History StargateSG1 / GToL

* InterserviceRivalry: Between the SG-3 Marines (Jarheads) and the SG-1 Air Force (Flyboys) after the former's introduction in "The Broca Divide". It is [[DownplayedTrope brief]] and does not appear in subsequent episodes.

* IllTakeTwoBeersToo: When the team is under the influence of appetite-increasing phlebotinum.

* JailbaitWait: When Orlin descends for a second time, he is forced by circumstance to take the form of a young boy [[TheNthDoctor instead of the grown man he was in season five]]. He explains that he knew this would cause problems for his relationship with Carter, since he was aware that human societal mores disapproved of a relationship between a grown woman and a child, and hopes that they will be able to resume their relationship in a few years. Carter is unnerved by the entire discussion.

* LoweredMonsterDifficulty:
** Jaffa armor could initially withstand automatic weapons fire for a decent amount of time before a bullet got through. As the series wears on, Jaffa armor resilience decreases, eventually reaching the point where they may as well be wearing nothing. Potentially justified as the SGC switches from the [=MP5=] to the P90. Its smaller round and higher velocity means it (theoretically) has superior armor-piercing capabilities to other off-the-shelf [=SMGs=]. Prior to that, the SGC likely spent a lot of money on armor-piercing ammunition, which also makes the P90 switch make more sense from an economical standpoint.
** A straight example is the Goa'uld. In the first season, they are nearly ImmuneToBullets, requiring A LOT of firepower to take down permanently, and have SuperStrength. On multiple occasions, a single Goa'uld is capable of giving the SGC a run for its money. By the 2nd season, with a few exception they are as vulnerable as any human if you can get them away from that shield generator of theirs.
** And a more literal example appears in the Season 8 episode "Avatar". Before Teal'c gets a turn, the training simulation which forms the basis of the episode's plot had only been tested by Dr. Lee and his team. Because the simulation runs on an adaptive difficulty system which adjusts based on the memories and experiences of its prior users -- which the noncombatant scientists don't have -- Teal'c finds it almost insultingly easy to plow through the normally nigh-invulnerable "Anubis Drones" as though they were the regular Jaffa rank-and-file. It's [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Teal'c and Jack's pushing for the scientists to make it more difficult]] that causes all the problems in the first place.

* ImMrFuturePopCultureReference: In "1969", while messing with the 1960s interrogator, O'Neill claims that he's [[Franchise/StarTrek Captain James T. Kirk]]. He then later switches to [[Film/StarWars Luke Skywalker]], probably after realizing that ''Star Trek'' already existed in 1969.

* GoingCosmic: The show always had themes of faith and religion, as many plots revolved around [[ReligionIsMagic powerful religious artifacts]] and toppling [[GodGuise false gods]], but the last two seasons saw the Goa'uld and classic science fiction themes being replaced by the Ori, who bear a much stronger resemblance to actual deities, whose followers are closer to [[TheFundamentalist mediaeval religious crusaders]] than ancient god-cultists, and brought a lot of philosophical conundrums with them. This case is a result of the ReTool, as they [[PostScriptSeason weren't expecting another season]].

** In "Holiday", when Daniel makes Machello realize that by [[BodySurf stealing his body]], he's [[HeWhoFightsMonsters become just as bad]] as the Goa'uld he's spent his entire life fighting.
--->'''Daniel:''' You're a ''[[NotSoDifferent Goa'uld]]'', Machello!

* HonorBeforeReason: The Ascended Ancients have as their primary philosophy a policy of non-interference amongst the lower planes of existence. They believe in this so strongly that they will not interfere when the Ori, their hated enemies who are planning their destruction, manipulate the lower planes in order to increase their own power, nor even when the inhabitants of the lower planes gain a weapon ''to kill Ascended beings''. As Morgan Le Fay explains, if they interfere then they will be no better than the Ori and most of them would rather ''die'' than interfere.

** The Jaffa are a genetic offshoot of humanity created by the Goa'uld. They are biologically human in most respects, except they have an abdominal pouch which is used to incubate larval Goa'ld; the Goa'uld larva, in turn, grants the Jaffa immunity from disease and an increased lifespan, but cannot be removed without condemning the Jaffa, as they lack an immune system of their own.

* JustifiedTitle: The two-hundredth episode of the series was titled simply "200", with Mitchell explaining in the episode that this is his two-hundredth trip through the Stargate. However, [[LampshadeHanging the other characters realize that he has not been with the program long enough to have been on anywhere near two hundred missions]], and he explains that he means it has been two hundred times that he has travelled through a wormhole, including coming back to Earth from missions, going back and forth from one alien planet to another, etc.

