- " Carson, you're my chief surgeon. No-one is more qualified than you."
- ―Elizabeth Weir
Carson Beckett was the Chief Medical Officer of the Atlantis expedition from 2004 to 2007.
Biography
Background information
Beckett was originally from Scotland, lived with a family of seven, and was born with the Ancient Technology Activation Gene, which he discovered and enables him to access Ancient technology, but doesn't have complete control over them though his ability improved over time with practice. He is somewhat afraid of Control chairs, due to an unpleasant experience in Antarctica, as well as Stargate travel, declaring that having an individual dematerialized and sent hundreds to thousands of light years is "a bloody insanity". Beckett's two most prominent achievements were the development the Ancient Technology Activation gene therapy that delivers the gene to 48% of recipients and the retrovirus that suppresses the Iratus bug elements in Wraith DNA. (SGA: "Rising", "Hide and Seek", "Michael")
2004
Beckett, in his first year of the expedition.
He was hired to join the Atlantis expedition in Antarctica. Dr. Rodney McKay forced a reluctant Carson to sit in the Control chair in the Antarctic outpost (because he was "afraid of the thing") to determine the location of Atlantis, since he was a natural carrier of the Ancient Technology Activation Gene. He unintentionally activated a Drone weapon and sent it hurtling straight towards Major John Sheppard and Brigadier General Jack O'Neill's helicopter. Beckett was slowly guided to successfully deactivate the drone. After Dr. Daniel Jackson successfully deciphered the gate address of Atlantis, Beckett had volunteered to join the expedition as the Chief Medical Officer of Atlantis. During the first week, he already discovered a small amount about Wraith physiology, including the fact that they don't die from natural aging. (SGA: "Rising")
Shortly after arriving, he developed the Ancient Technology Activation gene therapy and tested it on Dr. Rodney McKay. The test proved successful on him and later on 46% of those who received it. (SGA: "Hide and Seek")
When Major John Sheppard and his team's Puddle Jumper was lodged in the Stargate, he instructed Lt. Aiden Ford and Teyla Emmagan on how to remove the Iratus bug. He suggested the use of a Defibrillator to stop his heart. When Sheppard could not be revived, he had them enter the Event horizon and then revived him when he reached Atlantis. (SGA: "Thirty-Eight Minutes")
Later, the Atlantis expedition discovered a planet called Hoff where the inhabitants were attempting to develop a drug that would make them immune to Wraith feeding. Beckett worked with a Hoffan scientist named Perna, who he developed a fondness to, to speed up the drug's development process, which was successfully tested on a volunteer terminally ill patient, though Beckett was reluctant to agree to this test without a full analysis of the drug's long term effect on humans. The test was a preliminary success until the Wraith test subject died from 'food poisoning' and the human test subject died anyway. His initial fear proved well founded when Chancellor Durhin of Hoff began mass vaccinations which revealed a 50% mortality rate. Beckett joined his team opposing the Hoffan determination to disseminate the drug on a galactic scale. After Perna died due to the drug, a disgusted Carson, along with Major John Sheppard's team left the planet, no longer planning an alliance between them. (SGA: "Poisoning the Well")
Sometime before the Lantean storm, he had learned how to pilot a Puddle Jumper. He went to the mainland to help the Athosian settlement evacuate to Atlantis. However, by the time the last of the hunters arrived at the Jumper, the storm was about to hit and Beckett insisted he lacked the skill to fly through it, he was eventually persuaded, by Lt. Aiden Ford during the eye, to return to Atlantis after learning that a Genii strike team infiltrated the city. He, along with Ford and Teyla Emmagan helped Major John Sheppard to retake the city. However, in the process, he was teamed up with Teyla, and was knocked out by Sora Tyrus, who wanted to be alone with Teyla, so she could avenge her father's death. (SGA: "The Storm", "The Eye")
2005
When an Ancient nanovirus was released from the Nanite lab, he was called in to discover the cause of the deaths of Dr. Wagner and Dr. Johnson. He ordered his pathologist, Dr. Biro, to autopsy the bodies. When she discovered that they both died of a ruptured saccular brain aneurysm just above the visual cortex. He and Dr. Rodney McKay then discovered that the virus was actually nanites. (SGA: "Hot Zone")
When Major John Sheppard brought Chaya Sar to Atlantis, he did a full examination of her and found that she was in perfect health. He was suspicious as she was far to healthy for her societies level of advancement. (SGA: "Sanctuary")
When Major John Sheppard found the alternate Dr. Elizabeth Weir in a Stasis pod, he argued against reviving her as she was near death. (SGA: "Before I Sleep")
