Why can't they gate-hop back to Earth?

[Callimaco]

I don't understand something, and it’s really starting to bug me. But I make no claim of expertise on these matters, so I'm going to ask about it here. I'm not even sure how to ask this question. I'll give it my best shot though, beg your indulgence. and ask you to bear with me.

So you can't get from Earth to Atlantis without a tremendous amount of energy. It requires so much energy that the Atlantis team might have made a one way trip to the Pegasus galaxy.

But why couldn't you take the stargate equivalent of an indirect flight back to Earth? Why couldn't the Atlantis team dial a gate closer to Earth and travel there, and then dial a gate even closer to Earth and travel there, and so on until they "gate-hop" to a place close enough to get back home?

I know that indirect flights are a pain, but if it's your only choice then it's your only choice. So why isn't this an option for the Atlantis team? There may be practical problems (knowing the right addresses, for instance), but in principle this seems possible, and it would get around the “not enough energy” problem by dividing up the long trip into a series of shorter ones.

Thoughts? Explanations?

[Erik Pasternak]

It doesn't work, and I'll tell you why. You can gate around the Pegasus galaxy all you want, and you won't use that much power. But inbetween the galaxies all there is a an empty void, no planets, no stars, no nothing. No place to put a stargate. So, even if you gated to the edge of Pegasus, you'd still have to traverse millions of light years to get back to the Milky Way, which would require tons of power. It's a good idea, but it wouldn't work.

[Selmak]

I'll back you up on that... gate-hopping won't work.

[Callimaco]

That's a very reasonable explanation. And it makes considerable sense. But I need to ask a follow-up question. The question may arise from a misconception on my part though. As I said, I claim no expertise on these matters, and I'm not really prone to paying attention to the technical aspects of the show. So here goes ...

Haven't they used the stargate under normal power levels to travel to other galaxies before? If the answer is no, then your explanation stands firm. But if they have, then my original confusion surfaces again. They'd just need to figure out the proper course of galaxies to gate-hop home.

If anyone can clear this up for me, I'd very much appreciate it.

And thanks for the responses above. It was a niggling thing, and didn't take away from my enjoyment of the show, but I still wanted an explanation.

[Erik Pasternak]

They have never traveled to other galaxies under standard power before. In fact, the only other time they have traveled to another galaxy was in "The Fifth Race," and, in that episode, O'Neill built a homemade ZPM to power the gate.

[Callimaco]

Very good. That clears things up. Thanks for the explanation.

Cheers!

[Erik Pasternak]

Very good. That clears things up. Thanks for the explanation.

Cheers!

Happy to help!

[OsirisDICK]

someone at the SGC COULD send the Asguard to go find them. Or the Asguard could simply dial up Atlantis and give them some powersources. They do posess the technology and powersources capable of dialing to other galaxies.

[Erik Pasternak]

someone at the SGC COULD send the Asguard to go find them. Or the Asguard could simply dial up Atlantis and give them some powersources. They do pocess the technology and powersources capable of dialing to other galaxies.

Well, yeah, but that'd be too easy.

[Sargent Prendegast]

Well didn't the female ancient, the one that left the holographic message, say that the stargate at Atlantis was the only one able to gate back to earth? If that's true then the only way back is through the Atlantis gate. The other gates in the Pegasus galaxy wouldn't be capable of reaching earth.

[greytop]

Well didn't the female ancient, the one that left the holographic message, say that the stargate at Atlantis was the only one able to gate back to earth? If that's true then the only way back is through the Atlantis gate. The other gates in the Pegasus galaxy wouldn't be capable of reaching earth.

The Atlantis stargate was probably the only gate that had enough power to gate back to Earth. The Wraith probably had the other gates in the galaxy covered so their human herd would not escape from them, just like being corraled

[aAnubiSs]

The Ancients could've planted gates in the void, so that puddle jumpers could travel to the milky way. Might have taken a while though And they only needed to remove one of the gates to make the connection useless.

[Racer1441]

^^^^ D'oh, didn't see the idea already here.


Alright, gave this some thought. Now, it really doesn't make sense in alot of different areas, but this was what I was thinking. The Ancients wouldn't need to do this, they have all the power they need, same with Thor and his buddies, but the SGC could, down the road a good bit, find this idea useful. Now, this is assuming that they cannot find a form of power that allows them to easly return to earth and back.

What if they took gates that had no real use, on worlds that cannot be used by Humans, and place them in the void between the galaxies. They could use the ships to travel back and forth. Gate from Atlantis to the edge of the galaxy, then to the next gate in the void, just floating there like we saw at the Wraith planet, then from there to the next one, and so on, till they get back to our galaxy.

The SGC would certainly need some help doing this, but they certainly can call some favors in. Just a thought.

[aAnubiSs]

I just said that

[Racer1441]

I just said that

Haha, just saw that. You make a good point about taking out one gate. If you knew when the SGC was going to travel through this system, and you took out the first and last gate, it'd certainly give a new meaning to the whole lost concept.