Given the 17-season franchise that it launched, "Children of the Gods" just may be one of the
most significant pieces of sci-fi television in a generation. Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner's
interstellar adventure picks up where Stargate's 1994 feature film left off, reuniting Jack O'Neill
and Daniel Jackson and opening up a universe of ongoing adventures for the small screen.
Now GateWorld has obtained the original, first draft of the STARGATE SG-1 pilot script. And while
it largely reflects the final episode that we saw premiere on July 27, 1997, there are some notable
changes from script to screen. That includes changes to major characters' names, entire scenes
that were cut or pared down, and an alternate ending that never saw the light of day.
In this video we're talking about 9 big changes from the original script.
And just in case 9 isn't enough ... well, stick around till the end for 11 more.
This draft of the script is dated October 18, 1996,
placing it around four months before principal photography began on the series.
"Children of the Gods" is an ambitious, 90-minute cable production.
But it's not without its flaws. The show would elaborate upon its complex mythology,
and feel out its characters' voices, over the course of 10 years and more than 200 hours.
Series co-creator Jonathan Glassner left the show after three seasons. And years later,
Brad Wright would come back to the pilot episode. Along with editor Brad Rines he updated the
SG-1 pilot into the now definitive edition: 2009's Children of the Gods: Final Cut.
But what changed between the autumn of 1996, when the script was written, and the start of filming
in early 1997 might surprise you.
#1 - Apophis wasn't Apophis
The show's writers knew from the beginning that they wanted to use the movie villain Ra's race
as a primary antagonist for the new series. We learn in the pilot that Ra was not in fact the last of his kind;
other Goa'uld took humans as hosts as well, and they control multiple planets with human slaves.
The first (and arguably greatest) Goa'uld System Lord the team encountered was Apophis (played by Peter Williams).
It was a logical choice to kick off the television series, since in ancient Egyptian mythology Apophis serves as
a counterpoint to Ra. Ra was the sun god, whose light was said to bring order;
but Apophis was the god of chaos, who ruled the night.
In the first draft of the script, though, Wright and Glassner opted for one of Apophis' other names from ancient mythology: Apep.
From the first-draft screenplay: "... His head is covered by a glistening gold
helmet in the form of a snake's head with red jewels as eyes. The way the others shield him,
he's obviously their leader. We will come to know this creature as APEP, THE SERPENT GOD."
When his guards are shot down in front of him their larval Goa'uld symbiotes leap
out of the Jaffa pouches and into Apep's arms, where he cradles them
like a parent holding his children.
#2 - Opening the Stargate
One long-standing piece missing from the episode's opening sequence, in which Apophis himself comes
to Earth, is just how he redialed the Stargate to leave. The original episode shows that the gate
is off behind him, and then in the next scene he simply walks back through an open Stargate.
Did Apophis stand around while his Jaffa slowly dialed the gate manually?
The Final Cut added some sound effects to at least indicate that the gate was redialed.
But in the original script, Apep himself is seen to have the power to control the gate at will.
He uses his hand device to open the Stargate, both on Earth and again later on Abydos.
"Apep turns to the gate and points with his jewelled hand wrap. A thin line of energy
shoots from it into a small hole on the top of the gate, then WOOSH, the stargate reopens."
#3 - Carter wasn't Carter
In the weeks between a script being written and the start of filming, production offices will work through the process of legal clearance for
all character names. That line in the credits of a movie or a TV show that says, "Any similarity to
persons living or dead is purely coincidental"? That's what this is about. If there is a person
with the same name and enough background similarities, the script has to be changed.
In the case of Stargate SG-1, that evidently happened with one of the show's main characters.
Either that, or The Powers That Be just decided they liked the name "Carter" better. When she's
first introduced to Jack O'Neill and the others in the briefing room, we instead meet Dr. Samantha
Clayman — theoretical astrophysicist and a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.
Amanda Tapping would be cast in the role, which of course by the first day of shooting had become
Samantha Carter. She also got an early promotion, starting the series at the rank of Captain.
In the first draft Clayman complains repeatedly about how short-sighted the military has been with
regard to the Stargate program. She even suggests to Daniel that she hates the military ... or
at least she did, up until her chance to go through the Stargate finally became a reality.
She only joined the Air Force because they offered to pay her way through grad school.
That attitude would be dropped for the series, which went on to establish the fact that Carter
has a long family connection to the Air Force. Her father, General Jacob Carter,
was introduced in Season Two.
#4 - Chulak is buried in snow
When the probe sends back the first images from the Goa'uld-controlled world of Chulak, it doesn't
look like a forest in British Columbia. The planet appears to be covered in dunes of drifting,
white sand. Better bring the sunscreen, right? But when SG-1 and SG-2 arrive, they find freezing
temperatures. Chulak is covered not in sand, but snow! As the camera pulls out,
we see that in fact the planet's Stargate is located atop a great mountain.
