Prometheus or X-303 and later BC-303 is a fictional starship that appears in the military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. The ship was first introduced during the show's sixth season in the episode titled "Prometheus", and would go on to become a recurring setting over the remainder of the series as well as being depicted in various spin-off media.
The ship was first written into the show by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, and was designed by production designer Bridget McGuire. As well as McGuire, Mullie and Mallozzi, executive producer Brad Wright and art directors James Robbins and Peter Bodnarus also played a significant role in conceptualising and designing the ship.
Modern day naval vessels were the main influence for the ship's design, with McGuire basing much of the interior on submarines, whilst destroyers and aircraft carriers helped inform much of the ship's exterior.
Development and Production Concept and initial design
Prometheus was first introduced in the episode of the same name, which was written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. Work on designing the spaceship began in 2002, with the Prometheus being imagined by the shows writers as Earth's answer to the Goa'uld mothership. Mullie described wanting to create a ship that was "exactly the opposite of the Goa'uld ships, which are basically big empty rooms", explaining that executive producer Brad Wright wanted a set with objects that could be interacted with by the actors, such as screens, buttons, chairs and flashing lights; none of which could be found on the shows Goa'uld sets. The shows production designer Bridget McGuire and her team began their work around five weeks before filming commenced. According to McGuire, the writers wanted a ship "that looked less like a hi-tech alien vessel, and more like one that had been built for the USAF".
McGuire focused in on the idea of having contemporary sea-going military craft inform both the interior and exterior of the ship's design and had Assistant Art Director Noeleen Tobin research a collection of reference images and schematics to help the process. Tobin came back with reference material the designers could use for inspiration. Images of ship bridges, engine rooms and other areas of various United States Aircraft carriers and submarines. McGuire wanted to "incorporate many features we see in military vessels today, and adapt them for space travel", imagining Prometheus as "more or less a destroyer in Space". McGuire specifically wanted to include "confined spaces, low ceilings and plenty of exposed conduits and piping" from submarines and aircraft control towers into the ship's design. In her concept, McGuire knew the ship would focus around a bridge space, engine room and that the ship would also contain a hangar bay to house the smaller X-302 fighter craft, although they would not initially be building that part of the set.
After putting together some sketches, McGuire shared her concept with art directors Peter Bodnarus and James Robbins, both of whom then built upon McGuire's ideas, coming up with their own drawings before reconvening to decide upon a more definite, final look for the ship. Robbins was then responsible for developing the exterior schematics and the interior workings of the ship. In his plans for the ship, Robbins purposely chose "function over form", making the ship "utilitarian" in its design, describing it as "not a pretty ship". Furthermore, Robbins reflected the writers desire that the ship "had alien technology in it, but we didn't see that". Robbins created deck plans for the ship, including positioning all of the different components and systems vital to the ship's function. Robbins also imagined the ship's propulsion, armament and crew complement in his specifications. Although ultimately not used, Robbin's conceptualised that Prometheus would have its own unique hyperdrive whereby the ship travelled through hyperspace on rails that projected from the nacelles, as opposed to forming a window like other ships from the series. Meanwhile, Bodnarus was responsible for developing drawings of the set interiors, such as the bridge, corridors, engine room and air lock. Bodnarus began by building a three-dimensional or virtual set on the computer and set about experimenting "with various views and develop a sense of depth" in the interior spaces of the ship. Once completed, Bodnarus was responsible for creating the final blueprints from which the set would be constructed.
Construction and sets
The set was originally constructed on Stage 6 at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby, Canada. The set was designed and built so that it could be easily taken apart, either entirely or as individual sections; with walls, windows and doors built on wheels or hinges allowing them to be moved for better access during filming. Two main spaces were initially constructed, the bridge and a multi-purpose room, which were interconnected by a hallway. The multi-purpose room was designed to be redressable, initially serving as the ship's engine room, dining room and storage room. The hallways were constructed in a figure of 8 configuration allowing for walk and talk scenes to loop round and round the ship as per the needs to the scene, whilst doors and bulkheads could be moved into place to change the layout of the hallways. Construction of the set was done to a "very tight schedule", with set decorator Mark Davidson describing it as "an incredible collaboration of different departments to get it as fast as we did". Three different build crews were put together, one for constructing the beams, another the bulkheads and the third crew built the windows and walls. As the set was not going to be entirely complete by the time filming was scheduled to commence, the story for the first episode to feature the ship was changed slightly to reflect the fact that the ship was still under construction. Once filming commenced on the episode "Prometheus", set decorator Mark Davidson and the construction team were still actively building the bridge set, meaning director Peter Woeste was limited to only filming in the multi-purpose room for the first day of shooting.
