Adrift (Stargate Atlantis)

The episode continues from the third-season finale "First Strike", where Atlantis drops out of hyperspace in the middle of deep space with 24 hours of power left after an Asuran attack.

McKay (David Hewlett) determines that the power conduits are damaged, preventing Atlantis from completing its jump to the planet M12-578.

McKay later decides to collapse the shield to cover the central tower in order to conserve power, and give Zelenka (David Nykl) time to patch up the conduits.

However, the city approaches an asteroid belt, and the only way to go through without using up the power is for Sheppard to lead a fleet of Puddle Jumpers and clear a path.

When she learns the nanites are keeping her alive, she warns Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) that saving her this way is a bad idea.

In the end, McKay decides to use an experimental Jumper with a hyperdrive he worked on since "Tao of Rodney" and use it to steal a Zero Point Module from the Asuran homeworld.

[2] By March it was confirmed to be the first of a two-part opening for the fourth season along with "Lifeline" and would be similar in style to "Progeny" and "The Real World".

[3] The producers kept trying to find new ways to "out-do" the efforts of the previous seasons, which they described was "different" to them, since they introduced more of a balance between team-based and character-based episodes.

The scene where McKay and Zelenka converse and finish each other's sentences were parallel to the arguing between Gero and Wood while working together on set.

[7] Gero was reluctant to accept an updated opening title sequence, which mentioned the departure of Weir and the introduction of Carter, which would give the casual viewers a tip.

[5] When the producers conceived the idea for the space jump between Sheppard and Zelenka, they thought it would be "cool", as well as thinking that they were possibly too apprehensive.

[7] After it aired in the United States, "Adrift" earned a 1.2 household Nielsen rating, representing 1.7 million viewers; 896,000 from ages 18 to 49, and 962,000 from the 25 to 54 demographic.

[9] In the United Kingdom, "Adrift" received 527,000 viewers, placing Atlantis number six in the top ten broadcasts for Sky One for that week.