Yes, yes, I know it's been over seven months. You can all stop sniggering, okay.
Welcome to this rather belated installment of Canon vs. Fanon! Sit down, have a leisurely read, pull up a keyboard and get ready to discuss. :)
The purpose of these essays is to explore canon issues, contrast them with common fanon usage, and determine how far fanon strays from canon. Canon is defined as anything directly shown during Stargate: The Movie, episodes of the show, and the SG-1 movies; show supersedes the original movie when there's a contradiction. (Jack having brown eyes instead of blue ones, or his son being named "Charlie" instead of "Tyler.") Fanon is defined as widely-accepted concepts that appear in fanfic, but do not have any real basis in canon.
There are varying degrees of fanon, and these essays have touched on all types. Some fanon is completely unsupported by canon; some is actually contradicted by canon; and some is only a question of emphasis or degree. The point is not to condemn authors who use fanon, or even to suggest that there is something wrong with extrapolation of common plotlines. I am not a canon purist, even though I usually prefer it! The purpose is simply to reach an understanding of what is and isn't canon. Once the facts and conclusions are presented, you are welcome to argue them, agree them, or ignore them completely -- the choice is entirely up to you. :) I conclude each essay with my personal opinion, which is not canonical at all.
If you're new to the Canon vs. Fanon series, you can read older entries via the tags or the LJ Index. Please be aware that now that SG-1 is closed canon, I am no longer warning for spoilers.
This is the second edition of off-world fanon, and there will be at least once more -- there's just too much material! Last time, we discussed the dearth of primitive natives, prisons, fear of Teal'c, and Daniel's supposed defense of a Goa'uld's host. This time, we will be examining the team's sleeping patterns and the regular fanon tropes that relate to them.
Fanfic is often set off-world for the same reason the Stargate itself makes such an excellent stage prop: the possibilities are limited only by the writer's imagination. It's only reasonable for authors to create scenarios that advance the drama. So we have two-man tents and Jack waking up Black-Ops dangerous and Daniel (or others) routinely suffering nightmares and three-day-long (or more) missions and Daniel automatically calling for Jack when he awakens.
Some of these happened once or twice. Some never happened at all. And some are true, but only under very specific circumstances.
We'll start with the minor tropes first and work our way up the big canon contradiction in stages.
Daniel calls out for Jack whenever he awakens (and Jack is grieved when he stops doing this in later seasons).
It's a staple of hurt/comfort fics: Daniel awakens from fever/delirium/capture/illness and gasps out, "Jack!" Or "Ja'k," which (forgive me) I have never understood as being remotely different in pronounciation. Some more daring authors will have Daniel mumble, "J'ck." And, of course, the Jack of S4-5 or later will watch Daniel slowly awaken and silently mourn the lack of trust that has grown between them, proven by Daniel's failure to call for him in these circumstances.
This bit of fanon has one canon incident to serve as its springboard:
The Broca Divide. Daniel, captured by the Touched and turned into one of them, is shot and tranqued by Jack. After he collapses, Teal'c carries him into the palace where he is placed in the isolation circle. While they wait for him to regain consciousness, Sam and Jack explain about the antihistamines and the disease. Then we hear Daniel weakly call, "Jack!" Jack looks pleased and says, "There's our boy," and he and Sam go to the isolation circle, where Daniel is cautiously sitting up and Teal'c is handing him his glasses.
There is no other time that Daniel calls out exclusively for Jack upon awakening, and there are plenty of times we see him recover consciousness throughout the first three seasons! That gives this bit of fanon even less proof than Danny.
We do have one other incident in which Daniel calls out for all the members of the team:
Fire and Water. Daniel wakes up, sputtering, sprawled on the steps in Nem's underground home. He gets to his feet and looks around slowly before calling, "Jack? Sam? Teal'c? ...Anyone?"
This isn't so much an automatic response to awakening -- he gets to his feet first -- as much as an automatic response to discovering that he's somewhere strange and alone. And since he calls for all three of his friends, it hardly serves as canonical proof.
Conclusion: with only a single incident in which actually Daniel calls out for Jack upon awakening, this trope is more fanon than canon.
Jack is a light sleeper and is dangerous when first awakened unless approached cautiously.
Like the S4-5 "Daniel calling out for Jack" trope, this fanon is often more referenced than described: Sam or Daniel have already perfected the safest way to wake up Jack because of their hard-earned experience. The idea is that because of Jack's honed senses from his Black Ops days and the situations he encountered, a Jack that is startled awake can come close to half-killing a friend out of reflexive instinct.
