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The Stargates in SG:U

Yes, so far since the first episode they have been in the same galaxy, they must have been pretty near to the edge of it though.

This episode also confirmed what I've been saying about the range limits on these gates that PREDATE the MW gates, as they explicitly said in this episode.
 
Now you're assuming they've been at the edge of it for the entire run? Even though we saw them stretching through a huge berth of the galaxy at one point? Oy vey.

And yeah, the gates are more primitive in design. I never claimed otherwise. :) But the range limitation is clearly one of power more than an actual, inherent range limitation. If there was an actual range limit, they wouldn't be on the Destiny at all, nor would they have come close to dialing back to Earth (which may or may not have been thwarted simply because Rush didn't want to go). Even the Milky Way gates work like that; they can't just dial Pegasus on a lark, they need extra juice to extend their ranges.

Considering that the primitive gates even have the same number of chevrons... well, why do they need the extra ones if they're so utterly useless? And how were the Ancients supposed to jump from galaxy to galaxy using them to either catch-up to the Destiny or otherwise take advantage of the gates left in its wake?

You could even argue the limited power (and thus limited range) is a safety mechanism to keep hostile aliens that may stumble upon the network from having total freedom of the entire network, ala the goa'uld. At least this way they'd have a definite limitation of being stuck in their own galaxy unless they could figure out how to build up the monstrous power needed to invade other galaxies, and mobility within a given galaxy would be limited and easily thwarted by those who wanted to do so (by simply removing/destroying/burying intermediate gates).
 
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My guess is that either the gates are powered by something in the ramps or by natural energy produced on each planet, geothermal, hydroelectric, etc.
 
They would have to reasonably be close to the edge, but not overtly so, considering we know that TJ is 22 weeks pregnant, she'd have obviously been done so before being on the Destiny (she even says this) so they've been on the ship now for about 16-22 weeks (depending on when TJ was knocked up) and the speeds do seems lower (as someone else said, otherwise millions of years for travel into other galaxies? Didn't the previous show be able to have them do it in weeks?), but who knows...it'll all get answered soon enough, I assume.
 
The Destiny isn't on a constant, non-stop journey. She makes constant and regular stops to monitor and catalogue the various star systems the seeder ships have visited. Not to mention all the stops to refuel (which can take a day if not longer as she falls into a specific orbit, as seen when she came out of FTL with the mysterious star system as well as the first time she refueled).

She's also traveling at a steady cruising speed; she has no need to push her engines. And, like you said, we'll likely see her do exactly that in upcoming episodes as she prepares to jump to the next galaxy.
 
I wonder whether this FTL drive is still faster than the speeds which Goa'uld motherships were shown to go at during the earlier seasons of SG-1.

(When Apophis made his first run at Earth, I recall Teal'c being surprised at how relatively fast the motherships were going to get there - and even then, they weren't exactly going at the kind of speeds the likes of the Asgard would have taken for granted.)


As an aside, I find it interesting to note how a hop-skip-jump-ey gate network in the Milky Way or Pegasus might have affected the local societies there. The System Lords, with slower ships for much of their era, would have likely been far more hamstrung logistically, in terms of trying to expand their power across the wider galaxy. The Wraith, in contrast, would still have gotten by well enough, with their Hives and cruisers - but I suspect times would have been even tougher than they already were for any non-Traveller human opposition stuck with using planet-bound gates.
 
It is slower, it is not Hyperdrive, we know that. We also know that the Destiny's gates predate the Milky Way gates, and we know that the Destiny is millions of years old, taking us back to the time when the Ancients lived in the Milky Way galaxy, either before or sometime around when they seeded the MW with gates. Destiny might have actually been sent out before the MW was seeded with gates, we don't know the exact timing, but we know the Destiny is a product of very early Ancient technology in our galaxy.
I like to think the Milky Way, Pegasus, and possibly Ida (?) were seeded with the original Destiny-type gates; Destiny was launched; then the more modern Milky Way gates replaced the original prototype models (not too long after Destiny's launch because Earth's Antarctic gate was dated to be 50 million years old), and then even newer models replaced the prototypes in Pegasus.
 
