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Stargate: Atlantis - A Brief Introduction to the Show
Stargate: Atlantis started life as a spin-off from the popular TV Show Stargate SG-1 and is just about to complete its first season, which has shown in Canada, is two episodes from the season closer in the UK and well past the half way mark in the US. The premise behind the show is fairly simple. Early in SG-1's canon, it was established that there were a race of beings, referred to as the Ancients, who were responsible for the design and build of the Stargate system. Later canon established that these beings looked very much like humans, probably had some hand in our development - with humans being 'the second evolution of this form' - and came to Earth at least once, to escape a plague.
In Season 6 of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Command (the SGC) located an Ancient base in Antarctica, complete with cool Ancient toys. The downside to this technology is that the operation of it depends on the possession of at least one gene - the Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) gene. Very few people have it - General Jack O'Neill is one of them - and there is at least a partial mental component in its use, which means the efficacy of the gene and ability to use technology effectively varies from person to person. A research team has been established in Antarctica since then, although few mentions have been made to it in SG-1. In Seasons 6 and 7, however, there were an increasing number of references to the Lost City of the Ancients.
Atlantis.
Season 7 of SG-1 closed and the first season of Atlantis began with the discovery of the gate address that leads to Atlantis and the realisation that the Atlantis address has 8 symbols rather than the normal 7 chevrons in an address. Atlantis is in a whole other galaxy - the Pegasus Galaxy - and because of that it will take an immense amount of power to send a research team there. The SGC decides that the risk is worth it because of the potential payoff in terms of technology and information that could be located through the wormhole, but the downside is that the SGC only has enough power for a one way trip - the return trip home will be dependent on what the Atlantis expedition finds on the other side. In particular, they need an Ancient type of battery - the Zero Point Module or ZPM - to power the Stargate and establish an intergalactic wormhole. The SGC's sole ZPM will be depleted.
Enter our heroes - around 200 military and civilian personnel, handpicked from the best minds that the SGC can attract by the leader of the expedition, Dr Elizabeth Weir. They gear up, they head out, and they enter an entirely new galaxy, a whole host of Alices, fallen through the rabbit hole.
Unfortunately, they also head into a whole host of trouble, starting with the fact that Atlantis really is the sunken city, thousands of tonnes of water being held at bay by a forcefield powered by three ZPMs, which are rapidly failing. There are hours before the forcefield collapses and the city is flooded, and with not enough power to reopen a wormhole home they have no choice but to seek alternatives in the Pegasus galaxy. On the first military mission out, the team encounters not only a helpful race called the Athosians, but a dangerous race of beings called The Wraith, who feed on humans and who not even the Ancients could defeat.
Our Heroes
As well as these main characters, Stargate: Atlantis includes a number of well rounded secondary characters, many of whom are proving to be fan favourites. As a closed community of 200 odd souls, we get used to seeing the same faces over and over again, and it's nice that the show uses this to create both a sense of familiarity and to slowly build up these characters as well.
The Fandom
At the moment, SG:A is a nice, new, shiny fandom, with a multitude of pairings and a general tolerance among different ships, with writers dipping in and out of pairings and genres as they please. I'm cynical enough not to expect it to last, but optimistic enough to hope that it does. It's also a fandom with a huge variety of pretty, and with that much pretty, how can you not spread it about a little?
The main slash pairing is probably McKay/Sheppard, and it's understandable. Not only do they bicker like an old married couple, with snark aplenty, but the slashy undercurrent is enough to pull down anyone caught unaware. This is subtext writ large, but it's far from the only slash pairing. McKay/Beckett is also popular, as is Sheppard/Ford, but there are a multitude of other pairings that get an airing, including some involving the secondary characters on the show. There's even a growing femslash fandom base, pairing not only Weir/Teyla, but pairing either of them with some of the strong female characters they meet on their adventures.
The main het pairings appear to be Sheppard/Weir, McKay/Weir and Sheppard/Teyla. However, again, there are fans of every pairing, and you often find writers dabbling in more than one. You can find Weir/Zelenka (but not enough, damn it!), McKay/Teyla, Ford/Teyla... anything you want.
