Thread by @BaronDestructo

Stargate Trivia - Stargate: Atlantis season 6!

For those who asked, and those who missed it, here are the stories we didn't get to tell, the half-formed ideas that may or may not have made the cut if we'd been given the opportunity to produce that sixth season of Stargate: Atlantis. There are a few thematic repetitions, some way-out notions, but I'm sure we would have sorted it all out in the end.

Consider this the AU season 6 you never got to see....

Pictured: The place-holder episode titles as they appeared on the writers' room white board prior to our cancellation. 1/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episodes 6.01 and 6.02

The 2-part opener, "Now What? I and II", was the unproduced Stargate: Extinction script, a time travel romp that would have seen our crew stranded in the Triangulum galaxy where Todd the wraith battles a future version of himself, Sheppard goes full Iron Man, and Atlantis ultimately return to Pegasus. 2/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.03

"Children of the Corn/Fantastic Four" involved our team, on the Daedalus, coming across a seemingly derelict ship. They board and, while searching the darkened interior, discover a group of children in stasis.

They revive the kids who explain they were enroute to a planet to be reunited with their parents, colonists who had completed work on a new satellite community.

The children are welcomed aboard and are being ferried to their destination when a mystery ship appears and opens fire on the Daedalus. Our heroes try to outpace their pursuer and, as a game of intergalactic cat and mouse ensues, the team begins to suspect that their young passengers may not be as innocent and harmless as they appear... 3/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.04

Carl's Replicator Story!

Progeny, The Real World, Phanthoms, Echoes, Lifeline, Ghost in the Machine - Carl Binder was the king of ghost AND replicator stories. No doubt he would have written one for the show's sixth season. And it would have been brilliant! 4/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.05

Classic Atlantis was an idea Martin Gero pitched, a story that would take place in the early years of the Atlantis expedition, sort of a flashback to an adventure we’d never seen, a back-in-the-day adventure featuring the likes of Elizabeth Weir and Lt. Ford. 5/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.06

Carter Roshomon was a story idea that didn’t make the cut in season 4 and ended up in the season 5 pile despite the fact that Carter was no longer the base commander. It was originally envisioned as our spin on Kurosawa’s 1950 classic. Colonel Carter faces a possible court-martial and dismissal after an off-world op goes awry. During the ensuing investigation, we are offered three different flashback versions of the charged events.

What happened and what was she being accused of? Guess we’ll never know. Since it didn’t make the cut in season 5, I moved it into the potential season 6 episode discussion list. 6/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.07

The Red Shirt Diaries

Carl Binder wanted to do a story told from the POV of a red shirt, one of those ubiquitous no-names we lose over the course of an op who is mourned then quickly forgotten in the episode tag when the team is yukking it up in the cafeteria.

In this particular episode, Carl posits the possibility that this supposed red shirt aint so red after all and, rather than being killed in the line of duty, is captured. Of course, Stargate teams have a standing “No man left behind” policy and it isn’t long before Sheppard and co. mount a rescue op... 7/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.08

Sheppard D.O.A.

Inspired by the 1950 thriller, Sheppard D.O.A. would have seen John racing against time to find out how he was infected with a deadly toxin and, ultimately, who was responsible and why. And also, maybe, find an antidote. 8/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.09

The Replacements

Brad pitched out a story in which the team run afoul of an alien race and, while being pursued, end up victims of a temporal effect that catapults them six months into the future.

They return to Atlantis to find they’ve been given up for dead and replaced. As they attempt to settle in to their new positions (and work with their replacements) the alien race indirectly responsible for their predicament pays Atlantis a visit… 9/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episodes 6.10 - 6.11

The mid-season two-parter would have seen Sheppard's team return to Atlantis following an op, only to discover it has been taken over by wraith hybrids. But not just any wraith hybrids. While they were off-world, Michael (who survived the events of The Prodigal) targeted the city with a biological attack that has transformed the Atlantis personnel into hybrids.

Sheppard, McKay, Ronin and Teyla soon find themselves on the run, from their former friends, and a determined Michael out for revenge. 10/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.12

Hamster Ball

Sometimes you come up with an idea fully formed. Other times, it may be nothing but a vision. In this case, a vision of the individual team members trapped in giant hamster ball-like containment vessels

Compounding the problem is the fact that they are trapped in a small chamber, in direct line of the stargate, meaning the next time the gate kawooshes, they risk total annihilation.

How do they get trapped? How do they get out? And, most importantly, what the hell else happens in this episode? You’ll have to ask writer Alan McCullough. 11/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.13

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

An idea I pitched for SG-1 that got bumped because we ended up doing "The Road Not Taken" instead. I reworked the premise for Atlantis...

McKay’s experiment with a time-traveling puddle jumper sends duplicate versions of the team both backwards and forwards in time. The story jumps between three different timelines...

