SGA 4.05 "Travelers" Episode Guide

Précis

Sheppard becomes the prisoner of a group of ship-faring people known as the Travelers who wish to use his Ancient gene to reactivate long-dormant Ancient technology — specifically, an Ancient Aurora-class battle ship.

Guide | Transcript

MGM/SciFi.com Official Summary

While flying a Jumper home from a research outpost, John Sheppard is abducted by a group of wandering space-travelers. Aboard one of their huge but dilapidated vessels, the ship's second-in-command, a man named Silas, beats up Sheppard, hoping to discover where he's from.

When that doesn't work, the ship's commander, a hard-edged woman named Larrin, tells Sheppard that her people became perpetual space-dwellers long ago to avoid the Wraith. Now, with their fleet growing too decrepit to support them, they need Sheppard's help. They've discovered a derelict Ancient warship, and because Sheppard possesses the Ancient Technology Activation gene, he's the only man who can get it running for them. By way of incentive, Larrin adds that if Sheppard won't cooperate, she'll jettison him into space.

Sheppard, Larrin, Silas and a scientist named Nevik board the Ancient warship. It suffers from a massive radiation leak, but Larrin has put up shields to protect key areas of the ship from the deadly emissions. On the bridge, Silas and Nevik order Sheppard to activate the ship. Sheppard complies, flying it forward with a jerk that sends his guards careening into walls. He ties them up and jumps the ship into hyperspace. Soon, however, Larrin exposes the bridge to the lethal radiation, forcing Sheppard to drop out of hyperspace and surrender to her if he wants to live.

Left behind by the hyperspace jump, the rest of Larrin's fleet starts tracking her down. Similarly, in Atlantis, McKay discovers an S.O.S. signal that Sheppard has rigged the Ancient ship to broadcast, so a rescue party departs immediately to its coordinates.

Unfortunately, a Wraith ship spots the signal, too, and attacks. Larrin reluctantly frees Sheppard so that he can fight back using the Ancient ship's weapons. He destroys the Wraith ship, but not before it knocks out the Ancient ship's hyperdrive and kills Silas and Nevik.

Now stranded and alone, Sheppard and Larrin are stuck in a tense stalemate, both hoping that their own rescuers arrive first. Sheppard takes over the ship's control room, but Larrin flees into the bowels of the ship. There, she comes face-to-face with a Wraith intruder, part of a boarding party that escaped the Wraith ship before its destruction. Sheppard saves her, but a life-signs detector reveals that more Wraith are also onboard. Outnumbered by their mutual enemies, Larrin and Sheppard must now work together even if it kills them — and it might.

Cast

• Joe Flanigan as Lt. Col. John Sheppard
• Amanda Tapping as Col. Samantha Carter
• Rachel Luttrell as Teyla Emmagan
• Jason Momoa as Ronon Dex
• and David Hewlett as Dr. Rodney McKay

Guest Stars

• Jill Wagner as Larrin
• Kavan Smith as Maj. Lorne
• Sean Rogerson as Nevik
• Michael Cram as Silas
• Scott Heindl as Wraith
• Chris Kalhoon as Crewman

Production

• Written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
• Directed by William Waring

Related Articles

Keywords

• Ancient Gene
• Ancients
• Aurora
• Atlantis
• Puddle Jumper
• Wraith

Other

• Season Four Episode Guides
• Episode Guides
• Season Four Transcripts
• Transcripts

• Previous: SGA 4.04 "Doppelganger" Episode Guide
• Next: SGA 4.06 "Tabula Rasa" Episode Guide

Related Links

Official

• Official MGM Stargate Atlantis Website
• SciFi Channel 4.05 "Travelers" Episode Guide

Fan

• Solutions On-Site Forum: Season Four Discussion Board
• Solutions News and Spoiler Blog
• Stargate Screencaps: Season Four

