Carson Beckett
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| Stargate character | |
|---|---|
.jpg/200px-Carson_Beckett_(Stargate).jpg) Dr. Carson Beckett |
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| Carson Beckett | |
| Race | Human |
| ATA | Natural carrier |
| Gender | Male |
| Rank | Former Chief Medical Officer of the Atlantis Expedition |
| Birthplace | Scotland, UK, Europe, Earth Pegasus Galaxy (clone) |
| Relatives | Unnamed mother |
| Portrayer | Paul McGillion |
| First appearance | "Rising" |
| Key episodes | Sunday The Kindred |
Dr. Carson Beckett is the Scottish chief medical doctor portrayed by Paul McGillion in the television series Stargate Atlantis. Beckett possessed and had discovered the "Ancient Technology Activation gene" which allows humans to interact with specialized technology in the base of Atlantis and around the universe, but was often afraid to use the gene himself with Ancient technology. He did not like to travel through the Stargate either, he believes it to be "bloody insanity" to convert the human body to energy and send it millions of miles through a wormhole, however he does partake when necessary. His medical expertise and the fact he discovered and possesses the Ancient gene caused him to be hand-picked by Elizabeth Weir for the Atlantis expedition.
Despite only being billed as a recurring character in the first season, Dr. Beckett's appearance in numerous first season episodes prompted his promotion to a main character at the start of the second season.
The flag patch on Beckett's uniform is the Saltire, the Scottish national flag.
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[edit] Season 1
Since he has the ATA gene, Dr. Rodney McKay forced Dr. Beckett to sit in the Control Chair on the Ancient's outpost in Antarctica and managed to activate it. Unfortunately, he also accidentally activated a remaining drone, which took off and went directly towards the incoming helicopter carrying General Jack O'Neill and Major John Sheppard. Sheppard's evasive maneuver gave Beckett enough time to find a way to deactivate the drone seconds before it would have destroyed the helicopter.
Once in Atlantis, one of his first duties was to dissect a severed Wraith arm that Major Sheppard brought back from Athos after the creature's Dart was shot down. His work on the arm provided the first information about Wraith physiology. He hypothesized that the Wraith do not die of "natural aging" the way humans do and they would be "bloody hard to kill" [1].
He created a gene therapy that would give normal humans the ATA gene, using a mouse retrovirus. Dr. Rodney McKay was the first human trial and it worked. In this episode, Rodney's first attempts to use the new gene in his DNA allowed him to utilize a personal shield that blocks absolutely everything, from bullets to food. However, it was later revealed that the therapy works in only 48% of the subjects [2] [3].
He wasn't happy when Major Sheppard volunteered him to help the Hoffans without asking him first, but went along with it. He helped a Hoffan scientist, Perna, to develop a drug that would prevent Wraith from feeding from humans. They managed to create a working drug, and, using a sick Hoffan man (who volunteered) as a human trial, they inoculated him with the drug and tested it against Steve, the Wraith that Sheppard's team captured (and named) previously ("Suspicion"). The drug worked better than they expected, Steve was unexpectedly killed by it. Beckett wanted to run more tests to ensure the drug's safety, but the Hoffans started mass-production and mass-inoculation immediately, against his protestations. It was then discovered that the drug had a severe side effect: a 50% mortality rate, and, as if that wasn't heartbreaking enough for Beckett, one of the victims was Perna. Despite the Atlantean's protests, the Hoffans, in a planetary vote, showed they were willing to take the risk. Resultingly, the Atlantean expedition left. [4].
At some point, Beckett learned to pilot a Puddle Jumper, but he really doesn't like it ("I'm a doctor, not a bloody fighter pilot!", possibly in reference to Star Trek's Dr. Leonard McCoy and his line "I'm a doctor, not a..."). During The Storm, he, Ford and Teyla became trapped on the mainland waiting for some Athosian hunters. He preferred to sit the storm through since he knew he wouldn't be capable of flying in such strong winds. When the eye of the storm was over the mainland, they returned to Atlantis, only to find it occupied by a Genii strike team. While trying to help Sheppard retake the city, he was whacked in the face and knocked unconscious by Sora, who later attempted to kill Teyla, which she believed would avenge her father's death. [5] [6].
