Stargate SG-1/A to F

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Tropes A-F | Tropes G-L | Tropes M-R | Tropes S-Z

A

  • Aborted Arc: The events of "Camelot" reveal that the time of King Arthur's prophesied return is approaching and that Valencia is destined to help him after she pulls the sword from the stone. SG-1 does spend several episodes following Arthur's trail to several planets, and eventually discovers Merlin's anti-Ori weapon, but the prophecy of Arthur's return is never followed up or explored.
  • Absent-Minded Professor: When Sam meets her boyfriend in a coffee shop she mentions that there is no zoo in Colorado Springs. The screenwriters have heard of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but the DVD commentary reveals that they wanted it clear that Sam has spent so much of her time working that she does not even know the layout of the city she lives and works in.
  • Abusive Precursors: The Goa'uld served as the foundation for many, if not all, human societies and religions prior to approximately 3000 BCE, but are a homicidal, imperialist and sadistic group that booby trap their leftover technology and return to exterminate any society descended from theirs that could rival them.
  • Acting for Two
    • Amanda Tapping played multiple Carters in several different episodes. "Point Of View" had Dr. Samantha Carter, "Gemini" features extended interactions between Carter and RepliCarter, and "Ripple Effect" features over a dozen Carters in a single scene.
    • "Tin Man", where the alien Harlan creates robotic duplicates of SG-1. They reappear in "Double Jeopardy," where the two O'Neill's get into a fistfight.
    • Guest star Dom DeLuise (briefly) as the title character and his creator in "Urgo".
    • Starting in season nine, Ba'al began cloning himself, with Cliff Simon playing multiple Ba'als in several episodes.
  • Action Survivor: Doctors Felger and Coombs have no combat training or experience, but when SG-1 was captured by Jaffa they both transport aboard the leaving ha'tak for a rescue mission. Of course, SG-1 allowed themselves to be captured and were quite unhappy to see the two scientists, but they came in handy later on.
  • Actor Allusion
    • The show was fond of making MacGyver references -- which of course, leads to Celebrity Paradox. Lampshaded by Amanda Tapping in a blooper shown in the 200th episode special "Inside the 200th Episode" (Watch it here).
    • John Billinsley guest-starred in the season six episode "The Other Guys" as Dr. Coombs, who was a profound Trekkie. John Billinsley was at the same time starring as Dr. Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise.
    • Patrick McKenna guest-starred in "The Other Guys" and "Avenger 2.0" as Dr. Jay Felger. In the latter episode he was seen putting a roll of duct tape into his backpack. DVD commentary confirmed this was a Shout-Out to The Red Green Show, where McKenna played Harold.
    • When Vala is pitching story ideas to Martin Lloyd in "200", he immediately recognizes her pitches as retreads of classic stories, including The Wizard of Oz and Gilligans Island. He recommends that, if she is going to rip off something, make sure it is something nobody has ever heard of. Her next suggestion is Farscape, the series she (Claudia Black) and Mitchell (Ben Browder) had previously starred in before joining SG-1, with Claudia reprising her role as Aeryn Sun (Browder did not appear as John Crichton, but instead as Stark, while Michael Shanks was Crichton, in a meta-reference to the resemblance between the two actors). Martin admits that he had never heard of that one.
  • Adaptation Expansion: See Stargate (the original film).
  • Adventure Towns: Technically, adventure planets, but the effect is the same.
  • Affably Evil: Ba'al
  • Affectionate Pickpocket: Vala in season 9 episode 3, asking for a parting hug from Daniel -- to steal again the valuable artifact he'd just confiscated from her.
  • Agony Beam
    • The Goa'uld Hand Device (also called a "Ribbon device" or "Kara kesh") is able to send a ribbon of energy into the head of another which causes extreme debilitating pain. This can be fatal if used extensively, and was also seen once to be able to send telepathic messages from one person to another.
    • The Goa'uld have a cattle-prod like device (never named in the series) that, when jabbed into a person, causes extreme pain without physical damage. When a person is being tortured with this device, light shines out of their mouths and eyes. Richard Dean Anderson did not like this visual effect, and would close his eyes whenever Jack O'Neill was being tortured in order to keep it from being used.
  • Alien Non-Interference Clause
    • The Tollan have a firm law against giving technology to less advanced species which they enacted after another planet destroyed itself (and the Tollan's original homeworld) after they were given technology too powerful for them to use responsibly.
    • Rule number one amongst the Ascended Ancients, which they believe in so strongly that they would rather die than break it, is to not interfere on the lower planes of existence, primarily with regards to helping "lowers" likewise ascend. Their belief is that if you deserve to ascend then you can do it by yourself, and all beings have the right to chose their own path without interference, even if that path ends in their own death.
  • Aliens Speaking English: Almost all Transplanted Humans speak English, even if they were transplanted before the development of English or from a territory where it is not commonly spoken even today. Most alien species have their own language, occasionally featured heavily, but most of them can also speak English at need when they need to communicate with any present humans. This fact is Lampshaded in the 100th Episode, "Wormhole X-Treme!"; when told that there can not be red apples on an alien world, the prop guy responds "Why not? They all speak English."
  • All Just a Dream
    • "Forever in a Day". There are hints throughout the episode, but the implication is that the episode is actually happening, but with dream interludes. It is only at the conclusion that the entire plot is revealed to have been only a fantasy.
    • "Absolute Power", where Daniel learned the consequences of gaining access to the Goa'uld genetic memory.
    • "The Changeling" switches frequently between Teal'c's life at the SGC and a delusion where he is a human living a normal life on Earth. At the end, it is revealed that both lives were fantasies, and he was delusional as he struggled to keep both himself and Bra'tac alive after they were ambushed off-world.
  • All There in the Manual: DVD commentaries explain a lot of the thinking that the writers, directors and actors put into the show to explain events that were not explored in the show itself. This includes information on the private lives of the characters, their history, and what happens off-screen between episodes.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In an alternate reality Daniel found in Season 1, Alternate!Teal'c leads an attack on Stargate Command through the front door. He kills everyone except Daniel on his way to the Star gate.
  • Almost Out of Oxygen: In the episode "Tangent", Teal'c and O'Neill are trapped in a human-modified Death Glider that is on an uncontrolled trip out of the solar system with rapidly-dwindling life support. They do not expect to actually die from a lack of oxygen, but rather from high levels of CO2 after they run out of power and the life support systems can no longer recycle the air.
  • Alternate Universe: Many are visited throughout the course of the show, which subscribes to the "Different outcomes for each decision" school of thought.
  • Alternative Number System: A throwaway line in "The Fifth Race" reveals that the Ancients used base 8.
  • Exclusively Evil: The Goa'uld. Repeated use of the sarcophagus causes paranoia, megalomania and delusions, and their genetic memory passes down experiences from Queen to spawn. Because of this, the Goa'uld are literally born evil.
  • Always on Duty: Everything interesting seems to happen when the base commander, and the rest of SG-1, is around. Lampshaded on one occasion where O'Neill gets in just as an Offworld Activation is going on. Teal'c, Daniel, and Sam are already in the control room. O'Neill points out that he just got in early, and asks what the others are doing there. Teal'c still lives on base at this point, Daniel says he came in as soon as he heard someone new was dialing in (though it's implied he never left the base), and Sam... well, she had been working so late that she hadn't left yet. This distresses O'Neill, who had apparently "ordered [her] to get a life".
  • Amazon Brigade: The Hak'tyl (Liberation), a planet of refugee women Jaffa in the season 7 episode "Birthright". They reappear in "Sacrifices" and later as members of the Free Jaffa Nation.
  • Ancient Astronauts: The basic premise of the show. The gods of most of the world's mythology and religion were actually aliens who masqueraded as gods; in some instances the aliens inspired the legends, whereas in other instances they adopted the already-existing identity. The two primary mythologies used by the series were Egyptian (primarily used by the Goa'uld) and Norse (used by the Asgard), though Mayan, Aztec, Greek, Chinese, Minoan, Japanese, Celtic, Semitic, Hindu, Yoruba, Zen Buddhist and Christian mythologies were also involved.
  • Ancient Grome: The first season episode "Cor-ai" took place on Cartago (Latin for "Carthage") where the language apparently had roots in both Latin and Greek. Daniel is confused that the language would have two disparate roots.
  • And a Diet Coke: When Carter, O'Neill and Daniel each order four steaks, the two men look at her in surprise when Carter asks for a diet soda with hers. She explains that she likes the taste.
  • And Then What?: Seasons eight, nine and ten frequently highlight the fact that the Jaffa gave very little, if any, thought to what they would do after they overthrew the Goa'uld. This resulted in a lot of political infighting and presented many opportunities for unscrupulous people to take power through underhanded means. After the destruction of Dakara by the Ori, essentially destroying what government the Jaffa have, Teal'c and Bra'tac emphasize that it is just as important to plan for what to do after their victory as it is for them to fight the Ori.
  • Annoying Arrows: Averted.
  • Appeal to Audacity
  • Area 51: Functions as a research and development site where technology is transferred after it has been brought back to the SGC. Stargate Command itself is once referred to as "Area 52", which is its code name for government budgetary reasons.
  • Armor Is Useless
    • Standard kevlar body armor worn by USAF personnel have absolutely no affect on either staff weapons or zats (see also the entry on Bulletproof Vest below).
    • The metal armor worn by the Jaffa was extremely effective against Tau'ri weaponry in the early seasons (particularly in the first two fight scenes of the pilot), but was never seen to have any effect against staff weapons or zat'nik'tels. As the series progressed its effectiveness against projectile weaponry gradually lessened; by season eight it can even be penetrated by an arrow.
    • The armor worn by the Kull Warriors averted the trope. Though the Tau'ri and Tok'ra eventually developed an anti-Kull weapon, their armor remained impervious against both projectile and energy weaponry in every appearance.
  • Artistic License Pathology: A minor case in "The Broca Divide". Leaving aside whether a disease -- even an Imported Alien Disease -- is capable of causing humans to regress to a primitive state, Dr. Fraiser calls the microorganism a virus. Viruses use cells to replicate, plain and simple. They do not consume chemicals in the bloodstream. If it had actually been a virus, antihistamines would have had absolutely no effect on it. She also calls it a "parasitic virus" at least twice. Viruses are parasitic by definition.
  • Art Shift: In "Heroes", Emmett Bregman's footage has a different appearance from the rest of the show -- more like a live TV program than Stargate's usual more cinema-like feel.
  • Ascended Meme: Fans of the show had for years used the term "kawoosh" to refer to the unstable vortex of an opening stargate; in "Crusade", the penultimate episode of season nine, Carter uses the term.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The Ancients Ascended en masse and a few of their number, primarily Oma Desala, help other individuals ascend as well. However, their official policy is one of non-interference and they believe that anybody who should ascend will be able to do it by themselves. Daniel Jackson spent season six as an ascended being, but was forcibly returned to the normal plane in season seven. Season nine introduced the Ori, a sister-race to the Ancients who likewise ascended en masse, but believe in dominating the lower races in order to enhance their own power.
  • As Himself: Generals Michael E. Ryan and John P. Jumper, successive Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force, appeared on SG-1 playing themselves.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority
    • The Goa'uld select a Jaffa as their First Prime based on their military skill and experience. If a Jaffa wishes to depose the current leader he may challenge him to ritual combat for the position.
    • The traditions fostered by the Goa'uld are unfortunately very hard to get rid of once the Jaffa gain their independence, and the Free Jaffa Nation initially awards positions on its leadership council based on the military assets controlled by different Jaffa factions. This essentially gives Gerak, the former First Prime of the minor Goa'uld Montu, control of the new nation since Montu had served Ba'al and Gerak laid claim to the majority of Ba'al's forces.
  • Atlantis: The majority of season seven was spent searching for the Ancient's last and greatest city in the hope that its technology could protect Earth from the Goa'uld. In the episode "Lost City" they discover that this city, named "Atlantis", was formerly located in Antarctica, but that it has since moved. The spinoff, Stargate Atlantis, followed the expedition that located and explored the city itself.
  • Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: "Children of the Gods", the two-hour premiere episode of the series, features full-frontal female nudity that was added in order to classify SG-1 as an "adult" show. This scene is retained in the DVD release, where the episode is rated "R" by the MPAA, but cut out of all syndicated airings. When the episode was re-cut in 2009 and released as a DVD-film this scene was removed in order to reflect the original intention of the showrunners.