** The Toka'ra have a lie detector which works via mind reading. Instead of actually reading if a character is being truthful or lying, it reads their conscious and unconscious thoughts and compares them, to see if their recollections match what they are saying. It is used to detect a ''zatarc'', a person that the Goa'uld have brainwashed into an assassin and then covered up their brainwashing with false memories.

** Daniel gets away with helping the Tollan escape because, as a civilian, he cannot be court martialled, and he could not be tried in civilian court without revealing the Stargate Program.

** And a more literal example appears in the Season 8 episode "Avatar". Before Teal'c gets a turn, the training simulation which forms the basis of the episode's plot had only been tested by Dr. Lee and his team. Because the simulation runs on an adaptive difficulty system which adjusts based on the memories and experiences of its prior users -- which the noncombatant scientists don't have -- Teal'c finds it almost insultingly easy to plough through the normally nigh-invulnerable "Anubis Drones" as though they were the regular Jaffa rank-and-file. It's [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Teal'c and Jack's pushing for the scientists to make it more difficult]] that causes all the problems in the first place.

** In "Pretense", one of the Nox helps the Tollan defend themselves by hiding one of their planetary defense turrets so it is not destroyed by the Goa'uld. When Carter calls her out on doing this despite her people's dedicated pacifism, she remarks that she only ''hid'' the weapon -- she did not fire it. Carter remarks that that is a pretty fine line she did not cross. Nya (the Nox in question) agrees wholeheartedly.

* GoodIsNotNice: The methods the SGC is willing to use to fight their enemies can be brutal when you think about them. Exemplified in the episode ''2001'', when a hostile alien species is tricked into getting fake gate coordinates.

* GoodIsNotDumb: In "The Nox" the SG-1 team encounters a race called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Nox]]. The Nox are apparently primitive, but they have the innate ability to make things vanish. They have an extreme commitment to pacifism and continually interfere with the SG-1's attempts to kill Apophis by making their weapons disappear. At the end of the episode, the Nox save Apophis from certain death and send him safely back to his home through the Stargate, at which point O'Neill explains that Apophis is going to come back with greater numbers and enslave all of them if they stick with their 'no fighting' policy. At that point, one of them waves their hand and a big ass floating city appears in midair. They realize that the Nox are actually ''way'' more advanced and run back home through the Stargate. The Nox would go on to make other appearances that similarly result in a gentle, but thorough, curbstomping.
** SG-1 and by extension the entire SGC. The entire command knows they're outnumbered and outclassed by the Goa'uld, so they use whatever means they have available to win. However, this also ties into...

--> O'Neill: The first one's a black hole, they get darker from there.

* GoodAllAlong: Downplayed with the ascended Ancients in Seasons 9 & 10. While most of the cast have developed a pretty significant BrokenPedestal for them due to them having turned the NeglectfulPrecursors trope ''UpToEleven'' for most of the Milky Way galaxy, it's revealed that not only are they veritable '''saints''' compared to [[EvilCounterpart the Ori]], but they've actually been actively protecting the Milky Way from the Ori's sensors for the last few millennia ([[ShaggyDogStory which unfortunately turns out to have been all for naught]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero when Daniel and Vala accidentally alert the Ori to the presence of the Milky Way]]). In fact, the main reason why they're not able to help the lower races (i.e., the Tau'ri. Tok'ra, and Jaffa) during the Ori's invasion is because they're too busy [[HoldTheLine Holding The Line]] against the ascended Ori on the higher planes.

** The ascended Ancients are retroactively revealed to be this in Seasons 9 & 10. While their AlienNonInterferenceClause borders on LawfulStupid at times, the only main example the Ancients have of other ascended beings actively interfering in the lower planes is that of [[EvilCounterpart the Ori]]. [[AliensAreBastards And since the Ori are absolute]] ''[[AliensAreBastards monsters]]'', it's pretty easy to understand why they'd see that whole endeavor as something not worth their time.

* HideYourPregnancy:
** Amanda Tapping was pregnant throughout the end of Season Eight, with her stomach hidden with the traditional practices of obstructing objects and dark, black clothing. She was on maternity leave when filming began for Season 9, leading to Carter being temporarily assigned to Area 51.
** Lexa Doig became pregnant with her and husband Michael Shanks' second child during filming for Season 10, resulting in her character of Dr. Carolyn Lam having a greatly reduced presence and all but disappearing from the show.

