Stargate Clamps: Not What You’d Expect

It is amazing to think that you can look at a piece of set decoration seen on screen in your favorite television show for over a decade and be astonished to discover that it was made from something so different than what it was intended for. This actually happens all the time in the business, but movie magic rarely keeps us from seeing through the façade.

Such is with two of the four red clamps used to hold the Stargate in place in the Embarkation Room at Stargate Command. The clamps are based on the look of those used in Devlin and Emmerich’s 1994 feature film, and reintroduced to television in “Children of the Gods.” The intricate mechanical components meant to hold the top two corners of the gate in place are actually pieces of a common cleaning appliance — the metal strainer used to wring a mop of excess water.

Stargate Set Decorator Mark Davidson revealed this fun fact to Propworx during our ten-day inventory of the various pieces in Vancouver. It’s a fine example of his ability to recognize something which looks interesting and cannibalize it to create something wholly different on the screen. Just add red paint and connect it to a “concrete” wall and Stargate, and snap! The illusion is completed.

Davidson, who has worked on all three television incarnations of Stargate, is responsible for filling every set we see with set dressing. He also created the numerous electronic boxes seen throughout Stargate Command. These BLU’s, or “Blinky Light Units” as Mark has coined them, are responsible for making the set come to life, rather than leaving us with the unsatisfying alternative of blank, concrete walls.