.gif)
Children of the Gods (Stargate SG-1)
Encyclopedia
"Children of the Gods" is the pilot episode
of the military science fiction
television series
Stargate SG-1
. It was written by producers Jonathan Glassner
and Brad Wright
, the pilot was directed by Mario Azzopardi
.
"Children of the Gods" is about the start and re-establishment of the Stargate program
after what happened in the original 1994 Stargate
film. The story follows three central characters from the film and two new. The episode starts off with Apophis attacking the Stargate Command (SGC) and the surviving soldiers from the attack believing him to be Ra from the film.
, Colonel Jack O'Neil
(Kurt Russell
) led a team through the Stargate
to the planet Abydos. After killing the System Lord Ra (Jaye Davidson
) by rigging a nuclear bomb
onto his ship as it left Abydos, O'Neill returned to Earth
with two survivors of his team, leaving behind Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader
), who remained with his new love Sha're (Mili Avital
; called Sha'uri in the movie) and her brother Skaara (Alexis Cruz
).
In the present, Apophis and his Jaffa enter through the Stargate
, killing several people and kidnapping a female airman. Soon after this event, O'Neill (now played by Richard Dean Anderson
) is re-called to Cheyenne Mountain
by Major General
George Hammond (Don S. Davis
). He is interrogated
, along with his former teammates Louis Ferretti (Brent Stait
) and Charles Kawalsky (Jay Acovone
), about their mission to Abydos. When they refuse to reveal anything other than what is in their reports, General Hammond chooses to send a nuclear bomb
through the Stargate to Abydos, believing that the aliens could only have come from Abydos and hoping to destroy whoever came through.
With this threat hanging over his head, O'Neill reveals that he had lied about using the bomb to destroy Abydos. He admits that while the alien Ra was killed, the people of Abydos are still alive, with Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks
) living among them. After talking to his superiors, Hammond allows O'Neill to send a tissue box through the Stargate. The box is returned, proving that Jackson is alive and well, O'Neill is recalled to active duty, regains his rank of Colonel
and is given permission to take a team through the Stargate to Abydos to investigate the alien invaders. A team is assembled which includes O'Neill, Kawalsky, Ferretti, and Samantha Carter
(Amanda Tapping
), along with several others. When the team arrives, they find a group of Earth weaponry-armed Abydonians waiting for them.
Daniel leads O'Neill, Kawalsky, and Carter to a large cavernous room that has innumerable hieroglyph
s on the walls. Jackson reveals that he believes that the hieroglyphs of the cartouche
match the various symbols on the Stargate, leading him to believe that the walls are actually a map of the coordinates of a vast network of Stargates across the galaxy
. While O'Neill and the others are gone, the Abydos Stargate is opened and the camp is attacked by the same invaders that attacked Earth earlier in the episode. The leader's eyes glow, leading many of the survivors to believe that he was Ra. The invaders take Sha're (Vaitiare Bandera
replacing Avital) and Skaara with them. Determined to save his wife and brother-in-law, Daniel accompanies O'Neill and his team back to Earth. When the injured Ferretti is able to reveal the symbols that the invaders used to leave Abydos, General Hammond is given permission by the President
to form nine teams who will use the Stargate to gather information about threats to Earth. O'Neill is given command of SG-1
, with Carter as his second-in-command
and Jackson accompanying him, due to his determination to find his kidnapped wife. Kawalsky is given command of SG-2.
, when Jackson runs to her they are taken prisoners.
In the prison the team discovers Skaara, Jackson explains that it was not Ra who attacked them, but Apophis, the Egyptian serpent god of night. Before Skaara and the team can escape, Apophis and the possessed Sha're enter with several guards. Several serpent guards come forth and begin to pick people out of the crowd of prisoners who will become hosts to the children of the Gods. Skaara is among the few to be chosen and is dragged away, screaming frantically for O'Neill. Apophis orders that the rest of the prisoners be killed. The serpent guards prepare to execute his orders, O'Neill shouts desperately to Teal'c
that he can save the people. Teal'c believes him and turns on his fellow guards, helping the prisoners escape.
