Rising, Part 1 » GateWorld (original) (raw)

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.

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FAN RATING - 8.81
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EPISODE #101
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 07.16.2004
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 09.19.2005
DVD DISC: Season 1, Disc 1

WRITTEN BY: Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
DIRECTED BY: Martin Wood
GUEST STARS: Richard Dean Anderson (Jack O'Neill), Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson), Garwin Sanford (Simon), Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett), Craig Veroni (Dr. Grodin), Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling), Robert Patrick (Colonel Marshall Sumner), Dean Marshall (Bates), Boyan Vukelic (Stackhouse), Reece Thompson (Jinto), Stefano Colacitti (Toran), Casey Dubois (Wex), Melia McClure (Ancient Woman), Dan Shea (Siler), David Milchard (S.G.C. Technician), Edmond Wong (Atlantis Technician), Bro Gilbert (Scientist), Peter Grasso (Scientist), Ona Grauer (Female Ancient), Aaron Dudley (Male Ancient), Mary Joan Buchanan (Beckett's Mom)

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Several million years ago, the continent of Antarctica has become covered in ice. Their lies the great city of the Ancients, Atlantis – but no longer. One Ancient bids a solemn farewell to another, who will stay behind. The great city lifts off the surface and flies away like a great ship, leaving behind only a small outpost and the woman, who scientists will discover frozen in the ice millions of years later, and name "Ayiana" ("Frozen").

In the present day, an international expedition has been set up on the same site to study the outpost of the Ancients and the technology therein. It is headed by Dr. Elizabeth Weir, recently transferred from Stargate Command. Also present are Canadian astrophysicist Rodney McKay, Scottish medical doctor Carson Beckett, British scientist Peter Grodin, and many others. Dr. Daniel Jackson is also there, and eagerly reports his findings to Weir and McKay: He's found a Stargate address to the Ancients' lost city itself – Atlantis – which is now in the distant Pegasus Galaxy.

Brigadier General Jack O'Neill heads toward the Antarctic base in a helicopter piloted by Major John Sheppard, who is stationed at the nearby McMurdo Air Force Base and who knows nothing about Ancients or Stargates. But when Dr. Beckett accidentally activates an Ancient drone weapon – he possesses the rare gene that allows him to use the base's chair control mechanism – Sheppard must take evasive action to keep from being shot down. The weapon is disabled in the nick of time, and Sheppard and O'Neill arrive safely (if not a bit cranky) at the outpost.

Daniel explains his findings to the General, who does not approve an exploratory mission to the lost city when he learns that it will take their only Z.P.M. – Zero Point Module, the Ancient power source that has enabled the outpost and saved Earth from the Goa'uld – to dial a Stargate address beyond our galaxy. Weir and Jackson manage to convince him, though, based on the great wealth of Ancient technology (including more Z.P.M.s) that they are likely to find should they discover Atlantis intact.

The mission is a go, and Weir's team of international scientists and military personnel – which she has been assembling for months – arrives at Stargate Command, deep inside Cheyenne Mountain. Daniel is disappointed that he cannot go with them, especially when a wormhole to Atlantis is successfully established. Dozens of men and women and tremendous amounts of equipment file through the gate, knowing that because of the massive power requirements they'll probably only get one shot at it. They are all volunteers, the best and brightest that Earth has to offer, who go knowing full well that they may never be able to return home.

Even the reluctant Major Sheppard, after some convincing by O'Neill, has agreed to go. Weir wants him there, despite a black mark on his service record for disobeying orders to save the lives of fellow servicemen, because Sheppard too possesses the gene that allows him to use Ancient technology. While some, like Beckett, and learn to use it with concentration and training, for Sheppard it's easy and instinctive.

The team is lead by military commander Colonel Marshall Sumner, who is the first to step through to Atlantis. The facility is cleared and secured, and remarkably the systems begin to activate and light up as the humans begin exploring the massive city. Two scientists find a bay filled with Ancient ships capable of traveling through the Stargate; Dr. McKay finds the control room with Stargate dialing controls; and it's not long before the team discovers that the entire city, protected by a massive energy shield, is underwater.

As they continue to explore, Beckett finds a holographic recording left by one of the Ancients. She explains how the Ancients left Earth and came to the Pegasus Galaxy, seeding the human form of life on a thousand worlds. But then they set foot on a dark world where a terrible enemy slept: the Wraith. The enemy awoke and began feeding on the human-populated worlds like a great scourge, until only Atlantis remained. The shield withstood the assault of the enemy's weapons for many years, but finally the Ancients decided that the only way to preserve the last of their kind was to submerge the city. The remaining Ancients went through the Stargate and returned to Earth thousands of years ago to live out the remainder of their lives.

Soon, however, the team realizes that the great city of the Ancients may be nearing destruction – and because of their arrival. Two of the three Z.P.M.s that power the city are dead, and the third is almost there. By exploring the city and turning things on, they risk the complete failure of the shield that is holding back the ocean.

The naquadah generators brought from Earth cannot generate nearly enough power to sustain the failing shield, and, as expected, there's not nearly enough power to gate back to Earth. But they can dial to other planets in the Pegasus Galaxy. A planet from the Ancient's local database is chosen, and Colonel Sumner leads a team to either find a new Z.P.M. or safe harbor for the expedition. Major Sheppard goes along, as does the young and enthusiastic Lieutenant Ford.

They arrive in the dark on the planet Athos, where two young children are playing in the woods. They meet a man named Halling, who believes they are traders. Halling leads them back to the Athosian encampment and introduces the team to Teyla Emmagan, one of their leaders. She is a strong and beautiful woman, who is cautious about helping the strangers. Sheppard tries to get to know her. When the sun comes up it reveals the ruins of an old city nearby, which the Athosians do not visit for fear that it will bring the Wraith down upon them. Sumner leads a team to check it out, while Teyla shows Sheppard a series of cave drawings that tell of the last great Wraith attack on their world.

