Stargate Atlantis Fan Site

Over on the io9 website, there’s a mention of the working title for the Atlantis movie.

Stargate: Extinction

I’m not sure how I feel about that name because it certainly doesn’t bring to mind anything good!

Is it just me, or does “Extinction” sound terribly foreboding?

Maybe they’ll explain it all in the opening of Stargate Atlantis’s final episode. Maybe not. But I’m very happy with the makers of Atlantis at the moment for appreciating my ability to put one and one together to get two.

The ending of Vegas left me with the unavoidable conclusion that soon Earth and Wraith will meet, and all hell will probably break loose. I’ve heard the spoilers saying this final episode is going to leave me with a cliffhanger ending. I’m glad they’ll have something to do in the movie that’s such a strong tie-in to the series, but I don’t look forward to the wait!

I really enjoyed the camera work and the editing of Vegas. How cool was the  look of the episode? Very cool!

Vegas is a visually appealing episode, with a plot that manages to tie in very nicely to our Atlantis’s universe and reality. I missed some of the regular characters, but it would have been weird if the writers had tried too hard to fit everyone into the episode.

Overall, I liked Vegas and I’m sure to be watching again sometime soon (while I wait for the Stargate Atlantis movie).

The series is winding down with only two episodes to go, one airing minutes from now. I’ll be watching live this time, because I can’t stand not to knowing the show has so little left of it. Already I’m anxious for the movie, and I sincerely hope one simple tv movie isn’t all that’s in store for the Atlantis team after the final episode.

I’ll keep my ears and eyes open for news about the possibility of other future movies, you can be sure. Stargate is a franchise I love. I don’t want to see it end, but I’m not sure what’s in store with Stargate Universe.

What I’ll miss most and what I most want to see in the new Stargate Universe series.

1. Humor
2. Science
3. Action
4. Geeks/Nerds
5. Romance (because I really dug the McKay romances and I’ve always had a soft spot for Jackson’s dedication to Sharé)

If I don’t get these things, in the proper proportions, I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to enjoy the newest spinoff of my beloved Stargate.

And I certainly still don’t see why Stargate Atlantis had to end to give it to us!

I’m a huge fan of continuing story lines in a show, when they’re done right. Wouldn’t be a fan of Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, and a host of other science fiction tv shows otherwise. What I like about the upcoming episode trailer (below) is that it appears I might get to see some more of the building relationship between McKay and Dr. Keller in Brain Storm.

I always worry when writers of a series take on romance, but they’ve done it right and kept it low profile—and also made it darn fun in Tracker.

I clued into the details of this upcoming episode when I read this at TV Squad. I love it when we see rivalries between the scientists! Some of my favorite Atlantis lines of all time come from a bickering McKay and Zelenka.

Watch the trailer for this Friday’s episode. I’m intrigued. What about you?

I remember a time when I felt resentful that Ronon Dex had replaced Aiden Ford. I liked Aiden, his playfulness, his innocence, juxtaposed on his military know-how. I liked Aiden and I didn’t like Ronon—he was an interloper. He was a tough guy that could whip anyone, anytime. Frankly, he got on my nerves.

Those days are long gone.

Ronon Dex has turned out to be a multi-layered individual and his growth has been phenomenal over the last few years. Tracker, on the surface, was a Ronon, McKay, Keller episode, but underneath it all, I believe this episode was about Ronon Dex and Rodney McKay.

Several episodes have really played up the relationship between these two so-very-different guys. Tao of Rodney, The Shrine, each show picked up the thread and wove it expertly, and now, in Tracker, I have no problem believing there’s true affection between Rodney and Ronon.

In Tao of Rodney, Rodney uses his healing abilities to remove Ronon’s scars. Those scars represented his past life, his runner history, and removing them was a gift from a dying Rodney McKay.

In The Shrine, Ronon is determined to get McKay to the place where he can be himself for one more day. He doesn’t hope to gain anything from Rodney, and no one in Atlantis is looking for that one piece of information only Rodney can give them before he dies. They want only to have the opportunity to say goodbye.

Tracker has no overt theme of friendship between Ronon and Rodney, but their interaction as they try to save Dr. Jennifer Keller is fun to watch. They act like friends who know each other well and they seem to have fallen into a rhythm of conversational byplay that really shows the bonds are there. These guys are friends and you can tell.

In fact, after watching Tracker, I’ve had to go back to Tao of Rodney and revisit the developing friendship. One of my favorite Rodney and Ronon exchanges happens after Rodney begins developing what he calls “superpowers.” He uses telekinesis to swipe Dr. Beckett’s doughnut as he’s walking out of the room with Ronon.

“We could be a team. You could be my sidekick.” (Rodney)

“Sidekick?” (Ronon)

“Yeah, it’d be like Batman and Ronon. Has a nice ring to it.”

