Syfy channel has granted another season of their surprise hit Stargate Universe, along with a third season of Sanctuary.

The mid-season finale to Stargate Universe just aired with its hiatus ending in April of 2010. Season two of the series will debut in the fall as well as the next season of Sanctuary.

Each series has received a 20-episode order and production has already begun in Vancouver. Stargate Universe averaged 2.6 million viewers in the fall when combined with seven-day DVR data. Sanctuary scored with 2.2 million viewers.

The debut of Stargate Universe could not have come at a better time with the end of the network’s flagship show Battlestar Galactica ending it’s run. Stargate: Atlantis was also canceled yet producers aren’t worried that a similar fate could happen to Stargate Universe. Though Universe is “more realistic” and more optimistic than Battlestar Galactica, because it was different from previous Stargate shows and movies, some audiences have felt somewhat alienated.

“We’re dealing with 15 seasons of expectations with a certain fanbase,” executive producer Robert Cooper said. “Hopefully, as the show goes on, people will appreciate Universe for being its own thing.”

Stargate Universe ended with the “ethically compromised” Dr. Rush (Robert Carlyle) stranded on a planet. Cooper said the season’s second half will become more serialized and build on the fractures within the show’s group of spaceship-trapped castaways.

“The implications of leaving Rush on the planet, the real division that will cause amongst the crew, the judgment of those characters and their actions are going to have a big impact on the show,” Cooper said. “We have a lot of things planned for the second half of the season.”

SGU also plans to have more scenes shot on the ship, as opposed to constantly cutting back to drama on Earth. They will also introduce a full-bodied alien.

“There is a big story point coming up that does introduce an alien race,” Cooper said. “It’s more along the line of a District 9-type alien. Our interaction is handled in a very Universe way; they’re not the typical Stargate alien bad guys.”

Stargate Universe is the third series in the Stargate franchise to run on Syfy, formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel. Stargate SG-1 ran 10 seasons on Showtime and Sci Fi and Stargate Atlantis ran five seasons on Sci Fi and Syfy.

Sanctuary stars SG-1’s Amanda Tapping and is produced by several executives who worked on SG-1.