Stargate Archives

Stargate SG1 The Broca Divide

Analysis of the the partial gate address used by Apophis has presented a new world for the SGC to investigate, the MALP however reports a world devoid of light. SG1 and SG3 (Marine Unit) gate to the planet and come under attack from some natives, weapons fire drives them away and SG1 discover a small camp which is then subsequently "attacked" by a group of white robed figures. We learn that on this world modelled on the Minoan culture there are the "touched" and "untouched" the former have been infected by a medical condition which the locals consider to be the work of an evil god.

The SG teams return to Earth but one by one the team members display aggression and attitudes counter to their normal state, Dr Frasier begins quarantine procedures and when Daniel and Teal'c show no symptoms they are sent back to secure a blood sample. Daniel gets himself captured but Teal'c returns with the blood and Janet creates a cure and tests in on Jack. SG teams armed with tranquilizers secure the immediate area of the gate and rescue a "touched" Daniel and prove to the leaders of the city that there is a cure, families are reunited and bells are rung.

The Broca Divide has an interesting concept that due to budget doesn't really reach its potential but there are still many entertaining scenes as well as the introduction of Janet played by Teryl Rothery. My thanks to Brad for talking Stargate once again and to Mack for the 5 star UK itunes review, we'd love to get a few more. 

• IMDB
• Wiki
• The Lost World Minute Podcast

Message In A Bottle

Welcome to another show drawn from the archives (Dec 2014) of the Gatecast podcast, this was a bonus episode which celebrated the work of Robert Picardo as the Doctor on Voyager.

On this episode we are joined by Michael his first time on the show and we will be discussing the Star Trek Voyager episode Message In A Bottle in which Robert plays the holographic Doctor as usual and it's one of the many Voyager stories which his character takes center stage and makes the most of his talents which as Stargate fans we are familiar with when he played Richard Woolsey on both SG1 and Atlantis.

In Message In A Bottle Seven of Nine discovers a quadrant spanning communications network which seems to be abandoned and then detects at extreme range a Starfleet vessel, they attempt to communicate but the signal is corrupted and Janeway decides to send a holographic encoded signal which will retain it's integrity for longer and of course they volunteer the Doctor. He appears on board the USS Prometheus a prototype long range tactical vessel, the human crew are all dead and the ship is controlled by Romulans. The Doctor encourages the ships EMH (a more advanced model) to help recapture the ship and the two of them raise to the challenge with much danger and hilarity. Andy Dick guest stars as the EMH mark 2 and in his way this holographic being is as flawed as the original model but in the short space of time interacting with our Doctor he grows and begins to see himself as a being in how own right not just part of the technology of the ship.

We were fortunate on this show to be joined by Michael Clark who is making his first appearance on Gatecast, Michael has hosted and appeared on way too many podcasts to mention and was jointly responsible for creating The Visionary Trek network which currently has three podcasts which deal with all aspects of Star Trek and who excel in interviews, news and features. 

• Message In A Bottle IMDB
• Message In A Bottle Memory Alpha
• Robert Picardo
• Andy Dick
• Judson Scott
• Valerie Wildman
• Jeri Ryan
• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
• Roxann Dawson
• Robert Duncan McNeill
• Ethan Phillips
• Tim Russ
• Garrett Wang
• Nancy Malone

• Visionary Trek
• Michael Clark

The team gate to a new world where the rescue a young man who is being perused by dogs, turns out they were hunting dogs which are driven off by gunfire. The young man (Abu) thanks Jack and is amazed that one of his rescuers is a female, soon they are joined by his father whose first act is to order the execution of Carter for being a woman. He relents when it is explained they are not from around here and are unaware of cultural norms and of course they just saved the leader's son. Daniel pushes to spend some time in the nearby camp despite the obvious issues that will directly effect Carter rather than the male members of the team so when they go to party she has to stay hidden away from eyes of the menfolk in a tent. Of course she then gets kidnapped by Abu who intends to trade her for the daughter of a rival clan, this too does not go well and it looks like Carter is in heap of trouble no fault of her own.

Emancipation is an early episode of the show that gets some stick for its portrayal of women both in the native culture of this planet and how Carter herself is treated by them and her own team. There is also some issues with the casting although it has to be said the production made a good effort and getting non-caucasian actors to play the majority of parts but let themselves down by casting Nya with a white actress. Crystal Lowe who played Nya did a fine job but her colouring looks totally out of place in this community.

