ABSTRACT
Stargate SG-1 is arguably the most successful sf adaptation measured in terms of sheer magnitude: whereas Roland Emmerich’s 1994 feature film had a marginal opening and was only moderately successful in gross sales, Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner’s television series ran successfully for ten years from 1997 to 2007 and has generated two further series, Stargate: Atlantis (2004–09) and Stargate Universe (2009–11), as well as two television films, Stargate: The Ark of the Truth (2008) and Stargate Continuum (2008), with talk of more to come. The success of Stargate SG-1 is perhaps more surprising when one factors in its relative lack of critical acclaim. The film was disparaged by reviewers who saw in it only a sampling of earlier films, ranging from 2001 (1968) to the original Star Wars trilogy (1977–83), intercut with massive special effects sequences. Leonard Klady, writing for Variety , sums up this reaction when he acerbically concludes, “despite the ever-present, state-of-the-art technology, there’s hardly a single indelible image in the course of two hours. One walks away uncertain whether there is a film called ‘Stargate,’ or if it was merely a dream composed of badly remembered movie clichés.” The series too has won few awards, although it has generated a substantial fan base, and academic writing on the genre has generally neglected it, which is in marked contrast to the commentary on other roughly contemporary series such as the rebooted Battlestar Galactica (2003–09). 1
