Stargate was a fantastic 12-year experience for me. I learned a lot from showrunners Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, the cast, the crew, and fandom. Among the greatest takeaways from my time on the show is this oft-repeated (by me) nugget: “Fans tune in for the hook, but they stay for the characters”. To that, I would add the importance of family, something that is at the core of all three Stargates. On SG-1, it’s team SG-1. On Atlantis, it’s the Atlantis Expedition. And on Universe, it’s the crew of the Destiny. They may be very different personalities, have totally different outlooks, and disagree at times, but despite all the challenges they face, they are family – to each other and to fans around the world. Looking back, it was no coincidence that one of the final scenes I wrote for Stargate was the farewell dinner scene for Stargate: Universe in which Eli toasts his fellow crew while likening them to family members (Rush, of course, drawing comparisons to “the crazy uncle”). It was also no coincidence that this very concept was at the heart of my show, Dark Matter. The crew of The Raza are family. Like SG-1 and the Atlantis Expedition and the Destiny crew, they alway find a way to come together and have each other’s backs.
This sense of family was ever-present behind-the-scenes on all four productions. And obvious in the support and love these show continue to receive from their many fans. So when we rallied to fight for Dark Matter following its cancellation by Syfy, that sense of family was evident throughout the campaign with hashtags like #WeCarryEachOther and #DarkMatterFamily. Stargate fans came out to support Dark Matter fans and I’m heartened to see Dark Matter fans now joining this campaign to support Stargate fans. [I’m also seeing a lot of Dark Matter fans checking out Stargate for the first time and vice-versa which makes me very happy. If you’ve yet to cross-sample, might I suggest Dark Matter fans check out Stargate: SG-1 Season 4, Episode 6 “Window of Opportunity” and Stargate fans check out Dark Matter Season 3, Episode 4 “All The Time In The World”. You’ll love the parallels.].
Stargate fans, Dark Matter fans, hell, scifi fans in general are family. We know the difference between a goa’uld and a tok’ra, a ha’tak and a mothership, O’Neill with two L’s as opposed to one. We know that TWO is Portia is Rebecca, and SIX is Griffin Jones is Kal Varrick, and THREE named his big gun Bubba and his sidearms Lulu and Pip but didn’t name his knife because what do you think he is, psycho? We know to Keep Looking Up, that Crackers Don’t Matter, and that Han Shot First. We have each others backs. #WeCarryEachOther
And we’re about to send one helluva message.
Trust me, we are closer to a fourth in-canon Stargate series than ever before!
Tomorrow, finally, I’ll give you the details of how we’re going to pull this off – exactly what we’re going to do and when.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already done so, head on over to twitter and follow @StargateNow and yours truly. If you’re not yet on twitter, fear not. It’s easy. Just go to the twitter home page, sign up, then come back here and click on the above links to be taken to the aforementioned accounts. Click the “follow” button and you’ll be automatically dialed in and updated on the latest developments on the campaign front along with Stargate-related pics, gifs, vids, commentaries, and more than a few surprises.
