Stargate Origins

Strap in, folks – Showmax is taking you through time and space using an ancient Egyptian/alien device in not one, but two Stargate series here.

First up there’s two-season Stargate Universe (2009-2011), the third spin-off from the 1994 movie Stargate with James Spader in the lead. Then there’s the more recent 2018 updated series Stargate Origins. What’s really cool about Origins is that you can jump in without having seen the movie or any of the series – and the 10 episodes are only around 10 minutes each, so it’s a quick and fun sci-fi binge of just under two hours if you watch back-to-back.

It follows Catherine Lanford and her father Professor Paul (they were in the original movie as the people who found the Stargate) as they search for the true origins of the device and how it arrived on earth. Their work is interrupted by power-crazy Nazis, only for the prof to escape through the gate and leaving his daughter to search through space and time for him.

While there are plot-holes, it’s still a fun series, reviews Nick Mangione from geek.com: “Stargate Origins feels much closer to the original Stargate film but it’s also got an old-Hollywood feel. It takes on more of that Indiana Jones-like ‘let’s get stuff done’ and going headfirst into it and not thinking about it so much.”