A new Stargate team embarks on a dangerous mission to a distant galaxy, where they discover a mythical lost city and a deadly new enemy — the vampiric Wraith, which is oppressing the Pegasus Galaxy by feeding on sentient beings.
“Rising” Facts:
- The producers’ original plan for the Stargate spin-off series was to set Atlantis on Earth, under the Antarctic ice. But when SG-1 was renewed for an incredible eighth season, the lost city of the Ancients was moved to another galaxy — where the two shows could live side-by-side without their respective storylines interfering with each other.
- Casting for the spin-off was a long and sometimes challenging process, and even the scripted characters themselves changed as a result. Perhaps most famously, the role of the African Canadian “Dr. Benjamin Ingram” was to be replaced with a different scientist after producers realized they had a great character already introduced on Stargate SG-1: David Hewlett‘s Rodney McKay. (In fact, David had even auditioned for the role of Dr. Ingram.)
- Among those who was considered for the role of John Sheppard — a swaggering, O’Neill-esque Air Force Major — was Farscape‘s Ben Browder. He was busy filming The Peacekeeper Wars at the time, however, and would join the franchise one year later as Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell. Atlantis found its Sheppard in actor Joe Flanigan.
- Rachel Luttrell was the last to be cast, as Teyla Emmagan — whose alien queen was originally named “Mikala.” Other actresses who auditioned for the part included Ona Grauer (SG-1‘s Ayiana, who would return in “Rising” in the opening flashback) and Kira Clavell (who instead was cast as the Goa’uld Amaterasu on SG-1).
- Torri Higginson (“Elizabeth Weir”) and Rainbow Sun Franks (“Aiden Ford”) rounded out the main cast. The new show also included a number of Vancouver actors who had already appeared on SG-1, now recast as different characters — including Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling), Garwin Sanford (Simon), Craig Veroni (Peter Grodin), and Paul McGillion (Carson Beckett).
- Original feature film characters Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) were on hand to launch the spin-off … but the rest of the SG-1 team was benched, mainly due to legalities having to due with long-term royalties for the show. Carter and Teal’c would eventually make guest spots, with Amanda Tapping joining the Atlantis cast full-time for its fourth season.
- “Rising” aired as a 2-hour premiere event and set a ratings record for a SCI FI Channel weekly series — a 3.2 household rating and some 4.2 million viewers. This bested SG-1‘s eighth season opener the week before, which had scored a record 3.2 million. (The record would stand until 2009, when it was dethroned by an early episode of Warehouse 13.)
“Rising” on GateWorld:
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I love this one. The intro of Carson is so cute, and the O'Neal Rodney exchange makes me chuckle.
"with Amanda Tapping joining the Atlantis cast full-time for its fifth season." it was the fourth season, woozie joined for the fifth. remember she got fired and woozie said he was replacing her.
I truly love this show and this pilot episode, but I've always disliked the character of Teyla. Luttrell is an absolutely hottie, but she's a pretty awful actor, in my opinion.
"mainly due to legalities having to due with long-term royalties for the show"
I never saw anything about that.
As far as Luttrell, I felt she was severely underused as well as Rainbow. I never enjoyed the show as much as I did for the first season. The writers just stopped having any imagination and started retreading the same well, IMO.
Expectation can be a destructive thing.
I say that because Rising offered so much promise for Atlantis as a series and concept, and hinted at a major expansion of the Stargate format. The characters, casting, setting, new enemy, technology and the city itself all offering the promise of great things. I especially liked the sense of adventure in new parts unknown, and the hint of possible A.I. Tech in the city itself. The visuals and the music throughout are wonderful, from Atlantis leaving Earth, to that final shot of the city at night.
However, as the series goes on it paints itself in a corner. We all know what a bottle show is, Atlantis became a "bottle series." Trapped within its established ideas of the Wraith and later the Human Replicators., with little in between, and no evolution as SG1 did. The Tokra, The Asgard, The Rebel Jaffa, new tech developments, finding ZPM's etc.etc.
Although all of Season 1 is great, and there are some good moments in Season 2, Rising will always feel like a great premise promised, that the rest of the show failed to live up to.
I agree with Mrja84. Atlantis had some solid lead characters and firm supporting ones within the Expedition, and there was potential to the Athosians as an ally, as well as Teyla as a native character. It was not Ms Luttrel's fault. The characters were written out or written off and only Shephard and McKay were focused on in the long haul. A dreadful waste of acting talent and concept, and fan loyalty to a degree.
Still, two good seasons is better than none, and alongside ten seasons of SG1 is pretty good. Rising fits into that, as a final piece in The Lost City / New Order / Rising mini arc bridge. Perhaps it's real legacy is carrying a final crossover burst of optimism from SG1, to Its (then) new sibling series.
Atlantis had so much promise. But the later seasons faltered due to the changeover from Weir to Carter to Woolsey, as well as stagnant arcs and the losses of great characters.
And especially because Teyla's arc was boring as hell.
I don't know if anyone else saw the writing on the wall. But It was very clear to me that they were setting up Sheppard and Teyla for a romance. Add in the later revelation that Teyla has a deeper connection to the Wraith with the given fact that Sheppard is a natural at using Ancient gene-based technology and you got yourself a Romeo and Juliet like situation.
I think the final nail in the coffin for the romance was Rachel Luttrell being pregnant and the writers not desiring to show-in a way for it to be Sheppard's. So Teyla needed to be in a relationship with someone else and barely a character in of his own.
I imagine if the show was able to continue down that path, Teyla may have become part-villain/part-threat sometime after their romance starts.
Either way, I loved the premise of Rising and what the series did for the franchise, I just could not stop myself from seeing "behind the veil" and seeing what happened on the show as a failure on the writers.
I mean, sorry. I'm not going ton continue. But i will say, they created the characters for the series, felt they were in a corner, and went back to fan favorite archetypes.