The Best Sci-Fi Series You Never Got Around To Watching Deserves A Comeback

Spinning off the Season 7 finale of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis follows a new team based out of the mythological city, which, as it turns out, is not on Earth but rather on the distant planet Lantea, nestled in the Pegasus Galaxy. Constructed by the Ancients and then abandoned to keep it out of the hands of their enemy, the Wraiths, Atlantis allowed the writers to explore a new side of the franchise. Episode by episode, the expedition gets the city up and running, dealing with invaders, a lack of supplies, and the constant threat of the Wraiths making an appearance.

Episodes of Stargate Atlantis are fairly self-contained and tell complete stories from beginning to end. Overall, I find the overarching storylines for each season to be tighter than those of SG-1.

While the setting and storylines in Stargate Atlantis are fantastic, the crew this time around takes a little while to get used to after having spent seven seasons with the original series. At the forefront of the Atlantis Reconnaissance Team (AR-1) is John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan), an Air Force pilot who happens to be able to activate the Ancient’s technology thanks to the ATA gene buried in his DNA. Giving him orders is Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Tori Higginson), the team leader, and fan-favorite Rodney Mckay (David Hewlett) as the science officer.

Alongside the military officers is Teyla (Rachel Luttrell), an Athosian with a secret she doesn’t know about, who eventually learns to trust the Earthlings after they prove their loyalty to each other. In Season 2, another native of the Pegasus galaxy joins AR-1 when Jason Momoa joins the cast as Ronon Dex, a resourceful weapons expert with a grudge against the Wraiths.

As Stargate Atlantis progresses, later seasons see new officers join AR-1 as others leave, including the addition of some recognizable sci-fi stars, including Firefly’s Jewel Staite and Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Picardo. The stars of SG-1 pop in from time to time, including Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, and Amanda Tapping.

Stargate Atlantis was a hit for SyFy (known at the time as The Sci-Fi Channel), including four Emmy nominations, and helped the franchise keep going after SG-1 was canceled. Amazingly, for a cable sci-fi series, the crew were allowed to end the show on their own terms, bringing the story to a satisfying conclusion, though it was left with a few threads for later movies to explore, but those ended up never happening. Still, Atlantis does have an ending, so for anyone worried about yet another sci-fi classic cut short, don’t worry about it.

REVIEW SCORE

When Stargate Atlantis was first airing, I didn’t pay any attention to it; I was too busy with Battlestar Galactica. It’s only in the last few years that I’ve gone back to the world of Stargate, and I feel like I’ve been missing out. The franchise reminds me of Babylon 5, one of my all-time favorites, and if you’re like me and haven’t gotten around to Stargate, you need to correct that right now.

Thankfully, it’s easy to stream Stargate Atlantis today, with the series available for free on Pluto TV, and with a subscription on Amazon Prime, and Hulu.