History Headscratchers / StargateSG1

** Indeed. [=ZPMs=] are not, and never were, an limitless energy source. If fully-charged [=ZPMs=] could be run off a production line located somewhere in Atlantis at a rate of knots, then a) there'd be more of them lying around; b) it's difficult to see how the Ancients could ever have lost the war with the Wraith; and c) Project Arcturus would have been completely unnecessary. [=ZPMs=] are used for applications that require incredibly high energy/power to weight/volume ratios, such as interstellar vessels and planetary defense platforms. It wouldn't surprise me if the mechanism for creating them wasn't a Naquadah reactor the size of a small moon that got blown up by the Wraith at the beginning of the war.

** It's part of the genius of the Ori arc, showing how even a peaceful faith can be corrupted to violence, and most religions are equal parts "be nice" and "but don't let jerks screw you over." The Bible has just as many passages stating "love they neighbor" as it does "burn the witch," and the most violent stuff is usually talking about things going on in the middle of massive ancient wars. Watching Daniel and the Priors engage in quote-to-quote combat is a thing of beauty, and very well timed, given the upswing in fundamentalist believers of various faiths getting up to distinctly naughtier things around that time in reality. SG-1 actually took a pretty responsible tack with the overall theme of "don't blame the book, blame the people reading from it." Saying anything more would probably violate the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement.

** No, we never learned their politics. My (personal) belief is that Henry Hayes was a Republican due to the ([[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement maybe correct, maybe flawed]]) perception that all religious Christians are Republicans and Kinsey, his running mate, was a frequent spouter of semi-fundamentalist rhetoric, but that is just supposition based on how political parties are portrayed on TV. Regarding firing Kinsey, he ''didn't'' (technically) fire him, he "accepted his resignation"; the implicit threat was that if Kinsey didn't agree to step aside then Hayes would use the evidence he has to formally remove him, possibly actually bring him up on charges. Now, you know and I know (And everybody else in the show knows) that it was a firing in truth if not in technicality, but according to the letter of the law he didn't fire him. If anybody in the public asks why, Hayes can just say "I didn't fire him, he resigned, you'll need to ask him as to why."

** It's never explicitly stated, but when he says that "illness" kept him from serving that does tend to raise eyebrows with some viewers. There are enduring rumors that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment various political figures who shall remain nameless]] used ginned-up "illnesses" to get exempted from the draft during the Vietnam War. Of course that's hardly proof that Kinsey is a draft dodger, but still, they didn't ''have'' to give Kinsey that "illness" line. They could have simply had him say he "never served". It would have been perfectly plausible if, by pure chance, Kinsey's draft number was never called up. By giving him the "illness" line it feels like they're calling attention to it and inviting us to speculate.

** I suppose. Still, in that season six two part opening Carter and [=McKay=] bonded a little. She went as far as to kiss him on the cheek. She couldn't of quietly told Mitchell "Yes, he's annoying, but he means well."?

* Aside from being ancient and evil, which is pretty generic as far as villains go, in what ways does [[TheSimpsons Mr. Burns]] resemble a Goa'uld?

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* Why didn't the SGC or Area 51 pull the power supply from a staff weapon and adapt it into an assault rifle?
** Because they didn't need to. A staff blast coming from a Tau'ri assault rifle would probably either blow up the assault rifle, be large and unwieldy, or have too much recoil, and their source of ammunition would have to be stolen from the enemy. By that point it would make more sense just to steal more staff weapons.

* Why did SG-1 allow Brooks to escape with the Al'kesh at the end of ''Endgame''? It was strongly implied that only three members of the Trust (Brooks, Hoskins and Jennings) were on-board; Hoskins was dead and Jennings incapacitated. Even if Brooks managed to enter hyperspace before being caught, Sam and Daniel could have easily piloted the ship back to Earth. Letting Brooks and Jennings escape with enough weapons to wipe out entire worlds of Goa'uld and Jaffa was an incredible setback...