O'Neill, Carter, Jackson, and Teal'c leads the prisoners away from Chulak back towards the Stargate, with guards pursuing them. While escaping the town, Teal'c shows O'Neill that he has a Goa'uld in his stomach, much to the shock of the others. Near the gate SG-1 is pinned down by a death glider. (Actually this was a contradicting event because the original version of the episode featured a Goa'uld troop carrier, which after beaming down Apophis and Amonet, transforms to a death glider. This transformation and the troop carrier was never seen again in later episodes. The 2009 DVD version of the pilot episode however, for the sake of continuity, shows a Tel'tak scoutship and two escort death gliders. These gliders replace the original transformed glider in the original version and attack to SG teams.) Kawalsky and SG-2 rescue them by bringing the ship down with an FIM-92 Stinger
. At the gate they find Apophis leaving with his wife and the Goa'uld. O'Neill calls out to Skaara causing him to hesitate and wait for O'Neill to come closer. However, a Goa'uld had already taken control of him. Skaara uses a hand device to throw O'Neill back and then leaves through the gate. Shortly after this a battalion
of Jaffa starts attacking them, Jackson dials the gate and leads the prisoners through the Stargate. Just before Kawalsky goes through the Stargate, he is infected with an infant Goa'uld.
After the battle, Jackson and O'Neill reaffirm their determination to find Sha're and Skaara and rescue them before reporting to their debriefing. O'Neill also asks General Hammond that Teal'c become a member of their team but the General only says it is not his decision. As everyone leaves the gate room, Kawalsky's eyes glow.
reviewer Tony Scott criticized that "superficial characters wander through their roles without stirring a modicum of conviction". He mocked that the wooden acting, "pedestrian writing, pulp-mag plotting, shopworn characters, hackneyed dialogue [...] and Mario Azzopardi's broad direction will all undoubtedly delight billions and billions". He predicted that the series is "essentially for young people", and that "if no one else, the kiddies are probably watching" but that it didn't stop the producers from blatantly showcasing naked young women. Will Joyner from The New York Times
considered Stargate SG-1 as a "challenging, if derivative, mix" that is "more than a Stargate [feature film] fan might expect but certainly less than one would hope for". His opinion about the main cast was mixed, and he found it disturbing that SG-1 used shock tactics to make up for its lower television budget. He would not recommend the show for children because of the horror-like "grotesque physical attributes in the new villains" and the "gratuitous use of sexual implication and nudity". The episode got a Nielsen rating
, 3.3 / 3.4, -4.
) by Amonet. This has never been repeated, and future airings in the United States have had the nudity cut out for syndication. The DVD version, however, retains this scene. This episode is the only one in the series to be rated R by the MPAA
, while in the UK the episode is rated 18 by the BBFC. It is rated M in Australia, recommended for (but not restricted to) viewers 15 and older. All other SG-1 episodes have generally been rated PG, or 15, at most.
Executive producer Brad Wright
has revealed that the Stargate SG-1
pilot episode ("Children of the Gods") is being re-cut into a Stargate SG-1 direct-to-DVD
film
with brand new visual effects and scenes not previously included in the television version. The beginning will be slightly altered, a new scene will be added, and the nudity scene will be taken out, although the final movie will be roughly 7 minutes shorter than the original episode. Joel Goldsmith
will re-score the music. It was released on DVD on July 21, 2009 in 16:9 widescreen format, and may also be aired on television. Wright stated:
After being edited into film format it was rated PG.
had originally planned to have two movie sequels pick up the story from his 1994 original Stargate
. The first movie already tapped into Egyptian mythology; the second one would have moved into other mythologies; and the third would tie together all mythologies. Devlin then gave Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
(MGM) control over the franchise, and MGM decided to make a TV series based on the movie. Also, author Bill McCay
wrote a series of five novels based on Roland Emmerich
's notes, continuing the story the original creators had envisioned to Devlin's dismay. SG-1 showrunners Brad Wright
and Jonathan Glassner
altered the canon by introducing many novel concepts with their mythology of the SG-1 and Atlantis series.
