In a new interview with GateWorld, Stargate showrunner Robert C. Cooper noted that one area where Stargate: Atlantis needs improvement as it enters its third season is in its character relationships. From the interview, which can be read or listened to in its entirety here:
And one of the things we thought we could do better was create the sense of camaraderie and relationships between the team, and that we felt we were getting the action-adventure part of the show right, but that the team itself, the chemistry still hadn’t quite clicked the same way it had on SG-1.
Cooper went on to note that SG-1 did a good job of providing character moments in its early years, pointing out in particular the scene in Season 2’s Need in which O’Neill embraced Daniel as he was suffering from withdrawal from sarcophagus addiction.
It is heartening to see Mr. Cooper acknowledge that Atlantis is in need of more development of character relationships, and fascinating that he used a scene from SG-1 that, as much as it is loved by fans, by all accounts was originally written as much less emotional by Cooper, then changed on set to its dramatic final form by Richard Dean Anderson.