Okay, in the movie, the gate went to one destination, which is what Daniel Jackson was hired for. You might want to catch the movie, simply because it's a pretty good movie. I believe it's free to watch officially on youtube, unless they've pulled it.
Anyway, Daniel deciphered the gate dialing address for Abydos. They went through, movie movie movie, He decided to stay on Abydos with his new wife.
Jack lied to command and said Daniel died on the mission. I believe General Hammond gives him a verbal reprimand for this. If Jack wasn't still the best man from the job, he probably would have been demoted for doing that. Actually, I think he's retired at this point, and the General reactivates his commission.
Apophis drunk dialed earth, and took the Blonde Airman (Airwoman? Airperson?) to the harem so that his wife-snake could pick a new meat suit. He doesn't know he was dialing Earth, because Earth was in his bosses domain. (His boss is the movie Antagonist) At this point, no one gives a poo about earth, the stargate had been buried for about 10,000 years, until some dumbass dug it up in 1928.
Apophis then went to Abydos for more meat suits. Daniel's wife was selected, as was her brother? Cousin? Skaara. Apparently Apophis Son Klorel was also in the market for a meat suit.
Bad news is, Skaara made friends with O'neill in the movie. I believe he has Jack's dog tags.
SO, Stargate project terminated after the Abydos mission, Apophis drunk dialing earth turns it into a new command, as "a threat is out there" tm
So you are partially correct that originally the stargate only had one destination. During the 2 episodes, or 1 movie you are watching, it is revealed that Daniel found an old alien shed.
Just kidding, it's a giant gold plated... shed.
Anyway, the walls of the shed are Hieroglyphed up - HOLY poo THAT IS AN ACTUAL WORD, anyway, it's marked up with Gate Addresses, all presumably under Ra's domain. I have this weird feeling there were 300 addresses? That's probably wrong.
Movie movie movie, now the Stargate command has an excuse for funding. And a TV series.
Apparently the president wanted 9 teams, I don't remember when they went up to 20, but I remember SG-10 and SG-11, so apparently that number isn't set in stone.
Apparently Richard Dean Anderson purposely flubbed any Treknobabble they wrote for him, so him dismissing things became a part of the character. He does have an appreciation for some things, such as Hockey, and The Simpsons. He is most distressed when they are captured, as his VCR can only tape so many episodes unattended.
As to the cultural influences, even Daniel would tell you that the Goauld are parasites. So imagine all these cultures as either divergent, or through the lens of a shitty street gang aping stuff. You might actually be on episode five, Children of the gods (the pilot movie) was considered to be the first two episodes.
You didn't tell me what you thought of Mongol bottom planet!