STARGATE SG-1: A HISTORY

In 1994 a little known film called Stargate, created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, was released.

This film told the story of an alien creature whom, centuries ago, traveled to Ancient Egypt looking for a way to cheat death. There it possessed a boy and calling itself Ra ruled for years as a God. It used a device called the Stargate, which enabled human slaves to travel to distant parts of the galaxy as force labour. The humans rebelled, however, and when they banished Ra they sealed the Stargate forever.

Or so they thought until it was uncovered again in the early 20th Century.

Now the American military has acquired the ancient Egyptian device, if only they knew how it works. Enter Dr. Daniel Jackson [played in the movie by James Spader] an unconventional Egyptologist. It is he who deciphers the key and with the help of a small military group, led by Colonel Jack O'Neill [Kurt Russell], they will go through the 'Gate and discover for themselves what lies on the other side.

What they discover are the remnants of the human slaves still labouring under Ra. Now the military force must save the humans, overthrow a rampaging alien 'God' and return to Earth before everything is destroyed.

This small budget film was such a huge success that the concept was turned into a series starring Richard Dean Anderson, as Colonel O'Neill and Michael Shanks, as Daniel Jackson.

We discover that Ra was not the last of his kind. That there are other 'Gods' out there called the Goa'uld - a parasitic race that stole the Stargate technology and burrow themselves into human hosts.

Now a major military command centre called the SGC, led by General Hammond, a select group venture out into the galaxy looking for technology and allies to help fight in their war against the Goa'uld. They are aided in their search by Major Samantha Carter, a brilliant physicist and Teal'c, a Jaffa servant of the Goa'uld who has forsaken his 'Gods'. Together with Jack and Daniel they are SG-1, the vanguard of the Stargate program, and they must find a way to save the human race from total destruction.