Production on Season Five of Stargate Atlantis will be coming to a close in the next couple of months, but we viewers have yet to be exposed to a quarter of what this year will offer.

GateWorld recently spoke to writer Carl Binder about how the team is raising the bar to best Season Four, which was praised by many fans for its willingness to take more risks.

“Last year was great in that we had that real overriding arc,” Binder told GateWorld. “This [year] is kind of about new enemies, a new reality … A new order to the galaxy. The results of what happened last year are going to be felt this year.

“The Wraith are not as strong as they used to be. So the people of the galaxy are going to be stepping out a little bit more, and forming more alliances. As a result, other societies are going to emerge. Some very technologically advanced and some friendly and some not so friendly. There’s going to be this discovering the new order of the galaxy this year.”

Already a new alien race was introduced in the fourth episode of the season, “The Daedalus Variations,” but whether this bizarre new society is a one-off, or will be recurring, is anyone’s guess at this point.

What is certain, however, is Atlantis will encounter another race of beings in the mid-season two-parter which will surprise and shock many fans. “The one that Martin is working on for the mid-season two-parter,” said Carl, “kind of introduces this new technologically advanced race that we don’t want to say too much about. “

Season Four left several dangling threads to be resolved this year, including a major twist at the end of “Be All My Sins Remember’d.” Next week’s new episode, “Ghost in the Machine,” will answer some of the big questions from that hour of television.

“We haven’t seen the last of the Replicators, even though we thought we had,” Binder told GateWorld. “But there’s a few loose ends in regards to what happened to Elizabeth Weir that will be addressed, and that storyline will continue. And also with the addition of Woolsey to Atlantis, there’s a new order as far as how Atlantis proceeds.”

Watch for our complete interview with Carl Binder in the coming days. New episodes of Stargate Atlantis will resume next Friday, August 15, on the SCI FI Channel in the United States!