John Sheppard (Stargate)

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Stargate character
Major John Sheppard
Lt. Colonel John Sheppard
John Sheppard
Race Human
ATA Natural carrier
Gender Male
Rank Major (Atlantis Episode 1.01-2.02)
Lieutenant Colonel (Atlantis Episode 2.02-present)
Birthplace US, Earth
Relatives Patrick Sheppard (father, deceased)
David Sheppard (brother)
Nancy (ex-wife)
Portrayer Joe Flanigan
First appearance "Rising"
Key episodes Conversion
Common Ground
Travelers
Outcast

Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard is a United States Air Force officer played by Joe Flanigan in the television series Stargate Atlantis.

Contents

[edit] Events

[edit] Season 1

John Sheppard is an experienced and talented pilot in the US Air Force, though his reputation was somewhat tarnished when he disobeyed a direct order in Afghanistan in an unsuccessful attempt to save the lives of several servicemen. He has experience flying AH-1 Cobra, AH-64 Apache, OH-58 Kiowa, UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. He requested a remote post at McMurdo Station. When called upon to transport General Jack O'Neill to the research base that had been established at the nearby Ancient defense facility, he inadvertently discovered that he not only had the ATA gene (the genetic factor necessary to activate Ancient technology), but that he was naturally proficient at using it. After some doubts, he finally joined the expedition to Atlantis, although Col. Marshall Sumner made it clear he was not pleased about Sheppard's involvement in the mission.

After they discovered that the shield protecting the underwater city of Atlantis was about to collapse, he joined the mission team searching for a new power source on Athos on Dr. Weir's orders. He made a better impression on the Athosian leader, Teyla, than Sumner and she showed him a cave with old carvings that explained the history of the Wraith attack many generations ago. When the Wraith attacked the Athosian settlement, Teyla saved him, but was scooped herself by a Wraith Dart. Sheppard successfully evacuated the Athosian refugees to Atlantis, just seconds before the power to Atlantis' shield was set to fail and collapse. Fortunately a fail safe mechanism caused the city to rise to the surface, saving the Stargate team and Athosian refugees. After a discussion with Dr. Weir, he led a rescue mission to save the captured Earth personnel and the Athosians. After infiltrating the Wraith hive ship, he found Colonel Sumner near death at the hands of the Wraith Keeper, and killed his superior officer to spare him from more suffering. He was then captured by the Wraith, but Lt. Aiden Ford arrived in time to save him from the same fate. Sheppard then killed the Wraith Keeper, thus awakening all the other hungry Wraith that were sleeping. After some fancy flying with the Puddle Jumper, he, the Earth personnel and the rescued Athosians returned safely to Atlantis.[1]

Aside from being the ranking military officer, Sheppard leads an exploration team that consisted of Dr. Rodney McKay, Lt. Aiden Ford and Teyla Emmagan. Sheppard's relaxed commanding style often put him at odds with his more by the book chief of security, Sgt. Bates, until a beating by a Wraith forced Bates to return to Earth.[2]

After McKay acquired the ATA gene, Sheppard helped him test an invulnerability shield device by shooting Rodney in the leg and throwing him off a balcony. Afterwards, when Jinto unknowingly let loose an energy creature, he tried to capture it, but the creature did not fall into the trap.[3]

On a later mission, Sheppard was bitten by an Iratus bug that was slowly draining him. His puddle jumper got stuck in the Stargate when the pods failed to retract correctly, and the only way to get the bug off of him turned out to be to stop his heart with a defibrillator. It worked, but they could not get his heart started again. Teyla took him to the event horizon of the Stargate, which effectively "froze" him in time until the jumper was able to get through it. Once in the other side, Dr. Beckett and his team managed to restart his heart.[4]

He fought the invading Genii single-handedly to save McKay, Weir and the city of Atlantis. He took out several of them before Ford, Beckett and Teyla arrived to help. When the Genii dialed to get more people in Atlantis, he raised the Stargate's shield, killing more than fifty Genii soldiers at once. When Kolya took Weir as a hostage as he fled the city, Sheppard shot him in the shoulder. Kolya let go of Weir and fell through the event horizon.[5][6]

They later learned Kolya survived, when he captured them while they were trying to find the location of a ZPM. While trying to solve a puzzle, Sheppard revealed that he took the Mensa exam and passed, though for unknown reasons he never joined the organization.[7]

