Stargate SG-1

"Unlock the universe."

- Tagline

Stargate SG-1 is a television spin-off of Roland Emmerich's 1994 film Stargate. The series was developed for television by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, who together wrote the two-hour pilot episode "Children of the Gods." "Children of the Gods" originally aired on July 27, 1997 and "Unending," the final episode of the series, aired in the UK on March 13, 2007 and in the US on June 22, 2007.

Changes from the film
"Children of the Gods" basically set up the show's premise. It established that the Stargate can travel to other planets besides just Abydos, introduced several characters who did not appear in the film, and depicted the creation of a series of SG teams.

Since casting actors such as Kurt Russell and James Spader in regular roles would have been well beyond the show's budget, most of the characters who did appear in the film were recast. The exceptions were Skaara and Kasuf, although Kasuf didn't appear in the series until the second-season episode "Secrets." Richard Kind, who played Gary Meyers in the film, appeared in the Stargate Atlantis episode "Irresistible" as Lucius Lavin, a role which he repeated in "Irresponsible."

Some elements of the film were changed to make the premise better fit the medium of a television show. Therefore, Stargate SG-1 and the film are set in different, although similar, versions of the Stargate universe. For example, while the film implied that Ra was the last surviving member of his race, in the series his race, the Goa'uld, are far from extinct.

Hulu.com now offers SG-1's first, second third, and fourth seasons (as of June 24, 2009) streaming at http://www.hulu.com/stargate-sg-1.

Evolution of the show
Although an overall story arc was present from the start, the episodes of the first few seasons were mostly episodic, depicting the SG-1 team traveling to a different planet in each episode. Occasionally, this formula was broken slightly, usually when they dealt with NID agents, in which case the episode would take place mostly on Earth.

Gradually, the show became less episodic and more serialized. Over its ten-year run, the show built up a complex mythology involving the history of the galaxy and introduced many new alien races, such as the Ancients and the Asgard, whereas the only true alien to appear in the original film was Ra.

Originally, the Goa'uld, namely Apophis, were the principal villains of the series. However, at the end of season three a new threat was introduced, the Replicators. Although they appeared in multiple episodes over the next five seasons, they were never as widely depicted as the Goa'uld were.

In "Enemies," the opening episode of season five, Apophis was finally defeated and Anubis replaced him as the main villian for the next three seasons. Anubis and the Replicators were defeated in one blow at the end of season eight. Even though the Goa'uld were not completely destroyed, a new race called the Ori became the principal villains for the show's final two seasons.

The tone of the show also changed considerably over the course of its run. Much like the original film, the earlier episodes were mostly serious in character with an underlying comic tone. Later, the show became much lighter and occasionaly even verged on borderline self-parody. The introduction of the Ori in season nine and the additions of Claudia Black and Ben Browder continued the show in its comedic and light hearted aspects.

The cast
The show's original cast included Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O'Neill, Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson, Amanda Tapping as Samantha Carter, Christopher Judge as Teal'c and Don S. Davis as General Hammond. Shanks left the show in the sixth season and was replaced by Corin Nemec as Jonas Quinn, but Shanks returned for the seventh season and Nemec left the show after that.

In the eighth season, Davis left the show and Jack O'Neill was promoted to be the base's commanding officer in his place. The next season, Anderson left the show and Beau Bridges was cast as Hank Landry, the new commanding officer of Stargate Command, and Ben Browder became Cameron Mitchell, the new team leader of SG-1. In ninth season, the recurring character of Vala Mal Doran (Claudia Black) became a regular.

In addition to the cast members, there have been a number of recurring characters on the series, namely Teryl Rothery as Janet Fraiser, Gary Jones as Walter Harriman, Tony Amendola as Bra'tac, Peter Williams as Apophis, Carmen Argenziano as Jacob Carter, David Palffy as Anubis, Cliff Simon as Ba'al, and Lexa Doig as Carolyn Lam.