Stargate: Continuum was written by Brad Wright and directed by Martin Wood. Some scenes for this film were already shot at the end of March 2007, but the original start date was set for May 22, 2007 at Vancouver's Bridge Studios.
The production budget was US$7 million. Due to the postponement of this film until the 5th season of Stargate Atlantis was airing, there is a continuity error with Carter and Mitchell's rank.
In the ending credits they are listed as lieutenant colonels. However when they fly the F-15s they are each wearing the rank of colonel. This is due to the fact that during filming producers realized that the film would probably be released after Carter character had been promoted on Atlantis.
In the season 5 premiere of that show, Sam, already a colonel, leaves Atlantis to attend the extraction, thus setting this film about a year after The Ark of Truth.
The original draft for the film started with a view of the Tok'ra city, but Brad Wright eventually decided that the film should start in Stargate Command (SGC) to show what SG-1 represented.
When writing lines for the character Jack O'Neill, Wright tried to write lines that felt "natural" and not "forced," saying it was of major importance. The inclusion of many recurring characters from the series Stargate SG-1 was decided on to make old fans feel more "welcome" to the new film.
The unnamed Captain of the Achilles' dead body was originally supposed to be revealed when SG-1 traveled back to Earth; Wright commented on the case, calling it "gross".
Richard Dean Anderson was not supposed to appear at the start of the film, where he was killed. According to Wright, he was only set to appear in the alternate timeline in Antarctica because that's what Wright "asked him to do."
Due to a scheduling conflict, actor Michael Shanks was unavailable to shoot the scenes in the Arctic. However, Jackson was on the boat with Cameron Mitchell and Samantha Carter in the preceding scenes.
In order to make his disappearance plausible, Wright decided that Jackson would develop frostbite after stepping in water and be unable to continue with the others.
When commenting on the dialogue scenes, Wright commented that scenes like that would be "cut off" because of the time constraints in the Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis episodes, and further commented that they could keep these scenes since the film is "longer" than the episodes.
The film includes scenes filmed at the U.S. Navy's Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station in the Arctic, 200 nautical miles (230 mi; 370 km) north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. These scenes feature Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping and Ben Browder.
They were filmed from March 23 to 29, 2007. The film also features the USS Alexandria (SSN-757). The Arctic filming included scenes shot on the ice, scenes shot with the Alexandria as a backdrop, scenes shot on board the Alexandria, and shots of the Alexandria surfacing and submerging.
Because of the minimal facilities, the Arctic scenes were filmed with only the three actors and a four-man crew. Director Martin Wood worked as an extra in one scene (as "Major Wood"), as did another member of the film crew.
The captain of the Alexandria, Cmdr. Mike Bernacchi, and members of her crew played themselves. Barry L. Campbell, head of operations at the San Diego-based U.S. Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory, who had arranged the opportunity to film in Arctic, also appeared as a seaman.
Writer Brad Wright also had a cameo appearance, as an F-15 pilot. The film is dedicated to the memory of Paul McCann and Anthony Huntrod, who lost their lives during an accident under the ice cap on the submarine HMS Tireless (S88) at the time of filming.
The film took 19 days to shoot, plus five days of shooting in the Arctic (they were there for seven days). The film, Continuum was placed in Guinness World Records in the category for farthest north film shoot.
The film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 25, 2008, attended by the cast. The film was released on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 29, 2008.
The film was also released on August 6, 2008 in Australia and was released in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2008 after being broadcast on the British TV channel, Sky1 on August 12.
On its debut in the United Kingdom and Ireland Stargate: Continuum received 543,000 viewers, placing the film on first place in the top ten broadcasts for Sky One. The film would go on to gross over US$8 million in the United States.
The film premiered on Sci-Fi Channel in the US on April 3, 2009. A reviewer for Sky1 called the film a "thoroughly enjoyable romp." Nix from Sci Fi Cool said in his review, "it ends exactly the same way that most, if not all, SG1 episodes usually end: It leaves you satisfied, and wanting more."
Reviewer Christopher Monfette of IGN gave the film 7 out of 10 and said it was a decent film, but ultimately did not meet the "level of great science fiction". Don Houston from DVD Talk commented that the "budget was too low" for the writers to "support the ideas at hand".
Mark Wilson from About.com said the film was just another way for the producers to return to some of their favorite characters, but concluded that it was a "solid" film.
Darren Sumner and David Read from GateWorld called it a "great movie", and said it was even better than Stargate: The Ark of Truth. Dean Winkelspecht said it was "one of the better direct-to-video" releases that year.
Stargate: Continuum won the High-Def Disc Awards 2008 category for Best Nontheatrical Blu-ray. The film was nominated for 6 Constellation Awards in 2008, the results were announced on July 11, 2009.
The film won one award out of six nominations. Claudia Black received the award for "Best Female Performance in a 2008 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series" for her portrayal of Vala Mal Doran.
The film was also nominated for a total of 11 Leo Awards in 2009. The results were announced on May 8 and 9, 2009, the film won three awards:
Brad Wright won in the category "Best Screenwriting in a Feature Length Drama", Michael Shanks won "Lead Performance by a Male in a Feature Length Drama" for his portrayal of Daniel Jackson and the three production crew members Paul Sharpe, Iain Pattison and Graeme Hughes won "Best Overall Sound in a Feature Length Drama".
The two Stargate direct-to-DVD movies to date, Stargate: Continuum and Stargate: The Ark of Truth, were re-released in the United States as a Double-Pack DVD on March 3, 2009; the Double-Pack is also available on Blu-ray.
A third Stargate SG-1 film to follow Continuum has been permanently shelved. If made, it would have reportedly centered around the character of Jack O'Neill and would be titled Stargate: Revolution.
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