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17 Coolest Stargate SG-1 Moments


If you’re a sci-fi fanatic like me, you’ve at least heard of Stargate SG-1. If you’ve been living under a rock--or perhaps on Chulak--the show revolves around a Stargate, a portal to a network of different worlds. It mainly focuses on the explorations of SG-1, whose members include: Colonel Jack O’Neill, Captain Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and the Jaffa-turned-ally Teal’c.

    Hopefully this list will get you thinking down memory lane.. or get you interested in checking out the show!

    

[Warning: If you haven’t seen this show yet and you’d like to, this list contains super major mega spoilers!]

 

  1. The Nox Exist, and are Really Advanced

    This episode began with the SG Command being pressured to bring back something of use, such as advanced weapons or defense to be used against the Goa’uld. The team goes to the planet, Gaia, to retrieve a flying animal who can become invisible at will. After a brief run in with Apophis, they are all killed and brought back to life by these cool looking people called The Nox.

        The team later finds out that it is not the flying animal that has this power, but The Nox themselves. When pressed to share this technology with SG-1, The Nox say that they are “too young”, and that “their way is not the only way”. Colonel O’Neill decides that those lessons are worth taking home.

        The entire episode has a strong sense of pacifism, and using defense as the best offense.

    It probably doesn’t hurt that they’re actually super advanced, with a giant floating space ship, as shown to the team before they depart from Gaia.

  2. Thor’s Hammer is Real

    This is one of the best examples of Stargate SG-1’s continuing story line. There is the second season episode Thor’s Chariot that deals with the ramifications of the events that transpired in Thor’s Hammer, as well as someone you may have forgot about making another appearance down the road.

        When the team arrives on this planet, Teal’c and O’Neill are sent to a labyrinth where Teal’c’s Goa’uld will be removed. Captain Carter and Dr. Jackson figure out that this planet is inhabited by earth’s Norse people. The people explain to them that Thor brought them to this planet from Midgard (Earth) many years ago, and that this planet is protected by Thor himself. One way Thor protects them is through Thor’s Hammer -- the device that removes the Goa’uld from the host.

  3. The Goa’uld Use People as Trojan Horses

    One of the coolest things about this show is that some of these episodes start out with some major terrible thing happening - such as in this episode where everyone on a planet is dead due to a mysterious disease - and that’s not even the worst thing that happens in that episode. This is especially true of Singularity.

    The team finds only one survivor, a little girl, and bring her through the gate back to the Stargate Command. They soon find out, however, that she has a nuclear bomb through her chest. Teal’c remembers a story of how a Goa’uld had used a sort of trojan horse to send a bomb through and destroy a rival’s stargate. Oh, that sounds like what’s happened here. After realizing all of this, they decide to take the girl - Cassandra - to a nuclear facility so she can explode without killing anyone else. The coolest part is at the end, where Captain Carter initially wants to stay with Cassandra for when she goes *boom*, but realizes that the bomb only will go off near the stargate, and Cassandra doesn’t explode. Yay!

    To top things off? Cassandra gets a puppy. Hey, it’s an Earth rule.

  4. There’s Another Stargate on Earth.

    This is by far one of my all time favorite episodes (Solitudes). The outtake from this episode is just so wonderful. I know it, you know it, and the cast knows it. Finally, it was said:

        “You spent seven years on Macgyver and you can’t figure this one out? We got belt buckles, and shoelaces, and a piece of gum.. build a nuclear reactor for crying out loud!

    • Amanda Tapping, Season 1 Episode 18

        Link to the outtake is here: https://youtu.be/Oo8mePgx4yw, and after seeing the outtake, it makes the episode that much cooler.

        When you’re watching the episode for the first time, you think the same way the characters on the show think - stranded somewhere on an ice planet, and the Stargate sent them somewhere other than Earth due to a staff weapon hitting the gate when Carter and O’Neill went through it. Based on the information we as the audience know about Stargate, that could be the only answer, right?

        Nope!

        It turns out they were actually sent to another Stargateon Earth. Teal’c reaffirms Dr. Jackson’s assumption that if the first gate was lost to the Goa’uld they would have built another one. So the gate that was found in Egypt in the Stargate Movie isn’t even the first one!

  5. The SG-1 Team Has Robot Clones of Themselves

    I’ll admit it. Even remembering this episode (Tin Man) from when I was a kid, I still was fooled by the little twist. And was it just me, or was there at least a subtle nod to Alien when Colonel O’Neill tears his arm apart and there’s like that yellowish-white liquid in place of blood?

