Atlantis:
Season Four First Aired: February 22 & 29, 2008
As a mysterious new illness sweeps through the Pegasus Galaxy, Teyla is convinced by a vision that the father of her child is trying to communicate with her. But after she is captured by Michael, the team is shocked to find an old friend, believed to be dead, miraculously returned to them.
“The Kindred” Facts:
- The shooting schedule for Atlantis‘s fourth season lined up very well with actress Rachel Luttrell‘s pregnancy, resulting in the storyline of Teyla’s pregnancy — culminating in Teyla’s capture and disappearance in “The Kindred.”
- The storyline led to a bit of fan speculation over Teyla’s baby daddy. Could it be one of her teammates … John Sheppard, or possibly Ronon? Has Teyla been seeing someone else on the Atlantis base off-screen? The writers solved this problem by making it clear that Teyla had been visiting her people off-world on a semi-regular basis, leading to a romance with her longtime friend Kanaan (guest star Patrick Sabongui, who is currently appearing as Police Captain Singh on The Flash).
- The Athosians (Teyla’s people) went from center-stage to the back-burner after the show’s first season, and their disappearance during Season Four became an ongoing storyline. As a result this two-parter is the first time viewers have seen the Athosian Halling in three years — and the first time since actor Christopher Heyerdahl was cast to also play the Wraith “Todd.”
- The early working title for this two-part episode was “Rise of the Googlions,” invented by writer Carl Binder … and meaning nothing in particular.
- “The Kindred” was also huge in returning Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion) to the show. The character had been killed off one year prior (“Sunday”), resulting in a massive backlash from Stargate fans and a “Save Carson Beckett” campaign.
- The writers expressed a desire to bring McGillion back to the show almost immediately after he had been written off. (The wheels were in motion even before Season Three had concluded … with all due props to the fan campaign that rose up later.) Their strategy was to introduce a clone who didn’t know he was a clone. Michael obtained Carson’s DNA when he had the good doctor at his mercy at the end of the third season episode “Misbegotten.”
“The Kindred” on GateWorld:
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View Comments
what's funny, too, is that writer Carl Binder wanted to kill off Carson with the intention of making it clear he was dead and wouldn't come back, contrary to Ford's pending plot. The first time I watched the episode I actually thought Ford was gonna be in that room...
If I hadn't just glanced at this page I'd still be none the wiser to the fact the bumping off of Dr Beckett was actually one incredibly stupid and badly executed long term plot device!
If you have a really popular character and talented actor playing them, you don't reduce them from regular cast to bit part guest appearances after a year's absence! Not to mention that as the new character was a clone, it was not a true resurrection of the same character. More like the creation of a twin, somehow with their older brother's memories.
There were so many better and intelligent ways they could have done this plot line without needing to remove Paul McGillion as the original Beckett from the series at all. Rather the reverse in fact. (Shakes head.)