Your Favorite Stargate Design

[Eternal_Freedom]

Naturally. After all, Toasters as advanced travel machines are quite common I find. Case in point, Homer Simpson successfully builds a time machine from one, but sadly manages to create an alternate timeline where Flanders rules the Earth by lobotomising the population. Fun

[Werrf]

Naturally. After all, Toasters as advanced travel machines are quite common I find. Case in point, Homer Simpson successfully builds a time machine from one, but sadly manages to create an alternate timeline where Flanders rules the Earth by lobotomising the population. Fun

Indeed, that's the problem with toasters - they're very powerful, but somewhat unpredictable and difficult to control. One time they burn the toast, next time, with the exact same settings, they throw you back through a rip in space time and the entire universe crumbles around you. For power and control, you really need a phone box.

[Solauren]

I choose the Stargate Atlantis gates.

Why?

Simple; That looks more like a space co-ordinate system then 'use the Constellations'. It just makes more sense to me.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Umm, As I recall, the symbols on the Atlantis gates are also constellations, some real-life far away ones and some new made up ones, presumably constellations as seen from Atlantis

[JME2]

Umm, As I recall, the symbols on the Atlantis gates are also constellations, some real-life far away ones and some new made up ones, presumably constellations as seen from Atlantis

Yes, they're Pegasus Galaxy constellations. But again, the streamlined, digital design makes more sense for an intergalactic gate network.

[Terralthra]

The whole "chevrons as symbols for constellations as coordinates pinpointing an actual deep-space location" didn't make any sense as the shows progressed. For example, on more than one occasion, they knew the symbols used in the address, but not "what order they go in." This doesn't make any sense if the symbols are constellations; if you have six points in space, there is only one point they can pick out as being at their center. Figuring out the order - (+x,-x, +y, -y, +z, -z) for example - can be done from a single known address and then applied to any combination of symbols to arrange them in order using basic astrography.

[sirocco]

I thought the problem was that even if you make up an adress with 6 coordinates nothing assures you that

1 there is a planet there
2 there is a gate on that particular planet

Though after they got the Goa'uld and Ancient Yellow Pages, SG Earth basically knew the exact number of habitable planets in our galaxy.

[Terralthra]

I thought the problem was that even if you make up an adress with 6 coordinates nothing assures you that

1 there is a planet there
2 there is a gate on that particular planet

Though after they got the Goa'uld and Ancient Yellow Pages, SG Earth basically knew the exact number of habitable planets in our galaxy.

On more than one occasion, they had someone use a gate, and wrote down the symbols, but "didn't know what order the symbols went in." A big deal was made over how many combinations there were. This doesn't make any sense with chevron = constellation = coordinate.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah, I think the series made a mistake with blindly following Daniel Jackson's intepretation in the Stargate film.

Which, incidentally, he came up with BEFORE he even new the Stargate existed.

I always interpreted the symbols as as Ancient alphabet or set of numerals, as shown in "Lost City," and that theses symbols where like, shorthand for coordinates or whatever

[sirocco]

Yeah, I think the series made a mistake with blindly following Daniel Jackson's intepretation in the Stargate film.

Which, incidentally, he came up with BEFORE he even new the Stargate existed.

I always interpreted the symbols as as Ancient alphabet or set of numerals, as shown in "Lost City," and that theses symbols where like, shorthand for coordinates or whatever

What's worse is that in the film they use constellation only seen from Earth to dial a planet at the other end of the Universe!

But well after some time I just forgot the mechanics of gate system and just started enjoying the stories (the Fiction part in science-fiction).

[NecronLord]

For the record, as of episode two of SG1, they were using astronomical data to cross reference the 'constellations' with known star positions. And as for saying that it should be easy to work out which one is which. It is of course going to be much easier to simply search a database for hits.

Why more than one combination works, hell knows. The constallation thing is a bit silly anyway.

[Themightytom]

For the record, as of episode two of SG1, they were using astronomical data to cross reference the 'constellations' with known star positions. And as for saying that it should be easy to work out which one is which. It is of course going to be much easier to simply search a database for hits.

