Category: Stargate Atlantis

Brought before the Queen on a Wraith hive ship, Sheppard puts up the best resistance he can muster to her interrogation…and is startled to find that it seems to be working. Due to the Wraith enzyme that Ford has flooded his bloodstream with, Sheppard is immune to the Wraith, as are the other prisoners. On the planet, Rodney subjects himself to a massive dose of the enzyme, enough to send himself into a state somewhere between a berzerker rage and schizophrenia so he can disarm Ford’s guards, repair the DHD at the stargate and escape to Atlantis. Once he sounds the alarm – and rants and raves a lot – Colonel Caldwell and the Prometheus leave Atlantis to take out the approaching hive ship, and rescue Sheppard’s team at the same time if possible. With Ford and Ronon still competing with each other fiercely, Sheppard leads a prison break, but he lands his entire team back in the cell when he stops to assist other human prisoners that he didn’t even know were there. But spending time with one of these humans opens Sheppard’s eyes to new avenues of escaping the Wraith – and new threats.

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

Guest Cast: Rainbow Sun Francks (Aiden Ford), Aaron Abrams (Kanayo), Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), Jenn Bird (Neera), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), James Lafaznos (Male Wraith), Andee Frizzell (Hive Queen), Woody Jeffreys (Bouncer), Aleks Holtz (Guard), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Kirby Morrow (Airman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Colonel Sheppard and his team find an unusual gateway on a planet, surrounded by Ancient runes. When Sheppard steps through it, after several tests have shown the energy gate to be harmless, he’s trapped on the other side. Worse yet, Dr. McKay discovers that time is passing much faster on Sheppard’s side of the gate – for every minute that the team debates what to do, days pass for Sheppard, and for every hour that it takes to formulate a plan, months pass. Forced to move on and find food, Sheppard finds a peaceful village whoses residents spend their time meditating and preparing for ascension – and being terrorized by a gigantic beast whose shadowy form he can barely make out even in broad daylight. After taking on the monster twice, Sheppard becomes a hero to the villagers, but he’s disturbed that they seem more than content to let him continue fighting their battles for him. McKay finally works out the function of the gateway – its time-shifted environment is meant to serve as a safe, Wraith-proof shelter for Ancients who are still struggling on the path to ascension. But before Sheppard can escape, and before the Ancients he now calls friends can ascend, the beast must be faced without his intervention.

story by Brad Wright & Joe Flanigan
teleplay by Brad Wright
directed by Neil Fearnley
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Chad Morgan (Teer), David McNally (Avrid), Nicole Munoz (Hedda), Scott Miller (Pilot), Glenn Ennis (Monster)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Mere moments before the stargate in Atlantis dials Earth for a routine briefing with General Landry, Rodney stops the process – Landry has sent word that he’s learned a bomb will detonate in Atlantis that next time Earth’s address is dialed. As Rodney begins frantically trying to find a way to locate and disable the bomb, Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard must do the unthinkable – they have to consider everyone in Atlantis a suspect and question them accordingly. Weir’s top candidate is the constantly disgruntled Dr. Kavanagh, who has voiced misgivings about her leadership on many occasions. When Rodney traces the bomb to the ZPM powering Atlantis’ gate and shields, he simply disables that power source…but his doing that activates a signal that gets the attention of two Wraith ships. Without the ZPM, Atlantis is vulnerable to discovery and attack. With the ZPM activated, the entire city is a ticking time bomb. As time runs short, Dr. Weir finds herself agreeing with Sheppard and Ronon that more aggressive interrogation techniques may be needed. But how far will they go when they’re not even sure they have the right man?

story by Brad Wright & Carl Binder
teleplay by Carl Binder
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith
song: “Beyond The Night” by Joel Goldsmith / vocals by Rachel Luttrell

Guest Cast: Beau Bridges (General Landry), Jaime Ray Newman (Lt. Cadman), Ellie Harvie (Dr. Novak), Ben Cotton (Dr. Kavanagh), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Peter Flemming (Agent Barrett), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Brenda McDonald (Charin), Chuck Campbell (Atlantis Technician), Trevor Devall (voice of Hermiod)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rodney and fellow Atlantis crewmember Griffin take a recently repaired puddle jumper out on a proving flight, with Rodney in a near-panic that the ship, which has been refitted after suffering serious damage, will never be spaceworthy again. As it turns out, that’s the least of his problems. On approach to land at Atlantis, the jumper’s engines malfunction and the little ship plunges into the ocean seconds after Griffin fires off a desperate distress call to Atlantis. At 1,200 feet beneath the surface of the ocean and falling, the jumper must now prove itself to be seaworthy… and again, it fails the test, as the cockpit begins to buckle under the pressure. Rodney and Griffin try to retreat to the rear compartment and close the pressure hatch to the cockpit, but when he realizes that only the cockpit’s hatch controls are still working, Griffin sacrifices himself to save Rodney’s life. Still plummeting toward the ocean floor, Rodney is now facing his own extinction at a depth that none of Atlantis’ craft can hope to reach for a rescue, and worse yet, he’s facing it alone…or so he thinks at first.

