Category: Season 3

The Daedalus launches its fighters to slow the Wraith hive ships down before they begin their trip to Earth’s galaxy, but fighters are lost – including Sheppard’s – and Daedalus herself takes a severe pounding and limps back to Atlantis as the Wraith go into hyperspace. The Wraith won’t be able to jump from the Pegasus Galaxy to Earth in one shot, though – they’ll have to stop at a point just outside the Pegasus Galaxy to recharge before pressing on the attack. With only a narrow window in which to launch another attack, Dr. Weir orders Colonel Caldwell to take the Daedalus back into action, knowing full well that the ship and her crew stand little chance of surviving. She also orders Orion, the commandeered Ancient ship (whose systems still haven’t been thoroughly studied), to join the battle. But then Weir finds herself under attack from another front – the International Advisory Oversight summons her back to Earth. At the SGC, they accuse her of having created the problem, and of endangering Earth to try to cover her backside; with the Ori problem taking up all of Earth’s resources, no more help can be offered. When Atlantis contacts the SGC to confirm final orders from Weir, she puts her career – and Earth’s survival – on the line to order Caldwell to commence his attack as planned while the Wraith are within reach. While McKay and Ronon Dex struggle to break free from their cocoons aboard a Wraith ship, Michael finds that his own kind no longer trust him. When Michael discovers that Sheppard has tagged along by attacking his 302 fighter to the hull of a hive ship, he offers to give the humans an advantage – but trust in Michael is at an all-time low on Sheppard’s end of things too.

Season 3 Regular Cast: Joe Flanigan (Major John Sheppard), Torri Higginson (Dr. Elizabeth Weir), Rachel Luttrell (Teyla), Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett), David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay), Jason Momoa (Ronon Dex)

written by Martin Gero
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Connor Trinneer (Michael), Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey), Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), Tamlyn Tomita (Shen), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Brahm Taylor (Wraith Guard), Scott Heindl (Wraith), Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling), Andy Maton (Chapman), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Beau Bridges (General Landry), Andee Frizzell (Hive Queen), Kirby Morrow (Daedalus Tech), Angelique Naude (Young female scientist)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A Wraith hive ship jumps out of hyperspace and approaches Atlantis – but it’s under the control of Colonel Caldwell and Colonel Sheppard, who have used Dr. Beckett’s retrovirus to revert the ship’s Wraith to a human state. They’re settled on a planet without a gate, but Beckett insists on staying with them to ensure that they’re healthy. Michael is also given a new dose of the retrovirus, reverting him to his fully human form and robbing him of his memory again. In the meantime, Dr. Weir is returned to Atlantis with the IOA’s Woolsey in tow, still investigating her command and looking for any reason to relieve her of it. When he learns that Weir’s crew has effectively created a new species, Woolsey may have found the reason he’s looking for. But as Beckett discovers, the reverted Wraith aren’t going to stay human for long.

written by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Connor Trinneer (Michael), Robert Picardo (Woolsey), Scott Heindl (Merrick), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Brahm Taylor (Lathan), Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Andee Frizzell (Wraith Queen), Colin Corrigan (Lone Human Wraith), Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A team led by Sheppard begins a survey of worlds with stargates, hoping to put a plan of McKay’s in motion to build a network of spaceborne gates between galaxies that would cut travel time between Earth and Atlantis to mere hours. Their first stop brings them to a peaceful colony where everyone looks up to the friendly (and large) Lucius, a man with a penchant for telling tall tales. After spending some time in his company, even Dr. Beckett begins to sing Lucius’ praises, and in a huge break with standing orders he brings Lucius through the stargate to Atlantis. Weir is more than a little bit annoyed with this breach of protocol, but eventually she comes to appreciate Lucius’ charms too. Even Teyla and the normally gruff Ronon enjoy his company. The only ones who seem immune to him are McKay and Sheppard, who begin investigating the pull Lucius has with nearly everyone he meets. Sheppard is able to keep giving Lucius the cold shoulder because he himself is suffering from a cold. But when Lucius begins convincing the crew to go on dangerous missions for him, giving him the Ancient gene therapy and even give him a puddle jumper, Sheppard begins trying to spread a few germs of his own.

