Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

October 19, 2010: Stargate: Universe, “Pathogen”, tonight at 9:00 p.m. on SyFy!

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Just got the live+7 numbers for Intervention, the season 2 premiere.  Wow.  We jumped 78% from the live number, about 40% from the liv+SD.  That’s a lot of eyeballs.  Of course that isn’t even counting those who are viewing the show through alternate platforms (ie. netflix, iTunes, and other download options).

Merely a point of interest.

Well, finally completed work on that cursed script – surprisingly those last two acts were relatively painless – and passed the first draft off to my writing partner, Paul, to work his magic.  I’ve never been so relieved to write those glorious two words “FADE” and “OUT”.

Hey, going through my backlog of pics, I came across some of the early design work on the aliens the crew encountered in Awakening (a.k.a. the Telford aliens, a.k.a. the Ursini)…

The early look was very cool, but my main concern was ensuring the creatures possessed a certain vulnerability. The teeth had to go and the face needed to be more expressive.

The idea that these creatures could leap and crawl along walls was something we had fun with in the episode.

The face is more expressive and we get an early look at a potential uniform (otherwise we would have had to pixelate its privates for the sensitive viewing public).
It’s alien night in this galaxy’s favorite S&M club!  Why invest in a whip when you have that tail?
I say, sirrah.  Fancy a spot of tea?
Close to the finished version.

Mark Savela and the VFX crew took James Robbins’ alien design and did an unbelievable job of bringing it to life.  And I do mean unbelievable!

Thanks to dioxholster for the upload.

Hey, check out this interesting article in today’s Vancouver Sun.  It lists Ten Foodies To Watch in Van including Refuel’s awesome Ted Anderson and Boneta’s Jeremie Bastien –

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/foodies+watch/3696111/story.html

Now go watch our show!

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42 responses

  1. Joan001 Avatar
    Joan001

    WOW!! Joe… I think the talent is unbelievably outstanding. So happy about the numbers… now, let’s hope that the PTB don’t get up on the wrong side of the bed.

    Reply
  2. me Avatar
    me

    When did the SG:U writers know that Riley was not long for the Destiny?

    I loved his Kino reports. Will there be anymore of the Kino diaries?

    Looking forward to tonight’s episode.

    Reply
  3. carmencatalina Avatar
    carmencatalina

    Love those sketches/drawings!

    I have to say that the finished aliens were wonderful – I was quite taken with our brown and strange friend.

    Reply
  4. Deni Avatar
    Deni

    I’m watching, I’m watching, but Star Trek’s on (Redemption, Part 2). Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Star Trek, but Denise Crosby gets on my nerves big time. Why didn’t we get last week’s SGU episode tonight?

    How’s Jelly doing? Last time I saw her she was quite the pistol, hope it’s continuing to improve. My black Cocker, Summer (Dinky) had what I thought was a mast cell tumour (no, I never think the worst…but then again, it’s been a hell of a year with my dogs) on her head, rushed her to the vet and found out she had not one, but two gross cysts. Seems older Cockers get these. One of them exploded when the vet went to aspirate it. So, antibiotics for the next week, problem resolved. She’s already ignoring me again so I know she feels well 🙂

    Have a good night!

    Reply
  5. Annie from Fremantle Avatar
    Annie from Fremantle

    SGU reminds me of a car accelerating…. season one, it was just warming up and then moving out of the driveway… now it’s out of the driveway and moving down the road…

    The haters expected SGU to be doing 110k/h whilst still in the driveway. Doesn’t work like that. Sorry. Not for this kind of show which wants us to learn the characters, then go from there. Well that’s my opinion.

    Reply
  6. Annie from Fremantle Avatar
    Annie from Fremantle

    P.S in honour of Riley… never seen him laugh like this, it was lovely (and a hilarious webisode )

    Reply
  7. dasNdanger Avatar
    dasNdanger

    @ Deni – Good to hear it was nothing serious, just pus! 😀

    Also, been on a bit of a rollercoaster because of you-know-what…will drop you an e-mail as soon as the smoke clears. 😛

