Stargate Atlantis
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Template:Infobox television Stargate Atlantis is a spin-off of the television series Stargate SG-1, which was based on the film Stargate (1994). It premiered on the US Sci Fi Channel on July 16, 2004. In this new series an outpost of the legendary city of Atlantis, a city of the creators of the Stargate, is found in the Antarctic, opening access to a new galaxy for humans to explore.
The events of Stargate Atlantis follow the cliffhanger seventh Stargate SG-1 season finale entitled "The Lost City, Part 1" and "The Lost City, Part 2".
Stargate Atlantis premiered with "Rising", a movie-style two-part episode, which guest starred Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks and Robert Patrick.
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Summary
See Stargate for a more general summary of the universe this series is set in, and Stargate SG-1 for how events have transpired to get the plot to Atlantis.
The series follows the adventures of a group of scientists and marines that have taken a one-way trip to the 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.
Races
Ancients
Main article: Ancient (Stargate)
A historical, technically highly advanced race that once existed on Earth and other planets through out the Milky Way galaxy and are the builders of the Stargates. The Ancients moved from Earth to the planet in the Pegasus galaxy which Stargate Atlantis is set (see The City below), taking their spacefaring city Atlantis with them, in order to spread new life. In the new galaxy, they faced an enemy, the Wraith, that, although they had inferior technology compared to the Ancients, overwhelmed them in numbers. Besieged in Atlantis, the remaining Ancients retreated to Earth, passing on not only the legend of Atlantis but also their Ancient Gene to the Greeks. A small fraction of the Terrestrial human race still carries the gene expression of the Ancients ("Ancient Technology Activation", or ATA) that allows them to use Ancient technology, most prominently Maj. John Sheppard of the Terrestrial human expedition team. Dr. Carson Beckett of the Terrestrial human expedition team is experimenting with transferring the ATA gene expression by means of in vivo retroviral gene therapy.
Athosians
Humans from the planet Athos in the Pegasus galaxy. The Athosians are likely to be one nation of the human life that has been "spread" by the Ancients after they moved to the Pegasus galaxy. The Athosians were once technologically advanced and still possess advanced technology, but due to the threat by the Wraith, were living in a pre-industrial culture on Athos. The leader of the Athosians is Teyla Emmagan. No Athosians are known to have ATA, however after a discovery by Dr. Beckett several Athosians -- including Teyla -- have a small number of Wraith genes due to experimentation by a Wraith scientist long ago. (It had been hoped that such experiments would lead to a more superior food-source.) These genes allow their possessors to sense the proximity of Wraith by subconciously tapping in to their telepathic communications. In addition, it seems individuals with this gene can activate Wraith technology in a similar fashion to the ATA gene. However, specifics on this topic of the Wraith gene are unknown since it is still a relatively new concept introduced in "The Gift (Stargate Atlantis)".
Terrans (Humans from Earth)
Main article: Tauri
Humans from the planet Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. The multi-national human expedition team in the Pegasus galaxy consists of a civilian and military branch (the United States Marine Corp), with the latter one also called "security teams". The leader of the humans in Atlantis is a civilian, Dr. Elizabeth Weir; the commanding officer of the military branch is Major John Sheppard after Colonel Marshall Sumner, his predecessor and commanding officer, was killed in the line of duty.
Internal security issues became the domain of Sergeant Bates after Sumner's death.
Genii
Main article: Genii (Stargate)
Humans from a planet in the Pegasus galaxy. To outsiders, they appear to be simple farmers, resembling the Amish of Earth. In truth, the Genii actually possess a technological level roughly equivalent to that of Earth in the 1930s: they have electricity, primitive monochrome television viewscreens, and mass-produced firearms. Generations ago, survivors of a Wraith culling took refuge underground in bunkers left over from forgotten wars, and there rebuilt their civilization, expanding outwards into a massive series of secret underground facilities. Most importantly, the Genii have centered their efforts to fight the Wraith on a program to develop a fission bomb, to be delivered to Hive-ships. However, the Genii had not yet discovered how to make an effective trigger mechanism that would create an implosion, or an effective means of uranium enrichment, when the Atlantis expedition encountered them. The Genii were angered that the Atlantis team had woken the Wraith from their hibernation early, but agreed to help each other. A resulting joint Genii-Atlantis mission backfired, resulting in the death of a prominent Genii leader and the failure of the Genii's attempts to plant a fission-bomb in Wraith Hive-ships (although the Atlantis team feels that there are so many--over 60--that the Genii's plan would only have destroyed a few). The Genii now count themselves enemies of the Atlantis expeditionary team, and are determined to obtain C4 explosives from the Atlantis team in order to build an effective trigger mechanism.