Most notably, many characters were portrayed by different actors in the series, and names were spelled differently. Daniel Jackson was played by James Spader
in the movie and by Michael Shanks
in the series. Kurt Russell
's character Jonathan "Jack" O'Neil, a rather humorless Colonel, is played by Richard Dean Anderson
as Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill (with two L's) in SG-1. French Stewart
's character was named Louis Feretti, in SG-1, Brent Stait
's character is named Louis Ferretti. The spelling of Daniel Jackson's wife changes from Sha'uri to Sha're, O'Neill's wife from Sarah to Sara. (Similarly, the name of O'Neil's son changes from Tyler in the film to Charlie.)
The Stargate Command (SGC) setting was transferred from the fictional military facility located in Creek Mountain, to the Cheyenne Mountain
military complex. The planet
Abydos from the film changed the distance from Earth from millions of light-year
s away (in an entirely different galaxy
) to becoming the closest planet to Earth
with a Stargate, residing in the same galaxy as Earth. Also in SG-1, Stargate travel is limited to the Stargate network in the Milky Way galaxy
(unless a tremendous amount of power is used to lengthen the subspace wormhole of a Stargate to another galaxy's Stargate). In the film Ra was a member of an unnamed race who were becoming extinct, shown as a humanoid species with large black eyes and a lack of facial features (similar to an Asgard
or a Grey alien though it is never made clear whether or not this body is a host for the SG1-like Goa'uld - Daniel even hints at this possibility, saying "Ra took him... Possessed his body like some kind of a parasite"). In SG-1 however, Ra is one of many "Goa'uld
System Lords," who are a race of parasitic snake-like creatures. There were also changes to the Stargate. The unique set of 39 Stargate symbols in the film were replaced with the concept of 38 symbols that are the same for each Stargate (Earth's symbols based on Earth's constellations), plus a single point of origin symbol that is unique to that individual gate. While the kawoosh
effect in the movie was created by filming the actual swirl of water in a glass tube, and looked like a vortex on the back of the Gate on the TV series this effect was completely created in CG
by the Canadian visual effects
company Rain Maker. (At the beginning of Season 9, however, the original movie wormhole sequence was substituted by a new sequence similar to the one already used on Stargate Atlantis
at the time, but being blue as it was in the movie and SG-1, whereas in Atlantis it's green.)
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
of the military science fiction
Military science fiction
Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which the principal characters are members of a military service and an armed conflict is taking place, normally in space, or on a planet other than Earth...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
. It was written by producers Jonathan Glassner
Jonathan Glassner
Jonathan Glassner is a television writer, director, and producer. He is known for his involvement with Stargate SG-1 and The Outer Limits. Glassner was initially noticed as a writer for his work on Alfred Hitchcock Presents...
and Brad Wright
Brad Wright
Brad Wright is a Canadian television producer, screenwriter and actor. He is best known as the creator or co-creator of the television series Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe...
, the pilot was directed by Mario Azzopardi
Mario Azzopardi
Mario Philip Azzopardi , is a television and film director and writer.He has worked on such shows as The Outer Limits, Stargate SG-1 , and Stargate Atlantis...
.
"Children of the Gods" is about the start and re-establishment of the Stargate program
Stargate (device)
A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
after what happened in the original 1994 Stargate
Stargate (film)
Stargate is a 1994 American adventure-military science fiction film released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco Pictures. Created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film is the first release in the Stargate franchise...
film. The story follows three central characters from the film and two new. The episode starts off with Apophis attacking the Stargate Command (SGC) and the surviving soldiers from the attack believing him to be Ra from the film.
Part 1
One year previously, in the events of the movie StargateStargate (film)
Stargate is a 1994 American adventure-military science fiction film released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco Pictures. Created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film is the first release in the Stargate franchise...
, Colonel Jack O'Neil
Jack O'Neill
Jonathan J. "Jack" O'Neill is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, three science fiction shows about military teams exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices...
(Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
) led a team through the Stargate
Stargate (device)
A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
to the planet Abydos. After killing the System Lord Ra (Jaye Davidson
Jaye Davidson
Jaye Davidson is an American-British former actor and model. He is best known for his roles as transgender "Dil" in the 1992 suspense-drama thriller film The Crying Game, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, making him the first Black British actor...
) by rigging a nuclear bomb
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
onto his ship as it left Abydos, O'Neill returned to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
with two survivors of his team, leaving behind Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader
James Spader
James Todd Spader is an American actor best known for his eccentric roles in movies such as Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Crash, Stargate, and Secretary...
), who remained with his new love Sha're (Mili Avital
Mili Avital
Mili Avital is an Israeli actress. Avital built a successful stage and film career in Israel, winning the Israeli Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1992 and nominated for Best Actress in 1994.-Personal life:...
; called Sha'uri in the movie) and her brother Skaara (Alexis Cruz
Alexis Cruz
Alexis Cruz is an American actor, known for his performances as Rafael in Touched by an Angel and as Skaara in Stargate and Stargate SG-1. Cruz was born in The Bronx, New York of Puerto Rican descent. His mother, Julia, was a songwriter. He currently resides in Los Angeles. He went to Boston...
).
In the present, Apophis and his Jaffa enter through the Stargate
Stargate (device)
A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
, killing several people and kidnapping a female airman. Soon after this event, O'Neill (now played by Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson is an American television and film actor, producer and composer. He began his television career in 1976 as Dr. Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver...
) is re-called to Cheyenne Mountain
Cheyenne Mountain
Cheyenne Mountain is a mountain located just outside the southwest side of Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., and is home to the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and its Cheyenne Mountain Directorate, formerly known as the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center .Throughout the Cold War and...
by Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
George Hammond (Don S. Davis
Don S. Davis
Don Sinclair Davis PhD was an American character actor, theatre professor, painter and captain in the United States Army.-Career:He was perhaps best known for playing General George S...
). He is interrogated
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
, along with his former teammates Louis Ferretti (Brent Stait
Brent Stait
Brent Stait is a Canadian actor, best known for his roles as Rev Bem in the science fiction television series Andromeda and Louis Ferretti in Stargate SG-1...
) and Charles Kawalsky (Jay Acovone
Jay Acovone
Jay Acovone is an American actor who was born in Mahopac, New York as the son of a dry-cleaning business owners.-Career:...
), about their mission to Abydos. When they refuse to reveal anything other than what is in their reports, General Hammond chooses to send a nuclear bomb
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
through the Stargate to Abydos, believing that the aliens could only have come from Abydos and hoping to destroy whoever came through.
With this threat hanging over his head, O'Neill reveals that he had lied about using the bomb to destroy Abydos. He admits that while the alien Ra was killed, the people of Abydos are still alive, with Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks
Michael Garrett Shanks is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the long-running Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...
) living among them. After talking to his superiors, Hammond allows O'Neill to send a tissue box through the Stargate. The box is returned, proving that Jackson is alive and well, O'Neill is recalled to active duty, regains his rank of Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
and is given permission to take a team through the Stargate to Abydos to investigate the alien invaders. A team is assembled which includes O'Neill, Kawalsky, Ferretti, and Samantha Carter
Samantha Carter
Samantha "Sam" Carter is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction Stargate franchise, appearing in television series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe. SG-1 and Atlantis are both about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien...
(Amanda Tapping
Amanda Tapping
Amanda Tapping is an English-born Canadian actress, producer and director. She is best known for portraying Samantha Carter in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis...
), along with several others. When the team arrives, they find a group of Earth weaponry-armed Abydonians waiting for them.
