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Stargate Atlantis is an American science fiction television series and a spin-off from the television series Stargate SG-1, which 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, that 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. On August 21 2006 the Sci Fi Channel announced that it would be renewing the show for another year. Conception When the Stargate SG-1 producers Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper thought the series was going to end after season five (when Showtime dropped it), they came up with the idea of making a new feature film. But when the ratings on its new home Sci-Fi channel skyrocketed, the idea got pushed after season six and later after season seven. But then there was talk of a spin-off series and the producers were left with a serious dilemma, since the whole seventh season had been planned to lead up to the great discovery of the lost city of the Ancients. "Lost City" was supposed to be a bridge between SG-1 and a new show or a movie, which wasn't supposed to run at the same time as SG-1. Wright and Cooper rewrote the script as the two-parter season seven finale, and moved the setting of the story. The city, originally planned to be on Earth under Antarctica in place of the SGC, moved to the Pegasus Galaxy. By doing so, they wanted to avoid the fans wondering why SG-1 wasn't coming to help them, and also gave them the chance to wipe the slate clean.• It premiered on July of the same year. The series is currently broadcast in several countries around the world; in some places, for example Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia, the series is broadcast in HD. Filming locations Stargate Atlantis is filmed at Bridge studios in Vancouver and on location in several places in British Columbia. The Pemberton Glacier doubled for Antarctica during the opening flying sequence in "Rising". •. Lynn Valley Canyon was, for example, where the episode "Instinct" was filmed. Stargate Atlantis inherited Blade Trinitys effects stage. The Blade Trinity production gave the set to Stargate Atlantis to save the high cost of dismantling the massive construct. The set has appeared several times. For example, the walkway Sheppard walks in "The Storm" is the topmost part of the Blade Trinity set.•• Season and episode format Each season of Stargate: Atlantis features 20 episodes broadcasted in two series of 10 episodes each. The first 10 episodes air from mid-July to September in the United States, ending in the cliffhanger of a two-parter episode. The second half airs first in Canada, from November to January. In the United States, the second half airs usually from January to March. Each show begins with a cold open, sometimes preceded with a recap of events relevant to the upcoming narrative. The opening credits feature an original theme by Joel Goldsmith. Though they were drastically cut at the start of season 2, the full credits were recovered after the mid-season parter. Soundtrack Stargate Atlantis features a symphonic orchestra soundtrack composed by Joel Goldsmith. Goldsmith's first task for the series was to compose the main title song, which was nominated for an Emmy award in 2005. When composing the music, he says he went for a more pastoral, European and Americana approach, while keeping the adventurous, symphonic approach the producers wanted. • Goldsmith's score for season 2 episode "Grace Under Pressure" was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Dramatic Underscore). In November 22, 2005, Varèse Sarabande Records released the Stargate Atlantis Original Television Soundtrack CD. It contains 16 tracks, all from the series pilot "Rising", with a total running time of 42:18. Season synopses 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 eight 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. Season 1 Season 1 began airing in the United States on July 16, 2004. The Atlantis expedition, led by Dr. Weir, arrives to the city of the Ancients and quickly makes 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, a human militaristic civilization with a 1950s level of technology. The season closes with a cliffhanger, with Atlantis under siege by the Wraith. Season 2 Season 2 began airing in the United States on July 15, 2005 and it picked up just where season 1 ended. The Atlantis team successfully avoids being culled by the Wraith by making them believe Atlantis has been destroyed, and recover 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, theoretically, 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. The season closes again with a cliffhanger, with the Wraith on their way to Earth. Season 3 Season 3 began airing in the United States on July 14, 2006, picking up just where season 2 ended. 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, again finding themselves without a sufficient power source for the city. The Wraith still a threat and a new powerful enemy has emerged, bent on destroying the expedition and Atlantis: the Asurans. The midseason cliffhanger has the the team setting out to retake the city of Atlantis after an invasion by the Asurans, following a brief period during which some of the original Ancient inhabitants of the city returned to reclaim it. Cast
Regular characters Recurring characters Setting Stargate Atlantis is set in the city of Atlantis, in the Pegasus galaxy, built millions of years ago by the most advanced race of the Stargate universe: the Ancients. Due to the Wraith threat, they were forced to flee to Earth and submerged their city into the ocean, which, in the Stargate universe, is the source of the Greek myth of the Lost City of Atlantis. 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. While trying to uncover the secrets the city still holds from her new human inhabitants, the Atlantis expedition also use the Stargate to explore the Pegasus galaxy, looking for energy sources and other technology that the Ancients may have left behind and that may help them defeat the Wraith. They have only explored a handful of planets in Pegasus. While some of them are friendly, others have become enemies (the Genii) or were completely culled away by the Wraith. Even others have made moral choices the expedition could not agree with.• The expedition also use human SGC technology, itself a blend of human-developed technology and technology adapted from the Goa'uld, as well as given by the Asgard and, recently, acquired from the Wraith. Human civilizations Apart from the Terran (Tau'ri), humans from Earth who came to the Pegasus galaxy in search of the mythical city of 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. A formerly advanced turned pre-industrial civilization, the Athosians were the first Pegasus natives the Atlantis expedition encountered, just after arriving to Pegasus•. Their planet was culled shortly thereafter, and they moved to Atlantis' mainland. Their leader, Teyla, stayed in Atlantis and became a member of Major Sheppard's team. In one of the team's first mission, they meet the 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", when they arrived to an uneasy truce. Non-human races Stargate: Atlantis features also a number of non-human races. The most important are the Ancients and the two main enemies, the Wraith and the Asuran. Though long gone from this plane of existence, the influence of the Ancients (or Alterans) is felt deeply in the Stargate universe, for both good and bad. 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. Many 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 the gene that will be known as ATA gene to the humans of Earth. A hive-based species that once drove the Ancients off the Pegasus galaxy, the Wraith are the primary antagonists of the Atlantis expedition. They feed off the life force of humans following a regular feeding cycle. That cycle, however, was upset when Major John Sheppard accidentally awoke all the Wraith from hibernation about 50 years ahead of schedule. Having learned of a new feeding ground, Earth, the Wraith's main purpose is to find the way there through Atlantis. First appearing in the episode "Progeny", the Asurans are another powerful enemy of the Atlanteans. They are artificial life forms that evolved from an Ancient experiment to create powerful and aggressive nanites to attack the Wraith on a cellular level. 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 Ancients realized their experiment had gotten out of hand, they attacked this new race with their fleet of warships and nearly wiped them out. The Atlantis expedition became their enemies when they learned that the humans from Earth were descendants from the Ancients and living in Atlantis. Broadcasters DVD Release Dates Other media Fiction books In late 2005, Fandemonium Press, which also publishes Stargate SG-1 books, launched a new series of books based on Stargate Atlantis. These books are available in all English-speaking countries and through online bookstores. The official Stargate Magazine, produced by Titan Publishing, began publishing short stories written by Fandemonium authors in their 8th issue. The stories alternate between both SG-1 and Atlantis. Non-fiction books Comics In 2006, Avatar Press launched a series of comics based on Stargate Atlantis. Set in season 1, Wraithfall features story by Stewart Moore and art by Mauricio Melo. In this story, the Atlantis team meets the Karrans, a race that has made a bizarre deal with the Wraith. Trivia Official sites Miscellaneous sites | |||||||||
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