It’s about time.

Stargate Universe, the upcoming third installment in the long-running Stargate television franchise, will feature two gay or lesbian characters. The first to be revealed by creators Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright is the character Camille Wray, to be played by Ming-Na.

Wray’s partner Sharon will also appear in an episode, but it’s not clear if she’s the second character referred to or if Cooper and Wright intend for a regularly appearing character to be the second. We’ll see.

Cooper said, “This goes towards our goal to make the characters on Universe as complex and complicated and realistic and identifiable as we can, to as many people as we can…That’s the desire to portray humanity and make a show that is saying something about who we are.”

American genre shows, with a few notable exceptions, have been a wasteland for LGBT characters. This is a positive step. It’s not quite another Torchwood, a British show that’s defiantly and cheerfully bisexual, but it’s still a positive step.

Hopefully, the writing of the characters on Stargate Universe will live up to the promise of Cooper’s words. Time will tell. For now, though, I’m pleased by this news.