First Strike (Stargate Atlantis)
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| "First Strike (Stargate Atlantis)" |
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"First Strike" is the Season 3 finale episode of the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis. Col. Abe Ellis takes the new starship Apollo on a first strike against a Replicator planet, but when his mission goes wrong, Weir must take radical action to save Atlantis.
Plot
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Earth's new starship, the Apollo, a Daedalus class battlecruiser, arrives in the Pegasus Galaxy ahead of schedule, under the command of Col. Abe Ellis (Michael Beach). Upon beaming to Atlantis from his ship, Ellis immediately requests to brief Weir, Sheppard, and McKay on the status of the Human Form Replicators’ planet. Using intelligence photos taken by the Daedalus over the course of the last two months, Ellis shows that the Replicators are in the process of building a fleet of ships. Rather than Atlantis having to boost their shields, Ellis proposes to “take them down” by going directly to the planet with Sheppard’s team.
Ellis brings with him a set of Mark IX tactical nuclear bombs, housed in a custom-made weapons platform code named Horizon. Horizon carries six warheads and four decoys. McKay objects, saying that six warheads are not enough to “take down” the Replicators, since a single surviving nanite is all that is needed to re-create them. Ellis says that the ships being constructed by the Replicators are not made of nanites, but of conventional materials and that the bombs will be enough to destroy the ships. He’s hoping to buy time for Area 51 to complete its Planetary Wide Anti-Replicator Weapon ("P.W.A.R.W."), which is based on the technology the Asgard used to build their Replicator Disruptor Satellites, but Area 51 has had difficulty in adapting the technology to their needs.
The Replicators know where Earth is and the International Oversight Advisory (IOA) will not be satisfied until something is done to prevent these ships from launching. Ellis’s primary goal is to eliminate the ships and then use the "P.W.A.R.W." when it becomes available. He immediately has McKay beamed aboard the Apollo to inspect the weapons.
Planning to strike first, Colonel Ellis, along with the aid of the Atlantis team, launches a strike, nuking the entire armada. Believing that all imminent danger has been avoided the team is shocked when a ring shaped satellite housing an 8-chevron Stargate takes up orbit above Atlantis.
Unable to destroy the Stargate after it opens and transmits a powerful energy beam at Atlantis' shields, and with the Stargate rendered inactive by a second in such close proximity, Dr. McKay opts to sink the city as the Ancients did millennia before, using the water to dissipate the beam's strength. However, the beam manages to maintain the bulk of its power through the ocean, and 3 hours of work (along with a sizable amount of power) gains only an additional 9 hours to the shield endurance.
After this failure, Col. Sheppard and Dr. McKay realize that the only chance the city has is to use the stardrive to reach a new planet (M12-578, the closest habitable oceanic world), but with only one ZPM, and the energy weapon draining the shield, they must come up with another way to power the city. They decide to use the recently discovered drilling platform to provide the initial power to get the city back above the water, but they will need the ZPM to power the stardrive after that. A team of F-302s lead by Major Lorne flies to a nearby group of asteroids and uses grappling hooks to haul one to Lantea — Sheppard and McKay hope that it will block the beam long enough to take the strain off the ZPM so it can power the shield and stardrive at the same time. Atlantis rises back to the surface and fires its stardrive but begins to stall out - to reach the required altitude, the shield is turned off temporarily after the asteroid enters the satellite's beam, and the ZPM is activated to power the stardrive and give it the remaining push. Once the city attains a high enough altitude, the shield is reactivated. However, the shield takes a considerable amount of time to close (since the Atlantis shield raises from the bottom to the top), at which time the Asuran beam breaks through the asteroid and momentarily grazes the side of the control tower, blowing out one of the large windows, literally knocking Dr. Weir off her feet and across the control room, and damaging the structure before the shield closes fully. Despite the damage, the city lifts out of the atmosphere and into hyperspace, however, the city's stardrive shuts down for unknown reasons after only a few minutes of travel, leaving it adrift far from the new home planet. Further, the damage to the control tower caused injuries to Dr. Weir and several other personnel - Dr. Weir's exact condition after the attack is currently unknown.
Production
- Jewel Staite debuts in her recurring role of Dr. Keller. She previously played a Wraith named Ellia in the episode Instinct.
- This marks Torri Higginson's final appearance as a main castmember on the show.
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Reception
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Notes
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- The Stargate contained in the Asurans' satellite only has eight chevrons.
- Despite airing on the same night as the SG-1 finale "Unending", "First Strike" must take place some time later. "First Strike" leads directly into Stargate Atlantis's fourth season (specifically, "Adrift"), but the upcoming movies Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate Continuum will both take place between "Unending" and Atlantis's fourth season.