How Long Did Project Giza Operate?

[ivorygates]

How long was Project Giza in operation before the Stargate was successfully activated? I remember Catherine saying something about fifteen years, but I can't tract down a source for that...

Comments

[malnpudl]

The best resource I know for info like this is Arduinna's Stargate Handbook. It's incomplete, since it wasn't updated for the last few seasons, but everything there is marvelously detailed, documented, and accurate. You can find what you're looking for on the Timeline: 1900-1994 page.

[ivorygates]

Thank you! Arduinna actually has a number of things on her page/s that are flat-out wrong (Jack O'Neill's birth year; she says 1957, props canon says 1952, there is no corroboration for a specific date in aired canon) or deduction-from-assumption (the year-of-death of Daniel Jackson's parents, which is predicated on her choice of his specific year of birth, which we do not know), but the timeline *did* give me the episode to check the transcript for the information in [48 Hours] so: yay!

[arduinna]

I popped in to answer the question then saw this; I hope you don't mind if I explain my reasoning for the ages.

Jack specifically says he's 40 years old in 1997 (during "Brief Candle"), which I take to mean he was born in 1957; and Daniel says he was 4 years old in 1969 (during "1969"), which I take to mean that he was born in 1965. (I use the same method to determine Teal'c's birth year as 1899 or 1900, when he says he's 101 in "The Light". Sam never gave her age, so I never listed a birth year for her.)

I know not everyone agrees with me, but I take spoken canon over prop canon every time.

Of course there's some wiggle room into the previous year for a birth year based on a stated age, but it's simpler to go with the most obvious correlation year when it comes to creating a site (and timeline) like mine.

So that's why they're listed like that. :)

[ivorygates]

No, not at all! In fact, I appreciate it that you state right up front in your Wiki -- which, no matter what I've said here, is still my first "go to" in checking canon -- the basis for making your judgment calls when there's a potentially debatable area.

As you do, I take spoken canon first, viewed (visible in the shot of the aired show) second, and prop canon (information contained in props and scene-dressing) third. In cases where scene and prop are extensive and consistently agree, I take them over a line of dialogue if the line of dialogue is ambiguous. Unfortunately (as you know) there are cases in which prop canon disagrees with itself, spoken canon flatly contradicts itself, and they all contradict each other. At that point, the wise fan throws up her hands and just goes with what's most probable.

Seriously, would it have killed them to produce a show bible and stick to it?

[ivorygates]

Thank you! Arduinna actually has a number of things on her page/s that are flat-out wrong (Jack O'Neill's birth year; she says 1957, props canon says 1952, there is no corroboration for a specific date in aired canon) or deduction-from-assumption (the year-of-death of Daniel Jackson's parents, which is predicated on her choice of his specific year of birth, which we do not know), but the timeline *did* give me the episode to check the transcript for the information in [48 Hours] so: yay!

ETA: Found the citation in the transcript for "Children of the Gods" but it doesn't mention Catherine's involvement directly:


CARTER: (offscreen) Amazing. This is what was missing from the dig at Giza.

Cut to Carter, who is inspecting the dial-home device with awe.

CARTER: (Smiling beautifully, and growing more excited with each second) This is how they controlled it. It took us 15 years and 3 supercomputers to MacGyver a system for the gate on Earth.