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Stargate SG-1 (rarely written Stargåte to mimic the title art, and popularly abbreviated as SG-1) is an American television series based upon the 1994 science fiction film Stargate. The premise of both is the existence of devices called "Stargates", which allow travellers on foot to cross the vast distances of space in an instant. The show focuses on a team called SG-1, who from a top-secret U.S. military base called the SGC, use a Stargate found on Earth to explore other worlds and defend Earth against alien threats instigated in the original film. Thus unlike many other science-fiction franchises with an interplanetary-exploration theme, SG-1 is set in the present day, is based on Earth, and primarily involves humans.

The series is produced by MGM and filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The first episode was broadcast on July 27, 1997 on Showtime, which aired the series' first five seasons. Since season six, the show has aired on the Sci Fi Channel. In October 2005, the Sci Fi Channel renewed SG-1 for a tenth season, making it the longest-running science fiction series on American television, surpassing The X Files's 9 seasons and 202 episodes.

Developed for television by Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright, SG-1 originally starred Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Don S. Davis. The cast would change in later seasons. Actor Corin Nemec was a regular during the 6th Season, replacing Shanks, who returned in Season 7, replacing Nemec. Davis left as a regular during the eighth season, and Anderson in the ninth; the latter season added new regulars Ben Browder and Beau Bridges. In Season 10, Claudia Black was added as a new regular, reprising her recurring role as Vala Mal Doran which began in Season 8.

A spin-off series, Stargate Atlantis, began airing in July 2004. The two shows now run in tandem, with plots that are occasionally interconnected, and story timelines that are simultaneous.

Show summary

The original members of SG-1 were Col. Jack O'Neill (Anderson), Dr. Daniel Jackson (Shanks), Capt. Samantha Carter (Tapping) and Teal'c (Judge). For 8 Seasons the primary antagonists would be the galactically-dominant and evil, human-parasitic race, the Goa'uld. The original arch-enemy of this race was the System Lord Apophis (Peter Williams).

In the pilot episode of SG-1, the primary goal of the SG teams is set out: to travel to other worlds through the Stargate and procure alien technology to help defend Earth against the Goa'uld. This forms the basis of nearly every episode after that point. It is common for episodes to begin already on another planet, where the viewer is meant to infer that the team is there, as usual, reconnoitring for potentially useful allies or technology. Aside from this, the archeologist and historian character Daniel Jackson often takes further interest in anthropology, alien society and culture, and even moral issues encountered whilst offworld, allowing for more philosophical or thoughtful episodes. Nearly all alien planets are depicted as populated by humans that were displaced from ancient Earth, allowing the show to explore real-life ancient cultures such as those of the Aztecs, Mayans, Britons, the Norse, Mongols, Greeks, Romans and most prominently, Ancient Egyptians.

The show remains popular despite having run for a decade. TV Guide proposed in 2004 that its popularity may be exceeding that of the Star Trek franchise. Stargate SG-1 continues to break records in terms of Nielsen Ratings for the Sci-Fi channel, while the eighth season two-part episode "Reckoning" was widely regarded by fans as one of the five best in the show's history, a testament to how the show has maintained its vigour. Although Richard Dean Anderson, playing the show's effective main character, departed as a regular in Season 9, he left the door open for future guest appearances and appears in several episodes of Season 10.

Plot summary

When Apophis attacks Earth at the beginning of the series, one year after the events of the original film, the SGC military base is brought back into action, and SG teams are created, the prime of which is SG-1, to help defend Earth from the new threat. It is quickly revealed that Apophis is but one of many Goa'uld System Lords who battle for power of the galaxy.

The Goa'uld are portrayed as parasitic beings that take control of other bodies (usually humans, whom they transported across the galaxy in the distant past). System Lords are shown having vast armies of footsoldiers, the bulk of these forces consisting of modified humans known as Jaffa. Throughout the course of the show, some Jaffa – and then an increasing number – form a Jaffa Rebellion led by main character Teal'c, a high-ranking Jaffa who defected to SG-1's cause in the first episode.