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

Guest Cast: Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), William MacDonald (Griffin), Peter Abrams (Donaldson), Nimet Kanji (Bryce)

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

A single-person escape pod recovered in deep space contains an elderly woman barely hanging on to life, and Dr. Weir is enthusiastic about the possibility that she may be an Ancient. Something from the pod has a drastic effect on Weir, however – when she comes to, she seems to be carrying the personality of the woman in the pod, and she seeks a volunteer to be the recipient of a second personality housed within the pod, claiming it is her husband. Sheppard offers to help the woman say a final farewell to her spouse…but when he accepts the new personality, everyone quickly discovers that the two personalities aren’t husband and wife, but blood enemies who have each pledged to destroy the other. The problem is that they quickly arm their new bodies and attempt to resolve the war of which they are the last two fighters – regardless of whether Atlantis or any of its crew get in the way.

written by Damian Kindler
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Gerry Durand (Sergeant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Ladon, a Genii scientist who served under Kolya during his attempt to invade Atlantis, contacts the city asking for help in curing a disease that some of the Genii have contracted. In exchange, he offers them a much-needed ZPM. Despite reservations about dealing with the Genii again, Weir cautiously offers to do the deal after Sheppard does an investigation. The story Sheppard finds, however, is different from the one that Ladon has told – he discovers that Ladon has apparently started a rebellion within the ranks of the Genii, taking an even more ruthless stance than Cowen. Based on this information, which a conversation with Cowen himself seems to confirm, Weir decides that Ladon’s offer is a con. Sheppard hatches a new plan: he should lead a special ops team to take the ZPM from Ladon by force. But when the plan is put into action, it seems that the rumors of Ladon’s resistance have been exaggerated…though the rumors of his ruthlessness are right on the money.

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

Guest Cast: Ryan Robbins (Ladon), Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), Sonja Bennett (Dahlia), Colm Meaney (Cowen), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Penelope Corrin (Dr. Lindsay), David Joffre (Barkeep), Meg Roe (Young Barkeep), Jon Johnson (Security Team Member)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Lt. Michael Kenmore awakens in Atlantis, surrounded by Dr. Weir, Dr. Beckett and Colonel Sheppard. They inform him that he’s suffering from a traumatic memory blackout after being attacked by the Wraith, but that he’ll recover. When he meets more of the crew, Michael feels safe, and yet he’s troubled by dreams, visions, and impulses. He tries to pry into his own past to jog his memory, but Beckett urges him not to try to take in too much information at once. Everyone seems overprectective of Michael, except for Ronon, who attacks him without provocation. When Michael finally does dig deep enough to find out how he came to be at Atlantis, however, he learns that he’s not the man everyone has told him he is, he’s not a member of the Atlantis crew, and he’s not even human – and never has been.

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

Guest Cast: Connor Trinneer (Michael), Claire Rankin (Dr. Heightmeyer), Doug Chapman (Cole), James Lafaznos (Wraith Michael)

Note: Connor Trinneer co-starred on all four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise as Chief Engineer “Trip” Tucker.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Responding to a distress call from an base built by the Ancients on the planet Taranis, Sheppard and his team find a civilization facing extinction. Rodney discovers that the Ancients’ base is built in the caldera of a dormant supervolcano, but when the locals occupied the empty facility and turned its shields on full-time, the resulting increase in geothermal energy brought the volcano back to an active state. Now, Rodney faces a conundrum – if he turns off the base’s shields, the volcanic activity will destroy it, but leaving the shields on will almost certainly trigger a major eruption that could render Taranis uninhabitable. The locals also have another treasure worth preserving – a ship almost identical to the destroyed Aurora is berthed in the base’s hangar. Sheppard and Weir’s interest in the ship arouses suspicions though, enough that the Atlantis team may not be trusted to evacuate the base. Unsure that the Aurora’s sister ship can be readied in time for a full-scale evacuation, Weir orders Colonel Caldwell to divert the Daedalus to Taranus – even though it can’t evacuate everyone. And on Atlantis, sensors warn of a lone approaching Wraith hive ship…

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

Guest Cast: Kevin McNulty (Chancellor Lycus), Brandy Ledford (Dr. Norina Pero), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Patrich Gallagher (Vonos), Trevor Devall (voice of Hermiod)

Notes: Brandy Ledford was a member of the regular cast of Andromeda during its fifth and final season as Doyle. The Aurora was introduced – and destroyed – in this season’s episode Aurora.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Atlantis cloaks before the arrival of the hive ship, which is still en route, unaccompanied by any other Wraith ships. Daedalus and the newly-christened Ancient ship Orion lay in wait just beyond the Wraith’s sensor range. Despite the measures taken to hide Atlantis, the Wraith ship hails the city anyway, asking for Dr. Weir by name and proposing an alliance. It seems that the revival of Atlantis awakened too many Wraith, too early – and even in Atlantis there aren’t enough humans to sustain the entire species. The proposal is simple: in return for continuing to conceal Atlantis’ continued existence, Michael’s Wraith faction wants the retrovirus created by Dr. Beckett to revert Wraiths into humans – humans which the Wraith who possess the virus will then feed upon, leaving Dr. Weir and her crew alone. Weir and Beckett wrestle with the ethical implications of creating a new races of humans in the Pegasus Galaxy, only to sacrifice them to the Wraith, but as the uneasy alliance progresses, it seems that the Wraith do indeed have a larger source of food in mind…but not in Atlantis’ galaxy.

written by Martin Gero
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Brent Stait (Wraith Michael), Connor Trinneer (Michael), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), James Lafaznos (Male Wraith), Andee Frizzell (Hive Queen), Sherry Noel (Lab Assistant), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Kirby Morrow (Daedalus Technician), Trevor Devall (voice of Hermiod)

Notes: Despite receiving a guest starring credit, Connor Trinneer only appeared in “flashback” footage from Michael; Trinneer was unavailable to reprise his role for this episode. Taking over for him was Brent Stait, who played Rev Bem during the early seasons of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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