Recap / Stargate Atlantis S01 E01E02 "Rising"

Stargate Atlantis Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2

Rising

"I just sat down." —Major John Sheppard

All living things must eat.

— Wraith Caretaker

At the SGC's Antarctic research site, where most people seem to be concerned with getting the furniture to glow, Daniel Jackson has just found the fabled Lost City of the Ancients. It's in another galaxy! (Which is why they haven't been able to find it before). While Daniel persuades O'Neill to authorize the use of Earth's ZPM to power the gate to make the journey, the rest of the cast discovers that O'Neill's pilot, Major John Sheppard, can make the furniture glow — that is, use Ancient technology — better than anybody else. This makes him a must-have for the mission, even though he only heard about the Stargate this morning.

Heading the risky one-way mission into the unknown is civilian Dr. Elizabeth Weir, who had replaced General Hammond at the SGC, and was given Antarctica as a concession prize when she stepped down in favor of General O'Neill. Under her are Colonel Marshall Sumner, USMC, and Dr. Rodney McKay. And a lot of other people who may become relevant. When the MALP reports breathable air, and after being repeatedly warned that this is a one-way trip, they all step through the gate into darkness.

As it turns out, the Lost City of Atlantis is surprisingly well-preserved. And it seems to like them, since it starts turning on lights everywhere. And it's under water! These last two turn out to be a major problem, as McKay soon discovers that the city is almost out of power, and the effort of keeping them alive is weakening the force fields holding back the sea. Even worse, an Ancient recording reveals that the city was ultimately abandoned by the Ancients and sunk for safekeeping after they had their butts handed to them by a sinister alien race just as powerful as they were. Well, crap.

The power issues, however, are the more immediate concern. Colonel Sumner leads a team through the Stargate looking for any help that might be found locally — that is, in this galaxy. True to their Stargate heritage, they find themselves on a world that looks suspiciously like British Columbia. Sheppard befriends the local people, especially a woman named Teyla, who tells him about a sinister alien race called the Wraith, who have periodically abducted and/or massacred people throughout their history. In the morning, they discover a nearby Ancient city, where they hope they might find a replacement ZPM. Teyla warns Sumner that if anyone enters the city, the Wraith will come. Naturally, they explore the city anyway. And the Wraith come.

The Wraith zoom around and teleport up a bunch of people, including Teyla and Sumner, before retreating through the gate. Luckily, another member of the team, Lieutenant Ford, manages to catch six out of the seven symbols in the gate address. Ford and Sheppard evacuate the remaining natives, whose village has been utterly destroyed, through the gate to Atlantis. This is the last straw for the failing ZPM, and the force fields collapse, drowning the city forever.

Haha, no. When the force fields no longer have the power to hold back the sea, instead of everybody dying, the city suddenly returns to the surface, where the inhabitants encounter sunlight and breathable air. Even better, with the force fields gone, the Naquadah generators the humans brought with them are sufficient to power the entire rest of the city. They no longer have any cover or defense, of course, but it's not as if there's a sinister alien race waiting to suck out their very life.

With the power back on, Weir reluctantly authorizes a rescue mission for the people taken by the Wraith. Unfortunately, the Wraith gate seems to be floating in space. Fortunately, Atlantis just so happens to have a handy supply of Gate Ships Puddle Jumpers capable, like all Ancient technology, of responding to Sheppard's mental commands. And they can cloak! With success therefore assured, Sheppard, Ford, and their team head off to assault the Wraith homeworld.

Meanwhile, the Wraith have been treating their captives to like dinner. Colonel Sumner is taken to a female Wraith, who offers him lunch… at a table whose other diner is a withered horror-struck corpse. She is bemused by his lack of willingness to give into his hunger — and also by his lack of familiarity with the Wraith. She manages to drag the name "Earth" out of him, but is unable to discover the location of this "rich new feeding ground" even with torture. So she settles for sucking the life energy out of him with a tiny mouth on the palm of her hand.

