Is it just me, or is Vancouver just a major hub for science fiction? This week, I’m profiling yet another science fiction show: Stargate SG1. I’ll admit it – I didn’t watch this show from beginning to end, but I did watch the movie and I actually really liked it. You gotta admit, the whole portal travel thing was pretty cool.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this show, it’s based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. The story of Stargate SG-1 begins about a year after the events of the feature film, when the United States government learns that a network of ancient alien devices called Stargates connects a vast multitude of planets within our Milky Way galaxy, facilitating near-instantaneous interstellar travel. Later episodes reveal that this network is capable of spanning not just planets within the Milky Way, but with sufficient power, can provide intergalactic travel as well.

The show did so well that it actually had not one, but two spinoffs – an animated series called Stargate Infinity and another TV series, Stargate Atlantis. The cool thing about these shows is that they’re mostly Canadian produced – Atlantis was also filmed in Vancouver.

Image courtesy of Stargate Wiki

This map shows a very quick view of the filming locations they used for this show. If you drill down a bit further, you’ll notice that the locations marked on this map are as follows:

  • Bordertown in Port Coquitlam
  • Hycroft Heritage Mansion
  • Vancouver Art Gallery
  • Simon Fraser University

…and many other memorable Vancouver landmarks. In fact, here’s a fully interactive map you can play with.

Stargate SG-1 stars Richard Dean Anderson (aka MacGyver… another show filmed in Vancouver!), Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and a whole host of others. It was on air for 10 glorious seasons and you can get the complete series on Amazon for only $99.99. Talk about a steal – I mean, the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is much more expensive (boo!).