How Atlantis SHOULD have been..

[Morpheus 02]

Now that Atlantis is wrapping up, we can look back and see, well a few things.

One of the most obvious -- the "mistakes" they made, and how they could have been fixed.

Mine would be Lt. Ford. From the first episode, it seemed like he was pretty well experienced with the Stargate. He had no qualms about literally diving into the wormhole.

He also, allegedly, had some math skills. (or was that Sheppard)

Sheppard, meanwhile, seems to have JUST been pulled into the Stargate program.

I thought it would have been nice if Ford had spent season 1 teaching his CO, being a "mentor" to his superior officer, at least as far as life as in Officer in the Stargate program.

The tension would be this superior knowledge but in an "inferior role".

Ford's "weakness" could be a little lacking of social skills...he could have been someone who went straight from cadet to SGC....so little contact with the "real" world.

Ford could have then been phased out (if desired) to the CO of his own unit, or back at Stargate Command.

I guess it'd be like Teal'c his G'ould knowledge, but a little more logical (i.e. why so much trust placed in a Jaffa early on)?

[cylkoth]

My pick has always been..

The Pegasus Galaxy just isn't that interesting-as far as the show has depicted...
A Humans only galaxy, with only the Wraith as aliens (I'm not counting the Replicators), made things very bland.

I know the budget has to dictate alot of choices, so to spice things up, I would have added a race of mutated humans, That couldn't be fed on by the Wraith. A massive accident in a solar system causes a cloud of radiation to hit several planets, mutating an overwhelming number. The healthy flee leaving the sick and dying, whose bodies eventually adapt, becoming unpalatable to Wraith. Spurned by 'normals', they take no action to combat the Wraith and thus are left alone...

An alien race from anothet galaxy that newly settles in Pegasus, just as our Earth heroes are doing.

Pegasus humans who found Ancient tech decades ago, that aren't dumb or evil, and the tech doesn't go boom at the end of the episode.

[Procutus]

Well, I've been bitchin' about this for years, ever since Season 2 of SG-1, but I really, really would've liked to have seen the Furlings at some point. Thor (or whichever Asgard O'Neil met the first time he made that jaunt using the extra chevron) rattled off the Four Races that had an impact on the galaxy, and I think its a bit of cheat that we never met the Fourth Race.

Soooooo, I would've done a story where Jackson traveled to Atlantis to do some research and accompanied Shep's team to a world where they found the Furlings had migrated to a long time ago. Just as the Asgard were a recurring race on SG-1, so too, could the Furlings have been on SGA.

And speaking of Jackson, that's the other thing I would've done differently, I would have made Shanks appear several times in the last three seasons. Getting to Atlantis was extremely important to Daniel Jackson, and I think there should've been more use of his character on the show, save for the one-shot in Season 10 of SG-1.

[TheInsideMan]

Off the top of my head: They re-established contact with Earth too quickly.

There was a off-world, colony feel to the show early on which I really enjoyed. Cut-off. Limited supplies. Limited friends because they were new to Pegasus and didn't know anyone.

I think the writers could have played that out for a bit longer.

[SalvorHardin]

They should have taken far more time exploring the city on-screen.

Atlantis is really, really big and its mysteries and hidden wonders could have fueled some nice episodes.

The most info we got on that was what... A comment that they had explored about 50-52 % of the city i think ?

[Procutus]

TheInsideMan wrote:

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Off the top of my head: They re-established contact with Earth too quickly.

There was a off-world, colony feel to the show early on which I really enjoyed. Cut-off. Limited supplies. Limited friends because they were new to Pegasus and didn't know anyone.

I think the writers could have played that out for a bit longer.

Then there would've just been comparisons that they turned the show into the Stargate version of Voyager, IMO.

[TheInsideMan]

Procutus wrote:

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Then there would've just been comparisons that they turned the show into the Stargate version of Voyager, IMO.

You mean what's happening now with SGU?

[Serial thread killer]

I would have liked them to have been cut off from earth for longer also when they were back in contact with earth i would have liked them to have made it harder to go to earth.
In certain episodes they are using the ZMP to go to earth like i would use a car to pop to the shops.
Also they should have explored Atlantis a bit more.

[Harvey]

These have already been said, but it's worth emphasizing them:

(1) Daniel Jackson wanted nothing more than to go to Atlantis. He practically gave up being ascended for the Lost City. And after all the talk, all the failed attempts to get there (Prometheus Unbound, Avalon) he spends one episode there (The Pegasus Project) and then goes home. He should have been a far more regular presence once contact with Earth was achieved.

(2) They should not have contacted Earth so soon, however. Limited supplies, limited crew. That was a great premise. It made for heightened drama in the first season. A people like the Genii were suddenly a threat. The Wraith were SERIOUS. Once they get contact with Earth (and the ridiculous amount of ships that come with) all that was deflated.

(3) Explore the city. Isn't it the lost city of the ancients? Why are they spending their time going to Renaissance Fairs?

[Procutus]

TheInsideMan wrote:

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You mean what's happening now with SGU?

Probably.

[Leonardo T. Dragon]

Actually, there are a number of things I would have liked to have seen with Atlantis.

Much like they did with McCay, Atlantis was the series that would have allowed the powers that be to have given favorite secondary characters more of a presence in the franchise. In fact, I would have split things up a bit at the SGC and might have gone a route similar to this.

1) Daniel as the head of the expedition. C'mon-- he's the foremost Ancient expert. As much as I like him on SG-1, Shanks would have been great on Atlantis and a very logical fit.

