Image via MGM
Published Jun 27, 2026, 10:49 PM EDT
Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with a substantial amount of experience under his belt. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. Using his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's been able to tackle a wide variety of articles.
Sign in to your Collider account
The science fiction genre has seen the birth of numerous science fiction franchises over the years, from Star Wars and Star Trek to cult classics like Babylon 5. One of the most underrated is the Stargate franchise, which officially kicked off with Stargate: SG-1. Showrunners Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner deserve credit not only for launching a series that continues to hold a dedicated fanbase 25 years after its inception but also for having that series serve as a launching pad for a whole franchise. While it's common for shows like Peacemaker and Loki to spin out of feature films, SG-1 didn't have the luxury of a streaming service or an era where genre fare was commonplace. Its origin story boils down to unexpected success.
SG-1 sprung into being due to a deal between Showtime and MGM Studios, with the latter owning the rights to the Stargate film. With Stargate proving to be a massive success at the box office, director/co-writer Roland Emmerich and his creative partner Dean Devlin pitched two more Stargate films. Each of the proposed sequels would have delved into the origin of various myths in Earth culture, and revealed that the chyrons on the Stargate were in fact coordinates to other alien worlds. "Whether it was Bigfoot, or the Yeti — we were going to tie everything together into a larger mythology. And it was going to be so much fun. It was going to be so wild," Devlin said during an interview for the Dial the Gate podcast.
The Stargate TV Series Brought Back Beloved Characters With New Faces
Those films never came to be as MGM saw more value in a television series. The network hired Wright and Glassner, who'd previously worked on the Showtime revival of The Outer Limits. Together, they crafted a story that took place roughly one year after the events of the Stargate films and saw the return of protagonists Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks). O'Neill and Jackson become part of a specialized "SG" team that also includes tech genius Samantha "Sam" Carter (Amanda Tapping) and the mysterious alien warrior Teal'c (Christopher Judge). Throughout SG-1's entire run, the team would utilize the Stargate to travel to other worlds and confront interstellar threats such as the shapeshifting Goa'uld.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.
AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.
AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.
REVEAL MY WORLD →
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.
- You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
- You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
- You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
- The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.
- You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
- You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
- You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
- In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Blade Runner
You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
- You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
- In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
- You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
- In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
- Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
- You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
- Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
- In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.
- You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
- You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
- You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
- In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Ironically, SG-1 would contain many of the elements that Emmerich and Devilin had pitched for their potential Stargate trilogy. The Goa'uld's highest-ranking members, the System Lords, were named after gods in various mythologies, including Apophis (Peter Williams) and Ba'al (Cliff Simon). It turns out that Ra, the alien warlord whom O'Neill and Jackson battled in the Stargate film, was also a member of the Goa'uld. Wright and Glassner also explored the possibility of the Stargate connecting to other worlds, allowing the show to put its own spin on mythological figures.
There were takes on Norse, Japanese, and even Babylonian gods, which gave the creators the ability to establish a rich universe and continue with the film's theme of "ancient astronauts." This also allowed the series to tackle religious themes, specifically how others do terrible things in the name of faith. Teal'c formerly served Apophis but wound up defecting to SG-1 in order to free his people, the Jaffa.
The New Stargate Cast Developed the Characters, Adding More Depth Over Time
A major draw of the series was the chemistry between the cast, especially Anderson and Shanks. Both step into the roles left by Kurt Russell and David Spader with ease; Shanks even won producers over with his pitch-perfect impression of Spader. But they also made the characters their own. Anderson constantly sought to make O'Neill a more flippant and approachable character than he was in the film, and he frequently had the chance to show how little regard the Colonel had for bureaucracy. Shanks's performance as Jackson is equally compelling, as his intellect and compassion prove to be a solution to many problems the SG-1 team faces. Their interactions with Tapping's Carter and Judge's Teal'C make for some memorable dynamics; both O'Neill and Carter struggle with their feelings for each other, and Teal'C learns more about humanity.
And unlike other sci-fi series, SG-1 knew how to balance its darker scenes with moments of levity. Watching the series, it's clear that the SG-1 team cares deeply about each other, and, as it turns out, that care extended to the behind-the-scenes matters as the actors collaborated with the crew on shaping their characters. Anderson, for example, asked for O'Neill to be more sarcastic, while Judge felt Teal'c should be more stoic.
Stargate: SG-1 would last for 10 seasons and weather several changes. Shanks and Anderson would have reduced roles in later seasons, and the show shifted from Showtime to the SyFy Channel with Season 6. Despite this, the show received critical acclaim as well as stellar ratings. The feature-length SG-1 pilot "Children of the Gods" was one of Showtime's biggest series premieres and, combined with Battlestar Galactica, the series helped put SyFy on the map. Naturally, given SG-1's success, spin-offs were soon put into production.
Two feature films, Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate Continuum, were developed for a DVD release. The Ark of Truth serves as the grand conclusion to SG-1's battle with the alien race known as the Ori, and Continuum finds them attempting to fix the past after Ba'al changes history so that the Goa'uld conquered Earth. Both films, despite being direct-to-DVD, take the SG-1 story and escalate it to cinematic heights — the danger feels bigger and the scope more epic.
Stargate Led to Further Spin-Offs and Launched Genres Stars Into the Mainstream
Image via ShowtimeThere would also be spin-off series in the form of Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe, and the prequel Stargate Origins. Atlantis premiered between the Season 7 finale and the Season 8 premiere of SG-1 and follows a new team led by Lt. Colonel John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) as they discover the lost city of Atlantis and wind up in a battle with the malevolent Wraith. Universe finds a team of scientists forced to board an ancient alien ship called Destiny after their base is attacked, and escape using a Stargate — but wind up in a distant galaxy.
Origins is rather self-explanatory: Catherine Langford (Ellie Gall) aims to save her father after he is sent through a Stargate. All of these series continued to build out the universe of Stargate, but only Atlantis matched SG-1 in terms of fan engagement and character development. The SG-1 crew would also appear in various episodes of Atlantis and Universe, especially Tapping's Carter, who served as a major character in the former.
Related
The Stargate franchise was home to many genre alums over the course of its run. Farscape alum Ben Browder joined SG-1 in its final two seasons as Cameron Mitchell, Jason Momoa had a recurring role on Atlantis as Ronan Dex, which is rather ironic given his future role in Aquaman, and Ming-Na Wen had a recurring (later regular) role on Universe. Other sci-fi alums who appeared in the franchise include Robert Picardo and Morena Baccarin. Baccarin's fellow Firefly alums Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin also had recurring roles in Atlantis.
Though Stargate SG-1 has been off the air for years, its fanbase is still going strong. There's been a "Gatecon" convention dedicated to the series, and rumors have swirled of a potential new Stargate installment once MGM became a part of Amazon. None of it would be possible without the groundwork that SG-1 laid, as it took the foundation of a cult film and built upon it to make one of the most interesting science fiction universes ever put on the small screen.
Stargate SG-1
Release Date 1997 - 2007-00-00
Showrunner Brad Wright
Directors Martin Wood, Andy Mikita, William Waring, Bill Gereghty, David Warry-Smith, Brad Turner, Mario Philip Azzopardi, William Gereghty, Peter F. Woeste, Dennis Berry, Ken Girotti, Charles Correll, Jonathan Glassner, Robert C. Cooper, Allan Eastman, Bill Corcoran, Jeff Woolnough, Jim Kaufman, Allan Lee, amanda tapping
-
amanda tapping
Samantha Carter
-
English (US) ·