B

  • Backed by the Pentagon
    • Specifically the US Air Force. Multiple real-life Air Force Chiefs of Staff have appeared on the show, playing themselves.
    • In-universe, O'Neill is assigned as "technical advisor" to "Wormhole X-Treme!" to cover his activities on the set.
  • Back for the Dead: Major Kawalsky was one of three survivors of the original Abydos mission. He is taken over by a Goa'uld at the end of the pilot, and killed in the next episode.
  • Back from the Dead
    • Daniel Jackson was written out of the series at the end of season five when Michael Shanks left the series; the character ascended after exposure to a lethal amount of radiation. When Michael Shanks returned for season seven, the character descended to our plane of existence.
    • Apophis died at the end of "Serpent's Song", but was resurrected by Sokar for further torture and returned in "The Devil You Know".
  • Badass: Teal'c can knock a man out with an avocado at 100 yards. He is the only character in the series to wield two weapons that are not meant to be used as such, including two staff weapons and even two P90s, and on occasion even carries a Death Glider cannon.
  • Badass Abnormal: The human members of SG-1 gain extreme strength, speed and senses while wearing the Atoniek armbands. They have the ability to kick through solid concrete, move faster than the human eye and see in almost complete darkness. Unfortunately, their judgement is compromised at the same time.
  • Badass Bookworm
    • Samantha Carter is a decorated astrophysicist with complementary armed and unarmed combat training.
    • Daniel becomes a skilled combatant between seasons 1 and 10; unable to even properly reload his weapon in the early seasons but taking an active part in combat rescue missions in the latter.
  • Badass Crew: SG-1. Several enemies wanted to destroy the Earth just to ensure that those four would be dead.
  • Bad Future: "2010", which initially looks like a good future. The Goa'uld have been defeated, the Jaffa liberated, and Earth is a member of the Aschen Confederacy, which has granted the planet advanced technology. However, it turns out that the Aschen are simply a much more patient alien menace, and have been reducing human fertility with the plan to conquer the planet once the population has dropped significantly.
  • Bald of Awesome
    • Teal'c before season eight, much to Christopher Judge's dismay, who regularly shaved his head.
    • General Hammond remained bald throughout the shows run and was even described as such by Colonel O'Neill on several occasions. Bra'tac had a habit of pantomiming Hammond's baldness when referring to him.
  • Bald of Evil: The System Lords Heru'ur and Sokar.
  • Bar Brawl: SG-1 starts a brawl at "O'Malley's in town" while under the mind-affecting, strength-enhancing Atoniek armbands.

O'Neill: Well, this is a cliché.

  • Battle Discretion Shot: The aforementioned Bar Brawl cuts to the exterior of O'Malley's, whereupon we hear a string of crashes, thuds, and shattering glass. It is hilarious.
  • Battle in the Rain: It is raining throughout "Camelot" (although it is very hard to notice on-screen) and, though it (Might have) stopped by the time of Mitchell's fight with the Black Knight, the ground is thick mud that ends up completely coating Mitchell as he is tossed around during the fight.
  • Beard of Evil
    • In the episode "Point of View", SG-1 travels to an alternate reality in which Teal'c is still First Prime of Apophis and the Goa'uld have taken over the Earth. The alternate Teal'c has a beard, as does Apophis, but this Teal'c is killed before he is really given a chance to show where he falls on the morality scale and Apophis is no worse (or better) than the "real" Apophis.
    • Lampshaded by Colonel Mitchell in "Ripple Effect":

Mitchell: Well, you don't have beards, so I'm guessing you're not from the Evil Twin universe.

O'Neill: I always have a reason that I'm not required to explain. It's a military thing.