When a Wraith Dart was detected heading toward Atlantis, he and Sgt. Bates piloted a Puddle Jumper to take it down, but it self-destructed before Carson was able to get a clear shot. (SGA: "The Brotherhood")
When the expedition was preparing to send a message back to Stargate Command, he recorded a personal message to his mother. This proved difficult for him as he became choked up on several occasions. (SGA: "Letters from Pegasus")
After Teyla Emmagan discovered a hidden Wraith lab and retrieve a data recorder, he discovered that Teyla has Wraith DNA in her genetic makeup, which would be very useful for the impending Siege of Atlantis. (SGA: "The Gift")
When Sgt. Bates was attacked by "Bob", he determined the DNA on his uniform was Wraith. He also placed Bates in a medically induced coma. (SGA: "The Siege, Part 1")
During the Battle of Atlantis, he was sent to the Control chair to activate it after the Mark II Naquadah generator that was tied into it's power supply. He also inoculated the team sent from Stargate Command with the Ancient Technology Activation gene therapy. (SGA: "The Siege, Part 2")
After Lt. Aiden Ford was found in the ocean, he discovered that he had received a massive dose of the Wraith enzyme and was going to suffer from withdrawal. He harvested enzyme from the Wraith bodies in the morgue and tried to ween him off gradually. Unfortunately, Ford escaped with all the enzyme. After a plan was devised to cloak the city, he watched over Teyla Emmagan as she sent a message to the Wraith. (SGA, "The Siege, Part 3")
He later went back to Earth through the gate with the senior staff to select additional members for the medical staff of the expedition. When he raised concerns that some of the recruits seemed more skilled than he was, he was reassured by the fact that Dr. Elizabeth Weir believed he was irreplaceable. (SGA: "The Intruder")
Beckett was responsible for removing the Wraith tracking device from Ronon Dex, a Satedan who was captured and made into a Runner, but was freed. (SGA: "Runner")
Since the expedition's second year of operation, Beckett started to develop a retrovirus to suppress the Iratus bug part of an individual Wraith to transform them into a human. He was impressed to learn that Zaddik had a serum that supposedly prevents a Wraith's need to feed, but later learned that the serum was ineffective, as Ellia had been sneaking out to feed on a Human periodically. She took the prototypical retrovirus, which had the opposite of the desired effect. Unfortunately, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard had been infected by Ellia as well and he began to mutate more slowly. Beckett presided over a plan to use Iratus bug embryonic stem sells to replace Sheppard's mutating cells. (SGA: "Instinct", "Conversion")
2006
Beckett eventually succeeded in developing the Iratus bug retrovirus to a stage where he was willing to test it on a Wraith. Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team captures a Wraith, later to be known as "Michael Kenmore" and tested the retrovirus on him. The test was a success, but only works temporarily, requiring a daily dose of the drug. The retrovirus had the added bonus of causing amnesia in the test subject, unfortunately, this proved only temporary as pieces of his former self broke through. "Michael" eventually realized he was a test subject, and escaped. However, he brought a Hive Ship to Atlantis, so that they can use Beckett's retrovirus to spread amongst their rival Wraith factions, an alliance that later turned out to be a ruse for the Wraith to get to Earth though Michael himself was apparently unaware of it. When the Hive Ship returned to Atlantis Beckett, as the only other person who'd ever fired a drone besides Sheppard and Major General Jack O'Neill, was drafted to sit in the Control chair to fire if necessary. Beckett was incredibly relieved when Sheppard revealed he was in control of the Hive Ship. On M8G-352, Beckett led treated the human-form Wraith, including Michael as part of their experiment in making Wraith human. After it failed, Beckett was captured by Michael and unknowingly had genetic material taken from him which Michael later used to make his clone before he was rescued. When Sheppard decided to open fire on the Wraith camp and exterminate the reverting Wraith and those who were still human, Beckett was upset, but had no choice but to go along with it. (SGA: "Michael", "Allies", "Misbegotten")
He joined the team for the mission to Sateda to rescue Ronon Dex. When he saw that the team were outnumbered, he fought Dr. Rodney McKay for a machine gun and over which one of them would get to go help the others. Ultimately the others killed all of the Wraith while they were arguing about it. Eventually when Ronon was getting beaten up by the head Wraith and was about to be fed upon, McKay flew the Puddle Jumper down to help and Beckett killed the Wraith himself using a Drone weapon. Since Ronon's belief that he could take out the Wraith himself in hand to hand combat had failed, he was extremely thankful (for him) for Beckett's timely intervention, even hugging Beckett. Ronon passed out and Beckett removed the new tracking device that had been implanted before returning to Atlantis. (SGA: "Sateda")
