SG-1, a primer

[brainofck]

As mentioned earlier, I am going ahead with the Stargate series. Gonna post it over at stargateslash. However, you are all here for the LOTR RPS. To the extent any of you wanted to read my Stargate thing, I thought I would offer a litte mini-course on what to expect.

However, I did this mainly because alpha_strike and daisy_gamgee expressed interest in it in my poll earlier today. Anyway, hopefully, everything a newbie would want as far as backstory before reading Possession.

The premise: Stargates generate wormholes that allow interplanetary travel in the blink of an eye. A stargate was discovered on Earth. Dr. Daniel Jackson figured out how to make it work. Earthlings go through the gate and learn that the galaxy is dominated by a species of parasite (the goa'uld) that takes over humanoid lifeforms as hosts. Long ago, they came to ancient Egypt by way of the Gate, and developed a preference for human hosts. They used the Gate to take humans from Earth to worlds specially terraformed to support human life.

Dr. Jackson and Col. Jack O'Neill and friends destroy a very powerful goa'uld System Lord named Ra, and Earth comes to the attention of the badguys (who must have forgotten about it. This in not important to our mini-course!).

The Stargate Command (SGC) and it's teams (SG-1 to SG-15), explore the galaxy, looking for weapons and technology to help defend Earth and ultimately defeat the gou'ald. SG-1 (Jack, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c) is the flagship team of the SGC, and spends lots of time seriously pissing off the goa'uld – destroying huge mother ships, starting uprisings, assassinating System Lords, etc.

The players

Jack, with disturbing mustard container Col. Jack O'Neill – a soldier's soldier. Been there, done that, like three times, at least. Not necessarily the braniac in the bunch. But infinitely flexible and resourceful. Knows how to bow to give his team room to work, and is often the idiot savant, whose down to earth observations are the key to victory.

Daniel Jackson, hunky nerd Dr. Daniel Jackson – archeologist, anthropologist, linguist (23 languages). The girl on the team. The voice of calm, reason, and diplomacy. Major tactical liability as the story begins, but learns how to be an asset in the field as the story progresses. Suffers from Convenient Glasses Vision™

Cap. Carter, kicking Hathor's ass Major Samantha Carter – tough as Jack, smart as Daniel. PhD in Physics. A warrior scientist much in the Star Trek tradition. She would be the Chief Engineer on a starship crew. I love her because she is usually not the girl. She rarely needs rescuing, and she almost never plays a love interest role. She's doing her job just like everybody else.

Teal'c in charge Teal'c – a Jaffa and former First Prime (chief military leader) of a goa'uld named Apophis. Rescues SG-1 and joins the Tauri (people of Earth) in their fight against the goa'uld. He is almost fanatically loyal to the members of SG-1. He is known among the goa'uld as the shol'vah (traitor), because he betrayed his "false god" Apophis and now works to incite rebellion among the Jaffa.

Goa'uld, with hand device. Goa'uld, with hand device.

Hand device Hand device, in action

The goa'uld – adult goa'uld inhabit human hosts. The can be recognized by their glowing yellow eyes and their ability to master certain technologies, including various hand devices – usually as powerful weapons. The voice of the host is usually very distorted. However a goa'uld can control the host without showing these manifestations. And a goa'uld can also share a host's body, allowing the host complete freedom. The goa'uld gives it's host extraordinary strength and immunity to disease, as well as rapid healing ability for all but the most serious injuries. Earth's only hope is that the goa'uld, though powerful, fight amongst themselves in such a feudal fashion that they hardly have time to bother with anybody else.

The Tok'ra – goa'uld who choose to share the body of the host, rather than dominate the host and take the body for themselves. The host and the parasite have a true symbiotic relationship.

The Jaffa – genetically engineered humans. They host larval goa'uld in their abdomens. The goa'uld larva acts as the immune system of the Jaffa, and gives great strength, immunity to almost all disease, and very long life. However, without a larval goa'uld, the Jaffa will die. Teal'c has a larval goa'uld, that Jack affectionately refers to as Junior. Larval goa'uld do not control the nervous system of the Jaffa, as the adult goa'uld control the host organism. The goa'uld use these super human incubators as foot soldiers, and the Jaffa worship the goa'uld as gods. Jaffa armies are the basis of the goa'ulds' ability to control large portions of the galaxy.

Thor, representing the Asgard The Asgard – little grey aliens who could kick goa'uld ass, if only they had the spare time. They are, however, very, very fond of Jack.

