Portal:Stargate
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To refresh this page, click here. Stargate is a fictional universe inspired by the 1994 film Stargate directed by Roland Emmerich.  The universe continued in the television series Stargate SG-1, which premiered in 1997 and is still on air today ten seasons later. It is the longest American sci-fi series ever, and has survived network and cast changes. It became the longest lived American sci-fi show when the 10th season started in July 2006, outranking The X-Files. In July 2004, the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis premiered on the Sci Fi Channel with great success, which began its third season in July 2006. And it began... In 1928, an archaeological expedition recovered a large metal ring near the city of Giza, Egypt, which was confiscated by the U.S. military. 66 years later, Dr. Catherine Langford hired Dr. Daniel Jackson, a brilliant Egyptologist shunned from the academic world due to his theory that the pyramids were docking areas for alien spacecraft, to decipher the symbols on the metal ring. The ring turns out to be a Stargate, a device that allows for instant teleportation by creating a wormhole to a complementary device on another planet. Jackson steps through the Stargate with a military team led by Colonel Jack O'Neil to a desert planet called Abydos. There, they fight to free the enslaved human population from an alien called Ra. After he's defeated, O'Neill returns to Earth, but Jackson chooses to stay. Believing the Abydos gate is destroyed, the military closes the Stargate, but not for long... One year later, a group of aliens step through the unused Stargate and attack the soldiers guarding it. Colonel O'Neill is forced to admit he disobeyed orders and didn't destroy the Abydos Stargate. He returns with a new team, and Dr. Jackson explains to him that there is a whole network of Stargates scattered throughout this galaxy. After Abydos is attacked, the team discovers that Ra wasn't the last of his race after all, and they find a new enemy, Apophis. They return to Earth, with new allies and a new battle to fight. The rest, as they say, is history, and you can explore it below.  Stargate (device)Stargates are large, ring-shaped devices in the Stargate science fiction universe that utilize advanced technology for nearly instantaneous personal travel across the vast distances of space. These devices were first seen in fiction with the 1994 film Stargate, directed by Roland Emmerich, and then subsequently in the TV series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis (as well as the animated series Stargate Infinity). The Stargate is the central plot generator of these productions, allowing for stories focused on a small team of protagonists exploring other planets and meeting other races on foot, rather than the more prevalent, grandiose "space opera" of interstellar starships seen elsewhere in science fiction. Stargates are marked out by "chevrons" spaced equally around their circumference, and roughly 39 symbols displayed on an inner ring. Although typically 22 feet (6.7 m) in diameter and made of a fictional heavy mineral called "Naqahdah", the gates are almost always seen standing vertically. In the mythology of the canon, their creators were an alien race known as the Ancients, who scattered them on habitable planets throughout the Milky Way and other galaxies, millions of years ago. Collectively, these comprise what is often called the "Stargate Network", which facilitates travel throughout the cosmos. Stargates are present on many planets but, to primitive peoples, they are no more than relics carrying associations of the divine and sacred, or of fear, as evidenced by such names as "Ring of the Gods" and "Circle of Darkness". Thus the plot of Stargate effectively begins when the United States Air Force discovers how to use the device discovered on Earth. Name and originThe idea of the Stargate was invented by the writers of the original feature film of the same title, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Similar devices have been seen in previous fiction, but the complete conception of a Stargate, as seen in the Stargate canon, is quite original — though there has been contention as to whether they plagiarised the idea from a previous script submission. The name was a logical choice ("gate to the stars"), but in retrospect has caused the series and film to be mistaken for the unrelated series Star Trek and Star Wars. The Stargate was further developed conceptually by the creators of the spin-off TV series Stargate SG-1, Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner. The concept of a Stargate is based heavily in theoretical physics, particularly that of black holes and wormholes. A wormhole is a warping of spacetime causing space to become "folded" and can allow for "shortcuts" through space. They are not widely held