The Wraith keep human-colonized worlds like Athos as feeding grounds, returning every so often to "cull their human herds" – though sometimes not for hundreds of years at a time. Still, they return more frequently in smaller numbers to keep the Athosians living in fear. Though they possess advanced technology, the Athosians live as a simple people and move their camps around to try and avoid the great enemy. Teyla is surprised to hear that the visitors have never heard of the Wraith; they have visited many worlds through the Stargate, and have never met anyone who did not know about them.

Back at the Stargate, Ford watches as the gate activates and three Wraith "dart" ships come soaring through. Teyla and Sheppard return from the cave while Sumner's team rushes back to the encampment ...

• "Rising" had a production budget of $5 million (U.S.) for the complete two-parter.
• Stargate Atlantis was originally conceived to be set on Earth, after SG-1 had ended its run and spawned the new series with a feature film. The film's story instead became the SG-1 Season Seven finale "Lost City," which set the stage for the new show. Because SG-1 continued on to an eighth season, which ran simultaneously with the first year of Atlantis, the producers decided to instead set the new show in another galaxy, so that both shows could run simultaneously without their plots interfering with one another.
• Elizabeth Weir, first created for Stargate SG-1's "Lost City," was originally "Teresa Wright," then "Teresa Weir." The same character was played by actress Jessica Steen in the SG-1 Season Seven finale.
• Dr. McKay's part was originally written as "Dr. Benjamin Ingram," an African-Canadian scientist. Actor David Hewlett (while not African-Canadian) even auditioned for the role. Eventually it was executive producer Robert C. Cooper who suggested that Ingram should be replaced with an already established character: Hewlett's Dr. Rodney McKay, who had appeared in SG-1's "48 Hours" and "Redemption."
• Teyla was originally named "Mikala" in an early draft of the script. Among the many actresses who auditioned for the role is Ona Grauer ("Ayiana" in SG-1's "Frozen") and Kira Clavell ("Amaterasu" in SG-1's "New Order").
• Dr. Beckett, who would be a recurring character on Stargate Atlantis and a regular cast member beginning in Season Two, is played by actor Paul McGillion. Seven years earlier he played the young Ernest Littlefield in the 1940s flashback scenes in "The Torment of Tantalus."
• "Carter and Teal'c are not going to be in the season premiere of Atlantis, and that I think has to do with legalities of the fact that our characters were created specifically for Stargate SG-1, and to carry us over into Atlantis would mean, I think, would mean bank-rolling one of the creators, you know, because our characters would help establish Atlantis. Rick and Michael, however – their characters were already in the movie. So, from what I understand, Chris and I will be in Atlantis later on, but we can't be in the show that actually launches it." (Actress Amanda Tapping, in an interview with GateWorld)
• Rumor has it that before he was cast as SG-1's Cameron Mitchell, actor Ben Browder was considered for the role of John Sheppard. "True. Ben would have made the perfect John Sheppard as originally envisioned in the Atlantis pilot – a Southern cowboy with swagger. The fact that he was shooting the Farscape miniseries took him out of the running. As for the part I'd written for Ben [later in the series] – that of Colonel Dillon Everett in 'Siege' I, II and III. Needless to say the character's arc would have been significantly different had Ben been available to take the role." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)
• "One of my favorite moments in Rising I comes when the Atlantis expedition steps through the gate into the City of the Ancients which has stood abandoned for thousands of years – yet has an albeit dead potted plant sitting at the foot of the steps leading to the gate room. I think this interesting piece of set dec went unnoticed by the producers until we screened the first batch of dailies, ultimately necessitating Weir's added line: 'And can we lose the ten thousand year old dead plants?'
  "The Atlantis gate was, theoretically anyway, an improvement on the Earth gate. Like I said, theoretically. While the force shield certainly trumped the Cheyenne Mountain iris, the look of the new gate always struck me as a little glitzy Vegas in comparison to the cooler, staid gate at Stargate Command.
  "The Atlantis gate also had the disadvantage of not actually being a working gate. Now before you conspiracy theorists race off to your respective forums to reprint my words as confirmation that the Stargate program does, in fact, exist (and, for the record, I neither confirm nor deny its existence), by 'operational' I mean the ability to actually spin. The gate at the SGC actually spun. The Atlantis gate - alas, no.
  "When the team first meets the Athosians, Teyla is introduced as 'daughter of Turghan.' But, later in the series, she names her first born Torren after her father. So, what’s the deal? Well, the fact that Teyla is leader of her people could suggest that the Athosians are a matriarchal society and that Turghan is, in fact, her mother’s name. A lovely name for a young woman.
  "Also, gate travel implants travelers with translator nanites. That’s why most everyone seems to speak English in case you were wondering.
  "Eagle-eyed viewers will note that Elizabeth Weir’s boyfriend, Simon ([Garwin] Sanford), bears a striking resemblance to the late Tollan Narim, last seen getting blown up in SG-1's fifth season episode 'Between Two Fires.' Teyla’s fellow Athosian, Halling (Christopher Heyerdahl), looks a lot like Pallan, that guy who lost his wife and got his mind wiped in SG-1's seventh season episode 'Revisions,' but looks nothing like the Wraith, Todd, who would go on to play such a key role later in the series.
  "Ah, the Puddle Jumpers. Brad had been pitching the idea of these compact ships capable of gate-travel as far back as SG-1's seventh season. And the new show was the perfect opportunity to introduce them. As much as I thought the SG-1 gate superior to its Atlantis counterpart, SGA Jumpers beat the hell out of those clunky cargo ships." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post on Twitter)