Stargate Atlantis

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Stargate Atlantis Program Team Leaders

Summary

This article covers the episodes of the spin-off Stargate Atlantis as it crosses stories with Stargate SG-1.

Précis

An elite team of explorers from Earth have embarked on a one-way trip to the Pegasus Galaxy to the legendary Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis. Their mission is to explore the galaxy and seek contact with advanced alien races, perhaps even the Ancients themselves, and acquire the technology to return home with increased weaponry and knowledge to aid in the defense of Earth.

Season One

1.01 "Rising Part 1"

Daniel discovers the location of Atlantis
Jack gives Atlantis Expedition Team a "Go"
Elizabeth leads her team through the stargate

From SciFi.com Official Episode Summary:

Several million years ago, in a beautiful alien city in Antarctica, a man and a woman in silver clothing—two of the Ancients who created the Stargates—look out a window sadly as the city rises out of the encroaching ice and flies away to the stars, leaving behind only a small outpost.

Present day: At the Ancients' abandoned outpost (discovered in the episode, 7.22 "Lost City Part 2"), Dr. Elizabeth Weir, head of the Stargate Atlantis project, rides an elevator with Lt. Aiden Ford down a deep shaft bored in the ice. Reaching the research facility below, they find Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Carson Beckett arguing over the fact that Beckett is afraid to sit in the Ancient chair that controls the most powerful weapons known to humankind — even though he possesses (and is the one who discovered) the mutant gene to which Ancient technology automatically responds. As Weir points out, only a handful of people have the gene, and every time one of them sits in the chair they learn more about the Ancients.

Dr. Daniel Jackson of Stargate Command then tells Weir and McKay of a remarkable discovery he's just made: The Stargate address to the Lost City of Atlantis is incomplete. On a white board he adds an eighth symbol—indicating that Atlantis is not on Earth nor even in their galaxy, but on a planet far, far away. And they can 'gate there.

As Gen. Jack O'Neill races to the outpost in a helicopter flown by Maj. John Sheppard, McKay convinces Beckett to sit in the chair. It activates and launches an Ancient drone weapon that almost destroys the helicopter. But thanks to Sheppard's fancy flying and Beckett's new-found ability to turn off his control, the chopper lands safely.

At the outpost, Daniel tells O'Neill that the Ancients flew their entire city to a dwarf galaxy called Pegasus. In order for an expedition to 'gate that far, they need to boost the Stargate with the Earth's sole ZPM (Zero Point Module), an Ancient energy source currently powering the outpost's defenses and is vital to Earth's defense against an alien attack. The 'gating may totally drain the ZPM.

And even if it didn't, there wouldn't be enough power to 'gate back.

O'Neill says no. But Daniel convinces him that by visiting the Ancients' city they could find more ZPMs and who knows what else to protect Earth. The expedition's a go, though O'Neill insists Daniel is too valuable here on Earth to join them. Weir is in charge, with Colonel Marshall Sumner as her military commander. After some reluctance, Sheppard—who, it has been discovered, has the most potent variable of the Ancient gene—joins the offworld expedition along with McKay, Beckett, a military compliment and a full crew of the best and the brightest representing more than dozen countries.

1.15 "Before I Sleep"

Alternate Timeline Elizabeth Weir in stasis
Janus, the Ancient builder of the timeship
Interior of Janus' timeship, showing time travel device

From SciFi.com Official Episode Summary:

Although Dr. Weir has told no one that today is her birthday, Maj. John Sheppard has found out. He gives her a gift: a ceramic jar made by one of the Athosians. Then he, Lt. Ford and Teyla go off to explore more uncharted areas of Atlantis.

The trio finds a lab with an Ancient stasis chamber. Incredibly, the chamber contains what appears to be a still-living, very old female Ancient. Later, Dr. Carson Beckett estimates the woman's physical age to be roughly 100 years. Technically, according to Dr. Rodney McKay, the woman is in a state of metabolic stasis—aging slowly but not entirely suspended. McKay calculates, based on the initial data he was able to access, that the woman has been in the stasis chamber for 10,000 years. Beckett worries that reviving her in her fragile state will kill her. Weir gives the order: Revive her.

In the infirmary, Weir is stunned when the woman, emancipated from the stasis chamber, awakens and recognizes her, McKay, and the entire Atlantis team. Her next utterance is even more confounding: She says she is Dr. Elizabeth Weir.

The elder Weir explains that she found a way to travel back in time, to when the Ancients lived in Atlantis. She has waited more than ten millennia in that stasis chamber for Team Atlantis to arrive.

