A Stargate is a fictional Einstein–Rosen bridge portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, point-to-point near instantaneous travel between two distant locations with an "address".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAHgB-k-jD8 Stargate: Instructional videos by Daniel Jackson The devices first appeared in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Infinity, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe, and Stargate Origins, as well as the television films Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum. In these productions, the Stargate functions as a plot device, allowing the main characters to visit alien planets without the need for spaceships or any other type of technology. The device allows for near-instantaneous teleportation across both interstellar and extragalactic distances.
Concept Some early "portal" appearances in science fiction include A. E. van Vogt's novella Secret Unattainable (July 1942, Astounding), a radio episode of Space Patrol that aired October 25, 1952 (in which it was called a "cycloplex" or a "hole in space"), and Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky (1955) and its "Ramsbotham jump". In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke uses the term "Star Gate" for the large monolith "sentinel" TMA-2, which is a classic stargate portal to another part of the universe.Clarke, Arthur. 2001 A Space Odyssey. The New American Library, Inc, 1968, p. 188.
The basic stargate concept is that it has at least two devices in distant positions, and when active, the rings of each become similar to a physical, singular gateway or door-frame between the two locations. The concept was developed by the writers of the feature film Stargate, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Similar devices had been seen in previous fiction, and there has been contention as to whether they plagiarized the idea from a previous script submission from a student of Egyptology named Omar Zuhdi, who submitted a screenplay to them about ten years before the movie was made. Zuhdi pursued legal action regarding this, and the case was eventually settled out of court.
Much of the inspiration for the functioning of the device is drawn heavily from theoretical astrophysics, particularly that of black holes and wormholes, a staple of science fiction, often used to create "shortcuts" through space. Although these may exist in reality, it is not widely held to be true that any such phenomenon could safely transport a human being, as such wormholes would most likely be created by excessive gravity (e.g., from a black hole), which would destroy any potential traveler.
Plot
Films The Stargate film begins in 1928, when the alien device is first discovered and unearthed at Giza, with a young Catherine Langford watching as her father Paul, the archaeologist who found it, directs its unearthing. Stargate SG-1 has since revealed more of the backstory of the Earth Stargate. The American ship Achilles brought the gate to America in 1939 to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Nazis.Stargate: Continuum The United States Air Force then stored the device in various locations —including Washington, DC—before installing it at its location of the film and series. The Stargate was studied in the 1940s as a potential weapon and was later mothballed. As the Stargate film quickly skips to the "present day" (1994), unsuccessful archaeologist Daniel Jackson is giving a lecture about his outlandish theories that the pharaoh Khufu did not build the Great Pyramid of Giza. After he is laughed away, an aged Catherine Langford meets with him and recruits his egyptological talent, taking him to a top-secret military base at Cheyenne Mountain, where he is instructed to decipher the unique Egyptian hieroglyphs present on a set of cover-stones. He realizes that the indecipherable glyphs are not actually words but images of constellations, such that by identifying 6 of them a position in space can be extrapolated. He is then shown the stargate itself, uses his new understanding to identify the 7th symbol (the point of origin allowing a route to be extrapolated), and the gate is opened for the first time.
Because thousands of combinations had been previously tried and had failed, it was believed at the time that only two stargates existed, connecting Earth and the planet Abydos, which was visited in the film and was at the time erroneously believed to be located in the Kaliam Galaxy, billions of light years away on the other side of the known universe. At the beginning of the Stargate SG-1 series, however, a large set of additional valid coordinates were discovered engraved in ruins on Abydos. Because of the stellar drift accumulated over millions of years, other addresses were impossible to dial until Samantha Carter reworked the dialing system on Earth to account for this movement. After this, a massive network of possible connections suddenly became available. Even more addresses were later uncovered by Colonel Jack O'Neill from a repository of Ancient knowledge. In order to allow for dialing back to Earth from other locations (without altering the dialing system), it was later stated that the DHD ("Dial-Home Device") normally attached to each stargate automatically updates for stellar drift; Earth's stargate lacks its DHD, requiring other accommodation.
The alien race encountered in the original movie is later developed in SG-1 as the Goa'uld, the dominant evil power in the Milky Way. The leaders of this race, the System Lords, pose as gods and use the stargates to transport slaves between worlds. This has resulted in a large number of planets throughout the galaxy supporting human life, often in civilizations more primitive than Earth. The majority of these civilizations, descended from former Goa'uld slaves, treat the Stargate as a religious relic, often as a source of long-forgotten fear and evil.
