Transcript
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Stargate - SG-1, Atlantis, etc:
SciFi Channel documentaries:
Behind the Mythology of Stargate SG-1:
Transcript
Transcript by Callie Sullivan.
Transcriber’s notes: Many clips from episodes were shown during this documentary. I have only transcribed the ones that had dialogue relevant to the ongoing discussion. I have also not transcribed every “um” and “err” and “you know,” and have tried to tidy up sentences where the speaker lost his/her way.
MICHAEL SHANKS: Spanning ten seasons with over two hundred episodes, “Stargate: SG-1” has travelled to countless planets, encountered different races and met numerous aliens, some friend and some foe. They have worked tirelessly to use whatever means necessary to acquire technology that could help Earth in its battle against unforeseen aggressors. But one of the biggest reasons for “Stargate: SG-1”’s success has been the way that Earth-based mythology has been woven into the show’s fabric.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: “Woven” is a fantastic way of putting it, Michael. You know, over ten seasons the show has always found an entertaining way to put a “Stargate” twist on a mythology.
MICHAEL SHANKS: Join us as we take you deep into ten years of “Stargate: SG-1” mythology.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: Mmm. And don’t worry: we’ll sort it all out for you by the end of this show.
MICHAEL SHANKS: We hope.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: ... We hope.
MICHAEL SHANKS: If mythology is defined as a set of stories, traditions or beliefs associated with a particular group, arising naturally or deliberately fostered, then the writers of “Stargate: SG-1” were certainly doing everything possible to create a deep and layered mythology that “Stargate” could call its own.
(The Curse)
OSIRIS: Make no mistake, Osiris will return and the rivers of the Earth will run red with blood.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: I think the role that mythology has played in the show has obviously been a very important one. I mean, from the genesis of the series it was based in Egyptian mythology. You know, being the cradle of civilisation, we often wonder the hows and the whys and this gave at least a sci-fi perspective of what could have maybe possibly happened back in those ancient times.
(Children of the Gods)
(In the cartouche room on Abydos)
DANIEL: Jack, I think that this is a map of a vast network of Stargates – Stargates that are all over the galaxy.
DR LISA DICKSON (Co-editor, “Reading Stargate SG-1”): The Stargate’s a key mythological element in the show because it fits into a number of mythological systems: the Egyptian, the Celtic, the Norse – which are three major systems that operate in the show – all have references to “bridges,” for example, that traverse one world to the next.
DR STAN BEELER (Co-editor, “Reading Stargate SG-1”): The Stargate is the means of seeding all of the planets with different mythologies, so as a narrative device it works perfectly.
ROBERT C COOPER (Executive Producer): You know, I think people love to see stories that they’re familiar with; you know, mythological stories, things that they’ve heard before, explained with the “Stargate” twist.
MICHAEL SHANKS: I think that’s one of the best things about “Stargate” – I think it’s one of the first things that attracted me to the feature film was the concept of the idea that certain myths or questions or, you know, the great wonders of the world, or different relics like the pyramids that are left behind are yet to be really properly explained and everybody’s got some high-falutin’ theory. That’s what’s great about science fiction and asking the “What if?” questions is that we can put our own spin on that because we have artistic licence to do whatever we want. That’s the wonderful thing about “Stargate” the series is that we’ve been able to not only borrow from the Egyptians, we’ve been able to borrow from the Greeks and the Romans and now we’re working on Arthurian mythologies but we’re actually able to conjure up with our imagination some speculation and ideas that other people had toyed with because there are no right answers; so we can create something and it really makes ... as opposed to just making people escape, it makes them kind of think and go, “Well, that might be true,” or “That’s not true.”
(The Quest part 1)
DANIEL: The parchment told us that five virtues would guide us in our quest for the Sangraal: prudence, kindness, charity, wisdom, and faith. Now, we displayed prudence in finding a way out of the temporal maze; charity in escaping the forcefield trap; kindness by helping the child and finding the hidden passageway; and wisdom in solving the riddles. The only virtue left is faith.
(He walks towards the fire blocking the way ahead.)
CARTER: Daniel!
MITCHELL: Jackson!
(Daniel walks into the fire, which doesn’t harm him. The fire, which was obviously a hologram, disappears.)
LISA DICKSON: Mythologies are designed to give us a sense of how we fit into the universe. They ask where we’re coming from and where we’re going.
MITCHELL: So, where are you from?
PRIOR: Where we come from and where we are going are all the same.
MITCHELL: Oh, I get ya. Wherever you go, there y’are.
