50 Fun Facts About Stargate SG-1

Which action series made Richard Dean Anderson a star before he played Jack O'Neill on Stargate SG-1?

MacGyver had left Anderson carrying a show alone, so he asked for Stargate SG-1 to be an ensemble with more room for comedy.

Which actor played Colonel Jack O'Neil in the 1994 Stargate film before Stargate SG-1 recast the role?

Kurt Russell played the colonel as a stern, by-the-book soldier, and the film spelled the surname with a single L.

Stargate SG-1 houses Stargate Command inside which real military complex near Colorado Springs?

Cheyenne Mountain got so many visitor questions that staff labelled a storage room of brooms and detergent "Stargate Command".

In and around which Canadian city was Stargate SG-1 filmed throughout its ten-season run?

Vancouver landmarks often doubled for alien worlds: the campus of Simon Fraser University became the capital of the advanced Tollan.

Which sport do O'Neill and Teal'c play through the gate in Stargate SG-1's time-loop episode Window of Opportunity?

Golf was played with a real ball: plans to add it by computer, to protect the $100,000 gate prop, were overturned.

Jack O'Neill of Stargate SG-1 keeps mentioning which animated series, a real-life favorite of Richard Dean Anderson?

The Simpsons is Anderson's own favorite series, and he took the role only once O'Neill was promised more comic leeway than in the film.

In the Stargate SG-1 episode Solitudes, O'Neill and Carter seem stranded on an ice planet but are really where?

Antarctica held a second gate that caught the misdirected wormhole, and the outdoor scenes were shot on the Pemberton Icefield.

Christopher Judge, who played Teal'c on Stargate SG-1, later voiced which hero of the 2018 game God of War?

Kratos is voiced by Judge in God of War and its sequel Ragnarök. Before acting, he played college football at Oregon on a scholarship.

Which classic film do Stargate SG-1's writers reference so often that the 200th episode restages it with the team?

The Wizard of Oz jokes began in Jonathan Glassner's first-season scripts and spread once Richard Dean Anderson started ad-libbing his own.

Which American cable channel premiered Stargate SG-1 and aired its first five seasons before Sci Fi took over?

Showtime ordered 44 episodes before filming began, then let the series go because syndicated reruns no longer drew new subscribers.

Which director of the 1994 film Stargate co-wrote it with Dean Devlin, inspiring the series Stargate SG-1?

Roland Emmerich and Devlin were upset that MGM chose a series over film sequels and refused to talk to the show's creators.

Which spin-off series began airing alongside the eighth season of Stargate SG-1 and ran for five seasons?

Stargate Atlantis was first planned as a replacement for the parent show, but the two ended up running side by side for three seasons.

Samantha Carter of Stargate SG-1 is an Air Force officer with a doctorate in which scientific field?

Theoretical astrophysics is Carter's doctorate, though she also logged over 100 hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War.

Which Asgard, Supreme Commander of the fleet, first appears on Stargate SG-1 as a hologram on the planet Cimmeria?

Thor is voiced by Michael Shanks, the actor behind Daniel Jackson, and the puppet usually sits because it cannot stand or walk.

Which race does Stargate SG-1 reveal as the original builders of the gate network, millions of years ago?

The Ancients built the gates and then rose to a higher plane of existence, pledging not to interfere with other species.

Ben Browder and Claudia Black joined Stargate SG-1 after starring together in which other science fiction series?

Farscape gets its own affectionate spoof in the 200th episode, complete with that show's habit of inventing swear words.

Michael Shanks won the role of Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG-1 with a perfect imitation of which film actor?

James Spader played Jackson in the film, and Shanks even copied his hairstyle before cutting it short for the Season 2 finale.

Teal'c of Stargate SG-1 is a Jaffa warrior and former First Prime from which planet?

Chulak was filmed for the pilot in wind and rain so harsh that the first day's footage was scratched and mostly unusable.

On which alien world has Daniel Jackson been living in secret when the Stargate SG-1 pilot begins?

Abydos is where the film's mission went, and O'Neill had falsely reported that Jackson died there along with its people.

What is the title of the two-hour Stargate SG-1 pilot, first shown as a television movie in July 1997?

Children of the Gods had a budget of $7.5 million and was later split into two parts for repeats and syndication.

In the Stargate SG-1 pilot, what does Jack O'Neill send through the gate to check that Daniel Jackson is alive?

A box of tissues came straight back with a request for more, proving Jackson was alive just as General Hammond planned to send a bomb.

Which major, given command of SG-2, is taken over by a Goa'uld at the end of the Stargate SG-1 pilot?

Charles Kawalsky was played by John Diehl in the film, but Diehl turned down the series and Jay Acovone took over the part.

Which Jaffa master, 133 years old when introduced on Stargate SG-1, taught Teal'c to doubt the Goa'uld?

Bra'tac held the post of First Prime before Teal'c did, and surviving long enough to retire from it is a noted rarity.

Which peace-loving race restores the team to life after a failed ambush in the first season of Stargate SG-1?

The Nox can bring back the dead and live for hundreds of years, yet they regard humanity as young, with much still to learn.

Which senator, played by Ronny Cox, briefly shuts down the gate program for budget reasons on Stargate SG-1?

Robert Kinsey first appears in the season 1 episode Politics and later rises to vice president while still scheming against the team.

Which Stargate Command doctor is killed by a staff weapon blast in the Stargate SG-1 two-parter Heroes?

