Turning a movie into a TV show isn’t an easy thing.  Movies are meant to last for a few hours while a good TV show will hopefully go on for many, many seasons.  When the movie Stargate was first made into a TV show, I hadn’t really heard about the show that much.  Then again, I believe it aired on Showtime, which I haven‘t subscribed to in forever.  I didn’t even know that the show existed until around the fourth or fifth season.  I had to piece together the story from innuendo and reruns.  (It helped that the Sci-Fi Channel ran them in order on Mondays.)

For those that have seen the movie, but missed the run of the show, the story picks up from where the movie left off. The Stargate program is being dismantled.  Several members of the Air Force are babysitting the gate when it suddenly becomes active.  Several men come out and abduct the one woman in the room, leaving with her as suddenly as they came.

General Hammond, who replaced General West as the commander of the Stargate program, wants to know what happened, and with good reason.  Stargates connect distant worlds.  It was originally assumed that there were only two gates and that the other was destroyed, thus meaning that our Stargate was pretty much useless.  Dr. Daniel Jackson is still on Abydos, unbeknownst to most of the people on Earth, so Colonel Jack O’Neill is called in and asked what the heck happened.

O’Neill, who knows about Jackson, acts clueless until the truth is forced out of him.  A team is sent over to find Jackson, but Jackson knows of no Stargate activity on his end aside from the team coming through.  Everyone has a big oh-crap moment and realizes that there are more gates and many more bad guys.  (And one of those bad guys knows how to get to Earth.)

The basic premise of the show becomes using the stargate to find allies and/or technology to defend Earth against their newfound enemies.  In their travels, they find many colonies of humans that were used as slaves, many less advanced than the humans of Earth.  Within the first season, they do meet or learn about more advanced races, like the Nox and the Asgard.

SG-1 refers to the lead team, which is responsible for reconnaissance.  (There are other teams, as well.  The exact number varies throughout the show.)  It’s made up of O’Neill, Jackson, Captain Samantha Carter and Teal’c.  O’Neill and Jackson were carried over from the movie, whereas Carter and Teal’c are introduced for the show.

Carter, who is also a scientific doctor, knows about the science of the Stargate.  She’s very technical at times to the point where O’Neill warns people not to ask her for explanations.  Teal’c, on the other hand, is a Jaffa.  He’s one of the servants of the aliens who decided to defect.  Jaffa are of human descent, but carry inside of them larval aliens that give them regenerative abilities and long life.

Jackson and O’Neill are the only two characters that carry over from the movie, at least as regulars.  Both parts were recast with Richard Dean Anderson taking over for Kurt Russell as O’Neill and Michael Shanks taking over for James Spader as Jackson.  (Amanda Tapping plays Carter and Christopher Judge plays Teal’c.)  I generally don’t like recasting of roles, but both actors took over the roles well.

One thing I like about the series is that there’s a lot of mythology.  There is a race of small worm-like creatures that take a human as a host and will pose as a god for the purpose of enslaving humans.  Many of the gods we know, like Ra and Apophis, are really these aliens.  They actually came to Earth and ruled our planet until they were overthrown.  (It also turns out that they weren’t the ones that built the stargate system, but that‘s another season.)

Throughout the show, the team meets all sorts of cultures that were either abandoned by the false gods or are still being ruled by them.  There’s little to no communication barrier, mostly because the writers didn’t want to have to waste time translating stuff.  As with other science-fiction shows, Stargate: SG-1 deals with various issues like sexism, family and quality of life.

I don’t know if I’d recommend buying the boxed set.  You can usually catch the show on the Sci-Fi channel if you have it.  I’ve also seen it run on local stations.  The DVD set that I got didn’t have much in the way of extras.  It was mostly trailers.  The original content didn’t really impress me.  I’ll admit that this is an old version.  There may be a better version of it out there.  If you can get it cheap or want to give it as a gift, that’s one thing, but I don’t think I’d invest serious money in the version that I got.

Stargate:  http://www99.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1072129/content_148981517956

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older