* GoodAllAlong: Downplayed with the ascended Ancients in Seasons 9 & 10. While most of the cast have developed a pretty significant BrokenPedestal for them due to them having turned the NeglectfulPrecursors trope ''UpToEleven'' for most of the Milky Way galaxy, it's revealed that not only are they veritable '''saints''' compared to [[EvilCounterpart the Ori]], but they've actually been actively protecting the Milky Way from the Ori's sensors for the last few millennia ([[ShaggyDogStory which unfortunately turns out to have been all for naught]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero when Daniel and Vala accidentally alert the Ori to the presence of the Milky Way]]). In fact, the main reason why they're not able to help the lower races (i.e., the Tau'ri. Tok'ra, and Jaffa) during the Ori's invasion is because they're too busy [[HoldTheLine Holding The Line]] against the ascended Ori on a metaphysical level.

* HeelRaceTurn: The Jaffa are the prime example, although due to the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Kirk-like]] influence the team tends to have on certain worlds, there are certainly plenty of minor examples.

* HijackedByGanon: In season 8, [[spoiler:Ba'al takes control of Anubis's remaining forces after the destruction of Anubis's fleet during the invasion of Earth, and uses his superior [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]] to successfully wage war on all the other Goa'uld combined. Anubis reappears on Earth but gets stuck on a frozen planet in a host body. At the end of the first part of "Reckoning", Ba'al reveals to O'Neill that Anubis is back in command of the largest Goa'uld faction and that he was serving him for a while now.]]

* HotScientist: Sam Carter

* KnightOfCerebus: [[GreaterScopeVillain The Ori]] in Seasons 9 & 10. They lack the charisma and {{Large Ham}} tendencies of the Goa'uld, in addition to being ''far'' more powerful, and so the final two seasons of the show are much darker than the previous eight as a result.

** In Seasons 9 and 10, the Ori are the Bigger Bad, but they're [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended beings]] and thus more of a concept rather than actual characters. Due to that, their DarkMessiah Adria takes on the BigBad mantle for Season 10.

* LaResistance: The Tok'ra are this as a whole to the Goa'ul, being a largely underground splinter group who oppose the rule of the System Lords. Heck, their name ''literally'' translates to "against Ra".

* GiveMeLibertyOrGiveMeDeath: The Jaffa rebellion.

* AGodIAmNot: The ascended Ancients refuse to be worshiped or thought of as gods. The Ori on the other hand...
* GodsHandsAreTied: There's a prime example of this trope in the last 2 seasons for the ascended Ancient precursors. Turns out that there is an evil counterpart of their race that is just as strong as they are -- the Ori, the Evil Goatee-wearing twins of the Ancients. They not only interfere in the affairs of mortals, they direct them to worship the Ori and kill or convert unbelievers, have no problems with throwing their power around, and will grant their preachers some measure of their power. When they come after our galaxy, which had, until now, been shielded by the Ancients, the Ancients still refuse to do anything about the Ori, even when they try to destroy the Ancients. It's up to the simple humans to defeat an army of godlike-powerful beings. Although the Ancients do protect the Milky Way from direct invasion by the Ori themselves (the actual ascended beings), but they allow their followers (no matter how powerful, how close to ascension, or how much-advanced tech they have) through, which the humans have to deal with. The problem here is that if the entire Milky Way is converted, the additional power the Ori would get from all the new "converts" would allow them to completely overwhelm the Ancients.

* GoingNative: While it largely happens [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot offscreen]], later series show Teal'c had become very fond of Earth culture.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Pretty much the reason for keeping the program quiet. In ''almost'' every parallel universe they visit where the program has gone public [[PowderKegCrowd things go downhill fast]]. On the other hand, in many realities, this wasn't so much because TheWorldIsNotReady, but more because Earth became a TerminallyDependentSociety on Stargate travel and using powerful alien allies for defense, at the expense of advancing their ''own'' technology to keep an edge.

