(narrator) From the team behind the series The Outer Limits...
..comes one of the most popular sci-fi series ever to hit television.
..Stargate SG-1.
All right, listen up! We're pressed for time here,...
..so this has to serve as your mission briefing.
This is search and rescue.
(narrator) lnspired by the blockbuster movie,...
..executive producers Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner...
..were determined to turn Stargate into a hit television show.
We both knew that MGM had Stargate in their library...
..and neither of us talked to each other about this.
We each went to the president of MGM and said...
..''You have this Stargate thing that would make a great TV series.''
lt couldn't have worked out better. We wrote the two-hour together.
Neither of us usually write with a partner, but it worked out very well.
(narrator) Richard Dean Anderson signed on to play Jack O'Neill.
The producers needed to cast a strong ensemble of actors...
..to ensure the series' success.
We narrowed it down from looking at probably, l don't know,...
..a couple of thousand people on tape,...
..down to probably 25 people,...
..all of whom we flew to Los Angeles and did screen tests with...
..and came up with what l think is a great cast.
- Glad you made it, SG-1. - Where's the fanfare, General?
- We did kind of save the planet, sir. - Again.
(narrator) To launch the series...
..Brad and Jonathan co-wrote a spectacular two-hour episode...
..that takes off where the film ended.
Daniel Jackson is alive and living with the people on Abydos.
You violated direct orders. Why?
The people are no threat. They should be left alone.
That's not up to you.
We go back to Abydos to find Daniel Jackson,...
..because the gate on Earth has opened...
..and has sparked a whole new desire to activate the programme.
Jack, l think that this is a map of a...
..a vast network of Stargates, Stargates all over the galaxy.
We find out, in fact, that the gate goes many other places.
There's a cartouche on Abydos that explains this...
..and suggests that the gate goes all over the galaxy.
And that's really the opportunity of the series.
We don't just go one place. We go all over the galaxy.
Go through the gate, dial a location and explore a whole new world.
(narrator) What makes Stargate SG-1 different to other sci-fi drama on TV?
Brad Wright offers his view.
The idea of going from world to world is a science fiction idea...
..that goes back as long as science fiction.
We're not flying in futuristic rocket ships to get there.
So it's the human beings of our century that are taking these adventures...
..and going to these worlds. lt changes everything.
(narrator) Like many great sci-fi dramas,...
..there is a constant battle between good and evil.
But on Stargate there's one force that continues to be an imposing threat.
The biggest threat in our universe are the race that Ra was a member of.
They're called the Goa'ulds.
They have taken ancient Earth cultures and scattered them all across the galaxy.
You may be the one.
(Brad Wright) We came up with the idea of a Jaffa,...
..which is a human who has been basically created...
..in order to carry the larval form of the Goa'uld in their most vulnerable state.
l am a Jaffa, bred to serve that they may live.
- What the hell is that? - lt is an infant Goa'uld.
The larval form of the gods.
(narrator) Not content to produce a shoot-'em-up action series,...
..the producers go to great lengths to write thought-provoking stories...
..that comment on the human condition.
We're about to turn the tide of a world war that we know nothing about...
..against an enemy that we know nothing about.
ls it the right way to get their technology? Yes. But is it the right thing to do?
lt's a way to study ourselves, to look at our society...
..and some of the mistakes we make.
l will not recommend trade with a culture that enslaves its own people.
l don't care what kind of technology you have.
(narrator) How many worlds are waiting to be explored?
How many gates will the SG-1 team discover?
Only time will tell.
Probably millions. Who knows?
Certainly in the thousands.
At least ten seasons' worth.