Bert Samuels
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Colonel Bert Samuels is the officer in command of Area 51.
History
Before the formation of Stargate Command, Major Bert Samuels was the executive officer to General George Hammond at Cheyenne Mountain. After the facility was breached by Apophis, Samuels was tasked with retrieving the retired Jack O'Neill for additional debriefing. (SG1: "Children of the Gods")
Once the Stargate Program became fully operational, Samuels was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and reassigned to The Pentagon, where he was tasked with analysing the missions conducted by SG teams. Part of this responsibility involved interacting with members of the United States Senate, including Senator Robert Kinsey. During Kinsey's attempts to have the Stargate Program shut down in 1998, Samuels provided testemony to reinforce the Senator's case. (SG1: "Politics")
In addition to analysis, Samuels was privy to a number of other Stargate-adjacent programs and projects at the Pentagon. He was familiar with the "Goa'uld-buster" enhanced warheads that were deployed against the two Ha'tak vessels deployed to Earth by Apophis. When they proved unsuccessful in destroying the spacecraft, Samuels attempted to have himself sent to the Alpha Site in order to escape the attack, but was ordered to remain at his post. This cemented his reputation with much of Stargate Command: arrogant, opportunistic, and ultimately cowardly. When the attack was thwarted, he returned to the Pentagon, though was eventually replaced in his role as liaison to Stargate Command by Major Paul Davis. (SG1: "The Serpent's Lair")
Taking the failure of the Goa'uld-buster somewhat personally, alternative methods for Earth defense became almost an obsession for Samuels. From the Pentagon, Samuels was involved in the plan to rebuild the Death Gliders obtained by SG-1 into the X-301 hybrid interceptor; and following its failure, the development of the X-302 and X-303 as well. While each failed prototype diminished Samuels' ego, his reputation within the Air Force bureaucracy grew, particularly after the problematic Naquadria hyperdrive was abandoned and the F-302 was streamlined as a strictly air-and-space fighter.
After a string of Rogue NID abuses of Area 51 technology reached its apex with a xenotech-enhanced assassination attempt against Senator (and subsequently Presidential candidate) Robert Kinsey, the recently-promoted General Maurice Vidrine decided that Area 51 could no longer be left under the purview of the NID, and took steps to have it absorbed into Air Force Space Command instead. Bert Samuels quickly emerged as the compromise option for Area 51's new commander: popular enough with the bureaucracy and unpopular enough with Stargate Command to appease the NID's political allies, and very much "the devil you know" for Stargate Command. (SG1: "Tangent", "Redemption", "Memento", "Smoke and Mirrors")
The security measures implemented under Colonel Samuels' leadership proved at least partially effective in deterring The Trust, though the organisation did still manage to obtain offworld technologies via other avenues. (SG1: "Endgame")
By the time of the Ori Crusade, Samuels had managed to earn some degree of grudging respect - or at least tolerance - from General Jack O'Neill, and seemed to have mellowed into someone who allowed his results rather than his ego to speak for him. He was one of several officers in regular attendance at Homeworld Security briefings. (SGR: "The Arrow")
In an alternate timeline created by SG-1's use of the Time Jumper to retrieve a ZPM from the past, Bert Samuels was still a Major and still the executive officer to General Hammond at Cheyenne Mountain when footage of the original SG-1 was discovered sealed in a canopic jar at a dig site in Giza. (SG1: "Moebius, Part 1")
Behind the Scenes
Bert Samuels was portrayed by Robert Wisden in 5 episodes of Stargate SG-1. He played Richard Nixon in Zach Snyder's Watchmen, and also appeared in Smallville.
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