Anyone here a fan of Stargate SG-1?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve caught the occasional show, the one in syndication not on SciFi channel, and have been somewhat intrigued about the background on Stargate SG-1, although it seems a rather complicated premise. Can someone give me a barebones (LOL well as barebones as possible!) explanation of the show, i.e., what are the stargates, who are the people that have the metallic-like things on their foreheads, how did Earth get hooked up with them, who are the “bad” guys and who are the “good” ones (there seems to be a blurry line there), please? :slight_smile: It would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance!

2

OK, I’ll have a go - quite a lot of ground to cover:
In the distant past a race of parasitic aliens called the Goa’ould came to Earth. They dominated the human population through use of superior technology and posed as gods. Whether they posed as the humans’ existing gods or set themselves up as new gods is a little unclear to me. Anyway, most of the Egyptian gods appear to have been powerful Goa’ould overlords at some point.

The Goa’ould use humans as hosts, invading their bodies and taking over their minds. The sign of this having happened is glowing eyes, a funky flange effect on the voice and pure evil bubbling from every pore.

The direct servants of the Goa’ould lords are the Jaffar - these are the guys with the metal on their foreheads. Most of them simply have a black tattoo of their Goa’ould lord’s emblem, but very senior ones have the metal equivalent. Each Jaffar has something like a womb in their stomach that contains an immature Goa’ould parasite. In return for incubating the larva the Jaffar receives good health, extreme physical endurance, strength etc.

The stargate network was founded in the even more distant past by a powerful alien race known as “The Ancients”. Not all that much has been revealed about them, though they’re starting to come into the later seasons more and more.

Other races include the Asgard, who look like Roswell greys. They seem to have been the inspiration for Norse mythology. They’re extremely powerful, but distant and facing their own problems, so they don’t become involved too often.

There’s also the Tok’Ra - a group of Goa’ould who are good guys. They’re few in number and aggresively hunted by the other Goa’ould, but they try their best. They’re probably the closest alien allies to Earth.

Over the years the Goa’ould have taken humans from Earth and founded their own colonies all around the stargate network. Many of these populations have now been abandoned as the Goa’ould’s move on, die off, or are deposed. This means that pretty much everywhere they go there are humans there - usually a relatively small population mimicing the ancient culture from which their ancestors were removed on Earth. There are some places where these human populations have prospered and even achieved technological heights greater than our own.

Erm…there’s a whole lot more as well, but I think that covers the main plot points and players. Like many other programs each series tends to have its main baddie, usually a Goa’ould, so exactly who they’re fighting at any one time depends on the episode. It’s made more complicated by the fact that the Goa’ould have medical technology that can resurrect the recently deceased.

Hope this helps.

3

I’ve watched this show for years and been to a couple of the conventions, but even I don’t understand it fully.

Basic idea is - Earth and a lot of other habitable planets in the solar system are linked by a system of Stargates. Each Gate is made of a mineral called naquadah that has the ability to contain a stable wormhole. Consequently, by stepping through the wormhole you can travel halfway across the galaxy in a few seconds.

Each Gate has its own DHD - Dial-Home Device, which is basically a funky little control panel. You enter the seven-symbol address of the Gate you wanna go to, press the button and whoosh!

The people with the metallic things on their foreheads - they’re called Jaffa. The main bad guys in the show are called the Goa’uld, and they are actually little snake-type things that infest humans and take them as hosts. Having done so, they often attempt to use humans as slaves by impersonating their gods, so we have heard of Goa’ulds called Osiris, Ra, Apophis, Hathor, Heru’ur, etc…

The Goa’uld armies are the aforementioned Jaffa. Before a Goa’uld snake-thing can take an adult host, it takes part in a symbiotic relationship with a human - ie, the Jaffa. The Jaffa keep the snakes in little pouches of skin where their navels ought to be, and the snakes provide the Jaffa with an immune system.

Bad guys - well, only the Goa’uld. Apart from them there are these little metal bug things called the replicators, but I won’t go into all that just now. The Goa’uld are the main enemy and there are so many of them lurking all over the place that most of the time, they are the bad guys.

The good guys - well, because the Goa’uld took human slaves from Earth and sent them wherever they were needed, there are human slaves all over the galaxy (they all speak English, but that’s a story for another thread). These humans are generally good guys but not as technologically advanced as Earth is. Other good guys that are actual aliens are the Tok’ra (good Goa’uld - seriously!), and the Nox (pacifists, so they don’t get many storylines) and the Asgard (who look like the Roswell aliens). The Asgard are my favourite of the aliens for many reasons - they are much more powerful than the Goa’uld, and they’re on Earth’s side. Whoop.

As for human good guys, there’s the Stargate teams, the first one of which we follow the adventures of, but you probably know all about them.

It’s a good show, IMHO. It’s been getting worse as it goes on, though, which is a shame, but in its prime it was just damn good, with good storylines that tend to focus on people rather than the guns they carry, and one thing I’ve always liked is the fact the show never takes itself too seriously, and there’s a load of cleverly hidden jokes all over the place, which I won’t spoil.

Sorry for the sheer length of this…

4

Thank you so much, both Armilla and Loneraven. :slight_smile: I’m sorry to have implied that it was a Sci Fi channel series, btw; it’s actually a Showtime series, as I’ve found out. Your explanations go a long way to helping me to understand the background, considering that I’ve caught maybe a few episodes of the 5th season, which is shown on UPN syndication where I live. I liked Sliders when it was on; this is -somewhat- similar to that. Thanks, too, Loneraven for explaining what the Stargates are and how they’re supposed to work.