LISA DICKSON: And what we see when we look at mythological systems and what our intrepid heroes, SG-1, see when they look out at the galaxy and the vast panoply of characters that they meet there is really yourself. Everywhere you go, there you are.
STAN BEELER: And that’s one of the reasons that “Stargate” works so well is because it does have this hook into ancient mythologies and a lot of fans are fascinated with the whole idea of the ancient mythologies because they use it as a sort of scientific explanation for things that can’t really be explained otherwise.
(Thor’s Chariot)
DANIEL: There’s a legend around here about a Hall of Thor’s Might.
O’NEILL: Daniel, there’s a time and place for mythology.
CARTER: Uh, with all due respect, sir, we thought Thor’s Hammer was a myth until we proved it was real.
STAN BEELER: In fact, “Stargate” is something that you might call cultural bricolage. It’s a way of going through all of human culture and picking up little bits and pieces and sticking them together, but sticking them together using the Stargate as a glue and making it into a really, really interesting story.
[What follows is the first of several “data file” type entries that appear on the screen giving factual information about characters or races in the show.]
SG-1
Major General Jack O’Neill – U.S. Air Force
Dr. Daniel Jackson – Civilian, Egyptologist
Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter – U.S. Air Force, Astrophysicist
Teal’c – Former 1st Prime to Apophis, leader of Jaffa rebellion
Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell – U.S. Air Force
Vala Mal Doran – human alien, former thief and con artist
BRAD WRIGHT (Co-Creator/Executive Producer): There’s a ruler for mythology in terms of heroes, I know that, but it’s also a good rule of television. You can pair off ... and you can cover a good dynamic of different kinds of hero. You’ve got your military person in Jack O’Neill; later on, then Mitchell; and you’ve got your warrior in Teal’c ...
STAN BEELER: You have Daniel Jackson as an intellectual and scientist ...
BRAD WRIGHT: ... and Sam – possibly the hardest character to have to try to portray. She’s almost all of them: she is the warrior; she is the thinker; and, of course, a woman. Boy, does she have a lot on her plate, and she can pull it off. It’s amazing.
BRAD WRIGHT: As the series progresses – especially a series that has gone as long as “SG-1” – you start creating a ... I’ve been referring to it as a sort of critical mass of its own mythology; mythology that stops evolving from other cultures and ancient Earth history and starts, basically, a self-generating mythology.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: From the very first episode of Season 1, there was little doubt that SG-1 was in for a wild ride. With the introduction of the Goa’uld, Apophis and his foot soldiers the Jaffa, “Stargate: SG-1” got into a battle that would span eight long and exciting seasons. Keeping true to the original movie, the producers of “Stargate: SG-1” maintained Egyptian mythology as a driving, antagonistic force throughout the show.
(Data File)
THE GOA’ULD
WHO: Parasitic race bent on conquering all planets. Take human hosts and pose as ancient Egyptian gods.
PHYSIOLOGY: Larvae produced by queens. Offspring are born evil with genetic memory and intellect of lineage.
GOA’ULD TECHNOLOGY: Live thousands of years due to Sarcophagus – cures diseases, heals injuries and revives the dead. Side effects: negative psychological impact.
ROBERT C COOPER: The Goa’uld are kind of opportunists, you know? They take technology and they use that, and they also take on the roles of gods.
BRAD WRIGHT: If you want to dominate a culture that already has a god, what could be easier than to step in and say, “Well, that’s me.”
(Hathor)
DANIEL: Hathor?
HATHOR: Yes.
O’NEILL: Have you heard of her?
DANIEL: Hathor was the Egyptian goddess of fertility, inebriety and music.
O’NEILL: Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll?
DANIEL: In a manner of speaking, yeah.
BRAD WRIGHT: The Goa’uld take a human host and that personality is repressed. The symbiont that is the Goa’uld has genetic memory of the Queen that spawned it and so they have memories that go back thousands of years.
STAN BEELER: The gods of the Egyptians tended to be combinations of animal and human, and what better to represent the combination of an animal and human than a serpent invading a human body?
ROBERT C COOPER: The Goa’uld are established already in the movie and then in the pilot of the series as the main bad guys for the show and they have these very ceremonial ways. They are essentially posing as gods and so they take on all of the pomp and circumstance.
LISA DICKSON: One of the things that’s interesting about Egyptian mythology is that the iconography is so recognisable and is associated with grandeur and bombast and excess. They’re basically an arrogant worm. They’re sort of a small creature that has adopted the vastness and the power of a pre-existing system and so the spectacle of the Egyptian model is really, really important to the show.
(Data File)
SYSTEM LORDS
WHO: Leaders of the Goa’uld. Assume persona of an Earth-based god and rule by force through armies of Jaffa warriors.
