The symbols for the Atlantis Stargate can be found here.
Why are there 36 symbols rather than the 39 which there are on Stargates in our own galaxy?
Fewer planets that can hold a stargate?
DVD releases for season 1 start coming out in the UK next month, so for those that have seen it, is SG Atlantis worth buying?
My personal opinion is that Atlantis is better than SG-1 at the moment. It has much more of the "team" feeling that SG-1 has lost over the past couple of seasons, and has some hilarious interchanges between characters. You might want to wait to see the first few episodes on Channel 5 (if you can get it, and depending on when they actually get round to showing it), but if I had a DVD player, I'd definitely be buying this series.
I decline to take responsibility, however, if you do buy it and hate it!!
I agree, Atlantis is currently a much more enjoyable watch than SG1. I'd buy the DVDs.
Thanks Callie, that's fair enough. I wasn't after a money back gaurantee
*sigh* You guys are getting Atlantis on DVD already? Hang on... isn't season 1 of Atlantis STILL ON THE AIR?! Man.... Season 7 just came out in October here in the US. Anyone know when Atlantis is coming out here?
ScottN (and others): ZPMs are finally explained in Season 2 (and this doesn’t spoil the particular episode). I recall you saying on the “Rising” board that ZPMs shouldn’t run out. This explanation is given of how they work:
McKAY: “A Zero Point Module is an artificially created region of subspace time. It’s kind of like a miniature universe in a bottle.”
ZELENKA: “It extracts vacuum energy from this artificial region of subspace time until it reaches maximum entropy.”
To a scientific idiot like me, the nearest image I can come up with is sucking the air out of a balloon – there’s a limit to how much you can extract and then it’s finished. I don’t know whether their explanation is accurate in the real world!
Vague spoilers for Season 2’s “Runner” and “Duet” (but nothing that gives away the entire plot)
In Duet, after Rodney has woken up in Laura’s quarters and as he’s getting dressed, he starts to put his watch on but for some reason really struggles with it. Maybe David Hewlett was distracted by both reciting his lines and listening for his cues from the actress voicing Laura, or maybe he was having one of those fumble-fingered moments we all have occasionally but it was good to see that the director didn’t panic and stop the filming. Anyway, seeing the watch reminded me of something: in Runner Major Lorne reports back to Atlantis when John and Teyla go missing and says to Elizabeth, “We haven't heard from them since 26:30 Atlantis Standard Time.” If, as was almost inevitable, the planet doesn’t have a 24 hour day, how do the team keep time using Earth standard watches?
General question but when do the new episodes for all three series(Stargate SG1,Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica)resume?Does anyone know?
January sometime. I think around the 6th.
Yes, it is the 6th – unless you’re in Canada where The Movie Network are already three episodes into the second half of Season 2 of Atlantis.
Also, Sky in the UK will start the second half of Season 9 of SG-1 and Season 2 of Atlantis (I’m not sure about BSG) slightly earlier than the 6th, though I believe it may only be a few days earlier.
For the real sci-fi nerd (hey, why’s everyone looking at me?), someone has translated the Ancient writing in various episodes here. S/He has provided translations of such things as the writing on the stairs leading up from the Gateroom to the Control Room, and on the database wall screens in the Control Room. The latter (picture example here) is TPTB having some fun, as it says:
WHERE OH WHERE HAS MY LITTLE DOG
OH WHERE COULD HE BE OUT INTO T
GO ON A BRAND NEW STARTGATE
ADVENTURE AND ITS EXCITING YES I
IT WILL ALL BE GREAT JESTS IT W
EVEN THOUGH RIGHT NOW
I DONT KNOW HOW WE ARE GOIN G T
THROUGH THE PILOTE
HOW ON EARTH DID WE GET OURSELVE
Callie, I understand a lot of creative people who come up with their own alphabets sprinkle goodies thru-out their work. I know they did in the comics. Unfortunately, the only time I saw something like that (with binary code), I couldn't make it say anything. Altho I'm still not sure it didn't say something funny.
