Rowan J Coleman Stargate

Stargate Retrospective, Part 1: In the early 90s, fresh off the success of Universal Soldier, director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin, sought to make a new sci-fi epic adventure that would merge the ancient and the alien. The result was the 1994 movie, Stargate! Though never lauded as a work of great storytelling, Stargate's rich mythos and striking visuals would soon spawn a vast universe of adventure that audiences continue to enjoy.

In 1994 science fiction was gifted a new icon in the form of Stargate. Though it received mixed reviews from critics, the film wowed audiences with its imaginative concepts, impressive effects and spectacular world. The film became the sleeper hit of that year and it didn’t take long for the film’s director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin to start entertaining the idea of a sequel. Although their big screen plans would never come to fruition, audiences returned to the Stargate universe on the small screen.

Stargate SG1 rode success for five years, garnering a passionate fanbase who now saw the series as the definitive incarnation of Stargate, superseding the original movie. It was quite a shock to these fans when at the end of its fifth season, the show was cancelled by its original network and one of its main cast members departed the series. If any other series was dealt such a blow, it likely wouldn’t survive. But Stargate SG1 wasn’t any other show and remarkably not only did it survive, it thrived.

In 1994, the sci-fi adventure film, Stargate became a surprise blockbuster hit, but the mythos didn’t secure a lasting legacy until it moved to television in the form of Stargate SG1. It was so successful that during its sixth year, talks began regarding a new television spin-off in the form of Stargate Atlantis.

Stargate had been a fixture of science fiction television since the mid-90s. After 10 seasons of SG1 and 5 seasons of Atlantis, the mythos was set to continue as a series of straight-to-DVD movies. However, Stargate’s third small-screen incarnation came into being during one of the most turbulent eras of the mythos; sooner than anyone expected, the writing would be on the wall for Stargate.