People of Talthus
Summary
The People of Talthus built three cryosleep ships to escape from the sun flare triggered by the gravitational pull of a dark star which passed near it. The people were on their several-hundred-year trip to another planet called Ardena when the ship Stromos crashed on a P2A-347, which SG-1 visited in the episode, 7.06 "Lifeboat".
Stargate References
Most of the social structure of the People of Talthus is understood from the interactions of various personalities of the crew and passengers of the Stromos and their interactions with members of Stargate Command (the SGC).
Talthus had a very clear class structure. The highest class appeared to be the Sovereigns. It is unclear if there was a class based representational government, such as the House of Lords in British parliament, or a monarchy through bloodline, with a royal family and one ruler. Martice was both referred to as "a" Sovereign and "the" Sovereign, and himself states he is destined to rule over Ardena. In any case, the Sovereigns were both political rulers of the planet and treated like royalty, often surrounded by their own staff.
The crew of the ships swore an oath of fealty to protect the Sovereigns and follow their will. This oath later created a moral dilemma for Pharrin, an officer of the Stromos. He had made an arrangement with the SGC to save all of the people of his ship, but in return he had to extract twelve consciousnesses he had downloaded into the mind of Dr. Daniel Jackson. The Sovereign Martice, who was one of the souls inhabiting Daniel, refused to permit the procedure. It took persuasion by Col. Jack O’Neill and Tryan, and remembering the twelve years they had spent trying to save as many of the people as possible to convince Pharrin to break that oath.
There also appeared to be a hierarchy within the ship’s crews. Pharrin was an officer, given respect by crew under him, such as Tryan, who was an engineer, second-rank. Their relationship was similar to a military officer and enlisted structure, yet there also appeared to be a mutual respect between Pharrin and Tryan. Both in turn, would genuflect to the Sovereign, Martice, who was to resume his leadership position on the new homeworld, Ardena. Other passengers, such as an unnamed woman and Pharrin’s son, Keenin, were civilians with no specific rank or position. Based on the interaction of Keenin and Pharrin, and Keenin’s description of his mother, the Talthus family structure was similar to the nuclear family common to several of Earth’s civilizations.
The scientists on Talthus noted the orbit of a dark star in their system would draw too close to the sun. This proximity would cause the sun to flare so intensely that the solar flare would engulf the planet. As Keenin later described to Dr. Fraiser: “ I knew my whole life that the world was gonna end.”
Based upon the technology of the Stromos, the People of Talthus were on a somewhat more advanced technological level than Earth. The impending natural disaster may have given them the impetus to become more innovative in their space travel technology. They built three star-ships to evacuate Talthus. Each ship could hold over one thousand passengers, but there was not enough room for all of the population. A lottery was created as the only fair way to determine who would get a place onboard. Keenin later explained that though all the Sovereigns were chosen, his mother was not. Through his innocent words, it is safe to assume that the lottery was rigged in a way that the ruling class guaranteed themselves passage. Another concession was to the officers of the crew that manned the vessels. Each officer was allowed to bring one family member with them. Officer Pharrin chose his young son, Keenin at the behest of his wife.
The Talthus people had not mastered faster-than-light travel, but used a different technology to travel between star systems. They put themselves in a type of stasis, and the ship maneuvered automatically. The Stromos and two other vessels left the planet to travel to a new home, Ardena, in a distant star system. Civilian passengers on the Stromos could be distinguished by their blue clothing. Crew of the ship wore tan with symbols signifying rank. Presumably the uniforms on the other two ships were similar, but it is unclear if this was their standard clothing, or worn while on the spaceship. As far as is known, except for those aboard the three ships, any of the population remaining on Talthus were killed when the planet was destroyed.
Notable Characters
- Keenin - was the young son of Officer Pharrin. He was one of the passengers aboard the Stromos when it crashed. His body died when too much power drained from his cryrosleep chamber. However, his consciousness remained and was downloaded into Daniel Jackson’s mind for a period of time before being transferred to Pharrin.
- Martice - was a Sovereign of the planet Talthus, destined to rule over their new homeworld Ardena. His body died as a result of the loss of power draining the Stromos when it crashed on P2A-347. However, his consciousness was downloaded into the mind of Dr. Daniel Jackson and survived there until transferred to Officer Pharrin. An arrogant and selfish person, he was demanding and not very helpful when the SGC tried to figure out what happened.
- Pharrin - was an officer of the Stromos. Awakened by the ship after it crashed, Pharrin noted the ship was losing power. Desperate to save people dying in cryosleep chambers, he downloaded the consciousness of twelve passengers into his own mind. Later he did the same to Daniel Jackson. Eventually confronted by Samantha Carter and Teal’c, Pharrin worked with them to restore power to his ship and transferred the souls from Daniel into his own mind.
- Tryan - Tryan was an Engineer, second rank of the Stromos. He served under Officer Pharrin and was one of the souls downloaded into Daniel Jackson’s mind. While in Daniel Jackson’s mind, he was very helpful in explaining the situation to Dr. Fraiser. Willing to make whatever sacrifice necessary to save his people, he agreed to being extracted from Daniel’s mind, presumably transferred to Pharrin.
Alliances
- No known alliances on Talthus.
- The SGC helped the stranded passengers of the Stromos after it crashed.
Enemies
- No known enemies.
Episodes
Related Articles
Actors
- Ryan Drescher as Young Keenin
- James Parks as Pharrin, and other souls in Pharrin’s body.
- Michael Shanks as Keenin, Martice, and Tryan when each was in control of Daniel Jackson’s body.
- Travis Webster as Tryan
--Aurora 09:35, 11 December 2005 (PST)