When the elder Weir is strong enough, she tells everyone how relieved she is to see the city back on the ocean surface. It didn't rise when she and Team Atlantis first arrived in her timeline, because the city had no fail-safe. In her original timeline, Team Atlantis' arrival seriously drained the city's energy reserves and the shield collapsed. Water crashed in, flooding every room in the city. Everyone drowned except Sheppard, Weir and Zelenka; the trio escaped in a modified Jumper. Sheppard's Ancient gene had allowed him to activate the ship; suddenly, they were in space, with many Wraith vessels firing at them. The next thing the elder Weir remembers is awakening back in Atlantis ... 10,000 years in the past.

Janus, an Ancient scientist, told her that the Ancients had retrieved the Jumper from the ocean floor, and that she had been the only survivor of its crash. The ship was a time machine of Janus' design. He brought her before the Council, which was busy preparing to evacuate the city's occupants to Earth through the stargate. The Council, fearful of further time-tampering, denied Weir's request to return to her own time with a ZPM to prevent the shield from collapsing.

Despite the Council's ruling, Janus devised a plan: He showed Weir the three ZPMs that simultaneously power the city. Used in sequence, they could sustain the power needed to maintain the shield for the time required. The catch: someone had to remain behind to rotate the power from one to the other over thousands of years. To that end, Janus programmed the stasis chamber to awaken Weir periodically during her 10,000-year slumber. He also entered the commands to commence her final revival at the moment that the city's sensors indicated the presence of Team Atlantis, and he programmed a fail-safe system that would raise the city to the surface if power levels dropped below a critical threshold. Then he and the other Alantians evacuated, leaving Weir alone to do her job—a job well-done, as it turned out.

The younger Weir is sad that her older counterpart gave up her life. But the elder Weir feels that her adventure is just beginning, through her younger self. She tells Weir that the five stargate addresses on the note she had in her hand are to outposts—each one with a zero-point module: a gift from Janus. Then she passes away.

Dr. Weir puts the ashes of her older self in the ceramic jar that Sheppard gave to her, then scatters them over the city. Her older self has given her the ultimate birthday present: a future.

NOTE: The timeship introduced in this episode appears to be created using the same technology as the one SG-1 discovered on Harry Maybourne's planet in the episode, 8.13 "It's Good To Be King". Since Janus' timeship crashed 10,000 years ago in the Pegasus Galaxy and the timeship discovered in the Milky Way Galaxy was intact, it is possible that Janus created a new ship once he left Atlantis when the Ancients returned to Earth through the stargate 10,000 years ago.

1.17 "Letters From Pegasus"

Atlantis is tracking the approaching Wraith fleet
Elizabeth records a message
Carter at the SGC receives the transmission

From SciFi.com Official Episode Summary:

The situation at Atlantis is desperate. With three Wraith hive ships less than two weeks away, and with no way as yet to power up the city's force field, Dr. Weir, Dr. McKay, Maj. Sheppard, Lt. Ford and Teyla discuss their options.

McKay is proud to announce that he might have one viable plan: While they don't have enough power to send a person home from the Pegasus Galaxy, McKay figures that if they patch in all of Atlantis' power-generation capability, they might be able to establish a wormhole long enough to send a message. He can get them 1.3 seconds—enough time for him to send a high-compression data burst that could carry mission reports from all the senior staff, plus invaluable data about Atlantis and the Pegasus Galaxy. Weir approves the plan: They must warn Earth about the Wraith.

Meanwhile, Dr. Zelenka tracks the Wraith hive ships. They seem to go in and out of hyperspace periodically, to the point where he can approximate when and where they will do so again.

Weir discovers that there is enough room in the transmission to include private messages from team members to their loved ones. She puts Lt. Ford in charge of videotaping the messages. Aside from her own personal message, Weir records her condolences to the families of the brave team-members who have lost their lives during this mission.

On Earth, in the Cheyenne Mountain facility that is Stargate Command, there is unscheduled off-world activation. Lt. Col. Samantha Carter sees that it is a message ... from Atlantis.

NOTE: Joseph Mallozzi, producer of Stargate SG-1, said that where this episode fits into the Stargate SG-1 timeline has been deliberately left vague. Season Eight of Stargate SG-1 ended without any acknowledgement that this transmission was received. It is possible that it will be acknowledged in Season Nine.

