Stargate Atlantis

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Stargate Atlantis
File:Stargate Atlantis Cast Season03.jpg
Cast members as of Season 3. From left to right: Ronon, Dr. Beckett, Teyla, Lt. Col. Sheppard, Dr. McKay, and Dr. Weir.
Created byBrad Wright
Robert C. Cooper
StarringJoe Flanigan
Torri Higginson
Paul McGillion
David Hewlett
Rachel Luttrell
Jason Momoa
Country of originUnited States
Canada
No. of episodes44 (to date)
Production
Running timeapprox. 42 minutes per episode
Original release
NetworkSci Fi Channel
ReleaseJuly 16, 2004 –
present

Stargate Atlantis is a spin-off from the television series Stargate SG-1, which in turn was based on the film Stargate (1994). Produced by MGM, Stargate Atlantis premiered on the US Sci Fi Channel on July 16, 2004 with "Rising", a movie-style two-part episode, which guest starred Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks from Stargate SG-1.

Developed by longtime SG-1 producers Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, Stargate Atlantis originally starred Joe Flanigan, Torri Higginson, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell and Rainbow Sun Francks. Francks became a recurring guest in season 2, replaced in the main cast by Jason Momoa. Paul McGillion, himself a recurring character in season 1, joined the regular cast in season 2. The series also features a recurring cast that includes David Nykl, Mitch Pileggi, Kavan Smith and Robert Davi.

Show summary

The events of Stargate Atlantis follow the cliffhanger Stargate SG-1 seventh season finale "Lost City", where the SG-1 found an outpost made by the race known as the Ancients in Antarctica. After the events of Stargate SG-1 season / premiere "New Order", the Stargate Command sends an international team to investigate the outpost. Soon, Dr. Jackson discovers the location of the greatest city created by the Ancients, Atlantis.

The series follows the adventures of a group of scientists and soldiers that take this possibly one-way trip to this lost city of Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy. Like the SG teams of Stargate SG-1, the new team's use of the Stargate has brought humanity into contact with other cultures, some human and some alien, some friendly and some quite hostile, including their new and most powerful enemy: the Wraith.

Plot summary

Main article: Timeline of Stargate

Template:Spoiler

Season 1

File:Stargate Atlantis Season 1 title.jpg
Season 1 title credits

The Atlantis expedition, led by Dr. Weir, arrives to the city of the Ancients and quickly make new friends, the Athosians and a powerful new enemy: the Wraith. Cut off from Earth, the expedition must survive in a new galaxy, while deciphering the Ancient's technology and finding a way to destroy the Wraith. Major Sheppard puts together a team consisting of himself, Dr. McKay, Lt. Ford and the Athosian leader Teyla, who serves as Atlantis first contact team. In one of their first missions, they make another enemy in the Genii, an human militaristic civilization with a 1950s level of technology.

The season closes with a cliffhanger, with Atlantis under siege by the Wraith.

Season 2

The Atlanteans have sucessfully avoided being culled by the Wraith by making them believe Atlantis has been destroyed, and have recovered semi-regular contact with Earth thanks to the Daedalus and the new ZPM. Sheppard is promoted to Lt. Colonel and Ronon Dex replaces Lt. Ford, now MIA.

The central plot of this second season is the development of Dr. Beckett's retrovirus, which can, theoritically, turn a Wraith into a human. While a not yet ready version makes a young Wraith girl lose all her humanity and almost turns Col. Sheppard into an Iratus bug, a more developed version is tested in a living Wraith, Michael, with mixed results.

Again the season closes with a cliffhanger, with the Wraith on their way to Earth.

Season 3

Having stopped the Wraith from reaching Earth and having achieved another failure with the Wraith retrovirus, the expedition faces its third year in the Pegasus galaxy, with the Wraith still a threat and a new powerful enemy looming in the horizon: the Asurans.

Template:Endspoiler

Episodes

Main article: List of Stargate Atlantis episodes

Stargate Atlantis season 3 premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel on July 14, 2006.