  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Gender-Flipped with Vala as the Jerk with a Heart of Gold and Daniel as a type "B" Tsundere.
  • Beneficial Disease
    • In a somewhat roundabout way, early episode "The Broca Divide" has Daniel's infamous (and soon forgotten) allergies prove to be beneficial, in that the antihistamine medication he takes for it proves to be the cure for the neanderthalism-inducing disease plaguing the locals.
    • In one episode, the characters receive armbands that bestow superpowers on the wearers. They work by infecting the wearer with nanites that causes the changes. Unfortunately this means that the armbands only work for as long as it takes the body to develop an immunity to the nanites.
  • Benevolent Precursors: Seasons nine and ten reveal that the Ancients, whose core policy is non-intervention on the lower levels, have been active on their own level with regards to the Ori.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Samantha Carter, the one member of SG-1 who never displays any personal hatred against the Goa'uld and who is the most level-headed of the group, is the one whose skill and experience named a trope.
  • Big Bads
    • The Goa'uld were the traditional Big Bad of the first eight seasons, represented at different times by whichever Goa'uld had risen to prominence.
      • Apophis, who was frequently defeated and then returned stronger than before.
      • Anubis, a partially ascended Goa'uld.
      • Ba'al, a relatively minor Goa'uld who played second fiddle to numerous other Goa'uld, eventually managed to outlive and surpass them all in prominence and threat level.
    • The Ori replaced the Goa'uld as the ever-present Big Bad in seasons nine, ten and the first SG-1 movie, The Ark of Truth. They were represented by their Dark Messiah, Adria.
  • BFG: As the team's Big Guy, Teal'c is fond of these, be they squad-support machine-guns, grenade launchers, anti-armor missile launchers, or even a friggin Death-Glider cannon he slings from his broad shoulders.
  • Big Eater
    • When Jonas Quinn was introduced he became fascinated with "traditional all-American food" and was shown eating in every episode he was in, often more than once in an episode. Carter noticed this and commented that America has another tradition, hardened arteries, and this facet of his character was dropped towards the middle of the season.
    • Nerus, the Goa'uld inventor, whose appetites are so large, and so well known, that food is used as a method of information extraction.

Nerus: General! This chicken is most PLUMP and DELICIOUS. You spoil me general!
Landry: It's called turkey, another rare delicacy.
Nerus: Well I MUST have more turkey!

  • Big Good
    • The Asgard are all that prevent the Goa'uld from launching an all-out attack on Earth that the planet would have no hope of surviving.
    • The Ascended Ancients are all that have kept our galaxy hidden from the Ori for millennia, and who prevent the Ori from using their Ascended abilities directly.
  • Big No: Courtesy of Apophis and Anubis, and other Goa'uld. Being an entire race of megalomaniacal Large Hams, it fits.
  • The Big Race: Season seven episode called, appropriately, "Space Race".
  • Bilingual Backfire: In "The Scourge", Daniel Jackson and Shen Xiaoyi briefly converse in Mandarin, during which they briefly insult Mitchell, only for Mitchell to respond (in Mandarin) "Screw you!"
  • Bilingual Bonus
    • Spoken Russian appears (relatively) frequently throughout the show, often commenting on the series itself.
    • In "The Scourge", Daniel Jackson and Shen Xiaoyi briefly converse in Mandarin after being introduced.

Shen: How's your Mandarin?
Jackson: Not as good as your English.
Shen: It shows. (about Mitchell) You're bringing him along?
Jackson: We have to baby-sit him.
Mitchell: (in English) Yeah, that's very funny. (in Mandarin) Screw you!

Jack: Daniel, you dog! Keep this up, you'll have a girl on every planet!

    • Lampshaded by Vala, who says that the real reason for them joining the Stargate program is to meet women. Landry and Mitchell agree, Daniel doesn't.
  • Boom Stick
  • Boring but Practical: "The Tau'ri weapons are primitive, but impressive."
  • Boss in Mook Clothing: Anubis's Kull warriors. Their armor is impervious to everything from machine guns to staff weapons to claymores and equipped with dual wrist-mounted rapid-fire staff weapons. Killing them requires a specialized energy weapon that negates the advanced technology that granted them life in the first place (or the kinetic energy of something on the order of a heavy artillery shell, which isn't exactly man-portable).
  • Bothering by the Book: When a documentary begins filming the SGC, over the protests of General Hammond, Hammond explains that he will follow the precise letter of his orders, using minor technicalities to keep what he can out of view of the cameras.
  • Bottle Episode: Season eight's "Prometheus Unbound" and "Gemini" were filmed concurrently, each with only about half the cast, in an attempt to save money. Carter and Teal'c did not appear in "Prometheus Unbound", and O'Neill only had a single scene at the episode's opening, with Daniel only appearing in the opening scene of "Gemini". Ironically, due to the unexpected volume of special effects in "Prometheus Unbound", the episode wound up costing more than the usual SG-1 episode.
  • Bounty Hunter
    • Aris Boch, a Punch Clock Villain in "Deadman Switch".
    • In "The Ties That Bind", Mitchell and Teal'c pose as bounty hunters in order to trick Jup and Tannat, two aliens that had a grudge against Vala and Daniel.
    • A whole batch of them come after SG-1 in "Bounty" after the Lucian Alliance puts a price on SG-1's heads.
  • Brainwashed: Several times.
  • Break the Cutie: Done to multiple characters, but SG-1 BEGINS with it being done to Daniel Jackson. The result is an understated subtext, but it's pretty clear the vengeance he wants is to exterminate the Goa'uld as a species.
  • Brick Joke: In "The Fifth Race", Jack and Teal'c spar in an boxing ring. Teal'c decks Jack. In "Upgrades", with the benefit of an Atoniek armband, Jack decks Teal'c.
  • Bug War: Season nine's "The Scourge", at the end of which the team decides to watch Starship Troopers for movie night.
  • Bulletproof Vest
    • A realistic depiction. When O'Neill is shot In the Back with a silenced pistol the vest manages to stop one of the bullets, but the other bullet hit his (non-armored) shoulder and penetrates, and the impact from the bullet that is stopped still broke a rib and knocks him unconscious.
    • In "Heroes", Dr. Bill Lee explains why standard bulletproof vests do not work against staff weapon blasts, and in some cases actually amplify the affects of the blast by trapping the heat of the blast within the vest and cooking the wearer. So the SGC develops a ceramic insert for the standard USAF flak jacket to absorb the blast. The inserts end up saving Jack O'Neill's life.
  • Bullet Sparks: Particularly when machine-gunning enemy Jaffa.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Pretty much every major military role in the series is this to some extent. Jack O'Neill turns it Up to Eleven, by making insubordination into an art form.
  • The Bus Came Back: Jonas in "Fallout".
  • Busman's Holiday: When Colonel Mitchell joins General Landry for a vacation at General O'Neill's cabin, they discuss hunting and Mitchell points out that his day job involves him walking around a forest with a gun. When he later is required to go out hunting (for a dangerous monster) he points out that it is just his day job all over again.
  • Butt Monkey
    • Sgt. Siler, as the Mauve Shirt who is constantly subjected to non-fatal accidents and injuries. It makes sense when you remember that his actor is the stunt coordinator for the series.

Siler: Why do these things always happen to me?

    • A darker version of the Butt Monkey would be Major Kawalsky, who was killed in the second episode. He reappears in time travel or alternate universe episodes only to die in most of them as well.
    • Lieutenant Grogan appeared in two episodes and O'Neill, despite admitting that he was a fine officer, pointed out that was very good at getting himself shot. He was shot four times in his first appearance, then got trapped off-world by Svarog's Jaffa in his second one, and shot again with a zat.
  • But You Were There and You and You
    • "The Changeling" recasts the members of SG-1 as firefighters living a normal life on Earth. Teal'c is a human, Bra'tac (referred to as "Bray") is his stepfather who needs a kidney transplant, O'Neill is the fire chief, Carter is a crew captain, Jonas is "Probie" ("Probationary firefighter") and Siler opens the door. Daniel Jackson appears as a psychiatrist, but there are hints (and it is confirmed at the end of the episode) that he is the real Daniel.
    • In "200", Vala pitches to Martin Lloyd a thinly-disguised retelling of The Wizard of Oz, describing it as an adventure she had before joining the SGC. Carter is the "lovely, fair-haired Tok'ra" (Glinda), Landry is the wise Ascended being (Oz) and Mitchell, Daniel and Teal'c are the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Tin Man, respectively.
  • By the Eyes of the Blind
    • The Goa'uld literally have naquadah, the rare mineral that is used to build the Stargates and much Ancient and Goa'uld technology, in their blood. As such they can sense/be sensed by other Goa'uld, Jaffa or people who likewise have naquadah in their bloodstream.
    • The Reetou, an insectoid alien species that are invisible to all known species, can be "sensed" by the Goa'uld and, by extension, the Jaffa (through the Goa'uld symbiotes they carry). This "sensing" was used to develop a technology to make them visible.
    • In season six, an alien device made whoever touched it (and whoever touched them) able to see alien creatures "out of phase" with our reality. The creatures themselves did absolutely nothing, they had been on Earth all along and could not interact with physical matter, but suddenly seeing them caused widespread panic.

