Search Results for: mark sheppard

A recon mission to a Wraith-occupied planet ends with Sheppard’s team under fire, their puddle jumper damaged, and Sheppard himself out of commission with a parasitic alien insect attached to his neck. Lt. Ford winds up with his first, and very nervous command, and keeps it simple by simply trying to get back to Atlantis. But one of the jumper’s engine pods, damaged in the fight, doesn’t retract completely, leaving the ship stuck halfway in and halfway out of the stargate. It’s a situation that McKay, stuck in the rear compartment of the jumper with Teyla, Ford and Sheppard, knows all too well from one of his collaborations with SG-1: if the entire jumper doesn’t go through the gate, the gate will close in 38 minutes, shearing off the forward compartment (and killing the two pilots), and exposing the rest of the jumper to hard vacuum. McKay tries to work out a solution while the brightest minds on Atlantis try to come up with ideas on their end, but even if they can figure out a way to nudge the jumper through the gate, for Sheppard it may only mean the difference between dying at Atlantis or dying in deep space as the parasite digs in.

written by Brad Wright
directed by Mario Azzopardi
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett), Craig Veroni (Grodin), Christopher Heyerdahl (Hallan), Ben Cotton (Dr. Kavanagh), Fiona Hogan (Simpson), Joseph May (Sgt. Markham), Boyan Vukelic (Sgt. Stackhouse), Edmond Wong (Technician)

Notes: The 38-minute theoretical limit on an open stargate’s wormhole was established in the second season of Stargate SG-1 in A Matter Of Time. However, as worried as McKay was about this time limit, it was exceeded both in A Matter Of Time and in the SG-1 sixth season premiere, Reckoning.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

During a survey of a planet in the Pegasus Galaxy, a jumper carrying Sheppard, Teyla, McKay and Ford crashes when its systems all simultaneously fail. Even portable equipment is rendered useless by an electromagnetic field. When they set out to disable the field so they can repair the jumper and leave, a group of camouflaged, armed children take them prisoner and bring them to their village. There, Sheppard meets the oldest of this curious society’s “elders” – a young man named Keras who is only hours away from his 25th birthday, which is marked by a ritual suicide. Keras and his people believe that this sacrifice is what keeps the Wraith from attacking them. But when Rodney finds a ZPM powering the field that caused the jumper to crash, a different picture emerges. Rodney is eager to bring the ZPM back to Atlantis for study, to see if it can help in the city’s defense, not even considering the possibility that the field he has just disabled is the real source of the village’s invincibility. And once the field is down, a Wraith homing device begins transmitting…

written by Martin Gero
directed by David Winning
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Courtenay J. Stevens (Keras), Dominic Zamprogna (Aries), Jessica Amlee (Cleo), Sam Charles (Casta), Alana Husband (Ennea), Shane Meier (Neleus), Julie Patzwald (Pelias), Craig Veroni (Dr. Grodin), Calum Worthy (Hunter Kid)

Notes: Dr. Zelenka pays his first visit to this planet in the second season episode Critical Mass, with even more colorful results than Sheppard’s team. Dominic Zamprogna has appeared in the new Battlestar Galactica as well, playing a reporter in Litmus and Viper pilot Jammer during the second season.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Sheppard, McKay and two scientists explore one of the other planets in Atlantis’ solar system in a jumper, finding an enormous but dormant weapons platform in orbit, possibly the Ancients’ last line of defense for Atlantis. They find a crashed Wraith ship on the planet’s surface, along with a startlingly well-preserved dead Wraith on board – one which seems to have been fed upon by another Wraith, a behavior that hasn’t been observed before. They also find a chamber with hundreds of coccooned human bodies – a sign that other Wraiths may be nearby, stockpiling food for reasons unknown. Sheppard takes this as a sign that it’s time to return to the jumper, but it’s too late – one of the junior scientists becomes the Wraith’s latest victim, and the other is captured and coccooned. Sheppard and McKay find their surviving team member, and Sheppard arms McKay and leaves him to guard the wounded man. In the meantime, Sheppard races to return to the undefended jumper, only to find that the Wraith has already discovered it – and its weapons. Sheppard can’t call for help, and even when Dr. Weir becomes worried enough to send Lt. Ford and Teyla in charge of a backup team, help is over 15 hours away.

written by Peter DeLuise
directed by Peter DeLuise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Richard Cox (Gaul), Paul Magel (Abrams), James Lafazanos (Wraith), Joseph May (Markham)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A team led by Sheppard pays a visit to a village resembling Earth’s 19th century, but they aren’t exactly greeted with open arms by the locals. They do, however, learn that the villagers have had other unwelcome visitors – a Wraith has been tormenting and killing anyone it can capture since crash-landing on the planet ten years ago. Sheppard offers to help the locals dispose of their problem, but when Ronon tracks the Wraith down, it’s a young female being sheltered by a reclusive scientist named Zaddik. After nurturing the young crash survivor, Zaddik had to find a way to keep her alive without allowing her to feed on other people. His serum intrigues McKay and Beckett, as does her almost human demeanor – she serves tea to her visitors and refers to Zaddik as “Father” – but Ronon sets out to prove that her Wraith traits can return to the surface with little provocation. But even with the young Wraith under constant watch by the team from Atlantis, something is still preying on the villagers.

