Stargate SG-1
"You know, you blow up one sun and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water."
—Samantha Carter
Stargate SG-1 is a popular Science Fiction series (1997-2007) following the Stargate movie (in a Broad Strokes fashion). It focuses on the adventures of the US Air Force's primary exploration and First Contact team, designated "SG-1," as they travel through a wormhole to alien planets and moons. The series dealt heavily with the Egyptian-mythology base of the original film, but as the series progressed it expanded to cover other mythologies and different alien threats and allies. This series is responsible for the elaborate expansion of the original Stargate Verse.
As introduced in the movie, the stargates are a Portal Network that allow instant travel between planets that possess a stargate on them. As they travel to other worlds they find that almost All Myths Are True, at least in the form of Ancient Astronauts. Their primary foe throughout the series is the Goa'uld, a race of Puppeteer Parasites who are better known on Earth as the beings worshipped as the Egyptian Gods.
Lasting for 10 seasons, it was one of the longest running Sci-Fi shows in US history and is only surpassed world-wide by Doctor Who and Super Sentai. Despite the constant threat of cancellation from the 6th season on, and the fear of each Season Finale supposedly being the last, it came as a surprise when the show was not renewed for an 11th season almost immediately after it broke the prevous American-length record held by The X-Files. Two DVD movies have so far been made, Stargate: The Ark Of Truth and Stargate: Continuum; the third and final SG-1 movie, Stargate: Revolution, is currently in Development Hell.
As the protagonists are primarily modern day Americans, Stargate's earthling characters rarely suffer from Genre Blindness. The main characters are very aware of the trappings of science fiction, and are not afraid to show it.
Spinoffs: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe, the animated non-canon Stargate Infinity. For more info see Stargate Verse.
A very sparsely-populated Recap page can be found here.
It is available for viewing on Netflix Instant.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence
- Open the Iris (not an example)
- Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?
- Stargate City
"These and other clichés will be available to you all for one more day of training with me. After that, you'll either be assigned to an SG team... or not."