What's up with the ninth chevron?

[Nate the Great]

This is a Stargate thread. It's not a 5MSG thread, so it belongs here. As part of another thread I was reminded of the existence of a ninth chevron, and the possiblities of a nine-glyph address. Here's where we share our personal theories about what it does.

For me, they sort of break down into:
1. Since the eighth is an intergalactic area code, the ninth must relate to other dimensions, perhaps even the realm of Ascended beings.
2. A Stargate really can travel to other time periods through the use of nine-glyph addresses.
3. Perhaps with enough power and enough pinpoint accuracy through the use of a ninth coordiate, a Stargate can create a spontaneous, one-ended wormhole. You wouldn't be able to return, but...
4. A ninth glyph and more power can create a two-way wormhole.

Opinions?

[MaverickZer0]

Look how much power it takes for the eighth. Could they really handle a ninth? (Then again, if Project Arcturus got working...)

1. Highly doubtful. Sam's even said it's impossible to travel to other universes/dimensions without some kind of special rift, usually caused by a black hole or other large time distortion.

2. They can do that with solar flares.

3. What'd be the point of that?

4. That would be interesting, but think how much more power they'd have to use.

There's also the final problem: dialing crystals. Even the Earth and Atlantis gates only have eight dialing crystals. They have to figure out how to install another one, and there simply wouldn't be room most DHDs.

[Nate the Great]

Uh, Sam's been wrong before. Besides, ten years ago Sam would've said deflecting a wormhole off a star experiencing solar flares could NEVER create time travel; it'd be too absurd.

There are plenty of planets that don't have Gates. Wouldn't it be a nice uberAlpha site to have a place that no one can reach without exhorbitant amounts of power?

I never did understand the dialing crystals, but that doesn't preclude there being a nine-glyph address crystal. I think the implication is that the eight-glyph crystal might be akin to the Expansion Pak on an N64: provides the same service, but with more capacity.

Oh, and I don't think that they ever perfected how far back you go with a flare-altered Gate. It's kinda like slingshotting around the sun at high warp: good for general time travel, but precision is impossible.

[danieldoof]

I personally would favour the multiverse theory on this one...cause it would be a straight continuation of the given principle...first six fix a spot in the own galaxy (plus the 7th that says where you start)..like when you dail a phone number in your own city that has 7 digits...you wouldnt need to dail the area code for your own city...the 8th one fixes the galaxy...like a code for a different city still inside the same country (in this case the same universe) and the 9th would fix the universe...like we fix the country with another area code

[MaverickZer0]

The ninth crystal's the only real problem. They've never even so much as mentioned it. Finding one would be essential, though, as they are needed to lock the chevrons.

It'd be great. Just implausible. And ten years ago, Sam would've said the Stargate itself was absurd.

I don't know. They've gotten pretty accurate results with solar flares before. See '2010' and '1969'.

[Nate the Great]

How long was Sam working on the Gate before the series? She's not old enough to be a doctor AND to MacGuyver the Gate for fifteen years, is she?

Actually, she only looked about thirty when the series started, right? Okay, given the child prodigy thing, early doctorate, yada yada, she must've been transferred to Cheyenne Mountain only like five years before the series.

Given how important Earth is to the entire Stargate universe, if there's a nine-glyph crystall anywhere, it'd be either Earth, or maybe Dakarra, right?

Oh, and solar flares were never reliable for our guys. 2010 was alien technology. 1969 was a predestination paradox. In neither case could Sam come up with a way to predict flares without outside help.