BALANCE OF POWER: The System Lords rarely trust each other, and frequently battle amongst themselves.
PHYSIOLOGY: Most of the System Lords have inhabited the same host body for millenia. Yu, the Jade emperor, was so old that he could not leave his host.
(New Order part 1)
DANIEL: The System Lords can’t be trusted, either as a group or individuals. They’re posturing egomaniacs driven by an insatiable lust for power, each one capable of unimaginable evil.
ROBERT C COOPER: Once your good guys have defeated your bad guys, suddenly the bad guys look weak. You either need new bad guys that are either more bad, or you need more bad guys.
BRAD WRIGHT: The System Lords really are just the most powerful Goa’ulds. They are the Goa’ulds who have their own armies, their own fleets of ships and their own territories among the stars.
MICHAEL SHANKS: I think with the System Lords what was important – because in every pantheon of gods there was a hierarchical system – and I think that it was important because you had all these System Lords warring with each other who all seemed to represent different deities from different mythos in Earth lore.
(Last Stand)
YU: Whom do you serve?
OSIRIS: Anubis.
OLOKUN: What?!
BA’AL: You lie!
YU: He is dead!
OSIRIS: That was what you assumed after you attempted to murder him.
MICHAEL SHANKS: Because of the hierarchical system, you could only have things going a certain way. This guy had to be more powerful than that, if that’s the way it was painted out in our history and the way our ancestors understood this. So it’s really interesting when you get an episode like “Summit” when you have all these guys in the same room but they all represent different cultural distinctions. There’s Amaterasu, which is Japanese ...
STAN BEELER: A god from African mythology [Olukun] ...
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: Cronus – that was Greek ... [Transcriber’s note: shame on the production team for showing an image of Camulus at the time!!]
MICHAEL SHANKS: Bastet, which is Egyptian ...
JOSEPH MALLOZZI (Executive Producer): Yu, from the Chinese mythology, although interestingly enough, Yu was a character who wasn’t a god in the Chinese mythology. He was – I think – an architect or sort of a high official.
BRAD WRIGHT: They kind of adopt the culture. The Goa’uld kind of become the god they’re portraying.
(Data File)
THE JAFFA
WHO: Slaves of the Goa’uld bred to fight their battles. Incubators for Goa’uld young.
PHYSIOLOGY: Carry Goa’uld symbiote that functions as Jaffa’s immune system. When symbiote reaches maturity in 7-8 years it must take a host.
JAFFA TECHNOLOGY: Staff weapon – preferred weapon of Jaffa warriors. Uses naquadah power and fires an energy plasma blast.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: The Jaffa were originally created as foot soldiers for the Goa’uld.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: The Jaffa are literally the incubators for Goa’uld children.
(Children of the Gods)
(Teal’c reveals his symbiont in its pouch in his stomach.)
O’NEILL: What the hell is that?
TEAL’C: It is an infant Goa’uld – the larval form of the gods. I have carried one since I was a child, as all Jaffa carry one.
ROBERT C COOPER: To show their devotion and servitude to the Goa’ulds, they wear their symbol on their forehead. The First Primes get the gold ones. They’ve been cut into their foreheads and molten gold has been poured in and it’s kind of a special rite of passage to get the First Prime tattoo.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: As time went on and we began humanising the Jaffa and more and more were exploring the fact that they were essentially innocents. They weren’t doing what they were doing because they were evil, unlike the Goa’uld who are genetically pre-disposed to be evil.
(Children of the Gods)
O’NEILL: I can save these people!
(Teal’c turns and aims his staff weapon at him.)
O’NEILL: Help me!
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: Essentially we tell the Jaffa story through Teal’c.
(Children of the Gods)
O’NEILL: Help me.
TEAL’C: Many have said that.
(He turns and shoots down one of the other Jaffa, then turns back and tosses his staff weapon to Jack.)
TEAL’C: But you are the first I believe could do it!
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: Teal’c, being dissatisfied with his situation, found out very early on that there are other Jaffa that felt the same way.
(The Serpent’s Lair)
KLOREL: Why do you defy me?
BRA’TAC: Because you are not a god. You are a parasite within a child and I despise you.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: The basis of the movement – and the basis, I think, of any movement – is the people. I think that really showed that a society of people are not controlled from the top down, but from the bottom up.
(The Serpent’s Lair)
(Bra’tac is held in the grip of Klorel’s ribbon device. He falls to his knees.)
BRA’TAC: I die free!
(SG-1 and Bra’tac’s Jaffa burst into the room, firing.)