SG-1 and the SGC make several alliances with other races in the galaxy, such as the Tok'ra. The Tok'ra are the same species as the Goa'uld, but they are opposed to the System Lords, and their hosts willingly share their bodies. Other races depicted include the Tollan and other advanced human civilizations. They also meet races that have been surviving in the galaxy for millennia, such as the Nox, the Asgard, and the remnants of an extinct race that come to be known as the Ancients. It is later discovered that the Ancients were the most advanced race ever, and were the builders of the Stargates.

In the background of the show, there is a constant attempt by forces on Earth to take control of the Stargate. In particular, rogue NID agents, which eventually become the elite syndicate known as The Trust, are constantly trying to steal the Stargate or use alien technology for their own ends. The political powers on Earth are often at loggerheads over the Stargate, particularly after the program is revealed to ambassadors from the other main powers of Earth.

Besides the Goa'uld, another threat arises in Season 3, namely a race of non-sentient machines called Replicators. These Replicators rarely posed a direct threat to the Milky Way galaxy, but were on the verge of wiping out the Asgard.

Engaging with Replicators in the premiere, the show begins to spread away from its Goa'uld-orientated roots in Season 4, focussing on stand-alone episodes and alternative bases for episodes. Throughout the season, they encounter everything from genocidal civilizations, to advanced strength-enhancing gauntlets, to a new recurring species, the Unas. The season ends with a large battle against the Goa'uld System Lord Apophis.

After Apophis is conquered in Season 5, another Goa'uld System Lord takes his place as the show's main villain, Anubis. Anubis is considerably more evil than Apophis, and has much of the knowledge of the Ancients. The theme of Ascension is introduced fully, explaining that the Ancients survived extinction by Ascending to a higher plane of existence. Anubis tried to do this as well, to harvest the vast knowledge and power in that plane, but was cast down again, leaving him in a dangerous half-Ascended state. Anubis gains great power by using Ancient technology and stealing Asgard technology.

Near the end of Season 5, Daniel Jackson dies, but Ascends with help from Oma Desala. In Season 6, his position is filled by Jonas Quinn; Jackson is now engaged in cosmic affairs on a higher plane. Occasionally, he appears to his friends to help them out, but is only visible to them alone, often causing them to think that they are hallucinating. However, in the Season 6 finale, Anubis threatens to destroy Abydos, the planet most dear to Daniel apart from Earth, and Daniel promises to stop Anubis.

However, Daniel is ultimately unable to keep Anubis from destroying Abydos as the other Ascended beings have a rule against interfering in the affairs of mortal beings. His transgression causes him to be cast down by the Ancients to the human plane of existence allowing him to re-join SG-1 again. Throughout Season 7, Anubis consolidates his power by wiping out other System Lords, whilst Daniel and the SGC search for the Lost City of the Ancients, where powerful technology will be found that can defeat Anubis. In the Season 7 finale, an Ancient Outpost is located in Antarctica, and Jack O'Neill is able to use the weapon there to utterly defeat Anubis's entire fleet.

In Season 8, the System Lord Ba'al subsumes much of Anubis's power, but Anubis is discovered not to be dead due to his half-Ascended state. He eventually comes to rule secretly over Ba'al as well. Alongside this, the Replicators escape and begin to conquer even the System Lords. A human-form Replicator ("RepliCarter") is created in the image of Samantha Carter, and this Replicator becomes the most powerful force in the galaxy.

Towards the end of Season 8, Anubis seeks to destroy all life in the galaxy so he can remake it as he sees fit, and he seeks to do this using the Dakara Superweapon. However SG-1 reaches the weapon first and realigns it to destroy only the Replicators across the galaxy. They achieve this end, but not before Daniel is killed by RepliCarter. However he finds himself in the Ascended plane once more (again Oma has helped him), where Anubis is finally stopped in his plans by Oma. Daniel Jackson then is de-Ascended once more and arrives at the SGC. Ba'al has to flee under the total success of the Jaffa Rebellion, as the System Lords were severely weakened in their battle against the Replicators and now that the Replicators are gone the Jaffa gain much of their lost strength.

