The SCI FI Channel has debuted a new teaser trailer for Stargate Universe, the spin-off coming to television this October! The 45-second video shows the longest portions of scenes available so far, as well as cast members talking about what makes SGU

different from its predecessors.

Watch the video now at SciFi.com, or at the bottom of this story.

“SGU is about survival, more than anything else,” actor Robert Carlyle said in the video. Carlyle plays Nicholas Rush, a scientist charged with the task of unlocking the Stargate’s unused ninth chevron — then finding a way back when the team is stranded on the Ancient ship Destiny.

“These are real stories, and real people with real concerns,” Lou Diamond Phillips (”Colonel Telford”) said.

The teaser also features longer looks at scenes from episodes such as “Air,” the 3-part series premiere — such as a discussion between Telford and Camille Wray (Ming-Na), a kiss for Tamara Johansen (Alaina Huffman), and a desert planet that the team visits (recently filmed at White Sands, New Mexico).

“It’s going to have a different look,” actor Brian J. Smith said. Smith’s character is Lt. Matthew Scott, a military greenhorn who must rise to the occasion as a leader of the deep-space castaways. “It’s going to have a different feel. It’s going to be written a different way.”

The teaser also features brief comments from Ming-Na (”Wray”) and actress Elyse Levesque (”Chloe Armstrong”), who talk about the show’s emphasis on its characters — telling stories of human will, hope and faith.

Check out SciFi.com for the new video. For more on Stargate Universe all summer long, keep your browser locked on GateWorld.net/Universe! The show is expected to premiere on Friday, October 2 in the U.S., and soon thereafter on SPACE in Canada and Sky1 in the U.K.

The SCI FI Channel is ending Stargate Atlantis after five seasons, Multichannel News reports.

The show will go on, though, with a 2-hour movie that will air on SCI FI in 2009, and be released on DVD by MGM. The film will be written by executive producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie.

It's intended to be the first of an on-going series of Atlantis movies, according to the report. Stargate SG-1 has released two very successful movies direct-to-DVD this year, though neither has aired on U.S. television yet.

"The show will live on as a network franchise," the report also says. This could indicate that future Atlantis movies are a lock for SCI FI, or it may be a general statement about the cable network's commitment to the Stargate franchise.

Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, who created and executive produced Atlantis, pitched a third television series in the 11-year-old TV franchise to the network last year. While SCI FI has not yet announced a green light for that show, the end of Atlantis may clear the way -- the dollars available for original programming, that is -- for the next series.

Though Stargate Atlantis has been a solid ratings performer for SCI FI -- and was its highest-rated original program ever when it premiered in July 2004 -- in recent years series like Eureka have supplanted it in the "Live" ratings.

Atlantis remains an extremely strong performer in DVR-delayed viewing, though, often building as much as 25 to 30 percent on its premiere night audience.

Season Five will go out on a cliffhanger, with "Enemy At the Gate" expected to premiere in January. Expect the first Atlantis movie to wrap up that hanging storyline.

Stargate Atlantis airs Friday nights at 10 p.m. (9 Central) on SCI FI.

SG-1 was canceled on August 21, 2006.
SGA was canceled on August 20, 2008.

August isn't a good month for Stargate. Go sign the petition to save the show here.

Stay tuned.

Source: GateWorld

Don S. Davis, best known to genre fans as Maj. Gen. George Hammond in the Stargate television and film franchise, died on June 29. He was 65.

Davis was a co-star during the first seven years of "Stargate SG-1." As a result of a medical condition, he cut back to making guest appearances on "SG-1" until the show wrapped at the end of its 10th season.

He also brought Gen. Hammond to several episodes of "Stargate: Atlantis."

His final franchise appearance will be in the upcoming direct-to-DVD film, "Stargate: Continuum," scheduled for release on July 29.

He appeared in numerous films, including "Far Cry," "Woodshop" and "Vipers," all of which are in post-production.

He guest-starred on several television shows, such as "Supernatural," "The Dead Zone" and "Flash Gordon."

Davis met fellow Stargate star Richard Dean Anderson during work on "MacGyver" when Davis served as a stunt double for Dana Elcar.

He was born in Aurora, Mo., in 1942, and served in the U.S. Army. An accomplished artist as well as actor, Davis married Ruby Fleming-Davis in 2003. They were residents of British Columbia.

His family released a statement that said "so many of you have been touched by not only the work and art of Don S. Davis, but by the man himself, who always took the time to be with you at the appearances he loved, that it is with a tremendous sense of loss I must share with you that Don passed away from a massive heart attack on Sunday morning, June 29.

"On behalf of his family and wife, Ruby, we thank you for your prayers and condolences. A family memorial where Don's ashes will be scattered in the ocean will take place in a few weeks, and should you wish to, please make a donation to the American Heart Association in Don's memory."

"Stargate: Atlantis" executive producer Joseph Mallozzi told reporters during a conference call July 1 that Davis would certainly be missed.

"He had a bigger heart and was even nicer than the Hammond character that he played," Mallozzi said. Fans "would approach him in the sense that they were approaching Gen. Hammond. but once they got to know him, they got to know Don Davis, a very warm-hearted, incredibly self-deprecating man, who sadly will be incredibly missed by not just the fans, but anyone who worked with him."

Stargate SG-1 fans in the United Kingdom won't have to wait quite as long to see Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the DVD movie that promises to wrap up the Ori storyline from the past two seasons of the television series.

Sky One will premiere the movie on Wednesday, March 26 at 8 p.m. -- just two weeks after the movie's U.S. DVD release.

The film then arrives on DVD in the U.K. on April 14.

The Ark of Truth stars SG-1's Ben Browder, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Claudia Black, and Beau Bridges in a story that spans the galaxies. With our own galaxy under seige by the armies of the Ori -- powerful ascended beings who demand worship from "lower" life forms -- SG-1 must take the Odyssey through the Supergate into the enemy's own territory. There they hope to find a device created by the Ancients millennia ago, which they hope will stop the Ori worshipers from killing millions of innocents.

On the other side, they get far more than they bargained for.

Stargate: The Ark of Truth makes its U.S. debut on DVD on Tuesday, March 11. Order now at Amazon.com, and visit GateWorld Play for preview videos of the movie every week. Also, don't miss GateWorld's early review of the movie next week!

No television broadcast in the United States has been announced yet.

Via GateWorld

MGM and SCI FI Channel announced Tuesday the cast changes for the fifth season of Stargate Atlantis! Veteran genre actor Robert Picardo ("Star Trek: Voyager") joins the cast as the new commander of the Atlantis base. Paul McGillion ("Carson Beckett") also to return. Guest appearances for Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping!

Via GateWorld