Are non-SGC gates meant to spin?

[TheVoidDragon]

It doesn't have to be stated explicitly to be canon. We only see the Milky-Way gate spin if they're dialing it manually, and it has been stated that in order to dial it manually you need to spin the inner track. If there's a DHD, you don't need to spin it, and we never see the gate spin with a DHD. The dialing computer merely automates the manual dialing by accessing the gate's many protocols, something that has been stated by both Carter and McKay (in "48 Hours").

Pegasus gates don't spin. The inner track is completely fixed. The "holographic" symbols spin over the inner track simply to highlight the dialing sequence. Nothing else has been stated about that, other than that it's impossible to manually dial them.

Destiny-style gates spin, but not because they are being dialed manually. There is no DHD and those gates predate the Milky-Way gates. Only the Milky-Way gates need to spin if you dial them manually, that is what is stated. Pegasus gates cannot be dialed manually, and it's never stated whether Destiny-style gates can.

That is what's canon. Other than that, many things are implied simply by what is shown on-screen. Maybe it's not canon, but it is logical.

On the whole, the spinning glyphs on Pegasus gates and the spinning Destiny-style gates are just a stylistic choice made by the production designers, based on the spinning of Earth's gate. The spinning of Earth's gate was left over from the 1994 movie where the concept of a DHD didn't exist yet. That was changed when SG-1 introduced the DHD.

I think you're confusing things here, especially with what spinning does and what a DHD is. Spinning is not the same as manually dialing, manual dialing just involves making it spin. Manual dialing is just rotating the inner ring by hand rather than the gate doing so itself via a dialing sequence - it's just non-automated dialing, spinning doesn't mean it's being manually dialed. A DHD is simply a system that inputs the constellation sequence into the gate - the Atlantis and Destiny gates don't have a "DHD" as in that big curved device the sites infront of gates, but they do have a dialing device to input the same sort of way. They do the same thing as a DHD does.

The "If there's a DHD it doesn't need to spin" is never stated. The milky way gates aren't shown spinning for budget, pacing, plot and technical/prop reasons - but they are heard spinning on many, many occasions and it's implied that they do spin on dialing a few times.

With the Pegasus gate, the inner track doesn't spin, no - but that digital dialing through symbols is the same functionally as what spinning does on the Milky Way gates. It's the Pegasus gate's version of spinning - revolving to each constellation symbol and locking them one by one.

Pegasus gates cannot be dialed manually because it's gone from physical dialing to digital. The Destiny gate isn't stated either way, but i expect manual dialing would involve spinning the entire gate. The ability to manually dial isn't directly relevant to whether there's spinning through glyphs upon dialing, however.

[NickEast]

Yes, the reason the second gate couldn't spin was for practical reasons (not necessarily budget, it would've just made it even more difficult to set it up, as it already took the better part of a day to assemble the prop, hence why they started using CG gates at some point). But the lack of a mechanism still doesn't mean it was supposed to spin even if it couldn't. Every off-world gate also had the same Giza symbol because they used the same prop, despite the fact that in canon each gate has a unique point of origin in place of the Giza symbol (except the few planets that used one of the constellations as point of origin). This was never stated or shown on the show, but explained behind the scenes, which is still canonical. Even the Antarctic gate had the Giza symbol, despite the DHD showing the Terra symbol, as well as the Abydos gate and DHD using the Giza symbol.

To avoid going further astray, let me directly answer your original question plain and simple: Yes, every Milky-Way gate (considering you asked in the context of the SGC gate) can spin. The reason that they can spin is so that in the event there is no functional DHD (like on Earth) it can be dialed "manually" by spinning the inner track to lock the desired sequence, as long as you provide sufficient power. Though it is never stated that the inner track cannot be spun when a DHD is connected, we never see the ring spinning when a DHD is used. While in the real world this is caused by the secondary prop not being able to spin, on-screen evidence then states it also doesn't in canon. While you hear the sound FX a few times, especially with incoming wormholes, that doesn't mean it should spin (and such scenes are in the minority compared to those where you don't hear the spinning sound). It has never been stated by the writers behind the scenes and it is never implied directly. I understand it might give the impression, but don't forget that there were many such "continuity issues" throughout all three shows (referring back to the Atlantis "First Strike" outgoing/incoming dialing sequence mismatch).

[Chaka-Z0]

To summarize...

No DHD connected: ''hard'' spinning required, manual or dialing computer
DHD connected: Power flows through the gate, allows for automated spinning, visually represented or not.

Atlantis gate spins ''digitally''
SGU gate spins as a whole

[Elite Anubis Guard]

Yes, the reason the second gate couldn't spin was for practical reasons (not necessarily budget, it would've just made it even more difficult to set it up, as it already took the better part of a day to assemble the prop, hence why they started using CG gates at some point). But the lack of a mechanism still doesn't mean it was supposed to spin even if it couldn't. Every off-world gate also had the same Giza symbol because they used the same prop, despite the fact that in canon each gate has a unique point of origin in place of the Giza symbol (except the few planets that used one of the constellations as point of origin). This was never stated or shown on the show, but explained behind the scenes, which is still canonical. Even the Antarctic gate had the Giza symbol, despite the DHD showing the Terra symbol, as well as the Abydos gate and DHD using the Giza symbol.

To avoid going further astray, let me directly answer your original question plain and simple: Yes, every Milky-Way gate (considering you asked in the context of the SGC gate) can spin. The reason that they can spin is so that in the event there is no functional DHD (like on Earth) it can be dialed "manually" by spinning the inner track to lock the desired sequence, as long as you provide sufficient power. Though it is never stated that the inner track cannot be spun when a DHD is connected, we never see the ring spinning when a DHD is used. While in the real world this is caused by the secondary prop not being able to spin, on-screen evidence then states it also doesn't in canon. While you hear the sound FX a few times, especially with incoming wormholes, that doesn't mean it should spin (and such scenes are in the minority compared to those where you don't hear the spinning sound). It has never been stated by the writers behind the scenes and it is never implied directly. I understand it might give the impression, but don't forget that there were many such "continuity issues" throughout all three shows (referring back to the Atlantis "First Strike" outgoing/incoming dialing sequence mismatch).

Along with the backward VFX gates, the lack of consistency with the PoOs is one of my biggest pet peeves as a fan. I know the real-world issues with why they can't have a unique symbol for every single episode but I'd rather they just not bother putting the A symbol on the static Gate at all.

In regards to the spinning thing - I remember Carter mentioning at some point that as long as the Gate has sufficient power stored in its capacitors, it'll allow the inner ring to spin freely to allow for manual dial. Our Gate is always manually dialled, it's just there's some mechanisms that do it for us.