    @ Joey – Good ep. Though I am not a fan of those blasted communication stones, I did like how they were used tonight with you-know-who coming to the ship. I even got a bit teary-eyed. Or maybe it was just PMS. Either way, it was a beautiful moment…and I even appreciated the indirect self-sacrifice of The One I Hate in order to make it happen. Speaking of that one, I found some bits of the ep tonight a big draggy because of the earth visits (though I understand the significance of them), but all the mystery/intrigue around Chloe’s condition and Rush’s manipulation helped keep my attention. Also, gotta love me some in-yer-face Greer action! 😀

    Mr. Das was mostly excited about the nekked Chloe in bed scenes. Men. 🙄

    Good job, and good news (I assume) about the ratings. I really don’t understand what that translates to in actual ‘eyeballs’ – can you be a bit more specific? Thankies, sir. 🙂

    das

    Reply
  8. Bryan M. White Avatar
    Bryan M. White

    Hello Joe.

    SPOILERS
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    GREAT final moment between Eli and his mother!!! My compliments to both the writers, and the actors for bringing that moment to life!!! How long can Rush keep this up? Not just his plan to use Chloe, but also that he cracked the master code? Also, do you think Varro told Young that Simeon is giving false information? The show is really starting to heat up. Can’t wait to see what happens!!!

    Best Wishes,

    Bryan

    Reply
  9. Sean D. Avatar
    Sean D.

    Hi Joe,

    Are the “Awakening” aliens actually called Ursini?

    I’m not familiar with that word from anywhere.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  10. Michael A. Burstein Avatar
    Michael A. Burstein

    Spoilers below….

    So just as Eli was getting frustrated and had an idea, Nomi and I paused the program. I said that they were going to use the stones to get Eli’s mom on the ship so she could see Eli in the flesh. Nomi said that they would get Wray’s partner to meet with Eli’s mom.

    Turned out we were both right.

    Reply
  11. Major D. Davis Avatar
    Major D. Davis

    Holy cow Joe….. You’ve done it… Well to be precise… Carls done it.. 😉 ….. He’s created a stone episode I freaking loved. Everything about this ep rocked… The pacing, the story, the music (or in cases lack thereof). You also handled wray and Sharon awesomly… Instead of them immediately making out the situation felt much more real… And not titilation for guys…. And with Eli… Dang…. I can’t say enough good things about that storyline…especially the end.

    There hasn’t been a dud yet this season…. And next weeks looks amazing too… This show neeeedddss a third season. Wayyyyyy better then SG-1 or SGA IMO.

    9/10…. If not 9.5/10 🙂

    Thanks so much Joe (And Carl) 🙂 …
    Major D. Davis

    Reply
  12. Ponytail Avatar
    Ponytail

    I am REALLY getting into SGU’s second season. I think it is less space soap and more space drama. Tonight’s episode was great! I actually understood every bit of it. Usually my crazy beagle distracts me enough to where I can’t keep up with the intricate plots. Pathogen had a lot going on, and it was all good!

    SPOILERS******SPOILERS******SPOILERS
    *******SPOILERS******SPOILERS*******

    FINALLY, the stones were put to good use!!! If Ely’s mother never recognized her son while he was visiting her, you Joseph Mallozzi, were going to get an earfull from me! It was heart breaking. I was going to ask why she could not recognize him simply from his mannerism. A mother would know her son or at least have a suspicion. But then allowing her to go to the Destiny to see Ely…made me cry. And Chloe acting strange and apparently starting to change inside – that is getting exciting. I’m sure when they hooked that thing up to her head Rush probably saw an alien. That story line is getting very interesting.

    END SPOILERS*****END SPOILERS******END SPOILERS

    Another great espisode tonight! One big complaint is not getting to see last week’s episode before the new one airs. Instead SyFy choose to air a 20 year old Star Trek: Next Generation. Why not keep it current? SyFy is weird!

    Reply
  13. dasNdanger Avatar
    dasNdanger

    @ Joe – Why would aliens have reproductive organs that look anything like something that should be pixelated? I mean, even with the Wraith I’m still torn between the idea of everything being internal (like lizards), to the Cthulhu-crotch idea. They’re aliens, they shouldn’t have wee bits like us!

    das

    Reply
  14. DP Avatar
    DP

    @me – Why did you have to remind me of the kino reports? I miss them so very much.

    Where’s your name on that list of foodies in Vancouver, Joe? Oh, I know, it’s there. I’m just too tired to see it.