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: They finally rise up, led by Teal’c, and throw off the yoke of Goa’uld oppression and win their freedom.
MICHAEL SHANKS: In the battle against the Goa’uld, Earth needed allies – and with perfect timing, we met the Asgard. Borrowing from the look of the Roswell greys and a long-standing Norse mythology, the Asgard represented a strength that SG-1 had not seen since meeting the Goa’uld. It would later foster a friendship and an alliance that would run throughout the entire series.
(Data File)
THE ASGARD
WHO: Benevolent and powerful technological gods who protect rather than enslave peoples they believe as too simple to understand their science.
PHYSIOLOGY: A dying race that reproduces entirely through cloning.
ASGARD TECHNOLOGY: Asgard Stones – control functions in Asgard mothership including communications, holographic projection, navigation and transport beams.
ROBERT C COOPER: Initially what we had was, SG-1 were the good guys and the Goa’uld were the bad guys, but the Goa’uld were so powerful that there was really no way that SG-1 even stood a chance. That’s why the Asgard were introduced. In a way, the Asgard were as much an adversary to the Goa’uld as we were, and we became friends with them.
LISA DICKSON: So the Asgard are important because they do take the show in a new direction, largely by introducing a new race, a new power in the galaxy.
BRAD WRIGHT: In “Thor’s Hammer,” these people believed that they would always be protected by their god, Thor.
STAN BEELER: They appear to have all of the accoutrements of ancient Norse gods.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: Originally they’re presented in hologram form as mighty Norse gods. When you see the Asgard for what they are, they are wildly different.
LISA DICKSON: So we get that kind of contrast, which sort of shows the relationship between what we imagine and what is actually real; but we also get things like, for instance, the notion of custodial gods, right? So Thor replaced Odin, the warrior god, because he was a custodial god. He looked after farms, not raiders; and Thor and the Asgard are custodial aliens – the Protected Planets Treaty and so forth.
(Fair Game)
THOR: The Asgard will attempt to negotiate with the Goa’uld System Lords to include Earth in the Protected Planets Treaty.
O’NEILL: That’s a good thing, right?
MICHAEL SHANKS: I think it was really interesting to – because of these aliens who are not gonna fit in and be able just to converse openly – so they had to do some research and if they’re dealing with primitive civilisations, they had to do some research of, “How do we communicate to these people and how do we get them to ... possibly do our bidding ... or just find out a little bit more about them,” so the idea that they used technology to imitate human-type life forms that appealed to a specific culture like the Norse people at the time. I think that’s a little bit more interesting to me, and something that went on throughout the entire run of the series and just kept evolving.
(Data File)
REPLICATORS
WHO: Technologically advanced “bugs” programmed by creators with only one objective: self replication.
CREATED BY: Android Reese as toys and protectors. Designed to replicate at all costs, she eventually lost control of them.
PHYSIOLOGY: Individual blocks exert a reactive modulating energy field on other blocks allowing them to reassemble in a new form. Eventually evolved into human form replicators.
ROBERT C COOPER: Shortly after the Asgard were introduced, we realised, “Oh-oh, we’ve created an adversary for the Goa’uld that are in fact so powerful that it doesn’t really make sense why the Asgard haven’t wiped the Goa’uld out.” And it was kind of looking at that hole in the series that made us invent the Replicators.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: The original Replicators introduced in “SG-1” were these little mechanical creatures that consumed metal.
(Nemesis)
CARTER: Are you saying they’re actually eating the ship?
THOR: Ingesting the alloys, yes. They will continue until they risk compromising the integrity of the hulls.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: You had the Asgard that were so advanced that had obviously advanced past the use of these crude projectile weapons, who were trying to use energy-based weapons and it wasn’t having an effect.
(Small Victories)
THOR: You have demonstrated their weakness may be found through a less sophisticated approach. We are no longer capable of such thinking.
DANIEL: Wait a minute. You’re actually saying that you need someone dumber than you are?
O’NEILL (to Thor): You may have come to the right place.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: And as a result the Replicators have pretty much over-run their galaxy, and we ended up doing a better job of handling the threat they posed to our galaxy.
MICHAEL SHANKS: The Replicators gave us a really interesting, thoughtless, bent-on-destruction kind of antagonist for us to face, but also highlighted our own need to walk carefully when dealing with artificial intelligence and dealing with technology that gets away on us; so I thought that was a nice avenue for us to peruse for a while as well.
