Stargate Universe: Robert C Cooper interview

How did it affect you when you came to direct an episode yourself? That must be quite a different approach.

Yeah. It was something that I've studied and been really interested in. I started to bring it into my own directing style a little bit prior to this, sort of experimenting with a little bit. But I just loved it and it was just so liberating. And what it does is it energises you and gets everybody involved - the DPs, the camera guys - and you end up with this collaboration that really helps in the end.

I kind of hurt myself a little bit as a writer on the first episode that I directed [laughs] because about 40-50% of that episode takes place from the point of view of this flying camera ball. So, in a way I had handcuffed myself because of the way I'd written the story. I almost didn't get to play in that style very much. The perspective of the show I was doing was completely different. It was really much more of a one shot stage play with this camera that's kind of floating around and capturing the moments in an even different way.

It was definitely an exercise in different styles!

What's the highlight of the process for you? Because I can't imagine anything more daunting  - and yet, conversely, brilliant - than sitting there with a blank piece of paper at the start. But your hands are in the editing room, writing, directing... Is there a particular favourite segment of that to you?

No. I love it all. In this case, I think, the casting process is always painful. You have ideas and you have ideals and finding things that work are... it's always difficult. We just struck gold and then working with this cast on the set is very, very exciting.

For me, I love editing too. That's where you kind of rewrite and see it all come together. You're dealing with what you got. It's all good.

Has the casting process got any easier or harder in the last 10-15 years as the genre itself has become more popular? Robert Carlyle, is some capture, for instance, and I couldn't ...

Well, the first thing you have to do is write a script that will attract an actor of that calibre. They won't just agree to do anything. And I know that's sort of patting ourselves on the back, but that was the... the attitude going in was we wanted to write a better quality piece, and so we could attract a higher prestige level of actor. Then it follows from there. Because once we had him, we found we had a better quality of actors coming in for the other roles.

We just really wanted to have the opportunity to work with him.

When Battlestar Galactica was first announced and people were like, 'Whew, why are they making a series out of that cheesy old show?' And when they then turned around and said, 'We got Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos' suddenly they went 'Oh! That's different than what we expected' and 'Maybe it's gonna be good'. That simply came from the ilk of actor that they had on that.

Would you ever be tempted to try and get Edward James Olmos aboard the Destiny?!

No, those sort of crossover things don't really speak to what we're doing. We are doing, certainly, big recurring cameos from the other SG folks, so... We have Richard Dean Anderson in six episodes this year. Michael Shanks has been around and Amanda Tapping. We're happy to mine our own universe.

You've been very clear as well, from what it seems, that the characters [that] are coming back won't be permanent characters, they're just there for a short period. Is that crucial for you in terms of making the break?

Yeah, this is a show that exists within the world of Stargate but is a new show. And I don't think fans tuning into this will feel like they don't understand what's going on or they had to watch the other series. I think Stargate Universe fans may be people who never saw a Stargate before.

There's certainly going to be a lot for fans of the franchise to enjoy and they'll see things that will reward them for being long-time fans. But you don't have to be to enjoy it. I think it was really important to us to make a clean break and start new with this.