“Yeah, you keep eating like that it’s going to be more like fatman.”

You can’t build these kinds of relationships in movies. There just isn’t enough time. So I find myself hoping this final season of Stargate Atlantis solidifies these relationships between Sheppard, McKay, Teyla, and Ronon. Once the movies start, there just won’t be these opportunities again.

Just so you know, I loved the Atlantis episode The Queen. I wanted to get that out of the way so you don’t think I’m bashing the episode when I mention that I found the transformation of Teyla stunning. Gene Therapy has never been so amazing. (The Science Not Fiction blog mentions a thing or two about gene therapy and Stargate Atlantis. How cool!)

Not only was I amazed by her physical changes, I was amazed by how the episode just zipped right past them. I guess I’m supposed to understand how she went from human to Wraith and back again, without any apparent lasting physical reminders of the surgery. It was surgery, right? I’m pretty sure I saw Dr. Jennifer Keller wielding medical instruments, an anesthesiologist putting Teyla under…. What was that if not surgery, and what purpose might it have had if it wasn’t to physically alter Teyla and turn her into a Wraith?

I can suppose and speculate as to how the whole thing happened, but I would rather have had Keller explain it to me, even if it were only a short thirty second comment or two.

I was able to overlook these issues simply because that’s the kind of viewer I am. I don’t usually dwell on issues of believability when it comes to the science of the matter, because I believe wholeheartedly that science fiction is more fiction than science most of the time. That’s the way it should be.

When you take the transformation out of the show, you’re left with one of the best episodes of the series. This has been a one-two shot with Whispers and now The Queen. Although I wasn’t that sure it was going to be great, because I’m not usually a big fan of Teyla centered episodes, I can’t say enough good things about how this episode played out.

Not only is there action and intrigue, there was Todd. Todd is one of my favorite recurring characters and I loved seeing his plot line carried forward. Todd is someone I definitely want to see again. He has given me a glimpse of what the Wraith should have been from the beginning–complex villains who are shaped by their society and their genes, not the cardboard bad guy monsters they’ve mostly been portrayed as.

The Queen rules, and with those parting remarks from Teyla at the end of the episode, this one just screams for a sequel. Let’s just hope it’s not too late, since Atlantis won’t be back for season 6.

Other views of The Queen:

• Science Fiction Stuff – Stargate Atlantis “the Queen”
• TV Squad – Stargate Atlantis: The Queen
• Film School Rejects – Stargate: Atlantis 5.8

In The Queen, Episode 8 from Season 5, Teyla infiltrates a Wraith Alliance with the help of Todd (Wraith).

Having one of the team members masquerade as one of the enemy isn’t an unusual concept in the Stargate universe. Remember Daniel in the Stargate SG-1 episodes Summit and Last Stand? However, I haven’t seen an episode before in Atlantis that covers the same ground, until now.

The Queen brings back Todd the Wraith and begins with a meeting between his hive ship and Sheppard’s Atlantis team, Dr. Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, and Teyla Emmagan. The team would like to convince the Wraith through Todd to consider the treatment Dr. Jennifer Keller has developed to cure the need of the Wraith to feed on humans. Todd considers the idea, and frankly, Lt. Col. John Sheppard is suspicious, and rightly so. Todd comes back with his own proposal–that Teyla masquerade as his Queen.

Teyla’s DNA has traces of Wraith DNA (mentioned in previous episodes) that will allow her to disguise herself as a Wraith Queen and successfully fool the Primary, the Wraith Queen who is in charge of the entire Wraith alliance. No one else has the ability to pull this off, and so Teyla feels bound to help.

But when she and Todd are successfully aboard the Primary’s hive ship, they encounter unexpected developments that appear to force a change in their plans. Does Todd have a hidden agenda? Will Teyla be able to maintain her masquerade, or will they be discovered and killed?

In Whispers, Episode 7 from Season 5, an Atlantis team discovers an abandoned lab where Michael (the Wraith) had previously performed some of his hybrid Human/Wraith experiments. Dr. Beckett accompanies Lt. Col. John Sheppard to meet up with the all-female Stargate team, their intent to collect whatever useful information they can get from Michael’s lab. Once there, they discover several stasis chambers that appear to contain hybridized Wraith beings.

Dr. Beckett and Dr. Alison Porter stay behind in the lab to go through the research while Sheppard joins Major Anne Teldy and the rest of her team, Sgt. Dusty Mehra and Capt. Alicia Vega, as they explore the surrounding forest and make their way to a nearby village.

They find the village abandoned, except for one man who appears to have been watching them. He tells Sheppard and the rest of the team about the curse believed to be haunting the village. People had begun to disappear from the forest around the village leading the villagers to eventually abandon the village entirely. When it starts to get late, the man seems overly eager to leave and Sheppard decides to let him go.

