Stargate SG1: Ark of Truth
On March 13th of 2007, one of the most beloved sci-fi series created came to a saddening end, with the 28th top cult show ever made being cancelled and not renewed for an 11th season. However, that was not the end of the cult series and on April 9, a continuation of it came in the form of a DVD movie that neatly wraps up the Ori Arc that began in Season 9 and continued on through to Season 10, where the series ended, though the finale episode dealt less with Ori and focussed more on the individual characters. This DVD movie is Stargate SG1: Ark of Truth which follows the SG1 team as they travel to the Ori Galaxy to find a long lost weapon that the Ancients had developed as a final resort to combat the Ori threat but did not use because they felt that the Ori followers should be allowed to believe in whatever they choose to, even if it’s a lie. To get a proper understanding of the movie, one truly must have seen Seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate SG1, if not the rest of the series to understand it, as Ark of Truth is essentially a two hour long season finale and while it does explain some aspects of the series, it doesn’t go to the degree it needs to without needing your friend to ask you what the hell is going on. So to begin, I shall attempt to explain the plot of the Stargate Series and its myths as best and promptly as I can.
Stargate SG1 follows SG1, a secret team consisting of members from the US Air Force who travel to other planets via the Stargate, a round circular portal that establishes a wormhole to other stargates dotted around the galaxy, in a bid to find new and advanced technology to enhance our own. The first 8 seasons of the series dealt with the Goa’uld, a parasitic alien race that takes over human hosts and ruled a vast empire that stretched across the galaxy and enslaved humans known as Jaffa who acted as hosts to the Goa’uld larvae. During that time, SG1 also encountered the Replicators, a race of non-sentient beings who replicate themselves (hence the name) to produce more of themselves and infest technology such as spaceships and control them. These small self reproducing robots were so powerful that they were able to bring the Asgard, one of the most advanced alien races to their knees. The first eight seasons also explored the concept of ascension and how the Ancients escaped extinction by ascending to a higher plane of existence. At the end of season 8, the Goa’uld Empire had been overthrown, the Jaffa liberated and the Replicators destroyed, peace in the galaxy seemed to be just on the horizon. However, before peace could settle, a new threat emerged in the from of the Ori, ascended beings in another galaxy that draw their power from the masses of followers who believe in them in the hopes that it will give them ascension, which all turns out to be a false promise. At the end of season 9, a fully operating supergate that is was constructed by the Ori that allowed for an incursion of the Ori fleet. During Season 9, in a bid to destroy the construction of an earlier supergate, Vala Mal Doran was accidentally sent through the blackhole that was used to power the supergate and ended up in the Ori galaxy, where she met Tomin, a crippled devout Ori follower who finds Vala in the middle of a field and takes her to his home village where they get married. However, Vala turns out to have been impregnated by the Ori, the child is born upon Vala’s return to the Milky Way galaxy following the Ori incursion through the supergate. The child is named Adria and possesses the knowledge and powers of the Ori and leads the Ori fleet in the Milky Way in a race against SG1 in search of the sangraal, an Ancient weapon devised that was capable of destroying Ascended beings such as the Ori or the Ancients (who were the enemies of the Ori). In Season 10, the sangraal is found and completed and used against the Ori, destroying them all completely, only just to have Adria ascend and assume all of the power of the Ori, leaving her as probably the most powerful being in the galaxy.
The film opens millions of years in the past and in another galaxy, where a group of Alterans (Ancients) discuss whether or not to use the Ark of Truth, which would have converted the Ori followers into seeing it for what Origin really is: a religion that does not provide its followers with the promised ascension they devote themselves for. After heated debate, it is decided that they will not use the arc.
Skip to the current day, events after end of the series (as evidenced by the silver streak along Teal’c’s hair) and SG1 is at the ruins of Dakara, which was once the capital of the Free Jaffa Nation after they were liberated from the Goa’uld but was soon leveled by Adria and her mothership. There, Daniel, Vala and Teal’c discover what appears to be an ark but are unable to open it due to it being sealed shut. Before long, Cameron and Samantha are attacked outside by Ori forces, leaving them with no option but to retreat inside to where Daniel, Vala and Teal’c were. They soon surrender after the commander of the Ori force, who happens to be Tomin, promises to spare their lives if they did so. SG1 proceeds to goad the accompanying Prior (an Ori priest that wields Ori powers to a certain degree) to open the ark. After they do so, the ark turns out to be nothing more than a chest containing old scrolls. Following this, the Prior orders SG1 to be killed, to which Tomin disagrees and enter into a scuffle, to which Cameron uses as a distraction to take an Ori’s staff weapon and kill the prior, whose powers had been disabled by an anti-Prior device. Seeing that the Priors and Ori for what they really are, Tomin abandons his post and joins Stargate Command on Earth, where he reveals that the ark they seek may still be residing in the Ori galaxy. And so SG1 sets off in their ship the Odyssey through the supergate the Ori constructed. On board along with SG1 is Tomin and James Marrick, a representative of the IOA (the International Oversight Advisory), the civilian body that provides funding and oversight of Stargate Command and the Stargate program and former CIA black-ops operative. Once in the Ori galaxy, they find out from an Ori-Resistance member that the ark is on Celestis, the homeworld of the Ori.
When they do arrive on Celestis, SG1 not only has difficulty locating the Ark of Truth but their mission is also hampered when Marrick accesses the Asgard Core aboard the Odyssey to create a replicator, as a means to destroy the Ori fleet believed to be preparing to enter the Milky Way. The replicator however escapes and wreaks havoc in the ship.
As you would expect, Ark of Truth follows in the tradition of the Stargate SG1 series and uses the regular cast and maintains the mythos that made the series so popular and provides a perfect conclusion to the Ori Arc of the series. As you would also expect of a DVD movie, it also has a much lager budget than that of a regular episode and given the film is two hours long, would require a larger budget. And with the bigger budget, Ark of Truth does look prettier and sounds better than the original series, though it seems that much of the seven million was used on aerial landscape shots that dominate the movie. Nonetheless the money seems to have been put to good use, as everything appears and sounds more refined and detailed. The Ori ships, the Odyssey, the settings, the ripples in the active wormhole of the supergate all carry more depth and realism than they did in the series. Even the sounds have been improved, with Ori staffweapons and the guns sounding more powerful. One can actually feel the roar of the Odyssey engines roar and the impact of the beam from the Ori motherships.
Apart from the amazing story and the star battles, many Stagate fans watch the show for the stunning firefights they manage to choreograph and Ark of Truth is no exception. It still has the gun battles we have grown to love and improved upon it, with the use of a swooping camera that feels as though the battle has been brought to us. A complaint though is that there just wasn’t the amount of gun battles as I had expected. Not that it ruins the film mind you, but would have been nice to have more of a good thing.
Janson Says: Though Stargate SG1 may have ended; the spirit lives on in a series of DVD movies, the first of which is this. Ark of Truth continues on the series but at the same time puts a fine and fitting end to the Ori Arc of the series. Using the same strong formula that we have loved the series for, Ark of Truth keeps the ideals of the series alive but at the same time adding its own touch that makes it something new. It is a lovely piece that every Stargate fan needs to watch and would be a new experience to those who don’t know the difference between a Goa’uld and a Tok’ra which Im sure they will thoroughly enjoy. And now, all we do is wait for Stargate: Continuum to come.