Character from the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1.
Played by actor Don S. Davis, General Hammond is the leader of Stargate Command (SGC) and commander of all SG units. The first episode of SG-1, Children of the Gods, began with Hammond preparing to retire. He was scheduled to leave and the Stargate program was to be shut down, but the Goa'uld had other plans.
Without warning, the Stargate opened for the first time in years and several Goa'uld serpent guards entered the SGC. After a lengthy battle, the invaders kidnapped a female guard and retreated back through the Stargate. To respond to this new threat, Hammond postponed his retirement indefinitely and went about recalling Colonel Jack O'Neill (played by Richard Dean Anderson), who had been part of the original Stargate mission to Abydos (from the Stargate movie).
In an interview with the web radio program Interstellar Transmissions (www.interstellartransmissions.com), actor Don Davis described his character thusly:
I play the role of General George Hammond, who is the commander of the Stargate Command. I’m the guy that stays at home safely in my little tufted leather chair and tells these four people to go out through the Stargate and save the universe… I’ve got the best job on TV. I get to work on every episode, but just a few days, and then spend the rest of my time painting and carving.
Davis' character has discussed retiring from time to time, but General Hammond has nevertheless managed to stay on for every season SG-1 has been on the air. He is not a primary character, but he appears in almost every episode.
Hammond has only gone off-world himself twice, first in Prisoners (episode 203), where he joined the SG diplomatic corps to request the return of O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, and Teal'c, who had been falsely imprisoned. The second time was in Into the Fire (episode 301), when he traveled to Chulak on a mission to retrieve Teal'c, Bra'tac, and other reinforcements for an attack on the stronghold of Goa'uld queen Hathor.