C

Teal'c: A Serpent guard, a Horus guard, and a Setesh guard meet on a neutral planet. It is a tense moment. The Serpent guard's eyes glow. The Horus guard's beak glistens. The Setesh guard's... nose drips. (laughs uproariously)

  • Canon Discontinuity: The original rule for the zat'nik'tel was that one shot hurts, two kills and three disintegrates the body. However, as the seasons progressed the third shot effect was gradually dropped, disappearing entirely in season three. In the self-referential "Wormhole X-Treme!", the on-site director refers to the three shot rule as the stupidest thing he has ever heard.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin': In "Endgame", it is when Walter is taking a break for a cup of coffee, the only break we see Walter takes in the entire series, that the stargate is stolen. When Daniel discovers this he briefly begins yelling, but then tells him that the coffee break had nothing to do with the gate being stolen and not to worry.
  • Can't Live Without You
    • The Jaffa cannot live without a Goa'uld in their pouch until a drug that has the same effect is discovered in one of the later seasons.
    • In the opening story arc of season nine, Daniel and Vala put on bracelets that create a link between them so that to be any more than a few feet away from each other can cause them extreme physical discomfort and eventually death.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Anubis; when "Jim" is speaking with Daniel Jackson in the Astral Diner he explicitly points out that the Goa'uld are evil and that Anubis is the worst one of the lot.
  • Cargo Cult: More or less the basic premise of the show.
  • Cartwright Curse: Carter was known as "Black Widow Carter" behind the scenes as her romantic interests continuously died or were subjected to horrific torture throughout the series; she even acknowledges this to her boyfriend. Pete Shanahan was introduced in season seven partly because the writers specifically wanted to give Carter a life outside the Gate Program that did not end up being destroyed at the end of the episode where it was introduced.
  • Cast from Hit Points: When Daniel briefly becomes a Prior of the Ori and gains their powers, they work this way. He collapses from exhaustion when he exerts himself too much.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: In season nine's "The Scourge", when Teal'c explains that he has always had faith in their ultimate triumph over the Ori, Mitchell remarks that with that mentality he is probably unconcerned with their current danger and already thinking about what they are going to watch for movie night. Teal'c responds that he was considering Old School.
  • Catch Phrase: Many of them:
    • Teal'c: "Indeed."
    • Jack O'Neill: "Ah, fer cryin' out loud!" -- "Ya think?" -- "You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!!" -- "O'Neill. With two L's." -- "Magnets."
    • Cameron Mitchell: "Like my grandma always said, [insert proverb or adage here]." -- "That's what I'm talking about!"
    • Daniel Jackson: "We're peaceful explorers, and we come from a planet called Earth."
    • Sam Carter: "With all due respect, sir..." and when positing a logical but probably incorrect guess, "I don't think so."
    • Jonas Quinn: "This is my first [whatever]."
    • Walter Harriman (and other gateroom technicians): "Chevron seven... locked."
    • Rebel Jaffa: "I Die Free!]]"
    • The Ori and their followers: "Hallowed are the Ori."
  • Cat Fight: "Avenger 2.0" closes with Carter in a fight with Dr. Jay Felger's assistant over who gets his affections... before Felger snaps out of it.
  • Celebrity Resemblance: Actors Michael Shanks and Ben Browder got a lot of attention after the latter was added to the cast, due to their reported visual similarity. When Vala Mal Doran met the two of them at once, she commented that Earth has a "somewhat limited gene pool."
  • Chain of Deals: "The Ties That Bind"
  • Characterization Marches On: When he is introduced in "Summit", Ba'al is described as a ruthless, sore loser who once wiped out two star systems rather than lose them to Cronus. This is quite different from the Affably Evil Magnificent Bastard of the last couple seasons.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: Everyone they meet. Everything they find. Everything they bring back. Everything they do to their Stargate (beyond simple dialing... and even so). Even the "Engaging Chevrons" padding is a plot point in some episodes (because it is so slow).
  • Chekhov's Gunman
    • In the beginning of "Wormhole X-Treme!", Martin gets into an argument with the "Prop guy" over which fruit to use for an alien setting. The same prop master later guides Martin to where the actual alien device is being used on the set and is revealed to be an agent of the NID.
    • When Mitchell is held captive by the Sodan in "Babylon" he briefly sees, but does not speak or interact with, the Prior that has come to convert them to Origin. In "The Fourth Horsemen," that Prior is revealed to be the source of the plague that is ravaging the Earth, and might also be the key to its cure.
  • Chekhov's Lecture: In "The Warrior", K'tano attempts to address O'Neill's objections to the way he runs the Jaffa Rebellion by explaining the rite of joma secu, whereby any Jaffa has the right to challenge K'tano for leadership if he is dissatisfied. After Lord Yu reveals to Teal'c that K'tano is really trying to help the System Lords eliminate all the rebel Jaffa at once, Teal'c challenges K'tano, who turns out to actually be the Goa'uld Imhotep.
  • Chick Magnet: It seems that every other female character will try to get into Daniel's pants at some point. Lampshaded in an early episode when O'Neill says at this rate, Daniel is going to have a girl on every planet.
  • Childless Dystopia: The Aschen Confederation offered the people of the planet Volia (P3A-194) a cure for a terrible disease on their world. However, the vaccine also resulted in sterility; the once thriving world of millions was reduced to chaos and riots, and then to a peaceful but empty world, with a few thousand apathetic residents and automated machines tending farmland. An earlier episode portrayed a Bad Future in which the same race was in the process of doing this to Earth.
  • The Chosen Zero: The Asgard ask SG-1 for help defeating the Replicators, because despite all of their intelligence they have yet to figure a way to defeat them. Earthlings, even though they are far less technologically advanced, have an ability to "think outside the box" that has allowed them to defeat the Replicators several times. Daniel summarizes this:

Daniel: Let Me Get This Straight..., you need someone dumber than you?
Jack: I think we can help you with that.

  • Clarke's Third Law
  • Clip Show: Done once a season. Except for season eight's "Citizen Joe", each clip show advanced the plot of the series, sometimes radically, by framing the clips as the Stargate Program being introduced and explained to people who had previously not known its details. This format was used to reveal the Stargate program to the United Nations Security Council in season six and a new incoming United States President in season seven. Like everything else on the show, parodied in "200".
  • Cloning Blues: Played with in "Tin Man". Clone!Jack plays it straight, Clone!Daniel and Clone!Sam invert it by being so fascinated they debate the meaning of life and discuss the mechanics of it with their originals, and Clone!Teal'c averts it as he does not talk at all.
  • Clone Degeneration
    • The Asgard are a dying race because they have lost the ability to reproduce sexually and their cloning technology is sufficiently imperfect that entropy must inevitably win.
    • The teenage clone O'Neill was a victim of genetic degradation because Loki had been sloppy and irresponsible in the cloning procedure.
  • "Close Enough" Timeline: "Moebius" ends with the revelation that there are now fish in Jack O'Neill's pond, whereas it had previously been completely devoid of fish. Word of God has fluctuated back and forth as to whether or not this really was a different timeline, or if Jack had just been exaggerating when he had previously said his pond had no fish at all.
  • Clothing Damage
    • Jack wears the same outfit throughout "Abyss", and as the episode progresses there are more numerous holes and burn scars in his clothing after each torture session.
    • In "The Other Guys", Felger and Coombs disguise themselves as Jaffa by taking the armor off a pair of executed Free Jaffa. Both their sets of armor have staff blast holes from when their former wearers were killed, which they awkwardly try to cover.
  • Cold Equation: In "Tangent", Teal'c and O'Neill are Almost Out of Oxygen and expect rescue in twenty-four hours, twelve hours after they will have died from CO2 poisoning. They recognize that if there was only one person left they might survive to rescue, and Teal'c puts himself in a deep meditation to stretch out their air supply.
  • Collapsible Helmet
    • Not as fancy as in the movie, but they appear in "Children of the God" with Apophis and the Serpent guards.
    • The Horus Guards have the same helmets as seen in the movie, but effect limitations meant that the actual collapse was usally hidden behind a cut. It was preserved in two episodes: Season two's "Secrets" and season eight's "Moebius".
  • Colonel Badass: SG-1 has one Colonel and two Lieutenant Colonels in its roster throughout the series, and all are sufficiently badass. Even the Colonel who was only on the team for a single episode, and was revealed as a mole, named a trope.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: The complete phrase is quoted verbatim when it is written on the Atoniek armbands, which grant their wearer extreme strength, speed and senses.
  • Commuting on a Bus: O'Neill was promoted to General so his onscreen time could be significantly reduced, reflecting Richard Dean Anderson's desire to spend more time with his family.
  • Compensating for Something: Vala accuses the chairman of the senate appropriations committee of wanting to build more Daedalus-class ships because he is compensating for his own shortcomings.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The training simulation in "Avatar" quite blatantly cheats when Teal'c is plugged in; it changes the rules of the game during play.
  • Conflict Killer: Season eight's "Reckoning" saw the commencement of the full-scale war between the rebel Jaffa and the Goa'uld, initiated by a series of surprise attacks on key Goa'uld facilities, only for the Replicators to attack the Milky Way and force the Goa'uld, Jaffa, Tok'ra and Tau'ri to work together.
  • Con Lang: Goa'uld, the language of (obviously) the Goa'uld, Tok'ra, Jaffa and majority of the humans of the Milky Way. The language uses a subject-verb-object grammatical structure, but with a much simplified tense formation compared to English. The language has multiple writing systems, based on various ancient Earth writing systems (including Egyptian hieroglyphs and Linear-A), but most written Goa'uld seen on the show is a simple letter substitution, as opposed to actually being written in the language. The word "goa'uld" itself translates to English either as "gods" or "children of the Gods"; its usage varies.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Martin Lloyd in the episode "Point of No Return".
  • Contagious AI: Central to a single episode, can transmit itself by radio, and even infect people.
  • Continuity Nod
    • In "Message in a Bottle", Carter remarks that the artifact they found has been emanating an energy signature since Neanderthals were a dominant species on Earth. Jack replies, "Ah, takes me back...", referencing the episode "Broca Divide", where O'Neill was turned into a cave-man on an alien planet.
    • This conversation in season seven's "Fragile Balance":