After the Lanteans were rescued from their ship, the Tria, Captain Helia retook control of the city. The entire expedition were requested to leave and returned back to Earth, where Beckett became a medical officer for Stargate Command. During that time, he bought a bunch of baby Turtles, because he was allergic to Cats and felt too busy to have a Dog. After learning that the Pegasus Replicators took control of the city, he along with Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, Dr. Elizabeth Weir and Dr. Rodney McKay stole a Puddle Jumper and went to Atlantis through the McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge, picked up Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex from the Athosian settlement in New Athos and worked to retake control of the city. After that was accomplished, he joined the rest of the expedition returning to Atlantis. (SGA: "The Return, Part 1", "The Return, Part 2")
2007
In 2007, Beckett was killed in a freak accident. After a scientist was exposed to radiation that caused an explosive tumor in his body, Beckett successfully removed the tumor, and decided to take it halfway to the demolitions unit. After giving it to the soldier, the tumor exploded, killing both the soldier and Beckett. After his memorial service, and after Dr. Rodney McKay had returned to Atlantis after speaking to Carson Beckett's Mom, Beckett was featured in a kind of grief hallucination that appeared to McKay to comfort him over his death which confirmed that the two were in fact best friends. (SGA: "Sunday")
Cloned Beckett
The clone of Dr. Beckett.
- Main article: Carson Beckett (clone)
Beckett was found alive when Michael Kenmore kidnapped Teyla Emmagan and Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team went looking for her. Acting on a lead provided by Todd in exchange for research notes on the Hoffan drug, a strike team stormed an abandoned building guarded by some of Michael's lackeys. When they took Beckett back to Atlantis, it was discovered he was a clone, with the original's memories, personality and mannerisms. Unfortunately, the clone Beckett's body was deteriorating, so the Atlantis personnel were forced to put him in a stasis pod. (SGA: "The Kindred, Part 2")
Dr. Jennifer Keller later found the formula for the drug Michael had been using to keep the clone alive when Dr. Rodney McKay retrieved Michael's medical data from his database. Richard Woolsey then pressured her into synthesizing some of the substance and reviving the cloned Beckett to test it which fortunately proved successful. (SGA: "The Seed") This clone returned to Earth as he was technically not a member of the expedition (being a clone of someone who was officially dead), however, he later returned to the Pegasus galaxy to travel to various planets there and act as a doctor to the people. Though he is the clone of the original Beckett, he ranks second in the chair ranking system, after Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. He displays more confidence in using the Control chair then the original Beckett and is able to pilot Atlantis home to Earth and during the Battle of the ZPM powered Hive Ship, landing the city on Earth afterwards. (SGA: "Enemy at the Gate")
Alternate timeline
- In an alternate timeline, the "first" time the Expedition arrived in Atlantis, there was no Failsafe mechanism to release the city from the ocean floor when the shield failed and the city completely flooded. Carson helped some of the members to escape to the Puddle Jumpers, but drowned in the process. (SGA: "Before I Sleep")
Relationships
Laura Cadman showed interest in him, while she was trapped inside Rodney McKay's body, and certain intimate gestures between them after she was restored to her own body give a hint that the feelings were somewhat answered. According to Beckett, however, the relationship didn't work out, which he jokingly claimed was due to getting his first kiss from her while in McKay's body. (SGA: "Duet", "Critical Mass", "The Return, Part 1")
Behind the scenes
- Paul McGillion previously played a young Ernest Littlefield in the Stargate SG-1 episode "The Torment of Tantalus".
- The character is evidently comparable to Dr. McCoy from Star Trek. McCoy hated the idea of being beamed from one location to the next, similar to Beckett's fear of Stargate travel. Also, both characters often say the catchphrase "I'm a doctor, not a..."
- Contrary to popular belief, the actor, Paul McGillion does not speak with a Scottish accent most of the time.
External links
- Dr. Carson Beckett on the official MGM website. (backup link)
- Template:SciFi
- GateWorld's article on Carson Beckett in The Stargate Omnipedia
- Carson Beckett article on Stargate SG-1 Solutions' The StargateWiki
- Carson Beckett on Wikipedia