Jacob Carter

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Stargate character
Jacob Carter as Selmak
Jacob Carter
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Rank	Jacob: USAF Major General, Retired Selmak: Tok'ra High Councillor
Birthplace	US, Earth
Relatives	Samantha Carter (daughter), Mark Carter (son), unnamed granddaughter
Portrayer	Carmen Argenziano
First episode	"Secrets"
Key episodes	Threads

Jacob Carter was a fictional character on Stargate SG-1, portrayed by Carmen Argenziano from 1998 to 2005.

General Carter (Ret.) was a USAF general and the widowed father of Samantha Carter and also of a son named Mark.

Jacob Carter is a frequently recurring character who is Samantha Carter's father and the Tok'ra liaison to Earth. Jacob's relationship with his children was rocky. His wife was killed in a car accident when Sam and Mark were younger, after Jacob was late in picking her up. Mark particularly resented his father, blaming him for his mother's death (a sentiment Jacob also shared) and it would be years before they talked again. Carter was a close friend of General George Hammond and managed to pull strings to have Samantha Carter transferred to NASA, hoping to give Samantha her dream of going to space. (Logically, he did not know of the existence of either the SGC or the Stargate itself.) Samantha had rejected the offer, but was unable to tell him the real reasons behind that decision. When she stated this, Jacob revealed that he was dying of cancer, though it would be months before he would succumb to the illness.

However, this event would have a chance of reversal. Later on, SG-1 became aware of the existence of the Tok'ra. With the memories of Jolinar, Samantha managed to remember where the Tok'ra gated to.

Upon their first meeting, the members of SG-1 were asked if they would be willing to become a host to Selmak, whose host was dying. Samantha suggested that her father could fill this role, thus saving his life and Selmak's, and creating a fragile alliance between the Tau'ri and Tok'ra in the process.

Jacob/Selmak is a member of the Tok'ra High Council. He engages in Tok'ra covert operations and also provides help to Stargate Command when problems arise.

For instance:

• He aided the SGC in fighting the phase-shifted Re'tu, who aimed to eradicate Earth's population in an attempt to destroy the Goa'uld's ability to take hosts.
• Jacob Carter aided in the attempted capture and death of the System Lord Seth, who ran a cult in the United States. ("Seth")
• After discovering the Ancient device that was the basis for the Goa'uld regeneration technology, such as the sarcophagus, he and his daughter devised the Kull Disruptor. The Kull Disruptor became invaluable in fighting the army of Kull Warriors that Anubis had created to superscede the Jaffa. ("Death Knell")
• He played a key role in retuning the Dakara Superweapon to the right pattern to attack the Replicators ("Reckoning"). He did this in the full knowledge that Selmak could die without being able to save his own, effectively sacrificing his own life for the galaxy.

He has been on off-world missions with SG-1, and frequently provided valuable knowledge and expertise, including the ability to use a Goa'uld healing device. As the Earth-Tok'ra relations have deteriorated, Jacob/Selmak remained the strongest link between the allies, although Jacob/Selmak were not as influential in the Tok'ra High Council as they had been previously. It was believed by the more cautious elements of the Tok'ra that blending Tau'ri to Tok'ra symbiotes introduced a factor of recklessness, as the Tau'ri lived more freely than other Humans in the galaxy.

Jacob died soon after Selmak passed. ("Threads")

[edit] Notes

In an interview, when asked who he could see as a good match for Samantha Carter, Carmen Argenziano stated that he favoured a Daniel Jackson/Samantha Carter pairing in the series, his exact words were "I like Daniel Jackson. I felt that Daniel would have been the right choice because Daniel is well educated, is intelligent, gentlemanly and he was everything that I envisioned that my daughter would end up with."

Recurring characters on Stargate SG-1		Edit
Tau'ri	Malcolm Barrett | Jacob Carter | Chekov | Adrian Conrad | Major Davis | Paul Emerson | Louis Ferretti | Janet Fraiser Walter Harriman | Charles Kawalsky | Robert Kinsey | Carolyn Lam | Catherine Langford | Bill Lee | Harry Maybourne Rodney McKay | Lionel Pendergast | Robert Rothman | Frank Simmons | Pete Shanahan | Siler | Richard Woolsey
Other Humans	Cassandra | Kasuf | Linea | Ma'chello | Martin Lloyd | Sha're | Shifu | Skaara
Goa'uld	Amonet | Anubis | Apophis | Ba'al | Cronus | Hathor | Heru-ur Nerus | Nirrti | Osiris | Ra | Sokar | Tanith | Yu | Zipacna
Jaffa	Bra'tac | Gerak | Ishta | Rya'c
Other	Adria | Chaka | Fifth | Harlan | Merlin | Oma Desala | Reese | Replicator Carter | Thor
Lists by race	All | Tau'ri | Ancient, Aschen, Asgard, Goa'uld, Jaffa, Langaran, Lucian Alliance Ori, Replicator, Tok'ra, Tollan, System Lord