9 Most Memorable Alternate Universe TV Episodes 

A lab explosion sends Lt. Col. Samantha Carter into an alternate dimension where nothing seems the same. She hadn’t been promoted, married and divorced a man that she loathes, and the United States is living under the near-fascist military rule of someone she thought she knew better. Worse still, the government is using technology developed through the Stargate program as a tool of oppression against its own people.

In this new world, Carter learns that the differences between this place and her version of Earth go deeper than Major Lorne leading SG-1, Atlantis having never been discovered, and the revelation that her alternate self had been married to Rodney McKay. Here, the Stargate program was revealed to the public and there was panic, both on the streets, and on the world stage.

The chaos this caused, and the imminent threat of Ori attack, led the President to suspend democracy and declare martial law. Dissenters to this action are quickly and severely dealt with in this world by means of Jaffa torture devices, and everything that the media sees and reports is pre-determined. Always done in the name of the country, and at the order of the government. After saving the world from an Ori armada, and setting America back on a path toward democracy, Carter eventually finds her way back to her own timeline.

The alternate world that this episode presents tells an effective parable about power and the slippery slope to corruption. The audience knows that General Landry is a good man, but is left wondering what he might be capable of if the situation were different.