Daniel leads O'Neill, Kawalsky, and Carter to a large cavernous room that has innumerable hieroglyph
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...
s on the walls. Jackson reveals that he believes that the hieroglyphs of the cartouche
Cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an ellipse with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name, coming into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, replacing the earlier serekh...
match the various symbols on the Stargate, leading him to believe that the walls are actually a map of the coordinates of a vast network of Stargates across the galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
. While O'Neill and the others are gone, the Abydos Stargate is opened and the camp is attacked by the same invaders that attacked Earth earlier in the episode. The leader's eyes glow, leading many of the survivors to believe that he was Ra. The invaders take Sha're (Vaitiare Bandera
Vaitiare Bandera
Vaitiare Hirshon-Asars is an actress based in the United States.- Career :...
replacing Avital) and Skaara with them. Determined to save his wife and brother-in-law, Daniel accompanies O'Neill and his team back to Earth. When the injured Ferretti is able to reveal the symbols that the invaders used to leave Abydos, General Hammond is given permission by the President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
to form nine teams who will use the Stargate to gather information about threats to Earth. O'Neill is given command of SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
, with Carter as his second-in-command
Second-in-command
The Second-in-Command is the deputy commander of any British Army or Royal Marines unit, from battalion or regiment downwards. He or she is thus the equivalent of an Executive Officer in the United States Army...
and Jackson accompanying him, due to his determination to find his kidnapped wife. Kawalsky is given command of SG-2.
Part 2
O'Neill with his SG-1 and 2 leaves for another planet. SG-1 forges ahead, they meet a group of monks who escort them to the nearby town of Chulak. During a meal they find out that Sha're has been infested by a Goa'uldGoa'uld
The Goa'uld are a fictional symbiotic race of ancient astronauts from the American-Canadian military science fiction television franchise Stargate. The Goa'uld are parasites from the planet P3X-888, integrated within a host, most of the time human. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent...
, when Jackson runs to her they are taken prisoners.
In the prison the team discovers Skaara, Jackson explains that it was not Ra who attacked them, but Apophis, the Egyptian serpent god of night. Before Skaara and the team can escape, Apophis and the possessed Sha're enter with several guards. Several serpent guards come forth and begin to pick people out of the crowd of prisoners who will become hosts to the children of the Gods. Skaara is among the few to be chosen and is dragged away, screaming frantically for O'Neill. Apophis orders that the rest of the prisoners be killed. The serpent guards prepare to execute his orders, O'Neill shouts desperately to Teal'c
Teal'c
Teal'c is a fictional character in the military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. Played by Christopher Judge, Teal'c is a Jaffa warrior from the planet Chulak. As a Jaffa, Teal'c is a genetically modified human with an abdominal pouch that serves as an incubator for a larval Goa'uld...
that he can save the people. Teal'c believes him and turns on his fellow guards, helping the prisoners escape.
O'Neill, Carter, Jackson, and Teal'c leads the prisoners away from Chulak back towards the Stargate, with guards pursuing them. While escaping the town, Teal'c shows O'Neill that he has a Goa'uld in his stomach, much to the shock of the others. Near the gate SG-1 is pinned down by a death glider. (Actually this was a contradicting event because the original version of the episode featured a Goa'uld troop carrier, which after beaming down Apophis and Amonet, transforms to a death glider. This transformation and the troop carrier was never seen again in later episodes. The 2009 DVD version of the pilot episode however, for the sake of continuity, shows a Tel'tak scoutship and two escort death gliders. These gliders replace the original transformed glider in the original version and attack to SG teams.) Kawalsky and SG-2 rescue them by bringing the ship down with an FIM-92 Stinger
FIM-92 Stinger
The FIM-92 Stinger is a personal portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile , which can be adapted to fire from ground vehicles and helicopters , developed in the United States and entered into service in 1981. Used by the militaries of the U.S...
. At the gate they find Apophis leaving with his wife and the Goa'uld. O'Neill calls out to Skaara causing him to hesitate and wait for O'Neill to come closer. However, a Goa'uld had already taken control of him. Skaara uses a hand device to throw O'Neill back and then leaves through the gate. Shortly after this a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
of Jaffa starts attacking them, Jackson dials the gate and leads the prisoners through the Stargate. Just before Kawalsky goes through the Stargate, he is infected with an infant Goa'uld.
