Daniel Jackson

From The Stargate Omnipedia

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SG-1's archaeological expert, responsible for cracking the code to first activate the Stargate. A student of language, mythology and ancient cultures, Jackson's knowledge and razor-sharp wit is key to encounters with alien civilizations and displaced human colonies across the galaxy. Sometimes awkward, sometimes socially inept, he is driven, intelligent, and an invaluable member of the Stargate program.

Jackson has a unique way of looking at the world, one that sets him apart and often alienates him from others at Stargate Command. He is close friends with Samantha Carter, who often sees eye-to-eye with him, and rarely opposes his side. Jackson's friendship with Teal'c is more out of respect, as one is a scientist and the other a warrior, but the two often find ways to connect. They share a knowledge of the Goa'uld and the ancient gods they impersonate, and a desire to see them destroyed.

Jackson also has a deep and complicated friendship with Jack O'Neill, who frequently takes opposition to his side in matters of galactic concern. Often a moralist, Jackson verbally spars with O'Neill, a pessimist, to present a balanced perspective to the SG-1 team. The two have been embroiled in numerous ethical controversies over the years, but continue to be loyal friends.

Daniel was probably born in 1965. His birthday is on July 8.

Claire and Melburn Jackson are killed in an accident. From "The Gamekeeper."

When Daniel was eight years old, he bore witness to a horrific scene as he helplessly watched his parents' die. Claire and Melburn Jackson were establishing a new exhibit in the Manhattan Museum of Art when a column of stone fell on them and crushed them both. Daniel was taken into the custody of foster parents; his grandfather, Nicholas Ballard (also an archaeologist), did not take him in.

Jackson grew up to become an eager archaeologist and specialist in ancient cultures and myths. He apprenticed Dr. David Jordan alongside friends Sarah Gardner (with whom Jackson was romantically involved for a time) and Steven Rayner, digging deep into the mysteries of the past. Daniel held to his belief that the great pyramids of Egypt were landing platforms for alien spacecraft, and was ridiculed by the academic community for those ideas. As it turned out, a chance encounter with a mysterious woman, Dr. Catherine Langford, gave him his chance to prove his theories were, indeed, true.

Jackson and O'Neill fight. From "One False Step."

Put to work deep within the Creek Mountain complex, Jackson spent two weeks deciphering mysterious Egyptian cover stones that bore mysterious symbols he eventually concluded were star constellations. Soon he deciphered the seventh symbol of those constellations, enabling the activation of a mysterious object called the Stargate -- for the first time in more than 50 years.

Jackson accompanied Colonel O'Neill and the first team to the world of Abydos, where he helped to defeat the Goa'uld Supreme System Lord Ra. An Abydonian native, Sha're, was presented to him as a gift by her father Kasuf, leader of the Abydonian people. An unexpected present indeed, Jackson chose to remain with the new culture after falling in love with Sha're and reopening the door to allow the others to return home.

Daniel and Sha're are reunited. From "Secrets."

One year later Jackson welcomed the return of O'Neill and several members of the team, including Samantha Carter. He told them he had come to learn that the Stargate goes to many other worlds. After they had left him on Abydos, Jackson had begun exploring and discovered a map room with gate coordinates to Stargates spanning the galaxy.

Sha're was soon captured by Apophis and his serpent guards, as was her brother Skaara. The Goa'uld took them through the Stargate to the planet Chulak. Jackson joined SG-1 to pursue his loved ones, only to discover that Sha're had been taken as a host to Apophis's queen, Amonet. Daniel vowed to find her, and remained with SG-1 to accomplish this incredible task.

One Abydonian year to the day Daniel returned with Teal'c to his former home to discover that Sha're had returned on her own. The Goa'uld Amonet was asleep, in order to allow Amonet and Apophis's child to mature and be born. Jackson embraced the reunion, confessing that, though he was distressed by Apophis's child growing in his wife's womb, he still deeply loved her. Jackson brought the infant into the world with his own hands, and hid the baby away with Kasuf.

Share perishes at the hands of Teal'c. From "Forever In a Day."

Roughly a year later Jackson received a message from Kasuf that Amonet had returned and taken several Abydonians captive. The child had been sent away with her handmaiden to the legendary planet Kheb. Daniel confronted Amonet and fell victim to her hand device. Within the hand device Sha're communicated her last thoughts to Daniel, telling him where Apophis's child was taken, and telling him to forgive Teal'c for killing her and Amonet to save him. Sha're was dead, but Daniel had a new mission: find the boy.

