Is STARGATE (1994) the film & the SG series in the same canonuity?

[Aquehonga]

I've never seen any of the various SG TV series. I saw the film "STARGATE" in the theater on Halloween afternoon 1994.

I had no idea, viewing SG in the theater that Halloween, that SG would be like M*A*S*H* or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" & launch a long lasting TV series.

No one did.

So, are the 1994 film & the various TV series canonuous?

 

[SG-17]

Yes, despite some aesthetic differences they are in the same canon.

 

[Harvey]

More or less. There are some differences between movie and series, big and small, but the events of the movie are acknowledged as happening before the series.

 

[Brent]

Some things changed, like the position of Abydos in the universe, but mostly everything is the same, same characters, different actors obviously.

 

[Hermiod]

There are a few notable differences.

- O'Neill's name changes from O'Neil to O'Neill. O'Neill refers to this when he tells a reporter that there's another Colonel O'Neil with only one L who has no sense of humour (a reference to how differently RDA and Kurt Russell played the parts).

- Other names are different (movie first, TV show second) - Sha'uri/Sha're, Feretti/Ferretti, Sarah O'Neil/Sara O'Neill, Tyler O'Neil/Charlie O'Neill.

- The exact reasons why Daniel was laughed out of the academic community are slightly different. In the film, he simply does not know who built the Pyramids. In the series he directly believed that the Pyramids were landing pads for alien spacecraft - which is correct, they are.

- The film presents Ra as a small grey alien somehow inhabiting the body of a young man. In the series, the Goa'uld (a name not used in the film) are snake-like parasites.

- Abydos is described in the movie as being in a different galaxy to Earth. In the series, it is the closest planet with a Stargate.

- The Stargate appears to have been moved between two different but similar facilities in between movies but this is never referenced. In the movie it is housed in Creek Mountain while it moves to Cheyenne Mountain in the series.

- There are significant differences in the way the Stargate behaves. For instance, in the movie, two fossilised dead Jaffa (a term not used in the movie) are found embedded in the rocks that buried the Stargate. In the TV show, a Stargate that heavily buried would not even activate. When using the Iris, which is just far enough away from the event horizon to allow a connection, any object travelling through the Stargate produces an audible thud but apparently leaves no remains.

Some of the differences in the behaviour of the Stargate itself are generally explained by Carter and the rest of the technical staff having gained a greater understanding of how the Stargate works and adjusting the programming of their self-built dialling computer accordingly. Even then, it is said that Carter's dialling software ignores many of the signals the Stargate sends back that a real DHD would normally act upon.

 

[Gepard]

Y'know, considering Stargate fans can wrap their heads around these kinds of discontnuites just fine, it makes me wonder what's gotten into the folks in the Trek XI forum.

 

[Hermiod]

Y'know, considering Stargate fans can wrap their heads around these kinds of discontnuites just fine, it makes me wonder what's gotten into the folks in the Trek XI forum.

They don't bother me, really. I'm more interested in the story. As long as they don't come along and say Uhura is half-Romulan or kill McCoy off then it doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

We've seen many SG episodes dealing with parallel universes. I always thought this film took place in one of those. Meaning, the version of these events that took place in the main SG universe would be slightly different.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

There are a few notable differences.

- O'Neill's name changes from O'Neil to O'Neill. O'Neill refers to this when he tells a reporter that there's another Colonel O'Neil with only one L who has no sense of humour (a reference to how differently RDA and Kurt Russell played the parts).

- Other names are different (movie first, TV show second) - Sha'uri/Sha're, Feretti/Ferretti, Sarah O'Neil/Sara O'Neill, Tyler O'Neil/Charlie O'Neill.

- The exact reasons why Daniel was laughed out of the academic community are slightly different. In the film, he simply does not know who built the Pyramids. In the series he directly believed that the Pyramids were landing pads for alien spacecraft - which is correct, they are.

- The film presents Ra as a small grey alien somehow inhabiting the body of a young man. In the series, the Goa'uld (a name not used in the film) are snake-like parasites.

- Abydos is described in the movie as being in a different galaxy to Earth. In the series, it is the closest planet with a Stargate.

- The Stargate appears to have been moved between two different but similar facilities in between movies but this is never referenced. In the movie it is housed in Creek Mountain while it moves to Cheyenne Mountain in the series.

- There are significant differences in the way the Stargate behaves. For instance, in the movie, two fossilised dead Jaffa (a term not used in the movie) are found embedded in the rocks that buried the Stargate. In the TV show, a Stargate that heavily buried would not even activate. When using the Iris, which is just far enough away from the event horizon to allow a connection, any object travelling through the Stargate produces an audible thud but apparently leaves no remains.