Why more than one combination works, hell knows. The constallation thing is a bit silly anyway.

Especially since the arctic gate has more symbols, and after Ba'al played the shell game with a couple dozen planetary stargates

[Terralthra]

Well, they did establish that the Stargate system connects to whatever gate is on the appropriate planet, including a gate in orbit. If there's more than one gate, it defaults to the one with an active DHD. What it does if there are two gates with active DHDs has never been established.

So, there's nothing wrong on its face with taking a gate from planet A and putting it on planet B. Dial planet B, you'll get the stolen gate.

Which makes you wonder why SGC never took Odyssey or Daedalus, picked a gate from a hellworld (for example, the world they first encountered the Tollans on) and used it to replace the Beta gate lost when Anubis hacked it, instead of putting up with extortion from the Russians from whom they were leasing the Alpha gate. The Russians didn't actively want a stargate program, they only periodically threatened to pull the gate whenever they wanted concessions from SGC. Once the Russian DHD was destroyed (retrieving Teal'c in 48 Hours), the Russians had nothing to hold over their head.

[Chris OFarrell]

Because the Prometheus wasn't launched until the very end of Season 6, apart from the unexpected NID launch in the middle of Season 6. Anubis hacked the Gate at the start of Season-6.
And the DHD event in 48 hours was a season earlier then that.


Of course, none of this answers why in the HELL they gave up the next 304 in the pipeline to Russia in exchange for a new 'lease' on a Stargate in season 9! I mean its not like the writers had this whole Russian arc planned out where the Russians would be stretching forth into the Galaxy with their own (mostly alligned but not always) agenda to the SGC's own projects or something, they just blew it up another episode down the line. The logical answer to Russia and China playing power games is clearly "Oh...okay then, have your Gate back, we're going to pick up a Gate and a DHD to make sure ours supercedes yours, bye!" after all, so it doesn't even make much sense diplomatically.

I mean, if Russia had 'sold' the Gate that time, in exchange for a few key components for the Korolev (this time a Russian ship about the size of the Prometheus, but very 'Russian') like Asgard shields, hyperdrive, sensors, transporters and some technicial help to integrate it, it would have been a perfect episode. Russia gets the US to give them the goodies, they then screw China having played them for chumps AND still stay on more or less reasonable political terms...

[Terralthra]

Because the Prometheus wasn't launched until the very end of Season 6, apart from the unexpected NID launch in the middle of Season 6. Anubis hacked the Gate at the start of Season-6.
And the DHD event in 48 hours was a season earlier then that.


Of course, none of this answers why in the HELL they gave up the next 304 in the pipeline to Russia in exchange for a new 'lease' on a Stargate in season 9! I mean its not like the writers had this whole Russian arc planned out where the Russians would be stretching forth into the Galaxy with their own (mostly alligned but not always) agenda to the SGC's own projects or something, they just blew it up another episode down the line. The logical answer to Russia and China playing power games is clearly "Oh...okay then, have your Gate back, we're going to pick up a Gate and a DHD to make sure ours supercedes yours, bye!" after all, so it doesn't even make much sense diplomatically.

Uh, yes. That is pretty much exactly what I was saying. They gave in to Russian extortion and gave them the Koralev for no reason at all.

[Chris OFarrell]

What you said was;

"Which makes you wonder why SGC never took Odyssey or Daedalus, picked a gate from a hellworld (for example, the world they first encountered the Tollans on) and used it to replace the Beta gate lost when Anubis hacked it, instead of putting up with extortion from the Russians from whom they were leasing the Alpha gate."

Anubius 'hacked' the Stargate to make it go 'Boom' back before they had any starships. Hell the plot point of the second episode as the gate countdown ticks down is that they take the X-302 prototype, strap it to the Stargate and try to push it to better then 11K/s to get it the hell away from Earth.

[NecronLord]

Of course, none of this answers why in the HELL they gave up the next 304 in the pipeline to Russia in exchange for a new 'lease' on a Stargate in season 9! I mean its not like the writers had this whole Russian arc planned out where the Russians would be stretching forth into the Galaxy with their own (mostly alligned but not always) agenda to the SGC's own projects or something, they just blew it up another episode down the line. The logical answer to Russia and China playing power games is clearly "Oh...okay then, have your Gate back, we're going to pick up a Gate and a DHD to make sure ours supercedes yours, bye!" after all, so it doesn't even make much sense diplomatically.

