After a fairly brief hiatus (only 4 months) Stargate Atlantis returns to the SciFi channel with all new episodes starting on July 11th. Now entering its fifth season, the show is reaching a turning point thanks to a number of off-season cast changes. First and foremost in is the replacement of Amanda Tapping's Colonel Samantha Carter as administrator of Atlantis with Robert Picardo's Richard Woolsey. This is one year after Tapping replaced Tori Higginson on the show. It's an interesting turn of events since Woolsey has not been the most popular of characters in the entire Stargate franchise. And, as the character has never been a people person, there is bound to be some conflict between members of the Atlantis team and himself.

(S04E19) "Just another day in outer space." -- Colonel John Sheppard

Now, let me introduce to you...the one and only Carson Beckett! Is he live or is he Memorex? That was the question on everyone's minds this week as fan favorite Dr. Beckett returned to Stargate Atlantis after his unceremonious death last season. Of course, Dr. Keller told us at the very beginning of the episode that he was Carson Beckett. This didn't mean squat, though, because there was a whole episode for that claim to be disputed.

So, was Carson actually Carson or something entirely different? And, what happened with Teyla and Michael? For that, read on.

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(S04E17) First, my apologies for this being so late. Rich and I got some wires crossed and we both ended up pointing at each other saying, "Crap, I thought it was your turn!" Better late than never though, right? Anyway... "Midway" has been one of the brighter spots on the upcoming schedule all season simply because Teal'c was returning. I'm sure that for many fans, the return in and of itself was cause to celebrate the episode. I have no special preference for Teal'c myself, so that didn't totally sell me on the episode, but the story he brought along with him did. With a couple of nagging exceptions, it was very good.

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(S04E12) "Blind we are, if creation of this clone army we could not see." - Yoda

I can't be the only one that had the clone wars running through their noggin through half of this episode. I'm not even a big Star Wars fan, but as soon as Todd started in explaining how the base worked, and how they used it in the war with the Ancients, it was all I could think about. I'll be hearing Yoda in my head all weekend now. That's not to say it was a bad episode. The idea is certainly familiar, but it brought with it some interesting backstory, and that's more than a fair trade.
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(S04E11) SPOILER ALERT!!! DO NOT READ PAST THIS LINE IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS WEEK'S EPISODE. I GIVE YOU FAIR WARNING.

Huh? What? Gah?

What the hell was that at the end of this week's Stargate Atlantis? I'll be honest, I didn't see it coming. Oh, I thought something was going to happen as the scene shifted to the area that the Replicator planet once populated -- I was thinking more along the lines like the nannites rebuilding the planet from scratch, like the Genesis Device from the Star Trek movie series. What I didn't expect was a ship floating amongst all of the planetary debris. And I certainly didn't expect the person sitting in the command chair to be someone fans thought dead as a doornail.

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(S03E06) For this episode we're treated Robert Davi, one of my favorite villain actors, reprising his role as Kolya. When we last saw him, he'd been busy invading a little city known as Atlantis. I just love this guy as a villain, and he does a great job as usual.

(S03E01) I always enjoy a good episode of Atlantis. It tends toward the predictable plot line, but it usually veers away from predicable endings. This episode used a few flash backs, but I was pleased that they really jumped back into the story and got it moving almost right away.

Right out of The Empire Strikes Back, we find out that Shep managed to latch on to one of the hive ships before they entered hyperspace. Seriously though, how many times a season does Shep get reported dead? I think we might need to count them. Shep's dead: 1