Monday, April 14, 2014

Cast and Characters

  • Richard Dean Anderson as Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill (seasons 1–8 main, seasons 9–10 recurring)  – A United States Air Force colonel and an Air Force special operationsveteran who led the original mission through the Stargate in Stargate (where he was played by Kurt Russell). He is coaxed out of retirement in the pilot episode and serves as the leader of the SG-1 team in the first seven seasons. He takes charge of Stargate Command (SGC) after his promotion to brigadier general at the beginning of season 8. The series repeatedly alludes to romantic feelings between O'Neill and his second-in-command, Carter, but the relationship is never shown as consummated outside alternate reality scenarios. O'Neill is reassigned to Washington, D.C. before season 9 and receives a promotion to major general. He appears in a recurring role in seasons 9 and 10 ofStargate SG-1, as well as in Stargate: Continuum and in seasons 1 and 3 of Stargate Atlantis. O'Neill appears as a lieutenant general in multiple episodes of Stargate Universewhere he is in command of the Department of Homeworld Security.
  • Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson (seasons 1–5 and 7–10 main, season 6 recurring)  – A brilliant Egyptologist whose far-fetched theories about Egyptian pyramids having been built by aliens led to his participation in the original Stargate mission in the feature film (where he was played by James Spader). He joins the SG-1 team to facilitate his search for his wife, who was kidnapped by Apophis in the pilot episode, but his naïveté and curiosity regularly create obstacles for the team.[2] He gradually evolves from being an archaeologist and translator into the moral conscience for the team,[3] and remains part of SG-1 until he ascends to a higher plane of existence at the end of season 5. Following his forceful de-ascension at the beginning of season 7, he rejoins SG-1 for the remainder of the series. The last three seasons show his flirty yet antagonistic relationship with Vala Mal Doran.[2] Daniel also appears in both direct-to-DVD films, in seasons 1 and 5 of Stargate Atlantis, and in three Stargate Universe episodes.
  • Amanda Tapping as Samantha "Sam" Carter (seasons 1–10 main)  – A brilliant young astrophysicist[4] and United States Air Force captain who joins SG-1 under the command of Col. O'Neill in the pilot episode. Following her promotion to major in season 3, she is promoted to lieutenant colonel early in season 8 and assumes command of SG-1. Carter assists Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell in seasons 9 and 10. After her appearance in Stargate: The Ark of Truth, she is promoted to colonel and becomes the new commander of the Atlantis expedition in season 4 of Stargate Atlantis, before joining SG-1 again for Stargate: Continuum. Carter appears in a recurring role in all seasons ofStargate Atlantis (and as a regular in Season 4) and in the first episode of Stargate: Universe as commander of the starship George Hammond.
  • Christopher Judge as Teal'c (seasons 1–10 main)  – A quiet and strong Jaffa alien who defects from his position as the First Prime of the Goa'uld Apophis. He joins SG-1 after the first episode in hopes of leading his race to freedom. Despite achieving this goal at the end of season 8, he remains a member of SG-1 until the end of the series. He also appears in both direct-to-DVD films and in season 4 of Stargate Atlantis as a mentor for Ronan during an interview for the IOA.
  • Don S. Davis as George Hammond (seasons 1–7 main, seasons 8–10 recurring)  – A United States Air Force major general (later lieutenant general) who commands Stargate Command in the first seven seasons. Besides recurring in seasons 8 through 10 of Stargate SG-1, he appears in season 1 of Stargate Atlantis. Davis died from a heart attack in June 2008, making his appearance in Stargate: Continuum his last.[5]
  • Corin Nemec as Jonas Quinn (season 6 main, seasons 5 and 7 recurring)  – A humanoid alien and scientist from the country of Kelowna on the planet Langara. Daniel sacrifices his life (leading to his ascension) at the end of season 5 in an attempt to save Kelowna, but the following gleeful reaction of the Kelownan leaders causes Jonas to turn his back on Langara. Jonas is a fast learner and fills Daniel's empty spot on SG-1 in season 6. Following Daniel's return, Jonas returns to his planet and remains a recurring character in season 7.
  • Ben Browder as Cameron "Cam" Mitchell (seasons 9–10 main)  – A United States Air Force lieutenant colonel who is assigned as the new commanding officer of SG-1 at the beginning of season 9. He struggles to reunite its former members under his command and commands SG-1 (with Lieutenant Colonel Carter's assistance) until the end of season 10. He is promoted to colonel between his appearances in Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.
  • Beau Bridges as Henry "Hank" Landry (seasons 9–10 main)  – A United States Air Force major general and the commander of Stargate Command in seasons 9 and 10. He is the estranged father of the SGC's medical officer Carolyn Lam and appears in both direct-to-DVD films and in seasons 2 and 3 of Stargate Atlantis.
  • Claudia Black as Vala Mal Doran (season 10 main, seasons 8–9 recurring)  – A con artist from an unnamed planet and a former human host to the Goa'uld Qetesh. Her first appearance in season 8's "Prometheus Unbound" is the beginning of her flirty yet antagonistic relationship with Daniel.[2] In her recurring role in season 9, she and Daniel unintentionally set off the new Ori threat. She is unwillingly impregnated by the Ori, gives birth to Adria and watches helplessly as Adria grows to adulthood in a few days time. She joins SG-1 after giving birth to the new leader of the Ori at the beginning of season 10, and appears in both direct-to-DVD films.

