The Stargate universe is expansive, filled with ancient aliens, lost cities, and ornery military personnel. The Stargate franchise is almost 30 years old as of 2023, and while all the series, spinoffs, and movies can be watched in the order they were released, for the true chronology of the story, things need to be shuffled around somewhat.
For those who are new to the show, or even just those who have only seen the original movie or Stargate SG-1, the chronology might be hard to get a handle on. There’s a lot of time jumping and simultaneous events and stories to organize, so let’s take a look at the Stargate timeline and how it all lines up.
The Original Film
The Stargate universe began in 1994 with a feature film starring Kurt Russell as Colonel Jack O’Neill, and James Spader as Dr. Daniel Jackson. The premise of the film surrounds stones discovered in Egypt in 1928, which pointed to a way to travel among the stars through something called a Stargate. In the present day, Egyptologist and linguist Dr. Daniel Jackson is called in to translate the stones, and discovers that the military has the Stargate and has for some time.
Inevitably, they activate the device and travel through the wormhole it creates to find a planet similar to Earth, whose inhabitants worship the same Gods that the Ancient Egyptians did on Earth. Only on this planet, the Gods are very real, and they don’t like intruders. The Gods are aliens and had been the Ancient Egyptian Gods on Earth who were cut off when the Stargate was buried. Colonel O’Neill and his team help to overthrow the alien overlords and liberate the people. In the end, Dr. Jackson chooses to remain on the planet while the rest return home.
The TV Shows
The TV series Stargate SG-1 carries on from the events from the film, with many of the same characters reappearing replaced with new actors. Kurt Russell was replaced by Richard Dean Anderson, while Michael Shanks replaced James Spader. The series drilled into the mythology more, changing the alien threat to a parasitic race known as the Goa’uld. At the end of season 7 of SG-1, the team uncovered the lost city of Atlantis on a far-off planet, resulting in a permanent team being stationed there and beginning the spinoff series Stargate Atlantis.
This meant that seasons 8-10 of SG-1 were airing concurrently with the first 3 seasons of Atlantis. While the SG-1 team battled with the Replicators in season 8, the Atlantis team had to deal with their new surroundings and their enemy the Wraith. Opinions differ within the fanbase on how to watch the concurrent seasons of the show. Some recommend alternating episodes between SG-1 and Atlantis, while others prefer to watch the entire season of SG-1 before moving on to the concurrent Atlantis season.
Season 9 of SG-1 changed up the show, with Ben Browder joining the cast as Richard Dean Anderson decided to step back to a smaller role. Claudia Black also became a main cast member, meaning that there were two members of the Farscape cast at Stargate Command. The team also came up against a new villainous alien race called the Ori. Meanwhile, in season 2 of Atlantis, the team experimented with ways to turn the Wraith human, but their efforts aren’t effective and the Wraith target Earth as their new feeding ground.
Season 10 of SG-1 is the final one, with most plots getting wrapped up and an epic showdown with the Ori and tie-ins to Arthurian legends. Meanwhile, in season 3 of Atlantis, the team continues trying to stop the Wraith while also coming up against their version of the Replicators from SG-1, the Asurans. To prevent them from destroying the city of Atlantis, the team takes off into the further reaches of space but becomes stranded and drifts in space when engines fail.
Additional Movies & Spinoffs
Before heading into season 4 of Atlantis, the straight-to-DVD film The Ark of Truth is up. The story sees the Ori arc wrapped up while also bringing back the Replicators. The ending of the film sees the Stargate firing up again with the team going through on another mission. This left season 4 of Atlantis dealing with the team trying to repair their transportation while fighting the Wraith and the Asurans. Plus, Amanda Tapping joins the show reprising her SG-1 role as Samantha Carter.
Following season 4 of Atlantis is another direct-to-DVD movie, Stargate: Continuum, which continues and wraps up the story of Goa’uld Ba’al one of the major enemies from the final SG-1 seasons. The film sees a time-traveling Ba’al going back to 1939 prevent the Stargate program from ever existing. This causes an alternate timeline where Ba’al rules the universe, but luckily members of SG-1 remember the true timeline and put things right. Season 5 of Atlantis wraps up the Wraith storyline, while also allowing the humans to set up a government in the Pegasus Galaxy while the city of Atlantis finds its way to Earth and ends up crashing off the coast of San Francisco.
Next comes the short-lived series Stargate Universe starring Robert Carlye, where a team from Earth discovers an Ancient ship deep in the center of the Universe and travels there to find out what they were doing. The team finds themselves stranded and trying to get home while also discovering that the Ancients were looking into the possibility that life existed before the Big Bang. Finally comes a prequel called Stargate Origins, which is set in 1939. As a prequel, the instinct is to watch this first; however, it makes more sense to watch it after the fact with the information gleaned from the prior series and spinoffs.
That sums up the Stargate timeline, which is often made out to be more confusing than it is due to the concurrent series that ran together. Whether there will be more to add to the Stargate chronology remains to be seen, but with the time and space-spanning nature of the show, anything is possible.