story by Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
teleplay by Carl Binder
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Richard Kind (Lucius Lavin), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Julia Anderson (Willa)

Notes: Guest star Richard Kind is an old hand at the Stargate program – he was in the original Stargate movie, as Dr. Meyers.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A routine visit to a planet through the stagate is cut short when, instead of being open to trade, the locals call Ronon Dex a “Wraithbringer” and attack Sheppard’s party. McKay takes an arrow through the leg but still manages to return to Atlantis through the gate, but the others are hit by tranquilizer darts and taken captive. Apparently, Ronon has been here before, when he still had the runner implant that allowed the Wraith to track him; when the locals took him in on that occasion, the Wraith laid waste to their village in their hunt for him. The leader of the village, who lost his daughter in that attack, was given a homing device by the Wraith in the event their prey has returned, and he has already called them to retrieve Ronon. Ronon responds to this by threatening to kill himself before the Wraith arrive, unless the villagers release Sheppard and Teyla and let them return to Atlantis. By the time Sheppard can return with a full strike team, the village has been razed once more, and Ronon has been abducted. The Wraith implant another tracking device in Ronon, return him to his homeworld of Sateda, and begin the hunt again. But Ronon proves to be hard to kill – and when Sheppard tries to pull him out before he has settled his scores with the Wraith, Ronon can be even harder to rescue.

written by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Robert C. Cooper
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Frank Collison (Keturah), Chaiara Zanni (?), Curtis Caravaggio (?), Dan Payne (Big Wraith), David Pauls (Aton), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Todd Scott (Malik), Alexandra Carter (Linor), John Stewart (Villager), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell),
Kavan Smith (Major Lorne)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Yet another gate expedition takes the team to another Lantean city, though this one is merely one part of a planet which has raised the art of city-building to a grand scale. Dr. Weir immediately tries to open negotiations for additional ZPMs to power Atlantis, but those negotiations break down quickly with the Oberoth, the city’s leader, who is fixated on destroying the Wraith at a time and place of his own choosing – to the exclusion of all else, and regardless of who else dies in the meantime. Weir and the rest of her team notice that the other residents of the city don’t seem to share Oberoth’s sentiments, and then the visitors from Atlantis are locked up. During an escape attempt, they learn the horrible truth – the inhabitants of the grand city aren’t Ancients, and aren’t even humans. They’re Replicators, similar to the fast-spreading artificial life forms that SG-1 and the Goa’uld defeated with the Ancient weapon at Dakara. These Replicators were created by the Ancients to fight the Wraith and then tried to destroy when they became too aggressive. Some of the Replicators want to discard their aggressive programming, but can’t do that without someone reprogramming them. But even if McKay can manage such a feat, Oberoth may have evolved beyond anyone’s ability to control him…and Atlantis may now be the target of a new enemy.

story by Robert C. Cooper and Carl Binder
teleplay by Carl Binder
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: David Odgen Stiers (Oberoth), John O’Callaghan (Niam), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Hellena Taylor (Council Member #1), Kerry Sandomirsky (Council Member #2), Chuck Campbell (Technician)

Notes: The nanovirus that nearly wiped out the Atlantis expedition was cured in the season episode Hot Zone. The Replicators that persistently battled SG-1 first appeared in Nemesis at the end of the third season of that series, though human-form Replicators didn’t appear until the sixth season episode Unnatural Selection.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Dr. Weir’s day is not off to a good start. She awakens in a mental hospital and finds that the Atlantis mission has – according to psychiatrist Dr. Fletcher and his staff – been a hallucinatory fantasy she has clung to in the wake of a traumatic accident. General Jack O’Neill, who Weir believes to be part of the “Stargate program,” visits her to reassure her that there is, in fact, no such program. Plagued by persistent visions of something stalking her, Weir finally stops resisting treatment and, according to Fletcher, shows signs of improving drastically. At this point, however, Weir’s grip on reality is loosened when she opens a door and finds herself staring into the stargate’s event horizon itself. Is she losing her mind, or is this vision an indication that the Atlantis mission is real, and her crew is trying to retrieve her?

