Stargate Atlantis: Difference between revisions

[[File:Stargateatlantis.jpg|frame]]

 

 

 

 

''Stargate Atlantis'' is similar in tone to ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', but is successful in distinguishing itself from its predecessor, partly through an intriguing new enemy in the Wraith and through being very much [[Fish Out of Water]] as they have little actual knowledge of how the city and its technology works. The character dynamics are inverted from its parent show, as Atlantis is a scientific research group with military support. The Mission Commander Elizabeth Weir is a civilian, as are most of the scientists and doctors, with John Sheppard being the head of the military support team.

The show branches off from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' after the first episode of season eight, and continues for five seasons. It is currently set to continue through a series of tie-in novels.

 

 

== A-G ==

* [[Action Girl]]:

* [[Actor Allusion]]: In "Brain Storm" Jennifer Keller, played by [[Jewel Staite]], references her previous role (Kaylee of ''[[Firefly]]'') and her fascination with strawberries.

{{quote|'''Dr. Jennifer Keller:''' Seriously, have you tried these strawberries?}}

* [[All There in the Manual]]: Deleted scenes included on the DVD releases give a lot of supplemental information, and even tentatively conclude several plotlines that reach back to ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. Several producers have explained that, as far as they are concerned, the scenes are canon, but that they are not ''official'' since they never made it to air.

* [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us]]:

* [[Atlantis]]: In this series, it's an ancient city-cized spaceship, rather than an ancient mythical continent.

* [[Back for the Dead]]: Lt. Ford is first [[Put on a Bus]], brought back, then [[Put on a Bus]] anew and never heard from again for the rest of the series. It is more-or-less implied he did not survive his suicidal gambit to escape the Wraith, even though the door is left open just in case.

* [[Badass Abnormal]]: Lieutenant Ford (And briefly Teyla and Ronon) gains increased strength and a resistance to Wraith stunner technology after he is injected with an enzyme that the Wraith produce as part of the feeding process. [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|Too bad it also drove him insane]].

* [[Badass in a Nice Suit]]: To emphasize that it takes place in an alternate universe, "Vegas" has every regular SG character (Except Walter Harriman) dressed in a suit instead of their traditional garb. This includes McKay, Keller and even Zelenka. Sheppard also wears a suit throughout the episode, but it is a dirty and disreputable affair to emphasize his squalid lifestyle.

* [[Badass in Distress]]:

** In "Sateda" Ronon is re-captured by the Wraith faction that turned him into a runner and is used again as hunting prey. He is saved by the arrival of the Atlantis team and a well-timed drone.

* [[Bait and Switch Tyrant]]: Woolsey taking over the command of Atlantis.

{{quote|'''McKay:''' Oh, how [[Star Trek|1967]] of you.}}

** This gem from "McKay and Mrs Miller";

'''McKay''': Sure you were... [[Star Trek|Kirk!]] }}

* [[Booby Trap]]: The Runner in "Tracker" sets up at least three traps in the woods in order to keep himself from being tracked back to the shelter where he has hidden the wounded young girl he is caring for. After Ronon manages to dodge the second trap, he comments that "[[Worthy Opponent|he's good.]]"

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In "Midway", Ronan and Teal'c find themselves inside a room with a couple of spacesuits. By the end, Sheppard manages to avoid death by entering one of these.

* [[City of Weirdos]]: "Vegas" points out how very easy it would be for a Wraith to hang out in Las Vegas and have nobody notice.

* [[Clingy MacGuffin]]: In "Tracker", the Runner Kyrik was in possession of an ancient armband artifact that fused onto him, and allows him to teleport long distances as long as it's powered up.

* [[Cloning Blues]]: Carson's clone never knew he was a clone until he managed to make it back to Atlantis.

** Seems to have been a requirement to join the Atlantis expedition, but most of the time it is Sheppard.

** Todd the Wraith is the one Wraith to really seem to ''enjoy'' deadpan sarcasm.

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Atlantis tends to bring out the best in people.

