The future of the citizens of the Milky Way

[Platschu]

We talked about potential technological upgrades and new stargate networks, the troubled past, characters, new mythological races, but we haven't discussed the current state of the galaxy. The stargate shows were always US army centric, so I doubt a "pure" civil settings would be accepted by the fans. But I am still interested how would you imagine the future of the Milky way? Hundreds of worlds were enslaved by the Goa'uld, then the Replicators came, then the Ori crusade started, while the Lucian Alliance also caused some trouble. Then what? Would they establish a United Nations type galaxy wide organisation? Because we have heard about the Jaffas that they would try to establish a Jaffa State with a parliament, but would happen with other worlds? Would the humans world cooperate and trade? Or would they exclude non-human races? How would it work in such a scifi world, where theoratically everybody could call everyone? Would they form coalitions? What would happen with those worlds where the stargate technology is not public? Or if there is a civil war? What would happen with the poor planets and the rich ones? Would they control their own "immigration" between worlds? Would the planets accept a common constituation (like contactology rules, gate related safety mechanisms etc.)? Or at least to accept some guidelines who to deal with undeveloped ecosystems or worlds... How would they prevent gate travel related fatal injuries, if anyone can put a forcefield / Iris / other defense on their stargate? Can we talk about real borders if they can visit / conquer each other with ships in space as well? Would they share Ancient databases or trading gate addresses? Many-many interesting questions, which could shape the setting of a new SG show. Just share a few ideas.

[StargateMillennium]

I can't say what for sure will happen but I imagine chaos will soon follow. For one, Earth can't keep the stargate secret for much longer. When it finally goes public, full political chaos will ensue.

The galaxy I imagine will also go full chaos. The power vacuum from the Goa'uld empire has not been fully filled by the Lucian Alliance. I imagine other groups will also try to fill in the cracks. The Jaffa may be fully established by many planets and locations are not. They will have their government swept out from under them, meaning there will be a period of chaos for them until they can establish new order.

We don't know all the races in the Milky Way but I suspect anti-jaffa and anti-Tok'ra sentiment. The jaffa bigortry would be straight forward. The jaffa were the hand of the Goa'uld that oppressed the galaxy. There will be a long lingering hatred for them. The anti-tok'ra would be bigotry based on guilt by association. We call them Tok'ra to differentiate themselves from the Goa'uld. By, in terms of species, they are Goa'uld. And many will see them one and the same. I've seen this sentiment plenty of times so I don't see why it wouldn't happen here.

I think trust in the Tau'ri will diminish over time as they acquired some of the most powerful tech in three galaxies in a matter of years and have a habit of poking their noses into other people's businesses.


I think everyone will find new ways to utilize the tech left behind. The Goa'uld were advanced but stagnant and have a clear lack of imagination. I always wanted to see a train system utilizing the gate network.

[Platschu]

Exactly. I like your thinking. I will describe a bit deeper what I was thinking. Just imagine yourself as a citizen of the Milky Way in an role, then play a little roleplay game in your mind.

For example. If you are a leader of a community like a mayor, then how would you defend your civilization? You know stargate network is like a Pandora's box type Russian roulette. It can really make bridges different cultures and bring them togerther, but thee can also draw attention to your own world to be conquered. You know it is like a galaxy wide Monopoly, where every property is a planet. What is better? If you expand quickly or if you build the existing one? What if a race is not happy with their "starting planet"? So why would they accept to live on a worthless desert planet, while a village size community can rule over a mountain world? So soon it or later they would trade with each other, but then events could turn violent very quickly. Because you can defend your solar system with ships, but not from visitors through stargate. What if somebody dials in with bioweapons? I believe soon it or later everybody would lock down their stargate. Not necesseraly with a stargate or forcefield, maybe there would be an agreement about it. Or if they could "update" the gate protocoll then it would show if the other side is safe or not. Somehow it is hard to believe that the Ancients were building this system to accelerate the evolution of the galaxy, but then they would let travellers die in accidents. That is the reason I believe we need a Hub type scenario in Milky Way, what would be a centre of stargate network. Maybe some features were turned off, but now they could "upgrade" our gate network etc.

Back to the known races.

Jaffa - they were planning Loyal Jaffa and Rebel Jaffa in Stargate : Worlds. That sounds right as I am sure that note every Jaffa was unhappy under the Goa'uld rule. The symbiontes could give extended life and health for 120-160 years, then why would they accept tretonin to live 60-80 years? Simply the human nature wouldn't accept this stepback. Not to mention what would happen with the remaining sarcophagus.... Would people destroy them as objects of false gods? Or would they abuse them? Or would they sell them? What would happen with the mature new Juniors? What would happen with the Goa'uld Queens?

Goa'uld - Tok'Ra: Some of them are still hiding on planets. You are right about it that I am pretty sure they would use the symbionte poision against their bases to eridicate them. Maybe there would be some weird Goa'uld hunter classes (like Nazi hunters), who would try to capture the hiding Goa'uld. The Jaffas can sense them anyway, so they wouldn't be able to hide anywhere. I was always wondering why have they not flown to the Pegasus galaxy with Ha'taks, but that was mentioned in an other topic.

