Three Stargate movies are totally free to stream right now, including the two SG-1 films that wrapped up the original television series
This article is more than 2 years old
Stargate: SG-1 fans can start the weekend getting pretty excited about this latest development. Fans of the show, or those who want to catch up on what the popular program had to offer now have the chance to do it at no cost or subscription. That’s right, three Stargate movies are completely free on streaming. That’s the entirety of the Stargate movie franchise. The future is a pretty cool place.
The three movies streaming free on YouTube right now are the original Stargate movie along with the direct-to-DVD follow-up films Stargate: The Ark of Truth and the relative finale Stargate: Continuum. Sure, you’ll miss the series that happened in between these movies, but no worries there. These three films comprise much of what happened in terms of narrative arcs and even have the advantage of wrapping up a major antagonist storyline as well.
Stargate SG-1 was a companion/follow-up series to the movie Stargate which released in 1994. The show hit the small screen in 1997 and continued the story of the inter-dimensional portal, an Einstein-Rosen bridge, connecting wormholes and essentially allowing users to beam to different galaxies. Things pick up about a year after the events of the original movie though with a different cast than the film.
The show Stargate: SG-1 lasted a whopping ten seasons broadcasting on Showtime for the first five seasons and Sci Fi on the latter five. It was a science fiction lover’s dream show in a lot of ways, bringing on a number of different alien races, exploring the idea of space travel without often getting bogged down in the vagaries of the ship life, and offering a number of different heavenly themes to the show as well. When it went off the air, fans were treated to the two films that went straight to DVD. The first, which you can stream free, is Stargate: The Ark of Truth which nearly a year to the day after the original show was discontinued.
Ark of Truth was directed by Peter Cooper who was a longtime Stargate: SG-1 writer and helmed two episodes as well. There is some carryover of the show’s original cast into the movie include Ben Browder as Lt. Cameron Mitchell and Amanda Tapping as Lt. Sam Carter. Other cast members include Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge. Notably absent in this film is Richard Dean Anderson’s Jack O’Neill character who was the show’s lead for the first eight seasons. Ark of Truth deals with and tries to tie up the popular Ori narrative arc from the show. The movie was a moderate financial success through its video rentals, a testament to the fanbase of the original series.
Meanwhile, Stargate: Continuum represents the true series and franchise finale. Coming out just three months after The Ark of Truth in the summer of 2008, this movie dealt with the Ba’al story arc, a character who’d been one of the primary antagonists throughout the Stargate: SG-1 series. In this one, Dean Anderson’s Jack O’Neill returns to help wrap things up for the franchise though the rest of the main cast is similar to Ark of Truth. Martin Wood helmed the film after serving as a long-time producer and director on the series. This film truly culminates the show, dealing with the popular villain and tying a bow on the loose part of the story that the series could never quite finish. It was a proper ending for this iteration of the franchise. All in all, it had a solid response from the diehard fans and critics though its DVD numbers underperformed the previous movie.
Though it’s been more than a decade since Stargate: SG-1 went off the air, this is still a great time to catch up with the franchise. There’s been an onslaught of newer science fiction content that’s been hitting the small screen through streaming apps. But it’s always a good chance to catch up on some of the franchises that laid the groundwork for the newer stories told on the small and big screen. Stargate is just one of the franchises.
Plus, there’s even talking of rebooting the Stargate franchise on either Netflix or Disney+ sooner than later meaning we might be brought right back into this universe. Before it happens though, go back and see where it all started. Watch the original movie first, and then catch up with the final two flicks that wrapped up the television series.
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