Stargate SG-1
Year:
1997-2007
Running time:
46 mn
Number of Seasons:
10
Episodes:
214
Genre:
Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
Nationality:
USA
Language:
English
Platform:
Prime Video, Appel TV
Director:
Jonathan Glassner, Brad Wright
Producer:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Pictures Television, Showtime Networks, Sci-Fi Originals
Screenwriter/s:
Brad Wright, Jonathan Glassner
Cast:
Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks, Ben Browder, Corin Nemec, Don S. Davis, Beau Bridges, and others
Summary
This television series is based on the film Stargate by Roland Emmerich.
After the first activation of the Stargate in the movie, Earth becomes aware that other peoples exist in the universe and some live under the domination of aliens posing as gods. To protect our planet and help the people, the US army creates teams (designated by the letters S and G – for Stargate – and a number) to better understand the situation and the several threats in the galaxy.
Viewers watch the adventures of the first team (SG-1) composed of four characters (two soldiers, one Egyptologist and one alien) traveling the universe to fight the biggest threat that are the Goa’uld, which are symbiotes that inhabit other beings, most of them human, as hosts). When the Goa’uld ruled Earth millennia ago, some of them borrowed deities’ names in order to be venerated as such; many of the aliens shown in the series take on divine Egyptian identities.
The Goa’uld Apophis behind his cobra-shaped helmet and Hathor rising up from her sarcophagus (Screenshot by author)
Egyptomania narratives or motifs
Among all the aliens, the most present in the television series is certainly Apophis. He was Ra’s main rival in Egyptian mythology, and when Ra is killed in the film, Apophis takes the opportunity to extend his domination over the galaxy and attack Earth, which had become a new threat to the Goa’uld. Following the Egyptian depiction of him, Apophis (and his army) in the TV series wears a mask in the shape of a cobra.
The second most important alien is Anubis, a more powerful enemy than Apophis. Its aspect is different from Ra and Apophis since, although having been a parasitic species like the other Goa’uld, he experiences ascension and he becomes pure energy. He no longer has a body and is only a light sheltered under a cape. His army wears a jackal-shaped helmet.
Other Egyptian deities regularly appear in the series, some in few episodes, but others in only one.
- Sokar – a chthonic god as a dead aspect of Osiris but led towards a solar rebirth – is a Goa’uld ruling a volcanic planet and he is pretending to be Satan;
- Hathor – the goddess of love – manages to seduce part of the team to better manipulate them and be worshipped by its male members;
- Sekhmet – the Eye of Ra who destroys humanity – is a Goa’uld voluntarily implanted in a human body whose madness increased;
- Seth – the murderer of Osiris – betrayed Ra and imprisoned Osiris but, millennia after, he is still living, hidden, on Earth where he leads a sect;
- Osiris – the god of the afterlife – appears occasionally and nothing seems to connect him to mythology;
- Amunet (Amaunet in the series) – a feminine counterpart of Amun – is astonishingly the spouse of Apophis;
- Haroeris (Heru’ur) – the elder form of Horus – occasionally tries to find a place on the political spectrum of the galaxy and so this is hard to find a link to the myth;
- Bastet – the cat-headed goddess – makes a short appearance;
- Imhotep – the architect of Djoser’s pyramid – poses as a rebel;
- Khonsu – the child god of Thebes – plays the role of a villain while he is part of the rebellion against the Goa’uld;
- Serket (Selkhet) – the scorpion goddess – whose name is never pronounced in the series but is mentioned in the script. She is in the service of the god Ba’al;
- Thoth – linked to knowledge and hieroglyphs – serves the Goa’uld Anubis as an overseer of warriors.
The second most important alien is Anubis, a more powerful enemy than Apophis. Its aspect is different from Ra and Apophis since, although having been a parasitic species like the other Goa’uld, he experiences ascension and he becomes pure energy. He no longer has a body and is only a light sheltered under a cape. His army wears a jackal-shaped helmet.
Other Egyptian deities regularly appear in the series, some in few episodes, but others in only one.
- Sokar – a chthonic god as a dead aspect of Osiris but led towards a solar rebirth – is a Goa’uld ruling a volcanic planet and he is pretending to be Satan;
- Hathor – the goddess of love – manages to seduce part of the team to better manipulate them and be worshipped by its male members;
- Sekhmet – the Eye of Ra who destroys humanity – is a Goa’uld voluntarily implanted in a human body whose madness increased;
- Seth – the murderer of Osiris – betrayed Ra and imprisoned Osiris but, millennia after, he is still living, hidden, on Earth where he leads a sect;
- Osiris – the god of the afterlife – appears occasionally and nothing seems to connect him to mythology;
- Amunet (Amaunet in the series) – a feminine counterpart of Amun – is astonishingly the spouse of Apophis;
- Haroeris (Heru’ur) – the elder form of Horus – occasionally tries to find a place on the political spectrum of the galaxy and so this is hard to find a link to the myth;
- Bastet – the cat-headed goddess – makes a short appearance;
- Imhotep – the architect of Djoser’s pyramid – poses as a rebel;
- Khonsu – the child god of Thebes – plays the role of a villain while he is part of the rebellion against the Goa’uld;
- Serket (Selkhet) – the scorpion goddess – whose name is never pronounced in the series but is mentioned in the script. She is in the service of the god Ba’al;
- Thoth – linked to knowledge and hieroglyphs – serves the Goa’uld Anubis as an overseer of warriors.
Author: Thomas Gamelin
Other information
Krueger, F. 2014. Pyramiden Und Sternentore: Gedachtnisgeschichtliche Untersuchungen Zur Agyptenrezeption in Stargate Und Der Zeitgenossischen Popularkultur. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Not available
Krueger, F. 2017. The Stargate Simulacrum: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Aliens, and Postmodern Dynamics of Occulture. Aegyptiaca 1: 47-74.
Open access
Ndalianis, A. 2010. Stargate SG-1, in D. Lavery (ed.) The Essential Cult TV Reader: 237-243. The University Press of Kentucky: Kentucky.
Open access
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