SNAPSHOT
Origins will actually be a prequel to the original film, focusing on a younger version of the character Catherine Langford (first played by Viveca Lindfors). In the franchise’s mythology, Langford’s father initially discovered the Stargate, with Origins following the adventures that lead her to becoming the Stargate expert that appears in Emmerich’s movie. (synopsis (c) The Verge)
As sci-fi franchises go, the Stargate series, which kicked off with Roland Emmerich’s film in 1994, has always been on the expansive side of things.
That could be said of many franchises in the genre, but when you can be on another planet on the other side of the galaxy in mere seconds, simply by stepping through a watery blue wavering event horizon, then the narrative possibilities are damn near endless and almost instantly accessible.
This broad range of storytelling options, and a commitment to memorable characters and rich, intelligent writing is why Stargate: SG1, Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: Universe – ended all too early after two seasons but continuing now in comic form – have all proved so enduringly popular.
Stargate: Origins, which takes us back to the time when the gate was first discovered by the Langdfords, whose daughter Catherine (Viveca Lindfors in movie, Ellie Gall in Origins) goes on to become the resident expert on the stargates in the film and later TV series, is set to restoke the fires of fandom (like they ever really went away) when it premieres a 10 episode (each 10 minutes) season.
The idea is to give us a sense of what it was like to stumble upon this amazing, long-buried technology and the behind-the-scenes video, while short of hard, fast, narrative detail, does at least give us a sense of what the series could be like.
From the little we do see, it looks like swashbuckling, Mummy/Indiana Jones fun, with action taking place on Earth and what might be Abydos (the presence of a Skaara-like character suggests this is likely the case.
Granted, we’re only getting about 100 minutes of new material to start with but that’s 100 more minutes than we had before so I’m inclined to dive in, join the adventure and see where Stargate takes us this time around.
Stargate: Origins was scheduled to premiere in 2017 on MGM’s won streaming platform Stargate Command, but firm date has been given at this time and 2018 is looking more likely.