In the pilot episode "Rising", Dr. Daniel Jackson discovers the location of Atlantis, the legendary city created by the Ancients, and Stargate Command sends an international team to investigate it.

The city was abandoned 10,000 years ago by the Ancients, who were forced to flee after losing a long war to a powerful enemy known as the Wraith.

The expedition quickly finds itself in a dire situation that forces them to seek new friends, the Athosians, but they also acquire a powerful new enemy: the Wraith.

The SGC sends General O'Neill and Richard Woolsey to try to negotiate an agreement between Earth and the Ancients to allow the expedition to return to Atlantis.

The Ancients are then subsequently killed by an invading Asuran force while O'Neill and Woolsey send off a distress call to Earth and go into hiding.

The main members of the Atlantis expedition on Earth disobey their orders and go back to the city, rescue O'Neill and Woolsey, and repel the Asuran invasion.

The finale ends when the hyperdrive malfunctions, leaving the city flying through uncharted space with a day's worth of energy left in their sole ZPM and Dr. Weir critically injured.

With the city damaged, running out of power and drifting in space, cut off from Earth, the Atlantis expedition raids Asuras to obtain a ZPM and is able to travel to a nearby planet.

The Asuran base code is reprogrammed by McKay, leading the nanobots to fulfill the purpose for which the Ancients created them: to wipe out the Wraith.

The Hive ship is then destroyed in the subsequent battle and Atlantis lands in the Pacific Ocean near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Guest starring: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge, Beau Bridges, Robert Davi, Kari Wuhrer, Danny Trejo, Mark Dacascos, Mitch Pileggi, Colm Meaney, Connor Trinneer and others.

This change not only addressed the problem of fans wondering why the SGC would not be coming to the aid of the Atlantis Expedition with each episode, but it also gave the producers a chance to start afresh with new ideas instead of having an identical copy of the original show.

[10] To replace him, they created Ronon Dex as a sidekick for Lt. Col. John Sheppard, but finding an actor with the physical presence and the acting ability necessary was not easy until they saw Jason Momoa's tape.

[11] X-files veteran Mitch Pileggi and Kavan Smith were added to the cast in the recurring roles of Col. Steven Caldwell and Maj. Evan Lorne.

[19] Rachel Luttrell (portraying Teyla Emmagan in the series) used her time during the Stargate Atlantis season one hiatus to be trained in the martial arts by science fiction veteran Ray Park.

The Blade: Trinity production gave the set to Stargate Atlantis to save the high cost of dismantling the massive construct.

[24] Goldsmith's score for season 2 episode "Grace Under Pressure" was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Dramatic Underscore) in 2006.

[36] In the UK, the finale was viewed by 633,000, placing Stargate Atlantis third in the top ten for Sky 1 in that week, behind The Simpsons and season seven premiere of 24.

As of May 2009, the confirmed actors were to be Amanda Tapping as Samantha Carter, David Hewlett as Rodney McKay, Joe Flanigan as John Sheppard, Paul McGillion as Carson Beckett, Rachel Luttrell as Teyla Emmagan, Jason Momoa as Ronon Dex, Robert Picardo as Richard Woolsey[45] and Christopher Heyerdahl as Todd the Wraith.

[46] The script for Stargate: Extinction had been written and was ready to go into production, according to Joseph Mallozzi, "it involved a return mission to Pegasus, the tragic end of one relationship, the beginning of another, and a surprising progression in the alliance between one man and one wraith.

[49] Speaking at a convention in Edmonton on September 28, 2013, Joe Flanigan stated that a few years prior, he had negotiated with the then boss of MGM about leasing the series in order to produce season 6 of Stargate Atlantis, and potentially more.

Flanigan's team, their investors and MGM came up with "all the numbers" as well as working out television networks for broadcasting, studios and plans for a 10-year lease of the Stargate franchise.

Flanigan stated that he believed Spyglass were more interested in working with Roland Emmerich on another feature film, outside of the main continuity of the series.

[56] In mid-2006 MGM, the producers of both Stargate series, switched DVD distribution companies from Sony to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

[65] The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reviewer Laura Urbani said that the television series "cleverly" mixed "humor with action" with "political intrigue".

[68] Critical Myth rated "Adrift" 8 out of 10, praising the direction the writers took with the episode, Sheppard being rather forced to be in command of the city with the incapacitation of Weir, as well as comparing the characters' "chance to prove their mettle through extreme adversity" to "The Siege, Part 2".

It was praised for being a "fun filler" episode, and Pyle enjoyed the scene where the two Sheppards converse, and the space battle, believing only Battlestar Galactica could beat them.

"[75] June L. from Monsters and Critics (M&C) gave season two of Stargate Atlantis 4 out of 5, and said that it was a "pleasure to watch the stories", compared to other new science fiction shows which depend on "blood and violence.

"[79] Atlantis was nominated twenty-seven times for a Leo Award and won only once in the category Best Visual Effects in a Dramatic Series in "The Eye" in 2005.

Kavan Smith (as Evan Lorne), David Nykl (as Radek Zelenka), Paul McGillion (as Carson Beckett) and Torri Higginson (as Elizabeth Weir) have lent their voices for one Stargate Atlantis audiobook each.