Template:ATL-1 "Home" is the ninth episode of the first season of Stargate: Atlantis.
Synopsis
After exploring M5S-224, Dr. Rodney McKay discovers the mist is giving off power every time the Stargate is dialed out. This presents the team an opportunity to get back to Earth.
Plot
Upon exploring the planet M5S-224, Dr. Rodney McKay discovers that the Stargate draws its energy from the atmosphere, and believes that this would be enough energy to power up a wormhole to Earth. After consulting Dr. Elizabeth Weir, the team decides to dismantle the Control crystal in Atlantis and transport it to the planet in order to dial an eight chevron to the Milky Way galaxy. The wormhole connects, and Stargate Command tells them that it is alright to travel back to Earth since the Prometheus is capable of reaching the Pegasus Galaxy in a couple of months thanks to the installation of Asgard hyperdrives. Upon returning to Earth, they find out that the Prometheus has had an accident and is not capable of transporting them back to Atlantis.
Each team member slowly begins to realize that things are not as they seem. Major John Sheppard sees friends that had previously died in Afghanistan when he was serving with them, Weir is told by Major General George S. Hammond that Atlantis will now become a full military and Sheppard is strangely in support of this. In his own reality, McKay notices that his scientific results are coming out as gibberish. As each team member comes to the realization that this Earth is not real, they find themselves in the Embarkation room at Stargate Command with Hammond. But it is not the real Hammond, but rather a being of the original planet, which McKay mistook for highly charged mist.
Mist-Hammond tells them that he had to create hallucinations for each team member to stop them from dialing the Stargate and currently they are unconscious. Since Teyla Emmagan had no memories of Earth, she had to share Sheppard's memory. For many years, travelers had come through the Stargate and the use of the gate killed mist beings, Mist-Hammond explains that a connection to earth would kill millions, implying that the power the gate could draw from the mist was the hazard to these beings, rather than the vortex, which would be to physical beings. McKay realizes if they are unconscious, without food or water, they would eventually die. Mist-Hammond suggested that they return to their fantasies. Weir convinces him that they will not dial Earth, but head back to Atlantis instead and they are released from the hallucinations.
References
Afghanistan; Ancient; Antarctica; Archimedes; Asgard; Atlantis living quarter; Beer; Blackhawk; Cell phone; Control crystal; Dial Home Device; Energy being of M5S-224; Ferris Wheel; Fog; Football; Garage Door Opener; Goa'uld; Hamburger; Hazmat suit; Iris; Israel; Johnny Cash; Kabul; Life signs detector; M5S-224; Meredith Rodney McKay's cat; The Outer Limits; The Pentagon; Pizza; Popcorn; Prometheus; Puddle Jumper; Sedgewick; SG-1; South Korea; Special Operations; Stargate Command; Stargate Command infirmary; Taliban; War and Peace; Watson; Wraith; Zero Point Module
Notable Quotes
Ford: I've never seen so much nothing.
Sheppard: And I've never walked so far to see it.
Sheppard: How much power are we talking about here?
McKay: In terms of joules or ergs?
Sheppard: In terms of lots.
McKay: Well, lots and lots. Enough to dial back to Earth.
McKay: Let me see if I can make you understand, okay? these results don't just say the ZPM won't work, they say this reality isn't governed by any natural laws. It's like looking through a microscope at a cell culture and seeing a thousand dancing hamsters. It's impossible!
Weir: Rodney, you need to calm down.
McKay: No, no, what I need to do now is get very agitated because what I'm realizing is all this is a lie!
McKay: Atlantis can't afford to lose me. I'm their foremost expert in gate theory and wormhole physics, and a myriad of other sciences too numerous to mention yet too important to ignore.
Ford: So what you're saying is you're invaluable everywhere.
McKay: So none of this is real? (truth dawns) The cute brunette, of course! I should have known! How do you go from, "You're a pig, but I like your cat," to "I missed you"?
