Megalodon said:
But back to the point, the SGC's research focus was always on either generally beneficial technologies (naquadah reactors, medicine etc.) or weapons technology that would impact larger scale conflict than individual firefights (so primarily devoted to orbital war and countering the space ship advantage of their foe). Because quite frankly, bullets and missiles worked. Why bother taping captured weapons together when your existing arms are sufficient in the small unit engagements your teams typically engage in?
The general technologies should have been relegated to private entities, non-military public ones, or military ones that where not the SGC. This would 1) allow the people fighting for the survival of the human race to do that instead of making your lifespan marginally longer, and 2) make it easier for the technology to pushed into the marketplace.
Something to also remember is that ballistics and missiles, in the space side of the war did
not work, with a shielded Ha'tak laughing off a pair of naquadah enhanced nuclear missiles. A heavy staff-cannon gattling gun would, apart from being cheaper then any missile, even a stinger, would also actually take down the shields after sustained fire, something missiles just can't do even by the end of Atlantis. A couple dozen across the surface would make a lone or dual Ha'tak assault think twice before entering orbit.
Another thing to remember is that plasma doesn't take space, while ballistics and missiles do. Missiles may take out a deathglider in one shot and a few will take down the larger ships, but once you're out you're out, and the Jaffa always had weight of numbers on their side.
OK, quick question, when do we observe gliders destroying a Ha'tak? That's not ringing a bell atm. Also, where do you get the 1 Ha'tak=20 Gliders firepower calculation?
They don't, the calculation comes from the Ha'tak standard armaments, which is 40 heavy staff cannons. Gliders have 2 light staff cannons. Same appearance, same basic design but different size (I think the heavy is about three times the dimensions of a light one, but don't quote me on that).
As for the initial Apophis invasion, even having staff-class weaponry wouldn't really have helped, as that era Earth had no delivery system. Goa'uld weaponry is direct fire, without a space-worthy craft capable of engaging the ships in orbit, you're stuck with the 'we can't touch the guys bombarding us from orbit' thing. Plus we never see Goa'uld ground-orbit weaponry, so that would require a whole new program of alteration, in addition to the retrofitting, assuming it's even possible for Goa'uld tech to work that way in the first place. The you have to consider the whole 'static weapons for planetary defence' thing, which the show touches on in Between Two Fires. You'd need many, many weapon emplacements to cover the entire planet (especially as these hypothetical staff Gatling guns would not have the damage output if Ion Cannons, which the episode was using). this would require the SGC going public, which the show treats as an extremely bad thing during its run (hell, it took them 6 years top admit to the other major miliatry powers that Earth was facing an extraterrestrial threat).
It may not have worked, but looking into it would have been better then nothing. Sure, we don't know if a staff-cannon can fire surface-to-space, it's almost as if they should have, at some point, tested that idea. If it didn't, then that should have been the end of it. If it did, it may take a fair few to protect the whole planet, but it's not as if the SGC wouldn't do it, they where more then willing to do it with the Ion Cannons, a functional staff-gattling system would be treated the same, even if more locations would be needed and more then a single set would be in use (it's not as if staff-anythings are in short supply).
Because a modern president of the US will be totally OK with dozens/hundreds of highly trained personnel dying in combat, and the only response from the White House being 'it's classified'. I'm sorry, but the modern age has made military deaths a highly poisonous political prospect, and not coming clean as to why these men/women died? Political suicide. It's not even like the administration can lie and claim that the men were killed in Afghanistan of whatever (especially in the early series before that particular irl clusterfuck), because the show clearly shows us SGC personnel living and going to work in Colorado Springs. To make this OK, you're again left with the 'go public' option, which the show never treats as a viable option.
That was another problem with the series, the 'we can never go public' was, apart from being ridiculous in how long it managed to stay secret (20 years and counting) also forgets that not even the President of the united states is all powerful. There are just some things that even he will be told to do. If a war like the one in SG-1 happened in real life, anyone who threatened to end the program would get a visit from a colonel explaining why that's a bad idea. If that didn't convince them, an accident would solve that loose end. Kinsey being alive by the midpoint of season 2 is the single most unbelievable thing of the first two seasons, and the unnamed first president during the series (President Not-Bill) even considering shutting the program down is the second. Given how modern militarizes operate, something of that importance to the survival of the human race (to say nothing of the US) would be one that, if what needed to be done was stopped by the government, a coup would be in serious consideration (it happened before in US history, and though they never got past the planning stage those where not "our survival is at stake" situations). Given the time-frame of season 1, the US would have simply started a war with Serbia in the name of ending the Balkan Wars, maybe invade a third world country. A way would be found, and the military would not care how.
You mean those other System Lords that were all Deities from Earth's past? Implying that they had been to earth in Ancient times to collect human slaves/hosts. The location and address of Earth is never treated as secret in the entire SG-1 show run, because all the villains already know what Earth is, and where it is.
The location of Earth was lost to the system lords, that's why we where still free in the first place. For the first season Apophis, Hathor and their minions where the only ones who knew where Earth was (and even then, it took a few fire fights for Apophis to care). Those who known to know the location of Earth should have been the top priority targets until it became generally known (which would have taken longer if they didn't tell every Goa'uld, Tok'ra, Jaffa and human world). Sure it would have happened eventually that everyone would know, but again a year or two delay for an invasion could make all the difference.
Although the 'why not get a Sarcophagus to resurrect the dead' is a fair point, you seem to be arguing for something outside the remit of this thread. You seem to want a completely different Stargate show, where the all consuming focus of every episode is on the Goa'uld war (as opposed to them merely not fully exploiting the available technology). That is not what the show was trying to be. It's goal seemed (at least initially) to be a Trek-esque 'problem of the week' set up, with occasional callbacks to the overarching plot of the Goa'uld. Additionally it contained the overall theme of moral superiority (as seen when SG-1 doesn't swipe the Eurondan tech because the people being essentially Nazis). It's not a show about war, it's a show about exploration, morality and doing the 'right' thing and so was never going to be what you seem to have wanted.
The show could have been both (hell, the first three episodes painted it as if it would be both). Everything I mentioned could have been background wallpaper for the show, with the focus being on SG-1's exploration while we get mention and maybe a minute or two of seeing the toy from the last adventure of the week being given tests of some sort. Have a team dedicated to raids come home with a bunch of naquadah and as many staff weapons as a MALP can haul while SG-1 waits for their dial-out to explore a new world. The SG teams where described in early seasons as recon teams, having the war that was the whole overarching story of the series treated like a real war would have still allowed for the series to have its moments of levity and exploration mixed with the darker ones to remind everyone that the Goa'uld are a threat. It's why I live the two seasons of fighting Anubis, it gave a much more justified balance between the fighting and the exploring and it actually felt like a war, even if they let a few things get away (like the asteroid which would have made naquadah import go away. Where did Anubis get that asteroid anyway?).
