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I'm binge-watching Stargate-SG1 on Netflix and noticed that several times in the later seasons, SGC officers defer to Teal'c as if he's in command, or at least a senior officer. However, as far as I know, Teal'c has no honorary rank. The closest I've seen was an occasion where he was introduced as a "Tech Sergeant", although that was just part of their cover at the time.

Does the show or any of the extended materials (novels/comics) mention either Teal'c or Daniel Jackson having an honorary rank within the SGC command heirarchy?

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    This is a good question. In the original film, it was important that Jackson wasn't military, but a civilian archaeology professor who happened to stumble upon ideas that the military was investigating.
    – Robert Columbia
    Dec 26, 2021 at 11:22

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Stargate SG-1: Four Dragons gives Teal'c the honorary rank of Chief Master Sergeant.

Yet here he was, doing just that. Hovering by the gate-room’s blast doors, staying way out of the way, while Teal’c received the honorary rank of Chief Master Sergeant at the hands of Walter and Siler.

Daniel is never given a rank, but probably has some title like this as a forensic anthropologist or archeologist, at GS-0190-14/15 as a civilian consultant, given that he wears the logo.

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    I do believe there are regulations on how civilian consultant are treated and what rank they should be treated as.
    – Styxsksu
    Dec 29, 2021 at 13:48
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    Without contrary evidence, my guess would be that Daniel Jackson is actually a contractor, not an employee. There are strict rules prohibiting using civilian employees to commit acts of war (like accompanying the military team with a weapon and fighting alongside them), but obviously the US government has policies to hire private military contractors to fight on the military's behalf. Granted, the Goa'uld might be unlikely to complain to the UN, but it would prevent whoever is reading the reports from questioning why a civilian employee is fighting for the military.
    – IllusiveBrian
    Dec 29, 2021 at 20:30
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I want to address this question from a few different angles. But before I give an answer, some groundwork needs to be laid.

Teal'c as first prime

A first prime of a Goa'uld is basically like the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State rolled into a single position. Even if Teal'c was the first prime of a minor Goa'uld that would still be on par with a 4* general at the least. And while it is likely a minor Goa'uld under a system lord may actually serve diplomatic roles with other Goa'uld, their arrogance and self-centered behavior may actually present a risk in diplomacy versus a first prime who would not suffer from such afflictions.

However, Teal'c was the first prime of a system lord, which is an even more competitive position and in larger battles he would command the first primes of the under-lords in battle, effectively making him a 5* general that also served diplomatic roles as well.

Teal'c in day to day with SG-1

While Col. O'neill always loved to remind Teal'c that he was the commanding officer on most missions, there were dozens of times Teal'c flat out disagreed with the Colonel.

Teal'c has even "given" orders to Col. Pendergast when he "commanded" the Col to send the Deadalus to the dark side of earth's moon to find the Jaffa Hatak that was hunting Baal and the Colonel simply agreed with his "order".

Going beyond that, Teal'c has resigned from the SGC on numerous occasions and was always allowed to come back.

Reasons for not giving Teal'c a higher honorary rank

Teal'c began his journey with the Tauri with SG-1. And while Teal'c is over 100 years old and probably has more high-level command experience than even Hammond and O'neill combined, it would just be weird if Teal'cs honorary rank was higher than O'neill.

Teal'cs true honorary rank

Starting in Season 9 Teal'c has effectively transitioned into a Jaffa politician which would realistically make him the Jaffa ambassador to Earth.

So while Teal'cs true rank equivalent is that of a 5* general, he would only be honorarily promoted when O'neill was.

That said, he is an Alien, albeit an extremely loyal ally, so he could never hold an actual, or simulated rank, but an honorary rank is a different matter altogether.

In conclusion, Teal'cs role as Jaffa Ambassador is the most honorable and the most important role that he holds and his sacrifice to earth will be honored and remembered for all time. Shal Kek Nem Ron!

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    This doesn't actually seem to answer the question: is there any official work that gives Teal'c or Daniel an official honourary rank?
    – DavidW
    Oct 22, 2022 at 12:02
  • @DavidW All of my answer is my interpretation of the situation. You seem to be a bit of a rule follower and I suspect you will downvote me, I am more like General O'Neill....The purpose of my response is to start a conversation around this topic. And while my answer lies in a grey area of this limited website where conversations are boiled down in binary terms, you cannot deny it is interesting and thought provoking. I would ask you for some latitude as Jack would ask of General Hammond. Open your mind.
    – hunterp
    Oct 22, 2022 at 12:25
  • Anyway, I see you have applied the same kind of creativity stifling, binary thinking for some other posts of mine....I'll show myself out.
    – hunterp
    Oct 22, 2022 at 12:32
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No, they don't have any honorary rank... but the reason why SGC officers would often defer to them, would be because they're SG-1 the flagship team, the best of the best, and Teal'c has off world knowledge that they don't, and Dr Jackson is the the foremost expert on all things Stargate and historically and linguistically related which is extremely relative and helpful in basically every mission

Side note: no language experts in Atlantis, so all the races they encounter in the Pegasus Galaxy speak English.. just found that funny Am also rewatching the series'

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    Hi, welcome to the site. However, in regard to Teal'c not receiving an honorary rank, this answer is directly contradicted by Nepene Nep's answer, which includes a quote as supporting evidence. Do you know of any evidence which invalidates that quote? If so, you could improve your answer by editing it to include that evidence.
    – LogicDictates
    Dec 27, 2021 at 13:19

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