In 1994 a film was made. It was made by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, who are also responsible for "Independence Day" - a film that was originally going to be this film's sequel! The film's music was composed by David Arnold, who's now famous for James Bond film soundtracks. The name of this film? "StarGate", obviously. And a lot of people didn't like it. Thankfully, enough people liked it for MGM to start making a series, and in 1997 the first episode of "Stargate SG-1" aired. With at least five seasons of the show airing around the world, and rumours of feature films in the pipeline, it's been more successful than anyone ever imagined!

StarGate - The Film

Kurt Russell and James Spader were the two lead players in the original film. Kurt Russell's character, Jack O'Neil, was a suicidal Air Force Colonel. (His son had shot himself with O'Neil's gun.) James Spader's character was a geeky archaeologist called Daniel Jackson. It might not sound like a formula for success, but it worked surprisingly well!

When we first meet Jackson he's giving a lecture about who built the Great Pyramid. Although the lecture room starts out full it ends up rather empty. His life is changed when he decided to take up Catherine Langford on her offer of a translation job. It turns out that she wants him to translate a huge coverstone bearing some unfamiliar glyphs. Jackson works out that the glyphs are star constellations. He's shown the StarGate. Now they have all the information they need, so they send a probe through to the other side. It works!

This is where things start getting interesting. O'Neil has been called in to oversee the project, and he takes a team through the StarGate to the desert planet on the other side. Due to Jackson's ineptitude they can't get back straight away and so they end up having various adventures. The end result is that the locals end up rebelling against the alien Ra who's been forcing them to mine a magical mineral from which his technology is made.

At the end of the film O'Neil is no longer feeling suicidal and the bomb that he was supposed to use to blow up the planet's StarGate has blown up the alien Ra instead. Hooray! Jackson's left on the planet to live out his days with Sha'uri, the elderly native leader Kasuf's daughter. All is well.

Stargate SG-1 - The Series

Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner leapt at the chance to develop the series for MGM. Their story begins with a feature length pilot called "Children of the Gods". The Stargate project has been wound down after the events of the film. The Gate Room in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is largely deserted apart from some poker playing Airmen. Then the Stargate activates and an alien comes through the 'gate and kidnaps one of the poker players. Ra was not the last of his kind!

Colonel O'Neill is recalled and helps figure out what's happened. He gets in touch with Jackson by sending a tissue box through the Stargate. Jackson comes back to Earth, but while he's there Sha're is kidnapped by the evil alien (Apophis), who also takes Skaara (the boy O'Neil gave his lighter to in the film). Jackson's shown them that it's possible to use the Stargate to travel all over the place. So General Hammond assigns Captain Samantha Carter to help O'Neill and they all head through the Stargate.

On the other side they find themselves on a planet called Chulak. They find Sha're and Skaara, but it's sort of too late. Sha're and Skaara end up having horrible things done to them, but the leader of the alien troops (Teal'c) helps the people from Earth to escape.

Once all that's happened you're left with the basic framework for the show. The Stargate is well and truly open again, and teams leap through the 'gate to explore the galaxy. The top team, SG-1, is led by Colonel O'Neill. The other three team members are Jackson, Carter and Teal'c (yes, the alien). Together they save the world several times, fight the evil aliens (the Goa'uld) and eventually find out what's happened to Sha're and Skaara.

The Characters

Colonel Jack O'Neil - Kurt Russell/Richard Dean Anderson

Unsurprisingly Kurt Russell didn't volunteer for a TV series! Instead Richard Dean Anderson (of MacGyver fame) stepped into the role. O'Neill leads SG-1, although he often disobeys his superiors...!

Dr Daniel Jackson - James Spader/Michael G Shanks

The Canadian actor Michael Shanks stepped into the role for the purposes of the series. Jackson is the team's archaeology expert, although he only starts going through the 'gate to find his wife.

Captain/Major Samantha Carter - Amanda Tapping

The Major is also a Dr - she's a bit of an astrophysics buff. She's the intelligent scientist on the team.

Teal'c - Christopher Judge

Teal'c is a very alien guy! He's determined to free his people from the "false gods". He's invaluable to SG-1 with his knowledge of the enemy. And he carries one of the aliens' young in a pouch in his stomach!

General George Hammond - Don S Davis

This is the General who took over from General West in the film. He runs the facility.

Dr Janet Fraiser - Teryl Rothery

She's the Doc who has to deal with all their injuries. As such she turns up quite a lot...

In Conclusion

The Stargate storyline has grown out of all proportion. It started off exploiting the theory that aliens built the pyramids, and ended up somewhere that it's impossible to go into much detail about because this would be way too long! Those myths are one of the things that make the show so interesting. Obviously to start with it was just Egyptian gods, but now there are deities from Babylon, Asia and all over the place! And there are Roswellian aliens, the Asgard. And the people on the planets are from loads of different periods in Earth's history. It's all rather fascinating. It's a unique blend of sci-fi and archaeology. It'll be around for a while to come, whatever happens...