The fifth season of Stargate Atlantis will premiere with an episode titled “Search and Rescue,” executive producer Joseph Mallozzi revealed at his blog.

The episode will pick up where the fourth season leaves off. The final episode of the current season, “The Last Man,” will end on a cliffhanger — a decision made by the writers long before they knew that the show would be renewed.

“Our season finale was set in stone long before the decision was made regarding the show’s fifth season,” Mallozzi said. “We always intended to end it on a cliffhanger — our reasoning being that even if the show did not get picked up, we would find a way to end the story for fans of the show.”

In the season finale, Sheppard returns to Atlantis after a solo mission to find that the city has been abandoned. Instead of ocean, it is now surrounded by sand dunes as far as the eye can see.

Details on just what is going on as Season Five opens is, of course, still a mystery! Mallozzi teased: “Who’s searching and who’s in need of rescue? Tune into the Season Four finale to find out.”

The episode title is, of course, subject to change during the production cycle. Atlantis‘s writers are currently busy spinning ideas for the beginning of next season, and will soon be writing the first scripts. The show goes back before cameras in February.

SCI FI will air the second half of Season Four from January to March, and has not yet announced when it plans to premiere Season Five. The network may hold the show for another fall premiere, or potentially bump it up to a summer airing. The former allows the network to air the entire season straight through with only a short break for the holidays; but the summer months may bring less ratings competition from the major broadcast networks.

The decision on when to air Season Five could also be affected by the ongoing strike of the Writer’s Guild of America. Although the Canadian production only lost one regular writer (Carl Binder) to the strike, production on many of SCI FI’s other shows — including the second half of the final season of Battlestar Galactica — have been delayed.

Brand new episodes of Stargate Atlantis return to SCI FI Channel in the U.S. on Friday, January 4. Visit GateWorld’s Season Four episode guide to find out what’s coming up!

(Thanks to Rahul Sapariya and Sergio for the tip)