written by Carl Binder
directed by Paul Ziller
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O’Neill), Alan Ruck (Dr. Fletcher), John O’Callaghan (Niam), James Bamford (Orderly)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Following a signal they believe was sent by Ladon, the Genii scientist who led an overthrow of his warlike government, Sheppard and his team are ambushed. He finds that Kolya, the leader of that overthrown regime, is his captor. Kolya demands that Ladon be handed over to him, or else he’ll unleash another of his prisoners – a captured Wraith – to feed on Sheppard. He even broadcasts a brief and torturous demonstration of his threat to Atlantis. Weir and Ladon begin to plan a rescue mission, while Sheppard tries to appeal to the only person who can possibly understand his plight – the Wraith prisoner. Together they manage to escape from Kolya’s prison, though Sheppard is already weakened from several brief feeding sessions. Even with help coming from Atlantis, can Sheppard expect to live long enough to be rescued when his life depends on a Wraith?

written by Ken Cuperus
directed by William Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Robert Davi (Kolya), Christopher Heyerdahl (Wraith), Ryan Robbins (Ladon), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Paul Lazenby (Genii Soldier), Geoff Redknap (Old Sheppard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rodney is called back to Earth to deal with a family emergency – his sister, Jeanie Miller, has written a scientific proof that could be a turning point in Atlantis’ energy problems, drawing zero point energy through a bridge to a parallel universe, on a scale much larger than a ZPM could provide. But Jeanie won’t sign a confidentiality agreement with the U.S. government that would allow her to do further research with the Stargate program. Though Carter hopes Rodney can talk her into helping, it quickly becomes apparent that Rodney is even less likely to convince his sister, not having spoken to her since she abandoned a promising career in theoretical physics to start a family. After a short demonstration that the Stargate program is for real, and interstellar and intergalactic travel are possible, she agrees to return to Atlantis to help test her theory. The one thing that she expects even less than all of these discoveries, however, is that along with energy from another universe, her theory will introduce her to another version of her brother from that universe. The alternate Rodney has a completely different personality, quickly endearing himself even to those Atlantis crew members who are tired of their own version of him. But his arrival could mean the end of both universes.

written by Martin Gero
excerpt written by Carl Binder
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Amanda Tapping (Colonel Samantha Carter), Kate Hewlett (Jeanie), David Nykl (Dr. Zelekna), Brendan Call (Kaleb), Madison Bell (Madison), Trevor Devall (voice of Hermiod), Sheri Noel (Scientist)

Notes: Rodney’s full name is revealed to be Meredith Rodney McKay, something which seems to delight Carter to no end. Rodney’s video message to his sister was recorded in season 1’s Letters From Pegasus, but apparently she didn’t receive it.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

When an SG team from Atlantis fails to check in for six hours, another team led by Sheppard goes looking for them. But when Sheppard’s team finds on the other side of the stargate is horrifying – several deal bodies, in Genii uniform, have all been killed in violent ways – gunshots, stab wounds, broken necks and even suicide. There’s no sign of the missing Atlantis team, but there is an unusual energy reading which is eventually traced to a cavern containing a device of Wraith origin. As Rodney begins investigating the machine, Sheppard finds most of the missing Atlantis team, again killed violently – and their commanding officer is still out there, though he thinks that his Atlantis crewmates are the enemy. But Ronon and Sheppard begin to experience paranoid hallucinations that make them just as dangerous as the man they’re trying to bring home safely, and soon Sheppard poses more of a threat to his own team.