Sheppard and his team make it to the planet and find and rescue the remaining humans without difficulty. Sheppard then proceeds alone to find Sumner, who is already in the process of becoming Wraith lunch. When bullets fail to seriously inconvenience the Wraith, he instead shoots Sumner, who is too far gone to save. He, in turn, is rescued by Ford, and manages to impale the female Wraith on a particularly pointy Wraith weapon. It does the trick, but as she dies, she reveals that only a handful of individuals have been terrorizing this galaxy for time immemorial; the rest of the Wraith have been in suspended animation, with her as their caretaker. Now that she is dead, they will wake up. All of them.

Sheppard and Ford flee back to the Puddle Jumper as all around them the sleeping Wraith begin to stir. They blast through the Wraith ships defending the gate, and make it triumphantly back to Atlantis, where Sheppard is now the ranking military officer, having just shot his immediate superior. There is general rejoicing, despite worries that the Wraith problem has just been made much much worse, and McKay discovers, to his horror, that his dinner contained lemons.

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Tropes

• Ace Pilot: Sheppard.
• Activation Sequence: After the expedition arrives on Atlantis for the first time, the city, which had been slumbering, begins reactivating. Unfortunately, this quickly proves to be a problem as Atlantis' power sources have been completely drained, and since they are underwater, the more power they use, the less of the city is able to be kept dry.
• Advanced Ancient Acropolis: The ruins on the Athosian planet and Atlantis itself.
• Aliens Speaking English: The ancient hologram Dr. Beckett finds as the expedition explores Atlantis, the Wraith, the Athosians, just everyone.
• All Myths Are True:
  • Atlantis was a real, technologically advanced city that sank beneath the waves — it just happened in another galaxy (let alone the city itself was actually a flying city-ship). The surviving Lanteans who fled Pegasus brought the story back with them to the Milky Way, which then spread through the pockets of early human civilization (and was eventually chronicled by Plato).
    • This is also the only instance of mythological reinterpretation in the spinoff, which is justified due to it being set in another galaxy. So, unlike SG-1 when they were starting out 7 years earlier, the Atlantis Expedition has no mythological foundation or guide to give them any idea what they might be encountering in their explorations of Pegasus.
  • Downplayed, if not outright averted with the Wraith. Given their vampiric abilities, there's a possible implication the stories the Ancients brought back from Pegasus may have planted the seeds for Vampire stories and legends on Earth. However, the spinoff never definitively confirms or explores it.
• Apocalyptic Log: The ancient hologram.
• Art Evolution:
  • The iconic Wormhole effects. While the appearance of the puddle itself remains unchanged from SG-1, the actual wormhole travel sequence itself is now digitally rendered and redesigned (rather than reusing stock footage from the original feature film as SG-1 had done). This presumably was done to differentiate the spinoff from its parent show (which kept the stock footage and would not switch over to its own version of the updated travel effects until the premiere of Season 9).
  • The appearance of most Ancient technology in Atlantis itself and throughout Pegasus diverges from, if not outright abandons, the pre-established H.R. Geiger-esque biomechanical design aesthetic from SG-1. Justified, as the Ancient technology left behind in the Milky Way is millions of years old. Since the Ancients were in Pegasus up until only 10,000 years ago, it follows that the technology there is not only more advanced, but had also diverged from pre-Lantean trends and designs over those millions of years.
• Atlantis: Well, yeah.
• Call-Back: To the original Stargate. The plot is once again kicked off when Daniel Jackson figures out the last chevron needed to dial out the gate. This time he needs an eighth chevron.
• Character Overlap: As the then-current commander of the SGC, Jack O'Neill is part of the Expedition pre-planning and authorization. As the Expedition departs from the SGC, Sergent Siler also appears and helps Rodney integrate the ZPM into the SGC's power grid.
• Chekhov's Gunman: O'Neill's pilot (pun not intended) initially seems like a throwaway character… until he waltzes into the Antarctic outpost and it turns out that he possesses the Ancient gene, and is immediately recruited into the Atlantis Expedition. Turns out the pilot, Major John Sheppard, is The Hero of the new series.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When discussing Antarctica with Sheppard, O'Neill remarks it's one of his least favorite continents.