When Wraith darts scanned Atlantis, he was forced to fly a Jumper with Sergeant Bates since there weren't any other pilots available [7].
He later discovered that Teyla has Wraith genes in her DNA makeup, (and managed to get whacked in the face again) which allowed her to tap into the Wraith psychic network. This ability is later used to convince the Wraith that they will destroy the city in the Season Two opener [8].
[edit] Season 2
Dr. Beckett started to take more off-world work, accompanying military and scientific teams in off-world reconnaissance [9].
When Teyla and Lt. Colonel Sheppard are captured by a runner, Ronon Dex, Sheppard exchanges Dr. Beckett's services for their freedom. Dr. Beckett removes the Wraith transmitter from Ronon's back which was allowing the Wraith to track him. [10].
During an off-world recon mission, USMC Lt. Laura Cadman, a recent arrival to Atlantis, flirts with Dr. Beckett. Unfortunately, a Wraith attack ends up leaving Cadman's body dematerialized inside the dart's transporter and her consciousness inside the mind of Rodney McKay. Before she can be separated from McKay, Cadman (inside McKay's body) kisses Dr. Beckett "just in case" the procedure doesn't work. [11] He apparently later pursed a relationship with Cadman, but didn't work out in the end, mainly because their first kiss was through Rodney.[12]
Dr. Beckett has started to develop a gene therapy to turn Wraith into humans by stripping the Iratus' bug DNA from them. When they found a young female Wraith who, it seemed, didn't feed on humans, he revealed to her adopted father the existence of the retrovirus. She overheard them and, wanting to have a life and acceptance as human, stole the not-yet ready retrovirus and injected herself with it. But the retrovirus backfired, and instead of turning her into a human, stripped all humanity from her ("Instinct"). After returning to Atlantis, Dr. Beckett found out she had infected Lt. Col. Sheppard with the retrovirus, which was slowly changing him into an Iratus' bug. In a brainstorming session with his team, Dr. Beckett decided the best way to attack the retrovirus was by using Iratus' bug stem cells to carry the human DNA into Sheppard's body. He went off-world with Dr. McKay, Ronon, Major Lorne and two marines to find the necessary Iratus' bug eggs, but the mission was unsuccessful, as the eggs were surrounded by live Iratus bugs. He later deduced the only person capable of retrieving the eggs was Sheppard himself. He managed to retrieve them and the therapy worked, returning him to normal [13].
This gene therapy is further experimented on using a captured Wraith named Michael. Dr. Beckett is able to turn Michael from a Wraith into a human, but his Wraith memories (and appetites) resurface and he escapes, abandoning the gene therapy. [14] Michael later returns to Atlantis, proposing to use the gene therapy against rival Wraith hives, effectively turning their enemies into food. [15]
[edit] Season 3
Dr. Beckett is again called upon to sit in the Control Chair, this time on Atlantis, after a Wraith hive ship is detected on a course for the city. To everyone's relief (especially Beckett's), the ship is actually the one captured by Sheppard. [16]
Under the guise of a medical evacuation camp on an isolated planet, Dr. Beckett monitors the gene therapy treatment of the Wraith-turned-humans from the captured hive ship. When he discovers that one of the prisoners was murdered, he is confronted by the re-humanized Michael and learns that the camp population is quickly reverting back into Wraith. With a hive ship coming, Beckett is interrogated as to the location of any self-destruct devices set up by Sheppard. However, Sheppard arrives in time to rescue Beckett and (presumably) destroy the camp from orbit using the captured Wraith ship. Although the plan to humanize the Wraith is a failure, Beckett remains torn between his ethical obligations as a doctor and the sometimes extreme measures necessary in war.[16]
After spending an extended period of time off-world with an overbearing, but seemingly harmless, man named Lucius Lavin to see what he might have to trade, Dr. Beckett returns with him to Atlantis completely enthralled. Eventually, with the exception of Sheppard, all members of the Atlantis expedition become literally addicted to Lucius (or rather, the herb he uses as a charming agent), falling over themselves to do his bidding. Sheppard manages to get Beckett to develop an antidote, and uses it to retake control of the city.[17]
In the episode of Sateda Beckett goes on the mission to save Ronon in order to remove the new tracking device from his back. He shows how much he has changed since the beginning of the series as he not only volunteers to go on the mission, he fights with McKay over a gun to go help their friends fight even though he's not a good shot (they finally realized there was more than one gun just before the others contacted them to tell them all the Wraith were already dead). At the end of the episode, after seeing Ronon beat upon badly by a Wraith Commander, Beckett, along with McKay, flew a Jumper down into the streets where the battle was taking place and where he then killed the Wraith with a drone proclaiming "if he doesn't like it he can sue me". Ronon later thanked him and even hugged him and Beckett then removed the tracking device from him before they returned to Atlantis.