So how often have we seen Jack awaken in canon?
Brief Candle. Jack wakes up confused, suffering a drug hangover and possibly the soporific effect of the nanites.
Solitudes. Jack groans his way to consciousness, complete with probable concussion, a broken leg, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
Tin Man. Robot!Jack wakes up slowly, like the others.
Message in a Bottle. Jack awakens slowly and dazedly when he is released. The others help him sit up.
Matter of Time. Jack awakens slowly in the final scene in the infirmary. He is probably drugged.
Out of Mind. Jack awakens from cyrofreeze with as much disorientation as everyone else.
The Devil You Know. Jack is confused when he awakens. He has been subject to the Blood of Sokar and is suffering from a staff blast wound to the leg.
Foothold. Jack jerks suddenly awake when the alien impersonating him is killed, but not any faster than Paul Davis.
Crystal Skull. Jack wakes up slowly and mumbles Sam and Daniel's name, asking if they're all right. He is suffering from exposure to radiation at the time.
Upgrades. Jack jerks awake after the armband comes off. Daniel seemed more disoriented than the others upon awakening, but Jack is not more alert than Sam.
Tangent. Jack awakens when X-301 is nudged by the tel'tak and is hilariously dazed. He is suffering from hypoxia at the time.
Abyss. Included for the sake of completion. Jack awakens slowly each time in the sarcophagus.
Prometheus. Jack awakens after First invades his mind. He is not particularly quick or alert.
Paradise Lost. After some weeks of increasingly paranoia, Jack wakes up with a jerk and discovers his P-90 gone. This is the closest we get to the usual fanon trope, and even with the aragula-induced paranoia, Jack still sleeps soundly enough for Maybourne to sneak into the hut and steal the weapon (and dig up the cache, too).
Fragile Balance. Jack wakes up slowly, confusedly. He might be suffering the after-effects of Loki's week-long study.
Revisions. Jack is awakened by a hazmatted Nevin leaning over him. He does not react strongly, but only drawls an amused, "Hello, Nevin."
Lifeboat. Awakens groaning about a nail in the head. He is suffering from whatever Pharrin used to knock them out.
The Lost City. Upon awakening after taking the Ancient download, it takes a few minutes before Jack can do more than stagger along with Daniel and Teal'c to support him.
New Order, part 2. Jack's consciousness interfacing with the ship seems to come to immediate alertness. When he fully awakens from cyrogenic sleep, he is sluggish both mentally and physically at first.
Lockdown. Jack awakens from his possession slowly and sits up with assistance.
Threads. Sam calls Jack in the middle of the night to warn him that there's "trouble in Jaffa Land." He awakens slowly and gradually, fumbing for the phone.
ETA:![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
suzannemarie adds Zero Hour, where Jack has to be shaken by Gilmor to wake him up after only ten minutes of sleep. And thothmes adds The Nox, where Jack is the only one who wakes up from being dead with a sudden jerk. It's possible to suggest that Sam and Daniel backed off and Daniel murmured, "Okay, it's okay," because they were afraid he'd come up swinging, but I think you would have to be actively looking for that interpretation.
Of all the times we see Jack awakening, nearly all of them are after being drugged, wounded, or mind-zapped. We only see him wake up under relatively normal circumstancestwice thrice: in Revisions, Zero Hour, and Threads.And in bothall of these cases, there is no sign of especial alertness or dangerous reactions.
Conclusion: there is no canon basis for the fanon that Jack wakes up immediately on guard (and possibly dangerous).
Daniel (or sometimes Jack, and rarely Sam) suffers periodically from nightmares.
It seems only reasonable that three human beings, experiencing the incredible trauma that Sam and Jack and Daniel have suffered, would have regular nightmares. The most common trope seems to be Daniel thrashing and calling in his sleep (often for Sha're), with Jack knowing just how to calm him down so he can resettle for the night. Other common fanon scenarios include the team used to Daniel awakening from a bad nightmare and remaining awake the rest of the night, or Jack suffering Black-Ops flashbacks in his nightmares. (This last often references Jack dreaming that he's back in Iraq, and Daniel responding in Arabic.)
Interestingly, any dream/nightmare we see in canon is induced, with only a few exceptions:
The Gamekeeper. Memories are relived in a dream-like state induced by the Gamekeeper, who should have dreamed himself a better hat.
The Tok'ra. Sam has a vision of the Tok'ra. Since she's hooked up to machinery in the infirmary, it's clear she's dreamed about Jolinar often enough that she and Janet thought it worth monitoring.