        When the team returns to earth after being knocked out, at first they don’t notice anything is wrong. But then when Jack cuts his arm open and discovers he’s all machine, they go back and find out the sole survivor of the planet, Harlan, has made them into androids.The whole time, they’re told “they can’t go back” into their old bodies. Of course they can’t, because the twist is:

        They’re full-fledged androids! The real versions of SG-1 are being kept safe in a separate area! Not only that, but the robot version of SG-1 decides to stay on the planet with Harlan and bury the gate. So even during all the spinoff shows, there’s still the original team somewhere out in space (phew!).

  6. Alternate Realities are a Thing, and Some Bad Stuff’s About to Happen

    The episode (There But for the Grace of God)starts out pretty simple - Dr. Jackson touches something he shouldn’t (shocker!), and gets transported to an alternate reality. Ho hum. It’s been done so many times before.

        However, the things Dr. Jackson sees happening in this alternate reality correlates with what’s happening in our reality. In the alternate reality, they sent the bomb through on Abydos, Dr. Jackson wasn’t in the Stargate program, Teal’c never joined up with SG-1, and Carter and O’Neill were engaged. Same people, slightly different results.

        The episode ends with Dr. Jackson convincing the alternate reality SGC to let him go through the Stargate and save our reality. They relent, and as he arrives back into our reality he screams, “They’re coming!”. The Goa’uld are coming, and so began a three part season finale.

  7. The Goa’uld Have Super Fast Ships and Want to Destroy Us

    This is the season finale of season 1. The team gates to the coordinates Dr. Jackson received in the alternate reality in order to stop the Goa’uld mission of destroying Earth. They soon find out that it’s coordinates to a Goa’uld ship, not planet. What are they to do?

        Blow it up, of course

        While on this ship, they discover that Apophis is not on it, but Klorel (Skaara) is running it, and will meet up with Apophis when they are closer to Earth. The team also discovers a new weapon - the Zat’nik’tels: first shot is a stun, second is death, third is disintegrate. Handy.

        As the episode ends, we see Earth and Apophis’ ship..

  8. The SG-1 Team Saves the Earth (Again)

        The first episode in the second season is a doozy, to say the least. Even if they blow up Klorel’s ship, it won’t damage Apophis’ ship at all. That’s no good. Oh, and did I mention Carter set a timer in the last episode? Carter set a timer in the last episode. So Klorel’s ship is blowing up either way.

        Daniel gets seriously injured (you shouldn’t be surprised by this, though), and makes Jack leave him for dead. However, there is a perfectly good Sarcophagus over there..

        With the help of a surprise friend, they get to Apophis’ ship and blow up the shield generator and escape on death gliders. Unfortunately, the pesky little timer that Carter set a day before was set off just before the team was out of range.

        Resigned to die, at least they had a magnificent view of earth. And a space shuttle.

        A space shuttle named Endeavour, that successfully picked them up and took them back to Earth.

  9. Carter Gets a Goa’uld

    While giving mouth to mouth on a dying villager, Captain Carter becomes infested with a Goa’uld. The Goa’uld takes over and scares Cassandra, who then tells O’Neill what Carter has become. The Goa’uld who infested Sam turns out to be Jolinar, a “good” Goa’uld, and  a member of a group called the Tok’ra. Unfortunately, a “Goa’uld Assassin” comes and tries to kill Sam, but Jolinar gives her life to save Carter.

        The lingering effects of Jolinar come up many times in the series, from visions to Goa’uld information.

  10. SG-1 Release the Destroyer of Worlds

    The episode this is from, Prisoners, has a pretty simple premise at first: SG-1 is mistakenly accused of something terrible on an alien planet and sent off to a prison on yet another world. On it, they meet a woman named Linea. She is an old woman surrounded by criminals who murdered and stole and did many other unspeakable things, and yet this old woman is feared. I wonder why?

        Oh, right. Because she’s this crazy smart lady who figured out cold fusion and can ‘hack’ into the SGC’s computer system after five minutes of using it. She explains to Carter that she was sent here because she was tasked with making an antidote for a plague and it backfired and killed thousands of people. But it was an accident, right?

        Did I mention she’s also got this cute pet name as The Destroyer of Worlds?

        She escapes through the Stargate at the end of the episode, just after everyone learns how evil she is from a stowaway prisoner. Oops.

