- SPOILERS AHEAD … AND THE BEGINNING OF A GRAND ADVENTURE … AND NAZIS WHO ARE NOBODY’S IDEA OF A GOOD TIME …
Many a wise person has remarked that some secrets are best left buried where they lie.
Now, you might think this attitude is sadly lacking in chutzpah and a willingness to boldly confront unpalatable or uncomfortable truths, but the reality is that dredging up the past comes with all kinds of messy, unforeseen complications.
Like the reappearance of age-old enemies.
And no, I’m not referring to old Aunt Joan and a predilection for sabotaging the best-laid plans of fellow family members.
In Stargate Origins, the first franchise series since Universe finished its abortive run after two seasons in 2011, the truth of this axiom is made abundantly clear when in 1929 humanity digs up a long-buried round metal circle whose purpose is manifestly hidden.
The human in question is one Professor Paul Langford (Connor Trinneer), an archaeologist who finds this curious object in the sands of Egypt in scenes first evoked in the first Stargate movie back in 1994 and who spends 10 years, along with his feisty daughter Catherine (Ellie Gall), trying to work out what on earth you use something this big, this metal (everything else from the period is made of stone) and this richly-decorated for.
No one can discern its use or meaning and so funding runs dry, stymieing any further investigation, and unbeknownst to the Langsfords or the rest of humanity, saving us from a renewal of alien subjugation which as the movie and Stargate SG1 demonstrated, is not the kind of thing you really want to revive.
The thing is, and of course there has to be a bad guy who knows everything the good guys don’t, the Nazis, in true Indiana Jones fashion – let’s be fair and admit that so pervasive is the legacy of cinema’s most swashbuckling and adventured-loving of archaeologists that avoiding being a little derivative is damn near impossible – have kind of figured it all out, having a hieroglyph that explains everything and yes, even a dialling device tucked away back in Berlin.
Dr. Wilhelm Brücke (Aylam Orian), a high-ranking Nazi officer and occultist, accompanied by soldierly goons and his filmmaker lover Eva Reinhardt (Sarah Navratil) has it all figured out and in the matter of a few hours one night gets the Stargate up-and-running, takes everyone to Abydos – except for Catherine who must get through later with her British soldier beau Captain James Beal (Philip Alexander) and his colleague Wasif (Shvan Aladdin) – and meets, ta-dah!, the Goa’uld in the form of Aset (Salome Azizi).
The Goa’uld are naturally warm, accommodating and thoroughly pleased to see everyone … haha kidding; in fact, without so much as by-your-leave, Amet kills one of the Nazis and makes it clear that whatever Brücke thought he was getting from his journey through the stargate, it’s not going to be on his terms.
Not even a little bit.
So begins humanity’s first modern trip through the stargate, the first since the ancient people of Egypt rebelled against their cruel alien masters and buried the gate to stop them coming through.
The interesting part about the gate being activated in Origins is that we are given the quite distinct impression in the original Stargate movie that Langford and her father never managed to activate the gate with Catherine noting to Daniel Jackson that “this is as far as we have ever been able to get”.
Now normally fiddling with canon is a great big no-no – witness the way in which Disney did a big clearing out of Star Wars canon as part of the recent re-launch of the series – but I am guessing narrative convenience won out over canon adherence in this instance since a prequel like Origins is crying out for an activated stargate, if only to fuel the Indiana Jones look and feel of the series.
You could well argue that Langford omits the fact that she and her father, courtesy of the Nazis, managed to activate the stargate back at the start of World War Two since that may have been some sort of state secret.
Still given how top secret the stargate remains in the modern day, with presumably all the information on past endeavours to start it up, it’s a wonder they’re not aware of the 1939 activation.
I am assuming that as the ten-part series goes on that we will be provided with some sort of explanation about why noone in 1994 knows about what happened 55 years earlier, and I am betting it will come to a big old neverending embargo of some kind.
However the old and new canon come to an accommodation, Stargate Origins made merry with the stargate being turned on, with each 8-12 episode ending on a perfect cliffhanger, each mini-tale neatly segueing into the next, much like the movie shorts of old.
The only downside to these rollicking prequel episodes, which feature Langford as a woman very much able to look after herself thank you (and way braver than the men who assist but aren’t required to save her), is that the episodes are far too short.
Not in the sense that they are badly made or lacking in good, solid narrative construction- they are taut, beautifully-paced storytelling at its best – but simply far too brief when you used to luxuriating in 45 minutes episodes for SG-1, Atlantis and Universe.
It’s less an issue with the quality of the storytelling, of which there is none, and more, as a fan, that I simply want more stargate.
In 40 magical minutes it was all over, and while each episode segued damn near perfectly into the next, building tension and narrative momentum, and there are seven more episodes to look forward to, it just feel all too ephemeral and quick.
Still better 10 quick episodes than nothing at all, and we should be thankful that we are the beneficiaries of a part of the Stargate story only explored in passing in past movies and films.
On balance too what we are getting is a whole new Stargate movie and I look forward to watching as one full uninterrupted adventure when all 10 episodes have debuted.
To get the episodes beyond the initial three you do need to sign to Stargate Command (plus pay $31), the streaming service for the franchise, an annoyance given the plethora of streaming services currently on offer.
But given storytelling this good and immersively-realised, that adds to the Stargate franchise in some interesting and compelling ways, it’s worth the money especially with all the extra goodies thrown in too.
Stargate Origins is overall a gripping little narrative nugget that augurs for the return of this much-loved franchise to our screens – much smaller than they used to be! – and perhaps, if successful, and it has no reason not to be, a far more expansive addition to this galaxy-spanning, highly-imaginative and endlessly malleable series of adventures.
- What lies ahead in the rest of the season? Why this, of course … don’t get excited it’s but a 40-second teaser; it does confirm, however, that some things are best left buried nice and deep … FOREVER …