Cast

File:SGA-poster.jpg
Stargate Atlantis main characters in Season 1. From left to right: Aiden Ford, Teyla Emmagan, John Sheppard, Elizabeth Weir and Rodney McKay.
File:Stargate Atlantis Team Season 2.jpg
Cast members as of Season 2. Left to right: Teyla Emmagan, Dr. McKay, Dr. Weir, Col. Caldwell (not a main character, but recurs frequently), Dr. Beckett, Ronon Dex, Lt. Col. Sheppard.

Symbols: ST = Security Team member, USAF = United States Air Force, USMC = United States Marine Corps

Regular characters

Recurring characters - Terran (Tau'ri)

Recurring characters - Non-Terran

Character lists

For complete character lists see:

Races

Human civilizations

Main article: Human civilizations in Stargate Atlantis

Apart from the Terran (Tau'ri), humans from Earth who came to the Pegasus galaxy in search of the mythical city of the Ancients, Atlantis, where they now reside, the Pegasus galaxy is inhabited by several human civilizations. These civilizations are the result of the Ancients seeding several planets with human life upon their arrival in the Pegasus galaxy. Most of these planet's civilizations are pre-industrial, but a few have developed more advanced technology. Some of the most important, plot-wise, are:

  • Athosians: A pre-industrial civilization, the Athosians were the first Pegasus natives the Atlantis expedition encountered. After their planet was culled by the Wraith, they moved to Atlantis. They were previously an advanced race.
  • Genii: An advanced, militaristic culture with a technology level similar to mid-20th century Earth, that hide under the mask of simple, Amish-like farmers. They were at odds with the Atlantis expedition up until the "Coup D'etat".

Non-human races

Main article: Alien races in the Stargate universe § Pegasus Galaxy aliens

Ancients (Alterans)

Main article: Ancient (Stargate)

A highly technologically advanced race that once existed on Earth and other planets throughout the Milky Way Galaxy, the Ancients were the builders of the Stargates. About 7 million years ago, the Ancients travelled from Earth to a planet in the Pegasus Galaxy using their space faring city Atlantis. In Pegasus, after a long period of colonisation, they encountered an enemy, the Wraith, who despite their inferior technology overwhelmed the Ancients with their strength of numbers. Besieged in Atlantis, the remaining Ancients submerged the city to prevent its technology from being exploited by the Wraith, before retreating to Earth, passing on not only the legend of Atlantis but also their "Ancient gene" that will be known as the "Ancient Technology Activation", ATA to the humans of Earth. [1]

Wraith

Main article: Wraith (Stargate)

This hive-based species drove the Ancients out of the Pegasus galaxy around 8000 BC, and are currently the antagonists of Stargate Atlantis. They maintain thousands of worlds populated by humans as a source of food, as they feed off the life force of other beings. The Wraith follow a cyclical feeding pattern: they lay in a dormant/hibernation stage for many years or generations, then sweep through the Pegasus galaxy to "cull their human herd", and finally stop when there are just enough surviving humans to maintain a breeding population for the next culling cycle. Their technology is highly advanced, but highly inferior to Ancient technology. The Wraith victory over the Atlanteans has been credited to sheer force of numbers.[1]

Asurans

Template:Sgspoiler Set to appear in early season 3, the Asurans will be the second powerful enemy of the Atlanteans. They are artificial life forms that evolved from a Lantean experiment to create powerful and aggressive nanites to attack the Wraith on a cellular level [2]. But the microscopic creatures came together to form increasingly larger and more complex organisms, eventually imitating their creators to become human in appearance. When the Lantians realized their experiment had gotten out of hand, they attacked this new race with their fleet of warships and nearly wiped them out. Template:Endspoiler

Setting

Planets

Main article: List of Stargate planets § Pegasus Galaxy

The City

Main article: Atlantis (Stargate)

The city of Atlantis hosts much of the action in the series and is the source of much of the technology which the characters employ. Atlantis still holds many secrets from her new human inhabitants.

