Yet another casualty of declining ratings, the last installment in the Stargate franchise, Stargate Universe (or "SGU" for short), ran for only two seasons from 2009 to 2010. In this doomed offering, a group of humans flee an off-world colony through a stargate by dialling a longer-than-normal address and find themselves aboard an Ancient spaceship called Destiny. They are forced to work out how the ship operates in order to survive, gradually discovering amazing devices and features on the massive ship. In the last episode, they go into suspended animation so they can turn up fresh and rested for a movie-length conclusion, which - uh-oh - didn't get made. Whilst the series may not have been as exciting as it should have been, it was well acted and had excellent effects. Robert Carlyle turned in an especially memorable performance as the misanthropic lead scientist; a performance that was reason enough for more episodes by itself. SGU was a series that needed more time to fully develop - but viewers simply weren't willing to give it that time.
Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year.
You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike
