Rising
From Stargate Wiki
| Episode | Credits | Transcript | Images | Production images |
| Rising | |
|---|---|
 The expedition watches a message left by the Ancients
| |
| Production | |
| Series | |
| Episode |
1.01-1.02 |
| Production # |
101, 102 |
| Original air date |
July 16, 2004 |
| Written by | |
| Directed by | |
| Cast | |
| Guest stars |
Richard Dean Anderson as Brigadier General Jack O'Neill |
| Chronology | |
| Hide and Seek 
|
| ||||||
| Atlantis Season 1 | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
| Season 2 | ||||||
Rising is the first and second episodes of the first season of Stargate: Atlantis and the premier episode of the series.
Contents |
Synopsis
An expedition leaves Earth for the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis, deep within the Pegasus Galaxy. Hoping to discover valuable new technology, what they find is a city submerged beneath an ocean with its shields about to collapse—and a deadly new enemy awakens. A team led by Marshall Sumner, and some of the Athosians are kidnapped by a newly awakened enemy, the Wraith. Back in Atlantis, the city's shields fail, and the city rises from the bottom of the ocean. John Sheppard plans to rescue the missing team, but he may not reach them in time.
MGM/SyFy Official Summary
Part 1
Several million years ago, in a beautiful alien city in Antarctica, a man and a woman in silver clothing—two of the Ancients who created the Stargates—look out a window sadly as the city rises out of the encroaching ice and flies away to the stars, leaving behind only a small outpost.
Present day: At the Ancients' abandoned outpost (discovered in the episode, 7.22 "Lost City Part 2"), Dr. Elizabeth Weir, head of the Stargate Atlantis project, rides an elevator with Lt. Aiden Ford down a deep shaft bored in the ice. Reaching the research facility below, they find Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Carson Beckett arguing over the fact that Beckett is afraid to sit in the Ancient chair that controls the most powerful weapons known to humankind — even though he possesses (and is the one who discovered) the mutant gene to which Ancient technology automatically responds. As Weir points out, only a handful of people have the gene, and every time one of them sits in the chair they learn more about the Ancients.
Dr. Daniel Jackson of Stargate Command then tells Weir and McKay of a remarkable discovery he's just made: The Stargate address to the Lost City of Atlantis is incomplete. On a white board he adds an eighth symbol—indicating that Atlantis is not on Earth nor even in their galaxy, but on a planet far, far away. And they can 'gate there.
As Gen. Jack O'Neill races to the outpost in a helicopter flown by Maj. John Sheppard, McKay convinces Beckett to sit in the chair. It activates and launches an Ancient drone weapon that almost destroys the helicopter. But thanks to Sheppard's fancy flying and Beckett's new-found ability to turn off his control, the chopper lands safely.
At the outpost, Daniel tells O'Neill that the Ancients flew their entire city to a dwarf galaxy called Pegasus. In order for an expedition to 'gate that far, they need to boost the Stargate with the Earth's sole ZPM (Zero Point Module), an Ancient energy source currently powering the outpost's defenses and is vital to Earth's defense against an alien attack. The 'gating may totally drain the ZPM.
And even if it didn't, there wouldn't be enough power to 'gate back.
O'Neill says no. But Daniel convinces him that by visiting the Ancients' city they could find more ZPMs and who knows what else to protect Earth. The expedition's a go, though O'Neill insists Daniel is too valuable here on Earth to join them. Weir is in charge, with Colonel Marshall Sumner as her military commander. After some reluctance, Sheppard — who, it has been discovered, has the most potent variable of the Ancient gene—joins the offworld expedition along with McKay, Beckett, a military compliment and a full crew of the best and the brightest representing more than dozen countries.
They arrive in the city of the Ancients, which is chockablock with amazing technology, including its own gate room and a bay of spaceships. The city's power systems turn on as the Atlantis team explores it. Then, amazingly, they discover that the city — which they can now conformably call Atlantis — is underwater, with a force field holding the ocean back. They also find a holographic message that tells them how the Ancients developed the Stargates as a hope of spreading new life. They seeded countless worlds in this Pegasus galaxy, until discovering a planet with a warrior race that fed upon the defenseless human worlds until only Atlantis remained. Before it was too late, they submerged the city for protection.
Suddenly, McKay screams to turn off the hologram: The city's power is rapidly draining due to all the systems being automatically turned on — and the force field holding back the ocean is weakening fast. Gating back to Earth is impossible without another fully charged ZPM, and the city's last is almost depleted. But 'gating to another world within the Pegasus galaxy is an option. Weir has Sumner and Sheppard lead a team to recon a randomly chosen planet for evacuation.
The planet, Athos, is populated by a race of pre-industrial humans living in fear of the Wraith, the warrior race of which the hologram spoke. The Athosian leader, a beautiful woman named Teyla, doesn't take kindly to Sumner's no-nonsense attitude, but warms up to Sheppard. As the military team investigates the nearby abandoned city of Teyla's ancestors, looking for refuge and ZPMs, Teyla takes Sheppard to a cave. The walls are covered with drawings telling the history of her people and how the Wraith wait a few hundred years for the population to grow before attacking and capturing them. She believes that the Wraith can sense when anyone goes into the city.
Sure enough, three dart-like ships coming flying through the Stargate. The Wraith have returned.