After the battle, Jackson and O'Neill reaffirm their determination to find Sha're and Skaara and rescue them before reporting to their debriefing. O'Neill also asks General Hammond that Teal'c become a member of their team but the General only says it is not his decision. As everyone leaves the gate room, Kawalsky's eyes glow.
Release and reception
VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reviewer Tony Scott criticized that "superficial characters wander through their roles without stirring a modicum of conviction". He mocked that the wooden acting, "pedestrian writing, pulp-mag plotting, shopworn characters, hackneyed dialogue [...] and Mario Azzopardi's broad direction will all undoubtedly delight billions and billions". He predicted that the series is "essentially for young people", and that "if no one else, the kiddies are probably watching" but that it didn't stop the producers from blatantly showcasing naked young women. Will Joyner from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
considered Stargate SG-1 as a "challenging, if derivative, mix" that is "more than a Stargate [feature film] fan might expect but certainly less than one would hope for". His opinion about the main cast was mixed, and he found it disturbing that SG-1 used shock tactics to make up for its lower television budget. He would not recommend the show for children because of the horror-like "grotesque physical attributes in the new villains" and the "gratuitous use of sexual implication and nudity". The episode got a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, 3.3 / 3.4, -4.
MPAA rating and subsequent edits
The episode's original airing on Showtime in 1997 featured full-frontal nudity during the scene showing the possession of Sha're (Vaitiare BanderaVaitiare Bandera
Vaitiare Hirshon-Asars is an actress based in the United States.- Career :...
) by Amonet. This has never been repeated, and future airings in the United States have had the nudity cut out for syndication. The DVD version, however, retains this scene. This episode is the only one in the series to be rated R by the MPAA
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
, while in the UK the episode is rated 18 by the BBFC. It is rated M in Australia, recommended for (but not restricted to) viewers 15 and older. All other SG-1 episodes have generally been rated PG, or 15, at most.
Executive producer Brad Wright
Brad Wright
Brad Wright is a Canadian television producer, screenwriter and actor. He is best known as the creator or co-creator of the television series Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe...
has revealed that the Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
pilot episode ("Children of the Gods") is being re-cut into a Stargate SG-1 direct-to-DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
with brand new visual effects and scenes not previously included in the television version. The beginning will be slightly altered, a new scene will be added, and the nudity scene will be taken out, although the final movie will be roughly 7 minutes shorter than the original episode. Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith is a composer of film, television, and video game music. He is the son of renowned composer Jerry Goldsmith. He was the main composer for the TV series Stargate SG-1, although the main titles were written by David Arnold...
will re-score the music. It was released on DVD on July 21, 2009 in 16:9 widescreen format, and may also be aired on television. Wright stated:
After being edited into film format it was rated PG.
Differences from the film
Dean DevlinDean Devlin
Dean Devlin is an American screenwriter, producer, television director and former actor. He is the founder of the production company Electric Entertainment.-Personal life:...
had originally planned to have two movie sequels pick up the story from his 1994 original Stargate
Stargate (film)
Stargate is a 1994 American adventure-military science fiction film released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco Pictures. Created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film is the first release in the Stargate franchise...
. The first movie already tapped into Egyptian mythology; the second one would have moved into other mythologies; and the third would tie together all mythologies. Devlin then gave Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
(MGM) control over the franchise, and MGM decided to make a TV series based on the movie. Also, author Bill McCay
Bill McCay
Bill McCay is an American author and has written over seventy books in total. He has written five books for the Stargate franchise. His first Stargate book was released in 1995, two years before the premiere of Stargate SG-1. Because of this, it does not fit with SG-1 or the other Stargate spin...
wrote a series of five novels based on Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer.His films, most of which are Hollywood productions filmed in English, have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, more than those of any other European director...
's notes, continuing the story the original creators had envisioned to Devlin's dismay. SG-1 showrunners Brad Wright
Brad Wright
Brad Wright is a Canadian television producer, screenwriter and actor. He is best known as the creator or co-creator of the television series Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe...
and Jonathan Glassner
Jonathan Glassner
Jonathan Glassner is a television writer, director, and producer. He is known for his involvement with Stargate SG-1 and The Outer Limits. Glassner was initially noticed as a writer for his work on Alfred Hitchcock Presents...
altered the canon by introducing many novel concepts with their mythology of the SG-1 and Atlantis series.