(When Apophis made his first run at Earth, I recall Teal'c being surprised at how relatively fast the motherships were going to get there - and even then, they weren't exactly going at the kind of speeds the likes of the Asgard would have taken for granted.)

Yep. He said a mothership could travel at ten times the speed of light, though they found that it was actually significantly greater than that. I've considered that maybe there was some kind of breakthrough in hyperdrives around the time SG-1 started mucking around the galaxy, and the fall of the System Lords had more to do with the fact that they could suddenly mount invasion fleets in weeks or months instead of generations than anything the good guys actually did to fight them. The only reason they might've had run of the galaxy for 10,000 years was the fact that they were limited to stargates for interplanetary travel, and it took years for their ships to actually get anywhere (I imagine that, if a System Lord had needed to fly somewhere, he'd task one of his ships to go to the closest stargate to the destination, meet it there when it arrived, and only actually fly for the last leg of the journey). It was just too damned tedious for them to kill each other off before.
 
I think it is established that Goa'uld Hyperdrives were slow at first, since they are scavengers, and because of Earth's threats, perhaps they stole some other from some aliens, and bam they got it. They do steal things ya know, that's how they get their tech. Before then they really didn't need to be too fast, as they used the gates mostly, then we came on the scene.
 
Where does the assumption that Destiny's FTL is faster than ordinary hyperdrive come from? We don't know how far through the current galaxy Destiny was when the Icarus Base personnel gated aboard or how large this galaxy is.



I think it is established that Goa'uld Hyperdrives were slow at first, since they are scavengers, and because of Earth's threats, perhaps they stole some other from some aliens, and bam they got it. They do steal things ya know, that's how they get their tech. Before then they really didn't need to be too fast, as they used the gates mostly, then we came on the scene.

I agree, remember the Goa'uld acquire Asgard teleportation after Anubis tortures Thor. Tau'ri hyperdrive improves too.

I like to think the Milky Way, Pegasus, and possibly Ida (?) were seeded with the original Destiny-type gates; Destiny was launched; then the more modern Milky Way gates replaced the original prototype models (not too long after Destiny's launch because Earth's Antarctic gate was dated to be 50 million years old), and then even newer models replaced the prototypes in Pegasus.

Nice theory, I like it. After replacing the gates in Pegasus, the Ancients ascended/lost the war with the Wraith and didn't bother to replace the Milky Way gates.

Personally, I still don't get the point of building an ability to gate to Destiny into every Stargate (even though the energy conditions are very rare)...I hope we learn more as the show goes on. I can't wait to find out exactly what Destiny is for.
 
Who said it was faster? I, for one, am simply saying it's not necessarily as slow as people are assuming. While it's likely slower and has other side effects associated with it which caused the Ancients to abandon it, I don't think it's anywhere as slow as people are trying to make it out to be. Especially if it had the benefit of, say, a ZPM or other souped-up power source onboard.
 
Why are Stargate fans actually using the word "Tau'ri" when they are speaking of themselves, the people of Earth? :lol:
 
Why are Stargate fans actually using the word "Tau'ri" when they are speaking of themselves, the people of Earth? :lol:

We aren't "Tau'ri", we're humans. As far as we know, there are no aliens or other humans out there. It's what the Earth faction is referred to by other factions on the show.
It's just like talking about the Terrans in a conversation about Trek's mirror universe.

Who said it was faster? I, for one, am simply saying it's not necessarily as slow as people are assuming. While it's likely slower and has other side effects associated with it which caused the Ancients to abandon it, I don't think it's anywhere as slow as people are trying to make it out to be. Especially if it had the benefit of, say, a ZPM or other souped-up power source onboard.
I didn't necessarily mean you, but I've read several posts on several different threads that said it was faster. It's FTL, how 'slow' can it be? :) We know it goes between star systems in a relatively short length of time.
 
We don't know the length of time it takes Destiny to cross the void between galaxies, or the time it takes to cross a galaxy, only that it is slower than Hyperdrive. We do know it is going in a straight line though, so it may only spend a short period, relatively speaking, through some galaxies, if it just hits one of the arms or something, or is on the edge.
 
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