Overall not as bad an episode as it's rated across the fandom but it's certainly not the highlight of the first season. My thanks once again to Brad for joining me on the podcast and he'll return for the next episode (Broca Divide) and Jeff should be with me for "The First Commandment". Feedback is more than welcome as are ratings and reviews over on itunes.

• Emancipation IMDB
• Emancipation Wiki
• The Lost World Minute Podcast

Richard Dean Anderson guest stars in Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore a season seventeen episode of the animated comedy The Simpsons. He plays himself in a story which involves a Stargate SG1 convention in Springfield and the over enthusiastic attentions of two devoted MacGyver fans with the aid of some rope and a hammer. During the fun and games Mr Burns has outsources the nuclear power plant to India and Homer as the sole union member who retains his job is sent overseas to run the facility with some unexpected consequences.
The Simpsons is well known for making full use of it’s famous guest stars playing themselves and in this case spinning a Stargate and MacGyver tale around Richard Dean Anderson is inspired as it also pokes fun at the culture of fandom a few years before it really became well I guess mainstream and accepted in mass media. RDA has serious fun sending up his MacGyver persona the role which made him a global celebrity in the hit series. The second story in the episode follows Homer as he moves to India to run the outsourced nuclear power plant, a healthy dose of satire aimed squarely at the US and a few other societies that are pricing themselves out of manufacturing and maybe even seeing it as beneath them.

How can you go wrong with Richard Dean Anderson and The Simpsons, well this proved you couldn't and we hope you enjoyed this look back into the archives of the Gatecast podcast. Hopefully more new content will be arriving soon and we'll continue to cherry pick some of shows from the original run of Gatecast.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore IMDB

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore  Wiki

General Hammond has assigned missions to SG1 and SG2 but they are unable to use the gate due to sustained incoming wormholes. The belief is that Apophis is continually dialng Earth and sending troops through maybe unaware of the Iris being used to prevent rematerialisation. Major Kawalsky visits the infirmary as he is suffering from an intense headache, the doctor notices movement on his back and neck and Kawalsky's eyes flash and the SGC has been breached.

Colonel Kennedy is conducting an informal debrief of Teal'c who is unable to offer any insights into Goa'uld technology. Meanwhile Kawalsky has an MRI and the symbiote is detected, he reacts violently and Captain Carter is injured in his escape attempt but when trapped the symbiote releases control of the host but the secret is out.

Colonel Kennedy is delighted and argues that the sacrifice of one man is worth the intelligence offered thanks to the genetic memory of all Goa'uld but the operation to remove the symbiote is successful or is it....

The Enemy Within is a good episode to follow on from the excellent Children of the Gods although it was disappointing that Kawalsky the character which bridged over from the movie wasn't allowed to develop more but hey never dead in scifi. There were also some good moments between the main cast indicating some wise and may inspired choices in the casting process as well writing to make the social dynamic seamless.

My thanks to Brad for joining me again this week and to Ian for our first itunes review. Next week we should be covering Emancipation which generates "opinions" amongst fans, join us for that and please let us know what you think of the show and the cast.

• The Enemy Within Wiki
• The Enemy Within IMDB
• The Lost World Minute Podcast

Final Cut Discussion

I am joined by Brad this week for a discussion on the Stargate SG1 pilot Children of the Gods or more accurately the Final Cut DVD release which was a pet project of Brad Wright and MGM who were looking for a low investment item to bring to market. There was a minor hiccup in our discussion as Brad watched the original version but it did give some more opportunities to highlight the changes between the two releases.

Children of the Gods at least the Showtime and original DVD release is a strange beast, the graphic content (nudity) was perhaps not unexpected given that Showtime were the primary broadcaster and they like all premium cable had to offer something networks didn't. Of course as we know Stargate quickly shifted towards a more family friendly approach and the beautiful Sha're (Vaitiare Hirshon) not withstanding it was a wise decision. The chemistry between the cast was evident straight away especially after a certain cringe worthy line is removed the script something Brad always wanted to do. We also get to see far more of Teal'c making it more evident how strong he felt about the duties his "god" expected him to carry on. That made his choice to help Jack far more believable.

Overall the Final Cut is a very rewarding viewing experience and there is also a very entertaining commentary from Brad Wright and RDA so if for nothing else...