Hammond: Are you saying that O'Neill has somehow become 30 years younger overnight?
Daniel: Stranger things have happened.
Teal'c: Name but one.
Daniel: Well, there was the time he got really old, the time he turned into a caveman, the time we all swapped bodies...

    • The episode "Heroes", though not a Clip Show, features the characters reviewing and explaining their adventures through the Stargate up to that point in time. They make reference to important events in the lives of each character throughout the series, including events which they have agreed never to talk about again.
    • In "Moebius, Part 2", McKay attempts to justify the callsign "Gateship One" to General Hammond. This is a reference to the pilot episode of Stargate Atlantis, where he makes the same attempted justification to Dr. Weir.
    • In "Ripple Effect", Colonel Mitchell (one of them) mentions multiple situations where personnel of the SGC believe they have returned to Earth, only to learn they are being manipulated by aliens. He goes over the events of "Out of Mind" in season two, and the episode "Home" from season one of Stargate Atlantis.
    • In "Arthur's Mantle", Colonel Mitchell briefly runs through the various "alternates" that SG-1 has been through:

Mitchell: ... that was alternate realities, this is alternate dimensions, all I need is a good time-travel adventure and I'll have scored the SG-1 trifecta!

    • When Daniel finally manages to travel to Atlantis in "The Pegasus Project", Vala remarks that his previous failures to get to the city were only her fault twice. Her first two appearances, "Prometheus Unbound" and "Avalon", both had her interfering with Daniel's plan to travel to Atlantis aboard one of the Earth's relief ships.
  • Convenient Replacement Character: Jonas' arrival and departure from the team coincide perfectly with Daniel's departure and return.
  • Converging Stream Weapon
    • The AG-3 satellites array firing on Moscow (virtually) in "Absolute Power"
    • The weapon made out of the six Eyes that Anubis uses on Abydos, in "Full Circle".
  • Cool but Inefficient: Seems to be the central Goa'uld design philosophy. Lampshaded several times.

O'Neill: This [staff weapon] is a weapon of terror; it's made to intimidate the enemy. This [P90] is a weapon of war; it's made to kill your enemy.

  • Cool Gate: Duh!
  • Cool Starship
    • The Ha'tak, Goa'uld pyramid ships, remain present and powerful throughout the entire series.
    • Ori ships: they are big, beautiful, practically invincible, and can one-shot Ha'taks.
    • The BC-303 Prometheus was kind of cool, being the first human starship and the workhorse for humanity for three seasons. Then they introduced the BC-304 Odyssey and Daedalus ships, which are just awesome.
    • Also, the F-302 fighters.
    • Asgard O'Neill-class ships.
  • Cool Old Guy: Hammond, Landry, Bra'tac and Jacob Carter.
  • Cop Boyfriend: For Sam. It does not last.
  • The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Gerak's predecessor as the leader of the Free Jaffa that formerly served Ba'al, who was an ally of Bra'tac and supported the foundation of a democratic government, mysteriously disappeared four months before the start of season nine. Though no evidence linking Gerak to the disappearance has been discovered, and foul play was never definitively established at all, Teal'c and General Landry consider it more than just good fortune for Gerak.
  • Cosmopolitan Council: The Goa'uld, whose hosts are male, female, Caucasian, Black, Asian and various combinations thereof. Does not make them any less evil, though.
  • Could Say It, But...
    • In "Ascension", when Carter is trying to figure out how to deal with Orlin, who has shown that he will remain invisible if her superiors come looking for him, she approaches O'Neill with a "hypothetical" question about what to do in this situation and how, hypothetically, he might order her to proceed.
    • In season eights "New Order", when Dr. Weir explains why the SGC has remained closed during international negotiations, Daniel Jackson reads through her political phrasing and deduces that the government is using the stargate as a bargaining tool with other countries, to which Weir replies, "I would never say that." Later in the episode, when Carter is asking to be allowed to take their Ancient-modified Goa'uld cargo ship in the hopes of contacting the Asgard to save O'Neill, she points out that Earth might never figure out how the ship was modified. Dr. Weir asks if Carter is saying that she, the person most likely to figure it out, will deliberately refuse to help if her request is not granted, to which Carter responds, "I would never say that."
  • Courtroom Episode: "Cor-Ai"; "Pretense"
  • Crazy Enough to Work: SG-1 has racked up a fair number of wins with good old-fashioned tenacity and copious amounts of firepower. However, their best work usually involves doing things that sound flatly ridiculous, even to themselves.
    • Lampshaded in one instance where, after Carter outlines her plan, O'Neill asks everyone who thinks it is an insane plan to raise their hands. The whole room does... including Carter.

Hammond: Keep those hands up, people. Because the next question is: who's going to make this happen?

    • Lampshaded by Thor himself in one episode, enlisting SG-1's help for exactly this reason.

Thor: It was your stupid idea, Major Carter.

  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Apparently, the Goa'uld Marduk was so evil that his own priests did a Heel Face Turn and sealed him in a healing Sarcophagus... together with a nasty little critter that would continuously devour his body while said Sarcophagus would heal and resurrect him. As O'Neill succinctly put it, that is officially the worst way to go.
  • Cryptic Conversation: Oma Desala and the nameless monk of "Maternal Instinct" speak frequently in Zen koans when guiding others towards Ascension. Daniel sometimes follows along, but often remarks on the confusing nature of these conversations.

"If you immediately know the candle is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago."

  • Crystal Skull: In "Crystal Skull".
  • Culture Clash: Teal'c's alien background occasionally deviates from what is expected amongst American society. When he encounters Colonel Maybourne in "Touchstone", he explains that on Chulak Maybourne's past actions would allow Teal'c to dismember him, and in "Affinity" he explains that if a Jaffa couple in a relationship cannot agree on a "pledge break", then a weapon is required to resolve the dispute.
  • Cunning Linguist: Daniel Jackson
  • Curb Stomp Battle: The Battle of P3Y-229.
  • Cure for Cancer: The Goa'uld and Tok'ra symbiotes can act as this.

Garshaw: We cure it all the time, it's no problem.

