Ancient Control Chair

In the fictional television series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, the Ancient Control Chair is an Ancient control device which functions as a mental interface for those with The Ancient gene. The chair has been encountered on various Ancient outposts.

Function

Control Chairs are mostly responsible for defense. All the control chairs thus far encountered were used for launching Ancient Drone Weapons at enemy targets. The number of drones available can only be checked when the chair is powered up. However, the control chair on Aurora class battleships do not necessarily need to be used to fire drones.

Besides being used for drone control, the chair can interface with almost all systems in the base/city that it is in. This can range from bringing up holograms to altering power system, and even flying the city. It can also be altered quite easily to do tasks such as remotely fly a puddle jumper and raise the shield.

It is, therefore, quite reasonable to assume that the chair could be used for things such as dialing the gate, and opening doors, and pretty much anything tied into the system.

The Chair is normally powered by a Zero Point Module, although the members of the Atlantis Expedition have been successful in powering the device with a Mark II Naqahdah reactor in "controlled overload", which provides just enough energy to activate the chair although the reactor's power can only activate the chair AbOUT three times before permanent power depletion.

Mental Interface

The chair is controlled directly by the user's thoughts. The device is hard to operate, and requires a considerable amount of concentration for most users. However, some people, like John Sheppard, can operate the unit intuitively, even without much practice.

Not only is concentration instrumental in controlling the device, but the chair also requires (as does a lot of Ancient technology) the user to have the ATA gene, originally only found in Ancients. However, due to crossbreeding between Ancients who fled back to Earth and humans, several members of the Atlantis Expedition have the gene. Also, using gene therapy, the gene can be transferred to "ordinary" humans, but the gene does not take with all subjects.

Encountered Chairs

In the Milky Way, the chairs have been encountered on Proclarush Taonas and inside the Ancient outpost in Antarctica on Earth. In the Pegasus Galaxy, chairs are located in the tower of Atlantis and its sister cities.

More recent Ancient outposts, such as the research base on the Dorandan homeworld, did not contain a control chair, indicating that by the Ancient retreat to Earth, the chair might have been replaced by more efficient control systems.

The Ancient warship in the Stargate Atlantis season 4 episode Travlers had a control chair.

Ori Chair

The Ori, gaining almost infinite knowledge after their ascension, also use control chairs to operate their battlecruisers. However, instead of requiring an ordinary human with the ATA Gene, this chair has to be operated by a Prior, and is probably keyed to their unique brain physiology. It has been demonstrated however that both the Orici Adria , a human-form Ori, and ordinary Priors can also control the vessel without actually sitting down in the chair.

Also, this type of chair is smaller and has no manual controls. The only encountered chair thus far was shaped into the symbol of Origin, the Ori religion, although this is probably only for cosmetic reasons.

External links

• "Ancient Control Chair" at GateWorld Omnipedia.