Iris origin

[MICSG7]

Where do you think they got the idea for the iris from and why do you think carter in the alternant reality thought the goa'ulds would have one in front of their gate?

 

[PTeppic]

Well, they had perceived knowledge of how the gate worked for a couple of years before Daniel worked out the point of origin thingy. So when the COTG mission started, and earth was actively being attacked through the gate, it would be easy to ask the boffins (who must be on short notice call-out, e.g. Fifth Race) for some way to prevent travel through an incoming gate.

The concept of "locking the door" is fairly simple, you just have to remember not to close it until AFTER the vortex (e.g. Touchstone or A Hundred Days). So - problem: a solid "door" that can be closed over the established, circular wormhole very quickly. A multi-leafed door is becoming easy to arrive at (even think 4-leafed a la most sci-fi), so for drama, an iris is the next thing on the list!


As for worrying about the goa'uld - as said above it is an easy idea: stop people coming by locking them out, and the goa'uld are real good at stealing good ideas, technology, or people!

 

[Manco]

The idea for the iris came from the ancient egyptians. they buried the stargate and then placed a massive coverstone on it to prevent incoming travels being *put back together*

 

[PTeppic]

But as seen in A Hundred Days, even if totally buried, an incoming wormhole would create a vortex sized hole, destroying most simple coverstones. In the SGC, apart from a continuity error (presumably) in Serpents Song, the iris is always closed after the vortex swirls.

As a result, I am guessing for some reason that Ra and the rest of the System Lords deliberately left Earth as an irrelevant single planet, with no worthwile technology - they had presumably by this point already taken sufficient peoples to populate all the host colonies throughout the galaxy.

 

[MICSG7]

Those are pretty interesting concepts. I liked the one ( I don't mean to pick favorites ) because the original coverstone came in many circular pieces and a center piece, which resembles the iris. I always wondered how they were able to have the iris closed and not disintegrated by the vortex. I theorized it was because it was close enough to prevent it from coming out and the vortex spread across the iris, which makes a loud noise because it's trying to expand. I had a theory I wanted checked out. I think the vortex expands like that because of unequalized pressure at the beginning which eventually equals out and seals it at the gate. Like an underwater cave. This may be caused by too much power ( a design flaw ? ) because when Thor, Cassandra, and Lya opened the gate ( hand device may use less power ) it just spread in a circle and remained stable. I also think there may be a wormhole always open but it's not always there.

 

[PTeppic]

I think perhasps the clue for the SGC iris/vortex, especially in the face of A Hundred Days [though this is in contradiction to the "bury the gate for a year" instruction from COTG, and perhaps a similar suggestion to Xe-ls in "Spirits"] would be to watch closely a string of episodes where the iris is used, to see if it is closed before or after the vortex. There seems to be a finite time between the wormhole establishing and the soonest the first traveller can appear... perhaps.

 

[PTeppic]

Originally posted by P'Teppic
In the SGC, apart from a continuity error (presumably) in Serpents Song, the iris is always closed after the vortex swirls.

Could be wrong on this one: have just watched "One False Step", and towards then end when Teal'c comes home, the iris is closed until after the vortexy bit... I need to watch more episodes - what a happy coincidence!

 

[spider]

I think that the vortex is unstable, but only when it's away from the area where the stable wormhole forms(center of the gate). The iris prevents the vortex from "shooting out", thereby preventing it from straying away from the area of the event horizon, thereby preventing it from becoming unstable.

...that's just my theory, but it would explain how a closed iris can survive a wormhole being activated right behind it.

What I would like to know is how the iris is stored. If you ever look at the iris being closed, you'll see that there is pretty much no place for it to go. Where does it retract to? Directly into the gate?

 

[PTeppic]

[SPOILER - season 3 - A Hundred Days]

[ SPOILER - season 3 - A Hundred Days ]








I have been studying the episodes for over a week now and am changing my mind about the vortex/iris. I have also re-watched A Hundred Days - and picked up an important point I forgot before. The vortex is only used to be able to hollow out the burying naqahdah layer, because of the superheated gas created by the particle beam. So - your concept seems to be correct: the wormhole can still form, but because the iris/coverstone is so close to the event horizon it just doesn't "whoosh" in a vortex.

However, if the vortex does form, anything in its path is eaten.


Iris - neither the "open" iris leaves, nor the mechanism for turning them into place are visible - and the gate istself is theoretically impregnable - so it is sort of not mentioned! :evil:

 

[MICSG7]

I think what you all don't realize is that the vortex is the portal itself. You may have thought just the unstable part was the vortex. If you don't believe me look it up in the dictionary.

 

[PTeppic]

Vortex n. - a whirling mass of water or air
Vortex n. - whirpool; whirling motion

So the vortex is the "whoosh" bit that flies out. The only time the event horizon has vortex action is during a Matter of Time when the gravity has its effect.

The whoosh part only appears to be due to the unstable first connection for backward dialling technologies - the GATE itself seems to be able to function to form the wormhole without the whoosh. Which means it is the DHDs, or manual dialling, causes the whoosh.