Goa'uld
Summary
The Goa'uld are aquatic parasitic creatures which evolved into intelligent, but extremely evil, beings. A symbiote, as it is also known as, invades a host, usually human, through the back of the neck (some have been known to go through the front) and blends into the host's biological structure, attaching itself into the brain and thus gaining access to the host's knowledge and voluntary muscular system. The term "Goa'uld" is applied to both the symbiote itself and the blended host, since the host of a Goa'uld is prevented from exerting his own personality after the blending.
This article concentrates on the Goa'uld personalities, rather than on the symbiotes (covered in another article).
Stargate References
Stargate - The Movie
We learn of the parasitic nature of the Goa'uld when Daniel Jackson interpreted the pictorial story drawn on a wall in the old part of a temple on Abydos on his first mission there. This story told of how an alien being searched for a new host for his dying race and found the humans of Earth to be most suitable. This alien stole the identity of the god Ra of the ancient Egyptians of 10,000 years ago, forcing the ancient Egyptians into servitude. The young boy whom Ra took as a host remained his host for all of those thousands of years, his body sustained by the symbiote itself and the technology of the sarcophagus.
Daniel Jackson educated the Abydonians on the nature of their "god" and, as a result, they revolted, just as the people of Ancient Egypt had when they buried the stargate on Earth. Colonel Jack O'Neill and Daniel killed Ra with the bomb originally intended to destroy the Abydos stargate. As a result, the people of Abydos were freed and became Earth's first ally in the fight against the Goa'uld.
Seasons One Through Three
The next Goa'uld we encounter is Apophis, in the pilot, "Children of the Gods":
Apophis came through the thought to be inactive stargate on Earth and captured a female sergeant. A violent battle was fought in the embarkation room, and casualties were suffered on both sides. The SGC learned about the nature of the Jaffa by examining the remains of one of Apophis' warriors.
They decided to return to Abydos and retrieve Dr. Daniel Jackson. Not long after they arrived, Apophis attacked Abydos and took Daniel's wife, Sha're, and her brother, Skaara, as prisoners. Major Ferretti saw the coordinates of the address to which Apophis escaped, so the SGC sent two teams after them.
When they arrive on the planet, later known as Chulak, SG-1, consisting of Col. Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, and Capt. Samantha Carter, were captured. We learn that "Goa'uld" is an ancient Egyptian, Abydonian, or Chulakan term meaning "gods" when Skaara translated Apophis' First Prime Teal'c's announcement that some of the prisoners were to become hosts for the "children of the gods".
Fortunately, Teal'c realized that the humans of Earth had known freedom from enslavement of the Goa'uld and he decided to defy orders and save them and the rest of the prisoners. They made their escape and Teal'c was eventually accepted as the fourth member of SG-1.
We met three more Goa'uld in this mission: Amaunet, Apophis' queen who took Sha're as a host; Klorel, Apophis' son who took Skaara as a host; and an unnamed Goa'uld who took Major Charles Kawalsky as a host:
The Goa'uld which had taken Kawalsky on Chulak was able to trick the SGC's surgeon, Dr. Warner, into believing that he had successfully extracted the symbtiote from Kawalsky. Unfortunately, in order to prevent the Goa'uld from killing more SGC personnel and escaping through the stargate, Kawalsky was killed.
Apophis, Klorel and Amaunet escaped from Chulak.
SG-1 later met up with Apophis on the planet of the Nox [1.08 "The Nox"], but Apophis was removed from the planet before he could be captured for information leading to Sha're and Skaara.
The next Goa'uld encountered by the SGC was Hathor:
Hathor had been in stasis in her sarcophagus in a Mayan temple and she was released when the archaeologists came upon her there. She was able to make it to Colorodo, sensing the stargate. The sarcaphagus had been sent to Daniel Jackson because he had a history of investigating cross-pollenation of cultures (the sarcaphagus was obviously Egyptian). Hathor attempted to take over Earth by drugging the men into submission and subjugating the women, but the plan backfired when Captain Samantha Carter and Dr. Janet Fraiser were able to lead a team of women to overcome their aggressor. Hathor was able to escape through the stargate to Chulak. Although extremely attractive, Hathor proved to be one of the most dangerous and evil of all of the Goa'uld. She raped Daniel Jackson for his DNA in order to make her baby Goa'uld larvae compatible with their future human hosts, and she attempted to transform Colonel Jack O'Neill into a Jaffa [1.14 "Hathor"]. Hathor later captured Jack, Daniel, and Carter, and left Teal'c for dead, in order to obtain up-to-date information on the power structure of the Goa'uld. Jack was able to kill her [2.22 "Out Of Mind Part 1" and 3.01 "Into The Fire Part 2"].