to exist in reality, especially not ones capable of transporting human beings, as such wormholes would most likely be created by black holes, the gravity of which would destroy any potential traveller. The idea of a "portal" for travellers has been seen often throughout the history of both fantasy and science fiction, often taking a similar form, a device or magical object shaped as a regular or irregular closed geometric form filled with a water-like, rippling puddle that represents the boundary point between two locations. The Stargate picks up on this conception, emphasising the "watery puddle" for the sake of an alien mystique, and explaining it all in terms of advanced technology. The origins of the Stargates are expounded upon in great detail in Stargate SG-1, the follow-up TV series to the film, which involves a rich background of alien races, each of which have discovered the Stargates separately and grown around them. The Alterans, (also known as the Ancients), who built the gates, appear to have called them Astria Porta. The Jaffa and Goa'uld call them the Chaapa'ai, and the English word "Stargate" is supposedly a direct calque of this word. It seems that Chaapa'ai is itself a calque of Astria Porta. In the Pegasus galaxy, villagers know them as Rings of the Ancestors and variations thereof. They are also referred to as "the ring", "the annulus", or "the gate". OperationThe film Stargate rushed very quickly over how a Stargate actually works and is operated, but the subsequent TV shows go into this area in a great amount of detail. In SG-1 it is explained that the Stargate generates a wormhole between itself and a remote gate by being supplied with a threshold amount of raw electricity, and that the destination gate is singled out by a process known as "dialing", described below. Objects in transit are broken down into their individual elemental components and then reconstructed on the other side, yet walking through a Stargate is superficially no different from stepping through a doorway. DialingEach location served by a Stargate has its own unique "address", which is a combination of six or more non-repeating symbols appearing on the dialing Stargate. By "dialing" these symbols in the correct order, the traveler can select a destination. The show is consistent with the mechanics of address-dialing. The process involves associating a unique symbol of the inner ring to each of at least the first seven of the chevrons on the outer circumference. The main "address" is invariably dialed first, followed by the gate's "origin" symbol, which acts as the final trigger for the completion of the address sequence. As each symbol is dialed, the chevron is said to "engage" and usually responds by lighting up or moving. When the final symbol of an address is dialed, that chevron is said to "lock" and the wormhole opens (this terminology is arbitrary and often interchangeable, but preferred by the recurring character Walter Harriman). If the address is incorrect or does not correspond to an existing or otherwise functional Stargate, the last chevron will not lock, and all of the chevrons will disengage. There are 3 ways that a Stargate has been seen to be dialed:
 ... that Alexis Cruz (Skaara) and Erick Avari (Kasuf) are the only actors to appear in both the Stargate SG-1 series and the original Stargate film? ... that Richard Kind appeared in the original Stargate film as Gary Meyers and in the third season of Stargate Atlantis as Lucius? ... that Joe Flanigan (Lt. Col. John Sheppard) wrote the story for the second season episode Epiphany? ... that David Hewlett originally auditioned for a different role in Stargate Atlantis (He had previously played McKay on SG-1) and that he was not hired until the filming had already started? ... that Christopher Judge has appeared in every episode of Stargate SG-1 except for "Prometheus Unbound"? ... that Stargate Atlantis was originally intended to succeed Stargate SG-1 and that its action moved to the Pegasus Galaxy only after SG-1 was renewed for an 8th season? ... that Joe Flanigan is the only American of Stargate Atlantis five original cast members, the other four being Canadian? ... that David Hewlett enjoys Sci-fi so much due to the British series Doctor Who which he was raised on seeing, when suggested he should audition for the role by his girlfriend he said "Can't you wait until Atlantis is over"? ... that Amanda Tapping, David Hewlett and Paul McGillion were all born in the United Kingdom? ... that Stargate Atlantis inherited Blade Trinity's effects stage, when it became obvious that the productors of Blade could'nt afford to dismantle it? 
 Actors - Series - SG-1 episodes - Atlantis episodes Universe Characters - Civilizations - Groups - Locations - Planets - Races - Technology  Articles to be written: Articles to be expanded/improved:
FA drive WP:1.0 drive 
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