Teal'c: Military Career

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The Warrior

Skills and Qualifications

Once the First Prime of the Goa'uld false god, Apophis, Teal'c joined the Tau'ri when he recognized a warrior of great skill and determination in Col. O'Neill. Teal'c's weapon of choice is his staff weapon, or the zat'nik'tel, though he is also adept with low-tech weapons like the Tau'ri P-90. He trained with Master Bra'tac, who was once called the greatest warrior of his kind, and studied the martial art called mastaba. He is an excellent tracker (7.16 "Death Knell"). He is also a qualified pilot of Goa'uld death gliders (1.21 "Within the Serpent's Grasp"), tel'tac cargo ships (3.12 "Jolinar's Memories") and other interstellar vehicles.

Heroism

It was some time after switching his allegiance to the Tau'ri before Teal'c was trusted and accepted as a member of SG-1. He proved his loyalty by stopping Maj. Kawalsky, who had been taken as a host by a Goa'uld symbiote, preventing the man from leaving through the gate for an unknown destination (1.02 "The Enemy Within"). He is staunchly loyal to his teammates on SG-1 and risks his life often to fight alongside them. He has refused to leave them when prudence dictated that would be the best course of action:

  • Even though Fraiser was uncertain about the danger of further exposure to muon radiation, Teal'c went back to P7X-377 to retrieve a crystal skull the others believed might have something to do with Daniel's sudden disappearance (3.21 "Crystal Skull").
  • Teal'c was sent to rescue Jack, Sam, and Daniel from an unauthorized mission when their Atanik armbands, which gave them superior speed and strength, unexpectedly came off. After retrieving Daniel, he refused to leave Apophis' ship, even though it was set to explode, until he knew Jack and Sam were also safe (4.03 "Upgrades").

He currently serves as the SGC's resident expert on Goa'uld and Jaffa culture, and is also one of the leaders of the Jaffa rebellion against the Goa'uld. He does his best to balance his two sets of duties, though at least once he has chosen to abandon the SGC in favor of the rebellion (4.04 "Crossroads").

Teal'c has been instrumental in saving Earth from alien invasion or destruction on several occasions:

  • During a direct attack by Apophis and his son, Klorel, SG-1 thwarted the attack when the team, along with Master Bra'tac, succeeded in blowing up both ships just before their attack on Earth began (2.01 "The Serpent's Lair Part 2").
  • Thor unintentionally brought the Replicators to Earth when they attacked and seized control of his ship, the Biliskner. Summoning Col. O'Neill aboard for help, along with Carter and Teal'c, the team successfully prevented the Replicators from infecting the planet; however, it took a second try to destroy them once the alien devices took control of a Russian submarine and killed the crew. O'Neill and Teal'c destroyed the submarine and the "mother bug" when they blew up the sub (3.22 "Nemesis Part 1"/ 4.01 "Small Victories Part 2").
  • The Goa'uld sent a large meteor with a core of solid naquadah on a collision course for Earth, an attack disguised as a natural disaster to try to circumvent their treaty with the Asgard. SG-1 was sent to blow it up, but upon discovering the core properties and how disastrous exploding it would be, Carter figured a way to use the Tok'ra cargo ship they were in to tow the meteor through the Earth via a hyperspace window (5.17 "Fail Safe").
  • In order to find help for O'Neill and Earth, Teal'c and Carter went in search of the Asgard, knowing that if they didn't succeed, they might well be stranded in a broken ship with no way home. Their success helped defend the Earth and the Asgard against the human replicators (8.01 "New Order Part 1").
  • Teal'c convinced his fellow Jaffa to take Dakara, to prove to all Jaffa that the Goa'uld are false gods. They succeeded in taking the planet, but were interrupted in their rebellion by the replicator invasion. Teal'c and his forces then became a critical piece of the defense against the replicators, Anubis, and Ba'al, overthrowing Ba'al along the way (8.17 "Reckoning Part 2").
  • In an impassioned speech on Chulak, Teal'c persuaded Gerak, by then a Prior, not to trust the Ori and their motives. Teal'c's arguments lead Gerak to spare the lives of the free Jaffa at Chulak and to return to Earth and cure the population of the Prior plague. If not for Teal'c's success in turning Gerak, all humans on Earth would likely have died (9.11 "The Fourth Horseman Part 2").
  • Seeing that Earth and its allies would soon be far outmatched by the Ori invasion, Teal'c left on his own initiative to appeal to the enemy Lucian Alliance, to demand their help in protecting the galaxy. While the impact of his effort is not yet clear, it was a brave move and at least exposed more parties to the reality of the Ori threat (9.20 "Camelot Part 2").

For the most part, Teal'c follows orders without question. However, there have been times when he has been openly defiant and refused to cooperate with Col. O'Neill:

  • When one of the Byrsa of Cartago (P3X-1279) recognized Teal'c as the Jaffa who killed his father, Teal'c was imprisoned and put on trial. Over O'Neill's strenuous objections, Teal'c refused to try to escape, insisting that he wanted to be held accountable for his past. Though Jack and Daniel gave a stunning defense of him, his accuser, Hanno, still passed a sentence of death. A troop of Jaffa attacked the Byrsa, and Teal'c helped defend the people, then willingly turned over his weapon to Hanno, that the sentence might be carried out. Hanno was so moved by his action that he realized Teal'c was a different man than the one he knew, and set him free (1.15 "Cor-ai").
  • Klorel/Ska'ara crash-landed on Tollana and was subject to Tollan Triad in order to decide who would remain in control of the body. While Jack and Daniel served as Ska'ara's advocates, Teal'c and Sam observed the actions of the Jaffa serving Klorel's advocate, Lord Zipacna. They appeared to be targeting the Tollans' ion cannons as a prelude to an attack. Although Jack gave orders not to pursue the situation, Teal'c went to the neutral advocate, Lya of the Nox, and persuaded her to make one cannon invisible so it would escape being marked. This action saved the Tollan people as well as the other members of SG-1 (3.15 "Pretense").
  • He had been duplicated on P3X-989 (Altair), along with the rest of SG-1; however, the presence of the second consciousness from the symbiote confused the duplicating machinery and the android Teal'c malfunctioned, nearly strangling O'Neill before it expired (1.18 "Tin Man"). Apparently, Harlan later decided to break his promise to O'Neill and generate another copy of Teal'c, minus the problems, as there was a Teal'c android on Juna (P3X-729) that was killed along with the rest of the android SG-1 (4.21 "Double Jeopardy").
  • And he is not fond of jumping out of airplanes, even with a parachute (4.07 "Watergate").

Commendations

Though Teal'c has certainly earned many commendations in the line of duty, he is not officially recognized by Earth government, and has only the gratitude and faith of his team and the SGC as a reward for his acts of heroism.

Jaffa leader Tolok bestowed upon Teal'c and Bra'tac the highest honor any Jaffa can achieve, declaring that they should thenceforth be known as blood kin to all Jaffa. This was after the taking of Dakara and the defeat of the replicators, Anubis, and Ba'al (8.18 "Threads").

Teal'c is a leading member of the Jaffa Council at Dakara and, if he were not committed to SG-1, would surely be a favorite to be elected leader of all of his people (9.10 "The Fourth Horseman Part 1", 9.14 "Stronghold").

Biography Articles

--Michelle 23:37, 19 Dec 2004 (PST)

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