Amph It's a City, Not a Yo-Yo: Stargate Atlantis (Spoilers Allowed)

I have to assume they'll be dealing with the San Fransisco situation and how the government probably won't want them going back to Pegasus.

 

Flanigan talks Atlantis cancellation

Stargate Atlantis leading man Joe Flanigan suggests that the cast of his show doesn?t get the recognition they deserve ? and that the series? cancellation could set a bad precedent for actors. Flanigan made the comments in a new Q&A with fans at the Hungarian broadcaster site AXN.

?No one is really certain why it was cancelled,? said Flanigan, who played Lt. Colonel John Sheppard for Atlantis?s 5-year, 100-episode run. ?Every producer/executive lays the blame on the other so it?s becomes impossible to understand the true reasons. I think our cast did a truly amazing job in helping build a successful franchise, but I don?t think that it is seen that way by the writers and producers.?

The actor said that he won?t be appearing on the spin-off series Stargate Universe, which premieres in October. Should the new series be a hit with viewers, he fears that it may not bode well for actors in the franchise.

?If Universe is successful, the prevailing theory among the writers and producers will be that actors are dispensible and not a critical part of the show,? he said. ?Only time will tell.?

As for his future, Flanigan said that he is reluctant to get involved with another television project unless the character is very interesting. ?I have been really fortunate in my career and hope that I continue to be,? he said. ?I have been offered a number of things since I quit Atlantis. Many of them require relocations that would prove too difficult on my family. Some are simply not as interesting as my role as John Sheppard. I am looking for a show that will really invest in their lead characters. I?ll be shooting a movie in July.?

This summer he will also appear in a guest role on the SCI FI Channel?s new series Warehouse 13 (story).

Flanigan said that he would also return to a future Stargate Atlantis project, ?Probably. I miss my cast members and the crew. There is a lot of unexplored elements left for Atlantis. Personally I think it could have easily gone for another five years.?

 

Anyone know where there's a list of the extended scenes for Enemy of the Gate? That caught my eye more than anything else on the special features list. That show NEEDED an extended version- and while I doubt it's as significant as would be needed to fully salvage the episode, I am curious if it would at least address some of the problems.

 

Atlantis wins two Gemini Awards for "Best Writing in a Dramatic Series" (for The Shrine) and "Best Achivement in Make-Up" (for Vegas). It was nominated for three others, losing the VFX award to Sanctuary.

 

Well, all they'd have to do is pull the plug on the Atlantis DHD/gate and the problem would be solved, so far as the SGC is concerned.

 

"Oh, you want to be independent? Ok, we'll just keep our ammunition, starfighters and intergalactic capital spaceships"

 

SGA Movie Shelved Indefinitely.

Mallozzi was clear that the end of SGU does not mean that time and money has now been freed up to put the Atlantis film into production. Mallozzi co-wrote the script for Stargate: Extinction with Paul Mullie after the movie was first announced following SGA?s cancellation in 2008.

?I?m sorry to say but the cancellation puts the brakes on whatever progress the SGA movie had made in the past month, shelving it indefinitely,? he said. ?? Contrary to what some may think, the cancellation of SGU is very bad news for those looking forward to an Atlantis movie.?

 

Mallozzi's Blog

Finally ? by now, I had hoped to hear back on the ultimate faith of Stargate: Extinction (Novel? Comic book? Radio play? Performance art piece?) but, alas, it?s been very quiet. I will say that when Paul and I set out to write the script for the proposed Stargate: Atlantis movie, we did so in the hopes that, ultimately, it wouldn?t be produced as a movie at all but as the first two episodes of SGA?s sixth season. Codenamed ?Project Twilight?, it would have focused on the city of Atlantis, its personnel, and the journey back to home to the Pegasus Galaxy. Ideally, that would set the stage for the thrilling 18 episodes to follow ? or, at the very least, the jumping off point for future SGA movies.

The movie would have picked up not long after the events of the season 5 finale, Enemy at the Gates. In the opening scene, two astronauts (who turn out to be a couple of familiar faces ? Amelia Banks and Major Lorne) take a walk on the surface of the moon, their lunar stroll ending with a reveal of the city of Atlantis. A shuttle carrying Sam Carter and a group of dignitaries sweeps overhead and lands.

Within the city?s atmospherically shielded confines, Carter and her guests meet up with the science team headed by ? who else? ? Rodney McKay. Frustrated by the interruption to his ongoing research, McKay demonstrates a certain impatience with the whole dog-and-pony show, running through standards explanations, overviews, questions, and answers until ? an alarm suddenly sounds. The bewildered dignitaries are ushered out, leaving McKay, Carter, and Zelenka to investigate.

An examination of the city?s systems reveal the worst. A self-destruct has been initiated ? a safeguard, Rodney surmises, put in place by the Ancients in the event Atlantis was ever removed from the Pegasus Galaxy. And, once triggered, it cannot be disabled. Nothing short of a return to the Pegasus Galaxy will save the city from certain destruction.

Of course, getting it there is easier said than done?

Anyway, that was the basic premise: A seeming new beginning. A threat to the city. And a desperate bid to outrace a deadly countdown.

But who would join the journey? How would they get back to Pegasus? And what challenges would they face along the way?

More on that in the coming days.

 

More Extinction Details


Mallozzi previously revealed that Stargate: Extinction would have opened with Atlantis relocated from its landing site in the San Francisco Bay (?Enemy At the Gate?) to the far side of the Moon, away from prying eyes. But the Ancients programmed an automated self-destruct should the city ever be taken out of Pegasus ? which activates, prompting the team to fire up the stardrive and make a mad dash home.