And, going way back, I like it when the directors leave in little bobbles, mistakes the actors might make. It makes it more real, somehow. Because, of course, other than me, nobody's perfect. We were watching Atlantis the other night, and just as Weir says something about "that tripped us up" - Ronan trips! Just a little bit, he jerked forward, but it was funny - and I was glad TPTB left it in.
Which episode was that, mei? Sounds like a scene worth rewatching!
SPOILERY articles regarding the cast for Season Four of Atlantis:
Read about them here
You've been warned. Then again, most of you already know all about these, so they're not exactly news.
The other SPOILERY article is here.
Again, you've probably already heard the news, but if you haven't, beware.
You MUST see this!!
On DVD this September! Excellent!
Atlantis gets a 5th season!
If it's as good as the first four episodes of Season 4 have been, I'll be happy that my gloomy predictions of it ending after four seasons have been proved wrong.
And if you count Rising as two parts, that will make the last episode of Season 5 their 100th, so if they're cancelled at that point, they can have some real fun with that last episode!
Gateworld mentioned that as well, but buried in the article was a mention that the season 4 finale of Atlantis would be in March, not June. I guess they're abandoning the fall-spring schedule and going back to the traditional summer-winter airings for new eps.
Yes, unlike previous years, there's no big gap between episodes 10 and 11. Having made us wait so darned long for this season to start in the first place, it's a good job, too!
I've just moved this topic to the front page so that's easier to access.
Did you move the Atlantis sink to the front, or did you create a new thread that I can'd find?
Anyway, anyone have any thoughts/hopes for season 5? I wonder if Amanda Tapping will stay with the show, since her contract has run out. I also would like to see some closure with the Ford plotline, and can we please, please eject Dr. Kavanaugh into space?!
This is the Atlantis sink. It used to be inside the general Gate Room sink but it seemed to make more sense to make it a top-level topic in its own right.
Apparently the last episode of Season 4 had already been filmed as a cliffhanger despite them not yet having been told whether there would be a Season 5. Presumably they hoped that they'd done a Farscape and would at least get a movie to finish off the story.
I just hope that all the main cast are happy to sign up for Season 5 (though currently I'm not all that bothered about Sam). I'm a little concerned about whether David Hewlett will continue, only because he wrote in his blog recently that they'd just finished filming Season 4 and added in brackets something like, "Perhaps the last season of Atlantis ever?!" I'm a bit worried that he had already resigned himself to not having work next year and has made other plans.
Kavanagh will be back mid-Season 4, so it'll be interesting to see whether they use that opportunity to kill him off, or whether they think that, as the character people love to hate, he should stick around and come back and annoy us occasionally!
I too would like to see Ford back for an episode or two. And I wonder whether they'll now reconsider the Carson Beckett situation more long-term?
Seeing as all the network series are about to be shut down by the writers' strike, and Atlantis has half a season stockpiled (and no American writers), the execs should move the series to network TV (yeah, it's never going to happen, but one can dream, right?).
What scary is that they might put that horrible mid-season break in there to save up the episodes. Please no....
Gateworld mentioned that possibility in their article but, by my way of thinking, Sci-Fi would want to reduce the midseason break. From the Gateworld article:
"When asked on his blog what affect a strike would have on Stargate, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi replied with a terse 'None.'"
According to the same article, Battlestar Galactica will be affected by the strike, as will NBC's Heroes. Since Stargate utilizes Canadian writers, I wouldn't be suprised if the network had the producers step on it and get the SG-1 movies, more Atlantis, and Universe out as fast as possible to keep their ratings up.
I've moved all the Season 5 gossip to the newly created Season 5 section.
This made me laugh: an extract from Joseph Mallozzi's blog:
I took time off from the script yesterday to sit through some wraith auditions, enjoying a wide variety of nuanced performances covering everything from underwhelmingly somniferous to theatrically alarming. One enterprising young man even brought along his own cape for added effect. I sat back, relatively impassive, nodding occasionally throughout, piping up only at the end of each audition to offer a congratulatory “Great!” before redirecting my attention to the comment sheet the casting director had helpfully provided.