Legacy. Daniel specifically dreams about Machello when he's in a drug-induced stupor after his Goa'uld-killing slug went into Teal'c.
Forever in a Day. The entire episode is a vision sent to Daniel by Sha're. (There is more discussion on this here.)
The Devil You Know. The memories of Sam, Jack, and Daniel are warped and twisted by Apophis and the Blood of Sokar.
Crossroads. Included for the sake of completion. Deep in kel no reem, Teal'c experiences nightmares of past experiences that Junior gives him out of sheer spite.
Beneath the Surface. Carlin dreams confusedly about his suppressed memories of his life on SG-1. Thera says she's had similar dreams, too.
Absolute Power. Daniel's dream is actually a vision sent by Shifu, because "dreams teach."
Meridian. Daniel's conversation with Oma takes place somewhere between dream and reality.
Shadowplay. Kieran's hallucinations/dreams are caused by radiation sickness.
Unnatural Selection and New Order. First and Fifth induce dreams/hallucinations for Jack, Jonas, Teal'c, and Sam.
Changeling. Teal'c dreams that he's dreaming in a near-death hallucination.
Fragile Balance. Both Jack and mini!Jack remember their abduction by Loki as a strange dream.
Orpheus. Daniel experiences auditory flashbacks to his time when he was Ascended. He uses kel no reem to recover a fuller memory.
Grace. Sam, badly concussed, hallucinates her father and each of her fellow team members in turn.
Chimera. Daniel dreams confusedly about the days when he worked (and played) with Sarah Gardener, induced by Osiris in an attempt to get him to translate the tablet about the Lost City.
Resurrection. Anna dreams flashes of her Goa'uld-inherited memory when the Goa'uld aspect comes to the surface in her sleep.
Lockdown. Vaselov dreams flashes of what he did while possessed with Anubis. Daniel experiences a flashback of where Anubis went.
Reckoning. Replicarter impersonates Oma and induces Daniel to dream in order to uncover knowledge of Dakara.
Collateral Damage. Mitchell's memory/dreams is falsely implanted by the machine.
The Quest. Adria sends Vala information in her dreams to manipulate SG-1 into finding the Sangraal for her.
Dominion. Included for the sake of completion. Vala has false memories deliberately implanted in her mind so that Adria will truly believe that Vala has left the SGC. These include memories of Adria-sent dreams and what is apparently a reference to Dancing With the Stars, which Vala calls a nightmare. Since this didn't actually happen, it doesn't count.
The Ark of Truth. Morgan le Fay sends Daniel repeated dreams/visions in which she pretends to be Merlin to help him find the Ark.
As you can see, this extensive list includes many dreams and visions, but they are all the result of external factors. So what are the exceptions?
Singularity. Cassie dreams about her mother. It's not a nightmare, although awakening probably is.
The Enemy Within. Included for the sake of completion. Daniel admits to Sam that he's avoiding sleep because whenever he closes his eyes, his mind races and he can't stop thinking about Sha're. There's a strong implication that he's afraid of nightmares, but since his attempt at sleep is interrupted by a corpse, we never find out.
Beneath the Surface. Unlike the dreams that are suppressed memories, "Jona" dreams about mining naked, or at least claims that he does.
The Other Guys/Avenger 2.0. Felger has really annoying daydreams that are mostly about Sam.
Fallen. An amnesiac Daniel dreams about Sha're and wakes up remembering her name.
In the entire canon, Jona's dreams of "mining naked" are the closest thing that comes to a genuine nightmare, and that's from a Jack who doesn't remember his past and might very well be making it up in his discomfort with the subject of dreams. There is certainly nothing to support the idea that the team suffers from nightmares on a regular basis!
Please note that most, if not all, of the dreams/visions cited above take place on-world, not off it. We'll into that in greater detail later, but for now...
Conclusion: There is no canonical basis for the fanon that Daniel (or other team members) often has nightmares, and that the team is used to this and knows how to deal with it.
The team sleeps in two-man tents when they're off-world.
I believe this fanon is much more common in ship fics, where the sleeping arrangments are naturally of greater interest than in gen stories. However, writers who use the two-man tents might be surprised to realize that in the entire canon, there are only five times when we see tents in use on the show. Only three of those involve members of SG-1... and those three all take place before the first half of the first season is over!
Stargate the Movie. The team sets up several large tents just outside the pyramid. Half the team uses it that first night while the other half is in Nagada.