?It?s time to get the band back together,? Mallozzi continued, ?and we check in with our various team members as they are called up and beamed away for the return journey: Teyla and her family, Keller, Beckett, Lorne, Zelenka and, of course, Sheppard and Ronon who are plucked away while receiving treatment at a local hospital following a barroom brawl (we went back and incorporated the scar actor Jason Momoa received following an incident near his L.A. home). Once everyone has assembled, McKay gives them the 411.

?Given the time constraints they face, they have to get back to Pegasus as quickly as possible ? meaning they?ll have to use the wormhole drive again. Zelenka calculates that two jumps should do it.

?And they?re off. Sort of. The first jump ends up burning out the drive, rendering it useless and leaving them stranded with the countdown click ticking down. However, a scan of the surrounding plants turns up a habitable world within range. They go there seeking help and, instead, end up involved in a wild time-travel themed adventure in which Todd, the Wraith, turns out to be, simultaneously, their hugest threat and biggest ally.?

 

Sadly, 2 years later, the only update we get is a continuation of the above, with Mallozzi blogging about what the rest of Extinction would have brought:

As I already mentioned in past entries, the movie would have opened on a shot that revealed Atlantis’s new home on the lunar surface. We learn that the gate has been offline since its return to Earth but, under pressure from the IOA, the decision is made to bring it back online, have it supersede the Earth gate, and make it a permanent lunar base. The decision isn’t embraced by everyone. Woolsey and McKay, for instance, point out that they still have a responsibility to the people of the Pegasus galaxy. Of course the IOA are hardly moved.​

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Unfortunately, when the gate is finally brought back online, Zelenka reports a build up of energy in the capacitors. Too late they realize that the Ancients put a failsafe in place in the event Atlantis was moved. McKay realizes – the city will self-destruct unless it returns to the Pegasus galaxy.​

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Woolsey gets the band back together, transporting John and Ronon up from the hospital emergency room where they are getting fixed up following a bar room brawl (an opportunity to write in the scar actor Jason Momoa had received at the time). John, in turn, pays a visit to Area 51 and, again under the heavy protests of the IOA, springs his buddy, Todd.​

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The plan is to use the wormhole drive to execute a series of jumps to Pegasus – however, the drive burns out partway through their journey, stranding them in the Triangulum Galaxy, some 300 000 light years from home. They manage to muster up enough power for one, final short range jump, putting them within range of a subspace anomaly they detected.​

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What follows is a high-flying adventure involving a mysterious civilization tapping the limitless potential of the accretion streams between two stars, time travel, and a race against time to avert not only the destruction of Atlantis but the extinction of an entire race.​

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Some of the standout sequences that come to mind include one in which Sheppard ends up trapped on an enemy mothership, falling back to a room holding some of the tech the enemy has stolen from Atlantis. Enemy soldiers surround the locked chamber, preparing to storm it when – the door shakes, buckles, and blows outward to reveal Sheppard in one of the Asgard exo-suits. Cue kickass Iron Man sequence.​

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Another involves Todd risking all to ambush a future version of himself aboard the bridge of the enemy mothership, saving Atlantis from a final, devastating attack. The two battle. “So young and impetuous,”remarks Future Todd. ”So old and foolish,”counters ours. Eventually, Future Todd gets the upper hand and pins his opponent. He raises his dagger for the finishing blow – only to have someone reach in and grab his wrist. Rodney McKay to the rescue. Allowing our Todd seizes the opportunity to turn the tables.​

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John and Todd make the most unlikeliest of odd couples in this one, forced to work together for the greater good. ”If I had to pick one thing I like best about you,”says Sheppard during one hair-raising moment, “I’d have to say it’s your sense of humor.” A stone-faced Todd informs him: “Yes, back on the hive, I was known as “the funny one”.”​

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Enemy fighters are scrambled, Beckett takes the chair, the mother ship faces off against Atlantis, the city takes significant damage, Teyla suffers a terrible loss, some wonderful heroic moments for Ronon, McKay, and Teyla as well.​

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Atlantis ultimately returns to the Pegasus galaxy where Todd is granted his freedom. ”You did save the city after all,”explains Woolsey. ”Of course I did,”says Todd. ”How else would I have gotten home?”. And, in a moment that demonstrates how far things have come, John gives his former enemy a parting handshake. Woolsey hopes that, some day, their paths will cross under better circumstances. Todd agrees. ”It would be wonderful to have you for dinner sometime,”he says before heading through the gate.​

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Atlantis re-establishes itself, Beckett gets his turtles back from Rodney and assumes a permanent position as Atlantis’s new head of medical R&D, and John comforts a grieving Teyla now aware – via the revelations of time travel – that they are destined to be together.​

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And we fade out on a night shot of Atlantis, a jewel on the water…​

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Yes, it would have been a great movie, but I think it would have been an even better sixth season two-part premiere.​

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And, yeah, we had long-range plans for that too:​

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Now that I think about it, I believe 619 and 620, the two-part season finale, would have involved an idea I’d been kicking around involving our team returning from a mission to an AU Atlantis that has been taken over by a mysteriously resurrected Michael, its personnel (Woolsey, Keller, Beckett, even Chuck!) now hybrids in league with their former enemy. Damn. So many opportunities missed!​

 

A BC-304 exited hyperspace in my mail today.

 

Nope! First in an Eaglemoss line of die cast/plastic SG models. Ha’tak is up next I believe.

Sadly, no BTS magazine like the Star Trek series, but it’s a larger size than the original ST collection along the lines of the XL series.

It’s also not a subscription so just one by one preorders.