  • Curse Cut Short: In "Moebius", when SG-1 gets taken out by a Jaffa grenade.
  • Cyanide Pill: Carried by all the Russians teams when they were operating their own gate program.
  • Cycle of Revenge: The nations of Rand and Caledonia finally had their long-expected war in "Icon", and are (slowly) rebuilding in the sequel episode, "Ethon". Unfortunately, both governments seem to be heading right back to war; Jared Kane, a senator of the Rand Protectorate, enlists the help of the SGC to derail the coming conflict. When his government demands to know why he is helping the enemy, Kane explains that he has no love for Caledonia, but he just does not want to see countless more people die (on either side) re-righting wars that were started by their fathers and their father's fathers.

D

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: You're a resourceful man Mr. Woolsey. If you think there's proof out there, find it.

  • Dark Age Europe: In the first season, when the show was still getting its footing and trying to explain why other human-populated planets, particularly the Tollan, had more advanced technology than Earth, Daniel explained that the Dark Ages held back our own technological advancement for several centuries. This idea was dropped soon after, since it has little real-world backing and is rooted in a European-centrist philosophy, which disregards scientific advancement from outside "the West". Later episodes would explain the technological disparity with in-universe rationales; including contact with other advanced races, the development of a single key technology that accelerated their progress, or even just the random vagaries of chance.
  • Data Crystal: Used by most spacefaring peoples.
  • Daydream Surprise
    • Dr. Jay Felger is prone to them, as both of his episodes end with a fantasy segue. "The Other Guys" closes with both him and Coombs being awarded medals, before Carter begins to make out with Felger upon the dais. "Avenger 2.0" closes with him and his assistant making out before Carter comes in and engages his assistant in a Cat Fight over his affections.
    • In the episode "Grace" Carter has repeated hallucinations of her friends and family, several appear (and might be, or might not be) real.
  • Dead Girl Junior: Janet Wells
  • The Dead Have Names: Inverted at the memorial service at the end of "Heroes". During the eulogy, Carter mentions the names of everybody who is alive thanks to the work of Janet Fraiser.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Jack O'Neill, with Daniel Jackson occasionally getting into the act; the latter mentions, after annoying a Russian officer, that he has been spending too much time with Jack. People meeting Jack for the first time will sometimes ask the question, "Is he always like this?"

Ba'al: You dare mock me?
O'Neill: Ba'al, come on, you should know me by now. Of course I dare mock you.

Balinsky: Dr. Jackson's going to die when he sees this!
Dixon: Again?

    • Thor, and by extension all the Asgard, are effectively immortal since they transfer their minds to a new cloned body in the event that their current body is destroyed or lost. Thor dies multiple times throughout the series, only to return later with a new body. Fittingly, he is voiced by Michael Shanks, Daniel Jackson's actor.
    • In the episode "Abyss", Jack is tortured to death several times by Ba'al, only to be resurrected in a sarcophagus so Ba'al can start over again.
    • Apophis is one character whose number of deaths rival Daniel Jackson, as he has been presumed dead (and actually dead) so many times that, when he was finally Killed Off for Real, Jack corrected himself from "100% sure" down to "99% sure". Despite being Killed Off for Real, he was brought back multiple times in alternate realities and dreams/hallucinations.
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts
    • Ba'al tortures Jack in "Abyss" through the slow application of small drops of acid.
    • Mentioned by name by Daniel Jackson in the episode "Avatar".
  • Delivery Guy: Daniel Jackson in "Brief Candle", where the team stumbles upon a woman giving birth in an empty temple, and again in "Secrets", when Sha're, Goa'uld-infested and heavily pregnant with Apophis' child, goes into labor.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: O'Neill gives Lieutenant Satterfield, a trainee hoping to join the SGC, "high marks for her high marks."
  • Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Besides naquadah-enhanced nukes (see the main Stargate Verse page), the SGC has been known to use trinium tranquilizer darts (unsuccessfully) against Kull warrors, and later an energy weapon reverse-engineered from the Ancient phlebotinum that gave life to the Kull.
  • Descending Ceiling: Part of the test of wisdom in Merlin's chamber at Avalon.
  • Description Cut: In "Cure", regarding O'Neill.
  • Destructive Saviour: The Tok'ra see the Tau'ri this way.
  • Determinator
    • In "Ethon," when Kane asks if Daniel Jackson ever gives up, he says that he does not give up until he is dead, and sometimes not even then.
    • Teal'c manages to fight, defeat and execute Arkad after having been shot twice before the fight even began and being beaten and gutted during the struggle.
  • Development Gag: The ending of "200", where the Wormhole X-Treme! movie production is cancelled in favor of renewing the TV series, reflects the actual status of SG-1 during production of seasons five, six and seven, where the intention was to end the series after each season and conclude the story with a movie. However, the show kept getting renewed instead, and the plan for the movie was eventually scrapped and turned into the season seven finale "Lost City".
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: The combat simulator chair in "Avatar" does this repeatedly because of its intelligent programming.
  • Did I Say That Out Loud
    • O'Neill will only allow a Russian officer to join SG-1 over "[his] rotting corpse," to which he then amends, "Did I say that out loud?"
    • When President Hayes is made aware of the Stargate, and Vice-President Kinsey's association with the project, he begins to wonder about some of the campaign financing that Kinsey had brought to their election. When the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reacts to his statement, he smirks and responds, "Did I say that out loud?"
  • Die Hard on an X: "Bad Guys" places SG-1 in the role of the villains, accidentally taking a museum hostage on an alien planet when they are mistaken for rebels. When a security guard manages to avoid being captured and later tries to foil their "evil plan", Mitchell refers to him as "John McClane", which Daniel does not understand, so Teal'c explains that he is referring to the movie.
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: When Vala is being reviewed for suitability to formally join the SGC, she is given a polygraph. Vala tries for some generic small talk and compliments the doctor administering the test, only for the polygraph to flash and indicate that she is lying. After each flash she tries to amend her statement, lowering the compliment each time, until she finally says that the doctor looks "not offensive".
  • Directed by Cast Member: Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks, and Christopher Judge all wrote or directed episodes, and Ben Browder shared a story credit for one episode.
  • Dirty Coward
    • Colonel Samuels, an NID-affiliated officer, smugly presents his "Goa'uld buster" weapons as the key to defeating Apophis' attack on Earth in "The Serpent's Lair". When the attack fails to have any appreciable affect, and his subsequent suggestion to send a nuclear weapon to Chulak is overruled as being pointless, he requests to evacuate to the Alpha Site. General Hammond seems to almost take glee in denying his request, explaining that the idea was to send the best and brightest -- and Samuels does not qualify.
    • Robert Kinsey attempts to flee Earth to the Alpha Site as soon as Anubis launches his attack, despite learning that President Hayes is staying at the White House, and visibly panics when Anubis tries to send a bomb through the gate to the SGC.
  • Discontinuity Nod: See also Canon Discontinuity.
    • The first season episode "Hathor" was widely disliked by fans and, though the Hathor character did reappear, the specific details of the episode were never revisited. In follow-up episodes, whenever the events were discussed one of the characters would comment that they had agreed never to talk about that again.
    • In "Wormhole X-Treme!", the on-set director of the Show Within a Show referred to Martin's suggestion of "three shots disintegrates" as the stupidest thing he had ever heard. The ability of zats to disintegrate a body with three shots had been dropped in season three.
  • Discriminate and Switch
    • In the pilot, Carter mistakes O'Neill's dislike of having her assigned to his team as a feeling that, as a woman, she will be a liability. O'Neill explained that his problems had nothing to do with her being a woman, he likes women, his problem is that she is a scientist. The conversation, including the infamous "reproductive organs" line, was edited down when the pilot was re-released as a Direct-To-DVD film in 2009.
    • Inverted in "The Other Side". The Eurondans are extremely uncomfortable around Teal'c, with the implication that it is because he is a Jaffa, but it turns out that they are just regular old "hate black people" racists, regardless of their planet of origin.
  • Dispense with the Pleasantries
    • Inverted in one episode, when Daniel (who has at this point Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence) shows up again, and O'Neill immediately asks him what's wrong. Daniel gets upset because O'Neill didn't even bother with such basic pleasantries as saying hello to him first.
    • O'Neill inverts it himself at another point, when Jacob comes through the Stargate:

O'Neill: Jacob!
Jacob: Jack, we've got a problem. We need to talk.
O'Neill: Hi! Hello. How are ya? Long time, no see. What's doing? What's up? Hey, buddy!
Jacob: I'm sorry, Jack. It's good to see you again. Congratulations on your promotion.
O'Neill: Thanks.
Jacob: You deserve it.
O'Neill: Yes. Well... What's up?
Jacob: The Replicators. They've launched an all-out attack on the Goa'uld. If the Goa'uld can't find a way to stop them, the Replicators will easily overrun our galaxy, in a matter of weeks.
O'Neill: Why didn't you say so?
(Jacob gives O'Neill a look and walks off)
O'Neill: (after a pause, hurrying after Jacob) I'm sorry. You said we have a problem, not a big galactic emergency.