Dressing the set, the naval theme was continued, whilst also looking to make the decor slightly more "futuristic" and a "cross between military and alien". Initially 15 flatscreen monitors were used to decorate the ship, whilst the older CRT monitors were built into set pieces, with cutouts over-the-top "to make them look a little more high end". Ladders were installed around the ship to give the impression of the scope of Prometheus and that the ship had multiple levels. Numerous pieces of electronic test equipment were also purchased and then taken apart, reconfigured, combined with various pieces made by the model shop and then built into various consoles and set pieces to provide the actors with switches, buttons and lights to interact with. Other features, such as the star-map console on the bridge were made from plexiglass whilst Davidson constructed the ship's crystal trays from mainframe computer drawers. Davidson combined the more futuristic elements with what he thought of as more "retro" pieces, such as corded telephones and fire extinguishers and a sink/toilet unit from an aircraft.
As a cost saving measure the Prometheus set was redressed to also serve as the Earth ship Daedalus which was introduced in the second season of Stargate Atlantis. The set would then be reused again as the setting for more Earth spaceships and stations, including the Apollo and Midway Station in Stargate Atlantis, Odyssey and Korolev in SG-1 and finally the Hammond in Stargate Universe. The set was expanded upon for its use as subsequent ships and stations, with new consoles, fixtures, corridors and rooms. In 2010 at the end of the first season of Stargate Universe the set was taken down and placed into storage, before eventually being entirely dismantled for auction.
Filming and lighting
The set was fitted with hundreds of fluorescent lights built directly into the walls, ceilings and floors. Director of photography Jim Menard noted that this meant filming could often rely on the practical lighting, "we can shoot with just the ship lighting and then do if you do a close-up you can fix up their shadows on their eyes and things". When it first came to filming in the set, director Peter Woeste along with chief lighting technician Rick Dean and directors of photography Jim Menard and Andrew Wilson had to work very quickly on their initial lighting design for Prometheus, only having access to the set from the day before filming commenced. Wilson and Woeste decided that whilst the Prometheus was still in the hangar it, as it would be in earlier scenes of the story, it would be under white industrial interior lighting, allowing for some leeway in fully realising the ship's fully-operational look. After its introductory episodes of "Prometheus" and "Unnatural Selection", Menard felt the ship's lighting was a "little bit red, white and blue" and hoped to "get away from that", whilst director Peter DeLuise felt it was "too bright" onboard and along with Woeste wanted to take the look of the ship "darker" and "moodier" for future episodes. The pair implemented their changes in the episode "Memento", looking to more closely mirror the bridge of an aircraft carrier, relying predominantly on dark-blue lighting with DeLuise believing this could be justified as this was the first time the ship was being depicted as fully-operational.
CGI models and exterior
The Prometheus ship model was created entirely as a computer generated image by the visual effects studio Image Engine, with the studio basing their work on Robbin's drawings. Rainmaker Digital Effects also worked on various shots of the ship over the course of the show. Many of the visual effects shots were designed to be reused throughout the show as a money-saving effort. This included the shots such as Frank Simmons (John DeLancie) being blown out of an airlock in the episode "Prometheus", which would later be altered for the episode "Memento", replacing Simmons with the hyperdrive core module. Shots of the Prometheus flying by or landing on different planets were also altered and reused in episodes such as "Memento" and "Beachhead".
Outside of the bridge set a greenscreen was hung allowing for visual effect shots to be added, however as a cost-saving alternative to a star field visual effect production could swap the greenscreen for a black curtain that had small pieces of mirror attached, which when lit gave the effect of a star field. The multi-purpose room window also featured a window and greenscreen which would be used for shots of the ship's engine core.
In season six through eight the ship had two pods, or nacelles on either side. Onscreen and in Robbin's original drawings these were intended to be a form of propulsion. In season nine, these were reconceived as hanger bays from which the F-302 could launch.
Writing