The Final Chapter

The Stargate Finale

While Stargate SG-1 draws to a close, mourning fans have a little room for hope.

MGM has given a green light for the show's creators to produce two direct-to-DVD movies based on SG-1. Executive producer Brad Wright let TV Guide in on the news this week.

"It's the climax of the Ori story line," Wright said of the first film. The movie will tie up the loose ends from the show's tenth season, which is expected to conclude its U.S. television run in June. The film will be written and directed by current SG-1 executive producer and show-runner Robert C. Cooper.

The studio is targetting a fall 2007 release for both projects -- just a few months after Stargate SG-1 ends its historic, 10-year run on cable television. It's entirely possible that the movies will also be aired on television -- something SCI FI commonly does with direct-to-DVD movies.

"They're not big-budget [films] by any definition, but for us it's pretty good," Wright said. "As we've proven over the years, just give us little more money and we can make pretty good television, or DVDs." (Executive producer Brad Wright, in an interview with TV Guide [story])
Filming will begin April 15, 2007, actor Michael Shanks told IGN.com.The storyline "has to do with wrapping up the Ori storyline, which is the storyline that has taken prominence for the last two years of the show. I don't know if [Cooper] is going to wrap it up completely or bring it to some conclusion for the sake of the fans and the franchise, to bring that epic struggle to a close."(Actor Michael Shanks, in an interview with IGN.com)

"We feel that we have an obligation to finish telling the story that we started telling," writer-director Robert C. Cooper said. "Right now, we know for sure that the main cast of Season Ten will be returning: Ben Browder, Michael Shanks, Chris Judge, Claudia Black, and Amanda Tapping. Beyond that, we are still working on it. I know that Brad's put a call into Richard Dean Anderson ['Jack O'Neill']. ... We're hopeful he'll make an appearance, whether he's in both [movies] or just one. We're not sure yet."

While all of this is interesting, it is only news on a subject which bears much more weight in my mind: the relevance of Stargate as a guidepost for searching souls...

From the zealot Ori occult, to the more passive belief system of the Ancients, spirituality and faith are essential to the plot of SG-1.

And while many groups are clearly misguided in their hopes for salvation of substantial faith, the show does serve several purposes:

1. It promotes longing. For followers of Christ, anything which enhances our longing to know him as he truly is, is welcomed. SG-1 takes the viewer out of his paradigm and places him in another belief system which, although different, may contain sometimes frightening similarities to religions of our world. It gives the viewer the sense that, while faith may be different around the globe, and even throughout the Universe, there is an essential bond in nearly every faith, whether admitted or not: that we have fallen and are in need of help.

Even though a particular faith may deny it, they have faith in something, precisely because they feel no faith in themselves. This serves to illustrate the knowledge of radical depravity.

2. The show reminds us, as Jack said in a first-season episode, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Through the constant exposure of false gods, we are not brought to denial of our own, but - rather - we are assured that he is the One True God. All of these imposters who enslave nations, these anti-christs who take human form and proclaim themselves gods, they are to be denied, withstood, and defied to the last breath.

If anything, Stargate encourages us not to bow to false gods. Not to give in to gods of flesh who set themselves up in power. How tempting it could be...just ask a Jaffa warrior. To see the god in flesh before you, arrayed in power, and seemingly invincible, while our God is unseen and mysterious.

But the show reminds us that seeing is not always believing. For this reason, Stargate continues to encourage Christianity to fight against the physical world assailing our senses and proclaiming itself as god. Lewis once said that thoughts 'and dreams are more real than the stuff we can get our hands on.'

I'll say with Teal'c, "Jaffa! Kree! I die free!"