Stargate: Continuum
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Stargate: Continuum is a direct-to-DVD movie written by Brad Wright and directed by Martin Wood. The film is a time-travel adventure and is the second sequel to Stargate SG-1, after Stargate: The Ark of Truth. The film features the season 10 cast of Stargate SG-1 and Richard Dean Anderson. The movie was filmed in early 2007 at Vancouver's Bridge Studios and in the Arctic. The production budget was $7 million. The movie was released on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the US on July 29, 2008 and elsewhere in August 2008, followed by possible TV broadcasts.

Plot

SG-1 and Jack O'Neill attend a Tok'ra extraction ceremony for Ba'al, the last of the Goa'uld System Lords. He gloats that he is merely the last clone, and that the real Ba'al has a failsafe plan in the works. The real Ba'al travels back in time to 1939 Earth and massacres the crew of the Achilles, the ship carrying the Stargate to the United States; the captain (Mitchell's grandfather) manages to survive long enough to keep the ship from being destroyed. In the present, people and objects begin disappearing, starting with Vala and Teal'c. Jack is killed by Ba'al before Carter, Daniel, and Mitchell manage to reach the Stargate. They emerge inside the derelict Achilles, which has drifted to the Arctic — Ba'al's actions have created an alternate timeline in which the Stargate Program never happened. After escaping from the sinking Achilles, they are rescued by a team led by Colonel Jack O'Neill, though Daniel loses his left leg to frostbite. Although General Landry believes their story, permission is denied to change the timeline. The three are separated and given new lives to lead.

USS Alexandria (SSN-757) carries SG-1 from the Arctic.

A year passes, and SG-1 is called back into action when Goa'uld scoutships appear. Ba'al has defeated the System Lords and now stands ready to conquer Earth, with Qetesh (still residing in Vala's body) as his Queen and Teal'c as his First Prime. SG-1 is brought to President Hayes and General Hammond, who inform them that, based on their accounts, they have recovered the Antarctic Stargate and are excavating the Ancient outpost. SG-1 is sent on a mission to retrieve a ZPM to power the outpost. Above Earth, Ba'al's armada arrives. To the displeasure of his lieutenants (all former System Lords), Ba'al announces that he will treat the Tau'ri leniently. Suspicious about Ba'al's knowledge of Earth, Qetesh betrays him and forces him to tell her everything. She has her ships destroy McMurdo Station and the Ancient outpost, and she kills Ba'al after Teal'c discovers her treachery. As Teal'c escapes to a cloaked Al'kesh, Qetesh orders the fleet to begin the bombardment of Earth while she goes to secure Ba'al's time machine.

Amidst the massive Goa'uld attack, SG-1 is rerouted to Russia, as the Russians have retrieved the Achilles' Stargate from the ocean floor. Teal'c arrives at the facility as well, seeking to use the Stargate to reach the time machine before Qetesh does. The two sides form a tentative truce and arrive together at Ba'al's time machine: a vast underground supercomputer that monitors solar flares that can affect the wormhole formed by the Stargate. SG-1 must wait for the right flare with which to go to the past, but the steady stream of Qetesh's forces them to dial Earth in the year 1929 - ten years earlier than their target date. Teal'c, Sam, and Daniel are all mortally wounded in the firefight, and only Mitchell reaches the Stargate before the time machine is destroyed. After a decade of waiting, an older Mitchell stows away on the Achilles on its trans-Atlantic voyage and kills Ba'al and his troops when they appear. Back in the present of the now-restored timeline, SG-1, completely unaware of the previous events, watch the extraction proceed without incident. On Earth, Daniel wonders what Ba'al meant by his failsafe, but they decide not to dwell on it. The final shot shows a close-up of a picture in Mitchell's locker, in which his older alternate self is shown standing alongside his grandfather.

Cast

Browder and Tapping
on location in the Arctic

• Ben Browder as Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Captain of the Achilles
• Amanda Tapping as Colonel Samantha Carter
• Christopher Judge as Teal'c
• Michael Shanks as Dr. Daniel Jackson
• Beau Bridges as Major General Henry "Hank" Landry
• Claudia Black as Vala Mal Doran and Qetesh
• Richard Dean Anderson as General (& Colonel) Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill
• William Devane as President Henry Hayes
• Cliff Simon as Ba'al
• Don S. Davis as Lieutenant General George Hammond
• Steve Bacic as Camulus
• Gary Jones as Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman
• Jacqueline Samuda as Nirrti
• Peter Williams as Apophis
• Dan Shea as Master Sergeant Sly Siler
• Martin Wood as Wood
• Ron Halder as Cronus
• Vince Crestejo as Yu
• Jay Williams as Ra
• Colin Cunningham as Major Paul Davis

Production

Stargate: Continuum was written by Brad Wright and directed by Martin Wood. Some scenes for this movie were already shot at the end of March 2007, but the original start date was set for May 22, 2007 at Vancouver's Bridge Studios. The production budget was $7 million.^[3]

The movie includes scenes filmed at the U.S. Navy's Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station in the Arctic, 200 nautical miles (230 mi/370 km) north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. These scenes feature Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping and Ben Browder. They were filmed from March 23 to 29, 2007. The film also features the USS Alexandria (SSN-757).^[4] The Arctic filming included scenes shot on the ice,^[5] scenes shot with the Alexandria as a backdrop,^[6] scenes shot on board the Alexandria,^[7] and shots of the Alexandria surfacing and submerging. Because of the minimal facilities, the Arctic scenes were filmed with only the three actors and a four-man crew. Director Martin Wood worked as an extra in one scene (as "Major Wood"), as did another member of the film crew. The captain of the Alexandria, Cmdr. Mike Bernacchi, and members of her crew played themselves. Barry L. Campbell, head of operations at the San Diego-based U.S. Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory, who had arranged the opportunity to film in Arctic, also appeared as a seaman.^[8] Writer Brad Wright also had a cameo appearance, as an F-15 pilot.

The film is dedicated to the memory of Paul McCann and Anthony Huntrod, who lost their lives during an accident under the ice cap on the submarine HMS Tireless at the time of filming.

The film took 19 days to shoot, plus five days of shooting in the Arctic (they were there for seven days).^[9]

Due to the postponement of this film until the 5th season of Stargate Atlantis was airing, there is a continuity error with Carter and Mitchell's rank. In the ending credits they are listed as Lieutenant Colonels. However when they fly the F-15s they are each wearing the rank of a full-bird colonel. This is due to the fact that during filming producers realized that the film would probably be released after Carter character had been promoted on Atlantis. In the season 5 premiere of that show, Sam, already a full-bird colonel, leaves Atlantis to attend the extraction, thus setting this movie about a year after The Ark of Truth.

Release

The movie premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 25, 2008, aboard the Midway (CV-41), attended by the cast.

The movie was released on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 29, 2008,^{[10][11][12][13]} followed by possible TV broadcasts.^[14] According to Robert C. Cooper, they will be released internationally on DVD by MGM at about the same time. Distribution and domestic release will occur through FOX. Cooper mentioned that nothing has been finalized though.^[15] The movie was also released on August 6, 2008 in Australia^[1] and was released in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2008 after being broadcast on the British T.V channel, Sky One on August 12.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Stargate: Continuum

• Stargate SG-1 Official Site
• Stargate: Continuum Featurette (Quicktime video)
• Stargate: Continuum at the Internet Movie Database
• Stargate - Continuum at The Numbers