* Are the Nox supposed to be infuriating? They have all this power, and even with their whole "No interference" deal they just come off as being holier-than-thou annoyances who refuse to actually help those in need. As mentioned above, the Ancients apparently didn't need them. So why even have a species like the Nox involved in the show at all?

* Are the Tollan not considered to be human? How exactly could Zipacna get away with the arguments he made in "Pretense"? He argued that humans were inferior because the Goa'uld had greater technology, on a planet of humans with superior technology to the Goa'uld. No one called him on it. He also claimed the Goa'uld could not live without a host which doesn't appear to be true (as Goa'uld have been kept alive in tanks and evolved outside of hosts) but it's understandable that no one present could immediately contradict that.

* Exactly when and how did Tok'ra-Tau'ri relations resume? The alliance dissolved due to the Tau'ri's recklessness and the Tok'ra's zero population growth. But after the death of Selmak/Jacob Carter, it seems that everything's been forgiven and forgotten.

* Why did the Goa'uld all but completely abandon the Unas as hosts? Unas are vastly stronger (and possibly faster) than humans, and when blended with a Goa'uld they essentially gain a Wolverine-like healing factor. (An Unas!Goa'uld can bounce back from multiple rounds to the chest, while a human!Goa'uld will die from one or two.) And before you say "Goa'uld are vain about their appearance" that itself begs the obvious question: Why? Why would a race of sentient snake-like parasite creatures have any sense of vanity about ''human'' appearance? Being [[BizarreAlienBiology decidedly non-human]], their conception of beauty and ugliness should be vastly different from our own, so an Unas should look no more or less ugly to them than a human, right?

* Why didn't the Tollan get immediately promoted to the Fifth Race upon discovery? They seem to have all of the necessary traits.

* So what happened to the Tollan? I get that there wasn't a whole hell of a lot we could do when Anubis attacked, but by the start of Season 8 we had put the boot to Anubis and had at least one available long-range FTL capable ship. Why didn't we put out a general call to the Free Jaffa Nation for some bored, out of work warriors and come down on the planet like a ton of bricks to kick some ass and rescue the Tollan? Sure, sure, there probably weren't many left, but as I understood things Anubis was after technology and wouldn't have glassed the planet's surface, so there had to be at least a few that hid away from Anubis, and possibly a few more in captivity. Plus, neat bonus, after freeing them we could have poured resources into helping them rebuild (while at the same time saying "look how far we've came" and pointing to all the neat tech we borrowed from the Asgard) and possibly wrangled some scientific concessions. It wouldn't even have to be more than "Hey can we stick some really smart kids in Tollan high school and send them to Tollan university so we can get a basic understanding of the advanced rules of science and figure out how all this other neat tech we have works?"

* The ''Moebius'' timeline vs. the ''Continuum'' one. In the ''Moebius'' timeline the gate was never discovered. In ''Continuum'' it was discovered then lost at sea not long after. It makes sense that Daniel is a loser and Carter worked in aerospace in both timelines, but why would Carter be completely spineless in ''Moebius'' yet basically unchanged in ''Continuum''? (We all know that if not for the Stargate program she would have been an astronaut.) Jack's son was still alive in the ''Continuum'' timeline. Was he dead in the ''Moebius'' one? That would probably explain why he's still enlisted in ''Continuum'' and retired in''Moebius'' but how could the changes that were made to the timeline have affected something like that?

* How has the U.S managed to keep the Stargate program secret for years? At the end of season 7, Anubis destroyed an entire carrier strike group. ''How'' do you keep that hidden? We are talking about many thousands of dead sailors and pilots, at least a couple dozen billion dollars in destroyed ships, tens of thousands of family members who are going to start asking 'how did my spouse/parent/child/relative' die and no way you could plausibly cover it up. What about members of Congress who don't know about the Stargate project but have been asked by their constituents to find out what happened? For that matter, what about all the people looking through telescopes across the world? Did they somehow miss the sudden ships appearing in orbit or the beam of light that hit them? What about the press? Even if we assume the U.S suddenly manifested the power to silence the American press at will that doesn't explain the lack of investigations in Europe, South America, North America, Africa, the Middle East and all of Asia.