Most notably, many characters were portrayed by different actors in the series, and names were spelled differently. Daniel Jackson was played by James Spader
James Spader
James Todd Spader is an American actor best known for his eccentric roles in movies such as Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Crash, Stargate, and Secretary...
in the movie and by Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks
Michael Garrett Shanks is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the long-running Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...
in the series. Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
's character Jonathan "Jack" O'Neil, a rather humorless Colonel, is played by Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson is an American television and film actor, producer and composer. He began his television career in 1976 as Dr. Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver...
as Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill (with two L's) in SG-1. French Stewart
French Stewart
Milton French Stewart , better known by his stage name French Stewart, is an American actor, best known for his role as Harry Solomon on the 1990s sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun.-Early life:...
's character was named Louis Feretti, in SG-1, Brent Stait
Brent Stait
Brent Stait is a Canadian actor, best known for his roles as Rev Bem in the science fiction television series Andromeda and Louis Ferretti in Stargate SG-1...
's character is named Louis Ferretti. The spelling of Daniel Jackson's wife changes from Sha'uri to Sha're, O'Neill's wife from Sarah to Sara. (Similarly, the name of O'Neil's son changes from Tyler in the film to Charlie.)
The Stargate Command (SGC) setting was transferred from the fictional military facility located in Creek Mountain, to the Cheyenne Mountain
Cheyenne Mountain
Cheyenne Mountain is a mountain located just outside the southwest side of Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., and is home to the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and its Cheyenne Mountain Directorate, formerly known as the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center .Throughout the Cold War and...
military complex. The planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
Abydos from the film changed the distance from Earth from millions of light-year
Light-year
A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...
s away (in an entirely different galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
) to becoming the closest planet to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
with a Stargate, residing in the same galaxy as Earth. Also in SG-1, Stargate travel is limited to the Stargate network in the Milky Way galaxy
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
(unless a tremendous amount of power is used to lengthen the subspace wormhole of a Stargate to another galaxy's Stargate). In the film Ra was a member of an unnamed race who were becoming extinct, shown as a humanoid species with large black eyes and a lack of facial features (similar to an Asgard
Asgard (Stargate)
The Asgard are a fictional highly advanced race in the science fiction series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. They are first mentioned in the episode , and first seen in . In the series, the Asgard gave rise to Norse mythology on Earth, as well as accounts of the Roswell "Greys"...
or a Grey alien though it is never made clear whether or not this body is a host for the SG1-like Goa'uld - Daniel even hints at this possibility, saying "Ra took him... Possessed his body like some kind of a parasite"). In SG-1 however, Ra is one of many "Goa'uld
Goa'uld
The Goa'uld are a fictional symbiotic race of ancient astronauts from the American-Canadian military science fiction television franchise Stargate. The Goa'uld are parasites from the planet P3X-888, integrated within a host, most of the time human. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent...
System Lords," who are a race of parasitic snake-like creatures. There were also changes to the Stargate. The unique set of 39 Stargate symbols in the film were replaced with the concept of 38 symbols that are the same for each Stargate (Earth's symbols based on Earth's constellations), plus a single point of origin symbol that is unique to that individual gate. While the kawoosh
Stargate (device)
A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
effect in the movie was created by filming the actual swirl of water in a glass tube, and looked like a vortex on the back of the Gate on the TV series this effect was completely created in CG
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
by the Canadian visual effects
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
company Rain Maker. (At the beginning of Season 9, however, the original movie wormhole sequence was substituted by a new sequence similar to the one already used on Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1, which was created by Wright and Jonathan Glassner and was itself...
at the time, but being blue as it was in the movie and SG-1, whereas in Atlantis it's green.)
External links
- Children of the Gods at mgm.com
- Children of the Gods at scifi.comSci Fi Channel (United States)Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...