“The truth is that Martin [Gero] has wanted to do a heist episode ever since the first season of the show,” script coordinator Alex Levine tells fans in his scifi.com blog. “[For] this two-parter – first part entitled ‘First Contact’, second part entitled ‘The Lost Tribe’ – there were already some partly developed concepts in the mix. Firstly, since the Replicator story line has pretty much concluded, there was general consensus that a new villain was needed in the Pegasus galaxy. And Martin had a visual idea of a race of xenophobes or mysophobes (look it up!). Secondly, Alan had suggested doing some sort of story regarding Janus’ long forgotten lab on Atlantis. Thirdly, they had all planned to do a story bringing Daniel Jackson back to Atlantis. So all these story lines converge to bring you this mid-season two parter.”
Dr. Daniel Jackson discovered Atlantis, and when he pitched the idea of going there, he seemed pretty excited about the opportunity to explore the legendary Lost City of the Ancients himself. He recognized that Atlantis had the potential of being the mother lode of advanced knowledge, technology, and weapons that Stargate Command was originally commissioned to find to aid in the defense of Earth. After a few failed attempts, Daniel finally got to see Atlantis for the first time, but it was under grim circumstances that didn’t allow him time to study and explore like he was meant to do.
Finally, after the defeat of the Ori, Daniel has been given the opportunity to study the history of Atlantis and its people. He already knew Moros, the last High Councilor of Atlantis at the time of the Ancient-Wraith war 10,000 years ago (Daniel knew him as Merlin and he actually harbored the Ancient’s consciousness for a time) and Ganos Lal (she went by the name of Morgan Le Fay and helped Daniel and his team win the war against the Ori).
A third Lantian Ancient that Daniel knew about was Janus, the scientist who built a time machine in a puddle jumper that Daniel helped discover on a planet in the Milky Way. Janus had created an identical time machine 10,000 years ago during the Ancient-Wraith War, and he carried his research with him to Earth when the last of his people abandoned Atlantis (“Before I Sleep”). Janus had played a significant role in saving the city from flooding once the Atlantis Expedition set foot in it.
And now, “Daniel, as his hobby of studying the Ancients, has been doing some research and comes to Atlantis with the idea that he might actually be able to track down this secret lab that Janus had that has is yet to be discovered on Atlantis,” Michael Shanks told Gateworld in a recent interview. “And he needs some help doing that. So he enlists Rodney McKay to help him track this thing down.”
Remarkably, Janus’s lab has remained intact through all of the city’s many plights since the Expedition arrived. It holds some major secrets, including a very powerful weapon. “And by making this discovery,” executive producer Joseph Mallozzi told Cinema Blend, “they alert an alien race that also happens to be looking or have been in the midst of seeking out this device that they end up discovering. This alien race ends up coming to Atlantis and it’s not a, I guess, a friendly house call you would say. Again, I don’t want to give too much away about the race but they’re kind of an interesting player that we introduce in the midseason two-parter.”
Shanks told TV Guide, “Then a batch of unexpected villains shows up. Let’s just say, Daniel has a history with them.”
Mallozzi explained further about these aliens in his weblog, “I had pitched out the idea that given the wraith’s weakened position in the Pegasus Galaxy as a result of the heavy losses they had suffered over the past year, it would make sense for advanced civilizations that had been in hiding for hundreds of years might seize the opportunity presented by the shift in the galactic status quo to make themselves known. We went back and forth on who these aliens might be until Rob came up with a clever spin on a familiar notion. So we had our villains and we had their backstory. All we needed now was a motive. And it came compliments of Alan McCullough who pitched out an idea about the team discovering a secret lab on Atlantis that was once the workplace of the enigmatic Ancient Janus.
“With all of the major pieces in place, Marty G. took the week to spin it in his head, we all gathered and broke the two parter, then he wrote the script. That was easy part. Then, it came time to design the look of these new interstellar baddies. Well, we knew what we wanted. Something cool-looking. And we knew what we didn’t want: lycra, shiny plastic bits, and enormous cod-pieces (q.v. SG-1 super soldier). After much discussion between Mary G. and Production Designer James Robbins, the villains were given their look: sleek, nefarious, body armor chic. Check ‘em out in the posted pics. And in … First Contact, the first part of our spectacular mid-season two-parter.”
Mallozzi has also told fans in his weblog that there are three storylines in this two-parter, which means that the main characters are split up: McKay is with Daniel; Woolsey, Keller, and Ronon are with Col. Caldwell and his crew on the Daedalus as they meet with Todd and some of his Wraith concerning the testing of Dr. Keller’s treatment to allow this particular alliance of Wraith to survive without feeding on humans (introduced in “The Queen”); and Sheppard and Teyla are left in charge of the city. And, as usual, things go wonky and all three storylines dovetail into one big one, as Levine explained, “Martin also mentioned that normally the mid-season two-parter works within the existing season story arc and spins the action of that arc towards a new direction, effectively setting up the back half of the season. This is completely different, however. He likened it to a two episode stand alone movie.”
See how one discovery can have a ripple effect across the galaxy tonight at 10pm ET on the Sci Fi Channel.
Preview Videos – Beware of Spoilers! –
Recent High-Profile Interview –
Solutions Coverage –
- Episode Guide (spoilers and additional links to interviews and other articles about this episode)
- On site forum: SGA S5 Discussion Board
- Live Journal
NOTE: Part Two, “The Lost Tribe”, will air at 9pm ET on October 10. The remainder of Season Five’s episodes will air in this new timeslot.
[Images from MGM Official Stargate website and Sci Fi’s Atlantis website.]