* JBM: The US Army,the largest branch of the US military not been shown taking an active role in the Stargate program has always bothered me. While the USAF has some very skilled special forces (USAF vet here) the Army has more and a diverse variety of them. They could have thrown the Army a bone or two some time during the show.

* Why does US keep whole Stargate program secret? I can understand it at first, since of course they want best tech and such, but after it becomes clear that Goa'uld are a threat to Earth wouldn't it be better to tell it about to UN? And why is, even after its existence is revealed, whole thing run mainly by US? Considering whole planet is danger this seems like yet another AmericaSavesTheDay with everyone else being useless.

* In "1969," who was Michael? I know, probably he's just some random hippie they ran into, but there's the one bit of dialogue where they mention he got drafted to go to Vietnam. O'Neill seems about to say something until Carter stops him, saying they can't change the past--this seems to imply they know something about Michael's future in particular, otherwise what would O'Neill have even said?

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* Ships! Now, let's assume a typical hilarious enormously large secret budget and huge amount of talent. Earth goes from a standing start to having hyperspace capable fighters and ships in SIX YEARS. The ''Prometheus'' is quite an impressive ship... but then we have the ''Daedalus'' just two years later which is orders of magnitude more complex than the ''Prometheus''. Not to mention that SIX of these are manufactured in the course of seven years. While it's established in the canon that the Asgard pretty much spill their guts technology wise after the SGC repeatedly saves them -- were they pumping these out for them? The time it takes to build an AIRCRAFT carrier is years -- to DESIGN and build one? We're getting closer to a decade and that's not even taking into account the fact that this thing would be probably the single most complicated piece of engineering humanity ever put together... It's pushes suspension of disbelief.

