The second episode of the mid-season two-parter for Season Five of Stargate Atlantis, “The Lost Tribe”, had a casting call for a new female commander of a Travelers’ ship named Katana. She’s the “very attractive, no-nonsense ship’s commander” who is sent by Larrin to Atlantis on an investigation. Sheppard ends up enlisting Katana’s help in rescuing Dr. Daniel Jackson and Dr. Rodney McKay from a facility built by the Altantian Ancient Janus.
Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi wrote in his weblog the announcement of the casting for this new Traveler: “Over the weekend, I promised to give you all the scoop on Katana, the Traveler who will be making her first appearance in the mid-season two-parter. Well, I’m pleased to tell you that Daniella Alonso has been cast in the role. Those of you not familiar with Daniella’s work may want to check out her 11-episode arc in season two of Friday Night Lights. She was excellent in FNL and is doing a wonderful job for us on The Lost Tribe.”
According to her IMDb record, Alonso was born in New York, New York, and started out as a model. She has had recurring guest starring appearances in One Tree Hill and Friday Night Lights.
“The Lost Tribe” is shooting concurrently with the first-part episode, “First Contact”, both of which were written by Martin Gero. Gero is also the director in charge of the second unit and has been putting together the Jackson-McKay scenes while director Andy Mikita takes care of the rest of the two-parter. “First Contact” will most likely air September 12, if the Sci Fi Channel shows all of the episodes from the first half of the season without a break starting July 11 (at 10pm ET/PT). Alonso’s episode will probably not air until sometime in January 2009 if Sci Fi doesn’t show all 20 episodes straight through but puts several months between the first ten episodes and the last.
For more details (i.e., spoilers) concerning these and other episodes, visit the Season Five episode index in the Stargate Wiki.
[Thanks to Joseph Mallozzi for the picture of Alonso in her Katana costume.]