Asgard : Since they have gone, will the Protected Planets still protected? Or will crazy treasure hunters steal everything from these worlds? What would the Vanir do? What would the Earth do now as they now have got their heritage. I talked about this question in my Milky Way 2020 topic a bit deeper.

And what about the alien and smaller human civilizations? How would they react to a very big galaxy? Would they trade gate addreses? Would there be a "phone book" of gate addresses? Or would they carry some holographic one? Would they demand to visit the Tauri/Avalon/Midgard to search for their anchestors? What would happen if a Chinese team would visit Lord Yu's abadonned worlds?

Why has the SGC not supported the NASA to look around on the Mars and other planets with their ships? We could learn so much from it.

I also imagined it as a joke that a shepherds go to work with his flock through the stargate then sheeps are gouing through the active wormhole. I know it sounds ridicolous, but it could happen if the grass is better on the other side.

Or would children go to school through the stargate? Would there be some school or university world?

I was also thinking to have a little circus storyline which would travel around in different worlds. Then they would cage up different exotic aliens (like Unas) and then people would try to rescue these intelligent beings.

I like your train idea, but it would work only within a planet if there would be a network of inner stargates. I was also spinning this idea in that thread.

[StargateMillennium]

If I was a mayor of a civlization with a stargate, an iris would be the first thing I invest in with a moat as the second. The moat idea came about when I was watching Continuum. I made a comment about at the end how Mitchell should have removed the plank and let all the jaffa trip. Make an ID system so that the iris is the first line of defense. If the Iris is breached, they will fall into the moat or pit of spikes or whatever. An ID system will determine if I can trust the incoming. Then I open the iris and extend a bridge across the moat.


I think gate addresses would be a valuable thing to trade. No necessarily as a phone book but as part of a map that details where things are, what is valuable there, and what to expect traveling there. I could see humans wanting to go to earth to see hwo things are. They're original life but a living hell anyways.

Expansion will ultimately fall to how much of the planet is colonized. If not much, I think that expanding across the rest of the planet should be a priority and expanding to others be secondary.

Something I had in my fanfic is how a galaxy wide empire would make proper use of the stargate. For them, the gate was all owned and monitored by the government. It was a military dictatorship but it worked. The gate on each planet is in a government facility, heavily guarded with the fortifications I mentioned. The area around the facility is a massive parking lot divided into sections based on destination. The government dialed a list of destinations in order on a schedule, and the cars waiting for the turn would go. In the one ep when this comes into play, a college professor is going from his work place on Uptao to his home on Yardris. So he rolls up to the gate facility and parks in the parking space meant for people traveling to Yardris. When it is time, the government dials the Yardris gate port and sends the ID (well, I had it as 3 ID's for each side. Three from the dialer to show who they are and 3 on the receiver to make sure the barrier is properly removed). Then, all the cars waiting for the trip to Yardris pull out and line up, slowly driving through the gate.


The train idea is based on the ep I haven't written yet where a company establishes mining towns on several planets, a few towns on each, and regularly a train will go through that town, picking up and dropping off goods before going to the next town. After making its loop, it would go back to the stargate and go to the next series of towns on another planet.

I think the reason the SGC hasn't touched Mars yet is because it's 'boring'. It's one of those things that they could look at but they're too busy loooking at other things they find much cooler to bother.

[Platschu]

They definately have to upgrade their own gate protocolls. For example : how would they know if somebody placed a shield / force field / any other defense mechanism on the other side? A stargate won't show a red or green light, if the journey is safe. So will they send someone ahead? Or will every world communicate with a MALP type unit or through radio? (That is the reason I was thinking on a new hologram / genie type creature, who could live in the DHD chystals and he or she would play a talking MALP or tour guide role in new adventures, but anyway this is off topic here.)

Soon it or later most of the active galactic civilizations must "lock" their own stargates with advanced DHD or gate protocolls, so only they could use those gate for their own reasons. Maybe they could study the Ancient databases on other planets, or the Ori supergate or the Asgard heritage etc.

The other problem is the technological differences. You know there are civilization in the ancient times, medieval times, similar to ours or even more developed intergalactic empire with spaceships. So why would they not conquer the defenseless worlds? Why would they hold themselves back?

And talking about technology. If a race developed something unique and important, then why would they share it with anyone else? I liked how SG-1 upgraded itself one by one, but they had to lose the useful technologies all the time, so the viewers would feel that the current development level stayed with our existing one. If you look into the Atlantis show, they also haven't found anything really useful in 5 years. Most of them were abadonned, crazy or extremely dangerous experiments.

Gate address : Earth is in a special position as we have got the Abydonian and the Ancient stargate cartoushes. Btu how many worlds are known in the public? That is essential if we would like to establish or imagine a potential civilian or military leadership in the galaxy.