Janet Fraiser was killed off because the producers believed season seven would be the last and wanted a regular's death to mark it.

Which alien scientist from the planet Langara fills Daniel Jackson's place on the team in Stargate SG-1 season 6?

Jonas Quinn was played by Corin Nemec, whom casting agents first met by chance in the courtyard of MGM's Santa Monica offices.

Which lieutenant colonel, played by Ben Browder, becomes the new team leader in Stargate SG-1 season 9?

Cameron Mitchell spends his first episodes coaxing the old team back together, and the producers had met Browder at fan conventions.

Which veteran actor joined Stargate SG-1 in season 9 as General Hank Landry, the new head of Stargate Command?

Beau Bridges was approached directly by the producers, and Landry turns out to be the estranged father of the base's new doctor.

Which con artist, played by Claudia Black, becomes a full member of the team in Stargate SG-1's final season?

Vala Mal Doran began as a single guest appearance, but Black's chemistry with Michael Shanks won her a longer arc and then a regular place.

Which sentient machines, enemies of the Asgard, arrive in the Stargate SG-1 season 3 finale Nemesis?

Replicators copy themselves endlessly and seek to convert whole civilizations into more of their kind, a threat first hinted at in Fair Game.

Which ascended beings send Priors to convert the Milky Way in the last two seasons of Stargate SG-1?

The Ori draw power from being worshipped, and their motif in the score was inspired by Gothic, Gregorian and Christian music.

Which half-ascended Goa'uld takes over from Apophis as the main villain of Stargate SG-1 in season 5?

Anubis was so cruel that the other System Lords banished him, and actor David Palffy played him hidden under a hood.

Which System Lord played by Cliff Simon outlasts every other Goa'uld on Stargate SG-1, falling only in Continuum?

Ba'al ends up posing as a wealthy businessman on Earth and cloning himself many times over to stay in the fight.

Which faction of symbiotes on Stargate SG-1 opposes the Goa'uld and shares its hosts' bodies equally?

Tok'ra means "against Ra", and the team first meets them in season 2 after one briefly takes Samantha Carter as a host.

Which fictional heavy mineral are the gates made of in Stargate SG-1, each weighing about 29,000 kg?

Naquadah is so prized that the Goa'uld abandoned whole human populations once a planet's deposits were exhausted.

Which Goa'uld weapon on Stargate SG-1 disintegrates its target on the third shot, a quirk the show later mocked?

Zat'nik'tel hits were lampooned in the 100th episode, whose fake cast does the twitchy dance the real actors had grown reluctant to perform.

The Goa'uld villains of Stargate SG-1 mostly pose as deities from which civilization's mythology?

Egyptian myth supplies most of the villains, while the friendly Asgard come from Norse legend and a late ally from Arthurian tales.

Which member of Stargate SG-1's Alliance of four great races is named in dialogue but never actually met by the team?

Furlings are mentioned in The Fifth Race and then left a mystery, so the producers teased their arrival to publicize episode 200.

Which science fiction comedy film inspired Stargate SG-1's self-parodying 100th episode, Wormhole X-Treme?

Galaxy Quest nudged the writers toward parody, giving the alien Martin Lloyd a TV series suspiciously like the real gate program.

The Stargate SG-1 episode 200 restages the pilot with marionettes in the style of which British series?

Thunderbirds was the model for puppets built by the Chiodo brothers, who made Team America's cast, and their wires had to be re-added digitally.

Which breakfast cereal does Jack O'Neill eat as each repeat begins in Stargate SG-1's Window of Opportunity?

Froot Loops were glued to the spoon so that every take matched, and the brand's owner asked whether waffles could be used instead.

Which film comedian played the title role in the Stargate SG-1 episode Urgo, directed by his own son Peter?

Dom DeLuise ad-libbed most of his lines, and Peter stepped in front of the camera to play the character's Air Force form.

Which real illness of Michael Shanks was written into the Stargate SG-1 episode Nemesis to sideline Daniel Jackson?

Appendicitis was added to the script at the last minute so that Shanks could recover while the team fought on without Jackson.

Stargate SG-1's creators first imagined General Hammond as resembling which real American four-star general?

Colin Powell was the model until Richard Dean Anderson brought in Don S. Davis, whom he knew from an earlier series, to audition.

Told to study delusions of grandeur, Peter Williams modelled Apophis on Stargate SG-1 on which dictator?

Benito Mussolini was his template for the villain. Williams had first auditioned to play Teal'c and cut off his dreadlocks for the part.

In 2004 the US Air Force gave Richard Dean Anderson which honorary rank, matching Jack O'Neill's on Stargate SG-1?

Brigadier general was the rank O'Neill had just reached on screen, and the Air Force chief of staff himself made the presentation.

Don S. Davis, General Hammond on Stargate SG-1, was already known as Major Garland Briggs in which cult series?

Twin Peaks made Davis a familiar face, yet he was also a theater professor, a painter and a former Army captain.

In the Stargate SG-1 episode 1969, hippies Michael and Jenny drive the stranded team toward a concert in which state?

New York is where their bus is bound, surely for Woodstock, before Michael must join the military and ship out to Vietnam.

Stargate SG-1 creators Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner first worked together on which MGM anthology series?

The Outer Limits paired them from 1995, yet each pitched a Stargate series to MGM separately without the other knowing.