COTG. Kawalsky and the rest of SG-2 set up tents for sleeping while they're waiting near the Gate as backup for SG-1.
The First Commandment. This is the one and only time we see the two-man tents in use. Amusingly, the night scene shows the team sleeping around the fire instead of in the tents. :) And there's a note about this in the next section, too.
There are some native tents, which aren't quite the same: Emancipation and Fallen, for example. (ETA:sg_wonderland also cites Birthright.) But that's not the fanon discussed here, which is the idea of the team setting up tents for camping overnight when they'rae off-world. There's also the heat-resistant tents sent to Sam and Teal'c and Rothman in The Fifth Race, but that was specifically for daytime use.
The only other canonical usages of tents are in Fallen, at the base camp where Hammond (and Walter) awaiting Anubis' arrival at the planet, and SG-13 in Enemy Mine, where they have been for three months. We'll get to that in a moment, but in the meantime...
Conclusion: The team almost never uses tents on overnight missions.
Now to take a look at the final bit of fanon for this section, which explains why we don't usually see off-world nightmares or deal with sleeping arrangements in tents:
The team often goes on missions that last for several days.
SG-1 deals with first contact and exploration, not long-term missions. Remember that even the UAV only has a twenty-mile range. There are plenty of canon incidents in which teams other than SG-1 have missions that last weeks or even months -- The First Commandment, The First Ones, Double Jeopardy, Enemy Mine, -- but none for SG-1. The team rarely ventures off-world futher than a day's trek from the Stargate. In the case of The First Commandment, SG-1 camped outdoors because they were following up Hansen and his long-term mission (that had failed spectacularly).
The only times we really see SG-1 staying overnight off-world is when they are invited by the natives or coerced by them (or by circumstance). In these cases, the team is sheltered by the local population. There is no canon at all which shows the team traveling for more than a day to reach their objective, with the possible exception of Maternal Instinct, where the timetable is unclear.
(ETA: bothgreen_grrl and campylobacter point out in the comments that the team has obviously been camping out at the beginning of Ark of Truth, to the point that Daniel and Vala are bickering about the lack of showers. So there is at least one point of canon support for the fanon, even if it's very, very late in the game.)
Some examples of the team being invited by the natives:
Stargate the Movie. Jack and Daniel and a few others are invited by Kasuf to feast and then spend the night while a sandstorm blows over.
Family. They are hosted by Frotak while they try to get Ry'ac back.
Revisions. The team is invited to supper and to sleep within the protective dome.
Some examples of coercion of varying degrees:
Fire and Water. Daniel is trapped underwater with Nem for several days.
The Tok'ra. The Tok'ra refuse to let them leave. It is unclear how long they are there before Jacob arrives to blend with Selmac.
Out of Mind. The team spends weeks off-world as Hathor's captives.
Demons. The team is chained overnight by the Canon as offerings for the Unas.
100 Days. This one fits in both categories: the meteor strikes leave Jack stranded, and Laira offers shelter.
Beneath the Surface. Mind-stamped, the team stays off-world for days, possibly longer.
Beast of Burden. Jack and Daniel are jailed overnight by Burok.
Frozen-Abyss. Jack blends with Kanaan and is captured by Ba'al.
Icon. Daniel is trapped off-world for weeks by civil war. Kane and Lida offer shelter.
There are many more examples like these, and I welcome additional references in the comments. Bottom line, however:
Conclusion: SG-1's missions only last for longer than a day when circumstances alter their original plans.
My personal fanon opinion? Daniel calling out for Jack falls into the "let's infantilize Daniel and make Jack his surrogate father," which will always have me backing away in a hurry. It's Sam who canonically wakes up dangerous: I adore the way she bit Jack's hand in The Serpent's Lair, and I'm convinced that the reason they gagged her in Road Not Taken is that she didn't hesitate to resort to biting when they got rough.
The nightmares is one of those fanon tropes that I don't like to condemn, because it makes so much sense. As I wrote above, these people have suffered enormous trauma; they wouldn't be human if they didn't suffer nightmares on occasion. But the constant, frequent nightmare fanon is out of proportion, and writers should be aware of its lack of canon backup before using it.
As for the team undertaking longer missions, whether or not they involve tents... I must admit that this one only makes me smile ruefully and carefully pretend it's not true, because it's so much fun to put the team out of support's reach sometimes. Yes, it's fanon. But yes, it's too good a plot device to ignore. So I'll continue to use it in my own stories, and I am sure that others will, too -- but do try and remember that it's fanon, and adjust its frequency accordingly!
"Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be the way that I feel about it. What do you think?"
To keep discussion to a single entry, I welcome your comments here.
Welcome to this rather belated installment of Canon vs. Fanon! Sit down, have a leisurely read, pull up a keyboard and get ready to discuss. :)
The purpose of these essays is to explore canon issues, contrast them with common fanon usage, and determine how far fanon strays from canon. Canon is defined as anything directly shown during Stargate: The Movie, episodes of the show, and the SG-1 movies; show supersedes the original movie when there's a contradiction. (Jack having brown eyes instead of blue ones, or his son being named "Charlie" instead of "Tyler.") Fanon is defined as widely-accepted concepts that appear in fanfic, but do not have any real basis in canon.
There are varying degrees of fanon, and these essays have touched on all types. Some fanon is completely unsupported by canon; some is actually contradicted by canon; and some is only a question of emphasis or degree. The point is not to condemn authors who use fanon, or even to suggest that there is something wrong with extrapolation of common plotlines. I am not a canon purist, even though I usually prefer it! The purpose is simply to reach an understanding of what is and isn't canon. Once the facts and conclusions are presented, you are welcome to argue them, agree them, or ignore them completely -- the choice is entirely up to you. :) I conclude each essay with my personal opinion, which is not canonical at all.
If you're new to the Canon vs. Fanon series, you can read older entries via the tags or the LJ Index. Please be aware that now that SG-1 is closed canon, I am no longer warning for spoilers.
This is the second edition of off-world fanon, and there will be at least once more -- there's just too much material! Last time, we discussed the dearth of primitive natives, prisons, fear of Teal'c, and Daniel's supposed defense of a Goa'uld's host. This time, we will be examining the team's sleeping patterns and the regular fanon tropes that relate to them.
Fanfic is often set off-world for the same reason the Stargate itself makes such an excellent stage prop: the possibilities are limited only by the writer's imagination. It's only reasonable for authors to create scenarios that advance the drama. So we have two-man tents and Jack waking up Black-Ops dangerous and Daniel (or others) routinely suffering nightmares and three-day-long (or more) missions and Daniel automatically calling for Jack when he awakens.
Some of these happened once or twice. Some never happened at all. And some are true, but only under very specific circumstances.
We'll start with the minor tropes first and work our way up the big canon contradiction in stages.
Daniel calls out for Jack whenever he awakens (and Jack is grieved when he stops doing this in later seasons).
It's a staple of hurt/comfort fics: Daniel awakens from fever/delirium/capture/illness and gasps out, "Jack!" Or "Ja'k," which (forgive me) I have never understood as being remotely different in pronounciation. Some more daring authors will have Daniel mumble, "J'ck." And, of course, the Jack of S4-5 or later will watch Daniel slowly awaken and silently mourn the lack of trust that has grown between them, proven by Daniel's failure to call for him in these circumstances.
This bit of fanon has one canon incident to serve as its springboard:
The Broca Divide. Daniel, captured by the Touched and turned into one of them, is shot and tranqued by Jack. After he collapses, Teal'c carries him into the palace where he is placed in the isolation circle. While they wait for him to regain consciousness, Sam and Jack explain about the antihistamines and the disease. Then we hear Daniel weakly call, "Jack!" Jack looks pleased and says, "There's our boy," and he and Sam go to the isolation circle, where Daniel is cautiously sitting up and Teal'c is handing him his glasses.
There is no other time that Daniel calls out exclusively for Jack upon awakening, and there are plenty of times we see him recover consciousness throughout the first three seasons! That gives this bit of fanon even less proof than Danny.
We do have one other incident in which Daniel calls out for all the members of the team:
Fire and Water. Daniel wakes up, sputtering, sprawled on the steps in Nem's underground home. He gets to his feet and looks around slowly before calling, "Jack? Sam? Teal'c? ...Anyone?"
This isn't so much an automatic response to awakening -- he gets to his feet first -- as much as an automatic response to discovering that he's somewhere strange and alone. And since he calls for all three of his friends, it hardly serves as canonical proof.
Conclusion: with only a single incident in which actually Daniel calls out for Jack upon awakening, this trope is more fanon than canon.
Jack is a light sleeper and is dangerous when first awakened unless approached cautiously.
Like the S4-5 "Daniel calling out for Jack" trope, this fanon is often more referenced than described: Sam or Daniel have already perfected the safest way to wake up Jack because of their hard-earned experience. The idea is that because of Jack's honed senses from his Black Ops days and the situations he encountered, a Jack that is startled awake can come close to half-killing a friend out of reflexive instinct.
