Intergalactic disease among humans

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

Well, aren't most of the humans in the SG universe in small tribes or tiny, primitive cities? .

Yes, but they also normally are exposed to gate travellers. Especally true in Pegasus. SG-1 found a few civilizations that had lost contact with gate travel.

There's hyperspace travel too so the "isolation" component is imperfect. It's more like Earth has been the isolated one.

It might even be possible that the Stargate has a "bio-filter" like Trek transporters with the few cases we've seen of disease being isolated failures of the system.

[Kale]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It might even be possible that the Stargate has a "bio-filter" like Trek transporters with the few cases we've seen of disease being isolated failures of the system.

It would make sense for the gate builders to do this, and be a convenient handwave for the show to explain why the Black Death or its equivalent hasn't killed everyone. @:-)

[ULFGARD]

Originally Posted by zylosan

In even a mildly realistic campagin, the SG teams would have long sense brought home something nasty that the earth has no resistance against.

A big factor in the development of disease is the presence and varity of domestic and wild animals. Some of our nastest disease come from the animals we keep. New planet, new eco system = lots of opp for death

Of course, in a mildly realistic campaign, they would have had to find translators for pretty much everyone they encountered. Common disease was left out (like language) because it wasn't that much fun for a series. It probably wouldn't be fun in a roleplaying setting either, at least one with the same "adventure mode" feel of SG-1 or Atlantis.

[Kale]

Originally Posted by ULFGARD

Of course, in a mildly realistic campaign, they would have had to find translators for pretty much everyone they encountered. Common disease was left out (like language) because it wasn't that much fun for a series. It probably wouldn't be fun in a roleplaying setting either, at least one with the same "adventure mode" feel of SG-1 or Atlantis.

Yeah, having the SG teams spending weeks in quarantine after every trip wouldn't have made for an exciting show.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by ULFGARD

Of course, in a mildly realistic campaign, they would have had to find translators for pretty much everyone they encountered.

Yeah that's one thing that always struck me about the show as it completely ignores one of the basic premises of the film (and the entire reason Jackson is even there). That bugged me almost as much as the completely bizarre changes to O'Neil; rendering him, IMO, unrecognizable as the same character. Between these two it took me forever to like the show.

[dcarson]

If I ever run a Stargate campaign the assumption will be that all the human planets speak gao'uld. Some places the language has drifted enough that you use the accented rules. A few planets managed to revert to a mangled version of whatever language their ancestors spoke before they were taken but even then you will find enough that also speak gao'uld to get by. So reasonable skill in gao'uld will be required for all first contact/exploration team members.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by dcarson

If I ever run a Stargate campaign the assumption will be that all the human planets speak gao'uld. Some places the language has drifted enough that you use the accented rules. A few planets managed to revert to a mangled version of whatever language their ancestors spoke before they were taken but even then you will find enough that also speak gao'uld to get by. So reasonable skill in gao'uld will be required for all first contact/exploration team members.

More like they are Bi lingual, with Gao'uld being the 'noble tongue' and the accetral language being the 'common tongue' remember the premisus isn't that the Gao'uld concoured the people, but co-copped an existing role.

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Stargate has a tendancy to devote the odd episode to issues that would happen every time they contacted a new planet, like translation issues or new diseases. As incongruous as this might be it does mean that the sereis isn't more repetative than already is.

I guess the next question is how well could medicine deal with the spontanious influx of new disease from TLs 8 upwards?

[teviet]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Yeah that's one thing that always struck me about the show as it completely ignores one of the basic premises of the film (and the entire reason Jackson is even there). That bugged me almost as much as the completely bizarre changes to O'Neil; rendering him, IMO, unrecognizable as the same character. Between these two it took me forever to like the show.

Bugged me for a while too, but eventually I partitioned it away as dramatic necessity or imposition from outside the 4th wall, like rubber-suit humanoid aliens, or English-speaking movie-Nazis. That is, what "really" happens is that they're all speaking their own language, or Goa'uld, and Daniel or Teal'c is translating, but we're watching the substantially-equivalent abridged version of the story.

And, as DPC points out, they do address these things in some episodes; basically saying "We know that this is an issue, and we've thought of ways of dealing with it, we just don't want to spend every freakin' episode dealing with it".

TeV