Stargate Atlantis News

As a huge fan of Stargate, I can’t help but get excited for this news. According to SciFiWire:

Producers of SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate Atlantis told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming fourth season will add former Firefly cast member Jewel Staite to the cast as a new doctor. Staite, who also appeared in the Firefly feature film, Serenity, will play Dr. Jennifer Keller. She joins Stargate SG-1 cast member Amanda Tapping, who also joins Atlantis’ cast, reprising her role of Col. Samantha Carter.

Cast members hinted that Keller may develop a romantic relationship with one of the other characters and will become friends with Carter. As for Carter’s joining the Atlantis team, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi said the transition won’t go smoothly. For one thing, Carter and Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) have a history, as fans of SG-1 know well. “There will be a little friction off the get-go,” Mallozzi said. “But they’re both adults [about it].” McKay’s unrequited lust for Carter will be addressed, Mallozzi promised. “That gets touched on very early on.”

As for the season’s storylines? “In terms of the stories, because we’re not doing 40 episodes a week—we’re doing 20 episodes—we can concentrate more on the individual characters,” Mallozzi said. “Each of the characters will have a story in the front half. We’ll be developing a lot more of the overall arcs. We’ll be exploring a bit more of the Replicators and what makes them tick, we’ll be finding out a little bit more about the Wraith as well. That should be interesting.”

And as for Dr. Beckett:
Fans of Stargate Atlantis who saw the June 1 episode “Sunday” (spoilers ahead!) witnessed the unexpected demise of Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion), a death that many fans had been anticipating for weeks beforehand with dismay. But producers told SCI FI Wire that fans may not have seen the last of the popular Scottish physician.

“Essentially we write into the [stories] what we think works well,” executive producer Robert C. Cooper said in an interview on the show’s set in Vancouver, Canada, over the weekend. “On the other hand, we know what the fans enjoy, and we want to keep the fans happy. For example, we killed off [Beckett] at the end of season three. The fans were very vocal about his departure, and we understood that he meant a lot to them. We’re working on a storyline that may see him return temporarily. If it works out creatively—if what the fans like creatively and what we like creatively syncs up—that’s great.”

Beckett’s death shook up the show’s cast as well as the fans. “It’s kind of like life: You get blindsided by these things,” co-star David Hewlett (Rodney McKay) said in a separate interview. “It changes your day-to-day routine. That’s happened both as actors and as the characters as well. Not having Paul around. … Paul and I, we made each other’s lives misery: We would tease each other the whole time, and we had great fun on set and off set. To not have him around feels like a huge loss. But that’s life. Things change, and people move on.”