Atlantis Season 1

Template:ATL-1

The twenty episodes that constitute the first season of Stargate Atlantis introduced the audience to a new world, related to but separate from the world of Stargate SG-1. Finally, humans have discovered the legacy of the Ancients, the Lost City of Atlantis. As humans explore the city and encounter dangerous new enemies throughout the season, viewers are taken on a wild ride of adventure and drama, with just enough comic relief along the way.

Plot

Dr. Elizabeth Weir, having recently left the SGC, now commands the international research team investigating the Ancient base in Antarctica. Under her command, many important discoveries have been made; scientists have learned how the Ancient power cell, known as a Zero Point Module, functions, as well as learning more about the Ancient projectile weapons in the base. It is also discovered that a specific gene is responsible for activating Ancient technology like the Drone Weapon, as it is called. However, Dr. Daniel Jackson makes the greatest discovery: the Stargate Address to the Lost City of Atlantis. Analyzing the address leads scientists to realize that the city is in the Pegasus galaxy, outside the Gate Network of the Milky Way. Establishing a wormhole to the Pegasus galaxy would require a massive energy source, consuming Earth's Zero Point Module, or ZPM. However, General Jack O'Neill gives the go-ahead, and Dr. Weir, chosen to lead the expedition to the city, assembles her team. Key personnel include Col. Marshall Sumner, commander of the Marine forces traveling to the city, Major John Sheppard, an Air Force Major with a strong concentration of the Ancient gene, Lt. Aiden Ford, a Marine officer, Sgt. Bates, chief of security, Dr. Rodney McKay, genius astrophysicist and head scientist for the expedition, Dr. Radek Zelenka, his second, Dr. Peter Grodin, another lead scientist, and Dr. Carson Beckett, discoverer of the Ancient gene, or ATA gene, and chief medical officer for the expedition. Upon arriving in Atlantis (and depleting Earth's ZPM in the process), the expedition finds that the Ancients submerged the city to the bottom of the ocean floor to protect the city from attack from a vicious, vampiric enemy, the Wraith. The city was protect from the extreme pressure by an incredibly sophisticated energy shield, powered by the city's main energy plant, an array of three Zero Point Modules. However, continual operation of the shield over ten thousand years has depleted the ZPM's, and the arrival of the expedition automatically re-activated the city's life-support system. This power drain has caused the energy shield to fail; the intense ocean pressure begins to crush the city, but an automatic safeguard causes it to rise to the surface of the ocean. Meanwhile, Col. Sumner sends out teams through the Atlantis stargate to find a suitable evacuation site should they be forced to leave the city. Indeed, they find one on the planet Athos, but Athos is soon attacked by the Wraith. Col. Sumner and Teyla Emmagan, the Athosian leader, are abducted by the Wraith. Dr. Weir sends Major Sheppard and a team to retrieve the prisoners, and while they do, Col. Sumner is killed, and they awaken the Wraith from a centuries-long hibernation cycle. Over the course of this season, the expedition, joined by Teyla and her people, explore the galaxy, looking for allies against the Wraith, while also exploring the many advanced labs and towers of the city. They stumble upon an Ancient personal shield emitter, but problems arise when they can't turn it off, and the team also discovers a monstrous insect that may be the progenitor of the Wraith. They must find a traitor who may be sending information to the Wraith and stop the person from compromising their security. They find a planet where the inhabitants commit ritual suicide on reaching the age of 24, in order to fend off the Wraith, and they find a drug that prevents the Wraith from feeding on the life-force of humans. Sadly, the drug tends to kill those who take it as well. Major Sheppard's team, known as Atlantis 1, finds an Amish-like world with dark secrets beneath the surface (literally), and later find a planet with an energy source strong enough to send them home, or so they think. When a great hurricane approaches Atlantis, the team must find a way to power the shield, or the storm surge could destroy the fragile city. Things get more complicated, though, when the team's new nemesis, the Genii, seize the opportunity and try to conquer Atlantis. Atlantis 1 discovers an Ancient satellite with a powerful defensive weapon, but more troubling, an ancient Wraith who has lived for milennia. The scientists inadvertently release a deadly bio-weapon into the city, and Atlantis 1 discovers a planet inhabited by an Ascended being. Interestingly, the discovery of an Ancient stasis chamber in Atlantis leads to the revelation of an interesting time-loop having taken place. Dr. McKay leads the team as they search for a ZPM on another world, but run into trouble when the Genii show up. Sadly, the team learns that a Wraith fleet is on its way to destroy Atlantis. They soon learn that Teyla has a telepathic ability to sense the Wraith. In a desperate attempt to warn Earth of this new threat, Dr. McKay finds a way to power a wormhole to Earth for just a fraction of a second, long enough to send a compressed data-burst through. The expedition prepares to abandon the city after they fail to stop the Wraith using the Ancient weapons satellite. However, their luck changes when a new military contingent arrives from Earth, via a recently discovered ZPM there (SG1: "Moebius, Part 2"). The new Marine force, led by Col. Dillon Everett, has brought advanced weapons to fight the Wraith, as well as the good news that the Daedalus, sister ship to the Prometheus, is en route to Atlantis, carrying the ZPM. Things turn sour again, however, when the Wraith forces punch through the new defenses and attack Atlantis directly. Maj. Sheppard embarks on a suicide mission in a Puddle Jumper with an armed nuke on board, in a quest to destroy one of the Wraith's hive ships.

Main characters

Template:Atlantis Season 1 Main characters

Episodes

101: Rising, Part 1 (of 2)

102: Rising, Part 2 (of 2)

103: Hide and Seek

104: Thirty-Eight Minutes

105: Suspicion

106: Childhood's End

107: Poisoning the Well

108: Underground

109: Home

110: The Storm (Part 1 of 2)

111: The Eye (Part 2 of 2)

112: The Defiant One

113: Hot Zone

114: Sanctuary

115: Before I Sleep

116: The Brotherhood

117: Letters from Pegasus

118: The Gift

119: The Siege, Part 1 (of 3)

120: The Siege, Part 2 (of 3)

Other seasons

Template:Atlantis Seasons