Gen writers are having fun too, playing with the various scenarios that the show throws up for us, and as you can imagine if you've had any experience with SG-1 fandom, hurt comfort abounds.
The Resources
For more information on the show, the best sites are SciFi's own site and the ever informative Gateworld. Chevron Nine serves the same purpose but is solely Atlantis focused. There's also the Stargate Links Command site, which includes a number of Stargate: Atlantis sites, and Chevron 26 includes quite an impressive links database too.
For fanfiction, probably the biggest site is Wraithbait, which has a slash skew as it is attached to the Wraithbait slash mailing list. However, it also contains a number of het and gen stories, with the number of these growing as word spreads on het and gen lists. It accepts all types of stories - gen, het and slash - and all pairings, and currently contains over 400 stories.
There's also Atlantica, which is a fanlisting and fandom site, with a growing archive. It's skewed towards het and gen, although again it accepts all types of stories, but is smaller, containing about 100 stories.
PegasusGate.net and Area 52 are the slash only archives, with Area 52 containing fiction for both of the Stargate shows. There's also Heliopolis's Atlantis wing, which is het and gen only and about the same size as Atlantica.
If you're aware of any major archives I've left out, please feel free to leave the information in the comments to this entry. And finally, as always, there's Fanfiction.net, but unfortunately there is, as yet, no viable search function that lets you search by pairing.
In terms of LJ, there is a proliferation of Atlantis communities, but my favourites are:
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
metalantis - SG:A discussion
prime_not_prime - SG:A discussion with a slashy bent
mckay_sheppard - community for the most popular slash pairing
john_elizabeth - community for probably the most popular het pairing
atlantis100 - drabble community
sga_flashfic - short fiction challenge community
mckay_daily - McKay or David Hewlett picture community
sheppard_daily - Sheppard or Joe Flanigan picture community
And last but not least,pegasus_b, an open community for stories set in the Pegasus B crossover universe established by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
troyswann, wherein Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson join the Atlantis expedition.
Thanks to the numerous people on my friends who looked through this summary in draft and came up with some additions, resources and typo spotting, includingakire_yta, maryavatar, sinbrat, rivier, davechicken, temaris, aithine, reedfem and dustandroses. We're an enthusiastic lot. :)
In Season 6 of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Command (the SGC) located an Ancient base in Antarctica, complete with cool Ancient toys. The downside to this technology is that the operation of it depends on the possession of at least one gene - the Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) gene. Very few people have it - General Jack O'Neill is one of them - and there is at least a partial mental component in its use, which means the efficacy of the gene and ability to use technology effectively varies from person to person. A research team has been established in Antarctica since then, although few mentions have been made to it in SG-1. In Seasons 6 and 7, however, there were an increasing number of references to the Lost City of the Ancients.
Atlantis.
Season 7 of SG-1 closed and the first season of Atlantis began with the discovery of the gate address that leads to Atlantis and the realisation that the Atlantis address has 8 symbols rather than the normal 7 chevrons in an address. Atlantis is in a whole other galaxy - the Pegasus Galaxy - and because of that it will take an immense amount of power to send a research team there. The SGC decides that the risk is worth it because of the potential payoff in terms of technology and information that could be located through the wormhole, but the downside is that the SGC only has enough power for a one way trip - the return trip home will be dependent on what the Atlantis expedition finds on the other side. In particular, they need an Ancient type of battery - the Zero Point Module or ZPM - to power the Stargate and establish an intergalactic wormhole. The SGC's sole ZPM will be depleted.
Enter our heroes - around 200 military and civilian personnel, handpicked from the best minds that the SGC can attract by the leader of the expedition, Dr Elizabeth Weir. They gear up, they head out, and they enter an entirely new galaxy, a whole host of Alices, fallen through the rabbit hole.
Unfortunately, they also head into a whole host of trouble, starting with the fact that Atlantis really is the sunken city, thousands of tonnes of water being held at bay by a forcefield powered by three ZPMs, which are rapidly failing. There are hours before the forcefield collapses and the city is flooded, and with not enough power to reopen a wormhole home they have no choice but to seek alternatives in the Pegasus galaxy. On the first military mission out, the team encounters not only a helpful race called the Athosians, but a dangerous race of beings called The Wraith, who feed on humans and who not even the Ancients could defeat.