I would assume they are limited in such acts by the IOA treaty. Something like "Any unilateral act of such nature will forefit United States presence in the Ancient Weapons Platform in Antarctica." Having the dominant stargate wouldn't really balance the Chair Weapon being in the hands of Boris the Patriotic Russian and Tsai the Patriotic Chinese Scientist.

Of course, such a thing should really have been in the episode if that's the idea.

I have no idea how to grok that with the hilarious bit of the control chair being moved to Area 51, which was presumably done because they didn't feel like rebuilding the outpost set, and because the outpost had shields which would render the whole dart attack futile.

[Terralthra]

What you said was;

"Which makes you wonder why SGC never took Odyssey or Daedalus, picked a gate from a hellworld (for example, the world they first encountered the Tollans on) and used it to replace the Beta gate lost when Anubis hacked it, instead of putting up with extortion from the Russians from whom they were leasing the Alpha gate."

Anubius 'hacked' the Stargate to make it go 'Boom' back before they had any starships. Hell the plot point of the second episode as the gate countdown ticks down is that they take the X-302 prototype, strap it to the Stargate and try to push it to better then 11K/s to get it the hell away from Earth.

Yes, and then the Russians extorted the Korolev out of them in season 9, when they had already had at least two ships with Asgard beaming tech. Which part of that isn't clear in my paragraph? They lost the Beta gate in season 6, the Russians lease them the Alpha gate back, and then in Season 9, the Russians make trouble. Before the Russians try to extort anything, there would be little reason for the SGC to bypass their extortion, yes?

[Starglider]

I like the Pegasus gates. Anything that's supposed to last for tens of thousands, if not millions of years should have as few moving parts as possible. Also it is my firm belief that while steampunk is cute, true sophistication is indicated by the number of flashing lights the device has.

[thegreatpl]

I like the look of the Destiny gate. Just seems to be more rounded.

I would prefer the Milky way gates though. That seems to just have more redundancy than the other gates. If the remotes sensors or DHD break down or get fried in the Pegasus gate, then you have a useless circle. Lose your Milky way DHD? Hook it up to a power source and spin it with a bunch of clamps.

[JME2]

I like the look of the Destiny gate. Just seems to be more rounded.

I would prefer the Milky way gates though. That seems to just have more redundancy than the other gates. If the remotes sensors or DHD break down or get fried in the Pegasus gate, then you have a useless circle. Lose your Milky way DHD? Hook it up to a power source and spin it with a bunch of clamps.

Yeah, that's the one thing I never liked about the Pegasus Gates. It seemed weird that the Ancients hadn't created a backup in case of an accident like that.

[Terralthra]

I like the look of the Destiny gate. Just seems to be more rounded.

I would prefer the Milky way gates though. That seems to just have more redundancy than the other gates. If the remotes sensors or DHD break down or get fried in the Pegasus gate, then you have a useless circle. Lose your Milky way DHD? Hook it up to a power source and spin it with a bunch of clamps.

Yeah, that's the one thing I never liked about the Pegasus Gates. It seemed weird that the Ancients hadn't created a backup in case of an accident like that.

They might have. We never see them with a Pegasus gate that has no DHD and no remote-sensor where they have any chance to experiment.

[thegreatpl]

sure, they may have some sort of backup system, but the only way i can see that is if someone links a computer up to them. Unless there are some hidden buttons on it somewhere.

[Starglider]

Perhaps they decided that permitting people to operate a gate without using a DHD was too dangerous. SG1 nearly wiped out an inhabited planet by making their gate traverse its sun ('Red Sky'), and it was stated that this happened because their dialing computer doesn't have the safety protocols that the DHDs have. The spinning ring is still ridiculously over-elaborate and cumbersome as a backup dialing mechanism, a keypad would be much more sensible.

[Temujin]

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.