His search led him and SG-1 to the world of Kheb, where he discovered the child was in the care of the powerful being Oma Desala. Jackson had vowed he would find and protect the boy. He had succeeded at the first, and decided the wisest decision would be to leave the child in the hands of Oma, where he would be safe from the Goa'uld.

Nearly a year later, the rapidly-grown child -- Shifu -- visited Jackson to learn about his mother. Like Oma Desala, Shifu had ascended to a higher plane of existence. It was a reunion that was telling of Daniel's own future. After being exposed to a lethal dose of radiation while saving millions of lives on the planet Langara, Daniel lay dying in the S.G.C. infirmary. Oma Desala came to him in a vision and offered him the knowledge to ascend. After debating whether or not to accept her invitation to begin a new journey, Jackson decided he could do more as an ascended being and joined her, leaving his team behind.

An ascended Daniel confronts Anubis. From "Full Circle."

As an ascended being Daniel witnessed many things -- but because of the rules of the other ascended beings (who turned out to be the Ancients, the Stargate builders), he found himself unable to step in and alter events for good. He visited O'Neill and helped him survive a traumatic turning point in his life at the hands of Baal, as well as helping Teal'c to survive a terrible massacre.

Realizing the Goa'uld Anubis was on his way to annihilate the people of Abydos, Daniel enlisted the aid of SG-1. O'Neill convinced him the only way to protect the people was to break the rules of the Ancients and intervene. Disobeying Oma's warnings, Daniel confronted Anubis on board his ship and tried to use his powers to stop him -- after the Goa'uld was not pacified when Jackson turned over the key to a powerful weapon. Abydos was destroyed, Oma helped its people ascend, and Daniel was whisked away to face judgment by the Ancients.

The Ancients leave Daniel naked in a field. From "Fallen."

Months later, SG-1 found Daniel on the Ancient planet Vis Uban with no memory of who he was. His sentence had been to return to his human form, and to have his memory wiped clean. O'Neill and Carter convinced him to return to Earth with them, and gradually he began to regain his memories of his life before ascension. Soon his memories fully returned, and Jackson has taken his second chance at life and run with it. He continues as a key member of SG-1.

