The Stargate Story
Since 2002, Stargate SG-1 Solutions has followed the Stargate saga from its very beginning to the present day. This is our story of that journey — the films, the series, the fan campaigns, and the community that has kept the gate open for over two decades. It is told from the point of view of fans who were there for all of it.
Contents
Stargate: The Movie (1994)
It began not with a television series, but with a film. Roland Emmerich's Stargate introduced the world to a device buried beneath the Giza plateau — a ring of alien technology capable of transporting human beings to worlds across the galaxy. Kurt Russell played Colonel Jack O'Neil, a grief-stricken soldier sent on what was expected to be a one-way mission. James Spader played Dr. Daniel Jackson, the eccentric Egyptologist whose crackpot theories turned out to be right.
The film established the visual language and mythology that would sustain three television series and two additional films. More than anything else, it gave us Daniel Jackson — and for the team behind Solutions, that was the beginning of everything.
Stargate SG-1 — Seasons 1–5 (1997–2001)
When Showtime commissioned a television series based on the film in 1997, the character of Jack O'Neill was recast — Richard Dean Anderson stepped in and made the role his own, bringing a warmth and dry humor that would define the show's tone for a decade. The series also gave us a television Daniel Jackson in Michael Shanks, who became the heart of SG-1 and, not coincidentally, the soul of this website.
The early seasons built an extraordinary mythology. SG-1 — Jack, Daniel, Samantha Carter, and Teal'c — traveled through the Stargate week after week, encountering System Lords, forging alliances with the Tok'ra and the Asgard, and slowly turning the tide against the Goa'uld. By the time the fifth season concluded, Stargate SG-1 had become the longest-running North American science fiction series since The X-Files.
The Save Daniel Jackson Campaign & Season 6 (2001–2002)
In early 2001, Michael Shanks announced that he would not be returning to Stargate SG-1 for Season 6. He spoke candidly about his reasons: the character of Daniel Jackson had been written smaller and smaller as the ensemble grew, his input was not being sought, and he had reached a point where leaving felt like the right professional decision. The Season 5 finale “Meridian” gave Daniel an on-screen farewell — ascending to a higher plane of existence rather than dying outright, a choice that kept the door open even as it closed. For the fandom, that door was never fully shut.
What emerged in the weeks and months that followed was one of the most sustained and organized fan campaigns of the early internet era. The hub of it was savedanieljackson.com — a site that coordinated letter-writing drives to MGM and Showtime, tracked petition signatures in the tens of thousands, and kept fans informed as Season 6 moved forward with Jonas Quinn (played by Corin Nemec) as SG-1’s new fourth member. Fans sent letters, made calls, and demonstrated their commitment in concrete terms: buying DVDs, attending conventions, and making noise wherever fans could be heard. Throughout Season 6, Daniel remained present in a limited way as an ascended being, guest-appearing in several episodes and keeping the character alive in more than spirit.
Stargate SG-1 Solutions was born in the middle of this campaign. The site grew directly out of the community that savedanieljackson.com helped build — fans who cared deeply about Daniel Jackson and Michael Shanks, who wanted to document what was happening and do something about it. That origin is the reason this site has always been, at its core, a Daniel Jackson site. It shaped everything we built from the beginning.
The campaign succeeded. Michael Shanks returned to SG-1 as a full series regular in Season 7 (2003), with Daniel descending from his ascended state and rejoining the team. He remained through the series finale and both direct-to-DVD films. The creative environment improved alongside his return. We are careful not to overstate what fan campaigns can accomplish — many factors go into these decisions — but we were there, and we watched it happen, and we have never stopped believing the fans mattered.
Stargate SG-1 — Seasons 7–10 (2003–2007)
Daniel's return in Season 7 marked the beginning of a new era. SG-1 wrapped up the Goa'uld arc in grand fashion before pivoting to an entirely new threat in Seasons 9 and 10: the Ori, a race of ascended beings who wielded religion as a weapon and commanded armies of fanatical followers across the galaxy.
Season 8 saw Richard Dean Anderson step back from full-time duties, with Ben Browder's Cameron Mitchell arriving to lead the field team and Claudia Black joining as series regular Vala Mal Doran in Season 9. The reconstituted SG-1 carried the series through to its tenth and final season in 2007 — making it the longest-running science fiction series in North American television history.
The Ark of Truth (2008)
When SG-1 ended in 2007, the Ori storyline remained unresolved. The first of two direct-to-DVD films set out to close that chapter. The Ark of Truth sent SG-1 into the Ori's home galaxy in search of an Ancient device capable of revealing the truth to the Ori's followers — and ending the war for good. Written and directed by Robert C. Cooper, the film gave the Ori arc the conclusion it deserved.
Continuum (2008)
The second SG-1 film took a very different approach. Continuum is a time travel thriller in which Ba'al, the last surviving System Lord, travels back in time to prevent the Stargate program from ever being established. The result is an alternate timeline in which SG-1 never existed — and three of its members must restore history from within it.
Filmed partly on location in the Arctic with the cooperation of the U.S. military, Continuum has a cinematic scope that stands apart in the franchise. It remains a fan favorite and a deeply satisfying coda to the SG-1 era.
Stargate Atlantis (2004–2009)
Launching in 2004 alongside SG-1's eighth season, Stargate Atlantis expanded the franchise into an entirely new galaxy. An international expedition discovered the lost city of the Ancients submerged beneath the ocean of a planet in the Pegasus Galaxy — and in doing so, awakened the Wraith, a predatory species that fed on human life and had ruled Pegasus for ten thousand years.
Led by Dr. Elizabeth Weir and anchored by Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, Dr. Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, and Ronon Dex, the Atlantis expedition built a devoted following of its own while sharing a universe with SG-1 during its first two years. The series ran for five seasons.
Stargate Universe (2009–2011)
The final chapter of the original Stargate era took the franchise somewhere it had never been before. A crisis at a remote Stargate research facility stranded a group of soldiers, scientists, and civilians aboard the Destiny — an unmanned Ancient vessel billions of light-years from Earth, following a preprogrammed course through the universe that no one aboard fully understood.
Darker and more serialized than its predecessors, Stargate Universe placed character at its center in ways the franchise had not previously attempted. The series found a devoted audience — and was cancelled after two seasons, its story unfinished. That wound has not entirely healed.
New Stargate (In Development)
The gate is not closed. A new Stargate series is currently in development, bringing the franchise back for a new generation of fans. Details remain limited, but the announcement alone was enough to reopen conversations that had been dormant for years — about the universe, the characters, and what Stargate means to the people who grew up with it.
Solutions has been here since 2002. We will be here for whatever comes next.