A quickly growing alien plant and the arrival of two brawly Amrans, possible trade partners from another world, lead O'Neill to write a letter to General Hammond, his predecessor.
With the SGC suffering from a temporary electricity failure caused by the alien plants, Ba'al's renewed contacting only results in O'Neill's mocking.
When all SG teams announce their trust and support for the general, SG-1 dial the Stargate from offworld, revealing that they were never captured by Ba'al but instead were trapped in a secret base.
Gilmor expresses his respect, and as they leave to greet the President, the camera zooms in on the resignation letter on O'Neill's desk, with the last words, "Never mind".
O'Neill in his sleeping quarters was the episode's last filmed scene, shot in two takes to allow Anderson to catch his flight home to Los Angeles.
Imagined scenarios ranged from the general dealing with minor decisions like bunting and lunch buffet, to averting major emergencies and threats.
Los Angeles actor David Kaufman was brought in to play the part of Mark Gilmor, a red herring to the story.
The new name is based on General Hammond referring to Jones's character as "Airman" (sounding like "Harriman") in the pilot episode,[4] and SG-1 writer Joseph Mallozzi explained the resulting incongruity as a married-name issue.
The SG-1 producers saw Bernard ranting on Late Night about Stargate SG-1 being better without Daniel Jackson (actor Michael Shanks was not part of SG-1 during Season 6), and gave him a cameo spot.
"[6] When "Zero Hour" first aired on the Sci Fi Channel on July 30, 2004, it achieved a 2.2 Household rating,[7] equaling approximately 3 million viewers.
Bringing the plants to the SGC at all was regarded irritating, as the "obvious move [to build a secure lab on an uninhabited planet] doesn't make for such good drama."