SG-1: The Glam Shot What can I say. And the Gate in the background.

Other important notes:

The Iris - Earth's stargate is protected by a defensive barrier, the iris, that does not allow incoming matter to materialize. It must be opened for matter to pass through the stargate. Incoming travelers must transmit appropriate codes via a radio transmitter. All off-world personnel carry them, as do certain allies.

ZATs - ray gun type weapons. One shot stuns. Two shots kill.

Staff Weapons - weapon of choice of the Jaffa. Big laser type thing, about 6 feet long.

Ha'tak - gigantic space ship used by goa'uld system lords. Looks like a pyramid. Go figure. Luxurious and gold coated on the inside.

And dang it, not enough icons in this dumb journal to have a Stargate one.

Comments

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

Just as a data point, I've been reading SG-1 fanfic for a few months now. I mainly follow jackslashdaniel, although I have a few archives bookmarked and occasionally browse through them. I've seen the original movie a few times (and whenever I'm picturing the guys in my mind, I'm imagining that Daniel 'cause he's WAY cuter than the guy on the series) but have only seen a few episodes of the series. I know enough about it to enjoy most fanfics, unless they're very tightly tied in to some particular episode.

Have you read this (http://www.area52hkh.net/ast/teand/cliche01.php)? I seriously heart Teand. :D

Angie

Yes, I know you posted this comment weeks ago...

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Four words. If you like James Spader - Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Such a great movie. And he's so creepy/sexy in it. I saw it in the theater and was like, whoa...

[alpha-strike.livejournal.com]

Thanks.
I still can't tell the players without a card, but at least I have the card now.

[charlietudor.livejournal.com]

*points up* What alpha_strike said. And where does SG-Atlantis come into all this?

Atlantis

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Atlantis spun off after Season 7 of Stargate. I haven't watched that far, so not sure exactly what happened. It was the last city of the most powerful species yet encountered. They were hoping it would yield some information/technology/weaponry that would be helpful against the goa'uld. I don't know much more about it than that.

Re: Atlantis

[charlietudor.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay.

Thanks--this whole thing makes a bit more sense now.

Re: Atlantis

[hangebokhan.livejournal.com]

Yea, could you give me some clarification on that? I thought they didn't dial Pegasus till the end of s8, but I just heard a mention of it in early s8... *is so confused*.

Re: Atlantis

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Not totally sure what you need clarified, but I've seen a little more of Atlantis since this post, so here's the beginning in a nutshell. The first season of Atlantis was parallel to Season 8 of Stargate SG-1. The first Atlantis episode started in Antartica, where Daniel and Rodney were researching various aspects of Ancient tech and information available at the Antarctica base, under Wier's command. Daniel figures out that there is an address for a place in the Pegasus galaxy. They figure out they can use the last little bit in the ZPM to supply the extra energy to open a wormhole to a place that far away. Wier assembles a team that will have a supposedly one way ticket to the other galaxy, hoping that once there, they can figure out how to get back. Daniel wants to go, too, but Jack won't let him (famously saying to Weir that he needs Daniel here on Earth). And off they go.

SG-1 Season 8= Atlantis Season 1
SG-1 Season 9= Atlantis Season 2
SG-1 Season 10= Atlantis Season 3

Did I cover the thing that needed clarification?

Re: Atlantis

[hangebokhan.livejournal.com]

Yea ^^;; I thought about it for a few seconds about an hour after I posted and decided, what the hell, and watched the first ep of SGA and realized that my brain was befuddled. Thanks ^_^

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

Daniel is def. the girl. They even point that out on the show. Repeatedly. :D

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

I love the Stargate scriptwriters. I really love them. No. Adore. Adore them. :)

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh. Ladies first.

Claudia and her lines...

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

"This planet has a very interesting, if limited, gene pool... "

I TOLD the Husband that if Browder came on the show, Daniel would have to grow back his floppy hair so they wouldn't be so alike!

Not to mention, "I find you very attractive!" :)

Re: Claudia and her lines...

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I vote for floppy hair back! Though the beard leads to endless jokes. Speaking of Claudia....

Oh, yes, we laffed and laffed at the gene pool line. I hope it comes up again when they are off-world.

[kaige68.livejournal.com]

Oh man. *sigh* This is going to be as addictive as candy corn isn't it?

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

I recommend you just get it on DVD... :) Nothing like a show where the slash is canon.

Daniel? The girl? Say what?

[alphekka-alpha.livejournal.com]

::puzzled:: Sam's the girl.

