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I've been thinking about the differences between the 3 types of Stargates: Milky Way, Pegasus, and the SGU gates. The SGU gates are the earliest, and they have some limitations compared to the later gates. For example, a limited range. The Milky Way gates were built second, and lastly the Pegasus gates. But both the SGU gates and the Pegasus gates support remote dialing, with SGU even having a directory of gates in range on their remote dialing tablets. It seems bizarre that when designing the second model of gates, the Milky Way gates, that the Ancients would remove such a useful feature. Has there been any indication of why this choice was made?

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    Pretty sure that in Moebius, when they have the puddle jumper in the Milky Way, they make use of remote dialing from inside the jumper. – HorusKol Mar 14 '11 at 22:46
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    All three styles of gates can be remote-dialed (Future Cassandra and the Nox are both seen on-screen using a remote to activate a Milky Way gate.) – Allen Gould May 27 '11 at 19:20

4 Answers4

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The obvious answer to this is that the writers didn't come up with the idea of remote dialing until making Atlantis and Universe, and that's why it isn't in SG1.

However, I think there is some in-universe support for why we only see the pedestal style DHD devices throughout the Milky Way.

The vast majority of the Milky Way gates were located on planets where the population was very technologically limited, to the point where things like computers were far beyond their capabilities. For these sort of people, a computerized, portable dialing device seems far less practical and usable than the simple interface on the DHD. Additionally, we know that other interfaces with the Milky Way stargates are possible, as evidenced by the dialing computer in the SGC or the pedestal that dials the gate when Daniel is attempting to help build Merlin's weapon. This would indicate that it's entirely possible that the Ancients had some sort of portable device that could dial the gates.

Short answer is that remote dialing is certainly possible, but the Ancients didn't leave any remote DHD devices just lying around.

shadowfission
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    Nice post, I think you could also say that technology can decline as well as improve in societies. It's possible a dark age of sorts lead to later gates not being as technologically advanced. Though this idea is not backed-up by anything in the series that I know of. – Mark Rogers Mar 11 '11 at 16:59
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    AFAIK, the dialing computer at SGC is just emulating a DHD. Initially it was more limited than a DHD, but over time they were able to do other things as the plot required. –  Mar 11 '11 at 17:03
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    @Keen: You're right, I was just inferring that it was possible to connect to the stargate without the actual DHD. (Theoretically, they could have made a handheld version of it, provided they had the technology) – shadowfission Mar 11 '11 at 17:19
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    It's worth noting that the puddle-jumpers can dial Milky Way gates as well as Pegasus. Therefore, remote dialing via that method would seem to be integrated into all types of gates. This would tend to be supported by the fact that we've observed other 'remote' dials such as the Nox and the Or'i priors. – Mark Embling Mar 11 '11 at 20:35
  • It's also worth noting that there are very few remote dialing devices around. It's entirely possible that they were lost or destroyed in the Milky Way Galaxy. – PearsonArtPhoto Mar 13 '11 at 03:46
  • I think it's because the ancients usually travelled in ships that had gates aboard anyway as well, and the puddle jumpers seem to be able to dial all gates, even the original one that RA brought to earth, (remember, the time travel episode where they went back to ancient egypt ... still drunk is I :) ) – Mister IT Guru Apr 22 '11 at 09:48
  • Also it would be assumed that the Goa'uld had some form of remote dialing mechanism, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to gate out of the mothballed SGC in the Children of the Gods. I suppose they could just carry a power source and have the Jaffa manually dial though. The RPG indicated the Goa'uld have a limited supply of portable dialers. – Tyson of the Northwest Feb 15 '12 at 21:42
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Actually every DHD is a remote dialer, just a very large and durable one. There are no physical connections between a DHD and a stargate, they just need to be in close enough proximity for the DHD to communicate and transmit power. The reasons they are large, heavy, pedestals instead of portable devices are:

  • They don't want them to get lost, you don't want some primitive species to misplace it (Looking at you Tau'ri)
  • They need to be able to produce power to the gate for multiple millennia without recharge or refueling.
  • They need to be nearly as durable as the gate.

The Puddle Jumpers are equipped with remote dialing devices, and in Moebius we see it working on Milky Way gates. Also there are indications that the Goa'uld may have portable dialing devices. In SG1 "Children of the Gods", Apophis is able to dial out from the SGC even though the facilities had been mothballed, one would assume mothballing included cutting off the gate's power. Later in the series Hammond rants to O'Neill about "How expensive it is to dial that thing" when there is talk of the SGC being shut down. It is also possible the Needle Threader from SG1 "Into the Fire" is equipped with such a device even though it is not called out.

Izkata
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Tyson of the Northwest
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  • There is a physical connection between the DHD and its gate. On most planets, it's buried. You see it in a few episodes. –  Feb 18 '12 at 02:58
  • Missed that, which episodes? – Tyson of the Northwest Feb 18 '12 at 03:02
  • Looks like I was mistaken. After doing some research, it turns out you're correct, they provide wireless control and power. –  Feb 18 '12 at 06:36
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    Thought so, the only time I remember wires coming out of a DHD was when they were using the Russian DHD. And those seemed to be for hacking it, not connecting it. – Tyson of the Northwest Feb 18 '12 at 06:42
  • That was one of the episodes I was thinking of! Gateworld didn't have any pictures that showed the cable I remembered though. –  Feb 18 '12 at 06:52
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    @Keen (and anyone else who reads these comments and is confused/curious), the Russian one is intentionally gimped so that they can connect/disconnect it with ease, so that they don't interfere with the SGC Stargate. – Izkata Mar 13 '13 at 23:03
  • Both Milky Way and Pegasus ground DHD's are wired, but buried. Both types of gate can be dialed remotely with an appropriate device. The DHD provides power normally; for space gates that function is replaced by the RCS modules and dialing must be done remotely. In all likelihood remote dialing didn't become common until the Ancients went to Pegasus, hence why there are no Milky Way space gates. Interestingly, the Destiny gates are all remote only, even though they are older, but this might have been to make them easier to set up for the seed ships, by making it all one part, or for security. – Elliot Dec 20 '20 at 20:50
  • @Elliot Pegasus had highly advanced human and Ancient civilizations all over the place. That's presumably the real reason space gates were a thing - while the much more primitive inhabitants of Milky Way would have no use of space gates, and they would in fact present a danger. Heck, for all we know, space gates were a thing done by the Wraith, not the Ancients. It's clear enough that remote dialling wasn't a technical limitation (all gates can do it), but rather a design decision (primitives in Milky Way need their DHD to use the gates at all). – Luaan Aug 30 '22 at 09:54
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Advances in technology made remote dialers obsolete.

You mentioned the remote dialers' use as a database:

...with SGU even having a directory of gates in range on their remote dialing tablets.

The repository of knowledge made gate directory devices redundant, since any Ancient could quickly download the entire gate directory directly into his or her brain, as O'Neill did in "The Fifth Race". Destiny-era neural interfaces were cumbersome, which may have made them unsafe or unpopular for such use.

In tandem with the ubiquity of ground- and ship-mounted dialing devices, the elimination of the need for gate directories would have made handheld remote dialers obsolete for most uses.

Gaultheria
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They have lost DHD's and whole stargates. It's entirely possible that they had tablet like devices that held all the addresses in the network. The earlier SGU gates uses tablets that held all of the gates in range, plus controlled kinos. So it only makes sense that a tablet in the Milky Way would have a list of all of the gates in range (AKA All MW gates) and probably info on the planets and any other features they might find useful. There a Technologically advanced race...There going to have some kind of tech with them.

Will Barfels
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