Five years into the past (where one version of the team struggles to acquire the puddle jumper and undo the damage done without affecting the timeline).

Five years into the future (where Atlantis is under siege by the alien race introduced in The Daedalus Variations, while another version of the team attempts to acquire the jumper so that they can warn their past selves).

And the present (where McKay continues to tweak his experiment) with developments in each timeline influencing events in the other enroute to a mindbending climax. 12/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.14

Hexed

While visiting an alien community, Sheppard is cursed by a kooky local. At first, our heroes laugh off the incident – until Sheppard runs into a spate of bad luck. VERY bad luck.

Shep whumpers rejoice! 13/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.15

Entropy

In season 5, Paul wanted to do a story in which the effects of the McKay-Miller gate bridge have serious other-worldly repercussions for the city - but we ended up doing something similar in Brain Storm so we pushed this idea.

I reimagined a version where a mishap with a zpm triggers a subspace burst that disperses time fractals throughout Atlantis. And within these varying shards of warped spacetime, the rules of physics no longer apply... 14/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.16

Revenge

Sheppard and his team must mount on op to save Todd after he is captured by rivals. Re-assuming her role as a wraith queen, Teyla leads the team aboard a hive ship in order to track down and rescue their unlikely ally. 15/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.17

Payback

Following devastating attacks on three other teams, Sheppard and co's off-world investigation takes a surprising turn when they are attacked by a puddle jumper. On the run on an alien world, they are pursued by an enemy who is able to predict their every move. Their mysterious pursuer is revealed to be Lt. Aiden Ford and a group of mercs armed with Ancient tech.

Our heroes must find a way to turn the tables on their former friend and, ultimately, find out the surprising source of his all-too familiar resources. 16/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.18

Turn of Events 2

With an uncooperative Ford now imprisoned on Atlantis, Sheppard's team investigates the most likely source of the black market Ancient tech (Episode 215, The Tower).

There, they discover Atlantis's sister city is in the hands of a group of rogue Genii led by none other than
@RobertJohnDavi's Acatus Kolya who we learn survived the events of "Irresponsible" thanks to a modified personal shield emitter.

It turns out Kolya has been busy, consolidating his power base. Our team's attempts to thwart him fail, necessitating a tactical retreat - but not before they obtain a crucial piece of information...

The mirror location of the Ancient zpm factory hidden on Atlantis. 17/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.19

Pre-Finale

Using the information gathered last episode, our heroes are finally able to access the city's hidden zpm factory. The room, it turns out, holds even more secrets: the locations of similar Ancient storehouses throughout the Pegasus galaxy.

An exploration of one such seemingly long-abandoned chamber yields a shocking discovery: none other than Elizabeth Weir who has been kept "on ice" since her capture by the Asurans.

With Elizabeth's help, the team is able to gain access to an Asuran weapon specifically built to target Atlantis. Thus armed, Sheppard and co. pay a return trip to Kolya, determined to neutralize his threat once and for all. But they are too late...

They arrive just in time to see the Ancient city rise up out of the ground and ascend, up into the sky and the stars beyond. Our heroes are already aware of it's destination: Atlantis. 18/

Stargate: Atlantis season 6! Episode 6.20

FINALE

Sheppard's team return to Atlantis with a dire warning, only to be informed that long range scanners have picked up the sister city. And it's headed straight for them.

All off-world teams are recalled. It's going to be all hands on deck as the city prepares for war and the sister city makes its inexorable approach.

We are treated to some classic character-centered moments as the city readies for what will be their biggest battle, against a better equipped, better prepared opponent. Finally, it is time!

Atlantis rises up, off the surface of the ocean, and makes its descent, up through the stratosphere, beyond the exosphere, taking up a planetary orbit.

And when the sister city appears, Atlantis launches its jumpers and drones. Their opponent responds in kind. The most epic battle in Stargate history is joined.

Sheppard skillfully pilots his jumper into the heart of the enemy city and lands on a pier. His team disembarks, Asuran weapon in tow, determined to finish the job they set out to complete last episode

But they're on the clock and running out of time, facing down enemy soldiers and drone strike as they desperately seek to set up the Asuran weapon as close to critical systems as possible.

But they're not the only ones running out time. Atlantis, outgunned by a foe that has been preparing for war, suffers heavy damage. Even if our team succeeds in their mission, it looks like it will be a pyrrhic victory at best. And then -

A fleet of hive ships drop out of FTL and concentrate their fire on the enemy ship. It's Todd. He and his fleet take the pressure off Atlantis, buying Sheppard and his team enough time to initiate the Asuran weapon and retreat back to the jumper, making good their escape as, behind them, the weapon initiates, setting off a chain reaction of explosions that claim the enemy city.

Atlantis returns to the planet's surface. Sheppard thanks Todd. Wraith and human achieve an "understanding". And peace finally returns to the Pegasus Galaxy.

End of show. 19/19