50 Fun Facts About Stargate Atlantis

Jason Momoa, who played the warrior Ronon Dex on Stargate Atlantis, later starred as which DC Comics superhero?

Momoa landed Aquaman after first auditioning to play Batman. He had joined Stargate Atlantis in its second season, after Baywatch: Hawaii and North Shore.

In the Stargate Atlantis series finale, the flying city splashes down on Earth beside which famous landmark?

The Golden Gate Bridge is in sight when the city lands off San Francisco, having flown home on an experimental wormhole drive to stop a Wraith attack on Earth.

Which TV science presenter appears as himself beside Neil deGrasse Tyson in the Stargate Atlantis episode Brain Storm?

Bill Nye turns up at a physics unveiling in the episode, and years later he mentioned Rodney McKay by name while guesting on the drama Blindspot.

Rodney McKay of Stargate Atlantis keeps warning his teammates that he is deathly allergic to which food?

Citrus was a producers' in-joke about a crew member who swore he was violently allergic to it, while a local restaurant kept serving him salads containing it with no effect.

Robert Patrick, the doomed Colonel Sumner of the Stargate Atlantis pilot, played the liquid-metal villain of which film?

Terminator 2 made Patrick famous as the T-1000, and MGM first announced him for only half of the pilot before his role grew to cover both parts.

The Stargate Atlantis expedition leaves Earth for a lost city in which galaxy, home of the Wraith?

Pegasus was chosen after the writers moved the city out from under Antarctic ice, so that viewers would not ask why Stargate Command never came to the rescue.

What nickname does John Sheppard give the small Ancient ships that fly through the Stargate on Stargate Atlantis?

Puddle Jumper bays were almost entirely digital on screen: the crew built just one physical wall with a doorway and created the rest by computer.

Robert Picardo, Richard Woolsey on Stargate Atlantis, is best known as a holographic doctor on which series?

Star Trek: Voyager cast Picardo as its Emergency Medical Hologram only after he had first auditioned for the role of Neelix.

Which Stargate SG-1 regular crosses over to lead the expedition in season four of Stargate Atlantis?

Samantha Carter stayed for 14 episodes, which made Amanda Tapping the only actor to appear in the opening credits of both series.

On Stargate Atlantis, what does ZPM, the Ancient power source the expedition keeps hunting for, stand for?

A Zero Point Module supplies the vast energy needed to hold a wormhole open between galaxies, which is why the expedition arrives with no way to dial home.

Mitch Pileggi, Colonel Caldwell on Stargate Atlantis, spent years as FBI boss Walter Skinner on which series?

The X-Files made Pileggi a familiar face as Skinner; his Atlantis colonel is the Pentagon's pick to run the city's military, a job Sheppard keeps instead.

Jewel Staite, who joined Stargate Atlantis as a doctor in season three, played Kaylee Frye on which short-lived series?

Firefly fans had already seen Staite on Atlantis in season two, when she guest-starred as a Wraith girl named Ellia before the producers gave her a bigger role.

Stargate Atlantis was filmed on soundstages and nearby glaciers and canyons around which Canadian city?

Vancouver held so much of the franchise's infrastructure that Robert C. Cooper called moving the sets to Los Angeles nearly impossible.

Before leading the expedition on Stargate Atlantis, Elizabeth Weir made her name in which profession?

Diplomat Weir was first put in charge of Stargate Command by the president to give the secret program a civilian face, then left that post for the expedition.

What did Jason Momoa cut off after season four, leading Stargate Atlantis to fit him with a $10,000 replacement?

Dreadlocks had become Ronon's signature, so the network overruled a plan to cut the character's hair on screen and Momoa wore a custom wig as heavy as the real thing.

Whose real-life pregnancy was written into season four of Stargate Atlantis as her character Teyla Emmagan's?

Rachel Luttrell had prepared for Teyla's fight scenes by spending the first season's hiatus training in martial arts with science fiction veteran Ray Park.