    Reply
  15. Joseph Avatar
    Joseph

    Binder, Carlyle, Blue, Ming-Na and Knepper all hit it out of the fuckin’ park tonight. Soooo impressed with the acting. Something I always loved about Rush’s scenes, especially confrontations with other characters, was how much energy Carlyle emanated while acting in these scenes, and he somehow got every actor in this episode to do the same.

    Ursini – I like it. Though to be honest I was really hoping that they were the Furlings. Any chance we could get a species name for the Blueberry aliens?

    Reply
  16. Ponytail Avatar
    Ponytail

    “wee bits” !!!??!!! 😳

    Reply
  17. Melissa Avatar
    Melissa

    Syfy pulled the rerun episode of SGU at 8pm because the ratings were too low for it.

    As per the Live + 7 numbers, they are still pretty low. It was around 1.5 million if I recall. Compared to W13 and Eureka’s 3-4 million numbers, it’s not so great.

    Reply
  18. Ponytail Avatar
    Ponytail

    The Texas Rangers sure know how to clear the NY Yankee Stadium. Kick their butts night after night and watch the Yankee fans run home early! GO TEXAS RANGERS!!

    Reply
  19. Tim Gaffney Avatar
    Tim Gaffney

    Well, yet another episode derailed by a visit to Earth. Can’t say much more without:

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    While I admit the end of the episode was very touching, Eli bringing his Mom to the ship, the rest of the parts on Earth completely dragged down what was a great episode with big ramifications down the line. We now have mutant Chloe working with Rush, we have Rush in yet another lie, and we don’t know what Chloe/Blue Aliens endgame is. And Rush had to give up his “brainstorming room” in order to take the heat off himself. And he straight out lied to Young and the others that Chloe was cured. This has the potential for big things in the upcoming episodes. Yet we had to spend time on Earth with Eli and Wray. As much as I like seeing Reiko Aylesworth, I have had it with the Wray/Sharon story line. It is boring as hell and I think there were so many other things you could have used that time for, like the other things that Chloe was doing while under the aliens influence. So now we have what looks like the beginning of a support group for the families of our crew, starting with Eli’s Mom and Sharon. That doesn’t interest me in the slightest. Just stay on the ship. You have had a bunch of episodes in a row that took place exclusively on the Destiny(excluding the brief visits Young took to brief O’Neill and Rush’s capture by the L.A.) and they were awesome. That is what the stones should be used for, not family get-togethers. And if you are going to keep doing this, than why do you have the same characters going over and over. Why not James or T.J. or Greer?
    Back to the real episode. I think it is all in Rush’s mind regarding him seeing his wife and Franklin. It is not the ship “talking” to him. He is not sleeping and starting on the path to madness. Now he has Chloe to worry about and I think that it will take just one thing to cause him to snap/slip up and the jig will be up. That upcoming confrontation between him and Young will be epic. As to the L.A., it is interesting that Simeon was unaware that he was the only one who was giving false info to the crew. Varro seems like he wants the best for his remaining people, but you are probably making him nice and cooperative so that when he turns on the crew it will be a bigger surprise. And when are you bringing back Ginn?

    A final question about the ratings. If they are 73% better with the +7 numbers, does SyFy take that into consideration when they decide on renewal? That has to be the highest addition of viewers to a shows ratings of any show. To me, it doesn’t matter when or how a show is watched. Just count the total number of viewers and use that to make your decision. It shouldn’t matter how many watch it on the day of the episode….Bring on Cloverdale!

    Reply
  20. PBMom Avatar
    PBMom

    Great episode tonight. Carl is a master at the heartstrings. And I love the symmetry in the story lines —

    POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS

    — like the Chloe/Lucian Alliance (with them both needing 24 hour guarding), the Camile/Eli story Sharon/Eli’s mom story. How hard it must have been for Camile to do that for Eli but not be able to do that for herself. Like how Rush had to reveal some of his stuff but not the full monty (pun intended). Liked how many men jumped to the defense of Dr. Park. Many other things.

    Love seeing Reiko.

    And I sobbed with the Eli/mom storyline.

    Robert Carlyle did a fantastic job at directing.

    SPOILERS END

    So glad you finished the script. I can only imagine the relief. Fantastic news about the numbers. People’s lives are just too busy to watch live anymore. The sponsors have to figure out how to incorporate advertising within the shows. Take, for example, Warehouse 13. Myka’s character loves Twizzlers, and they made it part of the storyline for several weeks. Sure it stood out, but that was the point. Now I cannot think of a Twizzler without thinking of Warehouse 13. It would be hard to do with a show like SGU, but you guys are creative. I thought it was kind of funny that one of the sponsors for the show tonight was Star Wars The Force Unleashed (a new video game coming out). Eli would have loved that. Darth Vader was in the commercial.