“Controlled and confident,” I wrote next to one candidate - adding “Slight lisp?”. I’m thinking something like this might undermine a life-sucking alien’s terrifying onscreen persona: “Yeth, foolith human, your very life ith… What’s tho funny? Thtop that. Thtop it! I’m going to thuck your life! Theriously, knock it off!”
I’m often fascinated by some of the bolder decisions actors make when auditioning. Like the guy who came in a couple of years ago and read for the part of an alien… and did it with a French accent. Or the guy who came in yesterday and delivered an interpretation so spot on, so captivating in its unbridled audacity, that I vowed right then and there I would hire him - the second we write a part for a crackhead wraith.
Merat says:
Darn it! They've just canceled Stargate Atlantis! This will be its final season, but will continue as some kind of "movie franchise". I'm sorry to see it go, but if they continue to put out movies of the quality of Continuum, then I really have few complaints....
http://gateworld.net/news/2008/08/istargate_atlantisi_will_end_thi.shtml
And the confirmation.
http://gateworld.net/news/2008/08/sci_fi_confirms_iatlantisi_cance.shtml
This doesn't seem to be altering the plans for Universe though.
Dammit. I completely missed this announcement - both here and on Gateworld - because I was too busy with real life problems, so was completely shocked when I just started to read the comments about The Shrine and saw everyone saying that the episode proved that cancelling the series was wrong.
This is really sad news. The occasional movie just isn't going to be the same.
I'm so gutted at this news, in complete contrast to my shrug and comment of "About time too" when they cancelled SG-1.
quote:Callie: I'm so gutted at this news, in complete contrast to my shrug and comment of "About time too" when they cancelled SG-1.
I am not happy about the news (to put it mildly). I love SG-1 & I thought that Atlantis really built on what they'd done with SG-1, making it an even better show.
I *suppose* Universe might continue the trend...
But I'd rather have Atlantis for a while longer before finding out.
Or both. I wouldn't object to both.
SG-1 was at the point where it was past it's prime - I think there was a little of the Duchovny Syndrome in the decision to keep it going after RDA left, and maybe it would have been better to end it there (even though I like Mitchell, and I think Ben Browder did a pretty good job). The Ori just seemed to me to be an enemy too far.
Atlantis hadn't got to that point yet (I'm only at the end of S4 so far), although I probably could have done without the replicators having come over.
The final 2 eps have been leaked onto the internet - Vegas in pretty much its final form and Enemy at the Gate in its screener version i.e. before all the special effects have been added.
This one struck me the very first time I watched "Rising" and I dont know why I waited until now to bring it up:
why did the Atlantis team only stock up on Earth weapons? they pointed out how Neigh Impossible it was to take down a Wraith with conventional weapons and while I am listening to how hard these guys are to take down I wondered " man 3 zats and these guys would be toast" or for that matter a good staff blast to the old noggin and your average wraith foot soldier becomes fertilizer.
another thought: in all the years that the team has been on Atlantis now, how come we never see any ancient weapons? I mean the ancients pretty much left everything as it was when they left so why has no one come across an armory in all this time? Zat guns and Staff weapons aside, I am sure the battle with the wraith would have gone alot smoother if the teams had Ancient blasters.
for that matter I was a little disappointed the first time they showed an ancient side arm, in several replicator episodes we see the Replicators sporting devices that look like fancy hand guns. I was hoping for something a little more unique looking, an armband perhaps that spin out thousands of micro drones. that would have been interesting to watch in action.
I agree that it would have been interesting to see some ancient blasters. The wraith stunners were interesting, but it would have been nice to see more ancient tech than just the GPS units (sorry, "lifesigns detectors").