McKay: An hour ago it hit me. Like Archimedes in the bathtub, Eureka! Except, I wasn't in the bathtub. I was on the couch watching a very strange 'Outer Limits' episode...
(Sheppard has figured out that his welcome-home party is just a figment of his imagination)
Sheppard :You guys have been dead for years. Now, don't get me wrong, it's really nice seeing you. (points to a middle-aged woman) You too, Miss Watson.
Ford: Sir—
Sheppard: (to Ford) She was my sixth grade teacher. (points to a young blonde) And I don't even remember your name, but I remember you wouldn't even date me!
Weir: War and Peace. Mmm some heavy reading.
Sheppard: Yeah. Well back on Earth when I was getting ready for this mission I realized there was a good chance I might be here for a while so I figured 'why not bring along a book that takes a while to read.'
Weir: Page 17.
Sheppard: I'm right on schedule.
Alien Lifeform: Major Sheppard seemed uniquely capable of manipulating his own fabricated reality.
Sheppard: If I think about the scenarios I could've thought up, I'd kick myself... The dead people were a dead giveaway.
McKay: Dead people? What were you doing?!
Notes
- In this episode, the traditional wormhole effect is replaced by an odd "squeeze" effect lacking the green "outside" and a continuous wall of the wormhole. This is possibly to denote that the members are already inside the hallucination, although the wormhole may have been changed by the fact that the mist was powering the gate.
- The dog (Sedgewick) that appears in Dr. Elizabeth Weir's illusion is actually owned by actress Torri Higginson.
- George S. Hammond is only wearing two stars on his uniform (Major General) however Weir mentioned previously that he had been promoted to Lt. General and thus should be wearing three stars. Whether this is a custom goof or a deliberate clue that something is not as it seems is unknown.
- Also an obvious clue that the characters are experiencing a hallucination is that Hammond is still in command of Stargate Command whereas it is clear from the pilot episode of Stargate: Atlantis that Brigadier General Jack O'Neill had already taken command.
- The mist aliens have the timeline of the allusion very accurate. CMSgt. Walter Harriman says that the Asgard have installed a hyperdrive on Prometheus and they were about to send a rescue mission. In the previous weeks episode of Stargate SG-1 "Covenant" O'Neill asks Thor for a hyperdrive for Prometheus but is told it has to be approved by the Asgard High Council. Several weeks later after the hyperdrive installation they do send a rescue mission in the episode "Prometheus Unbound" but is cut short by Vala Mal Doran.
- The plot in this episode is very similar to that in the Farscape episode "A Human Reaction".
- This is the first time that the Goa'uld are mentioned on the series.
- In "Ripple Effect", a version of Cameron Mitchell from an alternate reality referred to this episode, indicating that these events also occurred in his reality.
- This is the only appearance on Stargate: Atlantis for Don S. Davis who starred on Stargate SG-1 for seven seasons.
- Nicole Rudell (Doctor) previously played Rita in the Stargate SG-1 episode "In the Line of Duty".
- Noah Beggs (Dex) previously played S.F. Officer in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Fragile Balance".
Goofs
- Illusion or not, it's highly unlikely that McKay would be allowed out of Cheyenne Mountain, let alone Stargate Command, wearing his Atlantis uniform complete with mission patches.
In other languages
- German: Zurück auf die Erde
- Polish: Dom
- Portuguese: Casa
- French: Retour sur Terre (Back on Earth)
- Italian: Casa (Home)
- Spanish: Casa (Home)
- Czech: Domov (Home)
External links
- Template:SciFi
- Official Stargate Atlantis site. MGM. Visited June 8, 2006.
- Transcript from GateWorld. Transcribed by Callie Sullivan. Visited May 14, 2006.
- Review from GateWorld. Reviewed by Taylor Brown. Visited May 14, 2006.
- Production from GateWorld. Visited May 14, 2006.
- Gatenoise from Moon-catchin'. Visited June 23, 2006.