Thanks again! :slight_smile:

5

I’m a big fan, in fact last night I was looking around and found this:The Statgate Primer, it explains just about all the important event. You may want to look around the site a bit to, because theres a lot of good info about the series.
And also for fans that don’t know, there will most likely be a new Stargate movie with the Sg-1 cast, which leads up to a new spinoff series called Stargate Atlantis with a new cast.

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Actually, it has been on Sci-Fi Channel for the last couple of seasons. And if you want to catch up, every Monday night Sci-Fi is showing episodes in order from 7 PM to 11 PM. I think they are just about ready to start over from the beginning again.

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I catch it every now and then on regular TV and don’t understand a lot of it–nor have I watched it from the beginning–but I like it. Kinda grows on you. I will take a look at that primer, though.

And greetings to tarragon. :slight_smile:

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tarragon918, as Lok pointed out, you should definitely check out “Stargate Monday.” They’re well into the second season now, but that’s still pretty early in the life of the show. Also, Sci-Fi channel is having a big Stargate event on June 13th. I think it’s a behind-the-scenes special and maybe the premiere of the new season.

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Wearia, thanks so much for the link to that Stargate Primer site–they do an excellent job of explaining each character too. :slight_smile: I like Teal’c (sp?) and had been wondering who he was and how he got onto the SG team.

And thanks to Lok and PaperBlob for directing me towards “Stargate Monday” on SciFi. I will definitely check that out.

And hiya, Vivalostwages! Not that I’ve forsaken Enterprise, Star Trek or my Tellarites; I’m just also interested in Stargate now. :slight_smile:

10

I am a huge fan of the show. Great writing, and interesting characters, and as a lippy wise-ass, I can’t help but enjoy R.D. Anderson’s character :slight_smile:

11

This is my current favorite show! I think I enjoy the sense of humor the most. I loved the bit in “Holiday” last night, where Jack and Teal’c switched bodies. It was so strange to see Christopher Judge emoting. I have to say, though, I thought Richard Dean Anderson didn’t do so well with his part. (Stoic just isn’t him.)

Here’s a great blooper from the episode “Solitudes.” Makes me laugh.

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You can rent the first couple of seasons on DVD from Netflix. We’ve had a couple of Stargate fests at our house. :slight_smile:

13

Hah, Wearia (My brother,) got me back into watching that show, I really do enjoy it now.
I just adore the plots, and how they all intertwine and come together.

But, I’ll say it again, If I was Jack O’neils Superior I would of fired his ass! He’s just too damn immature for such a serious job. :rolleyes:

14

Stargate SG-1 is an intregal part of my pre-bedtime routine. Every night I put on the Sci-Fi channel at midnight and watch Farscape, Stargate SG1 and top it moff with an episode of the X-Files. What more could you ask for?

I’m a sucker for the one-and-done episodes that deal more with the characters’ relationship with eachother than the ongoing storyline that deals with the whole Goa’uld resistance thing. Like last night’s episode that had some personality switching. It was terribly amusing to see Tiuk (sp?) attempt to act the part of Jack O’Neil. And I’m in agreement with the comment that the show doesn’t take itself too seriously…that’s the best part.

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Oh man that was hillarious, sci-fi outtakes are always the funniest. SG-1 is at least as good as Babylon-5 in terms of continuity and they actually operate in a fairly realistic way.

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Thanks for the blooper! That was great :slight_smile:

…and I would kill any one of you for Amanda Tapping.

You think I’m kidding.

17

My favorite episode is the one in which Teal’c and O’Neill end up repeating the same day over and over a la Groundhog Day. As they try to figure out what’s going on, O’Neill says “I’m sitting this one out,” then proceeds to dial up random planets and drive golf balls through the gate.

When O’Neill complains about the situation he’s in when he flashes back every day, Teal’c mentions that it’s no bed of roses for himself as well - and we see that Teal’c comes back just in time to get whacked in the face with an opening door.

18

Especially when you hear General Hammond’s voice ask him what the hell he’s doing, making him blow his drive, and he just turns and says:
“In the middle of my backswing!?”

I like Jack’s irreverent attitude, especially when he does things like the time he was at a meeting with Maybourn(sp?) and Hammond and he finally got so fed up with Maybourn that he turned to Hammond and asked “Permission to beat this man severely about the head and shoulders?” Even better was the fact that they ended the scene focused on Hammond’s face, looking like he was considering saying “Permission granted.”

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Been watching since Season 2- heck we got Showtime just so I could watch it. I was a bit sad when it moved from Showtime. The quality dropped a bit, but not as much as I feared. I still try to watch it, but they jerk it around the schedule a bit, so there is a few first runs I have missed. Good stuff- vastly superior to Enterprise.

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Well. This is my first post ever. I’ve been lurking on this board forever and have feared posting, as I’m not sure I’m nearly as witty as the majority of the regulars.

But how can I resist a Stargate thread!

Stargate, in my opinion is the best show ever.

And Michael Shanks will be mine one day.

Just kidding. Sort of.

I’m a Sci-Fi person, and this show fits all my needs. Humor, drama, aliens, and the loveable Gu’aulds!

Richard Dean Anderson is a smart, smart man for continuing with his idea for the show.

June 13 has been marked on my calendar for about three months now. New season!!
That is all.