YMMV / Stargate SG-1 S1 E20 "Politics"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Retroactive instance with Kinsey given the revelations later in the series that Kinsey is aligned with the rogue NID Agents and corporate interests that will eventually comprise the Trust. So a retroactive, alternate interpretation of Kinsey's role and character in his debut is that he isn't actually being an Obstructive Bureaucrat; he merely exploited the trope as an excuse for shutting down the SGC during this episode. This would've allowed the NID to acquire the Stargate after it was mothballed again and implement the policies and exploitation that Hammond refused to consider during his tenure (much as they will do next Season with the second Gate during "Touchstone" and then again in Season Four's "Chain Reaction"). If that was the plan, then ironically that makes Apophis and his invasion a Spanner in the Works for the NID.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • Setting aside the idea of Kinsey working with the NID and whatnot, the episode's very conceit, that the SGC costs too much money to maintain, is rooted very firmly in the politics of the 90s concerning military expenditure. Discussion of military draw down following the Cold War was a popular topic in that decade... and promptly disappeared from American politics completely in 2001 (ironically slap in the middle of the show's overall run). In the 21st century, this episode can feel almost bizarre, as military expenditure is the easiest thing to support in the Senate.
  • The amount being discussed doesn't help, either. The price tag for running the SGC in its first year is given as $7.4 billion USD. In the 90s, that would have been considered a lot... and then the Iraq War alone cost around two trillion dollars. And even police spending has been climbing in the 21st century - in the 2020s, the NYPD alone has a typical budget at or above $10 billion. In the 2020s and beyond, the quibbling over $7b can feel positively quaint, if not naive on the part of the writers (and it can feel downright bizarre that O'Neill & co. aren't defending the SGC budget by comparing it to other ongoing programs).