During the Wraith attack on Atlantis, Sheppard lost command of the military after the arrival of Colonel Dillon Everett from Earth. Everett was a good friend of Colonel Sumner and was hostile to Sheppard because of Sumner's death. During the first wave of the attack, Sheppard sat on the control chair and used the remaining drones to help fight the darts off. After the drones ran out, McKay and Zelenka tried to link the chair to the puddle jumpers, so the chair could be used to pilot them remotely to deliver Genii-made nuclear bombs inside the Wraith hive ships. As the time ran out, the chair failed to work and Sheppard decided to pilot the jumper himself on a suicide mission.[8]

[edit] Season 2

Major Sheppard was saved by the timely arrival of the Daedalus, which transported him out of the puddle jumper seconds before it exploded. After the Daedalus destroyed the remaining hive ship, Sheppard returned to Atlantis, where a Wraith-aged Col. Everett told him that now he understood what happened with Col. Sumner and that he wished Sheppard would have been there for him.

When Dr. McKay and Dr. Zelenka discovered twelve more hive ships were traveling through hyperspace to Atlantis, he proposed to use the Daedalus to attack them before they arrived, and Weir agreed. They took two hive ships out, but they were forced to retreat. Once the new hive ships arrived at Atlantis, Sheppard had the idea (thanks to a comment from Dr. Zelenka) to make the city disappear so the Wraith would leave thinking it had been destroyed. McKay and Zelenka were able to implement the plan, and this time it worked. After Ford(who, due to an accidental overdose of Wraith enzyme, had become dangerously erratic) escaped from the infirmary, Sheppard tracked him down and shot him with a Wraith stunner but was unable to stop him, and Ford fled through the Stargate.[9]

After securing Atlantis, the Daedalus took Sheppard, Weir, McKay and Beckett back to Earth to report. General Hank Landry implied to Weir that the Pentagon wanted to make Col. Steven Caldwell as the Atlantis expedition military commander, but Weir informed them that Atlantis already had a military commander, John Sheppard. When they stated that Sheppard was just a Major with a questionable record, she told them they could solve that problem -- with the President and the International Oversight Committee on her side, Sheppard was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and instated as official military component commander of the Atlantis expedition. This annoyed Col. Caldwell, who had sought the leadership position.[10]

On the voyage back to Atlantis, the Daedalus was infected by a Wraith computer virus, which made the ship send a distress signal they couldn't stop. Sheppard used a F-302 fighter to destroy the transmitter array, but the virus had control of the plane and they had to transport him out. Later, when McKay figured out that the virus was using the computers of the F-302 fighters to store itself to prevent removal from the system, Sheppard and McKay had to physically remove all memory units from the fighters. The virus tried to decompress the fighter bay to kill them, but they boarded one F-302 to survive. When another system reset still failed to clear the virus, Sheppard deduced that the virus was using the hard drive of the F-302 he was beamed out of earlier, which has been tailing them. He took the stripped F-302 out, with McKay in the back seat, and managed to destroy the infected fighter after some fancy flying.[10]

Soon thereafter, Major Lorne's team discovered Lt. Ford's whereabouts. When they arrived on the planet, Sheppard and Teyla were taken by a mysterious man called Ronon Dex, a Runner, who had an implant which allowed the Wraith to stalk him. After they offered to have Dr. Beckett remove the tracking device, Dex agreed to assist them in finding Ford in return. Ronon returned to Atlantis with them[11] and, after seeing him sweep the floor with the Marines and pass the shooting range without even blinking, Sheppard offered him a place on his team.[12]

After their first try at reactivating Project Arcturus went wrong, Sheppard backed McKay to return to the project, after McKay asked Sheppard to trust him. McKay failed spectacularly, and 5/6ths of a solar system was destroyed as a result. McKay later told Sheppard he hoped he could earn his trust back and Sheppard answered that it might take a while, but that he was sure Rodney could do it if he really wanted to.[13] Sheppard and his team travelled through an orbiting Stargate to a planet unused to visitors, where they found a young female Wraith who, it seemed, did not feed on humans, as she had been raised by a human herbologist as his own daughter. Wanting acceptance among the humans, she stole Dr. Beckett's not-yet ready retrovirus which, instead of turning her into a human, stripped all humanity from her. Sheppard fought and killed her, but not before she infected him with the retrovirus.[14] Upon his return to Atlantis, they discovered that the retrovirus had begun to change Sheppard into a humanoid Iratus bug. As the mutation progressed, his strength and stamina increased, his skin started to change, his eyes became yellow with slitted pupils, and he gained the ability to crawl up walls.