* GoodIsNotDumb: in "The Nox" the SG-1 team encounters a race called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Nox]]. The Nox are apparently primitive, but they have the innate ability to make things vanish. They have an extreme commitment to pacifism and continually interfere with the SG-1's attempts to kill Apophis by making their weapons disappear. At the end of the episode, the Nox save Apophis from certain death and send him safely back to his home through the Stargate, at which point O'Neill explains that Apophis is going to come back with greater numbers and enslave all of them if they stick with their 'no fighting' policy. At that point, one of them waves their hand and a big ass floating city appears in midair. They realize that the Nox are actually way more advanced and run back home through the Stargate. The Nox would go on to make other appearances that similarly result in a gentle, but thorough, curbstomping.

** In seasons nine and ten, the Ori are the Bigger Bad, since they're [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended beings]] and thus more of a concept rather than actual characters. Their DarkMessiah Adria takes on the BigBad mantle for season ten.

** The mostly-comedic "Window of Opportunity" episode, a fan favorite.

* HumanityCameFromSpace: The Ancients were from a completely different galaxy it turns out.

* IdiotBall: The Tok'ra take this and run with it all through the series. Despite technically being the good guys, they're still Goa'uld and display the same megalomania and scant self-awareness typical of their species. They refuse to share their technology with their allies for condescending reasons, despite the fact that most of their problems are of their own construction and the humans are always the ones to bail them out. This is most clearly demonstrated in "Exodus" where they end up being fooled by a Goa'uld prisoner pretending to faint, and the whole thing snowballs until the star they're orbiting explodes.

* ImAHumanitarian: Of a sort; Goa'uld System Lords (and possibly others) have a taste for live symbiotes, and consume them ritually. It's implied that this has become so prominent recently that they're actually experiencing ''zero population growth''. This was written in after someone did the math on Jaffa and figured out that there should be ''far'' more adult Goa'uld out there than the series had shown. The twist is that the System Lords only begin eating their own youngs after they've taken an adult human as a host. So they're not eating their own young directly, it's the parasite forcing the host to eat the parasite's young (which isn't better, frankly).

* ImMrFuturePopCultureReference: In "1969", while messing with the 1960s interrogator, O'Neill claims that he's [[Franchise/StarTrek Captain James T. Kirk]]. He then later switches to [[Film/StarWars Luke Skywalker]], probably after realizing that Star Trek already existed in 1969.

* InSeriesNickname: In the [[ParodyEpisode 200th episode]], Jack's calling the Stargate "old orifice"!
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: It turns out Earth played an integral role in the history of the universe, but for the present day and the past few millennia it has been little more than a backwater planet forgotten by the more advanced races.

** In the season seven episode "Lost City" he refers to Bra'tac as "Mister Bra'tac", only for O'Neill to point out that it is ''Master'' Bra'tac.

** In "In the Line of Duty", when Sam/Jolinar gets tranqued twice, the first case with "enough to knock out an elephant," it takes a minute before she is disabled.

* IsThisThingOn: In season 8 episode "New Order, Part 2", O'Neill does this while merged with the computer of Thor's spaceship, and talking through its comms.

* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: Maybe. A reporter with information on the Stargate Program is killed in a car accident mere seconds after O'Neill fails to convince him not to run the story, but O'Neill claims (and is assured by General Hammond) that the Air Force had nothing to do with it. (The NID, on the other hand...) The truth is never revealed to the audience one way or another.

* Myth/KingArthur: Seasons nine and ten delve deeply into Arthurian legend, with the revelation that Myth/{{Merlin}} was an Ascended Ancient who retook human form in order to build a weapon to fight the Ori. Though Arthur himself never appears, SG-1 does visit Camelot and follows in his footsteps to look for the ''Sangraal'', the HolyGrail, which they believe to be the weapon that Merlin built.

** Ba'al, the final System Lord left alive by season 9 and 10, grows rather fond of human culture [[GoingNative after he spent some time living incognito on Earth]]. He drops the deep Goa'uld voice except when he's trying to be intimidating, starts dressing in more casual clothes, and when he finally does invade Earth he offers humanity an alliance instead.
* KneelBeforeZod: Almost every single Goa'uld System lord, underlord, and subordinate does this, leaving it almost the [[PlanetOfHats hat]] of the species. Notably, the rebel faction of the Tok'ra is an exception.

* KubrickStare: Anubis' clone Khalek in the ninth season episode Prototype gives a very impressive one of these.

** The episodes "Wormhole X-Treme!" and "200".

* LensmanArmsRace: The SGC goes from a platoon-sized group of special forces going through a stargate they barely know how to operate, to a small fleet of interstellar starships, in about eight years.

* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: The season one episode "Hathor" was heavily disliked by both fans ''and'' the producers, and in following episodes the characters mention that they have agreed to never talk about it again. True to that, [[CanonDiscontinuity the specific events of the episode are never revisited]], with characters only talking about the "Hathor incident" without saying what actually happened, and the details of how Goa'uld queens produce offspring being {{retcon}}ned to asexual. Even Hathor's reappearance in "Out of Mind" and "Into the Fire" doesn't go into many details, only that the team, particularly [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil Daniel]] and Jack, have developed an intense loathing of her.

** This is also how the Tok'ra planned their fighting of the Goa'uld, until SG-1 started wiping out system lords.

* LostSuperweapon: When Earth is under the threat of a massive alien invasion and if the usual tricks and weapons do not work, there is the ancient outpost in [[MysteriousAntarctica Antarctica]], whose chair can control and launch thousands of powerful drones, only requiring a humongous amount of power. [[SuperweaponSurprise Surprise!]]

* LukeIAmYourFather: Wonderfully played with and torn to shreds during the 200th episode. For a moment, you almost believe...!

* KneelBeforeZod: Almost every single Goa'uld System lord, underlord, and subordinate does this, leaving it almos the [[PlanetOfHats hat]] of the species. Notably, the rebel faction of the Tok'ra is an exception.

** One scene in "Within The Serpent's Grasp" has Teal'c explaining how a [[https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Long_range_visual_communication_device Goa'uld communication device]] is similar to a TV. Jack asks if he can get Creator/{{Showtime}} on it. Showtime was the channel that aired ''SG-1'' for its' first five seasons; this was the only scene produced intentionally for the network. Syndication replaced it with Jack going "Mmmm, Goa'uld TV." (The scene is on the DVD, however.)[[note]]Said Goa'uld device is a floating sphere that displays image, a likely unintentional reference to the 1980s logo of Showtime, a TV screen embedded in a sphere.[[/note]]

** One scene in "Within The Serpent's Grasp" has Teal'c explaining how a [[https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Long_range_visual_communication_device Goa'uld communication device]] is similar to a TV. Jack asks if he can get Creator/{{Showtime}} one it. Showtime was the channel that aired ''SG-1'' for its' first five seasons; this was the only scene produced intentional for the network. and syndication replaced it Jack going "Mmmm, Goa'uld TV." (The scene is on the DVD, however.)[[note]]Said Goa'uld device is a floating sphere that displays image, a likely unintentional reference to the 1980s logo of Showtime, a TV screen embedded in a sphere.[[/note]]

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The primary enemies the Goa'uld were diminished in threat by the end of the eighth season, and the ninth season opened establishing a new BigBad in the Ori. In addition, there were several cast changes as Richard Dean Anderson left the show and only came back in sporadic guest appearances. The show's last few seasons happened to follow the endings of several other beloved sci-fi shows, and the show imported actors from those shows, most notably Ben Browder and Claudia Black from ''Series/{{Farscape}}''.

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Major Kawalsky, Sha're, Martouf, Apophis (eventually), Narim (and the rest of the Tollan), Janet Frasier, Jacob Carter, Colonel Pendergast and the ''Prometheus'', Col. Chekov and the ''Korolev'', and ''the entire Asgard race''. Abydos is destroyed and everyone on it is killed, but they are AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Jacob/Selmac berates Jack for his and the Tauri killing off the System Lords wit no thought of how that consolidates power in the most powerful ones in "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E22Exodus Exodus]]". However, this ignores that fact that two plans by the Tok'ra have consolidated a lot of power in Apophis. In "[[Recap/StargateSG1S3E13TheDevilYouKnow The Devil You Know]]" the Tok'ra caused the destruction of Netu, killing Sokar, thus giving Apophis his fleet and in "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E14TheSerpentsVenom The Serpents Venom]]" the failed attempt to get Apophis and Heru'ur at war with each other, not realizing Apophis had a cloaked fleet, thus giving Apophis control of the rest of Heru'ur's fleet.

'''O'Neill:''' General Hammond, '''I''' have spent a lot of years in the service of my country, and '''I''' have been ordered to do "some damned''' distasteful things."

* ImpossiblyMundaneExplanation: In "Window of Opportunity" Jack has prior knowledge of a briefing Carter is giving and claims that he is remembering things from the future. Carter suggests, "Maybe he read my report?" Daniel gives her a skeptical look and repeats, "Maybe he ''read your report''?" as if it was the most ludicrous suggestion. Everyone else (O'Neill included) seems to agree.