Stargate

For a complete summary of the story of the Stargate universe, see Timeline of Stargate.

Stargate refers to the universe started with the 1994 science fiction feature film Stargate, and afterwards continued in novel form, in two live-action television series (Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis), one animated series (Stargate Infinity), and in other derivative works.

It is based on the premise of a "Stargate", a device that allows for almost instantaneous teleportation, by creating a wormhole to a complementary device on another planet. Discovered in 1928 at Giza, Egypt, the purpose of the alien device is unknown until 1994. The Stargate program, as it is later called, is established in 1997 with the goal of procuring alien technologies in the defense of earth against the goa'uld and any other enemies that may arise.

In the Stargate universe, most Earth mythologies are based on events and personalities of aliens who visited or controlled Earth in the distant past. Most significantly an alien race later known as the Goa'uld enslaved the inhabitants of ancient Egypt, creating its culture and mythology. The Goa'uld pose as Gods to make slaves of humans, and used the Gate to take slaves from Earth to other habitable planets for more slave labor. After a rebellion on Earth five thousand years ago, they fled, leading to the burying of Earth's Stargate, which was rediscovered in 1928.

Film

File:Stargate-poster.jpg

Promotional poster for Stargate.

Template:Spoiler The feature film Stargate was released in 1994. It was originally intended as the start of a film franchise, but creators Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich moved on to create Independence Day and Godzilla. Emmerich and Devlin had nothing to do with the later Stargate SG-1 and do not consider it a valid continuation of the film's story, although MGM owns the rights to the franchise. As a result, some fans of the movie reject the series (and vice-versa). MGM recently announced they are planning to make a second film in the future, which could possibly be what starts off the new series

The movie set the grounds of the Stargate universe. Dr. Daniel Jackson (played by James Spader) is a brilliant Egyptologist shunned by the academic world due to his farfetched theories, about the pyramids of Egypt being used as landing pads for alien ships. He is hired to decipher the symbols on the cover stones of an ancient ring-shaped artifact (the Stargate), made of an unknown quartz-like material, later to be know as naquadah, which had been found at Giza in 1928. Dr. Katherine Langford was studying the artifact since it was discovered in 1928. Her science team had discovered six of the seven symbols needed for space travel. Jackson discovers the final symbol to be the point of origin. USAF Colonel Jack O'Neil (played by Kurt Russell) leads an expedition to the planet Abydos, where they come into conflict with an alien false "god" posing as Ra (the sun god of Egyptian Mythology). Jack O'Neill brings a tactical nuclear bomb along, with the intention of destroying the Abydos stargate if the inhabitants of Abydos turn out to be a threat to Earth. Of course, when the power of "Ra" is finally revealed, Jack decides to proceed with his mission and destroy the gate, against Jackson's better judgement. This would have happened had Ra not stolen the bomb and enhanced it with the substance from which the gate is built so that it would be able to destroy most of planet Earth. Jack and Daniel eventually use the bomb to destroy Ra and his mother-ship. Jack and the surviving members of his team return to Earth, but Daniel stays behind, as he had no ties remaining on Earth and had married a native of Abydos, Sha'uri.

The film score by David Arnold is being re-released by Varese Sarabande with additional material in the latter half of 2006. It is also promised that the score will be re-mastered which may be an improvement over the current release of the score, which has a tendency to sound boomy.

Television

Stargate SG-1

Stargate SG-1 debuted on Showtime on July 27, 1997, and moved to the Sci-Fi Channel after its fifth season. Created by Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright, it starred Richard Dean Anderson (as O'Neill), Michael Shanks (as Jackson), Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Don S. Davis.

The cast has remained fairly regular for most of SG-1's run but has experienced some changes. Michael Shanks was replaced during season 6 by Corin Nemec (as alien scientist Jonas Quinn), but was swapped back afterwards. At the end of season 7 Don Davis left the show and Anderson filled the gap he left in the story. In season 9, Anderson also left, which added new regulars Lexa Doig, Beau Bridges and Ben Browder. After appearing in eight episodes in season 9, Claudia Black was added to the cast in season 10.