Daniel's neither female nor emasculated. If anything, he a bigger alpha male than Jack. 8-)
--

Re: Daniel? The girl? Say what?

[alicambs.livejournal.com]

Not too sure that I think he's an alpha male, I think he's far too smart to be the alpha male and far too independent and self sufficient to need to lead, but I strongly agree with you that Daniel is neither female, feminine nor emasculated. In fact he's a bloody gorgeous man. *g*

Re: Daniel? The girl? Say what?

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Ack! I think I was misunderstood. *points to reply to alphekka_alpha Daniel's not girly. His character fills the role in the script that is often reserved for the feamle lead. Jack protects him. SG-1 spends a fair amount of time rescuing him. I'm totally on board with you that he's neither feminine nor emasculated. Clearly *not* an actual girl. :)

Re: Daniel? The girl? Say what?

[(Anonymous)]

I kind of knew what you were implying, but I think that Daniel in the 'girls' role stopped way back in the fourth season when he became more and more physically competent both with hand to hand fighting and with a gun.

Whatever role he plays I love him to bits and think he's by far the most interesting character in Stargate. I've thought that since the film (and while I liked James Spader as Daniel I much prefer MS as Daniel now) and continue to think so. As to Sam, yes she's military so no punches are pulled for her, but I much preferred her in the earlier seasons when she wasn't mooning over Jack. I disliked the Jack/Sam emphasis very much, but I think what irritated me most was that it dragged on and on and on, and because RDA as Jack never seemed to put in as much emotional depth as AT as Sam did it looked as if she was doing all the running while he looked emotionally constipated! *g*. If they wanted romance they should have stayed with the wonderful episodes/scenes with Daniel and Sha're because they were heart breaking. Not that I'm biased in any way of course. *g*

Re: Daniel? The girl? Say what?

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

He's only "the girl" to the extent that *he's* always the damsel in distress. Well, not always. But very often, he's the one off getting in trouble and needing rescuing. And Jack is very protective of Daniel, in a way that is usually reserved for the female lead, rather than a male co-star.

I am in no way suggesting that Daniel is girly or acts like a girl. Just that the character often gets cast in a feminine role. In a way that you will note Sam *rarely* does. Sam's one of the troops, most of the time.

Re: Daniel? The girl? Say what?

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

By way of example, from a link above that may not have opened for you.

So, we have been watching closely for the possible development of a Sam/Jack plotline. [Husband and I thoroughly disapprove of Sam/Jack.]

And we were watching the two episodes that straddle the fourth and fifth seasons, where they get flung to the Asgard galaxy, fight some bugs, then conveniently get back home.

So at one point, Jack is about to do something really dangerous. He says, "Sam, you're with me! Daniel, back to the cargo ship."

Husband says, "Well, that's certainly romantic!"

My first reaction is, Ha! Daniel, the damsel in distress again. Jack trusts Sam more than Daniel for a dangerous task requiring guns and fighting.

Then I thought. Hmmmm. That's certainly romantic!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
See, Daniel in the role of the girl!

[alicambs.livejournal.com]

Ooops, forgot to sign it above!

[(Anonymous)]

:)

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

OMG! Damn stupid cookies! I WAS signed in!

[crossbow1.livejournal.com]

This is great. I should link to this when people ask me what SG1 is about.

I've only seen through season 4, but so far Daniel is SO "the girl," at least as far as the rest of the team is concerned. They're constantly on a mission to rescue him. Hell, most of the time they rescue him when he doesn't even need rescuing, just because they think he's the girl.

Why are the Asgaard so very very fond of Jack? I thought it was just Thor who loved Jack so much but then they named a spaceship after him... Weird.

Also, I think it's worth explaining to newbies that the Asgaard are the Deus ex Machina. I think the writers bring them in whenever they've written themselves into an impossible corner.

[simplysly.livejournal.com]

Just a couple of additions. A third shot with a ZAT will disintegrate something. And, there's also the Ascendeds (which Daniel did spend spend time with, so they are often referenced in fanfiction) and (as it has been a while since I've seen the show myself) I believe that the Ascendeds are actually the Ancients that built the Stargate in the first place. It also might be good to mention that Daniel was the one that effectively figured out how to work the stargate in the first place. So, he's not just the "girl", he's also the reason that they're able to do this in the first place.

Oh God. My brain just decided to make a connection between Daniel and Helen of Troy. One had the face that launched ships, Daniel had the brain. *headsdesk and repeats that this will not lead to a plot bunny, this will not lead to a plot bunny, this will not...*