STARGATE CONTINUUM
July 17th 2009 23:04
Category: Videos, Television
Director: Martin Wood
Written by: Brad Wright
Producers: Brad Wright & Robert C Cooper
Starring: Ben Browder (Cam Mitchell/Captain of the Achilles), Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter), Christopher Judge (Teal’c), Claudia Black (Vala/Quetesh), Cliff Simon (Baal), Don S Davis (General Hammond), Richard Dean Anderson (Jack O’Neal), Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson), Beau Bridges (General Landry) & William Devane (President Hayes)
Produced by: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios Inc
Released by: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC
Running Time: 95 Minutes Rating: M
You know when I first heard about this I wondered what on earth was going on, granted the last series of the television show Stargate SG-1 had finished so initially I had pondered on whether this was another spin off along the same lines of Stargate Atlantis. Of course that was many months ago, back in the dim recesses of the not too distant past, and as a result I didn’t ponder too much on the matter afterwards. All things come to those who are both patient and versed in the ways of the force, or at least have a library that stocks some quality viewing material. Once again it was whilst wondering the stacks on a cold and bleak winter’s day (in Australia) that I came across this particular DVD and borrowed it post haste. Now I could work out what precisely was going on in my own leisure and not have to pay any money to do it, always a bonus I say.
Essentially this is a feature length film, a return to the original roots of the entire franchise really, since it was a feature film that spawned the entire series and its subsequent spin off series Stargate Atlantis. Although it is a feature length film I’m not sure if it was one made for television or cinema, certainly it has been released on DVD and I know it was never shown in any cinema here in Australia but I cannot speak for anywhere else. In fact I cannot even say whether it’s actually shown up on any of the TV networks here in the Land Down Under. Still it’s good to see the original television cast back in action as well as the grand and sweeping epic style drama that fans of the series and its original movie have all come to love and enjoy.
So what is going on in this flick? I have to say that has been some time since having seen the last episode of Season 10 in which the entire galaxy as we knew it was under threat from the seeming unstoppable and fanatical menace of the Ori. Somehow I suspect that the events that unfold in this film occur after the whole thing with the Ori, that the galaxy has been saved and its business as usual, my only evidence to this particular point is the fact that Teal’c has grey hair, the result of what occurred in the last episode of Season 10 that I managed to see. So we are in a position where life is going on for Stargate Command, the galaxy is being explored and the world is safe to a degree from annihilation at the hands of some race of fanatics.
The film opens with SG-1 about to rendezvous with their former commander and team mate General Jack O’Neal, a role that Richard Dean Anderson aka MacGyver seems to have some fun reprising. The team is heading off to the home world of the Tokra; there they will witness the extraction of the symbiote Baal from its host body and thus see an end to the tyranny and terror of the system lords, the Goa’uld, who have been such a thorn in the sides of so many intelligence species and planets down through the ages. Naturally though Baal has been a lot more cunning than to let himself get captured like some patsy, he already had himself cloned numerous times in the television series and unleashed his clones throughout the known universe in an effort to elude capture and eventually rebuild his power and influence. Everyone thinks that this Baal is the last of the multitude, he in his final words before the moment of extraction points out that both the Tokra and their SG-1 allies have not been as smart as they think.
At that precise moment the proverbial literally hits the fan, people all over the place start vanishing into thin air, Teal’c disappears, members of the Tokra and then suddenly entire buildings. Something has indeed gone horribly horribly wrong and now the effects of that are being felt. What has occurred is that Baal, the real one or so we are lead to believe, has travelled back in time and prevented the original Stargate from ever reaching the shores of the continental US in the first place. Rather than ending up as an ornament in the depths of Cheyenne Mountain it instead languishes in the hold of the Achilles, the freighter on which it was loaded and carried from Egypt to its intended destination in the US. As a result of this sudden and daring move by the last of the System Lords the Stargate program never got off the ground, Teal’c never became part of the SG-1 team, Vala remained the host of Quetesh and Baal himself has managed to unify the various other system lords under his banner along with the Free Jafar lead by his prime; Teal’c.
Everything has been reversed according to Baal’s wishes and stratagems; after all he’s already been through the whole affair to begin with and knows where he went wrong and what not to do. Although it does make me ponder the teachings of that learned sage, Master Yoda who said “Hard to see the future is, always in motion” implying that time is a rather flexible construct in its unfolding events and incidents and not a rigid entity. This particular stance would lead to the conclusion that even though the past could be changed the future itself may not unfold precisely as it would have done, and thus events would not necessarily happen as they had previously done which from a film makers point of view would lead to all manner of nightmares. Better instead to just go with what works, to rely upon the greatest of all known forces – plot contrivance, certainly it may not be scientifically plausible or correct but if it makes the story and drama kick along then it’s probably for the best.