BRAD WRIGHT: It’s a good example of how an enemy, how a race evolves and becomes part of a series canon and part of the ground from which you build stories.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: As the writing continued to cultivate the mythology of the show, the scope of just how much the Stargate opened us up to the universe was becoming more evident with every new episode. In the same season that we met the Asgard, we came across a new ally that would prove fruitful in the fight against the Goa’uld: the Tok’Ra.
(Data File)
THE TOK’RA
WHO: Highly advanced alliance of Goa’uld resistance. Main goal is the destruction of the System Lords.
PHYSIOLOGY: The Tok’Ra take symbiotes by choice and share a mutually beneficial relationship.
ALLIANCES: Tok’Ra/Tauri alliance grew stronger when Colonel Carter’s father, Jacob Carter, became host to the Tok’Ra symbiote Selmak.
(The Tok’Ra part 2)
(Saroosh and Jacob lie beside each other.)
SAROOSH: Kiss me.
JACOB: You’re kidding, right?
SAROOSH: No, I’m not.
(Jacob leans towards her. Saroosh opens her mouth and the symbiont comes out of her mouth and goes into Jacob’s mouth.)
ROBERT C COOPER: Really the reason we invented the Tok’Ra was: how do you get out of the problem of having a Goa’uld in one of your main characters? Well, the twist is: what if that Goa’uld was actually a good guy?
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: One of the elements of the show that I really enjoyed was the philosophical difference between being a Jaffa, being a Goa’uld, and being a Tok’Ra.
(The Tok’Ra part 1)
GARSHAW: Goa’uld take hosts. Tok’Ra do not. Ours wish to be so.
MARTOUF: We have a truly symbiotic relationship.
BRAD WRIGHT: The Tok’Ra have been a long-standing ally but their numbers are few and they’ve always been a little wary of sticking their necks out too far.
MICHAEL SHANKS: SG-1’s search for allies and its desire to acquire technology that could help Earth in its battle against unforeseen aggressors was only overshadowed by the quest to understand the bigger picture. Who started it all? It was the introduction of the Ancients to the Stargate universe that added a rich new layer to “Stargate”’s mythology.
(Data File)
THE ANCIENTS
WHO: Race of ascended beings that exist in a state of enlightenment.
ALLIANCE: One of the four great races of the Ancient Alliance consisting of the Asgard, the Nox, the Furlings and the Ancients.
ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY: Ancient Repository – a device within a sealed chamber holding the archive of ancient knowledge capable of downloading directly onto a subject’s mind.
ROBERT C COOPER: The Ancients and ascension are very much about the continuation of the human soul beyond humanity as we know it.
(Full Circle)
DANIEL: I’m an Ancient.
CARTER: What?!
DANIEL: Uh, not me, but the Others like me. They’re the Ancients.
JONAS (looking at the tablet): This is written in one of the oldest dialects of the Ancients.
DANIEL: I mean, I always suspected, but I never really knew for sure.
CARTER: What does it say?
DANIEL: It says that the Ancients evolved from a race of humans that lived long before us; that they were wiped out by a plague that was sweeping across the galaxy and that many learned to ascend and the rest died out. I have to go.
CARTER: Daniel!
(Daniel turns into a glowing energy being and disappears up through the ceiling.)
BRAD WRIGHT: We’ve kind of said that the Ancients are us. We are the second evolution of this physical form.
ROBERT C COOPER: And the idea of the Ancients is that they evolved. Eventually they became so knowledgeable of the universe and of the understanding of existence that they were able to shed their human bodies and turn into energy.
BRAD WRIGHT: And the philosophy that they then have to adopt – because it empowers them so much – is to not interfere.
(The Pegasus Project)
VALA: If you know what it is we’re looking for – and as an ascended being, I have to assume you do ...
MORGAN LE FAY: As Doctor Jackson knows, it is against our highest law to interfere.
LISA DICKSON: They refer to that most important question – or one of the two most important questions of mythology. The first one is, “Where do we come from?” ... Actually they answer both of those: “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going?” So they are Origin and Telos, right? The beginning and the end.
(Maternal Instinct)
DANIEL: Jack, the markings on the wall are a language. It’s a bible. Uh, no, actually it’s more of an instruction book on how to reach this ethereal plane of existence, some kind of other world. It’s only natural the Jaffa who found this place would have interpreted it as a passage to the afterlife.
O’NEILL: Whoa, slow down there, Grasshopper.
BRAD WRIGHT: If the Ancients were really the first human form that lived on Earth and built the Stargates and then went out into the galaxy from here – as evidenced by the fact that it’s our constellations on the Stargate – then they had to have been on Earth millions of years ago, in which case there should be some evidence of that.
(Lost City part 2)
DANIEL: I don’t think this is it, Sam.