Direct-to-video films Stargate: The Ark of Truth (2008) and Stargate: Continuum (also 2008) expand upon the Stargate lore.
Television For most of the run of Stargate SG-1, Earth was under constant threat from the Goa'uld, and is no match for their superior technology. In the face of this threat, the US Air Force established a top-secret base, the SGC (Stargate Command), as a frontline defence. Multiple teams are formed and sent on missions through the stargate, their primary objective being exploration, and through it the discovery of intelligence, technology and allies to help in the fight against the Goa'uld. The primary team is called SG-1, and the series follows their adventures.
For a long time, it was thought that the Goa'uld were the builders of the Stargate network, but it was later discovered that they had merely made use of the relics left behind by a different and extinct race, the Ancients. At the climax of SG-1's 6th season, Daniel Jackson discovers that the Earth myth of Atlantis is in fact founded on the Lost City of the Ancients, and Season 7 is spent trying to locate it. At the beginning of the show Stargate Atlantis, which coincides with the beginning of SG-1's 8th season, the city is found in the Pegasus Galaxy, and 8 chevrons are dialed to send an expedition there on what could be a one-way trip, due to the massive power required to generate a wormhole to another galaxy. It is there that they discover a new network of stargates, and are plagued by the nemesis of the Ancients, the Wraith. During the events of The Ark of Truth, it is revealed that the pre-ascended Ancient known as Amelius originated the concept of the Stargate and wormhole travel.
In the events of the third television series, Stargate Universe, a third generation of stargates is discovered, which allegedly predates the model originally discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. This model, discovered as a result of a three-month expedition to unlock the stargate's ninth and final chevron, was first encountered on board the ancient research vessel Destiny, which has been traversing the universe for several million years uncrewed, and is several billion light years away from Earth. It is discovered that the Ancients constructed the vessel to be launched after a number of stargate seed ships were dispersed in the universe in order to follow in their path and stop at each planet at which a stargate was deposited. Destiny would then extract any relevant data from the planetary stargate in order to further complete research into an apparent signal embedded in the Cosmic microwave background radiation. This "prototype", or "beta", generation of gates has a limited range; one storyline in the series saw an exploratory team being left behind when Destiny jumped into hyperspace without them, requiring them to plot the ship's course and travel to various other "beta" Stargates until they found one in range of Destiny. In addition, when a dialing sequence commences, the entire ring (as opposed to an inner track, like Milky Way-era gates) rotates clockwise and counterclockwise in an alternating pattern until the final chevron is locked and a wormhole is established. Finally, the event horizon of the wormhole also appears a slightly more silver color than later generations. Possibly due to the nature of how these stargates were deposited on hundreds of thousands of planets, no planetary DHD is present. Rather, explorers from Destiny are required to bring an Ancient remote control that can command the gate to dial an address in addition to other functions, presenting them with a list of accessible Stargates.
Operation
Within the Stargate fictional universe, stargates are hyper-advanced large rings that allow interplanetary and intergalactic travel. Objects can travel only from the origin to the destination, while certain electromagnetic waves can travel either way (for instance, visible light does not pass through at all, but radio transmissions pass in both directions).
A stargate's destination is not fixed; any stargate can connect to any other stargate in the network. Stargates have an inner ring akin to a rotary dial inscribed with a number of symbols, and nine prominent points ("chevrons") spaced equally around their circumference. Between 7 and 9 symbols are combined to identify a destination, by assigning them to each of the chevrons in sequence. These "addresses" are selected by turning the ring until the next symbol in the address is correctly aligned, which associates it with the next chevron. The 8th chevron, if used, specifies a different galaxy; the first 6 chevrons identify points in space within that galaxy to triangulate a physical location; the 7th is a symbol unique to the specific gate, which identifies it as the point of origin; and the 9th is reserved for special destinations.
The gates were originally constructed with complementary control panels nearby, inscribed with the same symbols as can be found on the ring. Pressing these symbols would supply power to the gate and cause the inner ring to spin automatically until the selected symbol is aligned and the chevron engaged. However the gate can also be dialled by manually forcing the ring to move into each position.
Once a valid address is dialed by the traveler, if a functioning counterpart device exists close enough to those coordinates, the stargate generates a stable wormhole between itself and its counterpart.
The advanced technology of the stargate allows it to accept a wide range of power sources, which it can absorb by direct conduction if required. The power source in most situations is provided by the control panel, which contains a long-lasting power source.