Sheppard was confined to his rooms but, when Dr. Weir visited him, the heavily-mutated Sheppard attacked her and escaped. After a chase, Ronon finally stopped him; Sheppard was then returned to the infirmary, restrained, and sedated while the team continued to research a cure. Dr. Beckett deduced that Iratus eggs were the only hope, and moreover, due to physiological makeup, Sheppard was the only one who could retrieve them. He was awakened to go with a team to the planet. He managed to retrieve the eggs before the retroviral inhibitor Beckett gave him lost effect. The treatment worked, and he returned to normal in two weeks.[15]

The Atlantis team found an Ancient ship, the Aurora, with all the crew in suspended animation. They were too old to survive outside of the stasis pods, but Dr. McKay discovered that they were living in a virtual reality. Sheppard entered a stasis pod and accessed the virtual reality in order to try to discover the information about a Wraith Achilles' heel the ship had been carrying back to Atlantis. However, the crew was unaware that they were in a virtual reality, and did not believe him. Meanwhile, Teyla discovered that a Wraith had infiltrated the VR system. Sheppard was finally able to convince the captain of the Aurora of the truth of their situation, but the Wraith infiltrator had succeeded in destroying the intelligence data. As two Wraith cruisers were on their way to intercept the ship, the captain gave Sheppard the ship's auto-destruct code. Once safely onboard the Daedaulus, the Aurora exploded, destroying the Wraith cruisers.[16]

Soon afterwards, Sheppard and his team were captured during a mission by Lt. Ford and a band of fellow Wraith enzyme addicts he had gathered. Ford wanted them to recognize the Wraith enzyme as an asset, and proceeded to dose Teyla, McKay and Ronon with it, leaving Sheppard clean as a control. Ford planned to use a captured Wraith dart to infiltrate a hive ship and destroy it, and he needed McKay to fix the dart and Sheppard to fly it. Sheppard convinced McKay to go along with the plan, telling him that once they were aboard the dart they would escape to Atlantis. But Ford foiled his plan by breaking his promise and leaving McKay behind on the planet. Sheppard was forced to fly the dart, with Teyla, Ronon, Ford and some of Ford's men dematerialized inside. Once the dart arrived near the hive ship, however, an automatic pilot took control to get them inside and rematerialized the people. Two of Ford's men fell into the void because the platform was too narrow, and Ford did not believe that Sheppard hadn't done it on purpose.

The mission quickly went wrong and they were all captured.[17] Sheppard was brought in front of the Wraith Queen, but the interrogation was interrupted by the emergence of a second hive ship from hyperspace before she could get any information out of him. Sheppard and his teammates managed to escape their cell, freeing a captured woman, Neera, from a cocoon on the way, but they were then recaptured. Sheppard and Neera were placed in a cell together, and Sheppard became suspicious of her after she began questioning him. His suspicions were proven correct after he was again brought in front of the Wraith Queen, who revealed to him that Neera and her people were Wraith worshippers, whose lives where spared in exchange for service. Ford rescued him, but remained behind to cover his escape. After sweeping Teyla and Ronon up with the dart again, he fled the hive ship. Outside, he attacked the other hive ship, making the two ships believe that the other was firing on them and causing them to destroy themselves. The team returned to Atlantis, and despite the destruction, Sheppard was sure they would see Ford again.[18]

Soon after, while looking for the source of an energy spike, they found a cave whose entrance was protected by a kind of force field. Sheppard moved towards the field, that pulled him in and into the cave. Strangely, nobody followed him but some time later he received a bag with provisions. They did not last long and some days later, angry and hungry, he decided to move away from the cave. He got hurt while saving a man, Avrid, from a strange energy Beast. He woke up in Avrid's home being cared for by his sisters, Teer and Hedda, and he learned all the people in the Sanctuary were working for Ascension and that there was no way out. Six months passed for him before the rest of his team, plus Beckett and Weir, arrived, but it only have been a couple of hours for them, since Sanctuary was really a time dilation field constructed by the Ancients to help people looking for Ascension. The Beast was a manifestation of the Cloister's people fears and Sheppard's example finally prompted them to confront it. Once vanquished, they were able to finally Ascend. Teer offered John to accompany them, but he refused. She told him, however, that they will keep the time dilation field open until they left.[19]