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, and 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. Although their technology is highly advanced and parallels many Ancient technologies (the similarity between Wraith Darts and the Ancient jumpers, for example), the Wraith forced the Ancients to abandon the Pegasus Galaxy (Stargate) through their overwhelming majority.
Wraith language has been found to be a derivative of the Ancient language, leading to speculation that the Wraith appeared after the Ancients came to the Pegasus galaxy, and that they may have evolved from a combination of insectoid and ancient/human DNA; there is also a strong possibility hypothesized by the Atlantis Expedition Team that the Wraith themselves were an accidental creation of the Ancients.
The Wraith civilization appears to center around massive "Hive-ships", similar to a carrier group in the United States Navy. One was seen in the pilot, although because it had been laying dormant for centuries, it was overgrown with trees. Intelligence recovered from a downed Dart flight-computer revealed that there are over 60 Wraith Hive-ships in the Pegasus galaxy.
The City and Technology
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.
Cast
ST = Security Team member
Updated as of The Siege Part 2
Episodes
Season 1
- 1.01 "Rising Part 1"
- 1.02 "Rising Part 2"
- 1.03 "Hide and Seek"
- 1.04 "Thirty-eight Minutes"
- 1.05 "Suspicion"
- 1.06 "Childhood's End"
- 1.07 "Poisoning the Well"
- 1.08 "Underground"
- 1.09 "Home"
- 1.10 "The Storm"
- 1.11 "The Eye"
- 1.12 "The Defiant One"
- 1.13 "Hot Zone"
- 1.14 "Sanctuary"
- 1.15 "Before I Sleep"
- 1.16 "The Brotherhood"
- 1.17 "Letters from Pegasus"
- 1.18 "The Gift"
- 1.19 "The Siege, Part 1"
- 1.20 "The Siege, Part 2"
Season 2
- 2.01 "The Siege, Part 3"
- 2.02 "Intruder"
- 2.03 "Runner"
- 2.04 "Duet"
- 2.05 "Trinity"
- 2.06 "Condemned"
- 2.07 "Aurora"
- 2.08 "Epiphany"
- 2.?? "Conversation"
- 2.?? "Instinct"
- 2.10 "Lost Boys"
- 2.11 "The Hive"
Trivia
- Colonel/Brigadier General Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson are the only characters to appear in the original Stargate film, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
- Between all three incarnations of Stargate, the Season One episode "Hide and Seek" was the first time that Colonel/Brigadier General Jack O'Neill was neither seen nor mentioned.
- Of the five original cast members, Joe Flanigan is the only American. The other four (Torri Higginson, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell and Rainbow Sun Francks) are all Canadian.
- Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett) previously portrayed Dr. Ernest Littlefield, the first human in the 20th Century to go through the Stargate, in the Stargate SG-1 Season One episode "The Torment of Tantalus".
- Richard Dean Anderson (Jack O'Neill) and Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) are the only actors to appear in the pilots of both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
- Richard Dean Anderson (Jack O'Neill), Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson), Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter), Don S. Davis (General Hammond), Torri Higginson (Elizabeth Weir), David Hewlett (Rodney McKay), Beau Bridges (General Landry), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler) and Ona Grauer (Ayiana) are the only actors to play the same character on both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
- Of the five original Stargate SG-1 cast members, Christopher Judge (Teal'c) is the only one who did not appear in the first season of the series. Corin Nemec (Jonas Quinn) and Ben Browder (Cameron Mitchell) are the only other cast members who thus far have not appeared on the series.
External links
- MGM: Stargate Atlantis (http://www.stargateatlantis.com)
- SCI FI: Stargate Atlantis (http://www.scifi.com/atlantis)
- DHD: Stargate Atlantis (http://www.sgatlantis.tk)
- IMDb: Stargate: Atlantis (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374455/fullcredits)
- Pegasus Galaxy: Stargate Atlantis (http://www.pegasusgalaxy.com)
- Gateworld.net: Stargate Atlantis (http://www.gateworld.net/atlantis/index.shtml)
- Chevron 26: Stargate Atlantis (http://www.chevron26.com)
- Gaters.info: Stargate Atlantis Forum (http://www.gaters.info)
- Sg-One-Stargate.com Stargate Atlantis (http://www.sg-one-stargate.com/z/html/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1) (french)Template:Stargate
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