Production Notes

• "a gift for all those of the Shep-whumping persuasion" (Joseph Mallozzi's blog)
• Joseph Mallozzi's one-word description of this episode is "rivalry". (Joseph Mallozzi's March 5 blog)
• "Joe Flanigan swung by the offices today to give us his thoughts on a couple of scripts. He LOVED Travelers. No surprise there." (Joseph Mallozzi's March 5 blog)
• "Thor94 writes: “Will we find real ally with advanced technology (…) beause there are ever 3 season and all people with advanced science was enemy(assurans,wraith,olesian) or destructed(ancient,people of "the ark")?” - Answers: Yup. Check out Travelers." (Joseph Mallozzi's March 19 blog)
• "Wil and I do a casting session for Travelers. This Larrin casting will be the death of me. [...] We talk to Paul Weber, our L.A. casting agent, regarding the Larrin part. Lots of interesting potential candidates." (Joseph Mallozzi's March 22 blog)
• "The lovely and talented Jill Wagner, formerly of Blade" has been cast as Larrin. (Joseph Mallozzi's March 27 blog)
• "As for which episodes fans should be looking forward to most for each member of the team - it‘s tough to say only because my opinion could be very different from fan opinion especially when you start factoring in the different fan factions. But, in my opinnion, I’d say: Travelers for Sheppard [...]" (Joseph Mallozzi's April 15 blog)
• "Jill is great as Larrin. Her group will put in at least one reappearance in the back of season four [see "Be All My Sins Remember'd"]." (Joseph Mallozzi's April 18 blog)
• "Yes, Travelers was a good size action episode for us. Jill is a friend of Jason's so I have met her last year and worked on Blade as well....the pilot of Blade that is....Blade 3 also but she was not in that. Jill is a fantastic sweetie and our cast loved having her around. Ashley [Earl, stunt double] was only one of her doubles for Blade.....Ashley is a friend of mine but she did not work on Travelers.....her other double Kylie Furneaux worked on the episode. We shot the episode "Missing" at the same time as Travelers so alot of my attention was over there, but you will love what gets on the screen all the same." (James "BamBam" Bamford's Gateworld Q&A, May 30)
• Carter will not be in this episode. (Joseph Mallozzi's June 2 blog)
• SCI FI WIRE's "Atlantis Adds New Race" features the Travelers. (July 12, 2007)
• "Watched the Day 2 Mix of Travelers yesterday. Great episode (Hey, Sheppard bruised and bloodied - what’s not to like?), and tremendous work on the part of Joel Goldsmith who produced a terrific score." (Joseph Mallozzi's August 2 blog)
• "I wanted to have a strong female character that was difficult for us to get a handle on, but who Sheppard had to rely on for his own strategic ends. So Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie wrote Travelers, which introduces a character who I think is going to become incredibly popular on the show. Her name is Larrin and she's this very sexy woman who kidnaps my character, beats the c**p out of him, then he beats the c**p out of her. They need each other and have to learn how to deal with one another." — Joe Flanigan, Starburst interview, published August 2007.
• "We introduced a new race called the Travelers just because we wanted to introduce a technologically advanced [race] to the Pegasus galaxy. It was something that was a little difficult to do because the Wraith tend to destroy technologically advanced races. So we created this race that are nomadic and live on ships, so they're never in one place long enough for the Wraith to catch up with them. What they essentially do is they travel from planet to planet that has been recently culled and they scavenge the technology that has been left behind and they use it to upgrade their ships. That was kind of an interesting facet to introduce this year as well. And we have an interesting character in the character of Larrin, who's their leader, played by Jill Wagner, who was on Blade: The Series. She's terrific." — Joseph Mallozzi in MSN TV Blog interview, September 27, 2007.
• About Larrin and the Travelers: "As I mentioned, they're kind of nomadic. They live on ships. They have an armada of ships and they go from planet to planet to scavenge technology. This race is a loose cannon. On the one hand, they're on the run from the Wraith. So obviously they're no friend to the Wraith. But on the other hand, they are on the lookout for new technology. So they take a particular interest in Atlantis and Sheppard in particular in an episode called "Travelers." He's on his way back to Atlantis in a puddle jumper and his puddle jumper gets ambushed. The fact that he has the Ancient gene is of particular interest to them because there's plenty of Ancient technology in the Pegasus galaxy and he could prove useful. Basically he and Larrin go head to head. [..] How can I describe her? A lot of the fans who have heard about her have compared her to Vala. I guess in some respects she is Vala-esque in that she's a loose cannon and independent. But she's a lot more grounded, a lot more no-nonsense, not as flighty as Vala. She's not a thief. She's the leader of her people. "A tough cookie" would be a good way to describe her." — Joseph Mallozzi in MSN TV Blog interview, September 27, 2007.

Further Reading

• Joseph Mallozzi's Blog
• James Bamford's GateWorld Q&A
• Solutions Spoiler Blog: "Travelers"
• Solutions Spoiler Blog: Casting for "Travelers"
• Sci Fi Wire: Atlantis Adds New Race
• Starbust #354, Interview with Joe Flanigan, August 2007
• MSN TV Blog: All About 'Stargate Atlantis' Season Four, interview with Joseph Mallozzi, September 27, 2007.
• Solutions: SGA "Travelers": Friend or Foe?

---

--DeeKayP 07:13, 1 June 2007 (PDT)