Even though the Goa'uld Nirrti is mentioned in the episode, 1.15 "Singularity", the SGC does not meet her face-to-face until a little later. It is discovered that Nirrti killed an entire population of the planet Hanka and all the members of SG-7, sparing only one little girl named Cassandra. Nirrti planted a bomb within Cassandra's heart to go off when she got near the naquadah of the stargate. It was intended that Cassandra be a Trojan Horse for Earth's destruction, but the SGC was able to discover the plan and thwart it.
Apophis lead an attack on earth with Klorel at his side in the episodes, 1.22 "Within The Serpent's Grasp" and 2.01 "The Serpent's Lair Part 2", and even though SG-1 was successful at destroying their two motherships, Apophis and Klorel were able to escape. With the destruction of these two ships, Apophis' position was weakened and he attempted to improve himself by producing a new host. This new host was the human offspring of the host of Apophis and Sha're, but inherited the genetic memory of the Goa'uld. Such a child is called a Harsesis. Apophis sent his queen, Amaunet, to Sha're's homeworld Abydos to hide her there from the other System Lords who would hunt the child down and kill him. Daniel and Teal'c encountered Sha're on the planet and Daniel delivered the child with his own hands. Teal'c was successful at fooling Amaunet into thinking that the child was taken by Heru'ur, a known enemy of Apophis, but Daniel was able to give the child to Sha're's father, Kasuf, for safe-keeping in the episode, 2.09 "Secrets".
Apophis turned up again in SG-1's lives by calling them to his rescue in his escape attempt from Sokar, in the episode, 2.17 "Serpent's Song". Sokar had captured Apophis and was taking great delight in torturing him. The SGC took Apophis' in when he asked for asylum, but after both the symbiote and host died, they sent him back through the stargate to Sokar because Sokar was attacking Earth with harmful radiation though the stargate in successive 38-minute intervals. The SGC was able to dial out between one of these attacks to send the body through and Sokar's attacks stopped. Viewers are not given the privilege of seeing Sokar's face until the episodes, 3.12 "Jolinar's Memories Part 1" and 3.13 "The Devil You Know Part 2":
Sokar was killed when the ship he was on was destroyed. This allowed Apophis, who had been revived in a sarcophagus after the SGC sent his body back and had been a slave to Sokar, to take Sokar's domain and thrust himself into great power once more.
Nirrti was one of three System Lords who came to the SGC to negotiate with the Asgard in the Protected Planets Treaty [3.02 "Fair Game"]. We meet two other System Lords at this meeting:
Lord Yu was the most amicable of the three. Nirrti attacked Cronus and tried to frame Teal'c for the incident. Because she used cloaking technology in the attack and had not disclosed this technology to the other System Lords, she was taken as a prisoner by Cronus. Earth was successfully placed in the Protected Planets Treaty and was able to keep their Stargate Program intact.
In the episode, 3.10 "Forever In A Day", Amaunet is encountered for the final time as she steals the Harsesis and sends her trusted aide away with him, keeping him from the clutches of Heru'ur. When Daniel found Amaunet in the tent near the battlefield where other Abydonians had been captive, Amaunet tried to kill him using the ribbon device. While the link between the two was made through the device, Sha're was able to send a message to Daniel asking him to forgive Teal'c for killing her and for him to find the boy and keep him safe. Teal'c killed Sha're when he stopped Amaunet's attack on Daniel. Later, in the episode, 3.20 "Maternal Instinct", Apophis slaughtered hundreds of Jaffa in his search for the Harsesis on Chulak. SG-1 was one step ahead in locating the child on the planet Kheb and it was there that they met the extremely powerful Ascended Being Oma Desala. Daniel was able to keep his promise to Sha're that they body would be safe by letting Oma take the child as her own.
The story ends sadly for Sha're, but her brother Skaara was more fortunate. Heru'ur sent a battle group after Klorel, but the two motherships were destroyed when they entered Tollana's defense perimeter. Klorel's ship crashed on Tollana and through the injuries, Skaara was able to take control of his body long enough to ask the Tollan for help. The Tollan called SG-1 on behalf of Skaara to represent him in a trial known as a Triad in which it would be determined who would be given control of Skaara's body. For Klorel, the minor Goa'uld System Lord Zipacna answered the call [3.15 "Pretense"]:
A third, unbiased party was called into the Triad: Lya of the Nox. After much drama and the hearing of the arguments from both sides, Lya's vote would be the deciding one. She chose to allow Skaara to have control of his body. The Tollan called the Tok'ra in to remove the symbiote from Skaara's body. They sent the symbiote to a planet under the control of the Goa'uld where a new host could be found for him. Skaara was free to return home to Aybdos.
Seasons Four and Five
Seasons Six Through Eight
Notable Characters
Alliances
- The Goa'uld serve only their own interests, but some of them have joined together in an organization of System Lords to exert supremacy in the galaxy.
Enemies
Episodes
Related Articles
Related Links
--DeeKayP 13:59, 29 Jun 2004 (PDT)