Our Heroes
Dr Elizabeth Weir | A diplomat with expertise in international diplomacy, Elizabeth Weir was originally selected to take over command of the SGC, replacing General Hammond. However, General Hammond has now been promoted to Chief of Homeworld Security, and command of the SGC handed over to the newly promoted Brigadier General Jack O'Neill. She fights for, and gets, the Atlantis expedition, putting together her team and preparing them for the day that they work out the Stargate address from the information they have. That comes when Dr Daniel Jackson finally translates the eight symbols, echoing his work on discovering the Abydos address in the original movie. Elizabeth is an empathic leader, sympathetic and a good listener - essential traits for a diplomat of her standing - and able to navigate the various tensions that beset the expedition, although not always with ease. In spite of her enthusiam when embarking on the expedition, she soon finds herself out of her depth, forced to deal with situations that there can have been no preparing for. |
Major John Sheppard | Major John Sheppard was a very late addition to the Atlantis expedition. In fact, the first time he ever heard of the Stargate programme was after the helicopter in which he was flying General O'Neill to the Antarctic outpost was fired upon by an out of control Ancient missile, accidentally set off by Dr Carson Beckett. However, some nifty flying saved the day, and on arrival at the Antarctic outpost it was discovered that Major Sheppard not only possessed the rare ATA gene, but had a natural affinity for Ancient technology. On discovering that, Elizabeth sought to have him added to the personnel manifest, despite his less than stellar military record, which included disobeying direct orders to rescue two comrades under fire in Afghanistan. Sheppard is reluctant to join the expedition, eventually tossing a coin to decide whether to go or not. On arrival in Pegasus, however, he is forced to take command of the military personnel in Atlantis when the ranking military officer, Colonel Sumner, is killed in action in their first encounter with the Wraith. In that same encounter, Sheppard awakens thousands of Wraith, who are currently hibernating, by killing their Keeper, and unleashes the Wraith across the galaxy at least fifty years before they were due to awaken. He bears the burden of that guilt, as well as the guilt of failing Sumner, and it sometimes leads him into making rash decisions in an attempt to atone. John Sheppard is a charming man, able to sweet talk his way out of many encounters, but rarely lets people get close. He's also a closet math geek, a fact that both astounds and irritates Dr Rodney McKay despite the fact that in each other they seem to have found kindred spirits - two men who like to play with toys, whether they go 200 miles an hour or not. Sheppard's favourite toy, by far, appears to be the Ancient spaceships they've found on Atlantis, small enough to travel through the Stargate system, which he's christened 'Puddlejumpers'. |
Dr Rodney McKay | Dr Rodney McKay made his first appearance in the SG-1 episodes 48 Hours and Redemption Part I and Part II, which aired in Seasons 5 and 6 respectively. A Canadian astrophysicist, he's arrogant, opinionated and has butted heads with Lieutenant Colonel Carter more than once, despite having a not so secret crush on her. He's also far braver than he believes, and in spite of his irascibility can occasionally show a softer side, although he continues to despise children and a considerable number of his colleagues. He is a genius, the foremost expert in Ancient technology - at least to hear him tell it. In spite of his bragging and bravado he's earned the respect and often liking of most of the scientific staff in Atlantis, who usually roll their eyes when he starts on yet another diatribe. His irritability could also be due to the fact that he is (he claims) hypoglycaemic, and eats almost constantly. He's also deadly allergic to lemons and bee stings. He's not a natural possessor of the ATA gene, which did result in some early resentment of Major Sheppard, who operates the technology with an ease Rodney is jealous of, but is given the gene through artifical gene therapy early in the series. He takes great glee in being able to play with the toys now, and has found a kindred spirit in John Sheppard. The pair of them snark at each other as though they were born to it, and yet underneath it there's genuine respect and affection. Even if John did shoot him once. In the leg! |
