Special Offer from Stargate SG-1 for “Shatner News & Reviews” Readers!
To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Stargate SG-1, the show’s producers in partnership with Video Detective have generously donated three Limited Edition Stargate SG-1 (Series 1-8) Box Sets to the William Shatner Sci-Fi DVD Club to giveaway to our loyal reader base. Three lucky winners will be selected on June 27th, 2006 to receive their prize.
Then read William Shatner’s review of the original Stargate movie below:
Stargate
I am enthralled by the idea of portals, small wormholes that link two seemingly disparate places and times. Thus, I find Stargate’s premise, which is centered on this notion of portals and inter-planetary connection, very intriguing.
Roland Emmerich’s entertaining Sci-Fi adventure, Stargate, begins in 1928 at the foot of the Great Pyramids, where archaeologists have unearthed an enormous ring-shaped artifact covered with strange markings. Sixty-six years later government archaeologists are still trying to figure out what to do with this mysterious object. Invited to join the team is Dr. Daniel Jackson (played by James Spader), a renegade Egyptologist, who is given the cover-stone to decipher.
Jackson decodes the symbols on the cover-stone as star constellations, and is then given an alien device known as the Stargate to study. He is able to uncover its secret and in so doing opens up a portal between our world and another planet.
After sending a probe through, it is decided that a team should be sent to the planet, which is in a galaxy on the other side of the known universe. The team is to be led by Colonel O’Neill, along with Kawalsky, Ferretti and some other bold airmen. Jackson has to go too, in order to figure out how to dial back to Earth, as part of the code still needs to be found and interpreted.
A team led by Air Force Colonel Jack O’ Neil and Daniel Jackson travel across the known universe to a distant planet using the gateway they have learned to open. Arriving on the other side, at the foot of the Great Pyramid, they find the lost desert culture of the Ancient Egyptians, being ruled by someone pretending to be the Egyptian sun god Ra.
Adventure ensues. Part of the group remains at the Pyramid, while the rest go to investigate this mysterious planet. The sky soon turns dark and ominous, with a swirling dust storm on the horizon. A group of miners take the men to their village, sheltering and feeding the men. This turns out to be fortuitous, as connections are made between the miners and the explorers, and Jackson discovers that they speak a dialect of Ancient Egyptian, allowing him the ability to communicate a bit. I enjoyed this anthropological part of the film as it gave insight into the lives of this Ancient and alien people.
After the storm passes they return back to the Pyramid, to reunite with the men that were left behind; but they don�t find anyone. This is the point just before Stargate segues into archetypal action territory, with the classic battle between good and evil being played out to dramatic effect. The men are overtaken by surprise, as Ra captures the team. Ra also takes possession of a nuclear weapon secretly brought to the planet by O�Neil, in case of the discovery of hostile aliens. Without giving too much away, Jackson and O’Neil escape their prison, and must fight Ra and his army of warriors to save Earth from destruction.
There are some moments of high drama, of death and rebirth, culminating in a big standoff on which everything hinges. While I enjoy epic moments, the plot could have played out more subtly here, to greater effect.
Stargate is futuristic while also paying homage at the same time to ancient culture. The film has some beautiful scenes. Production design, costumes and special effects are superb and they all make the alien world very convincing. The premise is fascinating, and the story line moves along at a decent clip, though I feel that more development should have happened with many of the incredible ideas brought up.
Kurt says
Dammit. No foreigners allowed!