Though the scenes would eventually be shot in the more temperate climates of the British
Columbia forests, some of the dialogue survived as originally scripted. In the finished episode
Kawalsky and his men complain about the bitter cold as they awaken in their base
camp the next morning. "Rise and shine, boys, it's another fine day on planet Kawalsky!"
#5 - Mortal Combat
In the first draft, Teal'c's first meeting with O'Neill and his team goes a bit differently. In the episode, remember,
he speaks with the Colonel just long enough to see his wrist watch and recognize the humans'
level of technology. But in the original script, their meeting is very different.
When Jack is reunited with Skaara inside the Chulak prison, the young man is caught in a fight
with a 10-foot-tall fellow prisoner (identified in the script as "the Primitive"). O'Neill tries
to diffuse the situation but ends up forced to fight the giant in front of a crowd of onlookers.
It's a fairly elaborate fight scene, and it shows that the various people trapped in Apep's prison
are happy to turn on one another for a little cutthroat blood sport.
O'Neill breaks the giant's nose but eventually goes down,
at which point Sam gets in on the action too. She showcases some of her martial arts training,
knocking the Primitive back with a dropkick! The giant eventually gets Jack on the ground and
moves to kill him with a large animal bone. As the crowd cheers on, Teal'c arrives and breaks up the
fight by shooting the raised bone and shattering it with his staff weapon. Teal'c issues a stern
warning to the prisoners, then walks away. All of this is cut from the final episode.
But the character of "the Primitive" is there and credited by that name.
He's played by actor John "Bear" Curtis.
Sam's martial arts training would make one or two more appearances early in the series,
including her hand-to-hand fight scene in episode 3, "Emancipation."
#6 - Teal'c's betrayal seems more impulsive
Teal'c's meeting with Jack and his wrist watch in the finished episode also includes Daniel telling
him where they are from: the Tau'ri of Earth. After Apophis orders everyone in the prison
executed, Teal'c seizes his moment and turns his staff weapon on his own Serpent Guards.
He seems to have been waiting for just such an opportunity for some time. And a more complete
look at what's going on in Teal'c's head in this moment would be told in flashbacks years later,
in the fifth season episode "Threshold." But in the original draft, Teal'c seems
ready to follow through on his orders and execute Colonel O'Neill. After Apophis gives
the order Jack attacks one of the guards in a hopeless effort to escape. From the script:
"O'Neill throws several punches at the Serpent Guard's face, hitting the metal helmet and
probably breaking his own knuckles. As O'Neill tries to shake off the pain,
the guard pulls a reversal roll, so that he is now ON TOP OF O'NEILL. He puts his huge hand around
O'Neill's throat and starts squeezing the life out of him. Teal'C RUNS over and aims his staff
weapon at O'Neill to finish him off. But when O'Neill looks up at him they make eye contact.
O'Neill holds the stare. TEAL'C -- hesitates.
Something in him, something we've seen before in a smaller measure, a sense of decency.
O'NEILL: I can save these people if you help me.
Teal'C FIRES his energy staff at... the Serpent Guard, blowing him off O'Neill, killing him."
Teal'c then fires at another guard and at the prison wall, opening up a route of escape.
But that familiar dialogue "Many have said that — but you are the first I believe could do it!" is not here.
#7 - We see Skaara's implantation ceremony
Skaara was one of several characters from the feature film to return for the
new series' pilot episode. But Alexis Cruz was the only actor to make the crossover.
(Erick Avari's Kasuf did not appear until Season Two.) Cruz says that in fact the
show's producers originally approached him about being a series regular. He turned them down, and
instead took the job as a recurring character. The creative result was a Goa'uld'ed Skaara,
who is featured throughout the 2-hour premiere but then becomes a prisoner of the enemy.
(He would return as the impetuously evil Klorel in the first season finale.)
The climax of "Children of the Gods" as scripted includes SG-1 and the prisoners heading toward
the Stargate, while Kawalsky and SG-2 engage the enemy ships in the air and foot soldiers
on the ground. With the battle raging around them, Apep leads a ceremony to implant the
newly selected "children of the gods" with their symbiotes — including Skaara. He is strapped to
an altar in front of the Stargate, where he begs helplessly for his sister Sha're to intervene.
But Sha're has already become a Goa'uld host herself. She turns her back on
him and walks through the Stargate with Apep, without so much as a look back.
This sequence was simplified in the final episode, and the ceremony scene was removed. Instead
Apophis orders the Stargate dialed immediately upon their arrival, and he and Sha're leave. As
the rest of the Goa'uld evacuate Jack approaches Skaara to stop him. But the young man has already
been turned: he raises his arm and fires a hand device, knocking the Colonel backward.
That confrontation is in the script, but only after the implantation scene — during
which Jack is still some ways away, and can hear Skaara screaming in the distance.
#8 - When an iris isn't enough ...
In the first draft the Stargate on Earth gets not only a metal iris to protect from unwanted invaders through the wormhole,
but also a giant pair of concrete doors that closed in front of the iris.