    • In a blink and you'll miss it moment, Jack also gives the Outpost's Stasis Chamber an ugly look. You can't blame him given O'Neill spent months cooped up in the thing (let alone nearly dying inside it).
  • The South Pole's research facilities have been built right over the hole-in-the-ice that Jack carved out with Transportation Rings during the Battle of Antarctica. The hole itself has been modified to serve as an elevator shaft to reach the still-buried Outpost.
• Continuity Overlap: The Pilot chronologically begins after the events of the SG-1 Season 8 premiere "New Order" (with O'Neill defrosted/promoted and Weir having stepped down from the SGC to head up the research investigation at the South Pole).
• Contrived Coincidence: Invoked when Weir and Sheppard discuss the Wraith attack on Athos. Given the timing, Weir fears it's either one hell of a coincidence...or that one of the Athosians tipped off the Wraith to the Expedition's presence. Sheppard reluctantly concedes it's possible (which incurs Weir's anger, as bringing the Athosians to Atlantis is now a massive security threat if they're compromised). Whether or not there's a traitor among the Athosians will be answered in a few episodes.
• Cross-Cultural Handshake: The Athosians touch foreheads.
• Crossover: Daniel Jackson, Siler, Ayiana and Jack O'Neil from Stargate SG-1 are there to get the Spin-Off started on the right foot.
• The Cynic: Rodney's role pointing out all the things that could go wrong.
• Deadman Switch: Implicitly with the Wraith caretaker.
• Detect Evil: Teyla's ability to detect the Wraith.
• Distant Prologue: The opening scene shows Atlantis departing prehistoric Earth millions of years ago.
• Domed Hometown: Atlantis, at least under the Ancients when they had the power to maintain the shield.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: O'Neill's only instruction to Sheppard, which he fails to obey.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The Wraith are significantly harder to kill here. They will remain tough in the future but not on the bullet sponge level they display in this episode. Nor do severed wraith limbs act separately in the rest of the series.
• Enforced Technology Levels: The Wraith cull the humans of the Pegasus galaxy before they can advance.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: Hello, Wraith!
• Evil Learns of Outside Context: The Atlantis expedition accidentally awakens the Wraith and alerts them to the presence of humans in the Milky Way, which they want to eat.
• Evil Redhead: The Wraith Queen.
• Faceless Goons: Wraith guards who have a mask completely obscuring their faces.
• First-Episode Twist:
  • The address connects to a remarkably well-preserved Atlantis.
  • The Ancients left Atlantis because they were under siege by a powerful enemy.
  • Atlantis is almost out of power, so the expedition is unable to establish a wormhole to return to their galaxy, and the city's force fields are on the verge of collapse.
  • There are many worlds in the Pegasus galaxy settled by humans who were seeded by the Ancients.
  • Atlantis rises to the surface of the ocean when the power is depleted to a critical level.
  • The expedition awakens the Wraith, the powerful enemies who defeated the Ancients.
• Guns Are Worthless: Zigzagged. Small arms fire do nothing to the Wraith Darts but a stinger missile can take one down and a high-caliber weapon can damage them.
• Healing Factor: The Wraith.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: The Wraith.
• Helping Hands: A severed Wraith arm starts crawling away from a crash site, before Sheppard fills it with lead.
• Hive Queen: The Wraith Queen.
• Human Resources: The humans of Pegasus are little more than cattle for the Wraith to feed on.
• Horror Hunger: The Wraith.
• If I Do Not Return: "If I'm not back in twenty minutes, blow the cells and get out."
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Sheppard impales the Wraith Queen with the sharp back end of a Wraith Stunner, it ends up being a poor call on his part.
• Invisibility: A feature of the puddle jumpers that allows tactical advantage.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Jack O'Neill, he may not initially want the team to go to Atlantis, but the last thing he sends through the gate after them is a bottle of champagne with his congratulations.