The series is set one year after the original film (however it is aired four years after the movie). It chronicles the activities of SG-1, the first exploratory team of the newly-formed Stargate Command (the "SGC"). The series expanded on the movie, creating a full and rich mythology and a cast of recurring characters. Stargate SG-1 proved to be very popular. The series was expected to end at its seventh season, however as of October 24th 2005, it was officially renewed for a record breaking tenth season (surpassing The X-Files as the longest running United States science-fiction series). Filmed at Bridge Studios in Vancouver British Colombia, Canada.

Stargate Atlantis

File:SGA-poster.jpg

The original starring cast of Stargate Atlantis.

Stargate Atlantis debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel on July 16, 2004, starring Joe Flanigan, Torri Higginson , Rainbow Sun Francks, David Hewlett, and Rachel Luttrell. The series has finished its second season, adding Paul McGillion and Jason Momoa (replacing Francks, now a regular guest) as series regulars, and is currently working on the third season. This series follows the adventures of the Atlantis expedition, a combination of military forces and civilian scientists that travelled to the Pegasus galaxy in search of the Lost City of Atlantis, left behind by the powerful race known as the Ancients. Once there, they find that the Pegasus galaxy is dominated by a terrible enemy known as "the Wraith".

Atlantis was originally intended to succeed Stargate SG-1 after its seventh season and a second feature film. When SG-1 was renewed for an eighth season, the intended movie became the episode "Lost City", a two-part season finale, and the setting of Stargate Atlantis was moved to the Pegasus galaxy.

Stargate Infinity

Stargate Infinity is an animated series that ran from September 2002 to June 2003. Even though the series was produced by MGM with DiC Entertainment, none of the writers and producers of Stargate SG-1 or other live-action Stargate projects were involved with Infinity. According to SG-1 co-creator Brad Wright, the animated series should not be considered official Stargate canon, although he says he personally does not "have a problem with it. I'm just not involved."[1]

Set about 30 to 40 years in the future, Infinity tells the story of a team of young recruits led by a veteran member of the SGC that are framed for a crime they did not commit. The team must travel from world to world trying to find a way to clear their name.

Books

There are three series of novels based on the Stargate franchise and various comics. Short fiction has also been published in the official Stargate Magazine.

Movie-based

A series of books written by Bill McCay were published from 1996 to 1999 that were sequels to the film. However, the subsequent TV series was an entirely different development and there was no attempt to reconcile the plot lines of the books and television show.

Series-based

ROC books

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.

Fandemonium books

Stargate SG-1

A series of licensed tie-in novels by Fandemonium Press Ltd. based on the Stargate SG-1 series, the novels are available in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.S.

Stargate Atlantis

Fandemonium launched a new series of books based on Stargate Atlantis in late 2005. Those books are available worldwide. Unlike with the SG-1 books, Fandemonium does not accept fan submissions for the Atlantis books and they are commisioned only to professional writers.

Short fiction

These short stories were published in the pages of the official Stargate Magazine, produced by Titan Publishing.

Flipside by Sally Malcolm, a Stargate Atlantis story appearing in issue #7 (Nov/Dec 2005)
Archeology 101 by Martha Wells, a Stargate SG-1 story appearing in issue #8 (Jan/Feb 2006)

Comic books

A series of comic books was based on Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis which began to be published by Avatar Press in 2003.

Future of the franchise

In May of 2006, Charles Cohen, executive vice president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, revealed that MGM intends to develop a second theatrical movie which would be derived from the past 10 years of the series. A third Stargate television series is planned to follow on from the second movie.[2]

However, SG-1's continued success and refreshed plotline (with the introduction of the Ori as the new main enemy in Season 9) seems to indicate that the show may very well continue past ten seasons. Given that the end of the series has seemed imminent for the past four years, but has yet to occur, it seems only time will tell how long SG-1 remains on television.

Other

A Stargate Role-Playing Game was produced by Alderac Entertainment; however, they lost the license to produce Stargate RPG products when Sony bought MGM, and the RPG license is currently unassigned.
Two video games based on the movie were released by Acclaim Entertainment: a side-scrolling platformer for the Super NES and Sega Genesis, and a Tetris like puzzle game for the Game Boy.
Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, a computer game based on the Stargate concept, was due to be released in late 2005. The release of this game has been cancelled.
There are at least three simulator-style amusement park rides named Stargate SG-3000 located at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Six Flags Great America, and Six Flags Marine World.
Stargate Worlds, a Stargate-universe MMORPG, has recently been announced to be in development. [3]
A Stargate pinball game produced by Gottlieb.

External links

Interactive sites