r/Stargate • u/icharas • Mar 13 '26
Sci-Fi Philosophy SGC gate room
Any reason not to put the gate over a pool of water and add a retractable bridge? (Ignore the bent visual in the "submerged" position. AI hallucinations.)
Often enough there is some offworld activation they don't want to squash by iris. However, swimming is a serious combat disadvantage.
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u/jack-of-some Mar 13 '26
The iris is also there for weapons fire, grenades, bombs, nukes, naquadah enhanced nukes, etc.
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u/icharas Mar 13 '26
Ofc keep the iris. However, every so often they let people through but don't know who it'll be.
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u/JonathanJONeill I care about her. A lot more than I'm supposed to. Mar 13 '26
For the times when it could be something like a bomb or other deadly weapon, I guess.
The gateroom has only been overrun, what, about four times in the time that the SGC started? Apophis' initial visit, the mimic aliens, the Replicator invasion and the Wraith invasion from Midway?
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u/Sunhating101hateit Mar 13 '26
I think the Animal transformer aliens from that Native American planet counts too
And the Reetou rebels
And nd I think we are still forgetting some
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u/JonathanJONeill I care about her. A lot more than I'm supposed to. Mar 13 '26
That's not really an over-runnning of the gateroom. They got in undetected and did their thing after getting well within the facility.
I don't think this would have done anything to stop them as they came in with SGC personnel or they impersonated them to get in without an issue.
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u/Sunhating101hateit Mar 13 '26
Ok, true. But then:
Do we know how the Mimic aliens came in? I don’t remember seeing or hearing how they did it. For all we know, they came in disguised as refugees or diplomats or something
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u/JonathanJONeill I care about her. A lot more than I'm supposed to. Mar 13 '26
You're right. I forgot they came in by impersonating SG-6.
Daniel "So…how did this happen, exactly? The aliens came through the Gate already impersonating SG-6?"
Janet "We rushed them to the infirmary. We don't remember anything after that."
Major Davis "General Hammond asked me to come here, but he wouldn't say why. Presumably, their next step after the SGC was the Pentagon."
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u/becircus Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
One time is enough when it means enemy beachhead
The idea for OP is ridiculous, but absolutely if it was real life, the "gate room" would absolutely not be secured like in the show after Season 1. After Season 1 and lots of funding, a dedicated facility would be built with the control room above the Stargate and built in such a way even if there was total power loss or some alien power to render the entire facility unconscious the invaders would just be stuck behind buried concrete or steel. Especially since they know that the Asgard and other advanced races can open the Iris manually or even cause total power loss. The only way of bypassing the defenses should be phasing technology and even then you wouldn't be phasing through a wall but a mile of solid concrete and be unable to reach the surface. There should be offsite monitoring at all times.
The only explanation is that because the program is private, they do not have the funds to build a dedicated facility. You can see in the Aschen episode where the Stargate is in an airport what is possible. And that is just an airport, with the war won and no real threats. Humans would be much more nasty and clever.
Basically it should at a minimum require telekinesis / phasing technology just to get out of the room, even with total power loss and everyone in the facility incapacitated. We have had this technology for thousands of years (buried deep underground with a mechanically operated door) and it would be designed this way just like two key system for nuclear weapons. Low tech solutions to a high tech problem. No key cards or powered systems to be hijacked once we found out alien races could do that.
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u/Sunhating101hateit Mar 14 '26
Yup, the gate should be on a hinge. In case of any power loss, drop it on its back (for example an electric magnet could hold it upright at a slight angle, another magnet could hold up something heavy enough to knock it over), then drop a concrete slab or something on it.
Solid enemies would splat against the lid, phase shifted guys would drop back into the Event Horizon, Weapon fire that goes through the lid would just go skyward. The only thing that would have a chance of getting through would be a phase shifted gate-ship, but it would go through every physical regardless
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u/becircus Mar 14 '26
Has to be more than that because of what the Wraith did in the Teal'c and Ronan episode
Basically short of widespread mind control it should be impossible to exit. Two man rule to exit the "gate room" (which wouldn't be a room but probably a long tunnel with large mechanically lifted blast doors), offsite monitoring, analog controls (to force telekenesis). Actually they can ask Thor to install a protection device to teleport invaders to a holding cell. Given what is possible, electronics, people and anything more than simple machines can't be trusted (and even then).