2) Jonas replaces Daniel at SGC. I'm one of the few folks that like Jonas Quinn but they could have brought Corrin Nemec back into the series with Mitchell, Carter, and Teal'c as the new SG-1.

3) Camulus (sp?). I always felt that his potential request for asylum was handled too quickly. Fine-- you want asylum, we'll give it to you. You're going to Atlantis to assist the expedition in getting the city up and running.

4) Ditch Teyla. Honestly, she's never really added much to the series IMHO. For some reason I've just never really grabbed onto the character the way that I have much of the cast (and supporting cast) of SG-1.

5) Lt. Hailey. She was touted as the "up and coming" Sam Carter so why not use the secondary character on the new series. It would have made for an interesting cross-over.

[Finn]

Leonardo T. Dragon wrote:

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3) Camulus (sp?). I always felt that his potential request for asylum was handled too quickly. Fine-- you want asylum, we'll give it to you. You're going to Atlantis to assist the expedition in getting the city up and running.

Why him?

[Meredith]

Finn wrote:

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Why him?

For the "Camel-Ass" Jokes silly.

[Temis the Vorta]

My (Entirely Moot) List of Demands:

1. Keep Atlantis cut off from Earth and force Our Heroes to survive by their wits.

2. If/when this premise runs out of steam, have Atlantis re-connect with Earth but without the assumption that the mission there is worth the security risk to Earth. Atlantis needs some focused mission that makes the risk worthwhile, more than just randomly collecting Ancients tech.

3. Kill off Teyla or recast/rewrite the role so that she isn't so painfully boring.

4. Give Jason Momoa acting lessons and tell him to stop mumbling his lines.

5. Develop the Genii in the direction they were going - villainous, sure, but also simply driven by the need to survive in a Wraith-plagued galaxy. Hang onto Koyla as a recurring foe thru the entire run of the series.

6. Lose the haunted-house cheesiness of the Wraith. Make them a normal society of intelligent beings who wouldn't seem the least bit monstrous if their food source was, say, baked rutabagas rather than humans. Make their "farming" of humans seem banal - they corral humans onto planets not too differently than a large Iowa pig farm - with a political hierarchy and economic system that is orderly and functional, rather than treating them as a bunch of idiots who barge around the galaxy shooting at each other.

I'd prefer that their makeup be way toned down, so that they don't even look too different than human. To have them still feed on humans would be eerier if they didn't look like monsters. The more normal and functional the Wraith appear, the scarier they are.

7. Don't mess up Michael by having the Wraith reject him. The Wraith should treat him better than humans did, accepting that he is a victim and needs help. That would avoid the silly mad-scientist plotline that has been inflicted on Michael instead.

8. Be careful in writing episodes that Our Heroes are not accidentally depicted as utter morons for not thinking things through and making boneheaded mistakes. Examples: not thinking through the possibility that Michael's regression won't work (and therefore they will have to murder someone who appears human; if this is too unpalatable, don't regress Michael to begin with!) and that nonsense where the Wraith got the directions to Earth from Atlantis' computers, that should never have happened!

9. Have Shep take off his shirt more often.

10. The "Poisoning the Well" cure plotline was interesting - should have done something with that.

11. NO REPLICATORS! Gah!

12. The Ford problem, hmm. Maybe instead of having Ronin be the big bad muscle-guy, Ford should have been more in that vein - still young, green and gung-ho but also more of a bad-ass. To have him still have to take orders from Shep would have set up more of an equality and contrast in their scenes - Shep is older and wiser, but Ford is better at kicking butt and maybe a bit of a loose cannon.

13. NO RENAISSANCE FAIRE PLANETS! Gah!

14. Hire an entirely new roster of writers and producers, and move production to New Mexico so we can finally have proper-looking alien worlds and not pine tree forests up the wazoo.

15. The idea that Wraith-feeding caused irreversible aging never really worked well as an idea - it means that Our Heroes are not even allowed to be touched by a Wraith because then they'll have to wear aging making forever after - and the writers starting fudging that notion eventually anyway. The Wraith damage needed to be conveyed through some other means than the makeup department so that it could be genuinely irreversible but still a credible threat to main characters.

I know the budget has to dictate alot of choices, so to spice things up, I would have added a race of mutated humans, That couldn't be fed on by the Wraith.

The "Poisoning the Well" cure could have accomplished that. No mutation necessary. At some point, would people from Atlantis be desperate enough to use the cure so that they would have at least some immune fighters? Weir probably would never okay it, but I could envision some situations where it would seem the better option.

Maybe Ford is part of that group and he is one of the few survivors. Do you punish him for doing something so unethical or recognize his value to the team as a result? If Ford is the only immune one, suddenly he has a real purpose in the story. if he was badass enough to take a 50/50 risk of death, that adds an interesting new dimension to the character. I would expect someone like that to get himself killed before the show ends, but until that point, he'd be a great character to have around.

[Samurai8472]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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8. Be careful in writing episodes that Our Heroes are not accidentally depicted as utter morons for not thinking things through and making boneheaded mistakes. Examples: not thinking through the possibility that Michael's regression won't work (and therefore they will have to murder someone who appears human; if this is too unpalatable, don't regress Michael to begin with!) and that nonsense where the Wraith got the directions to Earth from Atlantis' computers, that should never have happened!

i.e working with the wraith to spread the retrovirus then having them turn on you and having your computers at risk.