** Woolsey, continuing his arc from ''SG-1'', noticably lightens up and becomes less bureaucratic from his earlier appearances, even the producers referred it as "his redemption".

* [[Discount Lesbians]]: Depending on how you count these things, "Duet" features either the ''Stargate'' franchise's first gay kiss or first lesbian kiss, but not both. {{spoiler|1=Laura Cadman, whose conciousness was trapped in the body of Rodney McKay, took control of his body and [[Kissing Under the Influence|kissed both Katie Brown and Carson Beckett]]}}.

* [[Distant Prologue]]: "Rising"

{{quote|'''McKay''': Seriously?}}

* [[Don't Make Me Destroy You]]: Otho gets Sheppard to hand over his weapons and agree to accompany him to the Tower by pleading that he think of his life and the lives of the surrounding civilians, many of whom would be killed if Sheppard tried to resist.

** The first is after an Asuran scientist does a [[Heel Face Turn]]. When the other replicators detect this they wirelessly reprogram him, causing him to attack the Atlantis team. They beam him into outer space, with the episode closing on a shot of him floating around.

** The second is of {{spoiler|Dr. Weir (now turned replicator) and her Ascension-seeking brethren}} floating in space after she tricked them into following her through the Stargate to protect the rest of the expedition.

* [[The Dutiful Son]]: Sheppard's brother in "Outcast", who stayed behind to take care of the family business while Sheppard was out on military ventures across the world after having a fallout with his father. They eventually manage to reconcile after their father's death.

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: ''SG-1'''s "Merlin" slips in an appearance before he is even alluded to on the mothership show.

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: When the Genii were originally introduced they maintaned a facade as primitive farmers in order to remain hidden from the Wraith, keeping up the charade even with regular trading partners and "friends." The facade was completely dropped by season two, where the Genii were known as a militaristic society to the galaxy at large, and had been for several decades.

* [[Embarrassing First Name]]: ''Meredith'' Rodney McKay

* [[Enemy Mine]]: "Common Ground," the introductory episode of Todd the Wraith, featured him and Sheppard working together to escape a Genii base. This would lay the foundation for later episodes, where Todd would collaborate with Atlantis against both Michael and the Replicators.

* [[Establishing Character Moment]]:

* [[Everything's Better with Spinning]]: Subverted: The symbol ring on the Pegasus gates are stationary and the illuminated panels simply give the ''illusion'' of spinning.

* [[Evil Is Visceral]]: The Wraith use [[Organic Technology]] and are not very pretty themselves.

** Ronon to Tyr Anasazi from ''[[Andromeda]]''.

** Beckett to [[Star Trek: The Original Series|Dr. McCoy]]. Sheppard even goes so far as to describe McCoy as "the TV character Dr. Beckett [[This Is Reality|plays in real life]]."

** Zelenka. David Nykl was born in the Czech Republic, but having lived most of his life in Canada he is not using his normal accent.

** Paul McGillion (Carson Beckett); born in Scotland, grew up in Canada, and has spent time back and forth.

* [[Fakeout Escape]]: Sheppard uses this in "Aurora" to escape from a virtual-reality cell.

* [[Famous Last Words]]: When Peter Grodin [[Heroic Sacrifice|stays behind]] to bring the Ancient Satellite Weapon online, he laments that his only regret is that he was unable to get enough power to fire off a ''second'' volley and take down ''another'' Wraith Hiveship;

* [[Foreign Language Tirade]]:

** Zelenka is known to rant in Czech when frustrated.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Sheppard repeatedly show an awareness of sci-fi cliches and what roles they play, that Ronon is "Chewie" and Beckett is "McCoy".

* [[Get Back to the Future]]: "Before I Sleep" exists at the nexus of this trope, [[Trapped in the Past]], and [[The Slow Path]].

