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

The official summary is not available as this episode has not yet aired in the United States.

Spoiler Summary

The Travelers might have started out evading the Wraith, but now, they live on a ship with hyperspace capability and land on planets when they need supplies or when they conduct trade. After having traveled in this way for so long, the lifestyle has become their identity.

Sheppard has been captured, beaten, and bound by the Travelers Silas, Nevik, and Larrin. Of the three, Larrin, a female leader with the title of “Commander”, continues interacting with Sheppard on an individual basis. She explains who they are and how they live. Larrin knows that Sheppard has the ATA gene and she knows of the Lantian technology. She calls the Ancients the Ancestors and tells Sheppard that they had heard rumors about a group of humans in the galaxy who were using the technology against the Wraith. The Travelers were curious, so they set up spy satellites near the gates in orbit (Space Gates) in order to encounter them. In Larrin’s words, “We got lucky.”

The satellite picked up Sheppard’s presence in his ship and attacked him because he was flying the puddle jumper, Lantian technology that requires the gene to operate. They took samples of his blood in order to configure a control interface adaptor. The device is not yet perfected, but the Travelers are hopeful it will eventually work. Until then, they’ve decided to use Sheppard as their interface to initialize a dormant Lantian battle ship similar to an Aurora class and make it operational once more.

NOTE: Spoiler information is subject to change as the episode is in production.

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
• Silas (Bridge Crew/Navigator)
• Nevik (Chief Science Officer)

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

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.

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

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