written by Carl Binder
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: David Nykl (Dr. Zelekna), Dexter Bell (Lt. Barroso), Nels Lennarson (Captain), Colby Johannson (Lt. Kagan), Gidon Karmel (Major Leonard), Anna Williams (Female Tech), Patrick Sabongui (Taliban Guard), Bam Bam (Wraith), Dan Payne (Super Soldier)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The gate network connecting Atlantis to Earth via a series of stargates and the under-construction Midway Space Station is tested successfully, but an even bigger surprise arrives in the form of an Ancient warship, similar to the Aurora, which appears to be damaged and in need of help. When the Daedalus renders assistance and brings those Ancients back to Atlantis, the captain of the Ancient ship manages to lock out Weir’s crew by activating a single control that none of the Earth expedition has ever seen before. When General O’Neill tries to negotiate a treaty allowing the Earth team to stay there, he is told in no uncertain terms that the Atlanteans are back, and don’t intend to share their city with anyone. Dr. Weir and her team are sent home, while Wolsey from the IOC is assigned to Atlantis to serve as liaison, and General O’Neill remains with him while he’s there. On Earth, Sheppard is quickly assigned to head up his own SG team, though he never quite finds the kind of bond with them that he had with his Atlantis teammates. McKay is assigned to Area 51. Weir slides into a reclusive depression, and Teyla and Ronon stay in the Pegasus Galaxy with the Athosians (though the Genii try to recruit them as soldiers of fortune soon after learning of the Ancients’ return). But when a desperate message is received from Atlantis, indicating that Atlantis has fallen to the Replicators, trapping (and possibly killing) Wolsey and O’Neill, Weir and her team offer to spring into action – but the only help General Landry wants from them is a way to hit Atlantis with a nuke to prevent the Replicators from using the gate network to travel to Earth. With no orders, no backup, an nowhere they’d rather be, Weir, Sheppard, McKay and Beckett steal a jumper from the SGC and return to take Atlantis back.

written by Martin Gero
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O’Neill), Robert Picardo (Wolsey), Ryan Robbins (Ladon), Megan Leitch (Ancient Captain), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Harriman), David MacInus (Talus), Pinou (Cetus), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Beau Bridges (General Landry), Kirby Morrow (Daedalus Tech), Chuck Campbell (Atlantis Tech), Andrew Monham (Wallace), Elias Toufexis (Replicator), James Chutter (Babbis)

Notes: Dr. Beckett has been offered the head surgeon position at the SGC, which, combined with the absence of Lexa Doig from the tenth season of Stargate SG-1, makes one wonder what’s happened to Dr. Lam. In other SGC news, apparently Dr. Lee is an avid player of World Of Warcraft. And wishes Dr. Weir really was too. Megan Leitch previous appeared in SG-1’s third season (Past And Present) as Ke’ra, and played the pivotal recurring character of Mulder’s missing sister Samantha on The X-Files; she also voiced Midori in the English dub of Ranma 1/2.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Defying General Landry’s orders, a team consisting of Weir, Sheppard, McKay, Teyla and Ronon returns to Atlantis, dropping a bomb in the gate room and then making a run for it. Sheppard contacts O’Neill and tells him that the team will return in two hours. In that time, Sheppard pilots the jumper into orbit to retrieve the still-intact (and still-frozen) body of Niam, to use as a vehicle for a new virus to disable the replicators. But when that plan doesn’t pan out, both Sheppard’s team and the less-than-dynamic duo of O’Neill and Woolsey have to improvise an escape plan. As the rescue attempt becomes more desperate, and O’Neill and Woolsey have to rescue their rescuers, time is running out before O’Neill’s last standing order to the SGC is carried out: if a hostile force gains control of Atlantis, the city must be nuked, and the gate network linkng Atlantis to the SGC must be destroyed.

written by Martin Gero
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O’Neill), Robert Picardo (Wolsey), John O’Callaghan (Niam), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Harriman), David MacInus (Talus), Pinou (Cetus), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Beau Bridges (General Landry), Kirby Morrow (Daedalus Tech), Elias Toufexis (Replicator), Kerry Blouin (Replicator Guard), Patrick Lambier (Replicator Guard)

Notes: Niam was first encountered, and promptly ejected into space, earlier this season in Progeny.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rodney spots a familiar face swimming in the ocean near Atlantis – well, more of a familiar flipper, belonging to the enormous, whale-like creature that helped his colleagues find his jumper when it crash-landed in the water. But it’s not alone this time – another creature of the same species is with it, and more are converging on Atlantis. Their appearance coincides with a series of strange sightings in the city itself, as first Teyla, then Dr. Weir, then Dr. Beckett, see visions of Ancients who aren’t there. Sheppard and Rodney go to investigate the water creatures, only to find that their whalesong-like communications are potentially fatal to humans. Aboard the Daedalus, Colonel Caldwell makes a strong argument for killing the creatures before they wreak any more havoc, and when Beckett’s sick bay is full of people who are literally dying from the whales’ approach, it’s a plan that Weir finds it hard to disagree with.