So how often have we seen Jack awaken in canon?
Brief Candle. Jack wakes up confused, suffering a drug hangover and possibly the soporific effect of the nanites.
Solitudes. Jack groans his way to consciousness, complete with probable concussion, a broken leg, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
Tin Man. Robot!Jack wakes up slowly, like the others.
Message in a Bottle. Jack awakens slowly and dazedly when he is released. The others help him sit up.
Matter of Time. Jack awakens slowly in the final scene in the infirmary. He is probably drugged.
Out of Mind. Jack awakens from cyrofreeze with as much disorientation as everyone else.
The Devil You Know. Jack is confused when he awakens. He has been subject to the Blood of Sokar and is suffering from a staff blast wound to the leg.
Foothold. Jack jerks suddenly awake when the alien impersonating him is killed, but not any faster than Paul Davis.
Crystal Skull. Jack wakes up slowly and mumbles Sam and Daniel's name, asking if they're all right. He is suffering from exposure to radiation at the time.
Upgrades. Jack jerks awake after the armband comes off. Daniel seemed more disoriented than the others upon awakening, but Jack is not more alert than Sam.
Tangent. Jack awakens when X-301 is nudged by the tel'tak and is hilariously dazed. He is suffering from hypoxia at the time.
Abyss. Included for the sake of completion. Jack awakens slowly each time in the sarcophagus.
Prometheus. Jack awakens after First invades his mind. He is not particularly quick or alert.
Paradise Lost. After some weeks of increasingly paranoia, Jack wakes up with a jerk and discovers his P-90 gone. This is the closest we get to the usual fanon trope, and even with the aragula-induced paranoia, Jack still sleeps soundly enough for Maybourne to sneak into the hut and steal the weapon (and dig up the cache, too).
Fragile Balance. Jack wakes up slowly, confusedly. He might be suffering the after-effects of Loki's week-long study.
Revisions. Jack is awakened by a hazmatted Nevin leaning over him. He does not react strongly, but only drawls an amused, "Hello, Nevin."
Lifeboat. Awakens groaning about a nail in the head. He is suffering from whatever Pharrin used to knock them out.
The Lost City. Upon awakening after taking the Ancient download, it takes a few minutes before Jack can do more than stagger along with Daniel and Teal'c to support him.
New Order, part 2. Jack's consciousness interfacing with the ship seems to come to immediate alertness. When he fully awakens from cyrogenic sleep, he is sluggish both mentally and physically at first.
Lockdown. Jack awakens from his possession slowly and sits up with assistance.
Threads. Sam calls Jack in the middle of the night to warn him that there's "trouble in Jaffa Land." He awakens slowly and gradually, fumbing for the phone.
ETA:
suzannemarie adds Zero Hour, where Jack has to be shaken by Gilmor to wake him up after only ten minutes of sleep. And thothmes adds The Nox, where Jack is the only one who wakes up from being dead with a sudden jerk. It's possible to suggest that Sam and Daniel backed off and Daniel murmured, "Okay, it's okay," because they were afraid he'd come up swinging, but I think you would have to be actively looking for that interpretation.Of all the times we see Jack awakening, nearly all of them are after being drugged, wounded, or mind-zapped. We only see him wake up under relatively normal circumstances
Conclusion: there is no canon basis for the fanon that Jack wakes up immediately on guard (and possibly dangerous).
Daniel (or sometimes Jack, and rarely Sam) suffers periodically from nightmares.
It seems only reasonable that three human beings, experiencing the incredible trauma that Sam and Jack and Daniel have suffered, would have regular nightmares. The most common trope seems to be Daniel thrashing and calling in his sleep (often for Sha're), with Jack knowing just how to calm him down so he can resettle for the night. Other common fanon scenarios include the team used to Daniel awakening from a bad nightmare and remaining awake the rest of the night, or Jack suffering Black-Ops flashbacks in his nightmares. (This last often references Jack dreaming that he's back in Iraq, and Daniel responding in Arabic.)
Interestingly, any dream/nightmare we see in canon is induced, with only a few exceptions:
The Gamekeeper. Memories are relived in a dream-like state induced by the Gamekeeper, who should have dreamed himself a better hat.
The Tok'ra. Sam has a vision of the Tok'ra. Since she's hooked up to machinery in the infirmary, it's clear she's dreamed about Jolinar often enough that she and Janet thought it worth monitoring.