* Did anyone else find the season 10 finale treatment of the Asgard as essentially a racial IdiotBall? Thor repeatedly uploaded his consciousness into computers and Asgard reproduction essentially amounted to popping another clone out the vat and downloading an existing consciousness into it. They establish that for reasons of plot, they can't ascend... so, they decide to just all DIE?! They apparently had several generations left and presumably, by uploading their minds into computers -- they could last for centuries. Yet, they just decide it's time to blow themselves up. The Asgard were involved in what amounted to a war that took them to the BRINK of extinction with the Replicators -- a war that saw them survive and vow to rebuild. Then one day they just go "Guess it's time to commit mass suicide!" A grievous mistreatment of one the SGC's greatest allies.
** Not to mention that the idea of cloning having a wear out point is ridiculous. Increasing degradation by making copies of copies is fair enough, but why the hell are you doing that in the first place. Pick an original. Put it on ice. Each time you need a clone, make the clone from the original. People are currently (sometimes) smart enough to do this with photocopies. I think you'd take a bit more care with your racial survival than your meeting agenda.
** You could go one further, if you combine the fact the Asgard have beaming technology and the fact that Carter was able to knock up the Stargate equivalent of a replicator in Endless... we're essentially at a point where you have the capability of scanning bodies perfectly and the ability to create just about anything - seems like the Asgard could make just about any type of body they wanted, even one that was capable of ascension... but no, they decide to just blow themselves up.
** After reading the above comment, this thought hit me: why didn't the Asgard start cloning and using Human bodies? We know they can at least clone humans, as they've done it to O'Neill, at least. For that matter, why don't they use clones of the *Ancients*? We've never met any alive? But we have, we thawed one out in Antarctica, and I see no reason we wouldn't still have her body (and her genetic material) around. Hell, for that matter, why don't they try seeing if the Nox would let the Asgard sample their DNA? Do you think the "We <3 Everyone" Nox wouldn't let the great and noble Asgard clone them to save their race from extinction?\\
And yes, the way they just off-handedly decide to blow themselves up in the first two minutes of the series finally... deeply dissatisfied me, to say the least. I actually really liked the Asgard.
** I guess they couldn't just start cloning older bodies if we are to take into account that the current Asgard's brains have evolved. The older bodies' brains couldn't handle the knowledge. Maybe that's why they just keep cloning their last body (just making it look younger and more fresh) and that's why the degradation keeps building up to a point where it's impossible to keep cloning. I think it is mentioned that by the time they realized of these degradation problems it was too late to do something to correct it.
** Thor actually says that the reason they could no longer clone themselves is because their final attempt to forestall the process generated an irreparable genetic degradation. While cloning had blocked off their ability to evolve to ascension because of how they were tampering with their bodies (more brainpower etc.), it was their attempt to fix that very problem they created for themselves which wound up screwing them over.
** Irreparable in the ''current generation of clones'' I can believe, but are we supposed to believe that that they have somehow managed to contaminate ''every single sample of Asgard DNA in their entire genetic library''!!? Every cell sample that could have been used to create a new generation of clones? Sorry, but that was just lazy writing. A convenient explanation for why the Asgard would dump every single piece of technology they possess into our primitive laps.
** We have to remember that the Asgard have been pushing that rock for a long, long, long time. Simple answer is they were weary and saw nothing but perpetual degradation. Not only that, but in the previous few years the Asgard had been beaten up by virtually every power on the show. The Goa'uld via Anubis, the replicators, one of the Stargate Atlantis episodes almost had the Asgard on the Daedalus get munched by the Wraith (along with the rest of the crew), even the Earth Humans took out an Asgard (Clo'Neill zatted Loki) unaided. The replicators destroyed their old home world, and they had to transfer most of their populace into computers, they had some of their most powerful vessels swatted out the sky. Then the Ori showed up and the Asgard could do squat to help stop them, worse than squat really. The victories against the Ori were Earth and Jaffa driven. That is one long HumiliationConga for a race like the Asgard who used to be so all powerful. Their ass-kickings didn't end with the replicator war. With no end in sight to trying to overcome the clone degradation, and the continual sapping of their power and loss of all that entails, and the rise of humanity as galactic protectors, maybe they just thought it was time. Imagine it as someone with a terminal disease, not everyone fights to the end. Some people just get to a point where they say "it's time, man. It's time" and give in. The Asgard had a good run, but it was time.
* So which SG-1 writer suffers from [=McCarthyism=]? I love this show, but I don't think I've ever seen any other 90's series that has it in for the Russians quite like SG-1. Russian teams repeatedly destroy themselves using alien technology, Russian soldiers routinely die in uncharacteristically (for the show)horrific ways when off-world, leaving only SG-1 to save the day. The Russian commander even lampshades this with a "Then why does SG-1 always make it home?" comment, and he doesn't get a straight answer. Even their SHIP gets blown up at one point, presumably with all hands lost. The Russian submariners all died, too. Is this just a need for redshirts (hah!) taken too far? Discuss.

