Stargate SG-1

1 9 9 7 – 2 0 0 7 (USA)
213 x 45 minute episodes

In this sequel to the theatrical film Stargate (1994), stuffy General Hammond (Don S. Davis) summoned heroic Colonel Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) to fulfil one last mission through the top-secret Stargate – a huge, shimmering ring of glowing matter that allowed instant transport between different worlds.

Since aliens could use it to get to Earth, as well as vice versa, the Stargate was meant to be destroyed, but there was evidence that Egyptologist Dr Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) – presumed killed on the planet Abydos during the movie mission – might still be alive.

O’Neill and his team found Jackson, who had discovered a hieroglyphic map of Stargates throughout the galaxy, making it possible to travel around the universe.

Following a confrontation with the vicious alien Goa’uld race, led by the evil Apophis (Peter Williams), who had abducted Jackson’s Abydon wife Sha’re (Vaitiare Bandera), they returned to Earth. Once back, O’Neill formed a team – based in the Air Force’s Cheyenne Mountain complex, where Earth’s Stargate was located – that was sent on missions to other planets.

SG-1 (Stargate-1) was one of nine teams exploring the universe. The other members were Jackson, who hoped to one day rescue Sha’re; Samantha “Sam” Carter (Amanda Tapping), a theoretical astrophysicist with high moral standards; and the muscular alien Teal’c (Christopher Judge) – formerly a high-ranking guard and enforcer for Apophis – who had defected to the humans because he wanted to free his people, the Jaffa, from their subjugation by the Goa’uld.

Using the Stargate portal to travel from planet to planet, O’Neill’s team encountered civilizations ranging from primitive to technologically advanced, met friendly and hostile aliens, and had periodic confrontations with the Goa’uld.

Working with them, on occasion, were Teal’c’s mentor, Bra’tac (Tony Amendola, pictured) and Sam’s father, Jacob (Carmen Argenziano). Bra’tac, once a high-ranking aide to Apophis, was determined to free his people from their oppression by the Goa’uld.

Jacob, a former general, was dying from cancer and to save his life he allowed his body to become the host for Selmak, a Tok’ra (a race committed to helping the humans fight the Goa’uld).

In 1999 Jackson found his wife, Sha’re, but she was carrying a Goa’uld symbiont of the evil Apophis and was pregnant with a human child. After giving birth to a baby boy, the symbiont took back control of her body.

Daniel gave the infant to Sha’re’s father for safekeeping and returned to Apophis. When she was killed later in the year, Jackson almost resigned from the SG-1 team.

In June 2001, the SG-1 team captured the Goa’uld mother ship and, with Jacob at its helm, had a final confrontation with Apophis (pictured), who crashed into his home planet and was killed.

A year later, the team was trying to help the people of Kelowna prevent the destruction of their planet. To save thousands from dying, Jackson exposed himself to a lethal dose of radiation, but before he died, he ascended to another plane of existence.

Quinn (Corin Nemec), a Kelownan diplomat who was partially responsible for Jackson’s exposure, joined the SG-1 team as Jackson’s replacement out of guilt and the desire to protect his home planet.

With Apophis gone, the primary threat to humanity was Anubis (David Palffy), an aggressive Goa’uld leader who had partially ascended and existed between our universe and another plane.

Anubis threatened to destroy Abydos (the planet most dear to Jackson after Earth), and although Jackson tried valiantly, he couldn’t prevent its destruction because the Ascended beings refused to let him interfere with the actions of mortal beings.

For trying, Jackson was returned to human form as a complete amnesiac, although – over time – he regained most of his human memories and subconsciously some of his Ascended memories. With Jackson’s return to the SG-1 team, Quinn left to return to his homeworld.

During most of the seventh season, Anubis was expanding his empire by killing off the other System Lords while Stargate Command searched for the Lost City of the Ancients, which purportedly had a weapon that could defeat Anubis. In the season finale, they found it in Antarctica and used it to destroy Anubis’ fleet.

