Langara
Summary
Kelowna (now known as Langara) is the home planet of Jonas Quinn, former member of SG-1 during its sixth year of operation.
Factoids
- Names and Designations: Kelowna, Langara, P2S-4C3 and P9Y-4C3
- Number of Suns: 1
- Number of Moons: unknown
- Source of Address: Abydos Cartouche
- Introduced in Episode: 5.21 "Meridian"
- Earth Cultural/Technological Equivalent: United States, 1940's
- Main Interest: Powerful, yet very unstable, mineral called naquadria; homeworld of Jonas Quinn, a former member of SG-1; Ori planet
- Influenced/Dominated by: Goa'uld Thanos from over 10,000 years ago; Ori
- History of Stargate: uncovered 15 years prior to SG-1's initial visit
Stargate Glyphs
Unknown
Geopolitical Structure and History
The planet is divided into three nations: Andari, Terania, and Kelowna. These three nations were in a power struggle and were preparing themselves for a world war when SG-1 met them. Each nation had spies working among the others' ranks. Kelowna, the country which had the Stargate, was using the notes of the Goa'uld Thanos who was doing research on naquadria over 10,000 years ago. As it turns out, Thanos' experimentation nearly blew the planet to bits, but the Kelownans had hypothosized that it was an asteriod that had impacted their world and wiped out the Goa'uld's civilization. (Note: the timing for the Goa'uld Thanos' experiments is depicted as 10,000 years ago in the episode, 5.21 "Meridian", but as 3,000 years ago in the episode, 7.14 "Fallout").
Since the three nations were on the verge of a war, each was developing weapons using the mineral naquadria. The Kelownan nation had privileged access to Thanos' research and they were further along in their bomb development. It was during his tour of the research facility that Daniel Jackson was exposed to the lethal radiation of the naquadria experiment when the core being tested started to go critical. Daniel was successful at removing the core, but he and the four scientists who were performing the experiment during the accident all died from the radiation exposure. (5.21 "Meridian")
The government of Kelowna attempted to place the blame of the accident on Daniel Jackson. Jonas Quinn, who was the country's ethics advisor, was present when Daniel sacrificed himself in order to disarm the bomb and he, at first, feared to be the only voice to tell the truth in his country's attempt to place blame, but changed his mind when he saw that the leaders of his country were only interested in the power of the bomb and not in the lives of the people who were killed in the accident. Jonas finally went before the government to tell them what happened, but because of the leader's reaction to his statement, he decided to steal some of the naquadria and defect to Earth, his hope being that it would help Earth develop defense shields which he thought he would be able to share with his planet sometime in the future. The naquadria he brought with him was used to engineer the X-302 and X-303 spacecraft, making interstellar travel possible through the generating of hyperspace windows. (5.21 "Meridian", 6.01 "Redemption Part 1", 6.02 "Redemption Part 2", 6.11 "Prometheus", 6.20 "Memento")
The Kelownan leaders did not let the fatal accident stop them and they were eventually successful in developing the bomb. They test detonated it and, unknown to them at the time, that detonation was the catalyst in converting the naquadah of their planet into naquadria. The conversion process, once it hit a main vein near the core of the planet would make the planet explode. It took two years for them to see the results of this test detonation. (7.14 "Fallout")
It was also revealed that continued unprotected exposure to naquadria caused paranoid schizophrenia. The scientists with whom Jonas Quinn had worked each succumbed to the illness. (6.07 "Shadow Play")
The Kelownans used the naquadria bomb on their neighbors. That use both started and ended the war. The devastation was enormous. The only good thing that the use of the bomb brought was a truce and talks of peace among all three nations. It was at this very time that Anubis captured Jonas Quinn and probed his mind. This probe resulted in Jonas' revealing of the existence of naquadria and Anubis wanted it. Anubis attacked the capital city of Kelowna in order to obtain all of the naquadria and its research notes. One of Anubis' scientist believed that he was able to make it stable and Anubis instructed him to test his new weapon powered by it on the city. The test was a failure and Anubis had the scientist killed on the spot. Anubis' ship was destroyed over Kelowna, but he was able to escape. (7.02 "Homecoming Part 2")