Apparently this was deemed overkill, and dropped from the show. But in the
first draft, it made for a gruesome, TV-MA conclusion to the final escape sequence:
"THE STEEL IRIS -- closes just as a SERPENT GUARD is stepping through, scissoring his
upper body in the closing steel. He doesn't even manage a scream before, mercifully...
THE CONCRETE DOORS -- crush the part of him that made it through...
O'NEILL -- averts his eyes from the final sight, grimacing."
That does sounds like a bit much!
#9 - Kawalsky is fine
In the episode's climax, the last moments of fighting at the Stargate see an immature Goa'uld
symbiote leap from the body of a fallen Jaffa and into Lt. Kawalsky (played by Jay Acovone).
This sets up the events of the next episode. At least in the finished show.
In the script, however, originally it was not Kawalsky who was at risk of becoming an unwitting
sleeper agent. Instead the symbiote attacks Corporal Warren, one of the members of SG-2
under Kawalsky's command. Rather than burrowing into him, though, it only clings to his back
and hitches a ride as Warren carries a fallen comrade back home through the Stargate.
But when they get back to Earth, O'Neill and the others see the snake-like creature.
As it attempts to burrow into Warren's neck, Kawalsky grabs it and throws it
on the concrete floor, where O'Neill shoots it with a staff weapon. While the creature's
smoldering remains are still writhing on the floor, Daniel Jackson stomps it to death.
Notably, when Brad Wright revisited the episode's conclusion for 2009's Final Cut, he removed the
shots of Kawalsky being taken as a host. He told GateWorld at the time that he thought the twist
was extraneous to the story ... especially since it ended up being a fluke. As the show went on
SG personnel were not regularly at risk of being infected by stray symbiotes leaping about.
Removing those shots also helps "Children of the Gods" stand on its own as a self-contained movie,
without the need to tease the audience with a set-up for the next episode.
It's been 23 years since the show premiered, and the original pilot script is an important
artifact from Stargate's history. It also illustrates how the realities of television
production shape a finished episode — from casting and budget, to locations and directorial choices,
to the capabilities of both practical and digital effects.
You can read all those script excerpts for yourself at GateWorld.net. Just look for the link
in the description below, and be sure to subscribe and Like the video while you're there.
Meanwhile here are more smaller changes from the original script:
General Hammond is African American,
described as a "tough as nails career military man" like Colin Powell.
Jack O'Neill isn't just retired ... he's really retired.
When Samuels finds him on his roof with a telescope, Jack has a full beard and mustache, as well as longer hair.
He's also sporting a cardigan sweater and a pipe, described in the script as "almost professorial."
Not exactly a look that series lead Richard Dean Anderson is known for!
Major Samuels (played by Robert Wisden) originally carried the rank of Captain.
His first name is given as "Franklin," though this didn't make it onto the show.
The first draft actually solved a timeline problem for the TV universe. The finished episode picks up
only one year after the events of the 1994 movie, though the show premiered in 1997. But this script
places the events three years after Jack and Daniel's first trip to Abydos.
(Sam also says that she was studying the gate for five years before Daniel Jackson
made it work — a line that was scaled down to two years in the episode.)
The Gate Room was on Sublevel 17, not 28.
During his first time in the Gate Room Jack gets into a fist fight and has to be restrained,
trying to stop technicians from prepping the bomb meant to be sent through to Abydos.
Daniel and Sam don't hit it off at first. She complains that he doesn't like her because
she's too military, while Jack doesn't like her because she's too much a scientist.
The cavern on Abydos where Daniel has found a cartouche filled with potential Stargate
addresses is described to be much larger than the (still impressive) set that was eventually built.
In the script, it's "at least the size of the Astro-Dome. The word 'huge' doesn't do it justice."
And the cartouche itself is "at least fifty yards long and twenty five yards high."
The epithet "shol-va" makes an appearance in the script,
but it doesn't mean "traitor" — which is how the term will come to be used
in the show with regard to Teal'c. Instead "shol-va" here is translated as "coward."
What do you call a Stargate? In the shared language spoken by the Goa'uld, the Jaffa,
and the Abydonians, the Stargate is regularly called the "Chappa-ai"
in the television series. That term does appear in the first-draft script; but here "Chaaka-ra"
is a more common term for the Stargate.
The small ship that ferries Apep, Sha're, and other Goa'uld from the palace to the Stargate in the final act
was originally scripted to be a flying barque, with an open platform that would have the characters visible as it landed.
After depositing its passengers it transforms (like a harrier jet) into a death glider.
This was simplified into a large death glider with transport rings in the episode.
In the Final Cut, new visual effects replaced this with a proper cargo ship.
Because they serve the gods as incubators for larval Goa'uld, the Jaffa are known in
Goa'uld society as "demigods." This matches with the feature film, where Daniel exposed
Ra's warriors as mere men in order to turn the hearts and minds of the Abydonian people.
So what do you think about the changes made to "Children of the Gods?"
Hit the Like button and leave us a comment below.
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