Stargate Origins: Catherine (2018)

Stargate Origins: Catherine (2018)

Dir. Mercedes Bryce Morgan

If you've watched the Stargate (1994) movie, you'll maybe remember the little girl at the story's beginning that gets given an ancient gold amulet by her father, or the elderly woman that likewise gives a gift to archaeologist Daniel Jackson before he sets out on his journey.

In both cases it was Catherine Langford, played by Kelly Vint and Viveca Lindfors, respectively. Stargate Origins: Catherine has that same character, but is set ten years after the little girl receives her gift in the movie's timeline.

Her father, Professor Paul Langford (Erik Holland in the movie, now played by Connor Trinneer), is still trying to figure out what the circular device he found at Giza was used for. SGO's Catherine (Ellie Gall) is helping out.

Originally a ten-episode web series lasting approximately ten minutes each, the version that I watched is the joined together 104 minutes 'feature cut' of the story. In a scenario that at first seems to contradict the movie's continuity but works itself out so that it kind of doesn't, the professor gets into trouble with a political force of the era, which means trouble also for his daughter and a couple of weak sidekicks.

- Catherine, Professor Paul, and some other guy that was perfunctory to the plot. -

In many ways the odds were stacked against it from the beginning. Atop the challenges that low budget productions face, it has the same issues that most prequel stories have. It's assembled from episodes, so has pacing problems when viewed as a film. And the acting is mostly pretty poor. None of which, however, explains the awful comedy – that's simply bad writing. I'd like to report that it's enjoyable despite its many failings, but I can't because it really isn't.

The most successful thing about the whole endeavour is arguably the costumes, which are reminiscent of how SG:1 dressed/characterised its Goa'uld system lords but still distinct enough to be its own thing. I'd like to add a pic to illustrate the point, but seeing it would be spoiler. If you're okay with that, you can see it HERE (link opens an unpublished blog image in a new tab).

The Stargate universe is varied enough that it can accommodate smaller scale stories within the larger whole, and while the titling seems to allow for other 'origins' to be made, at time of writing none other than Catherine exist. If that ever changes, I'll link to their respective post(s).