After this attack and Kelowna's revealing the existence of the Stargate to the other two nations, the planet formed a Joint Ruling Council. This Council first insisted that Jonas Quinn sit in as a Kelownan representative in order to educate them on the threats he learned about during his time on SG-1. Ambassador Dreylock was voted into the position of First Minister (equivalent to the United States President) after their prior First Minister (most likely Valis) was executed when Anubis attacked their planet. The Joint Ruling Council renamed the planet Langara from a word common to all the nations. (6.07 "Shadow Play", 7.02 "Homecoming Part 2", 7.14 "Fallout")
Because Ba'al was asked to lead the combined fleet of System Lords to attack Anubis over the skies of Kelowna, he took interest in why Anubis was at this planet to begin with. When he discovered Anubis was interested in naquadria, he sent a Goa'uld as a spy into the ranks of the scientists. This Goa'uld, however, decided to use the opportunity to take the naquadria and planet for itself, but its plans were thwarted when it had to abate the chain reaction triggered by the testing of the bomb two years prior and it was killed in the process. The interruption of the chain reaction deep under the planet's surface was successful through the use of a large drill called a Deep Underground Excavation Vehicle, or DUEV, which had originally been designed to mine naquadria. (7.14 "Fallout")
After the Ascended Beings known as the Ori sent their firstwave of an invasion force to the Milky Way, the drive to convert the galaxy into Ori worshippers was so swift that it was predicted by the Ori's human form representive, Adria, the Orici, that the entire galaxy would be converted in about a year. Every planet visited by the Ori's Priors, warships, and troops were destined for one of two outcomes: conversion or destruction. Langara became an Ori world not long after the warships arrived, and communications with the Langarans was cut off. (10.07 "Counterstrike")
The Ori's hold on the galaxy ended after SG-1 successfully used Merlin's Anti-Ascended Weapon and the Ancients' Ark of Truth (10.14 "The Shroud", Stargate: The Ark of Truth). Langara not only recovered, but thrived. They built a power generation facility that drew from the planet's naquadria core and attached their Stargate to it. Dr. Rodney McKay perfected the formula to draw power safely from a planet's naquadria core in order to dial a nine-chevron address, a special code that required a massive amount of energy that only naquadria was known to provide. There were two instances when the nine-chevron code was dialed to reach the Ancients' long-abandoned, pre-Atlantis, exploratory vessel Destiny, and in both cases, the planets were utterly destroyed due to power surges caused by energy blasts from an attack. Since McKay's formula was guaranteed to work 100% and not harm the planet, Earth's Homeworld Command requested that Langara agree to allow them to send supplies and personnel through Langara's Stargate, but Ambassador Ovirda wanted to delay the testing until after Langaran scientists had reviewed the data. Unfortunately, time was of the essence since the Lucian Alliance also wanted to use the Langaran facility, but their desire was to invade Destiny for a second time. Earth attempted to test the dialing without the Langaran approval, and as a result, diplomatic ties were frayed. Since the Alliance still remained an imminent threat, the Langarans decided to detach their Stargate from the naquadria power generator. They also requested that Earth aid them in the defense of their world since theirs was the only planet known to have a naquadria core that could be used to dial Destiny. (SGU 2.15 "Seizure")
Gallery
Episodes
Stargate SG-1
Stargate Universe
Related Characters
- Dr. Daniel Jackson
- Jonas Quinn
- Dr. Rodney McKay
- Adria
- Anubis
- Ba'al
- Dreylock
- Ovirda
- Thanos
- First Minister Valis
Related Articles
Keywords
- Ancients
- Ark of Truth
- Ascended Beings
- Atlantis
- Deep Underground Excavation Vehicle (DUEV)
- Destiny
- Goa'uld
- Homeworld Command
- Langarans
- Lucian Alliance
- Merlin's Anti-Ascended Weapon
- Naquadah
- Naquadria
- Ori
- Ori Warship
- Priors of the Ori
- SG-1
- X-302
- X-303
Other
- 6.01 "Redemption Part 1"
- 6.02 "Redemption Part 2"
- 6.11 "Prometheus"
- 6.20 "Memento"
- 10.14 "The Shroud"
- Stargate: The Ark of Truth
--DeeKayP 10:24, 2 Sep 2004 (PDT)