Ever since MGM announced that it was making Stargate Origins as a 10-part Web series about
a young Catherine Langford, long-time fans of the TV and film franchise have wondered:
How could this story possibly fit into canon?
After all, when we first met her as an old woman Catherine didn't know how to open the
Stargate -- and had certainly never been through it.
So, what gives?
My name is Darren, you're watching GateWorld, and today we're talking about how Stargate
Origins ends ... and how it still manages to fit in with the movie.
So we're obviously going to spoil the end of Stargate Origins here.
So if you haven't watched it yet, this is your warning -- Turn back now!
Stargate Origins debuted online at Stargate Command in February of 2018.
And it was clear from the first frame that the story would have to thread a very fine
needle.
How could Catherine Langford even see the Stargate opened, let alone go through it,
if she needed Daniel Jackson's help in the 1994 Stargate feature film?
Not only that but fans of the TV series will also remember that Catherine turned up in
the first season of Stargate SG-1.
In the episode "The Torment of Tantalus" Daniel learns that experiments done on the gate in
1945 resulted in it being activated.
This was just dumb luck by randomly dialing without an address.
Catherine's fiance at the time, Ernest Littlefield, went through the gate and was lost.
In this episode Catherine doesn't know about this event until Daniel tells her.
When Daniel and Jack take her through the gate to find Ernest, it's pretty obvious from
her reactions that she's never been through the Stargate -- or so she thinks.
Here's where the writers of Stargate Origins come in.
They decided to tell the story of an adventure that Catherine had when she was younger, years
before the 1945 incident.
But, here's the key -- it's one that she doesn't remember.
There really are only a couple of ways to tell a story like this if you don't want to
violate Stargate's established continuity.
Either the older Catherine is lying in the movie and in SG-1 and deliberately manipulating
everyone around her, or she's going to have to forget about the entire event.
Origins goes for the latter, with the Goa'uld Aset using her hand device to wipe the memories
of Catherine, Professor Langford, and Kasuf.
Aset even plants suggestions in their subconscious minds.
She instructs Kasuf to the Abydonian city of Nagada and become the future leader of
his people -- just like he is in the movie.
She tells Catherine to return to Earth and organize a future rebellion against Ra -- subconsciously.
She even plants the idea of sending back an emissary who's wearing her amulet with the
Eye of Ra symbol on it, probably knowing the sway that symbol will have over the people
of Abydos.
That's the same amulet, of course, that will be worn by Daniel Jackson in the movie, the
first time he goes to Abydos.
So what Stargate Origins gives us is a reset button -- and unabashedly so.
So much so that the show actually cuts from this scene to a close-up shot of a giant button
being pushed as Beal is dialing the D.H.D.!
Now, make what you will of the way the story ends.
Some fans may not find a memory wipe all that satisfying.
Why does any of the story matter, right?
Why did I just watch it if everyone is either going to die or forget about what happened?
The surviving characters don't seem to grow or learn in any meaningful ways.
On the other hand, once the writers decided to tell this story, it kind of couldn't have
ended any other way.
It was a fun adventure along the way before that button got pushed.
It's important to note too that there is very little evidence of the incident left behind
on Earth.
Every character who went through the gate dies, with the exception of the mind-wiped
Langfords.
Kasuf retains no conscious memory of his meeting with offworlders, and Brucke's journal is
lost on Abydos after Beal's death at the threshold of the Stargate.
Back on Earth the only evidence that any of this ever happened is the fact that there's
a dead Nazi laying in front of the Stargate.
(I wonder how they explained that one!)
Now, what about Ra?
According to Origins, by the time the feature film rolls around he knew that the Tau'ri
had already opened the gate and come though to Abydos more than 50 years earlier.
But he evidently didn't do anything about it, like send a bomb to Earth or invade.
That's because, as far as he could tell, humans still weren't advanced enough to pose any
threat to him.
He just didn't care.
In the movie he's specifically concerned about the fact that, by then -- by the 1990s -- Earth
has learned to harness the power of the atom in its weaponry.
That's why he cares.
That's why he decides to send a bomb back through the Stargate.
So that's how Stargate Origins ends.
Ra rains fire down on Aset's temple.
He orders the Stargate moved, and Aset and her child are in the temple when it's destroyed
-- it's an execution.
The Harcesis is a forbidden child; they're not supposed to exist.
Now no longer will one of his underlings rule the planet in his absence.
The board is set for the events of the feature film.
From here Professor Langford would go on to study the gate as a mysterious piece of technology
rather than a mere artifact of antiquity.
When the U.S. military took over the project, Catherine would be pushed out -- although
in later decades it was up to her to keep the dream alive.
When Daniel Jackson solved the puzzle and opened the gate again, Aset's mental conditioning
kicked in -- prompting Catherine to encourage General West's plan to send an armed recon
team through the gate with weapons capable of standing up to the Supreme System Lord
... and with a familiar amulet to lead their way.
Be sure to leave us a comment below and tell us what you thought of the end of Stargate
Origins!
Subscribe now to GateWorld on YouTube, and remember to hit the Alerts button to find
out about all the latest videos.
And you can always find the latest Stargate news and conversations on our Web site: GateWorld.net.