The team returns to collect Carson Beckett and Alison Porter from the research lab and they all decide to stay overnight in the village, but when Sheppard and the others go out into the forest to explore further, they discover the hybrid lifeforms have been released from their stasis pods.

In the thick fog and mist, the Atlantis team must fight off a nemesis they can’t see to survive.

What did I think about this episode? Read Whispers, Reinvigorating Atlantis

When Whispers first started, I admit I was a little worried that the show was going to be a rehash of Vengeance, a late season three Atlantis episode about one of Michael’s labs where his creatures are loose and preying on the Stargate Atlantis team.

Admittedly, Whispers could be summed up with the same summary used for the Vengeance episode. Take out a few parts and here’s what you have…

…it appears the [blank] have…abandoned their village…. Searching the dark winding corridors of the abandoned tunnels the team comes upon…a lab that appears to have been used for Wraith experiments. …the team has little time to piece the puzzle together before they themselves are attacked by a…monster. (See the full Vengeance episode description)

Compare that to Whispers. Team goes through the gate, finds one of Michael’s abandoned labs, finds abandoned village, gets preyed upon by Michael’s failed Wraith experiments. There you have the plot in a nutshell.  Only—there’s more to the episode than that.

Despite the apparent similarities, Whispers goes off in a direction I didn’t expect, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Although Atlantis episodes are typically science oriented, this episode had only Doctors Beckett and Porter to speak tech-talk. Because of that, the episode relied heavily on the characters and their emotional reactions to the threat from Michael’s abandoned experiments.

I came away from the episode feeling like I’d just watched a horror film, and I admit I spent some time biting my nails during this one. Whispers definitely qualifies as one of my favorite Atlantis episodes this season. It was a refreshing change of pace and an invigorating episode for what’s turned out to be the final season of Atlantis.

I worried about Dr. Beckett in this one. I worried about the other team members I hadn’t met before including Major Anne Teldy and her away team, Sgt. Dusty Mehra, Capt. Alicia Vega and Dr. Alison Porter. I even worried about Sheppard. I worried a lot. That’s one reason I so enjoyed the show. There was tension there, and action, and it all kept me entertained in a way the last few episodes of Atlantis haven’t. So, cheers! I hope this is a sign of things to come. Stargate Atlantis, reinvigorated!

• Download Whispers
• Download Vengeance
  —from Amazon.com

MGM put out a press release about the 2 hour film coming for Stargate Atlantis fans (me). Of course they sent out the press release just because I wanted them to. We know how that works!

The release includes a lot of the usual blah, blah filler, but there were a few tidbits worth catching.

SCI FI will have the exclusive worldwide television premiere of the yet to be titled Stargate Atlantis film, which will then be released on DVD by MGM. The movie will be written by Stargate Atlantis’ executive producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, who also serve as series showrunners. The movie is set to follow the fifth and final season of Stargate Atlantis, as it draws to its thrilling conclusion in January 2009.”

I’ve read somewhere that the Stargate Atlantis series finale will be a cliffhanger episode, so as a fan of the tv show I’m very grateful I’ll have the opportunity to watch the resolution of the storyline at all! I can remember too many shows that don’t ever really end. If MGM and SCI FI Channel want to keep the Stargate franchise going they can’t cancel anything and leave it with unresolved endings. Who would watch after that? — Not I.

There’s also a mention in the press release about the “bigger canvas” of movies versus tv series.

“We’re excited to tell Atlantis stories on a bigger canvas. The successes of the two original Stargate DTV movies The Ark of Truth and Continuum have shown us the opportunities that the movie format offers. We have plans for both SG-1 and Atlantis to remain vital as we expand the franchise,” said Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, co-creators of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis and who both currently serve as executive producers on Atlantis.

I can’t agree with that statement about a bigger canvas. A two-hour movie that isn’t even really two-hours long can never compare to the depth of an evolving storyline told over the course of an entire season, or even in a shorter story arc that spans several episodes.

The Ark of Truth and Continuum were both great movies, but you pay a price for stand-alone material. Missing depth, missing resonance, fewer memorable moments and the let down that comes from knowing there won’t be a chance to follow up on any intriguing bits from the movie.

Maybe they get a bigger budget for the movie, but budget in no way correlates to a “bigger canvas.”

The good news appears to be that the show might have more than one movie in its future.

“We share in the producers’ enthusiasm to move forward in this direction and we look forward to a strong and continued relationship on Stargate Atlantis in this new format,” said Thomas Vitale, Senior Vice President Programming & Original Movies.

The series will reach a milestone with the 100th episode airing in January 2009. Atlantis is executive produced by Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper, Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, Carl Binder, and Martin Gero. Mallozzi and Mullie share the reins as showrunners.

I find it amazing that Dirty Jobs has lasted longer than Stargate Atlantis.