Teyla Emmagan

Template:Stargate character Teyla Emmagan is a primary fictional character played by Rachel Luttrell in the science fiction series, Stargate Atlantis.

Emmagan, daughter of Tagan, was a leader of a village on the planet Athos. She had seen much of her family culled by the Wraith, although she (and some of her fellow Athosians) possessed the ability to "sense" the Wraith by means initially unknown. In addition, she is skilled in military strategy, martial arts, and Pegasus-galaxy diplomacy, and displays knowledge of and proficiency with Earth technology; she practices a form of stick-fighting (based on Eskrima) with John Sheppard and has taken up use of Earth weapons (such as a P-90) with great facility. She is in incredible physical shape and frequently practices martial arts against two or three opponents at once.

Character's background

In 2004, a security team from the Atlantis expedition comprising of Col. Marshall Sumner, Lt. Aiden Ford, and Maj. John Sheppard gated to Athos in order to find either an alternate Zero Point Module or a place to evacuate, as Atlantis was slowly losing its shield (which protected it from the pressures associated with being submerged in the sea).

Teyla took a liking to Sheppard, who did not "look through" her like Sumner had, and led him to the cave where she believes the surviving Athosians hid after the last great culling. It is here that Sheppard found her necklace, which she had lost "long ago", and Sheppard also learned more about the Wraith via drawings on the walls that likely dated back 10,000 years or more.

When the Wraith attacked Athos, Teyla saved Sheppard, but was captured herself, along with several more of her people and Atlantian military personnel, including Col. Sumner. Sheppard and the survivors of the attack returned to Atlantis, where Sheppard organized a rescue team. Using a Puddle Jumper, Sheppard and Ford infiltrated the Wraith hive-ship and rescued Teyla and the other hostages, except Col. Sumner whom Sheppard was forced to kill. ("Rising")

While Teyla volunteered her services as a guide to the Atlantis expedition, she slowly lost the respect of some of her people. Some even believed that she wanted the Earth-Humans to be "the Ancestors" that are often spoken of in their folklore, thus allegedly blinding her judgment. This rift became apparent when USMC personnel, such as Sergeant Bates, began vocalizing their belief that the Athosians were a security threat. This judgment was not reversed by any means when it was discovered that Teyla may have been compromising Sheppard's SG team.

Teyla was vindicated when it was discovered that the Wraith planted a homing device, activated by a person possessing the Ancient gene, in the necklace that Sheppard recovered. As Teyla lacked the ATA gene, the device lay dormant, until Sheppard, himself possessing the gene, touched it and inadvertently activated the homing signal. Using this knowledge, Sheppard and his team managed to trap the Wraith, recovering a Wraith commander dubbed "Steve". However, she became separated from her people, who had decided to inhabit the main landmass on the planet Atlantis was on. ("Suspicion")

Teyla later introduced Sheppard to a race called the Genii, a militaristic and fascist race bent on destroying the Wraith -- although they projected a facade of being an Amish-type people to avert suspicion. One of her friends was a Genii woman named Sora, although this friendship was severely damaged when Sora accused Teyla of leaving Sora's father to die on a Wraith hive-ship. ("Underground")

Later, Teyla aided in the evacuation of her people from the mainland, when she and Sheppard happened upon a massive storm heading toward Atlantis. A majority of her people were relocated to another world, a world with close ties to the Genii, who were alerted that Atlantis was being evacuated. Teyla, Carson Beckett and Lt. Ford were trapped on the mainland, which helped for the best when a team comprised of Acastus Kolya and Sora invaded Atlantis. Fortunately, the Genii plans to take the C-4 and Atlantis were thwarted, although Sora (once realizing that Teyla refused to kill her in a fight and they would both die outside the shielded control tower), aided Teyla in saving Beckett. Kolya escaped through the Stargate, shot by Sheppard. ("The Storm and The Eye")

After recurring nightmares, it was discovered that Teyla's ancestors were experimented on by a Wraith scientist. The scientist attempted to make humans a more palatable food-source by splicing Wraith DNA. While the scientist and most of its subjects were terminated by the Wraith, who viewed the experiments with disgust, Teyla also possessed some of the Wraith DNA. This explains why Teyla was able to detect the Wraith prior to their approach -- and why Teyla believed there to be a Wraith on Atlantis. ("The Gift")

Teyla later discovered that she could intercept Wraith telepathic communications, even from long distances. Guided by Dr. Beckett, she attempted to learn more about the Wraith's intentions for Atlantis by taking control of one, though this was futile as the Wraith were stronger psionically and controlled her mind to use her to deliver a warning to the Atlantis expedition. This event galvanized the distrust Sgt. Bates had for Teyla; Bates went as so far as to insult her by claiming that she was an unwilling Wraith agent when the Alpha Site was overrun by Wraith a short time after she was possessed.

