Question: Why did Richard Dean Anderson leave what was a very popular show?
Question: How long was Vala Mal Doran a host to Qetesh?
Question: Why is the star-gate kept a secret?
Answer: There were a number of concerns. Firstly, that the knowledge of a hostile alien race would lead to a mass panic amongst the population. Additionally, other nations would want to be involved and would be angry at the US military gaining advanced alien technology. This is seen as a valid concern in later seasons, when the IOA was set up.
Question: What was report 30185 and why wasn't Mitchell permitted to read it?
Chosen answer: Report 30185 is a joke report referring to the time when SG-1 go back in time to 1969 in the episode '1969'. The joke is that Colonel O'Neil knocked up a hippie and made sure Mitchel was taken care of throughout his life, like how he got into the 302 program while his buddy, a better pilot, did not.
Answer: This answer is incorrect, because after Mitchell said, I'm being parked on a Samantha, in a very serious tone, said seriously we can't tell you about 30185.
To clarify this entry, what Mitchell asked is "Oh, I'm being punk'd, aren't I?" The joke in the scene was 30185 was too classified for Mitchell to know, but then they turn around and tell Vala. O'Neill isn't really Mitchell's father, they were joking around. But then Samantha does honestly say they can't tell them about 30185. From there we never learn what it is.
Question: Why does the USAF pronounce the word 'lieutenant' as 'loo-tenant' whilst the RAF and RAAF pronounce it 'lef-tenant'? I realise there are different spellings between countries (aluminium and aluminum, for example) but the word lieutenant is spelled identically in the US and UK, yet still pronounced differently. What's the specific reason for the different pronunciation of this word?
Answer: No-one seems 100% sure. The closest we can get seems to be that the spelling and pronunciation evolved differently - the current spelling comes from the French - lieu tenant = place holder, ie. someone who acts in place of an absent superior. The pronunciation appears to have derived from English ears hearing the "w" sound in the French pronunciation as something closer to a V or F (certainly possible if older French pronunciation was anything like, say, modern German, where words such as "wunderbar" are pronounced "vunderbar"). This site (http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/OLD-ENGLISH/2000-11/0973487763) quotes some examples from the 12th century onwards of English spelling, with the first syllable varying between "luff", "lieve", and "Leif". The French spelling seems to have eventually become the standard, but the mis-pronunciation remained, possibly as it was so widely used already. When America declared independence they made an effort to shed many effects of English influence (such as gradually switching to driving on the right). Noah Webster (of dictionary fame) encouraged the independent development of American English, and came up with the American Spelling Book, which pushed spellings and pronunciations in the US rapidly towards their current forms, including the more literal pronunciation of the word "lieutenant".
Question: When SG-1 travels to alien planets they always experience earth like gravity. Shouldn't they be experiencing different gravity on different planets?
Answer: Basically, if a planet has the same mass and size, it will have the same gravity. Since the Stargates were placed on habitable planets, it's likely they placed them on planets with the same gravity. Even if the planet's varied in mass or size, a planet's gravity in relations to Earth can be calculated as m/r^2where m is the planet's mass compared to Earth's mass and r2 is the planet's radius (compared to Earth's) squared. So if a planet had 50% the mass and 70% radius of Earth, gravity would be 0.5/0.7^2 which would be 1.02 times the gravity of Earth (or roughly the same).
Answer: Goldilock zone.
What does this answer have to do with the question?
Nothing, just someone trying to be clever.
Question: Why didn't the Asgard participate or help in the ongoing war with the Ori?
Chosen answer: They have very little resources left after the war against the Replicators.
Answer: They did. There was an Asgard ship present during the battle at the second super gate (the battle in which the Korolev was destroyed). The Asgard ship's fate in unknown, but it is implied in dialog between Landry and Woolsey (which specifically mentions the Asgard being there) that it was either heavily damaged or destroyed like all the other allied ships present. Aside from that, yes, the Asgard did play very little role in the Ori campaign.
Question: I've recently noticed while watching my collection of Stargate SG-1 tapes that one of the team, with the possible exception of Teal'c, seems to say an obligatory "What?" in each episode in such a way that it seems like a ritual signature of the series or an inside game being played by the cast. Has anyone else noticed this, and is it done in each and every episode?
Answer: I can't say I've noticed it every episode, but I agree it happens a lot, most noticably with Daniel Jackson and O'Neill. With the amount of exposition Carter and Jackson have to deliver each episode, after saying "What?" it tends to lead to a long technical or archiological explanation, I wouldn't be suprised if it had now become an in-joke. Much of season 8 seemed to be in-jokes and digs at the show in general.
Question: In some episodes you'll see a shot of the outside of Cheyenne Mountain Complex and there will be a truck to the right. Why does it say 'SGT MACK'? Or, who is this guy?
Answer: It's not unusual in the military to paint the name of the NCO assigned to and responsible for that particular vehicle on that vehicle. Sgt Mack is no-one in the series I've ever seen.
Answer: I saw it one time, but there was no character with the name Mack for that episode. But MacGyver's nickname in the show was Mack. Richard Dean Anderson (who plays Jack O'Neill) starred as MacGyver. In addition, several other SG-1 cast members appeared in the show MacGyver.
Question: In the movie and in early episodes when they travelled through the stargate they arrived on The Other Side nearly frozen. This no longer happens. I was just wondering if any explanation was ever given as to why this no longer happens, or did they just drop that plot point?
Answer: It's a side effect from stellar drift. Once they compensated for it, it goes away.
Question: What does NID stand for?
Answer: It stands for either National Intelligence Department, or National Intelligence Division, although it's never expressly stated on the show.
