

There wasn’t a lot of surprise from fandom when Syfy mercifully pulled the plug on the “Battlestar Galactica” spinoff “Caprica” after its never-ending struggles in the ratings.

But for some fans who enjoyed the Tuesday night block of “Caprica” and “Stargate: Universe,” it’s not an either-or situation, and there is fear that SGU could follow “Caprica” to its end.

Last September, seeing the writing on the wall for “Caprica,” a small group of fans on the GateWorld forums began what they called the “Stargate: Universe” Awareness Campaign. The goal? To bring more viewers to SGU now when they can make a difference, rather than trying to fight a hopeless battle after a cancellation order is made.

It might not be the preferred way to get the message out there — posting messages to popular, yet unrelated areas of YouTube, for example — but doing something is better than doing nothing for these fans.

“Major Davis,” one of the leaders of the SGU Awareness Campaign on Facebook says it’s been difficult to organize the effort, because until there is word that SGU is in trouble — or until it’s already cancelled — many fans don’t want to be bothered by pre-emptive efforts.

“The lack of a strong central leadership and use of resources is a little disappointing,” said Major Davis, who asked Airlock Alpha to not use his real name. “There are several people who run the campaign, but not all have much time to invest, and there is no clear decision-making process.”

Major Davis’ efforts are meant to help complement those efforts undertaken by other fans on GateWorld, but the lack of organization has been a detriment.

“We’ve tried to get the campaign up and running and get people organized, but it never seems to quite come together,” Major Davis told Airlock Alpha. “As long as people are spreading the word about SGU, maybe the chaos isn’t too much of a problem, though it would be nice to be more organized and productive as a group, and not as hundreds of individuals running around promoting SGU.”

But still, is a campaign needed?

Last week, “Caprica” managed just 843,000 viewers for its final American broadcast of the year, according to TV By the Numbers. SGU didn’t do much better, pulling in a little over 1 million viewers in the overnights.

With reality programming and lighter fare like “Eureka” and “Warehouse 13” pulling in much larger numbers, the news may not be good for SGU. But there are still some fans who believe now that “Caprica” is gone, some of the dead programming weight is off Syfy’s shoulders, and there may be some more wiggle room for shows like SGU, which could simply need more time to help build an audience.

Syfy has shown that the traditional ways of continuing to air canned episodes of a show even if it decides to cancel are out the window when it literally pulled “Caprica” off the schedule with five canned episodes yet to air.

SGU has just started its second season, with Syfy planning to air 10 episodes now, and the back-10 early next year. However, if a decision were to come before the back-10 air, there is a chance fans will have to wait for a DVD release to watch the remaining episodes.

The leaders of the SGU Awareness Project, however, are trying not to let that happen. But by the time fans realize they should do something, the fear is it will already be too late.

“Stargate: Universe” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Syfy.