* The Odyssey's Asgard core seems like it would be a StoryBreakerPower. Sam once said if you want to create something in the core, you more or less just have to explain what you want and the core will figure out how to make it. So why not use it to create a hundred [=ZPMs=] or something? They clearly haven't, as we can see in seasons four and five of Atlantis, where the city still only has one ZPM.
** It may "make anything" but logically that should still be limited by raw materials. So it can't make something that contains more energy than it already has.
** Yeah, look at the stuff it does manage to make: Food, oxygen, and a cello. There's clearly limits to it, otherwise Unending would have been a much shorter episode.
** Sam was generalizing at the time. The reason it so easily made the Replicator is because it had the schematics on hand. Without knowledge of how the ZPM is built (which incidentally they do have on Atlantis), it wouldn't be able to mass produce the object.
** Making a ZPM is easy; they have several [=ZPMs=] that are 'empty.' (which is obviously shorthand of some kind, since it's not a giant battery, it's sucking power from the aether, right? Yeah, shorthand...) Presumably they could build many non-functional [=ZPMs=], since they have the specs. But if they are unable to restart a de-powered ZPM, then, again, presumably, they couldn't start up a new one either.
** Actually, according to Zelenka, it basically [[LiesToChildren ''is'' a giant battery that is impossible to recharge.]] [[TechnoBabble It extracts vacuum energy from]] [[HammerSpace an artificially created region of subspace-time]] until maximum entropy is reached and the artificial region of subspace-time collapses, at which point you're left with an utterly useless giant crystal. The difficult part therefore is not creating the physical component (which, with the Asgard fabricator, you can pretty much do all day long), it's creating the artificial region of subspace-time and then presumably containing it.
** Indeed. [=ZPMs=] are not, and never were, an limitless energy source. If fully-charged [=ZPMs=] could be run off a production line located somewhere in Atlantis at a rate of knots, then a) there'd be more of them lying around; b) it's difficult to see how the Ancients could ever have lost the war with the Wraith; and c) Project Arcturus would have been completely unnecessary. [=ZPMs=] are used for applications that require incredibly high energy/power to weight/volume ratios, such as interstellar vessels and planetary defense platforms. It wouldn't surprise me if the mechanism for creating them wasn't a Naquadah reactor the size of a small moon that got blown up by the Wraith at the beginning of the war.

* Why is the Stargate secret? The SGC hardly has any secrets from its enemies, but they work hard to keep the Taur'i public in the dark. It isn't just wasted effort. There are millions of scientists and engineers who would do useful things for the war effort if they knew about it. Imagine the earth's industrial base upgraded with Goa'uld technology! Six billion free people should be our biggest advantage... if only they knew.

[[Earth's Correct Point-Of-Origin]]

* Why aren't the Goa'uld better at fighting than humans? They all possess superhuman strength, advanced regeneration, and genetic memory thorough enough to pass on advanced skills. With the only weakness for their personal shields being melee so you'd think they'd at least try to be better at it compared to mere mortals.

* Why didn't the Tok'ra use cloning? They're so worried about their numbers, but both the Tau'ri and the Asgard have access to viable cloning technology, and at least in the case of the Tau'ri have successfully cloned symbiotes before. They clone the Tok'ra and use the free Jaffa who don't want to switch to Tretonin as the new incubators. Two birds, one stone.

* Why was the Stargate program based out of Earth? With all the times they brought back dangerous aliens, technologies, pathogens and who know what else. It would make more sense for the Stargate program to be based out of a less vulnerable and important planet like the alpha site or ANY other planet? It's not like members of the military aren't accustomed to spending extended periods of time away from their homes and families.

* Why does Dr. Jackson still need glasses after being in the sarcophagus?

* Where do all the Goa'uld who aren't system lords live? It seems that the only ones SG-1 ever runs into are system lords with their own little temples.

* In the series finale, when Teal'c was send back in time, why did he not encounter the younger version of himself?
** Sam described the backwards time travel as a sort of [[OurTimeTravelIsDifferent rewinding of time]]. Since Teal'c's molecules were excluded from the effect, they didn't reform into his younger self, but stayed as his older self. Never mind that most of his molecules should have been cycled out by that time...
** No, no, that covers it perfectly if you consider the whole thing as a rewind. Teal'c's molecules would have cycled out, yeah... but been replaced by his current molecules. Since his current molecules are staying, they aren't being cycled out (backwards) during the rewind.

* How, exactly, does the [=McKay=]-Carter space bridge work? Do you just dial the midway station and the intermediate gates all link up? Is there an episode that explained this more thoroughly?

* Where does the iris go? ''Into'' the Stargate?

