Cult-TV Theme Watch: Ancient Egypt

Egypt is one of the oldest states in human history, one inhabited since the 10th Millennium BC.  The wonders of Ancient Egypt still awe and perplex us today, including the Giza Pyramid Complex and the Great Sphinx.

Cult-television has frequently explored the tropes, characters, and architecture of ancient Egypt, perhaps owing to the popularity in the 1970s of Erik Von Daniken's "Ancient astronaut" theory, which posits that aliens visited Earth in the time of the Pharaohs, and built the pyramids and other such structures.

Battlestar Galactica (1978 - 1979), Otherworld (1985) and Stargate SG-1 (1997 - 2007) all play on themes and designs related to Ancient Egypt.  In terms of Glen Larson's Battlestar Galactica, the space pilots of the Colonies all wear Egyptian-style space helmets, and in one episode, Lost Planet of the Gods," the dramatis personae visit the mother planet of all human life...and find Egyptian-style pyramids there.

Otherworld (1985) finds an American family, the Sterlings, falling through a portal inside the Egyptian pyramids into a closely-connected "sister" worldl one where strange obelisks, dotted with Egyptian-style hieroglyphs, dot the long, dangerous road to the mythical city of Imar.

Stargate SG-1 similarly plays on the ancient astronaut connection/Ancient Egypt, with the idea that aliens arrived near the Nile in antiquity, and set-up fantastic stargates that could bridge the gaps between civilized planets.  The film in 1994 revealed the Earth stargate excavated in early 20th century Egypt.

A short-lived series The Phoenix (1992) also involved the ancient astronaut theory, and its main character, an extraterrestrial healer named Bennu (Judson Scott) may be said to be related to Ancient Egypt and its mythology as well.

Other series have also frequently utilized elements of Egyptian mythology and folklore to create new, science-fiction narratives.  Both The Twilight Zone ("Queen of the Nile") and Land of the Lost ("Scarab") have featured episodes with strange Egyptian insects, scarabs.  In the case of The Twilight Zone, the sting of a scarab grants eternal life.  

In Land of the Lost, the Scarab bites turns the victim into a monstrous, anti-social personality.

The Egyptian Goddess of Isis has appeared as a modern superhero/villain in both the Saturday morning Filmation live-action series The Secrets of Isis (1976) and recently, on Smallville (2001 - 2011).

King Tut (Victor Buono) also appeared as a villain on the Batman TV series (1966 - 1969), and all his episodes feature a distinctly Egyptian flavor.