I'm guessing the staff and zat guns weren't moved to Atlntis in order to differentiate the series from SG1. As for an in-universe explanation, well, there isn't one. It sure would have been more practical to bring energy weapons to another galazy instead of guns that have limited ammunition.
Question: Am I the only one who didn't care for the Wraith as an enemy? They had too much of a "Sci-Fi original movie" zombie feel for my taste. Todd was great, though.
With the announcement that two of the Atlantis cast will be appearing in a Season 2 episode of Universe, Joseph Mallozzi posed some interesting questions in relation to what's been happening to the Lantis crew since they arrived back on Earth at the end of Enemy at the Gate:
quote:1. Where the hell is Atlantis?
When last we saw our fair city, it was parked in the waters of San Francisco. Of course logic would dictate it couldn't sit there for very long without rousing some suspicion or, at the very least, creating some inconvenience for boaters. Obviously it can't remain there for long, so where would you move it? Okay, besides your back yard?
2. If Atlantis is on Earth, does this mean Earth-based off-world ops are being conducted from the city?
Shifting operations to Atlantis makes sense for a number of reasons – and could prove problematic for a host of others. And that's assuming that NORAD's decision to place Cheyenne Mountain on warm stand-by has, in fact, impacted Stargate Command. So, Cheyenne Mountain, Homeworld Command, or Atlantis? Which is it? Stay tuned.
3. If Atlantis has taken up permanent residence in the Milky Way, then it's unlikely the Daedalus will be making a return trip to Pegasus anytime soon, meaning characters like Teyla, Kanaan (Yep, he made the trip.), Ronon, and Todd will be taking up permanent residence on Earth. Or are they? And if so, what the hell are they doing?
Talk about fish out of water. While it's unlikely Kanaan will be getting a job at Dairy Queen, it's certain that the proper authorities will ensure their guests are properly looked after and, whenever possible, permitted to adjust to their new environment. Ronon's learning curve may prove a little more, uh, curvier than, say, Teyla and Kanaan, but that's what having a buddy like Sheppard is for – to keep you out of trouble, back you up in bar room brawls, and help you prepare your audition so that you can snag the lead in that upcoming warrior pic.
4. All well and good for Ronon, Teyla, and Kanaan who chose to come along for the ride, but what about Todd who is now a prisoner on Earth? And, hey, how the heck are the authorities going to see to his unique dietary requirements?
This one's a particularly intriguing question . Now this was never an issue before given the Extinction* timeline (incidentally, as I mentioned previously, Todd plays a key role in the movie, complicating AND facilitating matters for our heroes, and just thinking about that final scene between him and John…well, I get ahead of myself.) but if they have remained on Earth then one of two things has to have happened: a) Todd starved to death or, b) seeking to make use of Todd and his vast knowledge with regard to Pegasus, the Ancients, and alien technology, the authorities have found a way to keep him hale and hardy by feeding him (preferably cranky fans).
[* "Extinction" is the name of the proposed "Atlantis" movie which was going to take place shortly after the events of "Enemy at the Gate" but will now have to be changed because of the above announcement]
5. IF Atlantis has remained in the Milky Way, does this mean that all of the members of the Atlantis expedition last scene in the series finale are still working as Atlantis staff?
Well, it would make sense given that these individuals were chosen for their expertise and now find themselves in the even more attractive position of being able to go home every night (provided it's not too busy). In fact, I can see the I.O.A. assigning to Atlantis, but I can't believe we'll see many defections.
6. And what about the personal lives of our crew? IF Atlantis has been on Earth since the events of Enemy at the Gate (What is that? Almost a year?), how have the lives of our main characters progressed?
Are Sheppard and Nancy rekindling their relationship? Are McKay and Keller married yet? Has Carson completely adjusted to the life he left behind? Are Rodney and Radek still having it out on a daily basis? Is Torren teaching his fellow pre-schoolers how to stick fight? What's going on with Ronon and Amelia? Was Woolsey happily reunited with his yorkie? Did Major Lorne come out with any personal revelations? Again, stay tuned.
