Thor (Stargate)

Thor is an extraterrestrial television character that features in Stargate SG-1.

Biography

Thor was a member of the highly advanced race of beings known as the Asgard. Similar to the rest of his kind, he was a clone who had his memories transferred to a new body upon expiry of the old one. Within his people's military, he had reached the rank of Supreme Commander. The Asgard had at some point sheltered a number of human worlds within their territory in the Milky Way galaxy. Such planets were sheltered under the Protected Planets Treaty that was signed with the Goa'uld System Lords. Thor was given custody of the planet Cimmeria that had a primitive human Norse based civilization. To protect it, Thor had created a powerful transportational device that was called by the natives as Thor's Hammer which scanned anyone through the Stargate for a Goa'uld who were transported to a cavern system. The caverns contained the second part of the hammer which was a machine that killed a Goa'uld Symbiote with this being the only means of escape from the underground system. It was through such means that Thor remotely protected the planet from Goa'uld attack. To the natives, he was seen as the Norse mythological god Thor and due to them not being advanced he used holograms to simulate a human form. He had also created an vault called the Hall of Thor's Might with a series of tests for the Cimmerians that determined their mental evolution. Completion of the test meant that their society had evolved to the point that he could reveal his true nature with the system designed to notify him upon successful completion of the trials.

A holographic recording of Thor was first encountered by SG-1 in 1997. Appearing as a humanoid Viking, a holographic message awaited all Goa'uld who visited Cimmeria after they were transported to an underground cavern by Thor's Hammer. When SG-1 visited the planet, both Teal'c and Jack O'Neill were transported to the cavern, where they were greeted by the intimidating hologram.

However, during Teal'c's escape, the Hammer was destroyed, leaving Cimmeria vulnerable to Goa'uld attack. [5] Heru-ur eventually invaded the planet, forcing the Cimmerians to become his slaves and worship him. However, Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter sought Thor's help in saving the people from the System Lords in the so-called Hall of Thor's Might, an elaborate sequence of tests to gauge whether the people of Cimmeria had advanced enough in order to see the Asgard in their true form. Thanks to SG-1's artificial advancement, they were able to inform Thor about the situation on the surface, who soon came to save Cimmeria. Thor admitted to SG-1 that his race had visited the Tau'ri on many occasions, but still considered them too young of a race to ally with against the Goa'uld. [6]

After Jack O'Neill accidentally got the Ancient information of the Repository of Knowledge downloaded into his brain, he eventually managed to contact the Asgard, developing the beginnings of a friendship. [7] Thor eventually had Earth included in the Protected Planets Treaty, safeguarding the planet from a direct Goa'uld attack. [8]

In 2000, Thor's ship, the Beliskner was overtaken by the Replicators, who found the location of Earth, a planet with plenty of raw materials, in the ship's database. The Replicators set a course for Earth, while Thor attempted to stop the Beliskner from reaching the planet. He managed to sabotage the outbound transporters to prevent the Replicators from beaming down, but he got severely injured in the process. Before losing consciousness, he beamed up Jack O'Neill, for whom he had left several recordings with instructions. Eventually, Jack O'Neill, with help from Teal'c and Carter (Daniel Jackson was suffering from appendicitis at the time) was able to destroy the ship and escape through the Stargate which had been beamed aboard earlier. [9]

When the Asgard homeworld was threatened by Replicators several weeks later, Thor, who was impressed by SG-1's primitive but effective tactics to destroy the Replicator-infested Beliskner menacing Earth, came back to Earth by Stargate to request help. He enlisted Carter's help and "less-advanced" ways of thinking in order to save his world. Eventually, Carter came up with the idea of luring away the approaching Replicator-infested ships by using the prototype for the extremely advanced O'Neill class battleship, and then destroying the ship, taking the chasing vessels with it. Thor subsequently rescued O'Neill and Teal'c at the last minute, who were battling Replicators on board a Russian submarine at the time. He promised to one day help the Tau'ri defeat the Goa'uld in return for saving his homeworld. [10]