And we can we talk about "empires" if the stargates can call each other? You know there is some controlled space in classic scifis (like Klingon space), but a race can have x planets at the different corners of the galaxy, so it would be hard to controll it by ships.

What about different lifecycles on planets? You know even sun radiation can be different. The rotation of the planet can be different, so maybe a day would be different on Chulak then on Kheb. Would they make an universal system for trading reasons? What would happen with different athmospheres or different gravity? How would they prevent contamination of the worlds? Would athmospheres / microbes be mixed with gate travel?

Would there be direct connection between the MW and the Pegasus galayy? Would Ha'taks go there or Wraith hive ships come here? Would the Travelers settle down in MW from the Wraith civil war?

As you can see there would be so much things to tell about this aspect of stargate. They establish a nice lore, just it must be imagined how the status quo could shape when all the galxy wide threat were eliminated and the "peace" will arrive to the galaxy.

[Platschu]

So how would I imagine the future of Milky Way? When I used to write our SG database in Hungarian, I tried to make a scale to 1-10 how much a viisited world looked developed. Now I don't remember the exact cathegories, but it was something similar to this:
0 - uninhabitable or extinct
1 - no civilization
2 - bronze age
3 - ancient age
4 - medieval age
5 - early industrial age
6 - industrial age
7 - our current level without spaceship
8 - our current level with spaceships / offworld colonies
9 - advanced age
10 - ultra advanced age

So Earth would be around score 8. Obviously a civilization can get higher point if they get spaceships and if they can leave their own solar system.
Score 9 : Tollan, Martin's people etc
Score 10 : Asgard, Ancient, Nox

* * *

I would expect that the bigger "races" or civilizations could make a council, like a new Heliopolis Treaty for those advanced races who would willing to educate and to guard smaller worlds. Maybe the Nox could be called to guide the council with their advices. But then this council would face many challenges within and outside as the galaxy is not a peaceful space, so soon it or later the existing civilzations would try to step-up and conquer planets with spaceship or via the stargate system.

[StargateMillennium]

I don't think the Nox would guide the other races. I imagine that would be non-interventionist like the other races in the Alliance.

I'm not sure how smaller nations and civilizations will feel about the big ones trying to educate everyone else. They just escaped from tyrannical oppressors. They'll probably be suspicious if a big guy comes in and tells them to 'follow our lead'.

Considering the Lucian Alliance is not as big or powerful as the Goa'uld, I cannot help but wonder if other space pirate factions are forming to fill up that void as well. Chaos always follows after any war and a galaxy wide war is the perfect breeding ground.

About the rating, if we got on a scale then 1-10 may be too small. For example, the Tollan would probably be one or even two pegs higher than Martin's people. And the Alliance would be two if not more pegs above even them.

[Chaka-Z0]

Sorry if this is off-topic but...

One major plot hole I always found kind of ridiculous is how 99% of the civilizations out there don't have an Iris. Why is it? It's not like you need a high-quality one like the SG:C, a simple wood structure or rock would block the horizon, wouldn't it? You could then remove it when need be to dial elsewhere and prevent unwanted visitors to drop on your planet.

[ha'tak_]

I think most of them don´t have an iris because most of the worlds that were on the show were quite primitive. Why the more advanced didn't have them I don´t know. Maybe lack of wormhole knowledge.

But to the question in this thread. I think the show could have gone in many directions with the citizens of the Milky Way. There were alot of advanced race introduced and with the Goa´uld gone they might venture out into the galaxy. Like the race that attacked the Prometheaus in season 7. So I would have liked to see more races trying to fill up the power vacum left behind by the Goa´uld and the Ori. No one powerful race but many different warring parties.

The question I am more interested in is Pegasus. How the galaxy would look like without the Wraith. The Ancient spend millions of years there so the galaxy must be full of their technology. And with the Wraith gone more focus could be set on exploring them. Also according the Dr. Weir in season 5. There are alot of advanced races hiding from the Wraith.

[StargateMillennium]

I say the iris thing is a plot hole.

I do wish we could see some of the other races in Milky Way too, or at least have them show other races. While it was cool seeing the fight against the Goa'uld, it was also cool suddenly finding an alien we've never seen before.

Also, something that irked me about SGA was how small Pegasus felt. In Milky Way we have several non-human species, some of them not even identified. In Pegasus, it was all wraith and humans. I get they overran the galaxy like a plague but couldn't we at least get some ruins, like a non-human races that the wraith couldn't feed on so they chose to wipe the guys out

[ha'tak_]

I agree with you about Pegasus. Also the idea that the Wraith controlled the whole galaxy. I don´t know how big the galaxy really is but if we compare it with the Milky Way there were hundreds of planets with stargate that the Goa uld had not been to. And with the distance between planets and the Wraiths really bad hyperdrive I just don´t see them being able to have gone to every planet. It does open up a posibility that if the Wraith were gone that other races would appear. If races buried there gates they Wraith could not have been able to reach them do to distance.