dvd talk called "zero hour" "a playful episode" with a "funny sub-plot involving an alien plant", but recognized the episode's contribution to the overall story arc. tv zone considered the plant threat "a nice change" but regretted that it was only a red herring for a later plot revelation. bringing the plants to the sgc at all was regarded irritating, as the "obvious move [to build a secure lab on an uninhabited planet] doesn't make for such good drama." o'neill acting as the new leader made "the goa'uld threat [...] a laugh" and "an amazing change from the events from the series' early days" where o'neill took this race more seriously. the actual zero hour plot concerning the "harassed" o'neill was considered "a nice touch". conan o'brien, who had shown a clip of pierre bernard's scene in his late night show before the first airing, congratulated bernard for doing a good job, and bernard would be invited back to the "stargate sg-1" set for a scene in the 200th episode of the show.