Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Kateřina Čajánková Extraterrestrial Races in Stargate SG|-1: Criticism of American Society Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Kateřina Čajánková I would like to thank doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. for supervising my work, my mother for being mine sounding board, even though she had not even seen one episode, and my brothers for being so supportive and cheerful, and my father for not saying that he thinks that this is a foolish topic. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 General information ................................................................................................................... 7 Goa’ulds ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Tok’ra ....................................................................................................................................... 11 Jaffa .......................................................................................................................................... 14 Alterans .................................................................................................................................... 19 Ancients .................................................................................................................................... 22 Ori ............................................................................................................................................. 25 Asgards ..................................................................................................................................... 29 Replicators ................................................................................................................................ 35 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 42 List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... 44 Works Cited .............................................................................................................................. 45 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 48 Resumé ..................................................................................................................................... 49 Introduction Since the emergence of the science fiction, this genre comments on the culture, politics and the society. Even though, Stargate SG-1 is not a controversial TV series that would target the specific political events or notable particular cultural affairs; the analysis shows that it reflects the themes that are not specifically related to only America but also world culture. This bachelor thesis addresses several of the themes that appear in the depiction of the extraterrestrial races. The race is introduced and linked to the other races, and then one or several issues are addressed that are in particular associated with this race, and in the end it is explained, how are these issues connected to the context of the entire TV series. Thesis analyses the depiction of the alien races in Stargate SG-1 and how the way they were written, reflects the politics, culture and society of the United States of America. The fact that this work studies the extraterrestrial races, enables to study features of human civilization from the side of the "other". Therefore, it is an interesting concept that expresses the traits of "us" in the depiction of "other". This point of view, allows the writers to be more objective in their depiction, because they can reflect on the themes from the open-minded and biased perspective that makes their allegories more understandable in the contemporary setting. The work does not study all the extraterrestrial races that were introduced in the Stargate SG-1; because in the first place, it focuses on the non-human alien races and secondly, this thesis writes about the races that more frequently appeared in the TV show, and therefore, they have the greater influence on the story and their background is more developed. 5 At the beginning, thesis informs about the general information about the Stargate franchise. Explains the concept of the stargates and the importance of their function for the narrative of the Stargate franchise. The first three chapters deal with the theme of the slavery. Goa’ulds represent the slavers, Tok’ra the abolitionists. In connection to previous two chapters, the depiction of the Jaffa describes the narrative of the African American slaves through slavery and fight for freedom to the independence. Next three chapters deal with the ascended beings living at another plane of existence that still influence the physical world. Chapter about Alterans explains the relationship between the science and religion in the context of the Stargate SG-1, and how is this related to the Ancients and Ori dispute. Chapter about Ancients discusses the merits of their non-interference policy and its reflection in the American politics. In contrast to the former, Ori’s intervention with the peace in the Milky Way galaxy has the marks of the radical Islam. Last two chapters warn against the dangers of the future. Asgards’ life story serves as the warning of the possible catastrophic extinction of humanity, should it follow their way. The chapter draws attention to the risk of the cloning and the ethics of this actions. Chapter about Replicators highlights the danger of the overly advanced technology that in the future could hypothetically take over humanity and potentially endanger their existence. 6 General information Stargate SG-1 is a science fiction TV series that is a part of the Stargate franchise. This franchise begins in 1994, when the movie Stargate is released, written by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, who are not involved in later franchise. It includes TV series Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007) developed by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, Stargate Atlantis (2004-2009), Stargate Universe (2009-2011), animated Stargate Infinity (2002-2003) and another two movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth (2008) and Stargate Continuum (2008). Franchise also contains over fifty novels and numerous short fiction. It expanded to the several short-living games involving pinball, trading card game and others, it also inspired the production of several Stargate-themed video games. The central theme of the Stargate franchise is the stargate. It is a ring-like device that is used for the space transportation. It uses seven and more symbols that form an address, after entering this address it connects to another gate. It creates a wormhole to the stargate on another planet, which enables people to transport within several seconds on the other side of the galaxy, many light years from their original position. The Earth stargate is located in the Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, where it is controlled by the SGC (Stargate Command), which is the representation of the American military and politics for the whole Milky Way galaxy. Stargate Program is classified and the general public do not know about it. It is known only to the small group of Americans, in later seasons this knowledge is disclosed to the leaders of the other countries. Because of this, Stargate SG-1 is predominately represented by the American characters that serve as the representatives of the population of the entire planet Storyline regularly follows the adventures of the team SG-1. SG-1 is the designation of the team of the main characters that during the course of the TV series slightly changes its 7 cast and extends to five members. The SG-1 is a very diverse team, where every member brings their specialisation and experience and presents different perspective on the same problem. The role of the military is represented by Colonel (later General) Jack O’Neill, later replaced by Colonel Cameron Mitchell, who bring the military point and the authority of the SGC. Science and technology provides theoretical astrophysicist Captain (later Colonel) Samantha Carter. As the counterweight serves Daniel Jackson, anthropologist, archaeologist, expert on ancient and alien languages and history. He brings the diplomacy and the humanistic perspective. The aliens are represented by are the native guides, experts on the galaxy and extraterrestrial races. Teal’c, Jaffa fighting for the freedom of his people, is an expert on Jaffa and Goa’ulds. And later joining, Vala Mal Doran and her knowledge of the Goa’ulds and the Lucian Alliance, human space crime organisation. Another important aspect of the success of the Stargate SG-1 is its unique mythology and how the fictional myths are connected to the real mythology. TV show is modifying the Egyptian, Norse, Greek and Roman mythologies, and many others for example the Arthurian myth with Merlin, Morgan Le Fay and Excalibur. Stargate SG-1 is successful TV series that have many different reasons for its success, however, only together they