How Atlantis SHOULD have been..

[Serial thread killer]

MeanJoePhaser wrote:

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4. More of Richard Kind's Harry Mudd wannabe.

[Romulan_spy]

I think Atlantis should have done the following:
- Not messed up Ford.
- Not killed Becket.
- Not killed Weir.
- Put more emphasis on the characters rather than lots of action (episodes like "Before I sleep", "Letters to Pegasus" or "The Shrine").
- Not given Atlantis 3 ZPM's or an Ancient ship only to take it away right away. Instead, there should have been a more gradual progression. Eventually, toward the end of the show, Atlantis would be fully powered and fully capable.
- Stuck with the Wraith threat instead of introducing the Replicators. If they had introduced the Replicators, they should have been more like the bugs in SG1. I think the bugs were more menacing than the human form.
- Introduced a story arc whereby the Atlantis team puts together a great alliance of humans (Genii and others) against the Wraith (like what Sheridan did in B5 against the Shadows). Atlantis would eventually play a role similar to the Babylon 5 station. It would become a nexus where humans come together for diplomacy and for coordinating the war against the Wraith.

Basically, I think the show should have focused on the Atlantis team exploring the history of the Ancients in the Pegasus galaxy. The overall story arc should have been that the Atlantis team overcomes incredible challenges to eventually become the true successors of the Ancients: bringing Atlantis back to its former glory, defeating the Wraith and laying the groundwork for what will become a new era of peace for the Pegasus galaxy, thus fulfilling the legacy of the Ancients.

[hxclespaulplayer]

MeanJoePhaser wrote:

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7. Add a blonde, busty cyborg chick.

What's wrong with Teyla? Bring back Wier, mmm...

[Harvey]

hxclespaulplayer wrote:

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What's wrong with Teyla?

The fact that she has absolutely no chemistry with anyone in the cast, no charisma of her own, and Rachel Lutrell is completely devoid of any ability to act counts against her just a bit.

[blockaderunner]

I guess I'm the only person who thought that establishing contact with Earth sooner than expected was a good idea. If they didn't then it would have been another Voyager-esque unlimited supplies situation. At least with regular contact with Earth, it was one less thing the writers had to worry about (let's face it, only nuBSG has been able to write good stories about limited resources). Plus, it kept both 'gate shows tied together (something none of the modern Trek shows had been able to do that didn't have the foul stench of a ratings stunt).

As for things that should have been, like most people, I would have like to have seen Jackson more. I mean, He's a linguist with an interest in the Ancients and he was among them for a while. It would have been natural for him to be more of a presence there, if not take over once Wier was gone.

Also, they could have pulled back on the Wraith after their initial introduction and make them this unknowable background threat, thereby making them more ominous and scary. I thought that this would have been the chance for the SG:A writers to show the Trek writers how the Borg should have been done. As for a good, knowable advaersary, they could have focused on the Genii as the main villan. They were just humans that were very agressive and overly paranoid with the facade of an agrarian society. In some cases, they were scarier than the Wraith because, under the right circumstances, the Atlantis expedition could have been the Genii.

Also, they could have found a way to bring Robert Patrick's character of Colonel Sumner back for episode or two. They were able to bring back Kowalski in SG1. Why not Sumner?

[bullethead]

