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.