Progeny (11 Aug. 2006)

The Atlantis expedition encounters a highly advanced race, the Asurans. Who they at first believe to be the ancients. However, this new race is just a new face of an old nemesis.

Director:

Andy Mikita

Writers:

Brad Wright (creator), Robert C. Cooper (creator),

Stars:

Joe Flanigan, Torri Higginson, Rachel Luttrell

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Joe Flanigan	...	Lt. Colonel John Sheppard
Torri Higginson	...	Dr. Elizabeth Weir
Rachel Luttrell	...	Teyla Emmagan
Jason Momoa	...	Ronon Dex
Paul McGillion	...	Dr. Carson Beckett (credit only)
David Hewlett	...	Dr. Rodney McKay
John O'Callaghan	...	Niam
David Nykl	...	Dr. Radek Zelenka
Hellena Taylor	...	Asuran Counselor #1
Kerry Sandomirsky	...	Asuran Counselor #2
David Ogden Stiers	...	Oberoth
Chuck Campbell	...	Chuck the Technician

Storyline

The Atlantis team receive a response to one of their probes from a society that seems to be the Ancients. Elizabeth Weir joins Sheppard, McKay and the rest of the team to meet them. To their amazement, they find another city very much like Atlantis only larger and more elaborate with millions of residents. The group's leader, Oberoth, says they left Atlantis many years before after a dispute and created a new life for themselves. McKay is amazed to learn that they have a virtually unlimited number of ZPMs to power the city. Elizabeth wants to discuss trade and the establishment of diplomatic relations but Oberoth seems uninterested. The Atlantis team soon discovers that all is not as it seems.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Adventure

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Details

Release Date:

11 August 2006 (USA)

Company Credits

Did You Know?

Goofs

(at around 17 mins) When Oberoth is walking, you can clearly see (starting on the left and moving right between camera, set and actors) a photographer taking pictures for presumably promotional material.

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Quotes

Dr. Elizabeth Weir: Rodney?
Dr. Rodney McKay: Hmm?
Dr. Elizabeth Weir: Well, this cell is similar to ours. Is there something in the design that could offer a possible escape?
Dr. Rodney McKay: Are you serious? It's a jail cell.

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Connections

Featured in Stargate: Atlantis: The Real World (2006)

User Reviews

Thriving and multiplying

An excellent episode that seriously changes things in the Pegasus galaxy while offering more than enough action to satisfy everyone. It starts with another encounter with people who might, or might not, be maverick Ancients living in a perfect replica of "Atlantis and then some" (sic Ronon). (By the way: I hate what they've done with the place) As can be expected considering the lukewarm welcome our heroes get, things soon go wrong. So wrong that within the next ten minutes Sheppard's team breaks jail, goes back to Atlantis, faces a full-blown Wraith assault and destroys the city before leaving for Earth --at which point the only comment that comes to mind is "huh?"

So I really gasped when the big revelation came. I guess the surprise only works for those SG-1 viewers who understand who the Replicators are and what they can do, but even those who only have Atlantis to go by will get that very quickly. The good news is, these Replicators are less psychopathic than their Milky Way brethren; the bad one is, they're much better organised, and with the full resources of an improved-upon Atlantis to work with. Hence some really awesome CGU scenes that just make the episode that much more epic -and the odds that much more desperate for Atlantis. But even as the team tries to come up with clever ways to stop those new and formidable enemies, we learn their story, which is both tragic and really symbolic. Weir interprets it in psychoanalytic terms, but it has something mythical: and a few well-placed hints only emphasise the biblical parallels). When all is said and done, Niam and his fellows are trying to get rid of the original flaw which led their creators to forsake them, seeking redemption in order to achieve Ascension. Familiar much? (As a side note, it is fascinating how history repeats itself, and how humanity keeps making the same mistakes as the Ancients --fascinating, and depressing).

This is not to say that the whole episode is one long philosophical debate; it definitely is not. What makes it really work is that even as the revelations come and the stakes are exposed, the action almost never stops and goes from jail escape to mad pursuit to space fight to siege, all within one episode. Understandably, this doesn't leave much room for character development, but you won't have time to miss it, what with a new enemy at large --one that might prove even more lethal than the Wraiths.