aaron pearl who portrayed major kearney in the episode, previously played the younger version of george hammond in the season two episode "1969". "lockdown" was the first shot episode for season eight, but became the third to air so that they could continue the cliffhanger after previous season episode, "lost city". writer joseph mallozzi wanted to have an episode centered around the jack o'neill new job in stargate command, to "test him early" on "as the new [...] commander."