Introduction

Stargate - The Fifth Generation? HUH?
So what's this freaky idea all about?

Well, sometime back, there was talk of a further Stargate spin-off series, so we were discussing what we would - and would not - like to see. I would like to see something darker, grittier, more realistic - something with more exploration, more adventure and more facing up to the consequences, with less soap-opera romance and less 'character development' based on the requirements of the plot.

If they don't have the skills or training for Plan A, then tough. They'll have to come up with Another Way, like we would have to in Real Life.

So no autopsies then. {G}

The idea of setting a series a hundred years into the future took deep root in my brain, leading friends to wonder, "What was she on?" But it's great fun, starting off from scratch, with new characters caught up in a dystopic world, and seeing where the idea leads you.

Where to begin? Well, the characters are the most important part of any story, so that seemed a good place. Given that Daniel kick-started the original - and is my favorite character - it was essential that his spirit, together with his ethics, should pervade the series. One might almost say he haunts it. ;-)

I had a good start with Daniel's bloodline. His daughter, Serena, had already appeared, aged 17, in Double Trouble by Hatshepsut. She was conceived in Rome on Daniel's 18th birthday. His relationship with Italian archaeology student, Rosa Vecelli, was brutally broken up the following day, and Daniel left Italy not knowing she was pregant. Daniel thus missed all Serena's childhood. 8-(

He got a second chance when Serena's husband, Col. Tom Pepperday, was killed in action off-world. Serena continued working for the S.G.C. in a desk job and Daniel retired to look after his three granchildren - Jonathan (11), Claire (9) and Rosa (6) He had a particularly close relationship with Claire who loved his stories, and learned much from him.

Claire is a pivotal character as she spans all five generations, providing the link between Daniel and his great-great-grandaughter, Maxine. All three have doctorates in some combinations of anth. and arch. and linguistics. Claire, who never married, is also great-aunt of Theo Hunter, Maxine's cousin and another principal character.

One character that really took on a life of his own is Maxine's father, Rufus Pepperday. His grandfather had been K.I.A. and his father, Jonathan, had gone M.I.A. as a result of the Great Disaster of 2064, so there was no way he was going to follow in the family footsteps. He was initially marked down as a waster, a fly-by-night, a ne'er-do-well but with a talent for mechanics. Then I realized that he knows something he shouldn't, and following on from that, he knows a whole lot more things he shouldn't...

Theo Hunter is one of two gay characters. Nothing graphic here, but being gay is very dangerous. After the Great Disaster, the religious zealots have become a bigger and more influential malign force. Their aim is to bring all of America into the fold of fundamentalist Christianity and bring about The End of Days and The Rapture.

Jews, Moslems, Catholics and people like Theo are perceived as delaying The Rapture and must therefore embrace Jesus as their Lord and Saviour or face the consequences - which are not pretty. The Warriors of Christ act as their enforcers, along with the youth wing, The Young Warriors. A large part of Martha-Bethany Hunter's family are involved with the Warriors, which is not good for Theo. 8-(

Martha-Bethany was another one whose character took over. She changed her name and turned into a bit of a monster. {g} This is the whole family tree. (Seraphina Reid was the original redhead.)

The Bloodline of Dr. Daniel Jackson

The other two principal characters were also descendants of characters from the original series and in the case of Luc, the movie. I didn't want a cloned SG-1; it would require rewriting the original canon. On top of that, TWIC blew it with me regarding the inclusion of a descendant of Sam when she ditched Pete Shanahan and tried to put the moves on sir. That ain't my Sam - no sirree! Descendants of both Jack and Teal'c may well appear at a later date. {BG}

Instead, we have J Mitchell, great-great-grandson of Cameron Mitchell. His full name is Jefferson Mitchell, which he hates. He has no middle name to fall back on and so reduces his first name to the minimum. Luc is the great-great-grandson of Louis Ferretti. His full name is Giancarlo Giustino Lucarelli, which is a bit of a mouthful and hence gets shortened to Luc.

There are four other main-ish characters. Asher 'Ash' Kirkwood is a computer wizard with a rare historic collection of old television programs that, at some time, got burned on to DVDs ;-) He is a close friend of Theo. He is also gay. The Ward cousins, Zak and Dom crop up from time to time. The other character is Dr. Artemisia 'Timmy' Flint. She is a medical doctor of mixed parentage, and therefore never likely to make it to the top. The racists go to base C.M.O., Dr. Charles Dawson; the wise go to Timmy Flint.

There is also the base commander, Major General Samuel J. Bradfield. He started out as a Bad Guy, but he showed me that, maybe, I was wrong about that. Maybe.

The next thing to work on was the hundred year time-line, most of which will likely not be used, but I figure it's best to have too much material to draw on than too little, and then have fix things on the fly when you find that you do actually need it.

The most prominent event was The Great Disaster of October 13th 2064. This took a little research, but Earth Sciences are right up my street. 8-) There was a major movement of the Juan de Fuco fault, causing a subduction earthquake under the Cascades which registered a magnitude of 9.6 on the Richter scale.

This triggered serious movements of the San Andreas and Hayward Faults, a blind thrust fault on the San Gregorio, plus a minor movement of the Calaveras Fault among others, with many fires and the semi-collapse of the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge which rendered it unusable; likewise the western end of the Bay Bridge.

It also triggered eruptions of Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood - but fortunately not the super-volcano under Wyoming, which was relieved of some of the pressure on it. These eruptions, with lahars and pyroclastic flows, laid waste to a sizeable area of Washington and Oregon states, and notably Seattle.

N.B. I have nothing against the folks of the West Coast, nor Americans in general. You're all wonderful people! 8-)

It's just the one in the White House - the last one, not the current one - and Pastor Fred Phelps and their like - ya know, the ones who unnecessarily make folks' lives difficult and unpleasant - and yeah, every country has 'em! 8-(

Which reminds me.

This is President Elijah Warren.

If you watch Reaper, you may find he looks a little familiar.

For those who don't watch Reaper - and why not? - the devil employs Sam to do collect souls who've escaped from hell and return them. The guy on the right looks very much like Sam's employer... Identical, in fact.

A side-effect of The Great Disaster was the partial collapse of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, stranding seven S.G. teams stranded off-world including SG-1, commanded by Claire's brother, Colonel Jonathan Pepperday. They were all listed as M.I.A.