    Reply
  21. Shawna Avatar
    Shawna

    I do love those aliens. They’re so very clearly alien looking, yet manage to not look particularly scary. At the end of the episode, my mom thought Telford was pretty much finished, but I thought the aliens looked like they might work with him. Are we going to find out what happened to Telford at some point?

    Reply
  22. Gatefan1976 Avatar
    Gatefan1976

    @
    Sean D.
    Ursini is actually a really bad name for the “browns”, It (Ursini) is linked to Bears (in Latin, if memory serves, root word Ursine) and to my mind the “browns” more resembled a toned down lizardman from D&D more than anything else. (there is another race in D&D that resembles them more, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head, they are more human/turtle hybrids(not the TMNT ones BTW) ).

    Reply
  23. sylvia Avatar
    sylvia

    Need to warn people to have tissues handy. WOW!

    Reply
  24. Gilder Avatar
    Gilder

    1. Adding my kudos! Have already tweeted to Carl.

    2. You named the new aliens for my alma mater!
    http://www.Ursinus.edu

    They bear a slight resemblance to the 16th-century religious scholar…
    http://www.ondoctrine.com/2ursinus.htm

    Reply
  25. Gilder Avatar
    Gilder

    Continuing…

    The Ursinii also slighly resemble Ursinus College’ mascot…
    http://www.ursinusathletics.com/landing/index

    …but then, I’m biased.

    Is “Ursinii” pronounced ER-sin-ee, as in Latin, or er-SIGN-ee?

    The College is er-SIGN-us, as in “your sinus condition”. It’s a tough name but a great place.

    Reply
  26. Prior_of_the_Ori Avatar
    Prior_of_the_Ori

    Hi Joe,

    I watched Awakening and damn it felt like a horrible fate for Telford on the seed ship in those last moments 🙁 Any chance of seeing them again in the future? *hopes for Telford aliens picking a fight with Blueberry aliens* 😀

    Reply
  27. My Name Is Scott Avatar
    My Name Is Scott

    Nice ep!

    One question… what did Simeon say to Dr. Park?

    And does Chloe always sleep naked? That doesn’t ever get old? Surely she realizes the tv audience isn’t there every night to watch her 😉

    Reply
  28. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    I love this show and am always waiting for the next episode, but why the 30 day delay in the airing of the show online? Totally unfair to people who can’t watch the show at the scheduled times. SyFy’s VP blames this on the show/producers. What part of your agreement with SyFy is causing the 30 day delay in the airing of the show? It sounds like a decision that is bad for the franchise and bad for business…good bye online ad revenue!

    Reply
  29. E Avatar
    E

    Three episodes out of four that have made me teary. Hm. Loving it. 😀

    Reply
  30. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    Great episode tonight Joe… watched it over the Rangers/Yankees game and it was well worth it.

    Reply
  31. amychr Avatar
    amychr

    Loving the direction Universe is taking this season! The new aliens are awesome and I can’t wait to see more of them and what’s going on with Telford (?!)
    I’ve noticed you link to Goodreads for your book posts and I wanted to invite you to claim your Goodreads author page. I’m a librarian for the site, so inviting authors is kind of my thing 😉

    Reply
  32. T'Loc Avatar
    T’Loc

    So the name of the aliens from Awakening are the Ursini?

    Reply
  33. iamza Avatar
    iamza

    I truly wasn’t going to watch this season, but seem to have ended up watching anyway, which turns out to be good news for me. 🙂

    Loved last night’s episode, mostly for the Wallace family moments, and because Camile got her chance to shine. I’m glad she’s your favourite character if it means we get more moments like those in last night’s episode.

    More generally for season 2, Rush is becoming ever more manipulative and I love his choice of, er, confidantes. And Telford…man, I really hope more will come to pass with his storyline. If there was ever a case of, “Wait, you can’t just leave it at that…!” this was it.

    Anyway, just wanted to say job well done, and cheers.

    Reply
  34. PDF Avatar
    PDF

    Are this new alien generation.?

