Hey, everyone — it's Darren from GateWorld.
I'm just back from San Diego Comic-Con 2018, where I had a chance to participate in the
official Stargate panel on Thursday afternoon.
Stargate Command is eventually going to post the full video of the panel for you to watch online.
But in the meantime I wanted to catch you up a bit on one of the things Chris Judge
talked about.
For nearly a year now he's made it clear that he wants the chance to return to the franchise’s
fictional universe.
While production was ramping up on the first Stargate Origins story last fall, Chris came
on board the new Stargate Command platform to co-host the interview series “Dialing
Home” and to serve as a sort of ambassador for Stargate.
In September he told fans at a convention that he hoped to pitch his own idea for a
future season of Stargate Origins.
At the time he tentatively called it: “Return of the Jaffa.”
The short-form Origins concept lends itself really well to an ongoing anthology format.
So the first story was the story of Catherine; the next story (if they do more of Origins)
would be about something totally different in the Stargate universe.
So at the Stargate panel last week at Comic-Con, Chris had a chance to elaborate further on
the story that he’d like to tell.
So at the very end of the panel a fan got up and asked a question.
She asked Chris and Tony if there were parts of the Stargate universe that they would like
to go back to, or that they never got to explore.
What would they like to do?
Here is Chris's answer ...
CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: "There’s some stories that I’d like to tell ..."
MANAGER: "Dude, we've got 2 minutes!"
[Laughter]
JUDGE: "Can I say what kind of stories?"
MANAGER: "Yes."
JUDGE: "I can? Alright!
Well, a lot of the questions that I get are, 'So what have happened to the Jaffa?
Now that they’re free, what are they doing now?'
I have an answer!
I'd love to tell that story.
I would love to tell the Bra’tac origins story.
How did the Free Jaffa movement start, and how was Bra’tac involved in it?
And how did Bra’tac become Bra’tac?
I really thought that would be interesting."
MODERATOR: "... and on that note ..."
JUDGE: "Wait a minute! I'm not finished!"
[Laughter]
DARREN: So that sounds amazing — a Stargate Origins story that's about the Jaffa resistance,
how it came into existence, and the role that a young Bra'tac played in that.
Now you may know that Christopher Judge is no stranger to writing.
Chris made the move from acting to writing beginning in SG-1's fifth season with the
episode “The Warrior,” for which he contributed the story.
A year later he was at the keyboard pounding out his first teleplay.
That episode was "The Changeling," which he wrote.
He would go on to write the episodes "Birthright" in Season Seven and "Sacrifices" in Season
Eight, both Jaffa-centric stories that introduced the Hak’tyl — an all-female group of Jaffa.
After the downfall of the Goa’uld at the end of the show’s eighth season, the Hak’tyl
would go on to help found the Free Jaffa Nation on the ancient planet of Dakara.
Their representative on the Jaffa High Counsel is Ka’lel, who was played by Simone Bailly.
So an Origins story that tied together elements of the present-day and Jaffa history would
allow Judge, who is now 53, potentially to write for and also act in a Stargate production again.
It could also bring Bra’tac actor Tony Amendola back to the screen, both in the present day
and also playing himself as a much younger man (say, a spry 80 or 100 years old!).
Long-time viewers of Stargate SG-1 will remember that the earliest piece of Bra’tac’s story
shown on screen came in the episode “Threshold,” where Teal’c recalls the ways in which his
mentor had challenged him not to blindly follow the Goa’uld as though they were gods.
It’s an unexplored piece of Stargate mythology just how Bra’tac himself became a skeptic,
so that he would later influence Teal’c and countless other Jaffa enslaved to Apophis.
This kind of Origins story could also appeal to fans of the television series who may have
found the first Stargate Origins story to be too far removed from SG-1, Atlantis, and
Stargate Universe.
So while it was clear at the panel that MGM was not ready to make any official announcements
at Comic-Con about Stargate's future, Christopher Judge’s pitch certainly might still be in the mix.
Further news on the future of the franchise is expected to break at the Gatecon fan convention,
set for September 14 to 16 in Vancouver.
Thanks for watching!
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