As Stargate fans in the U.S. settle in for a long fall nap until new episodes return in January, our friends across the pond are just getting started! Season Nine of Stargate SG-1 begins this week on Sky One in the U.K., with Atlantis‘s second season kicking off next week.

“Ha ha, we’re so far ahead you’ll never catch up,” you Yankees might say? Well, this year and every year, the U.K. is poised to pass up the U.S. sometime in December, and will stay several episodes ahead for the rest of the season — thanks to Sky One’s lack of reruns.

The drawback for Sky viewers, of course, is that they’ll have to wait nearly eight months until the next season begins in the fall.

Production on Stargate may have wrapped for the year, but this fall will be far from boring at GateWorld! Stick around, because we’ll continue to roll out episode photos and spoilers, interviews with cast and crew members (including the hilarious Peter DeLuise later this week), and more. We’re also tracking new episode info on Galactica (which won’t wrap production until December), and fall favorites like Lost and Smallville.

And if you have — God forbid — missed any of this season’s episodes, SCI FI will show reruns in your favorite Friday night timeslots throughout the fall.

Now for all the Gate news that’s fit to print:

As mentioned, Sky One in the U.K. will premiere Season Nine of Stargate SG-1 on Tuesday, October 11 at 8 p.m. (“Avalon, Part 1”). That’s been bumped up one week from when we last reported. The Amanda Tapping-hosted special The Science of Stargate has been removed from the network’s schedule for the time being.

Stargate Atlantis will start Season Two on Sky on October 18, with “The Siege, Part 3.”

Canada’s The Movie Network will begin airing the second half of Stargate Atlantis Season Two on Monday, November 21 at 8 p.m., with “The Hive.” Canadian viewers will see the rest of the current season before anyone else in the world.

Fandemonium, which publishes Stargate novels outside of North America, will release a novelization of the Atlantis pilot movie “Rising” on December 15. Written by Sally Malcolm (“A Matter of Honor,” “The Cost of Honor”), the book will weigh in at 240 pages. The book may be available in North America; read more at Amazon.com, where it is listed but where pre-orders are not yet available. We hope they will be soon. U.S. readers are people, too.

In other book news, Titan Books’ official companion to Stargate Atlantis Season Two will be released within days following the season finale’s U.S. broadcast. Look for the 176-page book (written by Stargate SG-1: The Official Magazine editor Sharon Gosling) on March 31, 2006, with the usual episode guide, photos, interviews, and more.

Pre-order it today at Amazon! The Season One companion is available now.

Tony Amendola (“Bra’tac”) will appear this week at KREECON in Chianciano, Italy. The event takes place October 14 to 16, and is sponsored by the SG-1 Italy Fan Club.

To try and boost sales of its PSP memory sticks, Sony will release a new entertainment pack with a 512MB Memory Stick PRO Duo and a UMD disc. The disc will include various media clips, including scenes from Stargate Atlantis. No word on how much Atlantis will be on the disc, but don’t count on it being an entire episode. (The pilot movie, “Rising,” is currently available on UMD.)

Actors Mitch Pileggi (“Colonel Steven Caldwell”) and Barclay Hope (“Colonel Lionel Pendergast”) will appear at the Motion Picture Industry Charitable Alliance’s upcoming auction event in Los Angeles, along with actors, writers, and producers from other sci-fi favorites. Items from Stargate SG-1 will be among those auctioned off at the October 21 to 23 event.

TV Guide included a one-page look at the upcoming Atlantis episode “Grace Under Pressue” last month, confirming the guest appearance by SG-1‘s Amanda Tapping — and revealing a pair of photos from the episode’s filming.

SPOILERS! “Look for Carter to appear when bumbling science nerd Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) conjures up his old foil to help him escape from a sinking Puddle Jumper,” the magazine revealed. “Basically, I appear as a hallucination … I’m not really there,” Tapping said.

Legends Memorabilia, the company responsible for many officially licensed Stargate props and other items, wants to hear from you before deciding what to create next! Take the survey by e-mail via StargateProps.com.

The long-awaited Stargate Atlantis Season One trading card set is now available from Rittenhouse Archives!

The new issue of Stargate SG-1: The Official Magazine is now on newsstands everywhere! Issue #6 looks ahead to the rest of the current season. In addition to interviews and the lastest news from GateWorld, this issue also features an interview with writer-producers Martin Gero and Joseph Mallozzi, from GateWorld’s own managing editor.

The Boston Globe recently published their top 50 favorite science fiction shows of all time, with Stargate SG-1 coming in at an impressive sixth place. Stargate Atlantis ranked at number 26. The new Battlestar Galactica earned second place among the Globe editors (Hmm … of all time?), with the top spot going to the original Star Trek.

Finally, with 10 episodes aired in the U.S., most Stargate fans are liking Season Nine’s new direction, according to GateWorld’s current poll. Seventy-four percent of voters rated the season to-date on the positive side, while another 8 percent haven’t seen it yet. Eighteen percent of respondents aren’t too keen on the new season. Vote now on GateWorld’s home page.

(Thanks to Susan, Thor, Denise, Ron, Ben Cox, Greg, Luke, Maciej Kwiatkowski, Dom Whyle, Mathendacil, Erin, Jamieson, Jean Ward, and many others for contributing)