Like many of the producers ideas, Cooper said, the idea for Stargate Universe was originally conceived as a stand-alone movie. "When we originally were sitting around talking about this we were trying to come up with ideas for a Stargate feature -- not an SG-1 feature or an Atlantis feature, but a feature that would fit into the Stargate franchise that we feel we have created," Cooper said. "We were thinking, 'How do we create a third arm to the franchise that is very connective and that fans will feel is born out of the material that has come before, but at the same time is very much something that stands alone?'

"When it became clear that a third series was a more realistic possibility at this point from the studio's standpoint, we figured out how to tweak that idea and give it a little more legs than it would have had as a one-off story. We always, in the back of our minds even in coming up with that concept, felt that it could launch a third series. ... But now that idea has become the core idea for the new show."

Stargate Universe will not be set in a different era, Cooper confirmed, neither as a prequel nor in the far future of the Stargate program.

"I'm not a big fan of prequels," he said. "I don't think that really works, and I don't really understand people who do think that works. One of the things that we love about Stargate is that is us -- it's our military, it's our scientists, it's our people -- and we're going out into the galaxy and the universe to discover all the wonders that are out there, and dealing with our own limitations versus things that are far more advanced than us.

"That's identifiable. It's what we deal with every day, in terms of medicine and science and astrophysics. We're just babies in all that. And we would always want to maintain that in anything that is Stargate-related."

In spite of being quite distinct in identity from SG-1 and Atlantis, the new series will be unmistakably Stargate. "It certainly plays into the mythology that has been pre-established," Cooper said. "But it doesn't directly relate to anything that has been in either series."

Stargate Universe will have stand-alone episodes and multi-parters, but will have more season-long plot and character threads running through every episode than the other Stargate series. Brad Wright is hopeful that Stargate Universe will last three or more seasons. The first season is planned to consist of 20 episodes. Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper write the three-parter series opener named "Air] which was originally planned to be a two-parter. According to Joseph Mallozzi, "although it is, effectively a three-parter, from a story standpoint the first two parts can (and probably will) serve as the premiere." A mid-season two-parter will be written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. Stargate Universe is expected to premiere on the US Sci Fi Channel in October 2009.