken for granted.
And I believe this proves one of my main points that the producers, business people continue to make decisions despite what they hear from viewers, and then those same producers and business people are chagrined when the jilted fans fight back and when the replacement show they invest in fails as well. This really was my main point.
Honestly, I had not heard about this campaign against SGU, and I disagree with that means, but I am not surprised it happened given the circumstances of SGA’s demise.
As to some programs like “Body of Proof” which you mentioned having 13 million viewers, again I am surprised. This is a show I had not heard of and likely will never watch.
My underlying presumption, which could be wrong, is that people like myself, would rather not watch the broadcast presentation, and would rather buy the DVD or would buy streaming access, and therefore the broadcast viewer-ship for some shows may significantly be underestimated since people like myself who just buy the DVDs or like some of my friends pay for streaming media access to what they want to see, are therefore under-represented.
I just read quickly thru the Wikipedia article on “Body of Proof”, which apparently did, or does not have enthusiastic critical support, even if 13 million viewers do watch it.
I believe if for the producers and business people, if its simply a matter of trying whatever MIGHT work to pull in that sort of viewer ship, then someone like myself will continue to dislike, even abhor most of what is on broadcast TV, and we will continue to see good series with outstanding long term potential be sacrificed.
Leslie
I hope someone else comes up with funding to do those Stargate movies or better yet another type of Stargate tv series. I bet they have unlimited ideas for shows.
I only started watching Stargate recently. I got so hooked on SG1 then Atlantis then Universe. Then got sad it was all over. I was amazed at the stories, the writers have so much talent they really need to produce another Stargate show that talent is too important to not use.