DETAILS

PLAYED BY: Michael Shanks, James Spader
FIRST APPEARED: "Stargate" the Movie

KEY EPISODES

"Stargate" the Movie - Jackson cracks a code that activates the Stargate, allowing him and a group to travel across space to Abydos, where he is introduced to his future wife and an evil ruler oppressing the local population.
Children of the Gods - Jackson receives visitors from Earth and learns of a new threat before serpent guards arrive, snatching his wife and brother through the Stargate. Daniel returns to Earth and joins SG-1 in the hopes of discovering their fate and getting them back.
The Torment of Tantalus - Jackson and SG-1 discover an alien library that may hold the key to the meaning of life, but is forced to abandon it before he and his team are cut off from home.
Bloodlines - Jackson faces his hatred toward the Goa'uld by destroying a worship center of helpless infant symbiotes.
Fire and Water - Jackson is kidnapped by Nem of the Oannes and is forced to recall his knowledge of ancient Babylon to help the alien discover the fate of his mate, Omaroca.
Hathor - Jackson is seduced by the Goa'uld queen Hathor and made her new beloved.
There But For the Grace of God - Jackson is whisked away to an alternate reality via a quantum mirror and forced to live through the horror of an Earth overrun by the Goa'uld.
Politics - Jackson defends his position of witnessing atrocities in an alternate timeline on the eve of the shutdown of the S.G.C., but it is not enough to persuade higher powers to prevent the termination of the program.
Within the Serpent's Grasp - With Jackson's knowledge of a launching point for an all-out attack on Earth, SG-1 gates to the provided coordinates where they find themselves aboard a Goa'uld attack ship headed for Earth.
The Serpent's Lair - Jackson sustains fatal staff injuries and manages to place himself within a sarcophagus and exit through the Stargate before the Ha'tak explodes in orbit of Earth.
The Gamekeeper - Trapped in an alien virtual reality environment, Jackson is forced to witness the deaths of his parents again and again as a source of entertainment for an alien species.
Need - Jackson succumbs to the repeated treatments of a sarcophagus and discovers he is unable to go on without it, his personality altered by the device, giving him an ethereal high.
Secrets - Jackson returns to Abydos to discover Sha're alive and apparently free of her Goa'uld -- but only for a time, as Apophis's child grows in her womb.
Holiday - Jackson unintentionally switches minds with Ma'chello, an ancient fighter of the Goa'uld who pretends to be Jackson until he escapes the base for a vacation.
Serpent's Song - Jackson confronts Apophis who is about to die, refusing to tell where the child has been hidden away, and threatens to kill the Goa'uld if he doesn't tell him where Sha're/Amonet is.
Out of Mind - Jackson is awakened by O'Neill and Carter, finding themselves within a futuristic Goa'uld mockup of the S.G.C. at the controls of Hathor, who wishes to collect their knowledge regarding the state of the Goa'uld empire.
Legacy - Jackson succumbs to Ma'chello's Goa'uld killers and, since he was never implanted with a symbiote, suffers schizophrenic side-effects.
Forever In a Day - Jackson discovers Sha're/Amonet on an alien world and succumbs to the power of the hand-device, where Sha're delivers a last message to him before Teal'c is forced to kill her.
Past and Present - Jackson falls for a woman from an alien world, who's population recently suffered from mass amnesia, before realizing the woman is an evil mass-murderer named Linea.
The Devil You Know - Under coercion from a drug called the blood of Sokar, Daniel narrowly escapes the subterfuge of Apophis, who is eager to learn the location of the Harcesis.
Pretense - Jackson and O'Neill play pivotal roles as archons in a Tollan triad to determine whether or not Skaara has priority control over his body.
Maternal Instinct - SG-1 finds Kheb, the world where Sha're's Harcesis child was hidden away, and realizes a powerful being, Oma Desala, has the child's best interests at heart.
Crystal Skull - Jackson must rely on his mentally ill grandfather Nicholas Ballard to get him out of a trap that has caused him to be invisible to the rest of the world.
The Other Side - Once more, Jackson takes opposite O'Neill's side when he debates with his peers the dangers of forming an alliance with a species at war with an enemy Earth knows nothing about.
The First Ones - Jackson is taken captive by Chaka, an aboriginal Unas, and is marked for death to accomplish the Unas' rite of passage into adulthood.
Scorched Earth - Jackson pleads with an artificial intelligence to prevent the destruction of an alien colony settled by SG-1.
The Curse - Jackson encounters his former colleagues after he discovers his mentor has died, and finds that his former girlfriend has become host to the evil Goa'uld Osiris.
Absolute Power - The Harcesis Shifu appears to Daniel and teaches him about the dangers of the Goa'uld genetic knowledge that the young boy possesses.
The Light - Daniel nearly dies when his body goes through massive withdrawl after exposure to an addictive Goa'uld device.
Beast of Burden - Jackson and SG-1 journey to an alien world to free Chaka and other Unas who are being held as slaves to the bidding of a primitive human population.
48 Hours - Jackson and Major Davis travel to Russia to plead with their government to allow the United States access to the D.H.D. before Teal'c's time runs out, trapped within the Stargate memory.
