The Stargate television franchise was a spin-off from the 1994 film Stargate. The TV franchise saw the return of two main characters from the original film, Dr. Daniel Jackson and Colonel Jack O’Neill, although they were played by different actors. The stargate, after which the film, the franchise and the series are named, is a ring-shaped device that creates a stable wormhole, allowing almost instantaneous travel between two different stargates. In the film, only one destination was found, that of Abydos, by Dr. Jackson. When the first team travelled there, they found a human culture of Egyptian origins that was ruled by a god called Ra, an extraterrestrial who had merged with a human host. After defeating Ra, Daniel remained behind on the planet, having married one of the people living there, whilst Colonel O’Neill returned to Earth. The stargate was then left, unused but guarded, for years.
There were, in total, three live action spin-off series from the film, Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis and SGU Stargate Universe. Stargate SG-1 was the first series, and ran for ten seasons; seven years later, Stargate: Atlantis started, partway through season eight of SG-1 and ran for five. The final show, SGU Stargate Universe, started the same year that Atlantis finished, but only ran for two season before being cancelled. The two later series saw some of the major characters from SG-1 make appearances in them, to a greater or lesser extent, and some minor characters also had recurring roles, in one case becoming a major character.
As well as the live action series, there was also an animated series called Stargate Infinity. This did poorly, and was cancelled after only one season, leaving the various plots unresolved. It was set thirty years in the future, and is generally considered not to be canon.
As the series progressed, they got ‘bigger’ in terms of special effects. Starships, of whatever type, originally played quite a minor role, and originally took a substantial amount of time to travel between systems, even though they moved at faster-than-light speeds. By the end of SG-1 and starting quite early on in Atlantis, starship battles had become quite commonplace, and Stargate Universe was completely set on a starship.
Although the television series were all eventually cancelled, Stargate may see a return to the cinema in a reboot of the franchise, similar to what was done with Star Trek, where they will start everything over again from scratch with different storylines.
Stargate Universe