Stargate Continuum is certainly worth the effort of tracking down and taking time to watch, there is pathos, humour, death defying drama and carnage aplenty in this hour and a half feature. A world on the brink of annihilation, heroes desperately trying to prevent the loss of all they hold dear and lots of special effects add to the mix to show that the producers have managed to revive the epic scope of the original film via the medium of the television series cast and production crew. It’s a finely crafted work and I hear that the same treatment is actually being done for the spin off series Stargate Atlantis, something to keep the light of the Lantern alert for.
Written by: Brad Wright
Producers: Brad Wright & Robert C Cooper
Starring: Ben Browder (Cam Mitchell/Captain of the Achilles), Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter), Christopher Judge (Teal’c), Claudia Black (Vala/Quetesh), Cliff Simon (Baal), Don S Davis (General Hammond), Richard Dean Anderson (Jack O’Neal), Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson), Beau Bridges (General Landry) & William Devane (President Hayes)
Produced by: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios Inc
Released by: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC
Running Time: 95 Minutes Rating: M
You know when I first heard about this I wondered what on earth was going on, granted the last series of the television show Stargate SG-1 had finished so initially I had pondered on whether this was another spin off along the same lines of Stargate Atlantis. Of course that was many months ago, back in the dim recesses of the not too distant past, and as a result I didn’t ponder too much on the matter afterwards. All things come to those who are both patient and versed in the ways of the force, or at least have a library that stocks some quality viewing material. Once again it was whilst wondering the stacks on a cold and bleak winter’s day (in Australia) that I came across this particular DVD and borrowed it post haste. Now I could work out what precisely was going on in my own leisure and not have to pay any money to do it, always a bonus I say.
The film opens with SG-1 about to rendezvous with their former commander and team mate General Jack O’Neal, a role that Richard Dean Anderson aka MacGyver seems to have some fun reprising. The team is heading off to the home world of the Tokra; there they will witness the extraction of the symbiote Baal from its host body and thus see an end to the tyranny and terror of the system lords, the Goa’uld, who have been such a thorn in the sides of so many intelligence species and planets down through the ages. Naturally though Baal has been a lot more cunning than to let himself get captured like some patsy, he already had himself cloned numerous times in the television series and unleashed his clones throughout the known universe in an effort to elude capture and eventually rebuild his power and influence. Everyone thinks that this Baal is the last of the multitude, he in his final words before the moment of extraction points out that both the Tokra and their SG-1 allies have not been as smart as they think.
At that precise moment the proverbial literally hits the fan, people all over the place start vanishing into thin air, Teal’c disappears, members of the Tokra and then suddenly entire buildings. Something has indeed gone horribly horribly wrong and now the effects of that are being felt. What has occurred is that Baal, the real one or so we are lead to believe, has travelled back in time and prevented the original Stargate from ever reaching the shores of the continental US in the first place. Rather than ending up as an ornament in the depths of Cheyenne Mountain it instead languishes in the hold of the Achilles, the freighter on which it was loaded and carried from Egypt to its intended destination in the US. As a result of this sudden and daring move by the last of the System Lords the Stargate program never got off the ground, Teal’c never became part of the SG-1 team, Vala remained the host of Quetesh and Baal himself has managed to unify the various other system lords under his banner along with the Free Jafar lead by his prime; Teal’c.
Everything has been reversed according to Baal’s wishes and stratagems; after all he’s already been through the whole affair to begin with and knows where he went wrong and what not to do. Although it does make me ponder the teachings of that learned sage, Master Yoda who said “Hard to see the future is, always in motion” implying that time is a rather flexible construct in its unfolding events and incidents and not a rigid entity. This particular stance would lead to the conclusion that even though the past could be changed the future itself may not unfold precisely as it would have done, and thus events would not necessarily happen as they had previously done which from a film makers point of view would lead to all manner of nightmares. Better instead to just go with what works, to rely upon the greatest of all known forces – plot contrivance, certainly it may not be scientifically plausible or correct but if it makes the story and drama kick along then it’s probably for the best.
Stargate Continuum is certainly worth the effort of tracking down and taking time to watch, there is pathos, humour, death defying drama and carnage aplenty in this hour and a half feature. A world on the brink of annihilation, heroes desperately trying to prevent the loss of all they hold dear and lots of special effects add to the mix to show that the producers have managed to revive the epic scope of the original film via the medium of the television series cast and production crew. It’s a finely crafted work and I hear that the same treatment is actually being done for the spin off series Stargate Atlantis, something to keep the light of the Lantern alert for.
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