GDO (Stargate)
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- For other meanings, see GDO.
The GDO ("garage door opener") is a fictional piece of technology in the science fiction television show Stargate SG-1.
The GDO is a small device carried by SG teams to verify their identity to Stargate Command, enabling them to open the Iris. This protects Stargate Command from invasion through the Stargate itself. Without a GDO, the identification of an incoming traveller from friend or foe is not possible. If a team loses its GDO they cannot gate back to Earth without alternate means to contact SGC, usually by traveling to friendly world, recognised by the SGC, whose Stargate does not contain an iris, and communicate via their established protocols.
Each team has a unique IDC (ex.: O'Neill's code was at one time 903 224 637) meaning SGC can easily identify who is contacting them. SGC also gave several of their allies (mainly the Tok'ra) a GDO with a unique identification code.
The fact that the Earth Stargate features an iris is well known among the Goa'uld System Lords. They also know that the SG teams need a code to deactivate it and so many System Lords have tried to obtain the code from captured SG teams (one example is Lord Mot, who captured SG-1 and SG-15 in the episode Prophecy).
Stargate Atlantis features a different kind of GDO which is smaller and handier.
