Your Favorite Stargate Design

[Themightytom]

Could it be that the Milky Way gate system was purposefully retrofitted with a less advanced more user friendly kind of gate before the Ancients ascended to benefit the younger races. They obviously couldn't do this in the Pegasus Galaxy with the Wraith in control.

That's kind of a big job, there are supposedly hundreds of thousands of gates... However they WERE data based, which is something you would do to organize that big a project. if they were just building gates as needed, they wouldn't necessarily have a log of where they all were. i always assumed the database O'neill entered when he had the ancient database downloaded into his head was sort of a network ping result, but in Avalon there were addresses that weren't in the database, that should have responded to a ping. maybe the database was actually a list of upgraded user friendly gate,s and there are still other gates that are old style or less functional because they were lost for whatever reason.

[Terralthra]

One thing that always bugged me a bit about the DHDs was that they consistently show them pressing 7 symbols, then the Big Red Button. This doesn't make any sense. If, as Jackson theorized (and canon supports), this address is the point of origin, then how could they possibly know each planet's point of origin symbol? On more than one occasion, there's no possible way they could know, as they've been kidnapped/transported to another planet, etc. The gate symbols don't have any obvious marking for origin point. The most logical conclusion is that the Big Red Button is programmed with the point of origin symbol...but if that's the case, they would only need to dial the first six symbols, the destination address. If the Big Red Button is the DHD's version of "Yes, I'm sure," then where's the "no, cancel" button?

Again, the whole conceit of the symbols forming a bracketed coordinate system with a point of origin as the seventh breaks down horribly when it comes to designing the gate's backend. Why do you need six symbols to pick out a destination point in space, but you can use only one as your origin point? If they're coordinates, shouldn't it have to be 6 destination, 6 origin? And if it is destination/origin, why would the destination be first and origin last? "From X; To Y" is a more functional order.

It makes way more sense for the symbols to just be a number system and when you dial an address, you're dialing that gate. No wasted space in the address hash, nothing...but the show has many many instances which contradict that.

[Johonebesus]

One thing that always bugged me a bit about the DHDs was that they consistently show them pressing 7 symbols, then the Big Red Button. This doesn't make any sense. If, as Jackson theorized (and canon supports), this address is the point of origin, then how could they possibly know each planet's point of origin symbol? On more than one occasion, there's no possible way they could know, as they've been kidnapped/transported to another planet, etc. The gate symbols don't have any obvious marking for origin point. The most logical conclusion is that the Big Red Button is programmed with the point of origin symbol...but if that's the case, they would only need to dial the first six symbols, the destination address. If the Big Red Button is the DHD's version of "Yes, I'm sure," then where's the "no, cancel" button?

For simplicity's sake it was decided that all stargates should have the same set of glyphs except for a unique point of origin. It would only take a moment for the traveler to pick out the one glyph that isn't universal. If we assume that all DHD's have the same arrangement, then the point of origin would always be in the same location, regardless of what it looked like, and one wouldn't even have to figure out which glyph to look for.

Now of course this is inconsistent with what was shown on screen. They just used the same prop, so if you look carefully you'll notice the Earth symbol on almost all planets. I think they only created a few unique symbols, so sometimes an address is shown with a standard constellation glyph as a PO. I expect the actors weren't careful to always hit the same button at the end of every address. It's up to you to decide whether to accept the visuals or the dialogue as the final authority. I think it's easier to ignore a few minor visual inconsistencies, just as we ignore a boom microphone or a camera's reflection appearing in shot, or a stone wall shaking when touched, or an extraterrestrial character wearing a wristwatch.

[Werrf]

What I like about the Milky Way gates is less the manual backup dialling ability, and more the Victorian Engineering design ethic - the workings are visible and on display, you can watch it doing its job, like the Victorian steam locomotives. It just looks more functional but similarly streamlined.

[Themightytom]

or an extraterrestrial character wearing a wristwatch.

Ach Thor left his wristwatch on again??

[JME2]

or an extraterrestrial character wearing a wristwatch.

Ach Thor left his wristwatch on again??

[thegreatpl]

The idea that there might be obsolete stargates out there is interesting. Perhaps planets which were deemed not important were left with an old stargate, and when the software got too different for it to run on that, the gate was dropped.

I remember watching an episode (havent gotten round to watching the entire stargate franchise yet, watched most of it though) where one of the earth scientists broke the stargate network by using the upgrade feature, so the ancients must have done some upgrades, or planned to.

I have to wander if the Atlantis gate will connect to the Milky Way network without using the 8th chevon, or perhaps to some of these older gates instead. They are obviously different designs, which would, to my mind, need different coding to run. That would solve the problem of whether or not it becomes the default earth stargate. Of course, it raises the question of whether or not it instead means whenever you try to dial earth it drops the connection, or goes the the dominant gate.

[Eternal_Freedom]

As I recall, they made a point of finding the point of origin in season 1. Case in point, Solitudes where Carter finds the DHD and says "I've never seen this one before, so it must be point of origin"
(Although, if it was on Earth, why not have the same Earth symbol?)

One of the other weird things is the DHD's on Atlantis and the Puddle Jumpers, and the Darts. They must have a "universal" point of origin key, one that works in both galaxies, as shown by Shepperd using a Jumper DHD when testing the Gate Bridge

I think the unique point of origin key is more to identify where the DHD SHOULD have been, rather than were it is now. A way of matching gates to DHD's, but the symbol will work for wherever you are.

Of course, that falls down when in "Within the Serpent's Grasp" Daniel uses Earth as the point of origin for a gate from halfway across the galaxy, and it works. Grrr

Stupid inconsistent effects and plot devices

[NecronLord]

As I recall, they made a point of finding the point of origin in season 1. Case in point, Solitudes where Carter finds the DHD and says "I've never seen this one before, so it must be point of origin"
(Although, if it was on Earth, why not have the same Earth symbol?)

Because the Antarctic gate was used by the Ancients, wheras the Egypt one was brought to Earth by Ra.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Fair enough. Why then was the Ra gate point of origin symbol on the Atlantis DHD?

[Terralthra]

The SG-A gate bridge between the Milky Way and Pegasus is another huge "How the shit would that work if the system works as described?" issue. The only out there is that they had to have learned enough about gate workings to hack the shit out of them and make them function in utterly impossible ways.

[Johonebesus]

Fair enough. Why then was the Ra gate point of origin symbol on the Atlantis DHD?

Because that's the symbol that everyone knows. It's even in the title logo. The writers have been just a bit too lazy to make sure that any Alteran reference to Earth used the Ancient Antarctic gate point of origin. I believe it was commented upon in the thread about the Universe pilot episode.

[lordofchange13]

destiny's stargate look the most sci-fi like and they look like they are realy from a nother race. and they look like a whole new machine compared to milky way and pegasas