  11. Thor is a Grey Alien

    Thor’s Chariot begins with a specially marked element being thrown through the gate. Carter and Jackson realized that it must be from the people who had Thor’s Hammer. They go through the gate and find that the Goa’uld are there - but not Apophis. Another Goa’uld, Heru’ur.

    They find out that there’s a cache of weapons or technology or.. something, in a great hall left by Thor. Jack and Teal’c stay and defend the people while Carter and Jackson go with Gairwyn, one of the inhabitants, to the Hall of Thor’s Might. There, they are tasked with proving they are worthy of receiving Thor’s might. The three complete the challenges and see a hologram that doesn’t look entirely like a Norse god -- it’s a little grey alien.

    Surprisingly, he introduces himself as Thor, and though it is a hologram he is speaking to them in real time. Thor hears what has happened and arrives on a giant Asgard ship and zaps all of the Goa’uld and Jaffa away (save for Teal’c, who is now welcome on that planet any time without risk of, you know.. dying).

  12. Just Say “No” (to Sarcophagus)

    When Daniel dies or almost dies, he just hops into a sarcophagus, takes a little nap and wakes up feeling fresh and rejuvenated. In the episode Need, we find out what happens when you abuse the sarcophagus or use it when you’re not injured: you get totally addicted and it messes with your head.

        You can watch Daniel forget his wife, friends, and career when he gets hooked on the drug-like machine. He even almost shoots Jack while he goes through withdrawal! So remember, kids: Just Say “No” to Sarcophagus!

  13. Carter’s Dad Becomes a Tok’ra

    During an epic two-part episode where we meet the “Good Goa’uld”, SG-1 strikes a deal with them to let Jacob Carter, Sam’s dad, become a host for one of them. We find out Jacob has lymphoma in a previous episode (the one where Teal’c gets bitten by a...mosquito..), and that he is doing everything possible and pulling all types of strings to get Sam her “dream job” of going into space. I’m a drama junkie so I just love it when Sam tells her dad the equivalent of “Oh hey remember that whole outer space thing? Yeah I go to the other side of the galaxy on a weekly basis.”

  14. The Other Stargate is Being Used for Eeeeevil

    The SG-1 team travel to a planet that uses something called a “touchstone” to control the weather. Unfortunately, they are accused of stealing it. Realizing what a sketchy situation this could become, they return home and try to figure out what’s going on.

        As it turns out, Maybourne (the perpetual thorn in SGC’s side) has been using the second stargate they found in Antarctica. He’s even been so sneaky as to use their Starrgate at the same time the SGC uses theirs.

        Thankfully, the touchstone gets returned so, you know, Earth isn’t responsible for killing off an entire planet.

  15. Black Holes Transfer Through the Stargate

        We all know that once you have a show that deals with outer space you eventually get to an episode about a black hole. Stargate SG-1 is no exception. The episode A Matter of Time begins with SG-10 running to the Stargate to escape a collapsed star that then turns into a black hole.

    When they finally get the gate open, it turns out the gravitational pull from the black hole is sucking the wormhole from the gate in as well, which means that it can suck Earth into itself! The time dilation is really interesting as the base starts being affected by it, as 20 hours go by normally while only 20 minutes go by for the SGC.

  16. People of Earth are the Fifth Race

    In the episode, The Fifth Race, it isn’t Daniel who touches something and gets all whammied -- it’s Jack O’Neill! Up until now, O’Neill has been the comedic relief and probably the least book-smart of all of the team. After getting the Ancient’s knowledge downloaded into his head on a mission, he suddenly can speak and read latin, do complex math that even Carter doesn’t understand, and build alien technology.

        It turns out, the people of Earth are not ready for this great knowledge, and the Asgard (Thor’s people) take it away from him. Instead, they leave him with a glimmer of hope for the human race - as being on their way to becoming the fifth race in the Alliance of Four Great Races.

  17. Solar Flares and Soviet Spies

    The episode 1969 is my second favorite episode, topped only by a season four episode (wherein O’Neill gets caught in a Groundhog Day situation and eats a lot of cereal).

        Much like how every space-centered show has to cover black holes, they also have to deal with solar flares. 1969 is Stargate’s first foray into them. Instead of heading to another planet, a solar flare spikes up and transports them 30 years in the past. The adventure includes them all dressing up in funky 60’s outfits (as you can see from the picture above), meeting future and past version of characters - including Cassandra, and breaking into an armory in Washington D.C. where the Stargate had been held back then.

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