ANCIENT TALES AND THE FUTURE OF STARGATE
What will the Stargate SG-1 movie and spin-off series be about? Here's my working theory, with the information we have so far.
SG-1 executive producer and co-creator Brad Wright first revealed that a spin-off series is in the works in an interview with Cinescape magazine, where he said, "What I'm planning is for Season Six to build towards a climax that actually is a Stargate SG-1 feature film. And that feature film will create the milieu and the necessary elements for a spin-off series."
"The idea for it is very cool and I've been setting it up since Season One, when I planted a seed to give us a direction in which we could go. We've been slowing building up the possibilities [from there]."
 Fans have been left scouring every episode, every scene, every line of dialogue in the show's first year for clues about the future of the Stargate story. Could it be about the four great races (the Asgard, the Nox, the Furlings and the Ancients), whose alliance was first mentioned in "The Torment of Tantalus?" Could it have something to do with Nem and Omaroca, two aliens who were on Earth millenia ago ("Fire and Water")? Or a show devoted to the robot version of SG-1 created in "Tin Man?"
The next hint -- and the biggest yet -- came when MGM published the name Atlantis in its fan newsletter (then removed it a few days later). In the weeks since, at least two other sources have confirmed that the upcoming film or series have to do with the mythology of the lost continent: Michael Shanks, speaking at a fan convention, and TVinsider.com, which attributed the information simply to "insiders."
MGM has also registered several Atlantis-related domain names, including StargateAtlantis.com.
Discovering Atlantis
How might the tale of Atlantis fit into the Stargate universe? As the story goes (based on short excerpts from Plato), Atlantis was home to a great and advanced city, and a noble race. It was a continent that may have stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mediterranean Sea -- though some think it may be hidden beneath the glaciers of Antarctica. Atlantis was ruled by Poseidon, god of the sea, who fell in love with a mortal woman, Cleito. He created a home for her at the top of a hill near the middle of the island, and surrounded it with rings of water to protect her.
She gave birth to five sets of twin boys, who became the first rulers of Atlantis. The island was divided among them, with the eldest -- Atlas -- assuming reign over the central hill. They ruled an island in great prosperity, until the Atlanean's greed and power wholly corrupted them. The god Zeus saw their immorality, and destroyed them -- in one night, the island disappeared into the sea, more than 11,000 years ago.
Conspiracy theorists have considered for centuries the possibility that Atlantis was the source for the advanced mathematical knowledge the ancient Egyptians would have needed to construct the pyramids. Others have put forth the theory that this knowledge came from an alien race. Both fit well into the Stargate universe, where Daniel Jackson's "crazy theories" about the pyramids have been proved true.
Identifying the Atlanteans
Most likely, the Atlanteans are that race in the Stargate universe about which we wonder the most, and about which we know the least. The Asgard call them "the Ancients," and they are the builders of the Stargate network.
 The Ancients built the gates as a transit system, placing Stargates all over the galaxy -- and in other galaxies, from the looks of it. The gates helped to unite powerful allies -- but eventually, the Ancients left this part of the known universe.
What about the "seed" that Wright mentioned, then? The following conversation takes place in "Solitudes" (a story written by Brad Wright):
Hammond: "Teal'c, would the Goa'uld have put more than one Stargate on a planet?"
Teal'c: "If the first became lost to them, it is possible."
Jackson: "But remember, the one that Ra put here might not have been the first. The Goa'uld didn't build the Stargate system." A seed about the Ancients? Daniel theorizes that Ra brought the Giza Stargate to Earth after the original (found in Antarctica) was lost. The original, then, would have been placed by the Ancients before the Goa'uld ever arrived. Indeed, the Goa'uld may have first discovered Earth and taken human hosts through the Stargate, and not by ship.
Were the Ancients the Atlanteans? They left our part of the universe, and in a single night the continent of Atlantis disappeared into the sea. The Antarctic Stargate -- with an event horizon resembling the waves of a sea -- was lost.
It stands to reason that the continent of Atlantis was not even on Earth at all. Perhaps, inthe Stargate universe, it was on another planet. The Ancients visited Earth through the Stargate until a cataclysmic event buried it in an Antarctic cavern.
If Poseidon and Atlas were Ancients, it wouldn't be the first time that someone other than a Goa'uld has impersonated a deity. The Asgard impersonate figures in the Norse pantheon, including Thor and Freyr.
 We could take the theory much further, considering the strong indications that Oma Desala's spirit-like race (last seen in Orlin, in Season Five's "Ascension") are the Ancients, who have left this plane of existence by "ascending" to another. Some believe that Atlantis suffered a cultural collapse before it was lost, and that its people sought to teach others before they were destroyed -- including early Native Americans. SG-1 finds in Season Three's "Maternal Instinct" that the Native American belief in Mother Nature may have its origins in Oma Desala herself.
Considering the Series
"What we don't want it to be is SG-2," executive producer Robert C. Cooper told DreamWatch magazine. "We would want the series to be very different from this one. After six seasons of SG-1, fans would expect something fresh and new. And that's what we have in mind. ... [The spin-off series] evolves the Stargate."
There are as many possibilities in the myth of Atlantis as there are neurons in Brad Wright's head. Perhaps the lost planet of Atlantis will be discovered by SG-1, and become a new offworld base for the SGC. Maybe the team finally encounters the Ancients, and a special squad is sent on a series-long quest to find the lost world. Or, maybe the Ancients return to our galaxy to help defeat the Goa'uld -- but become an enemy themselves.
Most likely, a little of all this speculation is true -- and a lot of it isn't.
Whatever it is, "the movie idea we have will change the Stargate universe considerably," according to Cooper. "[It will] open it up and create the potential for a whole new series."
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