Axe Falls on ‘Stargate Universe’

Stargate Universe Cancelled!

Always knew this was likely given it’s US ratings, but reports are saying SyFy have axed ‘Stargate Universe’. Real shame, as it just seems to be getting stronger and stronger as a show, but isn’t finding an audience. For me, it’s the most interesting and different to of the Stargate franchise… But that was possibly also part of it’s downfall.

Yes, the style was… shall we say ‘heavily influenced’… by Battlestar Galactica. But BSG was a great show too (even with the slightly dodgy ending), so I never saw being inspired by another show as an issue. I mean, we wouldn’t have has those interestingly show space sequences in BSG if it hadn’t been for Firefly doing it first.

The final 10 episodes of SGU’s second season will air on SyFy (US) in the Spring of 2011, and presumably on Sky1 soon after.

So another interesting and dark scifi show bites the dust. Would you like to see a new Stargate franchise? If so, where would you want them to go next? Leave your thoughts in the comments, or over on the forum.

Caprica Canned!

Caprica Cancelled

This is a pity, but not a massive surprise… SyFy (US) have cancelled the Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica due to its rather lack lustre ratings, saying “despite its obvious quality, Caprica has not been able to build the audience necessary to justify a second season.”

SyFy have actually gone as far as to pull Caprica off air completely, saying the remaining 5 episodes of season 1 will now air in the new year.

It is a bit of a shame as I rather enjoyed Caprica, however if your also a fan of BSG universe, you can look forward to the next potential spin off – Blood & Chrome - which is a prequel following the young William Adama as he takes his first assignment on the shiny new Battlestar Galactica, 40yrs prior to the events of BSG. Lets hope Blood & Chrome grabs the US audiences attention more than Caprica did…

APB Going Down…

APB Cancelled!

Dur du dun… dun… dun… Another one bites the dust…

Yep, unfortunately, MMORPG APB has been locked up, and the key unceremoniously thrown away. Announced on the official forums today, APB is shutting down after only 2 months. Even by MMO standards, that’s a pretty swift turn around from launch to closure! And no long goodbyes either, the servers are due to go offline in the next 24 hours.

The games creators, Realtime Worlds, went into administration last month, and potential new buyers were ‘not comfortable’ with APB as a ‘live operation’.

It’s always sad to see MMO’s fail, but with the upcoming WoW:Cataclysm, DC Online, Lego Universe, and the genre changing Star Wars: The Old Republic due out over the next 6 months, it fair to say things were probably only going to worse for the fledging MMO.

Stargate Atlantis Cancelled!

Kinda surprised by this… After 5 seasons, Stargate Atlantis has been canned, despite being one of the best performers for US Sci Fi channel.

Sci Fi have however commisioned a 2hr Atlantis tv/dvd movie, so it’s possible they’re just finding the shows too expensive to shoot, and recent SG-1 movies (Ark of Truth and Continuum) have shown it’s more cost effective to make the 2hr specials.

There’s also no word yet on what this does to the pitched 3rd series, Stargate: Universe. On the plus side, they said they’d only want to start it after Atlantis finished. On the minus, if money is an issue, surely that’s still an issue with a new show…

There’s an official press release due from MGM sometime in the next 24hrs, so hopefully we’ll have more answers then.

With the MMORPG Stargate: Worlds due out next year, i can’t see the Stargate brand vanishing totally anytime soon.