Teyla Emmagen | Teyla Emmagen is the leader of the Athosian people, the race that the Atlantis expedition met on their first trip through the Stargate in the Pegasus Galaxy, looking for a safe haven before the forcefield around Atlantis failed. They didn't find it on Athos. Instead, they found a world preyed upon by a species called 'The Wraith', creatures that literally suck the life out of any humans unfortunate enough to cross their path. Teyla, and her people, have lived under the thrall of the Wraith for generations, subject to regular cullings, with up to 95% of their population culled every couple of hundred years when the Wraith wake from hibernation. The Athosians are a spiritual people, with a vast inner strength, something essential if they are to survive the conditions they live in - in constant fear of a Wraith attack. In spite of that fear, Teyla is able to welcome the Atlantis expedition but is forced to flee with them and the rest of her people back to Atlantis when the Wraith attack her settlement. When her people fail to settle in the city, Teyla is faced with a choice - emigrate to the mainland with the rest of her people and forge a new life, or stay in the city and on Major Sheppard's team, hoping to someday find a way to defeat the Wraith and keep her people safe. Teyla is a very strong woman, a leader who appreciates the struggle that Elizabeth faces, but at the end of the day one who wants the best for her people. She's a skilled and talented fighter, taking it upon herself to tutor John Sheppard in the use Athosian fighting sticks, and has a rather dry and wicked sense of humour, usually demonstrated while kicking his ass. We like this. A lot. |
Lieutenant Aiden Ford | Aiden Ford is one of the younger members of the Atlantis expedition. At 25, this marine has already served with the SGC on an SG team, and is perfectly comfortable travelling through the Stargate, even if he's never been to another galaxy. He's an explosives expert, who takes great pleasure in blowing things up, and following John becoming ranking military officer on Atlantis, assumes the role of his second in command, as well as joining Sheppard's team. He's hot headed, and rather impatient with others when under stress but his heart is in the right place. He has a bad case of hero worship for Sheppard, and doesn't quite get McKay, and he's not allowed to name anything. Ever. Before coming to Atlantis, he seemed to be very close to his grandparents, and it appears that he was raised by them. Not a great deal has been revealed about Aiden during the first season, and the character will not be appearing in every episode of Season 2. |
Dr Carson Beckett | Carson is the expedition's Chief Medical Officer, and researcher. He is responsible for the discovery of the ATA gene, and is one of the few people on the expedition who possesses the gene naturally. He's far from comfortable using it, however, having been persuaded to sit in the Antarctic base command chair and accidentally setting off the Ancient missile that nearly blew Major Sheppard and General O'Neill's helicopter out of the sky. He has pioneered the gene therapy that has resulted in other members of the Atlantis team acquiring the gene, including Rodney McKay, who was his test subject. Carson is Scottish, and has proved to be a fan favourite, being upgraded to a regular member of cast for the second season. He loves his mum very much and has a warm and wonderful bedside manner, even if he thinks that Aiden Ford is a 'cheeky little bugger'. |
As well as these main characters, Stargate: Atlantis includes a number of well rounded secondary characters, many of whom are proving to be fan favourites. As a closed community of 200 odd souls, we get used to seeing the same faces over and over again, and it's nice that the show uses this to create both a sense of familiarity and to slowly build up these characters as well.
The Fandom
At the moment, SG:A is a nice, new, shiny fandom, with a multitude of pairings and a general tolerance among different ships, with writers dipping in and out of pairings and genres as they please. I'm cynical enough not to expect it to last, but optimistic enough to hope that it does. It's also a fandom with a huge variety of pretty, and with that much pretty, how can you not spread it about a little?
The main slash pairing is probably McKay/Sheppard, and it's understandable. Not only do they bicker like an old married couple, with snark aplenty, but the slashy undercurrent is enough to pull down anyone caught unaware. This is subtext writ large, but it's far from the only slash pairing. McKay/Beckett is also popular, as is Sheppard/Ford, but there are a multitude of other pairings that get an airing, including some involving the secondary characters on the show. There's even a growing femslash fandom base, pairing not only Weir/Teyla, but pairing either of them with some of the strong female characters they meet on their adventures.
The main het pairings appear to be Sheppard/Weir, McKay/Weir and Sheppard/Teyla. However, again, there are fans of every pairing, and you often find writers dabbling in more than one. You can find Weir/Zelenka (but not enough, damn it!), McKay/Teyla, Ford/Teyla... anything you want.
