Stargate Atlantis - Los Angeles Times: Opening a black hole on 'Stargate Atlantis'

From the Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA):

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Michael Shanks guest stars in 'First Contact' scheduled to air Friday, Sept. 26 at 10pm on the SciFi Channel

Opening a black hole on 'Stargate Atlantis'

Sci Fi Channel cancels swashbuckling spinoff, but a new series, 'Universe,' is on the event horizon in 2009.

By David Tischman, Special to The Times

August 31, 2008

THE Sci Fi Channel canceled "Stargate Atlantis" this month, less than halfway through its fifth season. And indeed, the episodes have been disappointing so far, with no new plot twists to enhance the show's wormhole-jumping science fiction mythology. The big cast change -- adding "Star Trek: Voyager's" Robert Picardo as the city's new administrator -- hit with all the power of a phaser set on Blah.

But science fiction fans are loyal, even when our heroes are treading water -- the box office receipts for "Revenge of the Sith" prove that -- and the next batch of episodes in what is now "Atlantis' " final season do get better. Much better. In fact, the midseason two-part finale (airing at the end of September), features a very smart (very big) surprise...



Ronon Dex (Jason Momoa), Lt. Col. John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) and Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) from 'The Queen,' scheduled to air Friday, Sept. 12 at 10pm on the SciFi Channel.

...Simply put, "Stargate Atlantis" is the best comic book television we have; not as well written as "Heroes," but with more swashbuckling fun -- and with the American can-do attitude of a space-faring "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (an artifact that could possibly be found in the Pegasus Galaxy).

The new episodes of "Atlantis" continue to air until the end of 2008, with a finale set for the series' 100th episode. The show will live on in syndication, and in original DVD movies (as "SG-1" has done successfully). A new "Stargate" series, "Stargate Universe," with new characters, has been announced, and is set to premiere sometime in 2009.

In that new series, the cast is trapped on a ship at the edge of the galaxy, with no way to get back to Earth. That sounds a lot like "Star Trek: Voyager" -- the least popular of all the "Star Trek" spin-offs -- which spent seven seasons replaying the tragic notion that the crew was lost in space, unable to reach home. But sci-fi fans know how that turned out. Just ask Robert Picardo.




Stargate Atlantis' 'Inquisition' is scheduled to air Friday, October 24 at its new time, 9pm, on the SciFi Channel (US).