Legacy. Daniel specifically dreams about Machello when he's in a drug-induced stupor after his Goa'uld-killing slug went into Teal'c.
Forever in a Day. The entire episode is a vision sent to Daniel by Sha're. (There is more discussion on this here.)
The Devil You Know. The memories of Sam, Jack, and Daniel are warped and twisted by Apophis and the Blood of Sokar.
Crossroads. Included for the sake of completion. Deep in kel no reem, Teal'c experiences nightmares of past experiences that Junior gives him out of sheer spite.
Beneath the Surface. Carlin dreams confusedly about his suppressed memories of his life on SG-1. Thera says she's had similar dreams, too.
Absolute Power. Daniel's dream is actually a vision sent by Shifu, because "dreams teach."
Meridian. Daniel's conversation with Oma takes place somewhere between dream and reality.
Shadowplay. Kieran's hallucinations/dreams are caused by radiation sickness.
Unnatural Selection and New Order. First and Fifth induce dreams/hallucinations for Jack, Jonas, Teal'c, and Sam.
Changeling. Teal'c dreams that he's dreaming in a near-death hallucination.
Fragile Balance. Both Jack and mini!Jack remember their abduction by Loki as a strange dream.
Orpheus. Daniel experiences auditory flashbacks to his time when he was Ascended. He uses kel no reem to recover a fuller memory.
Grace. Sam, badly concussed, hallucinates her father and each of her fellow team members in turn.
Chimera. Daniel dreams confusedly about the days when he worked (and played) with Sarah Gardener, induced by Osiris in an attempt to get him to translate the tablet about the Lost City.
Resurrection. Anna dreams flashes of her Goa'uld-inherited memory when the Goa'uld aspect comes to the surface in her sleep.
Lockdown. Vaselov dreams flashes of what he did while possessed with Anubis. Daniel experiences a flashback of where Anubis went.
Reckoning. Replicarter impersonates Oma and induces Daniel to dream in order to uncover knowledge of Dakara.
Collateral Damage. Mitchell's memory/dreams is falsely implanted by the machine.
The Quest. Adria sends Vala information in her dreams to manipulate SG-1 into finding the Sangraal for her.
Dominion. Included for the sake of completion. Vala has false memories deliberately implanted in her mind so that Adria will truly believe that Vala has left the SGC. These include memories of Adria-sent dreams and what is apparently a reference to Dancing With the Stars, which Vala calls a nightmare. Since this didn't actually happen, it doesn't count.
The Ark of Truth. Morgan le Fay sends Daniel repeated dreams/visions in which she pretends to be Merlin to help him find the Ark.
As you can see, this extensive list includes many dreams and visions, but they are all the result of external factors. So what are the exceptions?
Singularity. Cassie dreams about her mother. It's not a nightmare, although awakening probably is.
The Enemy Within. Included for the sake of completion. Daniel admits to Sam that he's avoiding sleep because whenever he closes his eyes, his mind races and he can't stop thinking about Sha're. There's a strong implication that he's afraid of nightmares, but since his attempt at sleep is interrupted by a corpse, we never find out.
Beneath the Surface. Unlike the dreams that are suppressed memories, "Jona" dreams about mining naked, or at least claims that he does.
The Other Guys/Avenger 2.0. Felger has really annoying daydreams that are mostly about Sam.
Fallen. An amnesiac Daniel dreams about Sha're and wakes up remembering her name.
In the entire canon, Jona's dreams of "mining naked" are the closest thing that comes to a genuine nightmare, and that's from a Jack who doesn't remember his past and might very well be making it up in his discomfort with the subject of dreams. There is certainly nothing to support the idea that the team suffers from nightmares on a regular basis!
Please note that most, if not all, of the dreams/visions cited above take place on-world, not off it. We'll into that in greater detail later, but for now...
Conclusion: There is no canonical basis for the fanon that Daniel (or other team members) often has nightmares, and that the team is used to this and knows how to deal with it.
The team sleeps in two-man tents when they're off-world.
I believe this fanon is much more common in ship fics, where the sleeping arrangments are naturally of greater interest than in gen stories. However, writers who use the two-man tents might be surprised to realize that in the entire canon, there are only five times when we see tents in use on the show. Only three of those involve members of SG-1... and those three all take place before the first half of the first season is over!
Stargate the Movie. The team sets up several large tents just outside the pyramid. Half the team uses it that first night while the other half is in Nagada.
COTG. Kawalsky and the rest of SG-2 set up tents for sleeping while they're waiting near the Gate as backup for SG-1.
