Cult Times Internet Guide to... Stargate

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Cult Times Special #12

If you're going to start a trawl around the World Wide Web looking for sites about a particular show, you’re inevitably going to run into the official site. Very often, ‘official’ in this case becomes a synonym for ‘bland, boring and shallow’ – but, as penetration of the Internet into everyday life increases, this situation is becoming less and less common.

Sam & Jack: speechless at their online antics The perfect example of this is probably Stargate SG-1. If you were to begin a tour of Stargate SG-1sites at the official Showtime site www.stargatesg-1.com, it would be at least an hour before you’re going to get anywhere else. The site is frankly fantastic.

To get the most out of the site, you’ll have to register as an SG Team member to be able to access the more fun areas. Once you’re signed up, you get to train and increase your rank by winning points. This is done primarily through a range of little web-based games (you’ll need the Shockwave and RealPlayer plug-ins for some of them), which are great fun – I spent a good quarter of an hour just playing around.

Once an hour the Stargate self-destruct sequence is ‘accidentally’ activated (which seems a bit clumsy), as indicated by a big flashing warning in the top right of the screen. You can volunteer to be the one to deactivate the sequence, which simply involves flicking through the pages of the site until the warning light stops flashing. This will earn you the princely sum of 50 points, an invaluable boost for your promotion.

You can interact with other SG Team members, chiefly through the use of the site’s chat room. Although it seemed to be running smoothly and quickly on the day I visited, some users complained that the chat software used was prone to crashes. Everyone who signs up as a member is assigned to a particular SG Team, one of which has its own page on the Web – SG-9: Exploration at www.internations.net/us/sg9 (sadly defunct at the time of uploading this feature - Web Ed.)

Meanwhile, the Stargate SG-1 Web Ring is the place to go if you want to find a comprehensive list of fan sites. You can find details at www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/4063/ring.html, or via the listing link above. The vast majority are the usual sites of worship, but you’ll find a good selection of episode guides, and files for download (the best files, though, are those to be found on the official site – including some lovely wallpapers).

See also: a huge fan fiction archive, Heliopolis – that's www.sg1-heliopolis.de. There are scores of fan-written short stories here.

Stargate SG-1 fandom still being in its infancy, there’s no explosion of humour connected with the show but there is a surprising lack of detailed, entertaining writing regarding the show. It’s a shame that the show hasn’t encouraged the kind of fan criticism that you can find written about recent hits like Babylon 5 and Xena: Warrior Princess. If you’re a fan of SG-1, you might find that, for now, the official site is the best place to be.

David Bailey

STAR JUMP

Whilst those who don’t know any better scoff at the amount of time the rest of us spend on the Internet, one young man has made a giant leap for fan-kind by turning his home-made site into the official repository of all knowledge for things pertaining to Stargate SG-1

Sean Fitzgibbons, SG-1 fan and web wizard

What makes this action so special, is that MGM, the executive producers of the show, the cast, crew and fans alike all think the site is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The powers-that-be think SG-1.Net is so spectacular they have asked Sean Fitzgibbons to become a consultant and take Stargate SG-1’s internet presence into the 21st Century. All this and he doesn’t turn 18 till February.

Like many kids, Fitzgibbons first gained access to the Internet at an early age . At the tender age of 13 he taught himself HTML and began experimenting with styles, graphics and content schemes determined to create something new and innovative that would attract people and keep them coming back to his base.

“While the Internet has changed and expanded over the past few years,” he states, “it still seems that unique content is the driving force behind most web sites.”

By the time Stargate SG-1 came along, the youngster was ready to offer fans a little extra. “When the TV show began the site just sort of grew and I really enjoyed trying out new ideas to entice fans. There was a large amount of really great SG-1 sites available at that time so I thought it might be a good idea to get everyone who was producing fan sites together in one place so that we could provide as large a data base as possible.”

Soon the cast and crew became firm fans of the site offering news and behind the scene titbits. “Then one day MGM contacted me saying they wanted to discuss the site and I thought they were going to shut me down.” laughs Fitzgibbons, “I certainly didn’t expect them to ask me to run a site for them… but I felt it was a great opportunity to bring the official site in line or on a par with the best fan run ones because together we are a walking advertisement for the show.”

Thomasina Gibson

(Continued in Cult Times Special #12)

(Update: In consequence of MGM hiring him , the content formerly on SG-1.Net is in the process of being spilt between material suitable for the official site, and other material best left to its fan creators - Follow this link to the new temporary portal Web Ed, Dec 99).

For more about the best series of the 90s, read Cult Times • Special Issue 12 • £3.50 ($6.99). Can't find it locally? Order it here