Hey, I just noticed that even though I mentioned the deals had been closed, I didn't reveal which characters would be putting in an appearance.
That's because SyFy will be making the grand announcement when the time comes. Watch for it!
So not fair! The cancellation of SGU means the Atlantis movie is even *less* likely: http://airlockalpha.com/node/8129
Not that I've been holding my breath, but still!
I read that, but I don't understand. The producers have been very clear that the movies and TV shows are completely different in terms of funding, licensing, and approval. Why, then, would the cancellation of SGU have any impact whatsoever on a wrapup movie for SGA?
Did Major Lorne come out with any personal revelations? Again, stay tuned. - from J. Mallozzi's blog.
Ah, so that's who the gay character is supposed to be, haha. I figured it would either be him or Zelenka.
Why, then, would the cancellation of SGU have any impact whatsoever on a wrapup movie for SGA?
And why would it only affect the SGA movie and not, apparently, the SG-1 one? This makes no sense at all. I suspect Mallozzi had had one too many Christmas sherries when he wrote his blog.
Is the SG1 one even anywhere near production?
Sadly no, but it seems strange that Mallozzi only mentioned that one of the two potential movies has been affected, which suggests that the SG-1 still has a better chance of eventually getting a green light.
Even though Atlantis was left hanging, I could see how the SG-1 movie might go to production first. Its always had a bigger fanbase than Atlantis, so the chances of profit are greater. Plus, the recent storylines with Universe tie in with it better (e.g. Lucian Alliance, Homeworld Command, etc.).
If the Atlantis movie doesn't get released, I hope the producers at least wrap things up with a novel (maybe a novelized version of the "Extinction" script. I usually don't purchae tie-in novels, but if Mallozzi writes one as the "official" wrap-up for Atlantis, I would probably make an exception
Apologies for clogging up the Last Day list, but I'm about to post very old transcripts of the DVD commentaries for Seasons 1 and 2, together with those of a couple of DVD extras.
These used to be on a separate website of mine but about a year ago PlusNet, an internet provider whose adverts claim, "We'll do you proud," and say that they have the most helpful staff around, shut down my site after stealing money from me and then sending my details to debt collectors who wanted to claw back money from me. Despite several long and detailed (and increasingly belligerent) letters from me, I got little in the way of apology or explanation of why they'd stolen over £150 from me in the first place. After the matter was finally resolved, I wasn't inclined to re-sign with them.
The website was mainly related to Formula 1 Grand Prix and I had long ago moved all that stuff to another provider but there were lots of back pages of Stargate stuff. It was only recently that I remembered these commentary transcripts and, because I've got nowhere else to put them, I'm going to put them onto Nitcentral so that at least they're somewhere.
Frank Vincent has passed away.
Born on April 15 1937, Vincent appeared in the Stargate Atlantis episode Vegas playing Poker Player #1.
Vincent was well known in The Sopranos in which he played Phil Leotardo.
His other work include Wise Guys, Do The Right Thing & The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
He died on September 13 2017 at the age of 80.
David Ogden Stiers has passed away.
Born on October 31 1942, Stiers had at one time entered the world of Stargate in the Atlantis episodes Progeny, First Strike & Lifeline as well as archive footage of him as Oberoth used in the episodes Ghost in the Machine & Inquisition and in the world of Star Trek when he appeared in The Next Generation episode Half a Life playing Timicin.
For the rest of the world Stiers was well known as Major Charles Winchester in M*A*S*H.
Other work included THX 1138, Creator, Perry Mason, Doc Hollywood, Beauty and the Beast, Shadows and Fog, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jungle 2 Jungle, Krippendorf’s Tribe, Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World, The Outer Limits, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Spirited Away, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Justice League, Lilo & Stitch, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, Lilo & Stitch: Stitch Has a Glitch, Hoodwinked!, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil & Leverage.
He died on March 3 2018 at the age of 75.