The First Commandment. This is the one and only time we see the two-man tents in use. Amusingly, the night scene shows the team sleeping around the fire instead of in the tents. :) And there's a note about this in the next section, too.
There are some native tents, which aren't quite the same: Emancipation and Fallen, for example. (ETA:
sg_wonderland also cites Birthright.) But that's not the fanon discussed here, which is the idea of the team setting up tents for camping overnight when they'rae off-world. There's also the heat-resistant tents sent to Sam and Teal'c and Rothman in The Fifth Race, but that was specifically for daytime use.The only other canonical usages of tents are in Fallen, at the base camp where Hammond (and Walter) awaiting Anubis' arrival at the planet, and SG-13 in Enemy Mine, where they have been for three months. We'll get to that in a moment, but in the meantime...
Conclusion: The team almost never uses tents on overnight missions.
Now to take a look at the final bit of fanon for this section, which explains why we don't usually see off-world nightmares or deal with sleeping arrangements in tents:
The team often goes on missions that last for several days.
SG-1 deals with first contact and exploration, not long-term missions. Remember that even the UAV only has a twenty-mile range. There are plenty of canon incidents in which teams other than SG-1 have missions that last weeks or even months -- The First Commandment, The First Ones, Double Jeopardy, Enemy Mine, -- but none for SG-1. The team rarely ventures off-world futher than a day's trek from the Stargate. In the case of The First Commandment, SG-1 camped outdoors because they were following up Hansen and his long-term mission (that had failed spectacularly).
The only times we really see SG-1 staying overnight off-world is when they are invited by the natives or coerced by them (or by circumstance). In these cases, the team is sheltered by the local population. There is no canon at all which shows the team traveling for more than a day to reach their objective, with the possible exception of Maternal Instinct, where the timetable is unclear.
(ETA: both
green_grrl and campylobacter point out in the comments that the team has obviously been camping out at the beginning of Ark of Truth, to the point that Daniel and Vala are bickering about the lack of showers. So there is at least one point of canon support for the fanon, even if it's very, very late in the game.)Some examples of the team being invited by the natives:
Stargate the Movie. Jack and Daniel and a few others are invited by Kasuf to feast and then spend the night while a sandstorm blows over.
Family. They are hosted by Frotak while they try to get Ry'ac back.
Revisions. The team is invited to supper and to sleep within the protective dome.
Some examples of coercion of varying degrees:
Fire and Water. Daniel is trapped underwater with Nem for several days.
The Tok'ra. The Tok'ra refuse to let them leave. It is unclear how long they are there before Jacob arrives to blend with Selmac.
Out of Mind. The team spends weeks off-world as Hathor's captives.
Demons. The team is chained overnight by the Canon as offerings for the Unas.
100 Days. This one fits in both categories: the meteor strikes leave Jack stranded, and Laira offers shelter.
Beneath the Surface. Mind-stamped, the team stays off-world for days, possibly longer.
Beast of Burden. Jack and Daniel are jailed overnight by Burok.
Frozen-Abyss. Jack blends with Kanaan and is captured by Ba'al.
Icon. Daniel is trapped off-world for weeks by civil war. Kane and Lida offer shelter.
There are many more examples like these, and I welcome additional references in the comments. Bottom line, however:
Conclusion: SG-1's missions only last for longer than a day when circumstances alter their original plans.
My personal fanon opinion? Daniel calling out for Jack falls into the "let's infantilize Daniel and make Jack his surrogate father," which will always have me backing away in a hurry. It's Sam who canonically wakes up dangerous: I adore the way she bit Jack's hand in The Serpent's Lair, and I'm convinced that the reason they gagged her in Road Not Taken is that she didn't hesitate to resort to biting when they got rough.
The nightmares is one of those fanon tropes that I don't like to condemn, because it makes so much sense. As I wrote above, these people have suffered enormous trauma; they wouldn't be human if they didn't suffer nightmares on occasion. But the constant, frequent nightmare fanon is out of proportion, and writers should be aware of its lack of canon backup before using it.
As for the team undertaking longer missions, whether or not they involve tents... I must admit that this one only makes me smile ruefully and carefully pretend it's not true, because it's so much fun to put the team out of support's reach sometimes. Yes, it's fanon. But yes, it's too good a plot device to ignore. So I'll continue to use it in my own stories, and I am sure that others will, too -- but do try and remember that it's fanon, and adjust its frequency accordingly!
"Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be the way that I feel about it. What do you think?"
To keep discussion to a single entry, I welcome your comments here.
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