Stargate SG-1/Jack O'Neill

Jack O'Neill
Stargate SG-1
Actor	Richard Dean Anderson
First Appearance	1x01 - Children of the Gods (1)
Last Appearance	—
Series Billing	1x01 to 8x20: Billed, Recurring Thereafter
Episode Count	—
Notable Episodes	1x09 Brief Candle 2x15 The Fifth Race 3x17 A Hundred Days 4x06 Window of Opportunity 7x21 Lost City (1) 7x22 Lost City (2)

Basic Information

Jack O'Neill is a Major General in the United States Air Force, and the former commander of SG-1 and, later, Stargate Command.

Character History

Jack has been a part of more black-ops projects than most officers can even name. In his words, if he ever wrote a book, he would have to kill anyone who read it due to the classified nature of almost all of his work. O'Neill took part in the first Gulf War, was captured by the Iraqis and brutally tortured, something that scarred him for life.

O'Neill had a wife and single son, Charlie, back in the United States. However, after an incident where Charlie got ahold of Jack's personal handgun and accidentally killed himself, O'Neill lost it, retired from the Air Force, and ended up living on his own after his wife left him. When the military began planning the first Stargate mission, they reactivated Colonel O'Neill, knowing that he was suicidal and therefore perfect for the intended mission, which was to go through the Gate, explore, and ultimately detonate a nuclear bomb near the Stargate if there was any sign of danger whatsoever.

Once on the planet, which was named Abydos, O'Neill and the team found out that the planet's population was low-technology desert nomads. While there, he made friends with a young boy named Skaara, the son of the village leader Kasuf, and slowly developed a friendship with nerdy archaeologist Daniel Jackson. Jackson helped O'Neill destroy the mothership of the planet's evil Goa'uld overlord Ra using the nuclear bomb. Jackson decided to stay behind with his new native wife Sha're, and O'Neill and his team returned home claiming that the bomb had been detonated and Jackson killed, and O'Neill retired yet again.

Jack was recalled to duty for a second time after an incursion by the Goa'uld Apophis through the Stargate, buried in the lowest levels of Cheyenne Mountain in what would later become Stargate Command. It was believed that the Goa'uld had come from the only known Stargate on Abydos, and Colonel O'Neill, several of his teammates from the first Abydos mission, and Stargate expert Captain Samantha Carter were brought together in order to investigate. They made their first living Goa'uld enemy on this mission, Apophis, and O'Neill's Abydonian friend Skaara was kidnapped by Apophis and infested with the Goa'uld Klorel, Apophis' son.

Stargate Command was created as a result of this incident and tasked with exploration and finding new technologies to use in Earth's defense, starting with flagship teams SG-1 and SG-2, with SG-1 under Jack's command and SG-2 under the command of Jack's longtime friend Major Charles Kawalsky. Unfortunately, Kawalsky was infested with a Goa'uld parasite on the mission to Chu'lak, which set into motion a chain of events that ended with Major Kawalsky's death, much to Colonel O'Neill's chagrin.

During his first year at Stargate Command, O'Neill underwent a series of trials, including becoming trapped in a maze on the planet Cimmeria populated by a psychotic ancient Goa'uld inhabiting the body of a nearly impossible-to-kill alien known as a Unas, one of the legendary "First Ones" that the Goa'uld used as hosts before humans, nearly dying in an accident when the Stargate malfunctioned and sent O'Neill and Carter to a second, long-lost Stargate in the Antarctic where they nearly froze to death, and being infected with nanites that artificially age him rapidly, reducing his lifespan to a mere few weeks until Stargate Command's scientists manage to neutralize them.

Jack became infused with the knowledge of the Ancients when he placed his head into a device on a strange planet. The Ancient knowledge began to overwrite his brain, slowly replacing his ability to speak English with the language of the Ancients and culminating in his construction of a strange device that was, presumably, a sort of macgyvered Zero Point Module. This allowed him to dial a world in a distant galaxy, where the knowledge was removed from his head by a race of mysterious aliens- O'Neill made first contact with the Asgard, who would become one of Earth's most powerful, loyal allies. Years later, he was again given the knowledge of the Ancients from a second repository found on a different planet, this time he led the SGC to a distant outpost with a real ZPM, which he brought back to Earth and used to power a newly discovered Ancient outpost in the Antarctic.

Colonel O'Neill was also deeply involved with the fight against the SGC's primary Earth-based nemesis, the NID under Senator Kinsey Colonel Harry Maybourne. The NID, a government organization dedicated to obtaining alien technology for use in defending Earth by any means necessary up to and including outright theft and murder, raises hell with the Stargate program. He and SG-1 stopped the corrupt NID from stealing a weather-control device from the inhabitants of the planet Madrona, and over the years managed to help weed out the corrupt elements in the agency.

Colonel O'Neill received his promotion to Brigadier General after Major General George Hammond was promoted to director of Homeworld Security and transferred to Washington, and he was placed in charge of the SGC for a year. He then left Stargate Command for jobs unknown, although he has returned to visit Stargate Command at least once and has apparently been promoted to Major General himself.

Jack owns a cabin in Minnesota where he enjoys vacationing and taking his old team from SG-1, and is an avid fan of The Simpsons.

Memorable Moments

• 1x09 Brief Candle: Jack is infected with nanites that force his body to age amazingly fast, reducing his lifespan to a mere number of weeks.
• 2x15 The Fifth Race: Jack sticks his head in a dangerous-looking protrusion from a wall and ends up getting the entire knowledge and history of the mysterious Ancients uploaded into his brain, which nearly ends up killing him.
• 3x17 A Hundred Days: Jack gets trapped offworld when a meteor lands on the planet's Stargate and becomes involved with a local woman.
• 4x06 Window of Opportunity: Jack and Teal'c get trapped in a repeating time loop, reliving the same period of several hours over and over again.
• 7x21 and 22 Lost City (1) and (2): Jack gets the knowledge of the Ancients stuck in his brain yet again and ends up helping to discover the route that will eventually lead them to Atlantis.

Trivia

• Jack is a major Simpsons fan, and thinks that Mr. Burns is like a Goa'uld. When the others disagree during the events of Lost City, he tells them that he was going to leave his VHS collection to them but instead now he's leaving it to Sergeant Siler, because he gets it.