My thanks to Brad for joining me on the podcast and if you are of a mind you can pay his latest project a visit, he now hosts The Lost World Minute Podcast and I'm sure he would like your support. Personally I enjoy listening to the Minute by Minute podcasts, currently listening to two of them.

Next week or the next release should be The Enemy Within, no schedule release date as of yet but it will arrive sooner or later. We'd love to hear what you think of the new format compared to what we were doing on the Gatecast, opinions most welcome.

• Children of the Gods Final Cut IMDB
• Children of the Gods Final Cut Wiki

Well here we are again, the first piece of new content for the archive site and it's going to be a look at Once Upon A Time and more specifically a Robert Carlyle episode from the first season entitled "Skin Deep". In this episode Rumplestiltskin meets Belle for the first time after agreeing to end her fathers war with the trolls. Meanwhile in Storybrooke Mr Gold is imposing his own business ethics on Moe (Belle's father) after he failed to repay a loan. David and Mary Margaret continue to their dance unaware of who they once were and Emma now the sheriff investigates a robbery of Gold's home, a very important item has been stolen.

Skin Deep is a very rewarding look into this show's version of Beauty and the Beast, there are some wonderful moments between Rumplestiltskin and Belle never more so after the Queen's interference which leads to some home truths being dished out to the dark one.

Our thanks to No Spoilers Dearie on twitter who helped us to decide what we were going to do for a first piece of new content for this site and while it's not a full Once Upon A Time podcast we hope this is acceptable.

Our next episode will probably be taking a look at Children Of The Gods (Final Cut), no schedule for release but it has been recorded so while we won't be sticking to a weekly release we hope at least to maintain regular new content for the immediate future.

We'd love to hear what you think about the new site and of course this show is on the new itunes feed so we are in need of some ratings/reviews :)

• IMDB
• Robert Carlyle
• Emilie de Ravin

This was a very special bonus episode of The Gatecast (first released July 2010) as our friends over on the Galactic Watercooler Podcast recorded a show for us about their interest and passion in all things Stargate. GWC was mainly focused on Battlestar Galactica but over the years became far more than just a podcast talking BSG, content spread throughout the genres and a full blown international community grew. Alan a founder of The Gatecast attended one of the annual meetups and there was of course a podcast released to commemorate the get together.

Sit back and listen to Chuck, Audra and Juan.

• Galactic Watercooler Website

• Sci-Fi Boneyard Podcast

Well here we are with something a little different for us, an interview with the respected author Keith R. A. DeCandido.

Keith is a New Yorker born and bred who took to literature at a very early age encouraged by his parents with an interesting choice of authors. You may want to think back to what you were reading as a youngster then compare it to Keith’s reading list, for me a world of difference:) Keith is also a professional editor and has written his own original novels as well as making full use of  licensed content and novelisations. His media and online endeavours populate an extensive list of accomplishments, check the links you will be amazed. Join Alan and Mike on this podcast as we chat with Keith about his work in the media and more specifically the appeal of Stargate and the result of said interest with his new novel “Kali’s Wrath” which was released on May 19th as an ebook and the paperback is out soon.

We want to thank Keith for giving us his time and since the interview was recorded a few days before the book was released and this podcast is being released a few days after I have tagged on a small review of the novel at the end of the interview, spoiler free.

• Twitter
• Kradical
• DeCandidio Net
• Wiki
• Facebook
• Tor

• Amazon UK
• Amazon US
• Crossroad Press
• Smashwords

Mike, Brad and Andrew take a look at the 1994 Stargate theatrical feature film. This episode is not a commentary but a general discussion talking through the plot of the movie highlighting the good and bad bits with maybe a little nit-picking along the way.

I don’t think a synopsis of the movie is required but what the hell, mysterious artifact found in Egypt, taking to the states and under the control of the Air Force. Doctor Daniel Jackson is brought it as perhaps a last ditch effort to decode the hieroglyphs and he discovers the link to star constellations and formulates the devices use as a travel device on a galactic scale. Colonel O’Neill leads a team through the gate where they find a primitive human culture enslaved by Ra the Sun god who is actually an alien who stole humans to work for him and worship him. Fights break out, the military dudes engineer regime change, the people are free, Daniel gets married and stays with the inlaws.

Our thanks to Brad and Andrew for joining us for this show, a little different but we think it came out ok.