0-This really wouldn't affect Atlantis for a few seasons, but I would've had the Stargate go public after The Lost City, which would affect the type of aid received by the expedition after they inevitably reestablish contact with Earth.
1- Make Atlantis larger, about 21km in diameter, with facilities to totally rebuild a civilization in another galaxy. I would've also had be a lot more sturdy than the show has portrayed it and totally one of a kind, not just another city ship that the Ancients made.
2-The Wraith are biological intergalactic communications system gone bad, due to floating between galaxies for thousands, maybe millions of years. They ended up in Pegasus shortly after the Ancients seeded the galaxy with life and found the human population to be a convenient resource, useful for food and as the basis of the main computer of hiveships and cruisers. They wouldn't be introduced until the midseason two-parter.
3-The Atlantis expedition would have more international members in the military and civilian forces and have brought along a lot of supplies (including naquadah nukes and zats) and some manufacturing capabilities, as the expedition was seen as a long term colonization effort by its planners. They wouldn't regain contact with Earth until the end of season three.
4-Colonel Sumner would be British SAS and wouldn't die until the end of season one, which would be "The Storm."
5-Sheppard would be more like Yossarian from Catch 22, because of what happened to some of his friends in Afghanistan.
6-Ford would be some guy who's got more experience than Sheppard dealing with friendly offworld groups, but pretty green in terms of combat. McKAy would be the same.
7-The Athosians would be more of a nomadic group, staying on a world only long enough to harvest some crops before heading to one of the few safe uninhabited worlds to avoid the Wraith. Teyla became one of their leaders, along with Halling, after the old leaders died from some disease a few months before the expedition came to Pegasus. The Athosians would stay on Atlantis after the place they were living at gets hit with a flash flood, since it provides a significantly higher standard of living than 90% of the galaxy.
8-The introduction of the Genii would occur in the first part of the midseason two parter, as a pragmatic bunch of humans with the agrarian front and underground civilization. Sheppard's team and a bunch of Genii commandos go to the Keeper's hive and manage to recover a hard drive and use a naqauadah nuke to vaporize the ship, but miss the nearby cruisers, which send a general message to all Wraith in the galaxy. Knowing that it will take up to a few years for their message to be received (due to their slow subspace comm speed), the cruisers set out for Atlantis, the most likely threat.
9-The expedition decides to make allies with as many human socities as possible, including the people from "Poisoning the Well". Along the line, they visit a world under the control of the Confederation, a totalitarian regime that has mostly Genii level technology, but also has some Ancient technology.
10-Back on Lantea, the expedition finds an underground hangar with a specially fit Ancient destroyer (one of those smaller ships the Asurans use) for recon missions called the Hyperion. The onboard AI initially mistakes them for intruders and takes the ship into orbit, cutting them off from Atlantis until they convince the AI that they aren't hostile.
11-Koyla appears in "The Storm" as a Confederation spy in the Genii ranks, ordered to take Atlantis when it is evacuated because of the super hurricane. Koyla and a team of loyal soldiers pretend to be offering aid, then kill the soldiers guarding the Gate room. Colonel Sumner locks out the city's systems before being captured and tortured by Koyla.
12-Season 2 begins with "The Eye" happening pretty much as it does in the show.
13-Atlantis and the Genii become concerned about the threat that the Confederation poses and begin searching for its headquarters. Meanwhile, Atlantis continues building up its alliances in the galaxy.
14-Ronon appears in the first part of midseason finale: "Runner," as a Satedan soldier driven insane after spending seven years without a lot of human interaction, except for the Traveler who gave him his gun and a gate address that Ronon never went to because he feared that he would doom those people. After he gets the Wraith tracking device taken out of him, he asks to go back to Sateda to find out what happened to people placed in disaster shelters with supplies for ten years.
15- In part two, "Sateda," Sheppard and company take the Hyperion to Sateda and discover that the Satedans managed to damage the attacking Wraith cruiser enough to cause it to crash outside the capital. The remnants of the Satedan military have been fighting an uncoordinated guerilla war against the Wraith, which ends when the Hyperion blows up the cruiser and evacuates the Satedans to Atlantis, where Ronon is reunited with his wife, whom he married the day before the Wraith came.
16-The Satedans decide to remain on Atlantis, with the remnants of the Satedan military being lead by Ronon, who is the pretty much the only officer left in their chain of command, joining the expedition's miltary contingent.
17-The season 2 finale/season 3 premiere would have Sheppard's team getting captured by the Confederation and being sent to a gulag planet, where a group of Travelers are being kept after they contacted a man named Lucius, who happened to have an Ancient city ship. Ronon suggests they dial the address he got from the Traveler he met, which happens to be where Sheppard's team and the Travelers are. Ronon leads a Satedan/Expedition assault to free Sheppard's team and destroys the base after rescuing all the prisoners.

