Categories: Episodes

Episode of the Week: ‘The Last Man’

Atlantis: Season Four
First Aired: March 7, 2008

In the SGA fourth season finale Sheppard returns to Atlantis after a mission and finds the city abandoned, all systems dead — and instead of ocean, sand dunes as far as the eye can see.

It’s time-twisty, alternate reality fun … with a side of crotchety old McKay!

“The Last Man” Facts:

  • In the averted, alternate reality Samantha Carter is given command of the newest Daedalus-class battlecruiser — the Phoenix. In our own reality Sam also gets the same ship, though it is christened the George Hammond instead (“Enemy at the Gate”).
  • Although Richard Woolsey (Robert Picardo) appears in command of Atlantis in the alternate future, when the episode was written and shot there were no plans yet to give him the job in the show’s fifth season.
  • Actor David Hewlett’s real-life sister, Kate, makes a very brief appearance as Jeannie Miller. her character had been featured in two previous episodes.
  • David stayed in character around the set for much of the day when in his old-man makeup. The makeup artistry was a significant improvement over the look at that SG-1 had the year before, when the series finale “Unending” aired.

“The Last Man” on GateWorld:

Download “Red Sky” now from Amazon or iTunes!

Rewatch “The Last Man” this week! Then post your comments below, or head over to the “Last Man” discussion forum and see what people were saying back in the day. What are your favorite moments?

Each week we’re highlighting a favorite episode from Stargate’s 17 seasons. Watch the episode with us this week and join in the fun!

GateWorld

GateWorld was founded in 1999, and is the Internet's premiere destination for Stargate news and fandom.

View Comments

  • This is one of my favorite episodes. Very accurate representation of the latest scientific theories and discoveries. Combination of alternative time lines, and travel in the future. One of the possible, future time lines. And again, every phrase, facial expression, every gesture - just perfect.

  • Great episode, one of the best of the entire franchise.

    I usually hate these "time travel, alt universe, no real consequences" but this one was done so well.

  • sam getting killed off was *very* hard to watch, so i'm super, super, and super glad it didn't happen in our normal timeline. :p

  • I always did enjoy this episode. I could imagine what would've been going through his head when he realized he was all alone and the environment was all wrong. Then to contemplate on whether human civilization would be around after that amount of time. Great episode.

  • I always wondered about that hologram... looks like the ones in star trek, completely human. So much so that it seems his conciousness is uploaded in it.

  • @ Hublo: One could theorize that McKay used Asgard tech to develop his hologram. Regardless of what happened in the Pegasus galaxy, the Asgard would still be a dying race, and likely still would give all their tech and knowledge to Earth. Including Asgard hologram tech.

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