Answer: Fun fact: The producers were originally going to call the NID the "NRD" for "Not a Real Department", but changed it so they could make it mean something sensible if they ever needed to.
Question: How come SG-1 or any other "SG" team don't bring a DHD from a different planet back to the SGC and then they could hook it up to dial faster?
Answer: DHD's only work on the planet the gate is on. They aren't interchangeable between gates.
Answer: As the previous answer, plus there'd be the problem of as soon as they disconnected the DHD from its Stargate, the Stargate would shut down as the DHD provides the power to open a wormhole (although under special circumstances such as a black hole power can be drawn from the dialled gate instead).
Question: I find it interesting than in most the worlds that they go to, the people there seem to speak perfect American English. In all the Star Trek shows and movies, we know that they have universal translators that help them understand most cultures. Did SG-1 get hold of a univ. translator on another world or from the Asgard?
Answer: I think it's just the writers taking a licence to help the plots along. Everybody spoke English long before the Asgard were introduced, and a 'universal translator' was never mentioned (I would have written one into the pilot, but that's just me).
Answer: This was handwaves by the writers/producers early on as they felt it wouldn't be very interesting to watch Daniel spend half of every episode working out the native language of the planet of the week. At a stretch, we could suppose that the Ancients, the builders of the Stargates and the ones that seeded human life throughout the galaxy, who also spoke English by the time of their return to Earth from Atlantis, spread this form of language as well along with the ATA (Ancient Technology Activation) gene.
Question: Is it ever mentioned who is in charge of SGC when General Hammond isn't there? By that I mean, when he's home sleeping or taking a few days off, not when he steps down or resigns in certain episodes. Wouldn't SGC have to be operationally 24-hrs a day, especially when there's so many "unscheduled" incoming wormholes? Would Hammond be required to live on base? In real life, are military bases operational 24-hrs a day? Do generals take "shifts", or does the highest ranking officer become in charge?
Answer: The commanding General is always in charge, but generals never live on base (in fact they rarely command bases, that is Colonel's work). One would have to assume he has competent officers in charge of day to day activities; at one point in the TV series there are FOUR Colonels in the staff including Sam and Shepard. The General is usually called in when something is going to happen, as generals usually work at a field HQ or at the Pentagon.
Question: Rather than just telling the Jaffa that the Goa'uld are not gods, why doesn't SG-1 tell them about the technology the Goa'uld use to deceive them?
Answer: The Jaffa are not deceived by the technology, they use that technology themselves. Most are just convinced by the words and how they were raised they are gods like the other answer mentions. Besides, a whole lot of Jaffa know that they aren't gods and are trying to seek ways to free their poeple, including Teal'c and the Tok'ra symbiotes.
Answer: They do attempt to show this at times, but the Jaffa are completely convinced. They just consider the technology used by the Goa'uld to be evidence of their omnipotence.
Question: Why doesn't the military just give the Stargate to the army or the marines corps instead of the Air Force? Ground combat just isn't the Air Force's way. They don't understand ground combat nearly as well as the army or marines. If the Air Force has more scientists and engineers, why not just transfer some of them to the army and marines corps?
Answer: To start, it was the original film that had the Stargate under control of the Air Force. In the film, the Stargate was housed at an Air Force installation. And Jack O'Neil (in the show it's O'Neill) was a Special Operations Colonel, who just happened to be from the Air Force. At the time the Air Force had control of the Stargate, its purpose was unknown, so it seems just to be the writers picking a military branch. Later, especially in the show, once the Stargate's function was known, it makes sense the Air Force would continue to be in charge since they are the branch that handles space. In fact, their mission statement is "fly, fight, and win in air, space, and cyberspace." In the film, the Stargate could have been determined to be an alien relic, leading to the thought it came from space so the Air Force should be in charge. It should be noted, during the show, the producers maintained a very good working relationship with the Air Force (2 Chiefs of Staff appeared in the show). Since they had this relationship, the writers and producers may have just kept the Air Force in charge.
Question: After the SGC find out the Russians have the Alpha gate and they're using the original DHD and then the SGC get the Alpha stargate back, do they hook up the DHD? If not, why?
Question: In the movie the Stargate shook and in an episode tells us that they put dampeners on the gate. Off world stargates don't have dampeners so how come they don't shake? Is this because they're controlled by DHDs?
Answer: The off world stargates have a DHD, the Earth stargate had to adapt a computer to dial the gate. It is explained in the first season that this is the reason the gate shook as the dialing computer could not compensate for the stellar drift that the DHD could. Thus they had to add vibration dampers to compensate.
Question: It's been shown that if a Prior were to be captured or betray the Ori then they would burst into flame. When Daniel was turned into a Prior, why didn't he burst into flame the instant he betrayed Adria and the Ori?
Chosen answer: Either because Adria believed he was truly devoted to Origin when she made him a Prior or the same mechanism that made the transformation wear off prevented it.
Question: I noticed that in several episodes (especially season 6) Daniel is wearing what appears to be the same sweater. Is this just a coincidence or is there some special significance to the sweater?
Answer: As far as I'm aware it's just a sweater, nothing special about it.
Answer: Agreed with the previous answer, but the sweater is just to set Daniel apart from everyone else while he is ascended.
Answer: While the series was undeniably successful, filming it is a long process, taking many months of often long days. Anderson, after several years of doing this, wished to spend more time with his young daughter, who he felt he was neglecting, and requested that his role in the series be scaled back. Ultimately, he decided to leave the main cast altogether and only make occasional guest appearances.
Tailkinker ★