Stargate Atlantis launched into the sci-fi stratosphere in July 2004, premiering on the Sci Fi Channel to nearly 4.2 million viewers – the first sci-fi series ever to surpass the four-million-viewer plateau.

True to sci-fi protocol, Atlantis, spun off from the wildly popular Stargate SG-1, began with an ending.

U.S. broadcaster Showtime did not pick up the series after season five, and exec producers Brad Wright and Robert Cooper felt that the show’s run might be coming to an end. But instead of folding their tents, they envisioned a new portal.

‘Sure, we were a little concerned, but at the same time, we saw it as an opportunity,’ says Wright.

He recounts how the team pitched a feature film idea to MGM that would bridge the old series with a new one, providing an ending to SG-1 and an introduction to Atlantis. When SG-1 was subsequently picked up by the Sci Fi Channel for additional seasons, the feature film script, instead of being produced for theatrical release, was converted to the finale of season seven.

The pair also pitched MGM on the Atlantis pilot story as a feature, but Sci Fi picked it up as a series before it was even written.

‘I never worked so hard in my life,’ recounts Wright. In the time it once took to develop 20 episodes of SG-1, he and Cooper, with one extra writer, simultaneously retooled the ninth season of SG-1 and created and developed 20 episodes of Atlantis.

‘We doubled our workload and shared resources between the two shows,’ explains Cooper. In addition to soundstages, sets and locations, the productions share online producer John Smith, a writing department, a production designer, a construction coordinator, three directors (Andy Mikita, Martin Wood and Will Waring) and a full-time third unit.

‘If Martin is directing for Atlantis and SG-1 needs one scene on the same set or location, we’ll have the cast move over and use the Atlantis crew, and Martin will step in to direct it,’ Cooper says. ‘Last week we had a day where we shot five different scenes for five different episodes.’

According to Wright, ‘Atlantis would have failed without SG-1.’ Cooper agrees, adding, ‘It was an unorthodox approach, but it worked surprisingly well. And it’s fun opening up new worlds in production and content.’

The storyline has an international team from Earth traveling through the stargate to the famous lost city of Atlantis, located in the Pegasus Galaxy. (‘We purposely made Atlantis look and have a more international feeling,’ says Cooper.) It turns out to be a one-way ticket, as, amongst other challenges, the group has to find power to get back to Earth.

The onscreen characters may be from all over the world, but, along with the crew, the cast is predominantly Canadian, including Torri Higginson as mission leader Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Rainbow Sun Francks playing Lt. Aiden Ford, David Hewlett as astrophysicist Dr. Rodney McKay, Rachel Luttrell portraying the resident alien, and Paul McGillion as Dr. Carson Beckett. They are joined by American Joe Flanigan, who takes on a Richard Dean Anderson-like character in Major John Sheppard.

Stargate Atlantis is distributed by MGM Worldwide Television Distribution, and is currently shooting its third season at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby, B.C. Season three airs in July on the Sci Fi Channel.

www.stargateatlantis.com