Summit - Jackson goes undercover to infiltrate a Goa'uld summit meeting and destroy the System Lords once and for all, before unexpectedly encountering Osiris, turning his plans upside-down.
Last Stand - Jackson attempts to capture Osiris to take her back to the Tok'ra for removal from Sarah Gardner's body, but is caught in the middle of a confrontation between her and Lord Yu.
Meridian - Daniel is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation when he saves millions of lives on Kelowna (Langara) from an explosive accident, and begins a new journey when Oma Desala helps him ascend to a higher plane of existence.
Abyss - Daniel visits Jack in Baal's prison cell to try and help his friend ascend, as his only means of escaping torture and death.
The Changeling - Jackson, in ascended form, uses his powers to infiltrate Teal'c's dream state following a terrible massacre, and helps him stay alive until help arrives.
Full Circle - Jackson learns Anubis is heading for Abydos with means of locating a powerful weapon and makes a conscious decision to neglect the ways of the Ancients to defend his friends and beloved planet.
Fallen - Jackson arrives on the Ancient planet of Vis Uban, fully human and with no memory of who he is. SG-1 persuades him to return to Earth, where he rediscovers his old life and rejoins the team.
Homecoming - Trapped aboard Anubis's mothership in Langara's atmosphere, Jackson must help Jonas Quinn escape Goa'uld capture. When Langara is saved from Goa'uld invasion, Jackson is welcomed home by his friends as Jonas returns home.
Orpheus - Jackson recovers memories from his experience as an ascended being to help SG-1 infiltrate a Jaffa death camp and save Rya'c and Bra'tac, who are being imprisoned as slaves.
Lifeboat - While exploring an alien ship, Daniel's mind is taken over by a dozen alien consciousnesses.
Enemy Mine - Jackson calls upon his Unas friend Chaka to mediate negotiations with a group of tribal Unas, who are preventing the S.G.C. from accessing a valuable naquadah mine because they regard it as sacred ground.
Evolution, Part 1 - Jackson and Lee travel to Central America in search of an Ancient healing device, and are swiftly captured by terrorists after locating it.
Evolution, Part 2 - Jackson and Lee are tortured at the hands of Raphael, who is intent on understanding the technology behind the small cube he has procured.
Chimera - Daniel experiences a dream of Sarah when he and she were students in Chicago, later learning that it is Osiris who is infiltrating his mind and hoping to learn information regarding his knowledge of the Ancients. Daniel is successful in helping to capture Osiris and saving Sarah, finally bringing her back into his life.
Rising, Part 1 - While doing research at the Antarctic outpost Atlantus, Daniel finds a gate address for the lost city of Atlantis in the distant Pegasus Galaxy -- and is disappointed that he can't join the expedition.
Icon - Daniel is stranded on a world on the brink of civil war, where a local woman nurses him back to health after he is injured.
Prometheus Unbound - After a sexy hijacker named Vala steals the Prometheus, Daniel is the only hope for thwarting her plan.
Reckoning, Part 2 - Daniel is kidnapped by Replicator Carter, who probes his mind to find the only weapon in the galaxy that can stop her. But the former ascended proves a match for her.
Threads - In the space between life and death, Daniel meets the Ancient Oma Desala again and is offered the chance to ascend -- or die for good.
Avalon, Part 2 - An Ancient device sends Daniel and Vala's minds to another galaxy, where they encounter a new enemy.
Origin - Daniel comes face-to-face with the Ori, evil ascended beings bent on conquering our galaxy -- now that they have learned from him that humans live there.
Ethon - Daniel is imprisoned on a world under Ori influence, which used to be an ally of Earth.
The Pegasus Project - Daniel realizes a dream when SG-1 visits the Ancient city of Atlantis, and meets a real Ancient face-to-face.
The Quest, Part 2 - When SG-1 finds the real Merlin, still alive, Daniel puts his life on the line to help him finish the anti-Ori weapon.
The Shroud - Daniel returns to the team after being captured by Adria and turned into a Prior, and must convince the team that they can still trust him.
Unending - Trapped on the Odyssey in a time-dilation bubble, Daniel and Vala eventually become life-long lovers -- until Carter manages to reverse time and return things to the way they were.
Stargate: The Ark of Truth - When SG-1 travels to the Ori home galaxy, Daniel leads the search for an Ancient device that can end the war.
Stargate: Continuum - Daniel, Sam and Cameron are thrown into an alternate reality, where he loses his leg in an accident and must face the idea of living out the rest of his life there.
First Contact - Daniel visits Atlantis to locate an Ancient scientist's hidden lab, but is kidnapped along with Rodney McKay by never before seen aliens.
The Lost Tribe - Held captive by advanced alien soldiers, Daniel discovers that they are a lost tribe of Asgard, and risks his life to stop them from using technology that threatens the Pegasus Galaxy.
Air, Part 1 - Eli Wallace watches a series of instructional videos on the Stargate program, narrated by Dr. Jackson.
Human - In Rush's memory of his past, Daniel approaches him to recruit him into the Stargate program.
Subversion - On orders from General O'Neill, Daniel tails Dr. Rush in Colonel Telford's body and confirms that Telford is a mole for the Lucian Alliance.
Incursion, Part 1 - On Destiny, Eli Wallace watches a video recording of Daniel explaining what the Lucian Alliance is.