1.20 "The Siege Part 2"

SG-1 with ZPM found in Egypt
Col. Dillon Everett of Stargate Command sent by Gen. O'Neill
Daedalus is Prometheus' sister-ship

From SciFi.com Official Episode Summary:

Atlantis is out of options: The remaining two Wraith hive ships are only hours away (one was destroyed in 1.19 "The Siege Part 1"). The Atlantis team has no choice but to evacuate. Weir orders the self-destruct set, the virus that will destroy the Ancient database downloaded and the Alpha site dialed.

Incoming wormhole: The IDC is from Stargate Command. Colonel Dillon Everett and a platoon of Marines arrive with a massive arsenal of small arms. Everett salutes Dr. Weir and conveys General Jack O'Neill's compliments on a job well done under extraordinary circumstances. He then relieves her of command by presenting signed authorization from O'Neill himself. Everett's first order: Cancel the self-destruct. He and his troops are here to defend Atlantis at all costs.

Everett is up to speed on Atlantis' situation, having gone over every scrap of information in the compressed data message the team sent weeks earlier. He explains how a ZPM was found in Egypt during an archeological dig (from 8.19 "Moebius Part 1" and 8.20 "Moebius Part 2"). It was used to power his team's journey through the stargate to the Pegasus Galaxy. The ZPM is, at this very moment, being transported up to the battlecruiser Daedalus, which is the Prometheus' sister-ship. The Daedalus will arrive at Atlantis with the ZPM in less than four days. That is how long they have to hold this base against the Wraith. The ZPM will then be used to power up Atlantis' force field. Everett orders Maj. Sheppard to dial up the Alpha Site and recall all military personnel as well as any civilians who would like to return and take part in damage control.

Uncomfortable with Dr. Weir out of the tactical loop, Sheppard warns Everett that if he alienates her, he will lose the respect and support of everyone on Atlantis—including Sheppard himself. Everett allows Weir to sit in on the tactical briefing.

The plan is to place six Naquadah-enhanced nuclear warheads as space mines between the Wraith armada and Atlantis, using the Jumpers. Everett's pilots are being injected with an Ancient gene-therapy regimen and will be trained by Maj. Sheppard on Jumper operation. Massive rail guns are emplaced to defend the city. Everett has also brought a Mark-II Naquadah generator that will power Atlantis' inactive chair weapon (the chair weapon is identical to that in the Antarctic Outpost).

Dr. McKay gets the chair weapon operational, but there's a problem: There are only a few dozen drone weapons left in the chair. The thousands it's supposed to contain obviously were used during the Ancients' last fight against the Wraith.

The alarm sounds. A hundred-plus asteroids are heading toward Atlantis. The Wraith have harvested them from the system's asteroid belt and accelerated them from a safe distance, for the express purpose of setting off the mines—which they do, taking out Atlantis' first line of defense.

With the city's sensors blinded by the Naquadah-nukes, Wraith darts approach the city undetected. They expertly evade the rail guns' barrage and fire on the city. Some darts make kamikaze runs. The gunners at the control tower are culled up to the Wraith ships. Sheppard mans the chair weapon and destroys several Wraith darts with the powerful drones. The wave of Wraith darts is neutralized.

Unfortunately, the chair weapon is out of drones, and the deep-space sensors are still blind. Everett is open to suggestions. Sheppard has a plan: If McKay and Dr. Zelenka can find a way to remote-control a Jumper, they can fly it right down the hive ships' proverbial throats. But all the nukes were destroyed by the asteroids. Weir bargains with the Genii on their homeworld. She'll give them the C-4 explosives they've so desperately wanted in exchange for their prototype nuclear bombs, which will be tested on Wraith hive ships at no risk to the Genii. They accept.

Meanwhile, Teyla has felt the presence of the Wraith. They are in the city. Everett arms Teyla and other Athosians. They, Sheppard, Lt. Ford and the other soldiers hunt them down and kill them. Some Athosians are killed in the process.

Weir returns with the nukes. McKay and Zelenka get them operational and also succeed in getting the chair weapon to remote-pilot a Jumper. The nukes are loaded aboard the Jumpers. The hive ships are in range. Wraith darts are heading toward the city. The rail guns destroy one.

More Wraith are in the city. Everett comes face to face with one, and Teyla cannot be raised by radio. Ford and his soldiers are trapped in a standoff with a Wraith patrol.

Then, another setback: The Mach II Naquadah generator powering the chair weapon is depleted. There is no way to remote-pilot the Jumpers.

With no other choice, Sheppard gets into one of the nuclear Jumpers and pilots it straight toward the armada.

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--DeeKayP 20:43, 28 Oct 2004 (PDT)