Gen writers are having fun too, playing with the various scenarios that the show throws up for us, and as you can imagine if you've had any experience with SG-1 fandom, hurt comfort abounds.
The Resources
For more information on the show, the best sites are SciFi's own site and the ever informative Gateworld. Chevron Nine serves the same purpose but is solely Atlantis focused. There's also the Stargate Links Command site, which includes a number of Stargate: Atlantis sites, and Chevron 26 includes quite an impressive links database too.
For fanfiction, probably the biggest site is Wraithbait, which has a slash skew as it is attached to the Wraithbait slash mailing list. However, it also contains a number of het and gen stories, with the number of these growing as word spreads on het and gen lists. It accepts all types of stories - gen, het and slash - and all pairings, and currently contains over 400 stories.
There's also Atlantica, which is a fanlisting and fandom site, with a growing archive. It's skewed towards het and gen, although again it accepts all types of stories, but is smaller, containing about 100 stories.
PegasusGate.net and Area 52 are the slash only archives, with Area 52 containing fiction for both of the Stargate shows. There's also Heliopolis's Atlantis wing, which is het and gen only and about the same size as Atlantica.
If you're aware of any major archives I've left out, please feel free to leave the information in the comments to this entry. And finally, as always, there's Fanfiction.net, but unfortunately there is, as yet, no viable search function that lets you search by pairing.
In terms of LJ, there is a proliferation of Atlantis communities, but my favourites are:
metalantis - SG:A discussionprime_not_prime - SG:A discussion with a slashy bentmckay_sheppard - community for the most popular slash pairingjohn_elizabeth - community for probably the most popular het pairingatlantis100 - drabble communitysga_flashfic - short fiction challenge communitymckay_daily - McKay or David Hewlett picture communitysheppard_daily - Sheppard or Joe Flanigan picture communityAnd last but not least,
pegasus_b, an open community for stories set in the Pegasus B crossover universe established by troyswann, wherein Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson join the Atlantis expedition.Thanks to the numerous people on my friends who looked through this summary in draft and came up with some additions, resources and typo spotting, including
akire_yta, maryavatar, sinbrat, rivier, davechicken, temaris, aithine, reedfem and dustandroses. We're an enthusiastic lot. :)
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"Well, there was this storm..."
sevenfans of Lieutenant Ford, there'sSo far the biggest fanfic archive for SG:A is, sadly, ff.n...but Wraithbait has been getting most of the high-quality fic. I've also noticed that there's a lot of activity in Yahoo! mailing lists, if that helps any.
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:O!!!!
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Oh, and http://www.terrafirmascapers.com
While, as I'm sure you recognize by the name, it is a Farscape board, it does have a lovely little part for Gaters too...*smile*
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First off, either the above link is incorrect or Peg-Gate is gone. Either way, you may want to amend the listing.
Also, given that S2 has now aired everywhere and we're encroaching on Season 3 (At least in the US and Canada, I'm not sure of UK release dates) it might not be a bad idea to update the listing to include, at the least, Ronon Dex. Just my two cents (Don't mind me, it's not like I've signed up to rec yet).
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Do I need to watch Stargate: SG1 to watch this show? Or can I just watch it?
Also even if I don't need to watch SG1 do you think it's worth watching?
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In terms of SG:1 - no, it is not technically necessary to watch SG:1 in order to enjoy SG:A as the pilot of SG:A answers the basic questions about the universe.
In terms of whether it's worth watching, that depends on what you like. It's lasted 10 seasons, so that says something about its popularity.
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I got a comment from you a few weeks ago, which I presume you deleted as
I don't see it here (I didn't get this comment for some reason - I suspect was when comments went awol last summer) and contacted them about giving me back posting rights so that I can edit it.
Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance in the last few weeks, and although they say they gave me posting rights in Feb, they seem to have taken them away again in March, presumably because they simply change it over again at the beginning of each month.
I realise that there have been some changes, but as an introduction to the show, I'm not sure that concentrating on Season 1 is necessarily the wrong thing to do. But I will try and update when I have a chance to do so.
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Thanks, again!
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Grrrrrrrrrowwwwwl [GGG]
[and somewhat of a lookalike for Tyr Anasazi out of Andromeda]