Technology

Main article: List of technology in the Stargate universe

The characters on Stargate Atlantis use both Ancient and human SGC technology, itself a blend of human-developed technology and technology adapted from the Goa'uld, as well as technology acquired from the Wraith, and given by the Asgard.

Production

Stargate Atlantis is filmed at Bridge Studios on Vancouver and on location on several places around the city, like Lynn Valley Canyon.[3]

Stargate Atlantis inherited Blade Trinity's effects stage. The Blade Trinity production gave the set to Stargate Atlantis instead of dismantling the massive construct, due the expensive costs. The set has been seen several times. For example, the walkway Sheppard walks in "The Storm" is the topmost part of the Blade Trinity set [4] [5]

DVD Release Dates

DVD Name Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
Stargate Atlantis Season 1 November 15 2005 March 14 - July 11 2005 (five 4 ep. vols)
March 13 2006 (complete pack) 		November 14 2005
Stargate Atlantis Season 2 April 10 - June 2006 (five 4 ep. vols) October 11, 2006

Broadcasters

Country Network Title
United States Sci Fi Channel Stargate Atlantis
Argentina Fox Channel
Sci Fi Channel
AXN
iSat
Australia Seven Network
Austria RTL II
Belgium Kanaal 2
La une (RTBF) (French)
Canada The Movie Network
Space: The Imagination Station
City TV
Canada (Québec) Z Télé La Porte d'Atlantis (The gate of Atlantis)
France M6
Germany RTL II
Netherlands Veronica
Hungary TV2
Ireland Sky One
Israel Israeli Channel 1
Malaysia TV2
Mexico Fox Channel
New Zealand Prime TV
South Africa ActionX (DStv)
South Korea Super Action
Spain Sci Fi Channel Stargate Atlantis
UK Sky One
Five		 Stargate Atlantis

Soundtrack

Template:Sample box start variation 2 Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end The Stargate Atlantis soundtrack is composed by Joel Goldsmith. The series main title song was nominated for an Emmy award in 2005.

The Stargate Atlantis Original Television Soundtrack CD was released by Varèse Sarabande Records in November 22, 2005. It contains 16 tracks, all from the series pilot "Rising", with a total running time of 42:18.

Literature

Cover of the novel Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary by Martha Wells

Novels

Fandemonium Press, which also publishes Stargate SG-1 books, launched a new series of books based on Stargate Atlantis in late 2005. Unlike with the SG-1 books, Fandemonium does not accept fan submissions for the Atlantis books and they are commissioned only to professional writers. These books are available in all English-speaking countries.

Short Fiction

The Official Stargate Magazine produced by Titan Publishing has published a series of short stories based on both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. The magazine is available in the UK and internationally trough Diamond Comic Distributors' Previews catalogue.

  • Flipside by Sally Malcolm (Stargate Magazine #7, November/December 2005). Sheppard's backstory.
  • Choices by James Swallow (Stargate Magazine #10, May/June 2006). Ford after "Runner";

Non-fiction books

  • Stargate Atlantis: The Official Companion Season 1 by Sharon Gosling. Published by Titan Books.
  • Stargate Atlantis: The Official Companion Season 2 by Sharon Gosling. Published by Titan Books.

Trivia

References

  1. ^ a b "Rising". Stargate Atlantis. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Hot Zone". Stargate Atlantis. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Stargate Official Magazine issue 6
  4. ^ Production Designer's Bridget McGuire's interview in Stargate Atlantis: The Official Companion Season 1 by Sharon Gosling.
  5. ^ Stargate Atlantis: Atlantis Rising article in SFX magazine issue 129 (april 2005)
  6. ^ Gateworld.net - Rising, part 1
  7. ^ Gateworld.net - More regular characters revealed for Atlantis
  8. ^ IMDB - James Lafazanos: TV Episode Filmography By Series
Wikiquote has quotations related to Stargate Atlantis.

Official sites

Miscellaneous sites

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