'''McKay:''' That was the good news. The bad news is we lost life support. }}

* [[Grappling Hook Pistol]]: When they are trapped in a collapsed mining facility, Carter, Keller and McKay try to climb out using a makeshift grappling hook. They joke about making a [[Grappling Hook Pistol]] part of the standard mission gear for all off-world missions.

* [[Guile Hero]]: The Atlantis team.

* [[Gunship Rescue]]: "The Siege, Part 3" opens with the ''Daedalus'' [[The Cavalry|emerging from hyperspace to save Atlantis from the Wraith assault]].

** "For the last time, I'm a doctor, not a bloody fighter pilot!"

** "I'm a bloody medical doctor, not a magician!"

** The Wraith (at first, before [[Lowered Monster Difficulty]] set in). Later seasons [[Hand Wave]] the Wraiths increased vulnerability to bullets by explaining that their healing ability is directly proportional to how recently they have fed; with more Wraith awake and less food to go around, they begin to lose their advantage.

** The Asurans.

{{quote|'''Woolsey''': You’ve poached my private spot!

'''Woman''': ...What?

'''Woolsey''': ...This is where I come... to be alone with my thoughts. }}

* [[Instant Expert]]: Sheppard when it comes to Ancient Technology. He was even recruited after accidentally sitting in the Ancient Control Platform in Antartica, managing not only to activate it but demonstrate an exceptional level of control, despite having ''[[Genius Ditz|no idea]]'' what he was doing!

* [[Kangaroo Court]]: The trial in "Inquisition". {{spoiler|They arguably could have convicted Atlantis fairly on the charges, but instead they had one war survivor looking for a scapegoat and another judge being bribed by the Genii to vote guilty.}}

* [[Kind Restraints]]: Sheppard is confined to his room while turning into the iratis bug, he asked for it, he warned everyone, yet no one seemed to take him seriously.

* [[Kissing Under the Influence]]:

** In "Duet," McKay had the conciousness of Laura Cadman, a Marine, trapped within his mind. She was able to take control of his body for brief moments, longer if he was sleeping or voluntarily surrendered control, and she twice took the opportunity to kiss other members of the Atlantis expedition. {{spoiler|First she kissed Katie Brown, a botanist with whom Rodney had a date, and then she kissed Carson Beckett right before the dangerous experiment that would either restore her to her own body, or kill her and Rodney both.}}

* [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds]]: Rodney McKay and his talents of obliterating planets, solar systems, alternate universes....

* [[Mile-High Club]]: McKay and Keller were implied to have joined at the end of "Brain Storm".

** Mentioned half-jokingly by Sheppard when one of the natives asks him if he is afraid of the Wraith. He says no, what he is really afraid of is clowns, eventually adding he is at war with them. They try to fight them off, he says, but there are hundreds of them, [[Clown Car Base|pouring out of Volkswagens]].

* [[Moral Dissonance]]: '''Too much to list here'''. Lampshaded occasionally... ONLY occasionally.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Colonel Sheppard; Ronon Dex

* [[The Nth Doctor]]: When Elizabeth Weir reappeared in the shows fifth season she was portrayed by Michelle Morgan, since her consciousness was in the body of a human-form Replicator.

* [[Nuke'Em]]: In "Midway," once the military learns that there are Wraith within the SGC they plan to nuke the facility, despite the fact that other characters have pointed out that the Wraith cannot escape the facility and there are less a dozen enemy soldiers remaining.

* [[Oddly Small Organization]]: The Atlantis Expedition originally only had ''two'' commissioned officers assigned to its security forces, Marshall Sumner (Colonel, USMC) and Aiden Ford (Lieutenant, USAF). The last-minute inclusion of John Sheppard (Major, USAF) brought that total to three, which is extremely low for an expedition whose personnel number in the hundreds.

* [[Older Than They Look]]: Sheppard tries to get Ronon to heed Teal'c's advice on dealing with the I.O.A., pointing out that he has to know ''something'' since he is something like a hundred years old. Teal'c was 159 years old during the airing of "Midway."