That fall, Hammond was promoted to Lieutenant General and put in command of the new Homeworld Security department. Meanwhile, O’Neill was promoted to Brigadier General and took over Stargate Command.

System Lord Ba’al (Cliff Simon, pictured) took over for Anubis, but because of his half-Ascended state, Anubis was still alive and became the power behind the throne.

The SG team also had to deal with the Replicators who were defeating the System Lords under the leadership of RepliCarter, an extremely powerful humanoid replicator in the image of Samantha Carter.

As the season drew to a close, the SG-1 team found the Jaffa’s Dakara Superweapon – able to destroy all matter –  and used it to destroy the Replicators before Anubis could get his hands on it to destroy all life in the galaxy.

Jackson was killed by the RepliCarter in the process and returned to the Ascended plane, where he facilitated the final elimination of Anubis and descended back to Stargate Command.

The Replicators and Anubis were gone, the severely weakened System Lords were licking their wounds and Ba’al was on the run as the Jaffa finally regained their freedom.

O’Neill left at the start of the ninth season and swaggering young Colonel Mitchell (Ben Browder) became the new leader of the SG-1 team with General Landry (Beau Bridges) taking control of Stargate Command. Ba’al, meanwhile, was rebuilding his power base on Earth, and the Goa’uld were infiltrating the interplanetary terrorist group, The Trust.

But the bigger threat was the Ori, a race of evil Ascended beings that manipulated things through “Priors”, genetically-modified mortals they had developed with supernatural powers.

The Ori, determined to take control of all intelligent species and destroy the Ancients, sent a fleet of battle cruisers through a Supergate into the Milky Way that annihilated the ships waiting there to confront them and expanded their influence.

Meanwhile, SG-1 was searching for a weapon that Merlin, the Ancient responsible for the Arthurian legends, had supposedly created to destroy Ascended beings.

At the start of the final season, Vala (Claudia Black), a reformed thief who had worked with Jackson, joined the SG-1 team after discovering that her daughter, Adria (Morena Baccarin) – who had been conceived by the Ori – was rapidly ageing to adulthood to assume leadership of their forces in the Milky Way.

The SG-1 team had to compete with Ba’al and his clones, who were also searching for Merlin’s weapon, the Sangraal (Holy Grail), travelling to the planet where the Sangraal was kept and passing a series of tests to prove their worthiness.

They were then transported to Merlin’s laboratory, where a dying Merlin (Matthew Walker) transferred some of his knowledge into Jackson who started to build the Sangraal only to be captured by Adria, who turned him into a Prior.

Jackson finished the construction of the Sangraal (pictured) and used a captured battle cruiser to fly it into the Ori galaxy, where it activated.

He then returned to his normal self because Merlin had included a “reset” function with the knowledge transfer that removed both Merlin’s knowledge and Adria’s Prior alterations.

It was unresolved whether or not the Ori had been destroyed, but the storyline was scheduled to be resolved in the first of a series of TV movies that went into production in the spring of 2007.

Colonel/General Jack O’Neill
Richard Dean Anderson
Captain/Major Samantha “Sam” Carter
Amanda Tapping
Teal’c
Christopher Judge
Dr Daniel Jackson
Michael Shanks
General George Hammond
Don S. Davis
Sha’re
Vaitiare Bandera
Dr Janet Frasier
Teryl Rothery
Sgt. Walter Harriman
Gary Jones
Bra’tac
Tony Amendola
Apophis
Peter Williams
Jacob Carter/Selmak
Carmen Argenziano
Jonas Quinn
Corin Nemec
Vala Mal Doran
Claudia Black
Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell
Ben Browder
Maj. Gen. Hank Landry
Beau Bridges
Anubis
David Palffy
Ba’al
Cliff Simon
Adria
Morena Baccarin
Major Marks
Martin Christopher
Colonel Paul Emerson
Matthew Glave

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