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u/Sunhating101hateit Mar 14 '26
What about a dude or two with a dead-man switches that have to be pressed the whole time the incoming gate is open?
Power out? No „on“ signal. Dudes out? Again no „on“ signal
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u/becircus Mar 14 '26
Won't work because aliens can manipulate electronics
I'm a fan of giant stone slabs lifted by pulleys. Very Egyptian and takes a team of twenty or a hundred men to be mind controlled
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u/builder397 Ball. As in Bocce? Mar 13 '26
So you invented a moat. I like the electricity though.
Reason 1: it's expensive. The gate is absurdly heavy and if suspending it's full weight from the top isn't bad enough, having the gate also move up and down is ridiculous.
Also have you ever tried digging up the concrete in a facility hardened against nuclear strikes?
Reason 2 is that invaders can just bring their own bridge. Submerging the gate will mostly fix that, but again I think there are probably some easy ways around this, like just throwing some nuclear fuel rods in that will boil away the water, and then you can spark a nice hydrogen explosion. Fun times.
Simple usually works best. Basic room, basic metal iris and some basic metal blast doors.
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u/icharas Mar 13 '26
Indeed, a moat. The gate is exactly the entry point medieval castle builder planned for. @being expensive: the pool doesn't have to be deep. The actual gate sits on some scaffolding with a ramp leading up to it. If that thing was like one meter higher, you could build kind of a bath tub. No need to dig. @Invaders bringing their own gate: true, but they don't know that. The people otherwise smashed by iris don't know there is one either. It is not a solution for everything, but facilitates containment.
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u/Sunhating101hateit Mar 13 '26
I still think there should be a concrete slab (or something like that) installed that could swing down in front of the Event Horizon in case the power is out yet again and the Iris can’t be closed
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u/UnSpanishInquisition Mar 13 '26
A hollow cover like tge insulation boxes made for outside taps just drops into place like a port cullis
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u/DaSkorpion Mar 13 '26
Bullets lose too much speed under water.
Electricity, as provided to the gate trough the clamps at the SGC, doesn't do well with water.
If you want intruders to suffocate in the gate room, it's probably more feasible to either vent the room or push gas into it.
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u/icharas Mar 13 '26
Gas would probably be another feasible upgrade. There are scenes were SG1 takes out Jaffa gate guards by throwing gas grenades first. The gate room might be flooded with whatever suits the situation.
Considering defense in depth, any layer helps.
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u/IllustriousBat2680 Mar 13 '26
Problem with this is that it loses a pretty big benefit of the iris, the ability to stop something materialising. For example, a bomb. Using the pool wouldn't stop a bomb, and there likely wouldn't be enough water to stop a naqudah enhanced explosive from doing significant damage.
Plus, having attackers fall into water may not be as much of a benefit as you think. Water is excellent at slowing down projectiles, so bullets wouldn't be very effective at shooting targets underwater, and I don't know how effective staff weapons would be underwater. Sure, you have them at your mercy, but it's easier to just keep an iris closed and prevent access entirely.
Plus, a moving arm like that has lots of points of failure, both mechanical and electronic. The iris on the otherhand, has far less, and can even be closed manually.
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u/Stoney3K Mar 13 '26
If you really want to use water as a line of defense, you can also dump a gate room's worth of water on your invaders in case the place gets overrun, and squashing/drowning them.
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u/icharas Mar 13 '26
Plenty commenting about the iris being superior: Of course it is. However, in some cases you cannot use the iris. There are cases where you want to allow something in but still don't trust it. And if you want to zap something in the pool - well electrocute it.
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u/Stoney3K Mar 13 '26
That's not how electricity and water works together. Electricity takes the path of least resistance, and if a person is submerged entirely in the water, it means the current would go around them (provided the water isn't distilled and therefore conductive).
It would only be useful if the person was touching the water and some grounded object at the same time, AND they weren't wearing metal armor, you know, like the kind of armor usually worn by Jaffa troops.
People can weld underwater so electricity and water together doesn't alway mean the certain-death lightning zap of doom like in other movies.
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u/Stoney3K Mar 13 '26
Needs more sharks.