Penned by Robert C. Cooper and directed by Martin Wood, the episode first aired on the American subscription channel Showtime on June 30, 2000.

"Small Victories" resumes the story of the season 3 finale, "Nemesis", in which the SG-1 team encountered the Replicators for the first time.

As Colonel O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) and Teal'c (Christopher Judge) go to deal with the hijacked submarine, Major Carter (Amanda Tapping) goes with Thor.

O'Neill, Daniel, and Teal'c try to obtain intelligence on the little self-replicating robotic invaders in the submarine, but they are forced to fall back.

[2] The official Showtime website initially caused some confusion by listing Jay Acovone (Kawalsky) as a guest-star in this episode,[4] which later turned out to be untrue.

Martin Wood directed "Small Victories" and made a short cameo appearance with Sergeant Siler (stunt coordinator Dan Shea) in an SGC corridor.

Tapping instinctively slapped the expensive prop, then she kneeled down and apologized to the puppet in all seriousness before realizing the silliness of her reaction.

[2][5] "Small Victories" was originally written to set on a fishing trawler until the producers got access to the decommissioned Russian Foxtrot-class submarine B-39, which was brought from Vladivostok to Vancouver Island in 1996.

To enhance the submarine's narrowness, Martin Wood lit the ship with the actors' helmet lights and chose an agitated shooting style, holding the shots tight and handholding some of the cameras himself.

[5] One scripted scene in which a Replicator piece is removed from Teal'c's shoulder was trimmed on-set because the actors felt it to be redundant.

[5] "Small Victories" and the SG-1 season 4 finale "Exodus" were nominated for a 2001 Emmy in the category "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series",[10] but they lost to Star Trek: Voyager's "Endgame".

[12][13] In his book Approaching the Possible, Jo Storm considered "Small Victories" "one of the most enthralling episodes" that makes the audience forget that it used nearly the same premise that was used in "Nemesis".