While on a mission to locate a missing team, Beckett becomes stranded in a cave with McKay and two wounded soldiers, Kagan and Barroso. He suffers hallucinations caused by a Wraith device that leads him to believe that Kagan is dead but that he can still save Barroso. In reality, it is Barroso who is dead, and Kagan still barely alive.[18]
When the members of the Atlantis expedition were evicted back to Earth by the Ancients, Beckett is given a surgery post at the SGC. He later goes to visit Weir, who has fallen into depression. Taking Weir to dinner with McKay and Sheppard, he is encourgaged by Sheppard to call Cadman. Weir comments that they made a cute couple, but Beckett replies, "It didn't work out - may have something to do with our first kiss being through Rodney." Upon learning that the Asurans have taken control of Atlantis, and that the SGC intends to destroy the city, Beckett joins with Sheppard, Weir, and McKay in hijacking a puddle jumper to return to Atlantis and save the city.[19]
Dr. Beckett is apparently killed during the episode entitled Sunday while attempting to safely dispose of an explosive tumor that he had removed from a patient. His body and personal effects were sent back to his family on Earth and McKay, whom he'd evidently developed a close friendship with, told his mother himself. His spirit later seemed to appear to a devastated McKay to comfort him.
[edit] Season 4
While Dr. Beckett is not a regular character in Season 4, he returns to Stargate Atlantis in the two-part Season 4 episode The Kindred; Carson appears at the end of the first episode, where he is discovered in a holding cell inside a base held by Michael's followers. According to an earlier interview with producer Joe Mallozzi it is Carson Beckett in the flesh, and not a version of Beckett from an alternate universe or from the past. It has also been confirmed that Beckett did not ascend upon his death, meaning that when McKay talked to him at the end of Sunday it was in McKay's imagination.
Mallozzi said that he regretted killing off Dr. Beckett after he saw the fans' reactions, and thought up a way to bring him back. Mallozzi said that there's a 'clue' in a late-Season 3 episode about Beckett.[20]
In the second half of The Kindred it is revealed that the Beckett Michael has been keeping prisoner is a clone of Beckett, created by Michael based on DNA samples he acquired while holding Beckett prisoner during the events of Misbegotten. Although the clone is able to help the Atlantis team escape Michael's clutches, he is suffering from a degenerative cellular condition, forcing the team to put him in stasis when they arrive back on Atlantis until a proper cure can be found. However, they are still able to say goodbye to the clone in a way that they were never able to do with the original Beckett, and they assure him that they will try to find a cure for him.
[edit] Season 5
In a press release [21] on February 5, it was mentioned that Beckett will return for a total of five episodes in season 5, and possibly more episodes.
[edit] References
- ^ "Rising". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Hide and Seek". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Hot Zone". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Poisoning the Well". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "The Storm". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "The Eye". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "The Brotherhood". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "The Gift". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Duet". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Runner". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Duet". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "The Return". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Conversion". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Michael". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Allies". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ a b "Misbegotten". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Irresistible". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "Phantoms". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ "The Return (Part 1)". Stargate Atlantis.
- ^ Saving Carson Beckett » Blog Archive » Exclusive: Carson to Resurface on Atlantis
- ^ SciFi Channel press release
[edit] External links
- Dr. Carson Beckett. Stargate Atlantis official site. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (© 2006). Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
- Beckett, Carson. The Stargate Omnipedia: Characters. GateWorld. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
- Paul McGillion at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
- Save Carson Beckett Fan Campaign to save the character
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