Stargate SG-1 Season 9 Title.jpg's extended opening title]]

In Season 9, Jack O'Neill leaves the SGC and SG-1 to be replaced by Cameron Mitchell (Ben Browder), with Hank Landry (Beau Bridges) taking control of the SGC itself. It is discovered that Ba'al fled to Earth and is rebuilding his power from there, whilst many Goa'uld have infected The Trust.

Due to an accidental visit to a distant galaxy, Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran draw the attention of a cosmic group of evil Ascended beings, the Ori, to the Milky Way. The Ori influence the mortal world through commanding mortals that they evolve and enhance. These mortals are called Priors, and uphold a religion that worships the Ori, called Origin. Followers of this religion are falsely promised Ascension, and unknowingly enforce the power of the Ori, who begin to make incursions into the Milky Way, with the ultimate goal of converting all humans and destroying the Ancients.

When SG-1 learns that Merlin, a formerly Ascended Ancient and founder of the Arthurian legends, had been working on a weapon to incapacitate Ascended beings as a means of defense against the Ori, they head to the planet where he was said to have left it. There they find a village with a sword in a stone – the true Camelot – where they discover that the "weapon" is no less than the origin of the Holy Grail myth, and is long lost. Meanwhile the Ori manage to open a Supergate into the Milky Way and send a fleet of Ori battlecruisers on a evangelical crusade; they effortlessly wipe out the ships that had been waiting on the other side to defend the Milky Way.

In Season 10, Vala joins SG-1 after it is revealed that her daughter, Adria, has been rapidly aged by the Ori and made the leader of their forces in the Milky Way. As the Ori continue to invade, SG-1 continues its search for Merlin's anti-Ori weapon, the Sangreal (Holy Grail). However, they must now contend with Baal and his forces, who are attemping to steal the weapon for their own purposes.

Fictional universe

SG-1 has a rich backdrop of aliens, planets and technology. For more information, see the relevant articles:

Cast

Regular characters

Character Actor Length of time
Col./Brg. Gen./Maj. Gen. Jack O'Neill Richard Dean Anderson 1997 – 2005, 2006
Dr. Daniel Jackson Michael Shanks 1997 – 2002, 2003 – Present
Capt./Major/Lt. Col. Samantha Carter Amanda Tapping 1997 – Present
Teal'c Christopher Judge 1997 – Present
Maj. Gen./Lt. Gen. George Hammond Don S. Davis 1997 – 2004
Jonas Quinn Corin Nemec 2002 – 2003
Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell Ben Browder 2005 – Present
Maj. Gen. Hank Landry Beau Bridges 2005 – Present
Vala Mal Doran Claudia Black 2006 – Present (recurring previously)

Other characters

For complete character lists see:

Episodes

As of 2006, SG-1 is in its 10th Season, with 205 confirmed or aired episodes. The producers feel that the 200th episode is a big milestone; airing mid-10th-season and titled "200", it was written in collaboration by most of the staff-members in production, filled with in-jokes and references in the style of the show's 100th episode, .

Stargate SG-1's first episode was titled "Children of the Gods". See the list of Stargate SG-1 episodes for a complete listing.

Broadcasters

Spin-offs

The Stargate SG-1 story and surrounding mythos has spawned many subsidiary productions which are often considered canon, with the occasional obvious exceptions.

Television shows

  • Stargate Infinity (animated; not considered canon)
  • Stargate Atlantis (originally intended to succeed SG-1)
  • An as-yet unnamed third series, to be launched by a major motion picture (see below) according to the executive vice president of MGM, Charles Cohen (intended to continue alongside its sister shows).

Further films

  • Executive vice president of MGM, Charles Cohen also revealed that there are now plans in place for a spin-off film from SG-1. This would be considered a spin off, rather than a sequel, as Stargate SG-1 is now considered of higher canonicity than the film that launched it due to elements of the film being retconned.

Video games

Literature

Since 1999, several novels have been released based on the Stargate SG-1 series. These books were written by Ashley McConnell and published by ROC.
  • Stargate SG-1 (novelization of the series' pilot, "Children of the Gods")
  • The Price You Pay
  • The First Amendment
  • The Morpheus Factor

A series of books from Fandemonium Press are available in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States.