When Adara II, a planet protected by the Protected Planets Treaty, was attacked by Anubis some time later, Thor was dispatched in a single Beliskner class cruiser. However, Thor's weapons were insufficient to combat Anubis' newly upgraded Ha'tak's, and he was subsequently captured. Anubis probed Thor's mind to find out about Asgard technology, However, Thor managed to tap into the ship's systems instead and render assistance to Jack O'Neill and Teal'c who had come to save him. After the two destroyed the Ha'tak's shield system, the three were beamed back and rescued by two Asgard battleships, although Thor's body lapsed into a coma. [3] Apparently, Thor had downloaded his consciousness into the Ha'tak's database, which he later commandeered and piloted to Earth, where his consciousness was salvaged and later transferred into a new body. [11]

Thor asked again for SG-1's assistance some weeks later after his people's plan to trap the Replicators inside a time-dilation field on the planet Hala backfired. Thor asked the SG-1, using the relatively primitive Prometheus, to land on the planet, discover what went wrong, and rectify the situation by resetting the time-dilation device. Although SG-1 came in contact with the first human-form Replicators, they were eventually successful in activating the device, trapping the Replicators on the planet. [12] In return, Thor personally made an appearance at a secret meeting between the permanent members of Earth's UN Security Council taking place in the Pentagon, to speak on O'Neill's behalf and ensure the SGC retained control over the Earth Stargate. Proving that the Asgard can be canny political operators when it suits them, he used this moment to publicly give Earth advanced shield and weapons technology for the Prometheus, as a token of thanks for all of what SG1 had done...and stated that although future relations with Earth were not contingent on the status Quo of SGC operations and personnel being maintained...it was "preferred" [2]

He later rendered assistance to SG-1 after Jack O'Neill had been cloned by Loki against the wishes of the Asgard High Council. [13]

As the Asgard realized the time-dilation device on Hala would not keep the Replicators bottled up for ever, Thor was sent to collapse Hala's sun into a black hole. However, some Replicators were able to escape before they crossed the black hole's event horizon, which later almost infested the new Asgard homeworld, Orilla. Luckily, O'Neill, who recently had the information contained in the Ancient Repository of Knowledge again downloaded into his brain, managed to came up with an effective weapon to combat the scourge, the Replicator Disruptor. The Replicators were eventually forced to retreat from Orilla. [14]

After Replicator Carter contacted the SGC with false information that Fifth had devised a way to shield the Replicators from the Disruptor, Thor delivered a Disruptor satellite to the Alpha Site, and instructed Teal'c how to position the device. However, the entire plan was an elaborate ruse so that RepliCarter could make her brethren resistant against the Replicator Disruptor. [15]

Some weeks later, the Replicators launched an all-out attack against the Goa'uld, and the SGC was forced to ask Thor for assistance. Thor and Carter devised a way to again modify the Disruptor, although the Replicators quickly adapted. They realized the only way to defeat them would be to destroy all Replicators in one strike using the Dakara Superweapon although Thor's ship was boarded before the plan could be put into action. He was forced to beam Carter down and leave Earth, although he again downloaded his consciousness into the ship's database and later transferred it to a new clone body. [4]

After the SGC became a hub for several alternate realities, Thor was unable to render assistance to SG-1 as he was dealing with a "sensitive matter" in a neighboring galaxy with Heimdall. Instead, the Asgard sent the less likable Kvasir in Thor's place. [16]

Thor summoned the USS Odyssey to the Asgard homeworld Orilla. When the ship arrived, Thor revealed that the last attempt to save the Asgard civilization from their genetic difficulties had failed, and that it had instead left them all with a rapidly progressing disease. He stated that "very soon, we will all...be gone." Thor installed an Asgard Computer core with the entire knowledge base of the Asgard race into the Odyssey's engine room and provided an interactive holographic program designed to assist the humans who would later use the technology. He seemed very proud of this and at first misunderstood Carter's comment that it wouldn't be the same. Before beaming away, Thor received a hug from Carter.

Although some Asgard were still wary of giving Earth such advanced technology, Thor was one of the Asgard who very strongly argued that they could be trusted, having proved themselves. Once again calling Earth and humanity "The Fifth Race", he expressed to Colonel Samantha Carter that now it was humanity's turn to take its place and preserve the future. His one regret in his species passing was that they were unable to help them further.

Thor perished along with the rest of the Asgard race when they caused their planet to self-destruct when the Ori attacked Orilla and the Odyssey

Notes

• Thor was voiced by actor Michael Shanks.
• The character was based on the Norse myth of Thor.

Appearances

• Stargate SG-1:

External Links

• Stargate Wiki Entry

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