In August, CinemaSpy was invited to take an exclusive tour of the brand new sets for Stargate Universe, Syfy's hotly anticipated science fiction series that marks the third entry in the popular 'Stargate' television franchise.

It's been an extraordinary journey that began more than a decade ago, when Wright — along with producer Jonathan Glassner — developed Stargate SG-1 for television, based off MGM's 1994 Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich feature film, Stargate. Needless to say, the subsequent series — and it's spin-off series, Stargate Atlantis — were far more successful than the original motion picture ever was.

After 300+ hours of television spanning two different series under his belt, Wright — along with executive producer Robert Cooper — is getting ready to do it all over again...but this time, the producers hope to not only capture lightning in a bottle thrice, but also to capture viewers' imaginations in a little bit different way. How? By offering a show that is grittier and perhaps more unpredictable than the pervious iterations.

A cynic might call it the "Battlestar Galactica effect." That would be an oversimplification, however. True, Galactica redux was darker and more serious in tone, with complex and duplicitous characters and a wonderful ensemble of actors—a formula Wright acknowledges crossed his radar. "I won't lie to you, we haven't set out to make Battlestar by any means," Wright tells us from his office at Vancouver's Bridge Studios, where all three 'Stargate' series have filmed since the early '90s. "But the one thing they did that we noticed was to take a series title that had not particularly been thought of as high art in the 1970s ... and add Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell and surround them with really strong actors. You're going to bring a level of credibility to your series, even if it's something called Battlestar Galactica. And we're hoping to do the same thing, even if it's something called Stargate."

However, while Galactica's emphasis on grim verisimilitude may have been new for TV science fiction, it certainly isn't anything remarkable for television as a whole. Make a commitment to sit down and watch HBO's magnificent series Rome (yours truly just completed both seasons), and you will see that the complexity and richness of character and drama on television has amped up significantly in our post-9/11 world.

"We needed to shake it up, we needed to change the paradigm a little bit and create a different dynamic," Wright says. "Just another Stargate? I don't think the fans would like that. We wanted to take Stargate into the present in terms of television."

Moreover, Wright tells us that this show is much more of a character drama than SG-1 or Atlantis. And it bites back a little more, with a larger ensemble of characters who must balance their attributes and their proclivities in a fight for survival on the other side of the universe.

"We wanted to make a character drama...a really interesting, dynamic character drama," Wright asserts. "That's what the best shows on television are right now. We started Stargate a long time ago. It's been over 12 years since we started making Stargate SG-1. It has had to evolve, and it has evolved. If you look at some of our early stuff compared to some of our later stuff, you can see the evolution in visual effects, in shooting style...in everything."

While certain fans may take exception to this philosophy, it's impossible to argue with Wright's logic. Graphic and uncompromising television is the new normal for today's cutting-edge shows. Several other series are debuting this month that will offer similar dark elements of uncertainty—ABC's V and FlashForward being two examples. Thus, if Stargate didn't accept the heightened reality and complexity of today's television drama, it would risk not only repetition...but redundancy.

Moreover, Wright and Cooper also personally wanted a change of pace. With a dozen years of traditional space opera behind them, both were reluctant to fashion another series that recycled the same thematic structure; the same reliance on flippant leaders and rubber-faced aliens.

"Robert and I were not going to do just another Stargate...we were kind of done," Wright states. "Robert was dying to go do something else. And [Universe] is that. We've kind of had our cake and are eating it, too, because we're doing something very different and it's still called Stargate, but it is so different that we're individually and together excited about what we're doing in a way that we haven't been in a little while."

That said, how does Wright answer his critics amongst the fan community who are still shaking their fists at the cancellation of Atlantis and the "hubris" of evolving their beloved franchise?

"Well, of course we're hoping that everyone who watched Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis is going to at least give us a look," he tells us. "Our fans are very, very proprietary; it's their show. And they don't like that we're screwing around with their show. Some of them though, are saying, 'You know what? These guys have been trying to entertain us for 15 seasons now, let's give them a chance to do it for another few.' Those are the fans, I think, that are going to tune in and watch the show. And that'll be great. But we've always needed more than just our base to do well. We need millions of viewers to make a show successful. And those aren't necessarily the hardcore online people. They're folks that go click, 'Oh Stargate, let's watch that.' And the reality is you need those kinds of viewers. And I think we are much more of a mainstream show now than we ever were before."

That said, rest assured that both Wright and Cooper are big fans of Atlantis, want to do DVD movies, and are merely awaiting a go-ahead from MGM. The sets remain standing in Vancouver (at great expense to the studio). The hold up? Changes in technology and the added pressure of the recession have caused the bottom to fall out of DVD sales. The studio has no creative qualms about Atlantis DVD movies, but fiscally we're told it's currently viewed as a non-starter in the current economic climate. If things improve, don't be surprised to see MGM quickly reevaluate. Stay tuned on that front...

All of which brings us back to the Universe sets. How do they look in the flesh? In a word: impressive.

The first thing one notices is the heavy Jules Verne influence in the production design of the starship Destiny, a fact that producer John Lenic freely admits during our tour. As we walk around, we're sure there's a little Steampunk influence in there as well.

These sets are far more textural and also offer the added production benefit of having lighting built directly into the structure, including the floors, which are elevated by four inches. Since the sets incorporate much of the lighting needed for shooting, there's little need to reset external lighting rigs for every shot. Sliding panels in the corridors can be switched out and used as different corridors, while rooms are similarly versatile, with the mess hall doubling as the infirmary. One cool feature are the pipes that can eject smoke to give a sense that the ship is "breathing."

It took 10 to 12 weeks to build the Destiny set, and a great deal was invested in it, since up to 70% of the show takes place there.

Viewers will be interested to also learn that the Destiny shuttles are too big to pass through the Stargate (unlike the ones used in Atlantis)...and that any and all aliens that show up in this series will be created using CGI. As Brad Wright stated clearly: no rubber masks, no English.

Stay tuned over the next several days for our exclusive interviews with other members of the cast, including Robert Carlyle. Meanwhile, to read our interview with Alaina Huffman, click here.