The Official Stargate Magazine produced by Titan Publishing has also published a series of short stories based on the series. The magazine is available in the UK.

  • Archeology 101 by Martha Wells (January/February 2006, Stargate Magazine #8)

A series of comics has also been published by Avatar Press. See Stargate SG-1 Comics for more information.

Trivia

Film/series Continuity

The original film did not develop as much of the setting's depth as would be needed in a television series. MGM, which owned the rights, took Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's product and handed the reins to a new team of creators (Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner). This new team introduced many new concepts to make the Stargate universe into a workable weekly science fiction show. Also, certain details were changed.

For example, in the film:

  • Ra used advanced technology to possess his host in order to prolong his life, and was in fact depicted as a humanoid alien similar to the "Grey" alien archetype, or the Asgard race in the SG-1 series. This is in direct contradiction to the sieries, in which his entire race are parasitic, worm-like creatures that claim hosts as part of their natural processes.
  • Ra was the last of a dying race rather than just one of many Goa'uld. However, this may not be an actual contradiction since it would be rather easy for the Goa'uld to have repopulated in the 10,000 years since Ra discovered humanity.
  • Abydos was located in the Kaliem galaxy, "on the far side of the known universe," rather than one of the closest Stargates to Earth.
  • The Air Force base was under Creek Mountain, rather than Cheyenne Mountain.
  • The first time Daniel Jackson sees the Stargate is after he figures out the seven-coordinate address system, but in the TV episode "Lost City", he tells Elizabeth Weir that "I remember when we were first trying to get the Stargate to work, I would just come here, and stare at it for hours." It is possible that he's referring to the cover-stones that the seven-symbols were printed upon, which he did stare at for hours on end.
  • In the episode "The Torment of Tantalus", it was clearly stated Catherine Langford was twenty-one in 1945, which would make her about four years old in 1928. However, she is much older in the opening sequence of the film, which is set in that year.

Because of these differences, some fans of the film consider the television series as its own separate entity, rather than a proper sequel to the film. Using some of Emmerich's notes, Bill McCay wrote a series of five novels continuing the story the original creators had envisioned.

Series trivia

  • As of Season 9, Teal'c (Christopher Judge) is the character to appear in the most episodes, having only been absent in the episode "Prometheus Unbound" in Season 8. Prior to Season 9 he held this title with Amanda Tapping's character, Samantha Carter, who was also only absent in "Prometheus Unbound" up until Amanda's maternity leave which left her absent for the first five episodes of Season 9.
  • There are only three episodes of the series in which Teal'c (Christopher Judge) refers to Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) as "Daniel" as opposed to "Daniel Jackson": "The Broca Divide", "The First Commandment", and "Forever in a Day". All other instances he refers to Daniel Jackson by his full name or, occasionally, as "Dr. Jackson".
  • The battlefield UAV used in the series was a Mastiff UAV.
  • Many of the extras portraying US Air Force personnel are in fact real US Air Force personnel, including two real US Air Force Chief of Staffers in cameo roles. *
  • In Children of the Gods, the pilot episode for the series, when Samantha Carter sees a DHD for the first time, she comments on how it took "fifteen years and three supercomputers to MacGyver a system for the gate on Earth." This is a reference to Anderson's well-known portrayal of the TV character MacGyver.
  • There are many references to The Simpsons as Jack O'Neill's favorite television series -- it is, in fact, Richard Dean Anderson's as well. In Citizen Joe, Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, made a guest appearance as Joe Spencer. In turn, Richard Dean Anderson later made a guest appearance on The Simpsons in the seventeenth season episode Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore as himself.

DVD Release Dates

According to Gord Lacey at tvshowsondvd.com the release of Stargate SG-1 Season 9 is being held up due to the fact that MGM is changing its home distribution company from Sony to Fox

References

External links

1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States | Ancient Egypt in fiction | Sci Fi Channel shows | Science fiction television series | Seven Network shows | Showtime network shows | Sky One programmes | Space opera | Stargate series | Television programs based on films | Wormholes in fiction

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