Cancerous franchise comes out of remission

The next move for the Stargate program is to go "universal," according to executive producer Robert C. Cooper.

The working title for the franchise's next television series is "Stargate: Universe," as Cooper told GateWorld.

Originally a concept for a standalone feature film, "Universal" is intended to be "a completely separate, third entity," Cooper said, "more than Atlantis was. Atlantis was much more of a spinoff series of '[Stargate] SG-1' and was sort of born out of 'SG-1.'

"When we originally were sitting around talking about this, we were trying to come up with ideas for a Stargate feature -- not an 'SG-1' feature or [a 'Stargate: Atlantis'] feature, but a feature that would fit into the Stargate franchise that we feel we have created," Cooper said. "We were thinking, 'How do we create a third arm to the franchise that is very connective and that fans will feel is born out of the material that has come before, but at the same time is very much something that stands alone?'

Those plans blossomed into a new show when producers realized that the door was open for another Stargate program.

"When it became clear that a third series was a more realistic possibility from the studio's standpoint, we figured out how to tweak that idea and give it a little more legs than it would have had as a one-off story," he said. "We always, in the back of our minds even in coming up with that concept, felt that it could launch a third series. But now that idea has become the core idea for the new show."

Will the show be like "Star Trek: Enterprise," set in the past before the other Stargate shows, or in the future?

"I'm not a big fan of prequels," Cooper said. "I don't think that really works, and I don't really understand people who do think that works. One of the things that we love about Stargate is that is us -- it's our military, it's our scientists, it's our people -- and we're going out into the galaxy and the universe to discover all the wonders that are out there, and dealing with our own limitations versus things that are far more advanced than us.

"That's identifiable. It's what we deal with every day, in terms of medicine and science and astrophysics. We're just babies in all that. And we would always want to maintain that in anything that is Stargate-related."

Cooper also noted that while "Universe" will have its own identity and definitely different from 'SG-1' and 'Atlantis,' it will still be clearly in the Stargate universe.

"It certainly plays into the mythology that has been pre-established," Cooper said. "But it doesn't directly relate to anything that has been in either series."

Once "Stargate: The Ark of Truth" and "Stargate: Continuum" have completed principal photography in June, Cooper and executive producer Brad Wright will be able to spend more time fleshing out the script for "Universe's" pilot.

Fans will feel it's their lucky day when new episodes of "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate: Atlantis" return to the SciFi Channel on Friday, April 13.