Natalia Tolinev
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Senior Lieutenant Natalia Tolinev is a member of the Russian Airborne Forces, and of SG-13.
History
Lieutenant Tolinev first encountered the Stargate Program as a member of a VVS unit led by Colonel Alexi Zukhov to find an errant team of operatives from the Russian Stargate Program who were believed to be stranded on P2X-338 when the Russians lost control of their Stargate. Escorted by SG-1, the team also had orders to locate the Eye of Tiamat, which had been tracked to the planet by Doctor Alexander Britski. The team was found dead within a ziggurat on the planet, killed by a creature unleashed from the sarcophagus of the Goa'uld Marduk, who systematically killed off the other Russian operatives and left Tolinev the sole survivor, alongside SG-1. (SG1: "The Tomb")
Tolinev was put under significant pressure to hold SG-1 accountable for the loss of the Russian team, perhaps as potential leverage in future negotiations with Stargate Command, but to her credit Tolinev remained resolute in her defense of SG-1 and its actions. This rendered her persona non grata with many of her superiors, though Captain Daria Voronkova took sympathy on her, and made arrangements for her to be assigned to a clerical position in Moscow rather than shipped off to anywhere unpleasant. She still continued to work with Stargate Command in a limited capacity; following the Battle of Antarctica she helped to coordinate manoeuvres to redirect the International Space Station away from debris left behind by Anubis' Mothership. (SG1: "Lockdown")
Over the course of his tenure as leader of Stargate Command, General Jack O'Neill found himself under ever-increasing pressure to permit a Russian to join SG-1. He had avoided this years earlier by selecting Jonas Quinn to replace Daniel Jackson during his Ascension and by proposing the Russians receive their own team (SG-4), and the death of Alexi Vaselov had delayed things further, but with tensions boiling over during The Trust's subversion of General Miraslov Kiselev and the nuclear incident it almost caused, even O'Neill was forced to concede that relations with the Russians needed to be smoothed over. Via Daniel Jackson, Captain Voronkova contacted General O'Neill with a potential compromise: Lieutenant Tolinev, someone with whom O'Neill was familiar, and who would not be an entirely satisfactory choice for the Russians either. Rather than join SG-1, however, O'Neill agreed to assign Lieutenant Tolinev to SG-13 instead. (SG1: "Redemption", "Lockdown", "Full Alert")
Tolinev remained with SG-13 during the Ori Crusade. Her promotion to Senior Lieutenant was one of Daria Voronkova's first acts after she succeeded Colonel Chekov as military liaison to Stargate Command. She was present for the evacuation of P3X-367, helping evacuate refugees to the Beta Site in advance of the Ori's arrival. (SGR: "The Arrow")
Behind the Scenes
Lieutenant Tolinev was portrayed by Jennifer Halley in 1 episode of Stargate SG-1. She is familiar as Diana Seelix on Battlestar Galactica, appearing with SG-13 teammate Elizabeth Satterfield's actor, Grace Park.
A separate character named Natalia appears in "Lockdown", played by Natalia Vasiluk. This is not intended to be Tolinev, but the actors are not too dissimilar in appearance, and it adds a nice layer to Tolinev's character to see her continued association with the Stargate Program, as well as providing her with a first name.
The Stargate Wiki describes Tolinev as being a member of the Russian Air Force, although there is nothing to suggest this in the episode, and most Russian officers in Stargate (such as Chekov and Daria Voronkova) are seen wearing Russian Army uniforms. She is described here as being part of the Russian Airborne Forces — Russian paratroopers — as a mirror to Colonel O'Neill's own service record, implying that they might have had things in common that helped lead to her eventually being accepted into the SGC.
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