The Third Race

[Smiley]

Let's have some discussion about the Furlings.

One question I'd like to know the answer to is why Cooper gave the third race such a goofy name in the first place. Why invent a race that's on a par with the Nox and Asgard if you're going to saddle them with a name so embarrassing that you decide never to see them in a non-parody show?

An easy way around the name issue is to have it be an alias or nickname for the species that O'Neill makes jokes about it. They could have made them completely different from the Ewok image that comes to mind. What if they were so intimidating physically that no one would dare make fun of them to their faces?

Another thought I had was that the Tollan could be retconned to be the Furlings. Their level of advancement is similar to that of the Nox. The problem lies in the evacuation episode, "Enigma." They probably would have called on one of the other "UN in space" races early on and saved themselves some trouble.

If we do assume that the Furlings are a group that we have never seen before, where were they during the crises faced by the galaxy like the Ori invasion or the Asgard's Replicator troubles? Is it possible that they were wiped out by something between their time on the "Torment of Tantalus" planet and the start of the series?

What are your thoughts and interpretations of the Furlings in the Stargate universe?

 

[T J]

Perhaps Cooper was simply trying to be a bit whimsical. As for the where were they question... I always liked to think the Furlings died off thousands of years ago from mange!

 

[Brent]

First, the name, it didn't sound so corny when we first heard the name, but has certainly developed that afterwards. But so what if they were furry little creatures, maybe they were actually? Anyway, it doesn't matter until we see them.

We have seen some Furling technology, they had transportation devices that transported you from a planet to a moon, and perhaps even farther. IIRC the portal was kinda small actually, didn't they have to duck through it? I can't remember.

Anyway, I like to think that the artificial planet that the SGU team discovered was created by the Furlings. I mean why not at this point. I think it would be neat if the Furlings, especially in their later years, might have been even more advanced than the Ancients, with the ability to build Stars and Planets. This would be really cool.

I was also hoping that, before the Wraith were invented, that it was the Furlings that had destroyed the Ancients. Would have been cool to have this great alliance fall apart and have a powerful race like the Furlings attacking everyone in it and then running away to some far off part of the universe.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

The Tollans were nowhere near the Nox IMO...they couldn't hide an entire city, or make it float, or make anything they wanted invisible, or bring the dead back to life...
Even if the portal was small (I can't remember either) the Furlings could easily be intimidating, small but mighty or something...what bugs me is that they never 'look up' the Furlings in the Ancient database on Atlantis or the Asgard database Thor left them on the Daedalus. It would be cool if they had created the star and planet.

 

[Broccoli]

^ Maybe they did look them up in the database, but we never saw it in an episode.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

^Well, duh. I wish they'd shown it in an episode, is my point. Even a one-liner about it would be cool.

 

[Brent]

"Who would have thought the Furlings looked like that!"

or

"Ya know, the Furlings were exactly what I imagined them to look like"

both are vague enough to still leave room for lots of creative ideas if we ever see them

 

[F. King Daniel]

We saw the Furlings in the faux-recap at the start of "200" .

 

[David cgc]

I still vote that the Giant Aliens from "The Crystal Skull" were the Furlings.

 

[Silvercrest]

The Stargate RPG I'm running has characters who have crossed over from the D&D universe. One of them is a gnome. I'm going to have a native of the Stargate universe recognize him as a Furling.


(It would have worked better if it was a halfling character because of the name, or a dwarf character because of the hair. But I'll work with what I've got.)

 

[The Wormhole]

One question I'd like to know the answer to is why Cooper gave the third race such a goofy name in the first place. Why invent a race that's on a par with the Nox and Asgard if you're going to saddle them with a name so embarrassing that you decide never to see them in a non-parody show?

Cooper explained that when he was writing The Fifth Race he wanted the alliance to consist the Asgard and the Ancients as well as one race that had already been on the show (the Nox) and a new one (the Furlings). He never expected to revisit the Furlings and certainly didn't think they'd become as popular among the fans as they have.

Another thought I had was that the Tollan could be retconned to be the Furlings. Their level of advancement is similar to that of the Nox. The problem lies in the evacuation episode, "Enigma." They probably would have called on one of the other "UN in space" races early on and saved themselves some trouble.

Except that the Tollan do get assistance from the Nox at the end of the episode and no one was like "hey, remember that alliance we were part of?"

 

[Broccoli]

Another thought I had was that the Tollan could be retconned to be the Furlings. Their level of advancement is similar to that of the Nox. The problem lies in the evacuation episode, "Enigma." They probably would have called on one of the other "UN in space" races early on and saved themselves some trouble.

Except that the Tollan do get assistance from the Nox at the end of the episode and no one was like "hey, remember that alliance we were part of?"

Also, wasn't it established that the Tollan were taken from Earth originally? The reason they were so advanced is because they didn't have a Goa'uld overlord nor a dark ages to keep them down?

If that is the case, then the Tollan came into existence a long time after the races of the Alliance went their separate ways.

 

[Brent]

The Tollan were not part of the alliance. They just happened to be very advanced, but as others have mentioned, they didn't even exist during the time of the alliance millions of years ago. The second evolution of humans didn't even exist at that point.

 

[Smiley]

I have forgotten a lot of details mentioned above about the alliance and the Tollan, so my thought really doesn't work when you consider all of that.

I do find it surprising that the writers thought that the fans would be willing to treat a reference to a race as advanced as the Asgard as a throwaway remark, especially since there were four languages represented in "The Torment of Tantalus." Wouldn't some stories about Furlings be a lot more fun to do than those involving the Trust or the Lucian Alliance? Actually, I would rather have seen them than the return of Apophis after "Serpent's Song."

 

[Brent]

Yes, they could have made the goal of SG-1 and Atlantis to bring the four races back together or something, and seed our place as the 5th race that brought em all back. Neat idea anyway, potential wasted.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Yes, they could have made the goal of SG-1 and Atlantis to bring the four races back together or something, and seed our place as the 5th race that brought em all back. Neat idea anyway, potential wasted.

Or how about some rebvel Furlings, with the main group mysteriously gone...maybe Universe could have also been about seeking them to assist against the "bad" furlings, who might be like the Shadows of Babylon 5

 

[Brent]

Good idea too, so many things they could have done that they didn't

 

[T J]

Yes, they could have made the goal of SG-1 and Atlantis to bring the four races back together or something, and seed our place as the 5th race that brought em all back. Neat idea anyway, potential wasted.

That sounds like a vague point I've been looking for!

 

[Apophis]

With all the contact SG1 had with the Asgard, Nox, Ancients I wonder if they ever asked about the Furlings. Also, Jack had the entirety of the Ancients knowledge in his head (twice) surely he therefore had information about the Furlings then. At least what they looked like and what happened to them, or where they used to be...

 

[SG-17]

The Tollan were not part of the alliance. They just happened to be very advanced, but as others have mentioned, they didn't even exist during the time of the alliance millions of years ago. The second evolution of humans didn't even exist at that point.

It was stated (I forget which episode) that the Alliance was formed after the Ancients returned from Atlantis, so the second evolution of humanity was tribal.

You know now that I think about it, nuBSG could fit into that with minimal snipping.