Sci Fi Wire: Atlantis Adds New Race

SCI FI WIRE has published yet another article coming out of the Sci Fi Channel-sponsored Digital Media Tour held in the Stargate Atlantis standing set at Bridge Studios in Vancouver on June 26. This time, we hear about the new race being introduced in Season Four, the Travelers (in the episode aptly entitled, “Travelers”).

Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi told SCI FI WIRE that the Pegasus Galaxy needed a technologically advanced race, since most of the human societies in the galaxy had been prevented from advancing too far by the constant cullings of the Wraith. This new race have managed to survive by living on a spaceship after the destruction of their homeworld. They visit other planets destroyed by the Wraith to salvage what they can, adding to their spaceship’s “rustic” appearance. Mallozzi said that the ship is “a lot more like the Nostromo [from the film Alien] than the Enterprise, with clean lines.”

Also adding to the Travelers’ appeal is their “hot leather”, according to actor David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay), who was also at the press conference along with Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan) and executive producer Paul Mullie.

Mallozzi also said that the introduction of the Travelers was a move to keep Atlantis from continuing the use of alien races and villains from Stargate SG-1. He said, “In terms of the bigger story elements, like the Ori and the Goa’uld, I don’t think we want to go there. Just because Atlantis has fairly well established its own burgeoning mythology with the Wraith and the human-form replicators, I don’t think we want to go there right now.”

Season Four of Stargate Atlantis will make its world premiere on the Sci Fi Channel on Friday, September 28, 2007.

To read the entire article, visit SCI FI WIRE: Atlantis Adds New Race.