    Reply
  35. DP Avatar
    DP

    Hulu did it to me again! It’s 30 days until the next one airs. If I knew they were going to be that far behind, I’d’ve asked someone to record it for me. Since I have to watch this kind of show in order, I can’t implement that plan after the fact. There’s no way someone will save a back log of 5 episodes for me so I can catch up and hop back in mid-season.

    How is the show supposed to pick up new viewers if there’s no way to catch up? Lost showing all the catch up episodes before the new one aired was the only reason they picked me up as a live viewer.

    There’s no way I can avoid spoilers for 30 days (unless I give up this blog, not gonna’ happen) so I just give up avoiding spoilers. I’ll catch up when I can. If episodes are spoiled for me by then, so be it.

    I anticipate I’ll be able to afford cable again before this season ends, but I probably won’t get it until Season 3 because there’s no way I can catch up anyway.

    IDK, is this episode a stand-alone? Can I ask someone to record the next episode and not watch Pathogen until next month and still know what’s going on?

    Reply
  36. WormholeRiders Avatar
    WormholeRiders

    Dear Mr. Mallozzi,

    Thank you for the REAL Stargate Universe numbers. WHR has been studying REAL #SGU viewing statistics ourselves and concur with this statistically accurate assessment.

    Of interest (as I just mentioned on twitter), our team has NOT been happy with sites that ‘guess’ quoting incomplete numbers!

    Worse we then see the ‘newbie’ site (their own words) using the same inaccurate numbers that are subsequently quoted over & over again as if they were gospel (no blasphemy intended).

    Best regards to your team.

    Please keep up the great work on SGU. Thank you.

    Sincerely,

    WR_Systems (Kenn) of WHR

    Reply
  37. whiterose64 Avatar
    whiterose64

    Hi Joe,

    I love SGU – the writing and acting are fantastic and I am now really hooked on SGU. I like that it is more drama and character driven with an ongoing plotline.

    The cast are all brilliant but I think Louis Ferreira is just amazing and his portrayal of Col Young was what caught my attention in the first few episodes, and every episode since. Note to the writers there is no such thing as too much Col Young:)

    Will there be anymore of the Q & A with Louis Ferreira?

    SGU was my first Blu Ray purchase and I can’t wait for S2 to come out – any chance of having a blooper reel on the next dvd? Going by the on set sense of humour it would be hilarious.

    Reply
  38. Shiny Avatar
    Shiny

    Nice news on the numbers; I’ll finally get to watch it on Hulu tonite, looking forward to it.

    Why is it that when I am really busy with my own stuff suddenly everyone and their neighbor has even more stuff to dump on me? My usual fix for this problem is tying my belongings into a bundle, tying the bundle to a stick and tossing it over my shoulder as I catch the nearest hobo train to Nowheresville.

    I liked the Alien Dandy with the vest; wouldn’t mind having tea time with him, but since he looks like his insides are on his outsides I think I’ll skip it and sup with the Blueberries and pray they don’t eat my face.

    Reply
  39. BoltBait Avatar
    BoltBait

    I would like to watch the latest episode, but this is what it says on Hulu:

    “The first 3 episodes of the new season will be available the day after their original airdates.
    Subsequent episodes will become available 30 days after their original airdates.”

    30 days?! Really? 3-0 days?

    Reply
  40. Shiny Avatar
    Shiny

    @ BoltBait – Hulu is withholding eps from many shows, not just SGU or syfy shows. They are doing it across the board, seems to be a licensing thing or a ploy to get users to pay for the delux Hulu service.

    Syfy’s site said it will post the eps the day after, but as of last night EST there was no Pathogen uploaded to Syfy.com.

    I haven’t seen the ep yet either, aack!

    Reply
  41. whoops Avatar
    whoops

    Why did my comment get deleted? I was sincerely worried about the ratings? With the latest episode falling under a million viewers live, will the season end in a satisfying way if the show gets cancelled?

    Reply
  42. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Hi Joseph

    I trust you are well. I must admit that I am truly impressed that you, being a famous person due to script writing, stay in contact with your fans. I admire you for that!

    I hope you don’t mind but I am about to ask an off topic question but still Stargate related. Will there be more Stargate films be made i.e. Extinction and another SG-1 film?

    Loving Stargate Universe even though it got off to a slow start. The story is highly intriguing and captivating.

    Regards
    Jason

    Reply

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