  • Colonel Marshall Sumner; he expressed a negative opinion of John Sheppard's reputation for disobeying orders and was uncertain if the Athosians had anything of value to offer them, but when he was part of the group captured by the Wraith, he immediately volunteered to be taken away by the Wraith rather than just allowing an Athosian to be questioned, and stood up to Wraith mental torture even as the Keeper fed on him.
• Jumped at the Call: Ford, who gives an excited yell and goes through the Stargate backwards.
• Kneel Before Zod: The female Wraith, to Sumner.
• Law of Alien Names: Teyla; Toran; Jinto; Halling.
• Leitmotif:
  • Composer Joel Goldsmith introduces respective musical themes for the Expedition and the Wraith. The Atlantis/Ancients theme is also formally introduced after the unintended Production Foreshadowing from "Lost City" (wherein what eventually became the Atlantis theme's choral bridge was first used).
  • While the SG-1 theme does not cross over with O'Neill and Daniel, Goldsmith does slip in the SG-1 End Credits theme (which also effectively doubles as Jack's theme) right when O'Neill sends a bottle of champagne through the Atlantis Gate before cutting power on the SGC's end.
• Life Energy: What the Wraith apparently eat.
• The Little Detecto: Life signs detector.
• Living Ship: The Wraith ships are organic in nature.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: The ancient chair in Antartica and much of the technology in Atlantis only responds to people with a specific gene that enables them to mentally interface with it.
• Master of Illusion: The Wraith create images on the ground.
• Mercy Kill: Performed on Colonel Sumner by Major Sheppard.
• The Mole: Discussed, as again, Weird fears it wasn't a coincidence the Wraith hit Athos while Sheppard was there and that one of the Athosians might be an informant. Whether or not there is a mole will finally be answered in a few episodes.
• Motor Mouth: Daniel Jackson as always (with O'Neill lampshading they should just get to the part where Daniel starts talking really fast).
  • In contrast, Rodney is less hyperactive compared to his previous SG-1 appearances (or what will follow in the spinoff). Justified, as Rodney was not intended to be in Atlantis originally and was written as a completely different character (Dr. Benjamin Ingram). It was changed at the last minute when they had trouble casting Ingram and decided to just bring Rodney over.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: The Wraith caretaker, after being stabbed by Sheppard.
  "You don't know what you have done. We are merely the caretakers for those that sleep. When I die, the others will awake. All of them."
• Naïve Newcomer: Sheppard is still new to Gate travel, but he gets over it pretty fast.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sheppard rescued most of his people, but by killing the Wraith Keeper, he triggered the awakening of all Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy, far in advance of when they were ready.
• Noble Savage: The Athosians.
• Noodle Incident: Sheppard's black mark in Afghanistan, which got him dumped in Antarctica. We'll get more details about the incident later on during Season 3's "Phantoms".
• Not Using the "Z" Word: No one ever comments on the similarity of the Wraith and vampires.
• Older and Wiser: Zigzagged with the SGC's portrayal here in the Pilot (and especially during Season One). At this point, the SGC now has 7 years of Gate Travel under its belt and so the Expedition's scientists and soldiers have more experience, more toys, and a greater understanding of alien technology than SG-1 had when they were starting out. However, all of these advantages are also (initially) offset by Pegasus being a whole new ballgame (different technologies, new enemies like the Wraith, and no initial support network or mythological guide that SG-1 had relied upon).
• Out-of-Character Moment: Rodney McKay seems less emotional, which may be because this character was initially written as Dr. Benjamin Ingram, who was described as a cold fish.
• Pilot Movie
• The Plague: A critical plot point. SG-1 previously established that the Ancients were decimated by a plague millions of years ago. Daniel theorizes Atlantis' departure from Earth was a direct result of this — that the Ancients aboard were trying to leave the decimated Milky Way Galaxy behind and start over in a new galaxy (Pegasus).
• Plot Allergy: Rodney's citrus allergy will be a Running Gag in this series.
• Portal Slam: Like the Earth Gate's Iris, the Atlantis Gate also has a built-in shield. So, just like the Jaffa before them over on SG-1, several pursuing Wraith end up dying by shield-activated-Stargate in the climax.