CARTER: What do you mean?
DANIEL: The dome’s too small. It’s like Taonas. It’s obviously not a city, it’s just an outpost of some kind.
CARTER: This isn’t Atlantis?
DANIEL: I don’t think so.
LISA DICKSON: The lost city of Atlantis! It’s interesting, because it was mystical even at the moment when we first heard about it in Plato. It had already been sunk in the sea for nine thousand years, and so it brings with it that huge suitcase of history and associations with that banished past.
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: As the seasons moved on and SG-1 aligned with their allies to overpower the Goa’uld, the show took on a new direction. Events occurred that led the SG-1 team to a new race which caused them to re-examine everything they thought they knew about the Gate-builders.
BRAD WRIGHT: Robert – I think quite correctly – said, “Look, let’s introduce a new bad guy. Let’s introduce a new long-term large arc that can be, essentially, a new mythology that’s still very much within the Stargate universe.”
(Avalon part 2)
DANIEL (loosely translating from a book): Uh, once upon a time there was a race of people that were on a great journey through space across the universe. They were called the Altera. Um, after much time – and I think this means thousands of years – they found a great belt of stars.
MITCHELL: And they lived happily ever after.
(Daniel stands up in surprise as he reads the next part.)
TEAL’C: Have you found something, Daniel Jackson?
DANIEL: It says that the Alterans named their new home Avalon and that they built many Astria Porta.
MITCHELL: Stargates.
MICHAEL SHANKS: In “Avalon 1” Vala comes through the Gate and she is carrying this treasure map and the treasure map leads us ... the treasure happens to be here on Earth and it’s a cache of treasure and possibly weapons and technology that we, of course, have been looking for for years.
(Avalon part 1)
DANIEL: Avalon was actually a place where Merlin helped Arthur – a mortal – ascend.
TEAL’C: Are not the Ancients prevented from interfering with the existence of mortals?
DANIEL: Ascended Ancients, yes, for the most part; but it’s possible Merlin was not actually ascended himself but was in fact just a human far along the evolutionary path.
LANDRY: What does this have to do with where this alleged treasure is buried?
DANIEL: Well, there are a number of conflicting interpretations, but certain threads point to the Knights of the Round Table gathering great treasures from the far corners of Arthur’s domain and hiding them in a magical stronghold at Avalon.
MICHAEL SHANKS: The idea that Glastonbury Tor is the place where King Arthur is buried. Now, immediately, shining a light on that makes you go, “What the heck does that have to do with anything?”
(Avalon part 2)
DANIEL: You realise what this could mean?
MITCHELL: Woah! We’ve always presumed that the Ancients were the first evolution of humans in this galaxy, but, but this ... (he points to the book) ... this is the first evidence suggesting they came here long ago from somewhere far, far away.
DANIEL: Yes.
MICHAEL SHANKS: The Alterans is a way of distinguishing the Ancients being an entire culture – the Ori and the Alterans being the two aspects of that that broke off in different directions. The discovery that the Alterans actually potentially exist in another galaxy was our way – in Season 9 – of separating those two. We always kept referring to the Ancients as one distinct governing body that was always looking on and we just referred to them as the Ancients; and then the discovery that there are ... if there is a good one, then there must be a bad one here too.
(Origin)
DOCI (as the Ori firebugs leave his body): Hallowed are the Ori.
MICHAEL SHANKS: The new direction of the show had begun and the tides were turning with every mission. The introduction of the fundamentalist Ori served notice that the battle to keep the galaxy safe was far from over.
(Data File)
THE ORI
WHO: Ascended beings that use advanced technology and spiritual knowledge to deceive the non-ascended humans into worshiping them.
GREAT DIVIDE: The division between the Ori and the Alterans was a result of the emergence of two different philosophies. The Alterans followed a more scientific/rational outlook while the Ori developed fundamentalist religious beliefs.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: The Ori – unlike the Ancients who have adopted this kind of hands-off policy towards our galaxy – the Ori are very hands-on and are the antithesis of the Ancients we’ve created.
ROBERT C COOPER: I wanted the new bad guys to have the same feeling; to have the same essence that the relationship with the Goa’uld was at the beginning of the series. They could be posing as gods but have even more power.
(Crusade)
VALA-IN-DANIEL: It’s all lies and propaganda as far as they’re concerned. We’re wrong; they’re right. They’re good; we’re bad. We must worship the Ori or die. And they will fight until we are dead or they are. Period.
