To not get excited by this news is impossible, but at the same one can’t help but be just a little cynical. That said, there is evidence to suggest that MGM might actually be taking this friggin’ awesome sci-fi franchise seriously once again.

For fans of Stargate have never really forgiven SyFy for canceling Stargate Universe right when it was getting really interesting. But at Comic-Con in San Diego, the official announcement was made…and a teaser trailer was shown.

MGM will launch its own streaming service to house the new digital series called Stargate: Origins. It will consist of 10 episodes, which will arrive on the streaming service in the fall. The streaming platform is called Stargate Command.

A report from Variety suggests that the show will focus on Catherine Langford, “daughter of archaeologist Paul Langford, who discovered the ancient Stargate [on the Giza Plateau].” In the established canon, she was a young girl when the Stargate was first discovered.

In previous iterations of the franchise, Catherine has been played by Elizabeth Hoffman, Nancy McClure, Glynis Davies, Kelly Vint, and Viveca Lindfors. It’s unclear who will play Catherine in this new show, or what age she will be, but Variety says that the character “will go on an adventure in order to save the Earth from terrifying darkness”.

No mention has been made as to where this fits in with brilliant SG1 story The Torment of Tantalus (season 1, episode 11) when Ernest Littlefield – Catherine Langford’s fiancé – went through the gate when it was activated for the first time, that we know of, in 1945 and was subsequently stranded and unable to return home.

…the planet Ernest travelled to was not on the cartouche they found on Abydos…

Unknowns Justin Michael Terry and Mark Ilvedson will pen the series. Mercedes Bryce Morgan will direct, having cut her teeth on short films and episodes of FANtasies and Antidote 15.

The Stargate Command streaming service will apparently have both free and paid elements. MGM’s Chris Ottinger has described it as “a definitive hub for the Stargate fanbase to continue to enjoy news and content, both old and new”.

MGM president Kevin Conroy describes the new series “as a thank you to fans who have been keeping the spirit of the franchise alive for nearly 25 years”.

Sounds to us like it’s going to be more Blood & Chrome than anything resembling SG1 or Atlantis. Still, anything is better than nothing.