• Precursors: The Ancients.
• Ragnarök Proofing: Atlantis has been abandoned for 10,000 years at the bottom of the sea with a shield covering it, but most of the things inside are in working order or at least intact, down to the dead plants.
• Rapid Aging: When the Wraith feed.
• Really 700 Years Old: The Wraith have amazing regenerative properties and don't die of old age. The ones in this episode are much much older than they look.
• Reassignment Backfire: The reason Sheppard is there in the first place is that he was reassigned to McMurdo Station after screwing up in Afghanistan.
• Retroactive Wish: Major Sheppard declares that he's been thinking how to find his kidnapped comrades on a Wraith-controlled planet. Immediately, the telepathic ship delivers him a life-signs detector. Then he says, "Now I'm thinking about a nice turkey sandwich." Nothing happens, and Lieutenant Ford remarks, "Worth a try."
• Refused the Call: Sheppard at first, he gets better.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: The Wraith, perhaps justified after their origin is revealed.
• Running Gag: A cross-series one with SG-1. This is now O'Neill's fourth visit to Antarctica — and once again, it does not go well for him.
• Screw the War, We're Partying: The heroes have just pissed off the Wraith, a race who defeated the freakin' Ancients, while they themselves are cut off from Earth and any sort of reinforcements. What do they do? Party with the Athosians, of course.
• See You in Hell: Col. Sumner, to the Wraith caretaker.
  Sumner: Go to Hell.
  Wraith: Earth first.
• Seen It All: Part of the compare-and-contrast between Jack and Sheppard's reactions to the Ancient Drone after it nearly shoots them down. Sheppard's understandably shaken whereas for Jack, it's basically just another day at the office for him.
  Sheppard: That was different.
  Jack: For me, not so much.
• Shout-Out: Sheppard tells Jinto he is from "a galaxy far, far away".
• Spinoff Sendoff: The Expedition departs for Atlantis from the SGC's Gate. O'Neill and Daniel represent SG-1 during Part 1 (and are fitting choices for this Trope too, given they're the original Stargate protagonists).
  • On a lesser note, Sergent Siler also appears in Part 1 and essentially represents the SGC's pit crew.
• Stripped to the Bone: Toran
• Stuff Blowing Up: Glad to see they brought the C4 to Pegasus.
• Take Me Instead: Teyla and Sumner offer themselves in Toran's place.
• Technopath: Those with the Ancient gene.
• Technology Marches On: In-universe, the Pegasus Stargates are this in relation to the Milky Way models (due to having been manufactured after the Ancients had relocated Atlantis and having been active and advancing up to 10,000 years earlier). Basically, if the Milky Way Gates are analog models, the Pegasus Gates are their digital successors.
• Thing-O-Matic: Gateship, it's a ship that goes through the gate. Subverted by Sheppard who christened them puddle jumpers.
• Tracking Device: The necklace Sheppard finds and gives to Teyla.
• Tractor Beam: How the Wraith abduct their prey.
• Transplant: Elizabeth Weir and Rodney McKay from Stargate SG-1.
• Transplanted Humans: The Athosians are the only ones we meet in this episode, but we are told there were once thousands of human worlds in the Pegasus galaxy.
• Trapped in Another World
• Understatement: Weir's fiancee tries to call her after watching her goodbye video.
  Operator: The cellular customer you are trying to reach is currently outside the coverage area.
  Simon: No kidding.
• Underwater City: For the first half of the episode, at least.
• Unreliable Narrator: The Ancient hologram claims that they discovered the Wraith when they first came to Pegasus… we later find out, the Ancients accidentally created them.
• Voice of the Legion: The Wraith Queen.
• Was It Really Worth It?: Sheppard questions his overall performance after failing to rescue Sumner and causing the Wraith to awaken from decades-long hibernation prematurely. But Weir and Teyla are there to reassure him that they can still do good.
• We Need a Distraction: "How about a diversion? You really need to make some noise out there."
• West Coast Team: In this case, the team was relocated to a different galaxy.
• The Worf Effect: To establish the Wraith as a different, but no less powerful Big Bad from the Goa'uld, the backstory established here is that they defeated the Ancients (though subsequent episodes will gradually reveal it was due to superior numbers rather than superior technology).
• You Can't Go Home Again: The expedition is trapped on Atlantis until they can find enough energy to power a way home.

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