The Ark (Stargate Atlantis)
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| “The Ark” | |
|---|---|
| Stargate Atlantis episode | |
 Sheppard crashlands, saving a civilization |
|
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 16 |
| Guest stars | Kavan Smith as Major Lorne |
| Written by | Don Whitehead Holly Henderson Carl Binder |
| Production no. | 317 |
| Original airdate | January 8, 2007 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "The Game" | "Sunday" |
| Episode chronology | |
"The Ark" is an episode from Season 3 of the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis..
[edit] Plot
Lt. Colonel Sheppard's team investigates a derelict, centuries-old space station on a distant moon, and inside they find the last remnants of a civilization frozen in stasis using reverse-engineered Wraith beaming technology. One thousand men, women, and children were put into stasis in an attempt to outlast their enemy, with whom they were at war for many years: the Wraith.
Herick is the first to awaken when the team comes on board and restores power. About 35 years of age (before going into stasis), Herick is the technician who created the stasis device for his people. Though he expects to find his wife and son there with him, they are missing, along with the shuttle they were meant to arrive on. Angry, Herick awakens their leader, Jamus.
After Jamus confesses that they had to take drastic steps to keep the Wraith from finding their sanctuary (the second shuttle with Herick's family was left behind), the young man is understandably distraught. Herick later commits suicide rather than live without his loved ones. He fires up the shuttle’s engines and destroys the hanger bay doors, sucking him out into space. This sends the old station hurtling toward the atmosphere of his world, threatening Sheppard's team and the remaining survivors of Herick’s people.
The team cannot possibly save over a thousand people and, hoping to cut their losses, offer Jamus rescue. But he will not go without his people — and will make sure that they do not either. He takes Teyla hostage and will only release her if Sheppard gives his people safe passage off the failing station. He explains to Teyla his people's terrible actions to keep the Wraith away. To keep the Wraith from returning to their world, the environment was saturated with radiation to kill any survivors of the culling, making the planet seem useless to the Wraith.
With the arrival of a rescue team from Atlantis, Jamus is forced to drastic measures to ensure his people's safety. He puts himself and Teyla into stasis, and McKay is unable to distinguish her life-signs from the survivors already in stasis. This forces Sheppard to try and fly the remaining shuttle down to the planet’s surface. As the fuel was used up by Herick in his suicide, Sheppard is forced to try and get the shuttle into orbit, but at the critical moment, the shuttle's systems fail not allowing it to undock from the station. Sheppard has to ride the shuttle to the surface of the planet while still inside the station. He survives (just), along with the people in stasis.
[edit] Trivia
- As Herick prepares his shuttle for his suicide attempt, the wrapper from a Snickers chocolate bar can be seen on the pilot's console.
- The BDUs that Sheppard and Rodney are wearing in this episode are the same as the BDUs that the characters on Stargate SG-1 wear when they are on Earth. He and McKay wear these BDUs for the rest of the season.
- At the end of the episode Sheppard is wearing his mission patches on the wrong shoulders: The Atlantis patch on his left shoulder and the American flag on the right shoulder
