Furling (Stargate)

The Furlings are an advanced alien race within the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.

History
Little is known about them, except that they were a member of the "Alliance of four great races", along with the Ancients, Asgard, and Nox. However, occasional artifacts attributed to the Furlings have been identified. Furling writing has also been seen in the show in the first-season episode "The Torment of Tantalus" along with the writings of the other great races (though only the Ancient and Asgard writings have been positively linked with their civilizations).

It has also been suggested that they are a pacifistic race, like the Nox, and somewhat unlike the Ancients and Asgard, who, while they did not like it, were more willing to use military force. In the sixth-season episode "Paradise Lost", it is discovered that the Furlings had set up a Utopian community without weapons or advanced technology. The colony was destroyed by a Goa'uld who was able to smuggle in seeds for a plant that produced a paranoia-inducing chemical, causing the inhabitants to go insane and kill each other, though the Goa'uld himself was also killed.

Harry Maybourne, who had discovered the key to reaching this colony, described them thus:
 * "A long time ago, some people from an advanced alien society, well they chucked it all and they formed this small, isolated Utopian community. They sent out representatives to meet and evaluate people from all over the galaxy and offer them a chance to join them. The scroll and the stone were the invitation."

According to the audio commentary, the episode was originally planned to feature Furling skeletons, but the manufacturing of said skeletons proved too costly and they ended up scrapping their appearance. This suggests that Furling anatomy is too divergent of that of humans for the props department to simply modify human skeletons.

Several unnamed races have appeared in Stargate continuity who could, in fact, be the Furlings, such as the Giant Aliens seen in "Crystal Skull" or the Spirits seen in "Spirits". When Executive Producer Robert C. Cooper was asked "Will we ever meet the Furlings?", his answer was "Who says we haven't?" . However, the writers later went on to state that although we have seen Furling technology and the Furling legacy, no actual Furling has ever appeared on the show.

Since Thor proclaimed the Tau'ri "The Fifth Race", this may have opened up the possibility of showing the mysterious Furlings as future allies, or enemies.

Jokes
The Furlings have yet to be explicitly identified. The length of time that their nature has remained a mystery in the series has provided opportunity to tease fans with a running gag.

Jack O'Neill has concluded that the Furlings must be cute and cuddly creatures, based solely on their name. A man in the episode "Citizen Joe", who heard of the Furlings through Joe Spencer (played by Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson), a barber that could recall O'Neill's memories, equated the Furlings to the Ewoks based on their name.

Joseph Mallozzi claimed that more about the Furlings would finally be revealed in Stargate SG-1's tenth season. In a Sci Fi Channel advertisement for the 200th episode, Cooper stated "We're finally going to get to see the Furlings." What was actually shown was an imagined scene from a script for a movie based on the fictional television series "Wormhole X-Treme!", a parody of Stargate SG-1 within the Stargate SG-1 universe.