* Why even HAVE a Point of Origin. If you have to dial it every time, why doesn't it just automatically send it? I mean, we don't have to dial our own phone number every time we call for pizza. And what's it used for? There's no "Caller ID"

* In the final episode of the series, ''Unending'', Sam has to engage the time dilation bubble because the Odyssey's shields are too depleted to withstand another direct hit. Why not just get the shields recharged enough to handle the hit and go back to blasting the Ori ships? Even if the shields required extensive repair, it would surely take less than 50 YEARS. For that matter, why were they even in that situation in the first place? It had already been made quite clear that the new Asgard weapons could easily destroy an Ori ship, so why, after destroying the first, were they suddenly unable to deal with the others? They even had a chance while in hyperspace to conduct repairs and lick their wounds, so to speak.
** If one hit will destroy your ship having giant guns won't help in a battle with two ships. Especially if more will come every time you have to stop. Also a ship only has so much power. I always assumed they couldn't use the hyperdrive/time dilation field and charge the shields at the same time.
** How about turning the time dilation down to only, say, 1:1000 and letting a little bit of the Ori beam hit their ship, turning the time dilation field back up. They could fix the ship each time.
** Considering they were almost out of energy by the episode's climax, that's probably how it was intended to be taken.
** On the topic of ''Unending'', why is it that when they chose who to leave behind for the “salvage a miracle out of the Asgard core” mission out of the entire crew, they chose just one single technician hypothetically capable of accomplishing that goal (Carter) and five useless tag-alongs?
** Because they would've had no idea how many people they would actually need to make the adjustments. As we've seen, someone would've needed to stay old and Teal'c is the obvious choice because of his long life. If it was just Carter, she'd emerge from the dilation field as a ~80 year old woman. Plus I think anyone would go insane while stuck in an enclosed space for several decades.
** How come they didn't just spend a couple of years researching ways to upgrade the shields and hull integrity so the blast wouldn't destroy them? They have all the resources of the Asgard, so why don't they just spend a couple of years dedicated to refining the ship so it can survive the blast intact and then just destroy the Ori ship with the weapons? At that point you would have plenty of time to re-configure the hyperdrive. Can someone explain to me why they didn't do this? Or better yet, extend the time dilation field around just the blast itself, essentially isolating it in space and slowing down its progress so they can get away? In fact, there are a number of ways out of their predicament without trying to re-write the laws of time and space, particularly since they have a nigh unending supply of matter that they can shape to their will (as long as the zpm isn't drained). How come Sam chose the most difficult way out of their predicament?
** What makes you think that SG-1 can improve in a couple years what the Asgard have been working on for ''centuries''? Eventually, there's an upper limit to what you can do with the techniques, knowledge, and materials available to you. Technology isn't a linear function where things will always improve if you just put more time into it.
** The reason that the time dilation field was engaged in the first place was because the shields were down and another hit would take them out. By the time the field activated, we can see that the blast is within the range of the shields, so upgrading them would have been pointless, even if they were fully functional. As for hull integrity, there's not much that can be done on that front. The ship was already built out of one of the sturdiest materials available (Trinium), which the Ori beam weapons can tear through like copy paper. The hull is just not meant to take that kind of punishment; that's what the shields are for.

* in the final episode [[spoiler:when they travel back in time]], why don't they put a tape recorder in the force field instead of [[spoiler:letting Teal'c age over fifty years]]? Also, if they can only [[spoiler:revert time to when they made the time-dilation bubble]], they would only have 0.8 seconds to get the [[spoiler:hyperspace-enable-program]] to Carter, not nearly enough time, [[spoiler:let alone executing it, removing the core and starting the hyperdrive]]
** Good thinking. However, [[spoiler:They had to have a human get it to her because the exclusion field was located in the cargo bay, not the Asgard Control Panel room, and they would have to get someone to run the crystal to Sam.]] In response to the time problem, [[spoiler:Sam was able to get the rewind to around 30 seconds to a minute before the creation of the TDB. In other words, convenience.]]
** Why not use the Asgard matter synthesizer to build a little robot to run the crystal back to the control room? Or just leave a videotape with the assumption that once the TDB is turned on, Sam will find it fairly quickly, and send HERSELF back through time, aging only a few hours (or weeks, if they don't notice it right away). Fact is, there was no need for Teal'c to have to age so much. When you can run time forwards and backwards at will, there's no rush.
** Because all of that presumes a whole lot. It presumes no one will step on the tape or kick the robot over while the ship is being evacuated. It presumes someone will actually find the tape or pay attention to the robot. It presumes this would all even work with something that was created entirely after the time stop began rather than having previously existed. Teal'c going back was the only way to be absolutely certain that they wouldn't just be caught in an infinite loop, and after spending all those years on that ship, they wanted to be absolutely frikkin' certain.