ROBERT C COOPER: One of the things that we intentionally did was looked at the colourful flamboyance of the Goa’uld and took a decidedly darker approach to the Ori. The Priors are quite obviously the priests of the religion. What’s interesting about them is that, again, they have supernatural abilities. The Ori, as ascended beings, have a certain knowledge of the way things work; of humans and of evolution and so they can impart advancements on people. They can wave their magic wands and give people psychic abilities or telekinesis or super-strength, whatever. And the Priors have that. So when the Priors say, “Hey, we represent the Ori and guess what? We have the ability to, you know, plant our staff in the ground and part the Red Sea,” people tend to believe them.
(The Fourth Horseman part 2)
GERAK: Behold the gift the Ori have bestowed upon me.
(He opens his arms and all the books on the tables in the Jaffa Council Chamber rise into the air.)
ROBERT C COOPER: It was interesting to create bad guys that – from their point of view – are maybe not so bad. I mean, the warriors – the people who believe in Origin – are saying, “Hey, come on, you know. All they’re saying is, ‘Behave yourselves and we’ll help you ascend’.”
PRIOR: What is there for any and all to gain by choosing the path of Origin? Those seeking eternal salvation can follow the word of the Ori. Those that do not shall die as mortals. It is as simple as that.
ROBERT C COOPER: The twist is that they’re actually not helping people ascend. The Ori are actually a small group of ascended beings who are manipulating people because they actually gain some sort of energy, power, from the worship of human beings.
(The Fourth Horseman part 2)
DANIEL: For starters, did you know that the Ori need people to worship them because that’s how they gain their power?
(The Prior turns away.)
MITCHELL (to Daniel): He didn’t know.
DANIEL: No, he didn’t know that.
ROBERT C COOPER: And they’re not fulfilling the one promise of the religion, and that is that if you’re good, you’re gonna be brought up to their level.
(Crusade)
TOMIN (admiring his new uniform in the mirror): I never dreamed I would one day be fit to serve the Ori in this way.
VALA: By killing people you know nothing about?
TOMIN: All I need to know is that they are an enemy of the Ori – that they reject the teachings of Origin and would have us stray from the path.
VALA: These so-called unbelievers: they’re so far away. How can they affect us? Why do we have to go all the way over there to ...
TOMIN (talking over her): Evil must not be allowed to fester anywhere.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: Tomin is an excellent example of a character who gets swept away in this religious fervour, if you will. He – unlike the Ori or even the Priors to a certain extent – he’s not an evil individual but incredibly misguided, and so you feel sympathy for the character.
(Crusade)
TOMIN: Fear not. Once we warriors of Ori have vanquished the wicked, I shall return.
ROBERT C COOPER: I was really interested in making the warriors multi-dimensional. I really wanted to kind of understand what it would be like on the other side.
(Crusade)
VALA: You have to listen to me.
TOMIN: NO! I am deaf to all but the teachings of Origin!
ROBERT C COOPER: So by putting Vala behind enemy lines, so to speak, and having her develop this relationship – I mean, here’s a guy who she really could have probably spent her life with who just also happened to be, you know, a holy crusader.
(Counterstrike)
PRIOR: Now, hear the words of the Orici.
(Adria comes out to address the villagers.)
ROBERT C COOPER: Right from the get-go we knew that if we had gotten into Season 10, we needed to kind of put a figurehead on that; put a real face on the bad guys. We created the character who has a knowledge of the Ori in the form of a human being. She was, you know, immaculately conceived, Vala carried the child and then the Ori kind of snuck one of their own over the border and cheated the Ancient rules.
(Counterstrike)
VALA: We’re not rejoining the fleet. You’re coming with me.
ADRIA: No. I can’t abandon my army.
VALA: It’s not your army.
ADRIA: Of course it is.
VALA: Well, as your mother, I’m putting my foot down. You’re too young to have your own army.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: With the introduction of Adria, who I liken to an evil Joan of Arc ...
(The Quest part 2)
PRIOR: What of the village?
ADRIA: Have they agreed to accept the teachings of Origin?
PRIOR: No.
ADRIA: Then burn it.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: ... we have a character who not only embodies, you know, the spirit of the Ori but is able to interact with us on a physical level
MICHAEL SHANKS: I think with the introduction of the Ori to the mythology of “Stargate,” what it’s done is that it’s allowed us to be a little bit more intellectual, a little bit more contemporary with our usage of the word “god” in the context of science fiction.
(Origin)
DOCI: What is a god, but a being that is worshipped by those beneath? Is great knowledge, power, understanding not enough for you to revere the Ori?
DANIEL: Respect, yes, certainly; but that doesn’t mean I would murder innocent people in their name.