Teyla was later believed to have attacked Bates, until it was discovered that a Wraith scout who scanned Atlantis in "The Brotherhood" had transported into the city. "Bob" was later captured and killed by Sheppard, thus vindicating Teyla. ("The Siege, Part 1")

Teyla later led a team of Athosians who wished to defend Atlantis, along with reinforcements from Stargate Command, as the Wraith began their assault. ("The Siege, Part 2") Teyla escorted Rodney McKay and the ZPM in his possession to the power generation chamber when the two original guards were shot by a Wraith stunner. She was also instrumental in convincing the Wraith that the Humans were intent on destroying Atlantis via her telepathic abilities. This was part of a ruse to detonate a nuclear warhead above Atlantis and tie in a puddle jumper's stealth generator; with the city cloaked, the Wraith left believing that the humans destroyed Atlantis. ("The Siege, Part 3")

In spite of initial, distrustful attitudes towards her, Teyla has become a valued participant in the expedition, having twice been left in charge of the city in the absence of the expedition's regular leadership. The first time implicitly in The Intruder when Weir, Sheppard, and Rodney return from Earth after the siege, and the second explicitly when Weir is required to return to Earth to face the IOA in "No Man's Land".

Through the second and third season of the show, military personnel in and around the city also begin to display significant trust in her abilities. In "The Long Goodbye" after Teyla has hunted down and captured Sheppard (who has been possessed by an alien with a vendetta against another alien of the same race who has possessed Dr. Weir), Colonel Steven Caldwell leaves a decision with significant consequences for the expedition in her hands, rather than telling her what she should do.

In Season 3, Teyla's gift has been developed a little further. From enabling her to fly a Wraith hiveship ("Misbegotten"), to giving her immunity from hallucinatory signals sent out by a Wraith device ("Phantoms"), Teyla has been shown using her gift in a variety of ways, both actively and passively.

Teyla demonstrated powerful control of her abilities when she was able to telepathically intrude upon and read the thoughts of a hive queen, albeit a sedated one ("Submersion"). While the queen was able to take control of Teyla at times, she was ultimately able to trick the queen into disabling the auto destruct on a nearby cruiser thanks to a fabricated conversation with Sheppard.

Though Teyla notes that she has often felt like an outsider among the Atlantis Earth crew, the rescue of fellow reconnaissance teammate Ronon Dex convinces her of the team's loyalty to one another. ("Sateda") In Season 3, it is revealed that Teyla has romantic interest in an unnamed male, who is presumably unaware of her feelings. ("Sunday") It has been revealed that this romantic interest will be brought up again in Season 4 of the show.

Season 4 of Stargate Atlantis will include a pregnancy for Teyla due to the real-life pregnancy of actress Rachel Luttrell. Teyla discovers that she is pregnant at the end of "Missing" and an Athosian man named Kanan is the father. Teyla has apparently known Kanan all her life and just began seeing him when the rest of her people went missing in the episode. In ("Be All My Sins Remember'd") Teyla is three months pregnant and suspended from active duty by Sheppard once he learned that she is pregnant. Strangely, in ("Spoils of War") Teyla's gift seems to have been enhanced by her pregnancy. The combination of Teyla and her baby's minds is powerful enough that Teyla is now able to fly a Wraith Hive ship with almost no effort and temporarily take control of a Wraith Queen.

The Athosian people have gone missing in Season Four and the search for clues to their disappearance will be a season-long arc for Teyla.

Near the end of Season Four it is revealed that Michael is responsible for the disappearance of the Athosians. He is using them in his experiments to create Wraith/Human Hybrids in an effort to displace the Wraith as the galaxy's dominate species. Much to Teyla's horror and distress, Kanan, the father of Teyla's Child, has already been changed into a hybrid, and now has an appearance much like that of Michael. Kanan also appears to be a full supporter of Michael and plans to use his and Teyla's child as a member of Michael's army, however, Michael was defeated and Kanan brought back to Atlantis.

Teyla named her child Torren John after her father and Sheppard, despite having implied in "Rising" that her father was named Tagan. In his blog, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi suggested that when Teyla introduced herself as "daughter of Tagan", she could have been referring to her mother.

Character genesis

• In the original script, Teyla was called Mikala.
• Kira Clavell originally auditioned for the role of Teyla, but although she caught the eye of the producers, she was not "quite right for Teyla" and was given the role of Amaterasu in the SG-1 two-parter "New Order" instead.

Key episodes

• Rising
• Suspicion
• Underground
• The Storm
• The Eye
• The Gift
• The Siege
• Critical Mass
• Missing
• The Queen

External links

• "Teyla Emmagan". Stargate Atlantis official site. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. © 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
• "Emmagan, Teyla". The Stargate Omnipedia: Characters. GateWorld. Retrieved 2006-09-03.
• Rachel Luttrell at IMDb. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.
• "Teyla Emmagan". StargateWiki. Retrieved 2006-09-03.