Paul Langford
| Paul Langford | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Biographical information | |
| Planet of origin | Earth |
| Death | before 1969 |
| Gender | |
| Race | Tau'ri |
| Species | Human |
| Status | Deceased |
| Information about family | |
| Child | Catherine Langford |
| Socio-political information | |
| Occupation | Archeologist |
| Salutation | Professor |
| Out of Stargate universe information | |
| Portrayed by |
Erik Holland (Stargate) Duncan Fraser (SG-1) Connor Trinneer (Origins) |
| First appearance | Stargate |
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Professor Paul Langford was an archeologist and a scientist. He was the one who found and studied the Stargate.
Biography
After discovering the Stargate in 1928, Professor Langford led up a reseach team working on the gate during World War II. He didn't know what it was and President Roosevelt thought it was some kind of weapon or something. In 1945, his daughter was 21 years old. With Ernest Littlefield, Catherine Langford's fiance, they experienced that the ring begin to shake when the fifth chevron is engaged.
Littlefield thought that the ring might have a combinaison of symbols to activate. And the day came when they finaly established a wormhole by chance. Littlefield volunteered to pass through the puddle, but he disappeared. Langford then returned home and announced to Catherine that her fiance died in a lab explosion this day. Since this moment, he stopped all experiences on the Stargate (SG1: "The Torment of Tantalus").
Catherine Langford began her own research on the Stargate in the late sixties from scratch as her father didn't leave any note nor documentation because of the military (SG1: "1969").
Character's evolution
Stargate (1928)
Driving towards the Great Pyramids by car, Professor Langford and his daughter Catherine are welcomed by an Arabic interpreter who says they found a big surprise. He guides him to Foreman Taylor who shows him a big coverstone. Soon after, They assist with Catherine at the erection of a big circular artefact from the ground.
Then, a worker announces them he found something beneath the ring. He asks then his daughter to stay behind. Looking at it, Langford thinks it a kind of fossil.[1]
"The Torment of Tantalus" (1997/1945)
In 1997, Daniel Jackson is watching some declassified documents from 1945 showing Professor Langford working on the Stargate with scientists and the Air Force. He's then astonished to see a wormhole established and a man with a diving gear walking through the gate. With Colonel Jack O'Neill, they also see the wormhole disengage and the lifeline cut.
Daniel goes to Catherine Langford's home and shows her all the documents. Catherine then learns that her fiance, Ernest Littlefield, didn't died in a lab explosion, like her father told her, but was the man who passed through the Stargate 52 years ago.
"1969" (1969)
In 1969, a mid-forties Catherine Langford welcomes Captain Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson (who went back in time due to a solar flare). Daniel, in order to avoid trouble in the space-time continuum, declares to be the son of Andrek Gruber, one of her father's colleagues. She's surprised as Langford never told her Gruber had a son. Daniel (with a German accent) tells that "his father" thought that her father was one of the few people in the world he could trust.
She then tells them that since Ernest Littlefield's accident (in 1945), she and her father were told never to speak of it again, and they put the Stargate in a secret armory located in Washington, D.C..
Notes
- Obvious remark: The 1928 Langford looks much older than the 1945 version.
- Professor Langford is referencing the Stargate as the Doorway to Heaven to Ernest Littlefield. This is a reference to the translation made by Doctor Gary Meyers in Stargate using Budge translation books.
- Langford and Foreman Taylor are not speaking English when they talk together. When Langford ask his question, he speaks a badly pronounced Norvegian: "Herregud, vad är det?" (What in God's name is that?). Taylor answers him in Swedish: "Jag önskar jag visste det" (I wish I knew).
- The first name "Paul" is officially canon since Stargate Origins as one can hear the full name in the first webisode. It was used before in the novels but was never spelled in the movie nor the series.
Behind the scenes
- Three actors have protrayed Langford: Erik Holland in Stargate, Duncan Fraser in the Stargate SG-1 episode "The Torment of Tantalus", and Connor Trinneer (Michael Kenmore) in Stargate Origins.
See also
- Catherine Langford, his daugther.
References
- ↑ This part only appears in the Director's Cut version.