 
GW: So even though Morgan describes herself in the film as an outcast, I think, you think that she has some endorsement.
RCC: Yeah, she's been deputized by the other Ancients to go and -- not so much that she has been given permission, but they are kind of agreeing to look the other way. Because, in fact, what has happened is in "The Shroud" we did something that ultimately ended up being for their benefit, not ours.
We're still under the threat of the Ori followers, who are operating with technology that is superior to ours because those ascended beings, the Ori, gave it to them! They used that knowledge of the universe -- and that's exactly why the Ancients don't do what they do. That's why they stay out of the way. You're supposed to get what you get on your own, in your own due course.
The Alterans were by no means simple villagers, but lived that way to avoid the wrath of the fanatical Ori. | |
GW: That's taking the non-interference directive to its highest peak: When the Ori cheat, essentially, we're not going to respond in kind.
RCC: Yeah, well the Ori don't follow that. They don't care. They want to manipulate humans and lower beings to the point of having created a bunch of them. The Ori followers are the second generation of humans in that galaxy. The original ascended, became the Ori, and then re-created humanity to worship them in the Ori galaxy.
That's one aspect, again -- it was very hard to get across all of this information! I'm not sure it's all that entertaining in terms of a movie. It's a balance of how much is this just a texture and a back-story and not the actual story.
But people, I guess because of my own failings, are not always understanding that when you see those flashbacks the people you are seeing are the humans that were coexisting with the people who eventually became the Ori. You had humans living together, two groups that broke off -- one that ultimately believed in science and one that became so anti-science in their beliefs that they threatened to kill the scientists. And so the scientists decided to build a space ship and leave.
Why do they appear as non-technological villagers at the beginning? Well, they were essentially hiding that level of scientific belief so that they wouldn't get into a conflict. It was sort of a disguise, if you will: "Look, we're not as scientific as you think we are!" To avoid attack!
GW: So do you think that the Ori's own technological development came much, much later in their evolution?
RCC: Absolutely. So what happened was there were just massive amounts of people who became the Ori, and they were going to attack them. And the Ancients were saying, "Look, we could win this fight. We could just kill them all with our technology. But that's not who we are. So we're just going to leave and go somewhere else where we can live happily, and then they can do whatever they want."
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Adria and Morgan clash in the inner sanctum of Celestis. |
Millions of years passed, and both groups of humans learned how to ascend -- evolved, and one maintained that essentially core code of ethics, and one didn't. One decided, "Hey, look, we have all this knowledge and power and we're going to create people to worship us." And they became the Ori, and then gave their followers the technology to essentially enslave others to enforce them to believe as the Ori wanted them to.
I admit it's a pretty complicated back-story. But I think the information is there for people who want to go that deeply into the show and find it. I think those answers are there. I've never wanted to make that the foreground. Again, I think you've accurately identified the show as an action-adventure show -- it's meant to entertain people. But if you wanted to go deeper, if you want to explore the story behind it, hopefully it's there for you. And the answers, I think, are there for you to find.
GW: Back to Morgan's final, climactic battle with Adria: The way that it was depicted on screen, was that meant to indicate a mutually-assured destruction of the two, or to remind us of the never-ending battle that still wages between Anubis and Oma ("Threads")?
RCC: My interpretation of what happened was that they basically started to fight in our realm of existence, because they were appearing to us, but then essentially continued to fight on the ascended level in the same way that Anubis and Oma did.
GW: So now that they are evenly matched ...
RCC: Yeah, they're still fighting! Basically Morgan sacrificed herself to eternally distract Adria from being able to continue her evil ways.
NEXT: The Doci, Replicators, and convenient plot devices
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