Atlantis bites the dust

[Sionnach Glic]

Stargate Atlantis will end this season

Wednesday - August 20, 2008 | by Darren Sumner



UPDATE: MGM has advised us that an official press release will be issued Thursday, which will hopefully answer many questions. Stay tuned to GateWorld.

The SCI FI Channel is ending Stargate Atlantis after five seasons, Multichannel News reports.

The show will go on, though, with a 2-hour movie that will air on SCI FI in 2009, and be released on DVD by MGM. The film will be written by executive producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie.

It's intended to be the first of an on-going series of Atlantis movies, according to the report. Stargate SG-1 has released two very successful movies direct-to-DVD this year (Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum), though neither has aired on U.S. television yet.

"The show will live on as a network franchise," the report also says. This could indicate that future Atlantis movies are a lock for SCI FI, or it may be a general statement about the cable network's commitment to the Stargate franchise.

Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, who created and executive produced Atlantis, pitched a third television series in the 11-year-old TV franchise to the network last year (story). While SCI FI has not yet announced a green light for that show, the end of Atlantis may clear the way -- the dollars available for original programming, that is -- for the next series.

Though Stargate Atlantis has been a solid ratings performer for SCI FI -- and was its highest-rated original program ever when it premiered in July 2004 -- in recent years series like Eureka have supplanted it in the "Live" ratings.

Atlantis remains an extremely strong performer in DVR-delayed viewing, though, often building as much as 25 to 30 percent on its premiere night audience.

Season Five will go out on a cliffhanger, with "Enemy At the Gate" expected to premiere in January. Expect the first Atlantis movie to wrap up that hanging storyline.

Stay tuned to GateWorld and the GateWorld Podcast for the latest developments and comments from the show's producers, and hopefully for some big Stargate Universe news in the weeks ahead. Discuss this story now at GateWorld Forum.

Stargate Atlantis airs Friday nights at 10 p.m. (9 Central) on SCI FI.

(Thanks to Michael and Becky for the tip)

Can't say I didn't see this coming. Quality has been in a steady decline.

[Teaos]

Hardly suprising.

They wrote themselves into a corner with super enemies. Once you beat the best there is nothing left to do.

[Aaron]

Didn't SG-1 basically become a continual hunt for the latest and greatest Ancient super-weapon to defeat the threat of the season? I stopped watching around when Daniel came back.

[Sionnach Glic]

Uh, pretty much, yeah.
The entire Stargate franchise went downhill when RDA dropped out of it, I think.

[Aaron]

Uh, pretty much, yeah.
The entire Stargate franchise went downhill when RDA dropped out of it, I think.

Well he was the best part of the show, for me anyways. His interaction with Teal'C and his mentor was quite well done.

[Sionnach Glic]

Agreed.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

Well, this was unexpected. With high ratings the network usually wants more of the show, not less.

[Varthikes]

Atlantis isn't done completely. They're continuing it in the same way that they're continuing SG1--as movies.

[Deepcrush]

I think its a good idea. You have a chance to keep things going but you don't have to turn out a ep every other week. Gives you time to think about what you want to do and where you're going with it.

[Skifreak]

Say it ain't so! I admit the show can be a bit cheesy at times what with all of the super-aliens and increasingly techno-babbly ways that Rodney comes up with of dealing with them. But it's still a great show and with it's demise, what are we left with? Battlestar Galactica is great but is coming up to it's last half-season. What is a space-sci-fi fan to do nowadays?

Not to mention that last week's cliffhanger was pretty damned impressive. I can't wait to find out who these new aliens are.

I guess I'll give Sanctuary a try, being that Samantha Carter (I mean, Amanda Tapping) is the star, but really it's not what i'm looking for. Sci Fi Channel loves to torment us. First they kill Farscape, then SG-1 (which, admittedly had run it's course), then BSG, and now this.