Every Stargate Spin-Off Series Ranked

The spin-off game can be a tricky one, and there's no telling which property has the potential (or is handled well enough) to become a franchise. For instance, when Roland Emmerich's 1994 sci-fi film "Stargate" dropped in 1994, few could have guessed that it would eventually become a small screen spin-off machine big enough to rival the likes of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and the One Chicago franchise.  

Yet, that's exactly how things turned out for the movie. From "Stargate" rose "Stargate SG-1," the remixed and recast TV adaptation, which explored further corners of the "Stargate" universe in ways that proved enticing enough to carry the show for an impressive 10 seasons. The series constantly experimented with new concepts and characters, and admittedly, they weren't all winners. (Sorry, Sam J. Jones' Aris Boch, it just didn't work out the way it did with Claudia Black's Vala Mal Doran.) Still, the "Stargate" universe expanded efficiently enough to warrant additional films that continued the story of "SG-1" ("Stargate: The Ark of Truth" and "Stargate: Continuum," both of which premiered in 2008), a horde of documentaries and specials, and even a bunch of different games. 

And then, of course, there are the spin-offs. To date, there are no fewer than four "Stargate: SG-1" offshoots, all of which have a clear connection to the original show but also explore other corners of its universe. They have their own likable casts of characters to boot, and they focus on slightly different but no less important things than Jack O'Neill's (Richard Dean Anderson) SG-1 team. It's up for debate whether any of these spin-offs are better than the original series, but they all add their own dose of flavor to the "Stargate" franchise.

The latest and unfortunately worst of the four "Stargate SG-1" spin-offs is "Stargate Origins," which admittedly was always doomed by its format. A one-season, 10-episode web miniseries that effectively existed to drive fans toward MGM's Stargate Command subscription service, creator-writers Mark Ilvedson and Justin Michael Terry and director/EP Mercedes Bryce Morgan never really got their just desserts with this one ... especially since all those episodes were just 10 minutes long each. (In all fairness, this was a couple of years before Quibi's launch and tragic demise in 2020 poisoned the well for studio-produced, high-end short-form shows, so no one involved had any way to know just how cursed this type of media really was.)

Aside from format and platform issues, though, "Stargate Origins" isn't bad. It's effectively a movie-length look into the early life of Catherine Langford (Ellie Gall), the daughter of Stargate discoverer Paul Langford (Connor Trinneer) and a major figure in unveiling its secrets. Catherine has already been a recurring character in the "Stargate" movie and "SG-1" alike. Here, she's front and center as one of the first people who step through the rediscovered Stargate in a brand new adventure the franchise had never depicted before, thanks to some Goa'uld memory meddling that makes even her forget the whole mission to rescue his father from the planet Abydos.

"Stargate Origins" is a very "Stargate" adventure that just happens to unfold in a very un-"Stargate" format. As such, fans might want to track down the movie cut of the series, dubbed "Stargate Origins: Catherine." It provides a far more easily digestible way to enjoy this particular story.

The sole animated series in the "Stargate" franchise, "Stargate Infinity" falls in the "could've been a contender" bracket. On paper, it boasts one of the most interesting stories under the "Stargate" umbrella. The French-American Fox/Disney Channel/M6 channel show only ran for a single 26-episode season from September 2002 to March 2003, but it managed to expand the property's horizons in multiple ways ... not least of which was the fact that it took place three decades in the main show's future. 

"Stargate Infinity" focuses on a team that doesn't much care for the Stargate Command. After grizzled SGC veteran Gus Bonner (Dale Wilson) is blamed for an incident that leads to his team's demise and a dangerous alien attack, he flees through the Stargate with a ragtag group of misfits and has to hop from planet to planet in the hopes of clearing his name ... while, of course, helping those he and his young team encounter during their desperate quest. 

Hopping from planet to planet (in the hopes of figuring out a major secret) while being chased by a mysterious villain (Da'Kyll, voiced by Mark Acheson) is a fun premise that offers an universe's worth of possibilities. "Infinity" knew what it had, too, and made sure to introduce numerous plot lines and character arcs that would no doubt have yielded interesting payoffs in the future. Unfortunately, the show was canceled after just one season, and its many unresolved secrets have yet to be resolved on the screen.

Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper's "Stargate Universe" took steps to bring a touch of classic sci-fi in the "Stargate" franchise by putting a group of characters in a spaceship in the middle of nowhere, with the simple mission of trying to find their way back home. After a project at the Stargate Command's Icarus base goes badly astray, a last-minute Stargate maneuver saves Earth but leaves the survivors of the project stranded on a massive abandoned spaceship. Here, the group has to figure out how to survive, study the vessel's many mysteries, and hopefully find their way back somehow. 

"Stargate Universe" puts its character development points into exploration and interpersonal relationships instead of the somewhat more explosive antics of the SG-1 team ... though, thanks to the presence of Colonel Everett Young (Louis Ferreira) and his ilk, it can also summon that action at the drop of the hat when needs be. Still, the driving forces of the show tend to fall on the non-violent end of the "Stargate" character spectrum. From uncontested (but not exactly untroubled) protagonist Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) to unconventional math whiz Eli Wallace (David Blue) and International Oversight Committee rep Camile Wray (Ming-Na Wen), the show's cast of characters really pushes the envelope of the franchise's traditional military sci-fi genre. 

Ultimately, "Stargate Universe" is an interesting experiment that takes everything that's good in the franchise and adapts it to a more science-minded space-faring setting. The end result couldn't make it past two seasons on Syfy, but there's more out there for fans of the series: The tales of "Stargate Universe" have a number of complementary Kino webisodes known as "Stargate Universe Kino," and its story has continued in comic book form.

Some lists just arrive with that podium place predetermined, don't they? While the "Stargate" franchise has plenty of spin-offs, only one of them has managed to allure the audience enough to stay on air beyond its sophomore season. That honor falls to "Stargate Atlantis," the very first "Stargate SG-1" spin-off that was also most clearly connected to the original series. 

Premiering in 2004 and airing for five seasons, "Stargate Atlantis" spun into existence after "Stargate SG-1" season 7 established the existence of the legendary Atlantis, and the Stargate Command put together a team to figure out its secrets. "Stargate Atlantis" follows the adventures of said team, led by John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan). They immediately discover a world (well, a galaxy) of unforeseen threats and possibilities that exists alongside the regular "Stargate" universe but adequately apart from it for the spin-off to establish itself. 

Villains like the hive-minded Wraith ghouls and the WWII-coded Genii prove both entertaining and formidable, and the seemingly primitive Athosians are fun and reliable allies who gift the show with one of its best characters, Teyla Emmagan (Rachel Luttrell). Speaking of characters, this is also the show that introduced the world to the first truly badass incarnation of one Jason Momoa, whose almost hilariously stoic and capable Ronan Dex serves as the resident noble warrior of the team from season 2 onwards.