Some of the differences in the behaviour of the Stargate itself are generally explained by Carter and the rest of the technical staff having gained a greater understanding of how the Stargate works and adjusting the programming of their self-built dialling computer accordingly. Even then, it is said that Carter's dialling software ignores many of the signals the Stargate sends back that a real DHD would normally act upon.

You forgot that in Lost City Daniel mentioned seeing the Stargate before he figured out how to make it work where as in the movie he didn't.

 

[Brent]

Y'know, considering Stargate fans can wrap their heads around these kinds of discontnuites just fine, it makes me wonder what's gotten into the folks in the Trek XI forum.

relatively, they are very small differences

 

[cultcross]

You forgot that in Lost City Daniel mentioned seeing the Stargate before he figured out how to make it work where as in the movie he didn't.

If you think about it the movie's version of his 'making it work' makes no sense at all. The dialogue says they'd got the dialling sequence as far as the 6th chevron, so surely even trying all 39 one by one would have found them their answer in less than a day.

Basically, in the movie, Daniel's only practical contribution is noticing the similarity between the 'Earth' pictogram and the glyph on the gate. That's it. That the glyphs are constellations is interesting, but not particularly practically useful, and shouldn't have prevented them making it work.

 

[Hermiod]

You forgot that in Lost City Daniel mentioned seeing the Stargate before he figured out how to make it work where as in the movie he didn't.

That's part of a larger retcon - all Daniel did was figure out one address, it was Carter who actually made the Stargate work.

 

[Checkmate]

To answer the original poster: Yes, they take place in different universes/continuities, but the series had similar events take place in their past.

The most notable difference that many people seem to ignore is that in the movie, Ra is the only member of his species (and he most definitely wasn't a worm) that was still alive. The rest had died out, and the only reason he survived is because he found that he could bond himself with a human and then keep that human alive through technology.

 

[backstept]

the movie also makes no mention of stargates on other worlds . . . it's assumed that Abydos is the only other one with a stargate

 

[Hartzilla2007]

To answer the original poster: Yes, they take place in different universes/continuities, but the series had similar events take place in their past.

The most notable difference that many people seem to ignore is that in the movie, Ra is the only member of his species (and he most definitely wasn't a worm) that was still alive. The rest had died out, and the only reason he survived is because he found that he could bond himself with a human and then keep that human alive through technology.

I thought it was mentioned by Daniel in Children od the Gods that Ra lied about being the last.

 

[Lindley]

Another difference is that the movie makes a big deal about "figuring out the symbols", while the series simply treats the gate addresses like telephone numbers. The Seventh Symbol still changes from planet to planet in the series, but there's nothing mysterious about it----it's just that each Gate has a unique symbol not on any other, like a signature.

Although oddly they've shown the Earth symbol on offworld gates a few times. I think that's probably a mistake.

 

[backstept]

Although oddly they've shown the Earth symbol on offworld gates a few times. I think that's probably a mistake.

I'm assuming that's because they used the same mold they made the earth gate with

I don't recall exactly but I think they only had one or two working (spinning) gates . . . One for the SGC set and the other(s) for location shoots

 

[Silvercrest]

To answer the original poster: Yes, they take place in different universes/continuities, but the series had similar events take place in their past.

The most notable difference that many people seem to ignore is that in the movie, Ra is the only member of his species (and he most definitely wasn't a worm) that was still alive. The rest had died out, and the only reason he survived is because he found that he could bond himself with a human and then keep that human alive through technology.

I thought it was mentioned by Daniel in Children od the Gods that Ra lied about being the last.

Even the movie doesn't specifically say that Ra was the last -- it just implies it. It just says "A traveler from distant stars escaped from a dying world looking for a way to extend his own life", and "Apparently his whole species was becoming extinct."

Well, Daniel seems to assume this means Ra is the last of his species, but that's not the only way to interpret those statements. All it takes for compatibility with the show is a different interpretation. It's not a stretch to say that Daniel was wrong. Hell, he was wrong about enough other stuff in the movie!

Since that doesn't really constitute a retcon, I would say that was not the most notable difference with the movie.

 

[The Badger]

One rather major difference is that, unlike the movie, in thee TV series everyone can speak English.

 

[Lindley]

Although oddly they've shown the Earth symbol on offworld gates a few times. I think that's probably a mistake.

I'm assuming that's because they used the same mold they made the earth gate with

I don't recall exactly but I think they only had one or two working (spinning) gates . . . One for the SGC set and the other(s) for location shoots

The only physical gate that spun was the SGC gate. The offworld gate was plastic and didn't spin. Any time you see the gate spinning offworld, it's CGI.

Except possibly at the end of "Nemesis". They might have used the actual SGC gate for that scene.