** That is the US Navy classification, the SGC is an Airforce operation. The "ships" the SGC operates are more properly deep space aircraft, for all that they do use naval terminology, and there is no current USAF designation (as far as we know) for deep space aircraft. That means a new designation was created for these craft; perhaps it stands for "bomber-carrier", as they do have aspects of both types of craft. Or the in-universe USAF decided that if it was operating battle-cruisers, then it would use the "BC" designation since the USN doesn't.

** It's because none of the characters ''know'' unequivocally. The only sources of information are distorted ancient myth, and the Goa'uld, who have been bulls**ing so long they believe their own press by now.

** Some fans actually consider it a ''better'' "female-empowerment" episode than the even worse Emancipation. What with all the female staff of the SGC having to retake it from the men, without killing any of them. The ladies be badass, indeed. On the whole, though, Hathor opens up some real cans of worms, from her [[GameBreaker game-breaking mind control ability]], Jaffa-Making belly device (and "un-Jaffa-ing" someone with a sarcophagus), the "Code of Life" (though it could be rationalized to just improve chances of blending, not a requirement), and her [[DoubleStandardRape mind-control rape of Daniel]], who was still all about finding and rescuing his wife at that point. And then there's how she got shot, caught fire, set ''water'' on fire, then walked away.

* As I understand it the SG and Atlantis recon teams are designed thus: there is a commander (O'Neill, Mitchell, Shepperd) a scientist (Carter,Mckay) to operate any alien technology they may come across, occasionally a linguist (Jackson) to better communicate with alien races and one or more fire support officers (Teal'c, Ronan) who exist to fight and protect the team from aggressors - fine, all perfectly reasonable and logical additions... so why aren't these teams equipped with a permanent medic? I could list at least two dozen occasions in which SG-1 or AT-1 having a fully equipped field medic on board would have not only saved scores of Tau'ri personnel, but that of the Tok'ra, free Jaffa and countless native civilizations that have been injured throughout the course of he show. As things stand, currently their only recourse in the event of injury is to either waste time limping back to the Stargate/waiting for beam out if it's in orbit (and only then if it's beyond series 5) or interrupting whatever Beckett or Fraiser are doing. There is literally no reason why these otherwise perfectly practical and realistic military teams are missing someone in charge of tending to their battle injuries. Ironically, despite the questionable military tactics of Starfleet Away Teams, this is one of the only things they get right by constantly beaming down McCoy.

** It is mentioned in Season 1 that they tried dialling up some random addresses, but none of them connected. With Abydoss theoretically nuked, no random addresses responding, and a background policy of not wanting to put Eearth out there and at risk to unknown invaders, the military simply mothballed the project.

** That is the US Navy classification, the SGC is an Airforce operation. The "ships" the SGC operates are more properly deep space aircraft, for all that they do use naval terminology, and there is no current USAF designation (as far as we know) for deep space aircarft. That means a new designation was created for these craft; perhaps it stands for "bomber-carrier", as they do have aspects of both types of craft. Or the in-universe USAF decided that if it was operating battle-cruisers, then it would use the "BC" designation since the USN doesn't.

* Where does the "BC" designation used for the BC-303 Prometheus and BC-304 Daedalus class ships come from? While the abbriviation for battlecruiser seems obvious, the US hull classification system would normally label such ships as "CC".

** It is mentioned in Season 1 that they tried dialling up some random addresses, but none of them connected. With Abydoss theoretically nuked, no random addresses responding, and a background policy of not wanting to put Eearth out there and at risk to unknown invaders, the military simply mothballed the project.