  • Distracted by the Sexy: In "Upgrades", O'Neill goes on a tear about the Tok'ra and his dislike of them, only to trail off when Anise steps through the gate.
  • Ditto Aliens: All the Asgard are portrayed by the same puppet, and O'Neill often needs to be prodded to recognize one of them as Thor. Carter, however, seems have no trouble at all identifying different Asgard by sight.
  • Divided We Fall: The Jaffa rebellion was severely hampered throughout its existence by the inability of the separate factions to coordinate and work together. There was at least one outright betrayal in "Avenger 2.0", and "Sacrifices" highlighted the disparate goals of each individual faction.
  • Doctor. Doctor. Doctor.
    • In "Tangent," Major Davis introduces General Vedrine to SG-1 and each is greeted with their salutation (Colonel, Major and Doctor), each responding with "General."
    • The episode "Frozen" has Dr. Fraiser being introduced to the Antarctic team, leading to a chorus of "doctor"s (and a few "Majors" thrown in for Carter) before O'Neill interrupts and tells them that's enough.
  • Documentary Episode: The two-part episode "Heroes", which features Emmett Bregman filming a project on the SGC and its personnel at the direction of the outgoing US President. This includes interviews with the primary cast and several of the recurring supporting characters, discussions of past events, and debates on whether or not the program should be kept secret from the public. Scenes from the documentary are filmed with different lighting and staging to reflect the presence of an in-show camera.
  • Does Not Know His Own Strength: When SG-1 puts on the Atoniek armbands, which grants them Super Strength, speed and senses, Jack O'Neill seems to have a lot of trouble adjusting. When it first takes effect, he manages to knock Teal'c unconscious in a boxing ring. Later, he accidentally knocks out part of Hammond's concrete wall to demonstrate what they can do and, afterwards, accidentally hospitalizes Sergeant Siler when he knocks him down a flight of stairs.
  • Doing It for the Art: One of the "flashbacks" from "200" features an incident where O'Neill was rendered invisible; one of the scenes features him walking down a hallway and talking with Teal'c, but since he is invisible he can only be located by the coffeee cup that he is carrying at the time. The plan was to have one of Richard Dean Anderson's stand-ins or stunt-doubles actually perform the scene, since it would require wearing a full-body green suit in order to have the body edited out in post production, but RDA insisted on actually performing the scene himself. You still cannot see him, since he is invisible, but hopefully you can just tell that it is really O'Neill walking with Teal'c.
  • The Doll Episode
  • Don't Call Me "Sir"!: Emmett Bregman, shooting a documentary of the SGC, repeatedly tells the colonel of Cheyenne Mountain public relations to call him Emmett, to which the colonel always responds "Yes, sir."
  • Dramatic Irony: Some of the friction between Captain Carter and her father stems from what he considers to be her abandonment of her dream of going into space and her wasting her potential working in Cheyenne mountain; he pulls strings to have her transferred to NASA, which she rejects. If only he knew that she was going into space on a daily basis, farther than any NASA shuttle will ever go.
  • Dramatic Space Drifting: In one episode a bad guy gets beamed out into space for holding a gun on someone. When the former hostage asks what happened to him, he drifts towards the bridge window and actually gets a shot off before smacking into it and sliding off.
  • Dress-Coded for Your Convenience
  • Dressing as the Enemy: Felger and Coombs disguise themselves as Jaffa in order to sneak around a Goa'uld base, all the while awkwardly trying to cover staff blast holes in the armor from when their former wearers were executed.
  • Driven to Suicide
    • In "The Light"; Daniel and the members of SG-5 go through withdrawl after leaving a Goa'uld "opium den" (not actually about opium), and attempt to kill themselves. The episode opens with Lieutenant Bader running directly into the kawoosh of the opening Stargate.
    • When Jack accepts that Daniel cannot, or will not, use his Ascended powers to break him out of Ba'al's prison, he demands that Daniel at least kill him to keep him from being tortured and killed over and over again, and becomes enraged when Daniel refuses to do.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Ori, who are maybe-maybe not destroyed 2/3 of the way through the final season, only to be declared dead five episodes later in the penultimate episode, thanks to the abrupt cancellation that cut the storyline short.
  • Due to the Dead
    • In "Forever in a Day", an Abydonian funeral is witnessed. It draws heavily from Egyptian funerary rights, including the preservation of organs in canopic jars and weighing the deceased heart against a feather.
    • Jaffa funerals take place at night, with the body immolated on funeral pyre.
    • The Tok'ra have a funerary ritual involving the disintegration of their bodies in the vortex of an opening stargate in order to prevent the Goa'uld from learning any information from their corpses or resurrecting them in a sarcophagus for interrogation. The eulogy points out that even in death they do not give in to the Goa'uld.
    • Part two of "Heroes" closes with a memorial service for Janet Fraiser with Major Carter giving the eulogy.
  • Dull Surprise: The main cast criticized themselves for the ending to "Thor's Chariot", where they only seemed mildly intrigued by the sight of a ship the size of a city appearing and eliminating an entire Goa'uld army in seconds. In behind-the-scenes interviews, they explained that none of them appreciated just how impressive (or big) the ship would look in the finished episode, so they did not think to put more awe or fear into their expressions.
  • Dying as Yourself
    • When Klorel is shot in "Within the Serpent's Grasp", Skaara briefly awakens and smiles at O'Neill.
    • When Amonet is killed by Teal'c, Sha're manages to break free a moment before death to tell Daniel that she loves him.
  • Dying Race: The Asgard.
  • Dynamic Entry: In "Talion", Teal'c kidnaps Ba'kal by walking out of the shadows and knocking him out with a blow to the face.

E

  • Early Installment Weirdness: The later seasons definitively established that beings with naquadah in their bloodstream, including Jaffa, could "sense" other beings that likewise had naquadah in their blood, primarily Goa'uld (and Tok'ra) symbiotes. However, this was completely absent from the first season, and in "In the Line of Duty", the first episode to feature the ability, Teal'c never sensed the presence of Jolinar.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect: In the episode "1969", the team is travelling cross country and, at one point, the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) is shown to indicate they are in Chicago. Construction on the Sears Tower did not begin until 1971, two years after the setting of the episode.
  • Endless Daytime: In "The Broca Divide", the heroes visit a planet that is tidally locked. While the inhabitants of the "light side" have a Bronze Age culture bearing similarities to the Minoan civilization, the dark side is infected with a plague that turns people into savages.
  • Enemy Mine
    • Season seven had an episode titled "Enemy Mine" that referred to the movie by actually featuring a mine; the SGC must negotiate with the native Unas population for mining rights to a deposit of naqahdah.
    • The SGC and the System Lord Yu coordinate their attacks against Anubis when it becomes clear that his advantage over the rest of the Goa'uld is too great, and the SGC then assists Ba'al with the same when Yu's senility makes his cooperation unpredictable.
    • The Tau'ri, Tok'ra and rebel Jaffa cooperate with the Goa'uld against the Replicators, who launch a full-scale invasion of the Milky Way in "Reckoning".
    • The Goa'uld Nerus proposed an alliance with the SGC in order to cooperate against the Ori, but he was working against them all along.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: In "Arthur's Mantle", Dr. Lee concludes that Sam and Cam were miniaturized, when actually they were sent into another dimension.
  • Epic Fail: As Dr. Felger explains, it probably took the Ancients thousands of years to build the Stargate network, and he managed to take it down in a day.
  • Even Evil Has Standards
    • Sokar was deemed as being far worse than his fellow System Lords and was ejected from their ranks.
    • Anubis was banished by the System Lords millennia ago for crimes even they found unspeakable, and they put aside their constant in-fighting to join forces against him after he returned.
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Well, Sokar, who was just a normal god of underworld, but the Goa'uld who adopted the identity actually modelled himself on Satan.
  • Everyone Can See It: By the end of season eight, Carter and O'Neill's attraction has reached a point where multiple characters tell them to stop wasting time and get together already. Vice-President Kinsey explains that it is apparent to anybody who can "read between the lines."
  • Eviler Than Thou: Anubis. See Card-Carrying Villain above. He was opposed, at one time or another, by pretty much every remaining major villain on the show, sometimes in conjunction with SG-1.
  • Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Naturally, the Genre Savvy O'Neill does not trust anybody who appears to lack a sense of humor.
  • Evil Is Burning Hot
    • Sokar's prison moon Netu in "Jolinar's Memories" and "The Devil You Know" was explicitly modeled on Hell, as Sokar impersonates Satan.
    • It is discussed after the introduction of the Ori that fire has historically been associated with demons; Daniel hypothesizes that the Ancients might have deliberately fostered this belief in order to subconciously prejudice humanity against the fire-themed Ori.
  • Evil Sounds Deep
    • The Goa'uld have deep, reverberating voices that they use to awe their followers. The Tok'ra subvert the trope; being biologically Goa'uld their voices are just as deep and reverberating, but they are among the good guys.
    • The Kull warrior suits artificially lower the voice of the wearer.
  • Evil Twin: RepliCarter
  • Evil Versus Evil: Anubis vs. System Lords; Replicators vs. System Lords; Ba'al vs. Adria.
  • Exposed Extraterrestrials: The Asgard are highly advanced grey space aliens that do not wear clothes. Given that they reproduce via cloning, perhaps they no longer have anything they would consider private parts. Lampshaded in "Ripple Effect"; Col. Mitchell is surprised on first meeting one, and remarks that he was kind of expecting pants.
  • Explosions in Space: Natch.
  • Extra-Strength Masquerade