The Wraith Darts begin firing and it seems like the Wraith have the Atlantis team surrounded on the ground. But Teyla informs Sheppard that the ships are projecting shadow-like illusions. Sheppard relays the intel to Sumner, who instructs his men to take out the ships with gun and bazooka fire. One ship is destroyed. Suddenly, Sumner, one of his men and some of the tribespeople, including Teyla, are beamed up to a Wraith Dart. The two remaining Darts speed through the Stargate.
At Atlantis, the force field is deteriorating and parts of the city are being destroyed. McKay pressures Weir not to wait for the offworld team any longer. She gives the order to evacuate to Athos when suddenly the Stargate activates — and through it emerges Sheppard, the remaining members of the offworld team and about 50 of the surviving Athosians.
With the city about to collapse under the sea, Weir gives Sheppard hell for bringing in outsiders when Atlantis must be immediately evacuated. Suddenly, the entire city shakes thunderously. This is it — the end. Yet Atlantis then rises through the ocean, breaking through the surface into the light of day.
Part 2
Using the six symbols Ford noted on the DHD as the Wraith flew through the Stargate, McKay attempts to locate the Wraith planet. But the MALP McKay sends through the Stargate ends up drifting in space. Weir won't risk sending a search party to their deaths.
On the Wraith homeworld, Sumner and the other captives are imprisoned within a web-like force field in the Wraith hive. Three Wraith come and take one of the Athosians away.
Back at Atlantis, McKay shows Sheppard a bay of spaceships he'd found earlier. Sheppard gives one a try and finds it responds to his thoughts. Plus it has a cloaking device. Now there's no excuse not to mount a ... reconnaissance mission. Sheppard, Ford and a team board the ship—which Sheppard dubs Puddle Jumper One, overruling Ford's Gateship One—and fly through the Stargate to emerge out an orbiting 'gate over the Wraith homeworld. Sheppard wonders where they should go from here, and the ship displays a target on the planet below. In response to his wondering how the team will find the captured party, a panel opens revealing a locator device that detects human forms. He thinks about a nice turkey sandwich, too, but that doesn't seem to work.
Back in the hive, Sumner is taken to a female Wraith known as The Keeper—who shows Sumner how she has drained the life out of the Athosian taken earlier. This is how this insect-human hybrid race sustain themselves. They have been feeding upon worlds in the Pegasus system for centuries, and have captured the Atlantis team because they trespassed upon the Wraiths' feeding ground.
Having landed, Sheppard's team plants explosives around the hive. Sheppard and Ford find Teyla and the other prisoners with the locator device from the ship. Ford calls it a "lifesigns detector" and Sheppard goodnaturedly reminds him not to name anything. Leaving Ford with the prisoners, Sheppard goes looking for Sumner. He's being interrogated by the Keeper, who uses a mental power to force Sumner to tell her he comes from Earth, in another galaxy, and that there are millions of people there—a rich new feeding ground in the Keeper's eyes. Yet through sheer will, Sumner is able to hold back Earth's location. The Keeper then puts her hand on his chest and begins draining the life out of him. He becomes an old man in seconds. Still, he won't give up Earth's location.
Sheppard, having heard Sumner's scream of pain, appears and puts three slugs in the Keeper's back and kills one of her two guards. But before he can take out the other, the Keeper lets out a scream and sucks more life out of Sumner to heal herself. Sheppard and the dying Sumner exchange a brief look of understanding—and then Sheppard puts Sumner out of his misery with one shot through the Keeper's hand.
Sheppard is subdued by the other Wraith guard and the Keeper is about to give him the same treatment as Sumner when Ford appears—having left his post at Teyla's request that he help his comrade—and kills the guard. Freed, Sheppard radios the team to light up the hive. Teyla and the rest are freed by a small explosive charge at the same time. Sheppard kills the Keeper by running her through with the long barrel of a Wraith weapon. But doing that has awakened the honeycombed hive of thousands of Wraith.
Back at Atlantis, McKay informs Weir they've been able to supply power to some parts of the city, and have already begun to find amazing things. But a preoccupied Weir is beginning to regret having allowed Sheppard to undertake such a risky mission.
On the Wraith homeworld, many Darts are launched. Sheppard and company escape the planet's atmosphere in the cloaked Puddle Jumper and find a dozen Wraith Darts guarding the orbiting Stargate. Sheppard de-cloaks to draw them away so he can double back. With the help of the Puddle Jumper reading his mind and taking out a Wraith Dart with a drone weapon, only three Wraith Darts remain on his tail. Ford dials the 'gate and enters his identification code (IDC). Weir orders the force field on the Atlantis side dropped. Sheppard comes in fast with the three Darts following him through the 'gate. The Puddle Jumper emerges in Atlantis, slowed down like an aircraft-carrier jet by some powerful magnetic field. Weir immediately orders the shield reactivated—and the three Wraith Darts crash into it and are destroyed.
Sheppard, now the ranking military officer, ran a successful rescue operation despite the tragic loss of Colonel Sumner. And while he helped make some new enemies, he's also made some new friends. Teyla promises him that with her people's knowledge of other Stargate addresses, the Atlantis team will make more.
References
Memorable Quotes
Beckett: Home come I never make friends like that?
McKay: You need to get out more.
Beckett: We're in another galaxy - how much more out can you get?!
Sheppard: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Atlantis. Please remain seated 'til the puddle jumper's come to a full and complete stop.
Planets
Races
Notes
Goofs
- Sheppard journeys through the gate on Earth with his eyes closed and gun down, however when he comes out in Atlantis his eyes are open and his gun is raised.