When an accident trapped Dr. McKay underwater in a broken Puddlejumper, Col. Sheppard and Dr. Zelenka took another Puddle Jumper down to help him. Sheppard convinced Zelenka to change the Jumper's cloak into a shield that would allow them to stand the high underwater pressions. The mission was a success and they rescued McKay safely.[20]

When Michael, the Wraith turned human turned Wraith again, approached Atlantis with an offer of information in exchange of Dr. Beckett's retrovirus, Atlantis reluctantly agreed. It turned out to be a trap, and Sheppard was forced again to pilot a F-302 against a hive ship. When the two hive ships went into hyperspace, John disappeared with them.

[edit] Season 3

John managed to use the 302 docking clamps to attach himself to a Hive ship. With Michael's help, he damaged the hive ship's hyperspace engines and boarded it to rescue McKay and Ronon. They boarded a Wraith transport and communicated with the Daedalus, which beamed them onboard. The Daedalus was severely damaged, however, and they were forced to use Dr. Beckett's retrovirus to turn the Wraith into humans and take over their hive ship.[21]

They used the hive ship to get back to Atlantis and decided to settle the amnesiac former Wraith into an uninhabited planet. When they returned to the planet, they discovered that some of the humans were turning back into Wraith and he ordered McKay to fire on the planet, using the Hive ship's energy weapons to destroy them. They were forced into battle by another hive ship, and theirs was destroyed (it is not clear what happened to the other ship), but they managed to save themselves using a Puddle jumper, and they were rescued by the Daedalus.[22]

When Sheppard met Cameron Mitchell of SG-1, he passed on his advice for dealing with Rodney McKay. He handed Mitchell a lemon, saying that McKay is fatally allergic to citrus, and works best under threat of impending death.[23]

Soon afterwards, Sheppard's team found a man named Lucius that everyone in his world adored, but they found obnoxious. Strangely, Dr. Beckett took Lucius back to Atlantis and soon everyone in the city fell under Lucius' charm. John revisited Lucius' planet and discovered he was using some kind of drug that makes the user generate a kind of pheremone that makes people want to please him. Having a cold, John himself was immune to it, but for that he was distrusted by everyone else. John kidnapped Beckett and took him away from Lucius' enchanting personality. Ronan, Teyla, and Rodney went after John and a now clear-headed Beckett who managed to create an antidote for the drug. John kept Lucius in a Jumper away from Atlantis while Beckett inoculated everyone on the city. After returning Lucius to his planet, John suddenly turned to Rodney and said "Hey, buddy, I'd better get back and clean your quarters before the next scout." before trotting away, making it obvious that McKay took some of the drug himself. Weir, Beckett, Teyla and Ronon immediately told Rodney to burn it all.[24] John's reaction to this was not shown.

John was later captured by Acastus Kolya, who wanted to exchange him for new Genii leader Ladon Radim. Kolya tortured Sheppard by allowing a starved Wraith to feed upon him. John later made a deal with the Wraith to escape. The Wraith initially drained him, but later, keeping his word, gave him the "Gift of Life" which is typically reserved for devout Wraith worshippers and "Brother" Wraith, returning him to his correct age and health, though McKay insisted that he appeared even younger than before. John repaid the Wraith by returning him to a Wraith occupied world so he can return home. Sheppard also sent a warning to Kolya: if they ever met again, Sheppard would kill him on sight.[25] And later, he kills Kolya by himself.

