posted
That *is* cool. But then they go and use stock footage of the Abydos and Chulak sequences for dial out scenes from the SGC in season 1 (at least according to that site).
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
"...you'd think the DHD would work the same way."
Well, no, since the SGC's dialing computer system is a hodgepodge of reverse-engineered gate opcodes and doesn't emulate a DHD fully. Of course, it'd be more logical if the red ball thingy WERE the symbol of origin instead of just a big Activator Button, but then each DHD would only be valid for the first planet it was transported to (unless the DHDs had some means of recalculating their own galactic position after being shipped elsewhere).
Hmm... actually, I'm not 100% clear on how the chevrons code for a gate's true spatial coordinates. It's more like each is preprogrammed with a certain fixed ID sequence that's always valid for that particular gate, wherever it may be in the galaxy cq. gate network. Which renders the whole constellation dependency moot. Buh?
posted
I see it more as the "send" button on your cell phone. Not especially necessary, but it might speed things up a bit if you know the number is correct. The gates DO communicate with each other to keep in sync due to stellar drift, which is one reason why the Earth gate had to be manually compensated.
How exactly is not known - apparently the Earth computers do more than just physically turning the gate and adding power to it. Gates CAN be manually dialled and powered with a naquadah generator, but they probably were recalibrated properly following enough "open" gate time or something.
"But then they go and use stock footage of the Abydos and Chulak sequences for dial out scenes from the SGC in season 1 (at least according to that site)."
I don't think it's just season one. I'm not sure that they've ever stopped using that footage.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Probably not, but I only read through season one on the site that was referenced
Spinning the Gate and adding a charge at the proper moment to lock the chevron in seems to be all that's needed to dial the Gate. The DHDs simply do it faster (and of course we never actually see the off-world Gates spin). They also make it possible for the Gate's to keep in touch with each other, and do all the other cool operating things they've been shown to do.
Also, there have been some dialing scenes where only six symbols have been keyed in and the big red button is used as the point of origin. But I like the Send Button explanation. A way to tell the Gate, "The sequence I've entered is correct. Open a wormhole." I wonder if there's a "clear" function to the DHD?
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
"I wonder if there's a "clear" function to the DHD?"
There's been at least one occasion where someone started dialing, but didn't finish, and the symbols stayed lit for a while. Perhaps it will clear if you hit the red button without dialing a full address.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
That's not a bad idea.. It's already strange enough that the address has to be keyed in in a particular sequence. Mind you, the "coordinates" system has been basically invalidated by seven years of the show - Jackson's theory established in the movie doesn't hold true here, and in the series was probably just lucky that he got it right the first time. Indeed, it's shown in the season seven finale that at least some symbols are used as an alphabet by the Ancients
Likewise, I'm thinking that Ra somehow disconnected the Abydos gate from the gate system, possibly somehow isolating it from the other gates and system lords. It was basically his own private naquadah mine there anyway, so maybe he tried to use the gate exclusively to himself for a period. This would explain why the Abydos gate didn't go anywhere with the addresses from the cartouche that Daniel discovered. When Apophis came through in the premiere, the gate re-established communication with the network and re-aligned itself to work with normal addresses.
Likewise, the Alpha gate on Earth would eventually re-align once it was reactivated enough times (once in the 40s and once in the early 90s wasn't enough). The Beta gate was probably active as recently as 1000 years ago, and wouldn't have as severe an alignment problem especially as it was hooked up to its DHD.
posted
"This would explain why the Abydos gate didn't go anywhere with the addresses from the cartouche that Daniel discovered. When Apophis came through in the premiere, the gate re-established communication with the network and re-aligned itself to work with normal addresses"
Could also have something to do with the fact that all the symbols on the wall in the cartouch room were hyroglyphs, not Gate symbols. At least, that's what it looked like to me.
But you're right... I hadn't remembered Daniel saying he tried the Abydos Gate. It was connected to its DHD, so stellar drift wouldn't be a problem. Something else must've kept it from working.
Oh... and the Alpha Gate was also activated once in 1969.
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
If a gate was far enough out of alignment, disconnected from the DHD for long enough, reconnecting it wouldn't necessarily help. It wouldn't be able to dial other gates and realign itself.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Maybe this is a way of explaining some problems with the movie. For instance, there was no DHD in the movie. I guess we're supposed to believe it was tucked away in a corner somewhere. There's one in the middle of the room in the pilot ep.
What if Ra nabbed the DHD and disconnected the whole thing from the Gate network, possibly storing it in the cartouch room or some other planet-side facility, to keep wandering Abydosians from playing with the Gate. This wouldn't cut the Gate off from the network, but it would keep anyone who arrived from leaving.
Without a DHD to keep it aligned, the Abydos Gate would have problems with stellar drift just like the Earth Gate. even after Daniel obviously foudn the DHD and reconnected it, it couldn't align itself with the network without being activated from offworld first, which explains why he couldn't dial out.
We're still left with the problem, though, of how the team got back in the movie. Most likely some kind of manual dialing since they knew the Gate had to be spun and charged based on the way their computer dials the Earth Gate.
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
That's not bad... Getting back in the movie could be explained by finding the DHD at some point after Ra was defeated. It could still dial Earth, being close enough that stellar drift wouldn't put it out of commission, but if it were still disconnected from the gate system activating it wouldn't allow it to re-align.
Alternately, they could have simply dialed it manually, falsely assuming that the gate was self-powered. We know that a charged-up gate has enough power if removed from its system to dial out once - it's unlikely, but that could be what they did.
Strangely enough, the Stargate movie novels (which explore the original idea for the Stargate movie universe sequels) never really mention how the gate is dialled. Whenever it comes up, someone "aligns the gate" and it opens. There is no DHD or other machinery mentioned. I wonder how they were going to do it.
posted
I find it hard to accept that they had seen a DHD before the series. It seemed to be an entirely new concept to them.
I think they must have known how to manually dial the Gate and had brought some kind of power source with them to charge it. They also knew that wormhole travel was one-way only and that they would have to dial back. This info most likely came from the as yet unseen Dr. Carter who had been working on the Gate for several years before the Abydos mission.
It's odd that the novels don't go into any more detail than that about something that you would think would be a major point in the believability of the device.
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I find it hard to accept that they had seen a DHD before the series. It seemed to be an entirely new concept to them.
Really? It's been a while since I saw the pilot, but from my memory it seemed like Sam knew what a DHD was and had just never seen one, since she'd never been through the gate and so far as she knew there wasn't one on Earth.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I remember her saying "This is what was missing from the dig at Giza," but I always took that to mean they knew there should have been some kind of control device for the Gate. Wouldn't have precluded them from resorting to manual dialing.
There was also a scene where they discussed how to use the DHD and postulated that there should be one on every world they went to.
However, noone else, including Jack, seemed very surprised by it's existance, which leads me to believe that we're meant to assume it was there in the movie. If it was something Daniel had found and hooked up, I'd think he would have explained that little detail.
posted
Well, there's no "hooking up" at all, as far as we know. I'm guessing it has to be within a certain proximity to the gate, but that's probably about it.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
