Children of the Gods 

Colonel Jack O'Neill is brought out of retirement to lead a new expedition back to Abydos, only to find an old friend, a new enemy and a far wider use of the Stargate.

Director:

Mario Azzopardi

Writers:

Brad Wright (developed for television by), Jonathan Glassner (developed for television by)

Stars:

Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Dean Anderson	...	Colonel Jack O'Neill
Michael Shanks	...	Dr. Daniel Jackson
Amanda Tapping	...	Captain Samantha Carter
Christopher Judge	...	Teal'c
Don S. Davis	...	Major General George Hammond
Jay Acovone	...	Major Charles Kawalsky
Vaitiare Hirshon	...	Sha're / Amaunet (as Vaitiare Bandera)
Robert Wisden	...	Samuels
Peter Williams	...	Apophis
Brent Stait	...	Louis Ferretti
Gary Jones	...	Sgt. Walter Harriman
Alexis Cruz	...	Skaara / Klorel
Rachel Hayward	...	Sgt. Carol Weterings
Rick Ravanello	...	Guard #2
J.B. Bivens	...	Guard #1

Storyline

An alien similar to Ra appears out of the Stargate, killing five soldiers and kidnapping another, a year after the original Stargate mission. A new team is assembled, including some old members, and they go in search of the missing soldier in order to find out how Ra could still be alive. Meanwhile, the alien Gou'ald kidnap Sha're and Skaara, implanting them with symbiotes and making them Gou'ald hosts.

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Plot Keywords:

aliens possessing humans | energy weapon | parasite | worshipper | goa'uld | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

The actors playing the Abydonians, both here and in the movie, (especially _Alexis Cruz (I)' as Skaara) sound like they are swallowing their "L"s; making O'Neill sound like "Oneer" for example. In ancient Egyptian there is no hieroglyph for an "l" sound. Later the Greeks would use the lion hieroglyph to represent the "l" but it actually represented the "rw" consonant sound. Whether the actors were doing this on purpose or not is an interesting question.

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Goofs

The major who escorts Col. O'Neill to the lower levels of NORAD is also wearing sergeant's stripes on the sleeves of his dress uniform. This does not appear to be a new character (same man who picked up O'Neill at his home) and you can see that he is clearly wearing officer's rank on his shoulder epaulets. Enlisted airmen wear nothing on their epaulets.

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Quotes

Colonel Jack O'Neill: I can save these people. Help me! Help me.
Teal'c: Many have said that. But you are the first I believe could do it.

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Crazy Credits

The first A in the word Stargate (in the title) is not a true A, but is represented by the Stargate's Earth point of origin.

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Alternate Versions

In 2009 MGM released a re-edited version of Children of the Gods on DVD. Certain scenes have been trimmed slightly to make the pace of the film flow faster and one new scene has been added. Scenes with violence have been toned down and the infamous full frontal nudity shots of actress Vaitiare Bandera have been removed. Also,the visual effects have been enhanced and composer Joel Goldsmith has re-scored the entire film with new music instead of the re-used David Arnold score from the 1994 feature. The 2009 version runs approx 7 minutes shorter than the original.

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Connections

Featured in Stargate SG-1: Orpheus (2003)

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Soundtracks

Main Title
Written by Joel Goldsmith and David Arnold

User Reviews

Better Than The Feature Film And A Great Start For SG-1

With a pilot episode, you don't really know what to expect since it is the beginning of a series. But in the case of this film, the pilot episode for the long-running "Stargate SG-1", the results are spectacular. Indeed, Children Of The Gods is actually better than the original 1994 film.

The actors are better. Richard Dean Anderson makes a better Colonel O'Neill then Kurt Russel. Michael Shanks does very well taking the place of James Spader in the role of Daniel Jackson and in the end we do accept him as Daniel. Amanda Tapping gives a good performance as Captain Samantha Carter, especially in her first scene which is classic. Christopher Judge does well in the role of the Jaffa Teal'c despite the fact we don't see quite enough of him. Don S. Davis also does well in the role of General Hammond and sets up the character perfectly. Beyond the main cast, Peter Williams does well in the role of Apophis, Alexis Cruz makes a welcome return as Skaara, and both Jay Acovone and Brent Stait do good jobs of taking over characters from the original film. The rest of the supporting cast is good.

The show's production values are high. The sets look expensive and are better then the sets from the original film. The costumes are good, especially the ones for the Goa'ulds and Jaffa. The scenes with the military look realistic thanks to help from the Air Force and I couldn't help but believe that this was how they (the Air Force) would really do something like this.

On the downside, the special effects are lacking at times. The Death Glider sequence in particular seemed to be hurt by some bad special effects and combining of footage from the original film that made the sequence look kind of cheap. The score was also a bit of a let down. Mosty of it was taken directly from the score from Stargate and I was disappointed by the lack of original music in Children Of The Gods.

But overall, this is a great pilot episode. It lays not only the ground work for the show, but gets the show off to a running start. If this had been a feature film, we'd be seeing a Stargate movie franchise but we have a wonderful TV show and, in the case of this film, a wonderful sequel to the original movie.

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 July 1997 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Double Secret Productions, Gekko Film Corp., MGM Worldwide Television Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16 : 9