In the Stargate Atlantis episode Brain Storm, a rival of Rodney McKay unveils a machine meant to solve which crisis?

Global warming was to be cured by dumping Earth's heat into another universe, an idea borrowed from McKay and his sister, until the machine refused to shut off.

On Stargate Atlantis, what are people like Ronon Dex called, whom the Wraith tag with trackers and hunt for sport?

Runners carry a Wraith tracker in their backs; Ronon survived seven years that way before Sheppard's team arranged to have his removed.

Which people on Stargate Atlantis pose as simple farmers while secretly building atomic bombs in underground bunkers?

The Genii hide a militaristic society beneath their fields, and in the first season they invade the city while most of the expedition has evacuated ahead of a huge storm.

Which Earth battlecruiser, commanded by Colonel Caldwell, arrives just in time to save the city on Stargate Atlantis?

Daedalus ends the expedition's isolation: from the second season, its runs between galaxies give the city semi-regular contact with Earth.

The nanite-built Asurans of Stargate Atlantis are usually called by the name of which Stargate SG-1 villains?

Replicators in this galaxy were built by the Ancients as a weapon against the Wraith, then abandoned as too dangerous; the survivors built a civilization of their own.

On Stargate Atlantis, what are the small Wraith fighter craft that beam up fleeing humans called?

Darts dematerialize the people they scoop up, and one botched rematerialization left a Marine's mind sharing Rodney McKay's body.

On Stargate Atlantis, what nickname goes to the Wraith who escapes Kolya's jail with John Sheppard and becomes an ally?

Todd is played by Christopher Heyerdahl, who had earlier appeared in the first season as the Athosian villager Halling.

Which Stargate Atlantis doctor dies in an explosion in season three and later returns as a clone?

Carson Beckett's clone was grown by the rogue Wraith Michael from DNA taken while he held the doctor captive.

Which original Stargate Atlantis team member leaves after an overdose of Wraith enzyme turns one eye black?

Aiden Ford was written out because the producers and actor Rainbow Sun Francks agreed the character was underused, which made room for Ronon Dex.

What rank does John Sheppard hold when Stargate Atlantis begins, before his promotion in season two?

Major Sheppard only took over the city's military because his commanding officer was killed in the pilot; Earth made it official with a promotion in season two.

David Ogden Stiers, Asuran leader Oberoth on Stargate Atlantis, played Dr. Charles Winchester on which sitcom?

M*A*S*H earned Stiers two Emmy nominations; on Atlantis his cold machine ruler refuses any alliance against the Wraith.

Dr. Radek Zelenka, second only to Rodney McKay on Ancient technology in Stargate Atlantis, is of which nationality?

Czech scientist Zelenka began as a guest in an early first-season episode and went on to appear in about half of every season, earning actor David Nykl a Leo Award nomination.

Which Stargate Atlantis star, who plays John Sheppard, also helped devise the stories for Epiphany and Outcast?

Joe Flanigan later tried to revive the show himself, lining up investors to lease the franchise from MGM for a sixth season before the studio's bankruptcy ended the plan.

Which Stargate Atlantis star arrived on set a day after filming began, his part hastily renamed from a Dr. Ingram?

David Hewlett had played Rodney McKay as a guest on SG-1, so the pilot script was kept and only the name changed; his real sister Kate later played McKay's sister.

Which NewsRadio star plays an old school rival of Rodney McKay in the Stargate Atlantis episode Brain Storm?

Dave Foley, a founder of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, plays the scientist whose landmark presentation McKay attends before it goes dangerously wrong.

Which colleague does Rodney McKay bring to Earth as his guest in the Stargate Atlantis episode Brain Storm?

Jennifer Keller tells McKay she loves him after he saves her life in the episode, and the two begin a relationship.

Robert Davi, the ruthless commander Kolya on Stargate Atlantis, played villain Franz Sanchez in which James Bond film?