While testing a new "Gate bridge" that McKay and Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter came up with to accelerate transportation between Pegasus and the Milky Way, an Ancient ship was located, filled with living Ancients who reclaim Atlantis. With the expedition disbanded, Sheppard is assigned as the leader of an SG team. When General O'Neill sends a message to Stargate Command telling them that the Asurans have taken control of Atlantis, Sheppard, Weir, McKay and Beckett hijack a puddle jumper and travel back to the Pegasus via the Gate Bridge. Tracking down Teyla and Ronon, the newly reunited team succeeds in rescue O'Neill, Richard Woolsey, and Atlantis.[26]

Later, both Sheppard and McKay make close contact with a species of whale indigenous to the Lantea - later discovered to have been named Flagisalis by the ancients - having spotted one from afar. It turns out that the whales emit a combination of EM field and a low frequency pulse, which, when subjected to both, is harmful to humans. This discovery leads to them finding out that it is an attempt by the whales to communicate that a massive solar flare will destroy all life on the planet. With this information the rest of the team figure out a way to spare the planet its fate.[27]

Upon their second encounter with Lucius Lavin, Sheppard is a crucial factor in thwarting an attack by exiled Genii against the town Lucius is supposedly 'protecting' - thanks to an Ancient personal shield. During this encounter, he ends his long feud with Acastus Kolya when he outdraws him in a duel and shoots him in the heart.[28] He later helps Rodney prepare for possible Ascension - as he is apparently the best qualified, thanks to his time spent with the Ancients.[19] His first attempt isn't successful at all, with Rodney giving up halfway through; his second is slightly more so. Their third collaboration results in his achieving the desired level of brain activity, with Sheppard becoming visibly moved by the situation. Rodney survives, however, and their relationship continues normally.[29]

Subsequently it is revealed that Sheppard has been playing 'The Game' with McKay for two years; having left the name of his country - Hallona - the same, and encouraging them to build up their military, in opposition to McKay renaming his nation and encouraging technological advancement. When it is discovered that the game is in fact an Ancient social experiment, both McKay and Sheppard have an attack of morals and attempt to undo their bringing the two nations to the brink of war - to no avail. They eventually trick the two leaders; convincing them that war would be both futile and costly, with Weir subsequently ordering them to cease using the experiment.[30]

Sheppard then is involved in the discovery of a space-station housed within a hollowed out moon, and subsequently crashing-landing part of the station into the planet it is in orbit about.[31] After being involved in the events of Sunday[32], John is visibly affected by the death of Carson Beckett, though not quite as broken up as McKay.

In the season finale, he used his ancient gene to fly Atlantis out of Lantea when after a preemptive strike against the replicators, the replicators launched a satellite with a stargate in it that fired a sustained beam on Atlantis. When it became apparent that it was unstoppable, they decide to fly the city to a new location. They had to disable the shield briefly so he could get off the ground faster and a piece of debris from Lantea's destroyed second moon was used to stop the beam from reaching Atlantis. However, the beam made it through and grazed the tower, which Sheppard was unaware of, because he was busy launching the city into hyperspace. He was shocked to discover that Dr. Weir was critically injured by the beam and was more stunned when the city dropped out of hyperspace way too early and they have no idea where they are.[33]

[edit] Season 4

In the episode Adrift, Sheppard is forced to take command of Atlantis, since Weir is in a coma due to injuries she sustained after Atlantis is grazed by the Replicator's beam. Despite Sheppard's explicit orders to the contrary, McKay reactivates the Replicator nanites in Weir's blood. Sheppard is forced to put this aside as Atlantis' power reaches critical levels. McKay suggests that they use a Jumper that he had fitted with an experimental hyperdrive to go to Asuras and steal a ZPM from the Replicators.

He sends McKay, Ronon and also Weir, now that she's part replicator, as she could get to the Replicator network. He leaves Teyla to lead the expedition and if they're not back in 12 hours, she should fly the city to a planet, but the city may not survive. They fly to Asuras and quickly stole a ZPM, however, McKay learns that he could reactivate the code for the replicators to attack the Wraith. After completing it, Weir discovers that Oberoth is coming and she temporarily stops him, however, Oberoth eventually overpowers Weir and Sheppard reluctantly has to leave without her. He flies the Jumper into space but the cloak is down and McKay needs more time to get the ZPM interfaced to get the hyperdrive back online. Unfortunately they are attacked by an Asuran Warship but before it can destroy them the Apollo arrives having finally found Atlantis and he lands the Jumper on board before the ship jumps to hyperspace. After Atlantis makes the jump to M35-117, its new home world, he lands the city on the surface of the ocean rather roughly and later tells Carter that he's not going to give up on finding Doctor Weir.