story by Brad Wright & Carl Binder
telelplay by Carl Binder
directed by William Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Claire Rankin (Dr. Heightmeyer), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Mitch Pileggi (Col. Caldwell), Patricia Nudd (Ancient Woman), David Neale (Ancient Pilot), David Quinlan (Ancient Scientist), Amanda Burke (Ancient Scientist), Michael Chase (Ancient Med Tech)

Notes: Rodney originally had a whale of a time in the ocean in Grace Under Pressure, and nicknames his aquatic friend “Sam” in honor of that occasion (whether or not Colonel Samantha Carter would actually find this to be flattering remains to be seen).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Sheppard’s team makes a stop at a planet where the people in one village speak of a valiant, unstoppable hero. Sheppard is understandably both annoyed and just a little bit let down when that hero turns out to be Lucius, the con man who nearly took over Atlantis. But this time, Lucius insists, he’s not up to his old tricks – he really is unstoppable, thanks to an Ancient personal shield. But what he’s saving the town from turns out to be nothing more than a band of Genii mercenaries who have become stranded on the planet. Shortly after Sheppard appears, more Genii arrive – under Kolya’s command – and threaten to destroy the town unless the visitors from Atlantis are handed over. This time, it’s not an act, and the townsfolk, who have grown complacent thanks to their hero, will have to help Sheppard and the others. But is Lucius capable of turning these people into an army?

written by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith and Neil Acree

Guest Cast: Richard Kind (Lucius), Dean Wray (Genii), Meredith McGeachie (Wench), Robert Davi (Kolya), Adam Bergquist (Amaris), Jon Cuthbert (Fortnum), Ashley O’Connell (Fruit Stand Owner)

Notes: Lucius was first encountered in Irresistible, while Kolya was last seen in Common Ground. An Ancient personal shield similar to the one worn by Lucius was found by Rodney in the first season episode Hide And Seek. At first glance, this would seem to be a strong candidate for Kolya’s last appearance, but he’s proven hard to kill before.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rodney and a science team unseal a room in Atlantis that hasn’t been touched since the Ancients lived in the city. Rodney reactivates a dormant control console, which somehow singles him out to receive a massive mental “upgrade,” giving him abilities such as telekinesis and even the capacity to read minds. He sets about trying to upgrade the city via a newly enhanced neural link, but his upgrade is cut short when his teammates learn the cost of Rodney’s new powers – the enhancements to his mind are drastically shortening the lifespan of his physical body. Rodney has mere days to learn how to ascend as the Ancients did…or die.

written by Damian Kindler
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith and Neil Acree

Guest Cast: Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Leela Savasta (Esposito), Donna Soares (Coleman), Chuck Campbell (Technician)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Major Lorne leads an expedition to a planet surrounded by geosynchronous satellites, a good candidate for an advanced civilization. But when he and his team land there, they find that the planet’s residents are in stone-age villages – decorated with banners and flags bearing the face of Rodney McKay. What’s even more alarming is that McKay and Sheppard recognize these images: they’re duplicates of an image McKay used to denote his “country” in the Ancient equivalent of a multi-player computer “god game.” When Sheppard and McKay go to this planet to see for themselves, they discover that their respective “societies” reflect their own personal ideologies, with McKay’s civilization pursuing rapid advances in science and only raising an army in response to the more aggressive advances that form the basis of Sheppard’s society. But the differences in the world views of the “Oracles” giving them their orders is about to drive the two civilizations to a very real war.

story by Don Whitehead & Holly Henderson
telelplay by Carl Binder
directed by William Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith and Neil Acree

Guest Cast: Laura Harris (Nola), David Dayan Fisher (Baden), Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), James Long (Helkin), John Shaw (Garth)

LogBook entry by Earl Green