* [[Ominous Crack]]: This has happened to McKay twice, probably because his [[Oh Crap]] expression is so funny.

** In "Grace Under Pressure", Rodney and Lieutenant [[Red Shirt]] crash a puddle-jumper into the ocean on a test flight. They look out at the water in wonder and then - surprise! - [[Ominous Crack]]. Redshirt manages to push Rodney into the other section of the jumper before the cabin floods.

* [[One-Man Army]]: Ronon in "''Sateda''" where he single-handedly takes down multiple Wraith platoons in the ruins of his homeworld.

* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]: Puddle Jumpers. After Sheppard christened it in the pilot, (in reference to a light aircraft and the event horizon of the Stargate), everyone refers to them by that name. The Ancients actually referred to them as "Gate-Ships".

* [[Organic Technology]]: The Wraith.

* [[Overt Rendezvous]]: Sheppard meets his ex-wife -- who works for the Department of Homeland Security -- on a park bench, in order to ask her to illegally dig up some classified information for him.

* [[Pardon My Klingon]]: Hermiod, the Asgard engineer aboard the ''Daedalus'', expresses displeasure by cursing in his native tongue.

* [[Perfect Poison]]: Averted and played straight in "The Tower." The Lord Protector has been [[Averted Trope|slowly poisoned over the past few months in order to hasten his death]], but at the conclusion {{spoiler|Otho}} dies almost instantly when he is cut by a poisoned knife.

* [[Perma-Stubble]]: Sheppard has a fluctuating level of stubble, but he is never fully without it.

* [[Plot Tailored to the Party]]: [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in the episode "Quarantine" when everyone is locked in various rooms and each person has a part of the skills that they need to get out of the situation, except no one is in a situation where they can use those skills: McKay ([[The Smart Guy]]) does not have a computer, so Sheppard ([[The Hero]]) has to do all the technical stuff; Ronon ([[The Big Guy]]) is locked in an isolated room and is thus forced to do nothing; and Zelenka (another [[Smart Guy]]) has to do the dangerous air vent crawl that is pretty much Sheppard's trademark.

* [[Portal Slam]]: Like ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', a Stargate is open as long as the directors say, so it is not unusual for characters (or ships this time) to miss the wormhole. The Atlantis gate has a shield that obliterates anything that tries to appear from it, making a loud "FZZSSHH" sound as it does so.

* [[Putting on the Reich]]:

** The Genii, although they become (relatively) friendly to Atlantis as the seasons go on.

* [[Quip to Black]]: The second-to-last episode, "Vegas", was originally titled "CSI: Atlantis". It features an alternate universe where the cast is essentially transplanted into CSI, and "Detective John Sheppard" does a textbook one-liner at the end of [[The Teaser]].

* [[The Rashomon]]: "Sunday"

* [[Scarpia Ultimatum]]: Michael offers to not destroy Atlantis if Teyla willingly accompanies him and brings her son with her. She is willing to do so, [[Genre Savvy|but knows that Michael is not trustworthy and demands that he deactivate the self-destruct first]].

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: Clone-Beckett pulls this on a Wraith Commander, goading him into feeding on him... then reveals to the collapsing Wraith that ''Beckett has the Hoffan virus''.

** The first season episode "Home." {{spoiler|It concludes with the mist assuring them that they are back in the real world}}.

** "The Real World." It is ''probably'' back to reality by the end, but Sheppard remarks that for all he knows, it has just switched to ''his'' fantasy.

'''John Sheppard''': "Oh, Autopilot? Nononono, No!"

''"Dock Procedure Loaded and Activated" appears on the computer screen'''

'''John Sheppard''': "Now!" }}

** In "Outcast," Dr. Lee is trying to think up how to destroy the Replicator that is on the loose, and mentions that if it was a movie they would drop it into a [[The Terminator|vat of molten lead]] or [[The Lord of the Rings (film)|a volcano]]. This, of course, [[Eureka Moment|gave Sheppard an idea]].

{{quote|'''Neera''': "And the clowns?"