In the episode Doppelganger he touched a live crystal-like lifeform, and was thrown back by the energy. After he was cleared, he unknowingly passed on energy to Teyla. She suffered a nightmare in which Sheppard turned into a Wraith and fed on her. The energy passed on from one team member to another and started to get quite serious (Major Lorne holds Sheppard at gunpoint, accusing him of being a Replicator and it even results in the death of an expedition member). They discover that Sheppard is feeding on their fear in the dreams. When McKay got the energy, Sheppard tries to get into McKay's dream by VR and stop the evil Sheppard, but fails and McKay is eaten alive by a Whale like creature. However, this was a ruse and McKay is actually alive, while evil Sheppard is invading John's dream. They both fight, but evil Sheppard gets the upper hand because he says "I'm the one you fear the most." McKay gets into Sheppard's dream and stops evil Sheppard by Dr. Keller giving Sheppard an electric shock, which weakens the entity and Sheppard tosses it through the Stargate in his mind, causing it to abandon him and go back into the crystal, which is connected to his head through leads to give it the option of going back. In the end he was up all night with the rest of his team because they were too afraid to sleep.

In Travelers he ends up kidnapped by a woman named Larrin, the leader of a race of humans called the Travelers, who wants to use him to reactivate a damaged Lantean battlecruiser. He manages to knock out the crew but is recaptured. Due to an attack from a Wraith Cruiser, a direct result of the signal he sent in hopes of alerting the Atlantis team as to his location, Sheppard is released and destroys the enemy ship, but after dealing with four Wraith that got on board, he is stunned and reimprisoned by Larrin. Before she takes the ship to hyperspace, he manages to convince her to release him and she sets him adrift in his damaged Puddle Jumper where he reunites in space with Lorne, McKay, Teyla and Ronon who came to rescue him after following a signal he sent out in Morse Code while he had control of the battleship.

In Tabula Rasa he becomes infected with a common Pegasus Galaxy illness along with the rest of the Atlantis crew. Teyla and Ronon are immune as they are not from the Milky Way Galaxy but the rest of the expedition starts to lose their memories and some even die of the illness, which can't be contained despite their best efforts. Ultimately he learns of a cure from Teyla that the Athosians derived from a common Pegasus plant that is found on most worlds, and he travels to the planet's mainland with Ronon to attempt to find some of the plant. He loses his memory and is stunned by Ronon and tied up but while Ronon searches for the plant, he manages to get himself free and gets his hands on a gun. When Ronon returns after having successfully found the plant he confronts him but Ronon manages to convince him that he is a friend, so Sheppard stands down and flies them back to Atlantis where the two are confronted by the cities irrational soldiers led by Major Lorne. Thankfully Ronon knew of a backup plan enacted by Lorne and Sheppard in case both lost their memories and tells Lorne to look in his pocket, where he finds a picture of Sheppard with a note at the bottom identifying Sheppard as his superior officer. Lorne and his men stand down and Sheppard defers to Ronon's authority, as he's the only one who knows what to do, and together they bring the plants to Teyla. Sheppard wakes up in the infirmary a few days later to learn that Teyla spread the cure through the base's ventilation system in time to save most of the personnel but the illness hit some harder than others and that was why he was out for so long. He recovers along with everyone else that survived from the illness.

In the episode Miller's Crossing, he tried and succeeded in convincing McKay's kidnapper, Henry Wallace, to sacrifice his life force so the Wraith that was helping Rodney solve the nanite equations could feed. He is afterward consumed by guilt and tries to rationalize his actions by saying that he merely presented a situation and that in the end, it was Wallace's decision. Although Rodney doesn't approve of what Sheppard did, he supports him and tries to help him deal with the guilt.

[edit] Alternate timelines

There are two known alternate-timeline versions of Sheppard:

  • In the episode "Before I Sleep", John Sheppard piloted the timeship that brought the alternate Weir ten thousand years into the past, and was accidentally responsible for the timeshift. He and Dr. Zelenka died after the ship crashed in the ocean near Atlantis due to an attack by a Wraith Dart. Only Weir survived.[34]
  • In the episode McKay and Mrs. Miller, the alternate Rodney McKay known as "Rod" describes Sheppard's counterpart in his universe as a member of Mensa and a know-it-all who makes the main timeline's Dr. McKay look humble in comparison. This Sheppard came up with the plan to send Rod to the main timeline.