Ori arc

The original SG-1 team disbands after the events of season 8, but slowly reunites under new team leader Col. Cameron Mitchell after the SGC inadvertently draws the attention of the Ancient-like Ori from another galaxy to the existence of sentient life in the Milky Way. While the Ori send enhanced human beings named Priors to the Milky Way to spread a religion that will augment the Ori's power, Ba'al and some minor Goa'uld infiltrate Earth through the Trust (a coalition of rogue NID operatives) to rebuild their power. At the end ofseason 9 ("Camelot (Part 1)"), the Ori begin an evangelistic crusade with their warships and effortlessly wipe out the combined fleet of Earth and its allies. The leader of the Ori,Adria (Morena Baccarin), is introduced in the premiere of season 10 ("Flesh and Blood (Part 2)"). SG-1 searches for the Sangraal, an Ancient weapon that might defeat the Ori, while Ba'al and his clones attempt to find the weapon for their own purposes. With the help of the powerful Ancient Merlin (Matthew Walker), SG-1 finds the construction plans of the Sangraal and sends a working version to the Ori galaxy. Shortly thereafter, Adria ascends. The direct-to-DVD film Stargate: The Ark of Truth ends the Ori arc.

Anubis arc

After Apophis's defeat in the season 5 premiere ("Enemies"), the half-Ascended Goa'uld System Lord Anubis (David Palffy) becomes the main villain. He possesses much knowledge of the Ancients and their technology. While Earth builds its first interstellar spaceship (the Prometheus) in seasons 6 and 7, Anubis creates an army of almost invincibleKull Warriors and wipes out many of his fellow System Lords. In the season 7 finale ("Lost City"), SG-1 discovers a powerful weapon in an Ancient outpost in Antarctica that annihilates Anubis's entire fleet and also sets the stage for the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis. Ba'al subsumes much of Anubis's power in season 8, while Anubis secretly regains control of his forces. Human-form Replicators begin to conquer the System Lords, but SG-1 finds and adjusts an Ancient weapon to destroy all Replicators throughout the galaxy. Near the end of season 8 ("Threads"), it is revealed that the benevolent Ascended Being Oma Desala (Mel Harris) is responsible for Anubis's original ascension. When she engages Anubis in an eternal stalemated battle on the Ascended plane to prevent his acting on the mortal plane, the Replicators and most System Lords have already been annihilated, and the Jaffa win their freedom from Goa'uld rule.

Goa'uld arc

The pilot episode ("Children of the Gods"), set one year after the events of the original feature film, introduces the Goa'uld System Lordand main villain Apophis (Peter Williams) as he attacks Earth's mothballed SGC military base through the Stargate and kidnaps a soldier. The SGC is brought back into action when the Stargate is revealed to be part of an interplanetary network connecting countless planets. SG teams are created to help defend Earth against the Goa'uld, who have interstellar pyramid warships and vast armies of Jaffa(hereditary slaves and human incubators to the Goa'uld) at their disposal. Earth's flagship team SG-1, which includes Apophis's defected First Prime (lead Jaffa soldier) Teal'c, initiates several alliances with other cultures in the galaxy, such as the Goa'uld-like but truly symbioticTok'ra, the advanced human Tollan, the pacifist Nox, the benevolent Roswell-alien Asgard, and remnants of the powerful Ancients. Another alien threat arises in the season 3 finale ("Nemesis") in the form of sentient machines called Replicators. Meanwhile, rogue agents of a shadowy intelligence agency on Earth, the NID, repeatedly attempt to take control of the Stargate and other alien technology. Despite Apophis's death in the beginning of season 5, the Goa'uld Empire remains a major foe in Stargate SG-1 until the end of season 8. The only influential Goa'uld in the last two seasons of Stargate SG-1 is the System Lord Ba'al (Cliff Simon), who is defeated in the direct-to-DVD filmStargate: Continuum.
The plot of Stargate SG-1 picks up a year after the conclusion of the events recounted in the original feature film. It follows the present-day adventures of SG-1, a military team from Earth. SG-1 and two dozen other SG teams venture to distant planets using a fictional alien portal known as a Stargate, which in the series is housed in a top-secret United States Air Force military base known asStargate Command (SGC) underneath Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In the first eight seasons, the mission of the SG teams is to explore the galaxy and search for alien technology and allies to defend Earth against the Goa'uld, a snake-like parasitic alien race that takes humans as unwilling hosts. As explained in the series' backstory, the Goa'uld had transported human slaves from Earth to other habitable planets across the galaxy thousands of years ago and now pose as gods of Ancient Earth mythologies, particularly Egyptian mythology. SG-1 eventually learns that highly evolved human-like beings, known as the Ancients, had originally built the Stargate network millions of years earlier, before they used their extraordinary powers to ascend to a higher plane of existence, after which they pledged to not interfere in the lives of other species. The Ori, who belong to the same race of ascended beings as the Ancients but who use their powers to subjugate other species, forcing them to worship the Ori and to believe a doctrine of religious fundamentalism, assume the role of the main antagonists in seasons 9 and10.