'''Sheppard''': "Clowns? Oh yea, the clowns. Well, we fight them, too. Entire armies, spilling out of Volkswagens. We do our best to fight them off, but [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}ogvKogtJw9c they keep sending them in]." }}

* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: A subdued example. When a group of living Ancients is rescued and demands the return of the city, one of the things their leaders bring up is how the expedition awakened the Wraith. Woolsey is quick to retort that it was the Ancients' own negligence that made the Wraith such a threat in the first place. Though she still sticks to her demands, that marked the end of any attempted moral high ground on her part.

* [[Single-Stroke Battle]]: Ronon and a constable of the Lord Protector in "The Tower."

* [[The Sociopath]]: The Crystal Entity from ''Doppleganger'' is explicity referred to as such because of how much it enjoys scaring people, quite literally, to death in their dreams.

* [[Some Call Me... Tim]]: Sheppard ''loves'' this trope. Therefore we have the Wraiths Steve, Bob, Michael and Todd.

 

== T-Z ==

{{quote|'''Weir:''' Find another problem with it. Tell them that the power loop interface isn't jiving with your walkabout, something.}}

* [[Teleport Interdiction]]: The crew of the ''Daedalus'', in their first appearance, plans on destroying a bunch of Wraith ships by using Asgard beaming technology to beam nukes onto them. It works the first three times they try it. After that, the Wraith figure out how to jam the beam.

* [[Throw It In]]: After Torri Higginson accidentally called the Gate Technician by his real name, "Chuck", the producers decided to keep it in and make it has official name, since he had not had one until that point.

* [[Tomato in the Mirror]]:

** Halfway through "This Mortal Coil" {{spoiler|the primary cast discovers that they are all Replicator-built ''copies'' of the Atlantis staff.}}

* [[Too Clever by Half]]: McKay

* [[Touched by Vorlons]]: {{spoiler|Elizabeth Weir becomes a Replicator.}}

* [[Transplant]]:

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: When Ronon dodges the second [[Booby Trap]] in "Tacker," all he has to say of the Runner he is tracking is "he's good."

* [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]: Sheppard won't fight back in "Travellers" despite being kidnapped and repeatedly assaulted, despite the fact that as a soldier it is his duty to escape. The reason? His captor is a woman.

** Colonel Marshall Sumner, the original military commander, and Sergeant Bates, head of Atlanis security, are members of the [[Semper Fi|United States Marine Corps.]]

** Major/Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, who replaces Sumner as ranking military officer, and Lieutenant Aiden Ford, Sheppard's next senior officer, are members of the United States Air Force.

* [[You Are Not Alone]]: How Sheppard motivates Elizabeth to overcome the nanite infection in "The Real World."

* [[You Can't Go Home Again]]: Only held for a season, thanks to Stargate Command getting those spiffy intergalactic hyperdrives from the Asgard and a new ZPM. They later had the McKay-Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge for a while, but then that was destroyed and they went back to combined gate/interstellar travel.

* [[You Look Familiar]]:

** Craig Veroni, who played Dr. Peter Grodin, first appeared in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' as an unnamed weapons officer aboard the ''Prometheus'' in the episode "Grace." It was never confirmed if the two were the same character, or if Craig had been re-cast as a different person.

{{quote|"Komtraya!"}}

** Jewel Staite was a Wraith before she was Dr. Keller. Not very noticeable however, since the Wraith part required full prosphetic make-up that made her virtually unrecognizable.

** Christopher Heyerdahl played a character named Pallan on ''SG-1'', and the Athosian Halling on ''Atlantis''. His largest role is the Wraith Todd. At one point he even portrayed both Halling and Todd ''in the same episode'' (without any shared screentime however).

** Paul McGillion, who plays Dr. Carson Beckett, first appeared in the Stargate 'verse as Young Ernest Littlefield in the SG-1 episode "The Torment of Tantalus". Incidentally, he was the first human to travel through Earth's Stargate in modern times.

 

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