[edit] Personality

John is one of the more laid-back, easy-going personalities on the Atlantis Expedition. He is capable under pressure, an excellent marksman, and outstanding pilot. In fact, he frequently claims to be able to fly anything, and invariably proved his claims correct when, at one point, he flew a Wraith Dart with little to no practice. He is very instinctual - perhaps why he is such a good pilot - and frequently is able to come up with ingenious solutions to complicated problems. Some put this ability down to his being a closet mathematical genius, despite little to no scientific training. But despite this, he tends to be relatively humble - being able to accept that sometimes there isn't anything he can do to help with the current problem, and leaving it up to more capable minds.

Despite being a Lieutenant Colonel, he has an easy rapport with most of the people in Atlantis - including the military personnel that are below him in terms of rank. He is good friends with both Teyla and Ronon, and grudgingly admits that he loves McKay "in the way a friend feels about another friend".[29] And despite occasional clashes with Elizabeth Weir early on (due to their differing viewpoints), they have developed a strong and respectful friendship due, in no small part, to their parallel leadership roles on the Expedition. In the episode "Doppelganger," it was revealed that the thing he is most afraid of is himself, as well as failing to protect his friends. Though he is a some-what incurable flirt, he has not yet been shown in an actually relationship. However, it was recently revealed that Sheppard has an ex-wife named Nancy (Kari Wührer).[32][35]

He is in possession of a rather wry sense of humour, and frequently alleviates tension by telling jokes to keep spirits up - much to the annoyance of McKay. He enjoys ferris wheels, American football and 'anything that goes faster than 200 miles an hour', along with displaying a vague aptitude for Chess - beating McKay on at least one occasion, once again to McKay's chagrin.[30]

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Sheppard is a fan of Johnny Cash.
  • Sheppard is afraid of Clowns.
  • Sheppard has an obsession with Ferris Wheels, mentioning them frequently throughout the series.
  • Sheppard is an avid golf player.
  • Sheppard and Rodney McKay are the only characters to appear in every episode of the series thus far.
  • Sheppard brought a guitar with him to Atlantis, which he presumably can play [36]
  • Sheppard turned down a membership offer from Mensa.

[edit] References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  1. ^ "Rising". Stargate Atlantis.
  2. ^ "The Siege, Part 1". Stargate Atlantis.
  3. ^ "Hide and Seek". Stargate Atlantis.
  4. ^ "Thirty-eight Minutes". Stargate Atlantis.
  5. ^ "The Storm". Stargate Atlantis.
  6. ^ "The Eye". Stargate Atlantis.
  7. ^ "The Brotherhood". Stargate Atlantis.
  8. ^ "The Siege, Part 2". Stargate Atlantis.
  9. ^ "The Siege, Part 3". Stargate Atlantis.
  10. ^ a b "The Intruder". Stargate Atlantis.
  11. ^ "Runner". Stargate Atlantis.
  12. ^ "Duet". Stargate Atlantis.
  13. ^ "Trinity". Stargate Atlantis.
  14. ^ "Instinct". Stargate Atlantis.
  15. ^ "Conversion". Stargate Atlantis.
  16. ^ "Aurora". Stargate Atlantis.
  17. ^ "The Lost Boys". Stargate Atlantis.
  18. ^ "The Hive". Stargate Atlantis.
  19. ^ a b "Epiphany". Stargate Atlantis.
  20. ^ "Grace Under Pressure". Stargate Atlantis.
  21. ^ "No Man's Land". Stargate Atlantis.
  22. ^ "Misbegotten". Stargate Atlantis.
  23. ^ "The Pegasus Project". Stargate SG-1.
  24. ^ "Irresistible". Stargate Atlantis.
  25. ^ "Common Ground". Stargate Atlantis.
  26. ^ "The Return". Stargate Atlantis.
  27. ^ "Echoes". Stargate Atlantis.
  28. ^ "Irresponsible". Stargate Atlantis.
  29. ^ a b "Tao of Rodney". Stargate Atlantis.
  30. ^ a b "The Game". Stargate Atlantis.
  31. ^ "The Ark". Stargate Atlantis.
  32. ^ a b "Sunday". Stargate Atlantis.
  33. ^ "First Strike". Stargate Atlantis.
  34. ^ "Before I Sleep". Stargate Atlantis.
  35. ^ "Outcast". Stargate Atlantis.
  36. ^ "Sanctuary". Stargate Atlantis.

[edit] External links

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