'Stargate' chiefs inspired by 'Firefly'

Stargate Universe has been influenced by Joss Whedon's short-lived Firefly series, creator Robert C. Cooper has confirmed.

The forthcoming sci-fi show, which premieres in the autumn, will feature an experimental shooting style in an attempt to keep the Stargate franchise fresh.

"The style is very different from what we've done in the past. It's far more mobile than we've done in the past on SG-1," Cooper is quoted by Gateworld as saying.

"The concept is that we wanted to shoot this a little bit like a documentary crew would shoot a ride-along to a space ship out in the universe - that maybe we could get audiences to embrace the science fiction elements and the characters in a realistic way if we shot the show using the 'language' of documentary and reality."

Revealing the influences behind the move, he added: "It's not intended to be style for style's sake, or to emulate any other show. Although, to be honest with you, one of the shows we love that we did look at and say, 'That's a style we would love to try and approach' is Firefly.

"That's how Firefly was shot. There's a lot of handheld stuff. Cameras were placed in places that were non-traditional or [not] typical of filmmaking."

Firefly debuted on the Fox network in 2002 but was cancelled due to low ratings after just 11 episodes had aired. The space-western show later spawned a movie spinoff, titled Serenity.