F

Gerak: If I do this, I will die. But, I will die free!

    • "Off the Grid":

Ne'rus: But I'm so interesting!

  • Failsafe Failure: Almost called out by name in "Avatar".
  • Fake Memories: "Fire and Water"; "The Fifth Man"; "Beneath the Surface"; "Summit"; "Collateral Damage"; "Dominion"
  • Famed in Story: SG-1 is legendary throughout the galaxy, but Teal'c is particularly famous (or infamous) as "the shol'va" (renegade) who started the Jaffa rebellion and almost personally lead to the downfall of the Goa'uld.
  • Fantastic Racism: In abundance, as well as the old-fashioned kind in the episode "The Other Side", wherein the aliens of the week disliked Teal'c not because he was Jaffa, but because he was black.
  • Fatal Attractor: Daniel Jackson was continuously involved with women who turn evil, have been evil, or become a Goa'uld host. The only person with worse luck in love than Daniel is Carter.
  • Fatal Family Photo: Airman Wells spends the entire first part of "Heroes" showing the ultrasound of his unborn son to the rest of his team, up until he is shot in the back by a Jaffa. He survives.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Becoming a Goa'uld host. Imagine being trapped in your own body, being able to see and hear everything around you, but be powerless to do anything. Now imagine living through this for hundreds or even thousands of years. If you're lucky, you'll go insane long before then.
  • Feed the Mole
    • The Tok'ra allow Tanith to live and believe that he has tricked them in order to feed Apophis false information through him. They decide to stop the subterfuge once they feel that he has outlived his usefulness and the risks of keeping him around outweigh the gains.
    • In "The Other Guys", SG-1 allows themselves to be captured by the Goa'uld Khonsu since they know he is actually a Tok'ra and he has vital information to pass along. However, midway through the episode Her'ak, Khonsu's first prime, reveals that Anubis knew the truth the whole time, and they had simply allowed Khonsu to live until now. Her'ak kills Khonsu and SG-1 is now captive for real.
  • Figure It Out Yourself: The reasoning behind the Ascended Ancients Alien Non-Interference Clause: If a "lower" deserves to ascend then they should be able to figure it out themselves.
  • First-Name Basis
    • Emmett Bregman, shooting a documentary at the SGC, repeatedly tells the colonel he is working with not to call him sir. In their final scene, he finally does call him "Emmett".
    • At the end of "Lost City", when O'Neill is fading away due to the Ancient knowledge downloaded into his mind, Carter pleads for him to stay and calls him "Jack".
    • After Jack has been promoted to General, Hammond insists that he start calling him "George", but Jack says that he tries and it comes out "General" anyway.
  • Flashback with the Other Darrin
    • The "Previously on..." opening to "The Sentinel" featured footage from "Shades of Grey" in order to re-introduce the rogue NID operation that would be important in the episode, but the two NID characters who "returned" did not actually appear in "Shades of Grey." They were edited into the older scenes in order to give the impression that they had been there all along.
    • When Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell was introduced in season nine, several scenes were filmed that took place during the time frame of season seven's "Lost City" in order to give the impression that he had been involved with the SGC for years.
    • In "200", when discussing possible endings to the Wormhole X-Treme! movie, "fishing" is mentioned, complete with clips from the season eight episode "Moebius" where the season did end with the team going fishing. There is, however, an added clip that includes Mitchell and Vala, who had not yet joined the cast, and O'Neill testily responds that they were not there.
  • Flashed Badge Hijack: Mitchell takes a man's motorcycle when he needs to pursue the people who have kidnapped Vala, and the car he and SG-1 are driving is blocked in its space... by a police car.
  • Flat Yes: Carter's only response to Major Kawalsky condescendingly asking her if she has ever pulled out of a simulated bombing run in an F-16 at eight-plus g's is a simple, calm "yes." Kawalsky has to pause and glance around the table before he says anything else.
  • Fling a Light Into the Future: In "There But for the Grace of God", an unknown race that was about to be wiped out by the Goa'uld in an Alternate Universe broadcast a message containing the attack's staging point's gate address. That universe's SGC (the SGA) picked it up but couldn't understand it because they never learned Goa'uld on Abydos. Then Daniel turned up in that universe thanks to Applied Phlebotinum. He was able to bring back the message to his own SGC and it enabled them to stop the Goa'uld from invading Earth.
  • Flip Personality: The Tok'ra symbiotes and their hosts. The symbiote taking control is revealed by an altered voice and temporarily glowing eyes.
  • Floating Continent: The Nox and their floating city.
  • Flynning: When Mitchell sees two siblings play-fighting with wooden swords, he criticizes them for "moving around like Ed Grimley" and demonstrates a more effective technique in order to gain their favor. When they ask where he learned to fight, he explains that his knowledge comes from broomstick battles with his brother and the Sodan ritual of kel-shek-lo. Oddly, his prior mention of studying fencing in college was not brought up.
  • First Contact Math: The Asgard do not reveal their true selves to a people until they have demonstrated that they understand pi (the ratio of a circle's radius to its circumference), indicating that they have developed sufficient science to understand their existence as "aliens" and not "gods".
  • Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: The Ori mother ships have a massive slow firing weapon that frequently decimates any ship it hits. They also carry turrets similar to those on a Ha'tak, but much more powerful (though the main beam still outclasses those by leaps and bounds).
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "The Fifth Race", just after he comes back from the planet and is in the briefing room, O'Neill is sketching absent-mindedly the plans for a makeshift ZPM.
  • Friendly Enemy: The Goa'uld Nerus, who has contacted the SGC in the hopes of working together against the Ori, is almost giddy with anticipation over meeting SG-1, fawning over Teal'c and Daniel Jackson. When he realizes that Colonel Mitchell and Vala are not O'Neill or Carter he becomes despondent, even asking if they might be arriving later.
  • Forgotten Phlebotinum: Since a major part of SG-1's mission statement is to find useful technology this is averted a lot, with some technology appearing frequently over the years after its introduction, but a lot of other technology is forgotten once its episode is over.
  • For the Evulz: In "In the Line of Duty", Teal'c explains that he has seen the Goa'uld exterminate entire species for no purpose other than that it gave them pleasure.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Within the original SG-1. It is not exact, but it works:
    • Sanguine: O'Neill
    • Choleric: Carter
    • Melancholic: Daniel. Poor, poor Daniel.
    • Phlegmatic: Teal'c. Indeed.
  • Fiction as Cover-Up: The SGC allows Wormhole X-Treme! to keep filming in order to serve as a smokescreen for their actual activities.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Pretty much the whole team, but especially O'Neill and Teal'c. Teal'c eventually notes that he considers O'Neill his brother.
  • Full-Name Basis: Teal'c uses this for anyone who does not have a military rank.

Daniel: Can you keep an eye on this for me, Teal'c?
Teal'c: I will keep both eyes on it, Daniel Jackson..

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