ROBERT C COOPER: People were saying, “Oh my God, the Ori – they’re so powerful and the Priors are so bad. I mean, how is the team ever gonna defeat them? How are they ever gonna win?” And I mean, that’s kind of what we wanted. I mean, that’s what the fan reaction was, I think, at the beginning of the series when, you know, here we have the Goa’uld and they have all these ships and technology. How are we ever gonna beat them? Well, eight years later we did. We kicked their asses and now we have to set up a situation in the same series where our heroes can once again overcome what seem to be incredible odds to win.
MICHAEL SHANKS: As SG-1’s focus turns to the birth of a new enemy, the show delves further into a world of Arthurian mythology and leads us on a chase for the Holy Grail.
(Avalon part 1)
DANIEL: Have you heard of Merlin?
MITCHELL: Merlin. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table Merlin?
DANIEL: Yes.
MITCHELL: Was an Ancient?
DANIEL: I think so.
MITCHELL (excitedly to Teal’c): See! That is what I’m talkin’ about.
STAN BEELER: Merlin wasn’t a particularly spiritual character in Arthurian legend. He was a guy that manipulated things so that Arthur was born and then helped Arthur with the business of being king. In “Stargate,” it’s sort of the other way around again. He comes down from a holy place, from being ascended, and helps people towards defending themselves on the physical plain and also against spiritual dangers.
BRAD WRIGHT: It made sense that this guy – Merlin – had the capability of being a wizard and sending Arthur on this quest because he really was a very powerful alien, if you will.
(Avalon part 1)
MERLIN’s HOLOGRAM: Welcome, ye Knights of the Round Table, men of honour, followers of the path of righteousness. Only those with wealth of knowledge and truth of spirit shall be given access to the underworld.
ROBERT C COOPER: You know, the Merlin/Holy Grail is a search – is a search for something that would be the answer, the solution to our problems, and it’s the main thrust of Season 10: searching for the device that hopefully, you know, if used properly would actually kill the Ori.
(Camelot)
TEAL’C: Your world, as well as countless others, are in danger of being overrun by an enemy far more powerful than you could ever imagine. They are called the Ori, and they will destroy anyone who does not kneel before them.
DANIEL: We learned a long time ago Merlin was working on a weapon that could be used against them, and the key to finding that weapon is inside that library.
LISA DICKSON: The Holy Grail is a really interesting figure because it’s again a pseudo-Christian artefact that was never actually accepted officially by the Church, but it has that sort of strong Christian association – brought by Joseph of Arimathea to England and being associated with resurrection and purity of heart.
(The Quest part 1)
DANIEL (reading a paper): “Prudence, wisdom, charity, kindness, and faith. Let these be your guide on this perilous quest.”
LISA DICKSON: So it has this really long history, but it’s associated with the quest and with nobility and with chivalry and all those kinds of things; and it has, therefore, a really strong redemptive quality to it. It was lost because humanity was wicked, so that notion that when we find it there’s a kind of redemption – but it’s tricky in this context because it’s also associated with potential genocide, right, in the fact that it could destroy the Ori and anybody else who happens to be ascended.
MICHAEL SHANKS: And I think that through us using this we were able to take something other than just using deities and their stories; we were able to take a little piece of our own unexplained history possibly and say, “Hey, what if it did happen but it didn’t happen quite like people think it did?”
(Camelot)
MITCHELL: We’re talking about the Holy Grail, right? Every movie I’ve seen, that’s a cup.
DANIEL: Uh, no. The notion that the Grail was a cup or chalice – particularly the one used by Christ at the Last Supper – was a late addition to the myth. Similar accounts describe it variously as a dish or platter – or in the case of von Eschenbach and other Middle Eastern-influenced chroniclers as a stone that fell from the heavens.
MICHAEL SHANKS: From the feeding of the Goa’uld to the discovery of the Ori; from meeting the Asgard to the search for the Holy Grail, “Stargate: SG-1” has created a rich and complex mythology that has given the fans a reason to tune in every week.
BRAD WRIGHT: Someone once compared “Stargate” to a really cool, long and complicated novel that doesn’t ever have to end.
JOSEPH MALLOZZI: The only way you can have that kind of complex, rich, detailed mythology is to have it slowly evolve over the course of ten years. Hard to believe when you say that.
LISA DICKSON: The success of the show I think is very much tied to that larger superstructure: the ability to take something that we know, something that we recognise – the pyramids, for example – and to give it to us in a new way.
MICHAEL SHANKS: So, after ten seasons and over two hundred episodes, “Stargate: SG-1” has – with the help of some of the world’s greatest myths – taken the fans on a fantastic voyage. And the voyage continues.