Licence to Kill made Davi a memorable heavy, and his busy schedule later forced one planned Kolya episode to be rewritten around the commander's deputy.

Which Stargate Atlantis episode traps John Sheppard's team in a ship wedged halfway through the Stargate?

Thirty-Eight Minutes is named for the longest a Stargate can stay open, after which the gate would shut and cut the trapped ship in two.

What is the title of the final Stargate Atlantis episode, in which the city itself flies off to defend Earth?

Enemy at the Gate drew just over two million American viewers, and fans later voted it onto a special Blu-ray alongside the pilot.

What is the title of the two-part Stargate Atlantis pilot, in which the sunken city surfaces as its shield fails?

Rising pulled a Nielsen rating that no later episode of the show ever matched, and its effects won a Gemini Award.

The alternate-reality Stargate Atlantis episode Vegas recasts John Sheppard in which job, hunting a Wraith?

Detective Sheppard works a string of Las Vegas killings in a CSI-style story, and the signal sent at its end is what draws a Wraith ship to Earth in the finale.

On which ocean planet does the city float for the first three seasons of Stargate Atlantis?

Lantea had to be abandoned at the end of season three, when a hostile beam weapon forced the crew to fire up the city's stardrive and escape into space.

Which actor plays Michael, the Wraith turned human by an experimental retrovirus on Stargate Atlantis?

Connor Trinneer missed one episode through a scheduling conflict, so another actor took the part on screen while Trinneer still supplied the voice.

Which actor, the oddly adored Lucius Lavin on Stargate Atlantis, also appeared in the original 1994 Stargate film?

Richard Kind played a researcher studying the gate in the film, and he is the only actor to appear in both the movie and Stargate Atlantis.

What was the subtitle of the planned Stargate Atlantis follow-up film that was shelved amid MGM's financial troubles?

Stargate: Extinction had a finished script about a return mission to the galaxy the city had left, but the film was shelved indefinitely in 2011.

Which Stargate SG-1 co-creator developed Stargate Atlantis alongside fellow producer Robert C. Cooper?

Brad Wright later said the show was cancelled while still popular in order to give its planned movies the best chance of success.

Which composer earned an Emmy nomination for the orchestral main title theme of Stargate Atlantis?

Joel Goldsmith, son of the film composer Jerry Goldsmith, earned a second Emmy nomination for his score to the season-two episode Grace Under Pressure.

What real first name of the actor became the name of the long-unnamed gate technician on Stargate Atlantis?

Chuck went nameless for three seasons until Torri Higginson called him that on camera; the actor took it for a slip, but the director kept the take.

On Stargate Atlantis, what name is given to a Wraith raid that carries off villagers as food?

A culling never empties a world: the Wraith let its people recover for generations before returning, treating human planets like herds.

On Stargate Atlantis, the Wraith are said to have evolved from which creature that feeds on humans?

Iratus bug traits nearly claimed Sheppard too: an unfinished Wraith-to-human retrovirus began turning him into one in season two.

Stargate Atlantis saved money by inheriting a massive effects stage built for which 2004 action film?

Blade: Trinity's producers handed over the set to avoid the high cost of dismantling it, and its top level became a city walkway in the episode The Storm.

Which actress first played Elizabeth Weir on Stargate SG-1 before Torri Higginson took over for Stargate Atlantis?

Jessica Steen says she was told to keep her schedule free for the spin-off, then released from her contract after prioritising a trip to Burning Man.

On Stargate Atlantis, how did the sound team create the muttered alien language of the Asgard engineer Hermiod?

English played backward gave Hermiod his grumbling, which suited a character the producers wrote with a little bit of an attitude problem.

In the Stargate Atlantis episode The Last Man, John Sheppard returns to find the city surrounded by what?

Sand dunes have replaced the ocean because an accident has thrown Sheppard 48,000 years into the future, where a hologram of an aged McKay explains what went wrong.