[Broccoli]

rofeta wrote:

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Probably won't be a popular opinion but when the Ori were introduced into SG-1 I thought it would have been great to also push them into Atlantis

You know, I kinda wondered if the Ori would have been better suited for Atlantis. If they were introduced on that show, I would hold back on the reveal that the Ori were "bad ancients". Just make the Ori forces in the first two seasons or so be religious zealots bent on everyone in Pegasus thinking their way.

[Swarles Barkley]

TemporalFlux wrote:

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The biggest mistake they made was in the premise. SG-1 was an exploration of myth; Atlantis should have been an exploration of legend. Where SG-1 explored Egyptian mythology and Norse mythology and Mayan mythology, etc.; Atlantis should have explored vampire legend, werewolf legend, etc...

Aren't the Wraith just a variation on the vampire legend? (Don't get me wrong, I like your idea, and I think the show could have been very interesting had they gone more in this direction. Just giving them a little credit where credit is due.)

[Temis the Vorta]

Swarles Barkley wrote:

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Aren't the Wraith just a variation on the vampire legend? (Don't get me wrong, I like your idea, and I think the show could have been very interesting had they gone more in this direction. Just giving them a little credit where credit is due.)

SG-1 never explored anyone's mythology in a real sense. They used some window-dressing elements like names, pyramids, etc, but it was all too generic to have any real substance.

And yes, the Wraith are a variation on the vampire legend, just not a very interesting variation. So are the Goa'uld - I'd give SG-1 more credit for exploring the vampire legend via the Goa'uld than for exploring Egyptian mythology.

[DWF]

SG-1 never explored anyone's mythology in a real sense. They used some window-dressing elements like names, pyramids, etc, but it was all too generic to have any real substance.

The point was to de-mystify the ancient mythologies not to affirm them.

[DontFeedPhil]

Hirogen Alpha wrote:

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I think Ronon would have been great as a recurring character, but he had no place on the team for all of season two and three. By season four he is no longer pulling a gun on people in an instant, but that still doesn't explain why this guy was allowed on the team all those missions previous.

Better to leave him as a runner. A character who wants revenge against the Wraith. Sometimes this puts his interests in line with our heroes, and sometimes it pits him against us. We never know what the case may be.

YES. That would have been a MUCH better way to use the character. Why didn't I think of that? Or the writers for that matter...

I also said this in another thread a few months back. Atlantis should have been more military. The whole "were gonna let a civilian run Atlantis" thing was stupid. That would NEVER HAPPEN. And I like the idea of the Ori being the main villains of the Pegasus galaxy.

[stj]

It should have been a comedy. The whole Daenikenite mythology is ridiculous. Making everyone speak English falsifies the difficulties in making allies, undermining supposed tension. The Wraith were absurd---feeding on life force? Gah! If the show was a comedy like SG-1, it might have worked.

They could have kept McKay as the good but no way Carter good science trouble shooter. Shepherd was okay for comedy but Ford should have been smarter---his youth and inexperience would still left Shepherd as a more heroic figure. There was no need to dumb Ford down. And somebody smart enough to add a different kind of wit would have been a big help, I think. And Teyla should have been like a good/not evil Hathor.

[Temis the Vorta]

Uh...SG-1 was never a comedy. Comedic elements, perhaps.

[Harvey]

True, but it did enjoy deconstructing cliches of science fiction television with a certain amount of sarcastic wit. When it was at its best. Witness Window of Opportunity, which despite being a very funny episode is not a comedy piece.

Stargate SG-1's ventures into outright comedy are more the exception than the rule. Witness Wormhole X-Treme, The Other Guys, Avenger 2.0, Citizen Joe, and 200.

[DWF]

I think RDA thought of SG1 as a comedy for the most part and said so more than once.