written by Treena Hancock & Melissa R. Byer
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Jewel Staite (Ellia / Wraith), John Innes (Zaddik), Stephen Dimopoulos (Goran), Tom Bates (Barkeep), Nico McEown (Boy), Blake Stadel (young Zaddik), Kayma Seamark (6-year-old Wraith)

Notes: Guest star Jewel Staite is better known to SF fans as Kaylee from the short-lived Joss Whedon series Firefly.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rushed back to Atlantis’ infirmary, Sheppard’s injuries sustained in the search for Ellia baffle Dr. Beckett; a significant arm wound heals remarkably fast, and Sheppard’s physical stamina increases to an unusual degree. Beckett’s blood work reveals that the retrovirus intended to transform Ellia back into a human seeped into Sheppard’s bloodstream during the fight, and the results could be unpredictable. Dr. Weir removes Sheppard from offworld duty and Beckett orders him to check in frequently, but symptoms appear quickly, and Sheppard begins mutating into something resembling half-human and half-Wraith. As his condition grows worse, Beckett discovers that Sheppard may be able to help himself find the cure – providing he’s still human enough.

teleplay by Robert C. Cooper & Martin Gero
story by Martin Gero
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Matthew Harrison (Scientist), Lindsay Collins (Scientist), Todd Hann (Bravo Leader), France Perras (Nurse), Andy Nez (Soldier)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A visit with a seemingly primitive culture is going uneventfully for Sheppard and his team when the locals mention that half of their crop harvest is surrendered to the Tower as a tribute in exchange for protection from the Wraith. When Sheppard asks about the Tower, the leader of the village they’ve been visiting shows them: covered in vegetation, it’s a structure almost identical to the central control tower of Atlantis itself. Rodney’s scans reveal a vast underground structure – not only is the tower identical, but so is everything else, an Ancient city-ship like Atlantis buried underground. When soldiers from the Tower show up and begin roughing up the villagers, Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon draw their weapons and stop them. A man named Otho, claiming to be a representative of the Tower’s royalty, warns Sheppard that further resistance will only result in a demonstration of power that will cost the village dearly. Sheppard stands his ground until an Ancient drone from the Tower lays waste to part of the village. Otho scans the new arrivals from Atlantis and then has Sheppard disarmed and taken to the Tower, where he is greeted by the ailing Lord Protector, who apparently has the gene needed to power the city’s systems and its drones. Sheppard grows impatient with the court intrigue, however, until Otho confides the truth to him: Sheppard has a higher concentration of the Ancient gene than any surviving member of the royal family, though among the scheming members of that family this makes him either a valuable asset or a liability to be done away with. Sheppard tries to bargain with Otho, offering medical help from Atlantis – including the Ancient gene therapy developed by Dr. Beckett – in exchange for the drones and puddle jumpers berthed in the Ancient city. But Ronon’s distaste for the villagers’ virtual enslavement may kick-start a revolution at the foot of the Tower before Sheppard can seal the deal.

written by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Peter Woodward (Otho), Jay Brazeau (Lord Protector), David Bloom (Eldred), Richard Kahan (Baldric), Brendan Beiser (Tavius), Chelan Simmons (Mara), Anna Cummer (Petra), Mark Gibbon (Constable)

Notes: Guest star Peter Woodward starred as the Technomage Galen in the short-lived Babylon 5 spin-off series Crusade.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Using the device given to him by the rogue Replicator in the form of Elizabeth Weir, Rodney discovers that the hostile Replicators have ramped up their ship-building program dramatically. Daedalus and Apollo are summoned to begin tactical strikes against the Replicators’ ships, while Rodney – and his captive Wraith “assistant” – race to create a software solution to the increasing Replicator threat. But despite early successes, the two massive Earth ships prove to be ineffective when the Replicators fall back to their current base of operations. Two unlikely allies emerge – Rodney’s Wraith and Sheppard’s close and personal friend, the rogue Replicator named Laren – to help in the fight, but victory depends on Rodney creating a new Replicator of his own to act as a “super-magnet” to draw the Replicators’ nanites into an uncontrollable mass. And somewhere between Rodney creating a new, self-aware Replicator and the attack on the Replicators’ homeworld, victory has unintended consequences…

written by Martin Gero
excerpt written by Alan McCullough
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith and Neil Acree

Guest Cast: Michael Beach (Col. Ellis), Mitch Pileggi (Col. Caldwell), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Jill Wagner (Larrin), Christopher Heyerdahl (Wraith), Brendan Penny (Wraith), Michelle Morgan (Fran), Martin Christopher (Major Marks)
Torri Higginson (Elizabeth Weir), Chuck Campbell (Technician)

LogBook entry by Earl Green