Lifeline (Stargate Atlantis)
"Lifeline" is the second episode of the fourth season, and the 62nd episode overall, of the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis. The episode first aired in the United States on October 5, 2007, on the Sci Fi Channel, and subsequently aired October 16 on Sky One in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive producer Carl Binder, and directed by Martin Wood. The episode is a continuation of the previous episode, "Adrift", following [John John Sheppard (Stargate)|Sheppard (Stargate)|Colonel Sheppard] and his team as they perform a mission to steal a Zero Point Module from the Asurans. It was described by executive producer Joseph Mallozzi as a "big op eppy."
The episode was considered to be somewhat of a send off to Elizabeth Weir. Although Wood was credited for directing, he was occupied with directing the movie Stargate: Continuum, so Andy Mikita did most of the actual directing for the episode. It received slightly lower ratings than "Adrift", but was still well received.
Plot
To ensure the mission to steal a Zero Point Module is a success, Dr. McKay proposes to use Dr. Weir and her nanites to access the Asuran collective and guide them; should the Asurans take her over, McKay would activate a kill switch on the nanites, which would also effectively kill Weir. With their experimental jumper ready, Sheppard leaves Teyla in command of Atlantis. The jumper's hyperdrive works and they arrive over the Asuran homeworld. With Weir's access, Sheppard and Ronon easily steal the Zero Point Module. McKay then finds a code that will cause the Asurans to attack the Wraith and convinces Sheppard to upload a programme to reactivate this dormant code.McKay initiates an anti-Replicator field to protect them from the Asurans, but Oberoth discovers this and sends a wave to override the field. Weir leaves McKay, confronts Oberoth and uses his power to freeze all the Asurans, even tricking him into believing that he has captured the team, all to buy Sheppard enough time to upload the programme. However, Weir struggles to keep Asurans frozen, and when Sheppard finds her just as she loses control, she orders him to leave her behind as the Asurans unfreeze and capture her. The team escapes without Weir, but end up trapped as they lack the power to make it to hyperspace. They are unexpectedly assisted by the Apollo, who have found Atlantis with Colonel Carter's help. The Apollo lays down covering fire long enough for the team to land in the fighter bay and carries them back to Atlantis. However, the Apollo is unable to lock onto Doctor Weir and beam her aboard. Now fully powered, the city moves to M35-117, a back-up planet, by order of Sheppard and makes a rough landing onto its ocean. Whilst the team mourns the loss of Weir, McKay regains contact with Stargate Command. Dr. Zelenka announces that the Asurans have begun their attack against the Wraith, meaning Weir's sacrifice was not in vain. Carter tells Sheppard that they will miss Weir, though Sheppard vows to find her again.
Production
"Lifeline" first surfaced in February 2007. Carl Binder wanted to do a heist episode during the off-season, though the writers had no idea where it would fit in the overall season arc. However, as "Adrift" was written, they realized their heist story flowed naturally from it. Even though Martin Wood was credited for directing the episode, Andy Mikita ended up directing most of it instead, as well as directing parts of "Adrift"; Wood was directing Stargate: Continuum at the time of filming. Amanda Tapping requested that showrunners Mallozzi and Mullie not give her a big part for the episode, as she was in the Arctic filming for Stargate: Continuum. Another reason that Carter's appearance was small was that Torri Higginson was still a part of the show, and the producers wanted Carter to be introduced slowly. The episode, as a "third part", was difficult to write, since the second part is a comeback resolve of the first part, and the third part has to "resolve the resolve." In the writing stages, there was also talk as to whether or not to save the experimental hyperdrive jumper. Eventually it was decided that it would be saved, to keep open the possibility of using it again.Tapping felt acting on the new show went a little easier when filming Carter scenes with Bill Dow, with whom she had previously worked on Stargate SG-1. She said another factor that made acting on Atlantis easier was the welcoming cast and crew of the series. Tapping's hair was longer than it was during her time on SG-1, and the military approved of the change as long as it was worn up. To save money on visual effects, the crew built set pieces to represent some of the buildings on M7R-227 and placed them in front of the puddle jumper set. Another measure taken as a substitute to visual effects was to cast mime artists as the frozen Asurans.
While filming Weir guiding the team to find the ZPM, the fact that she can see "everything" without looking at anything was a hard sell for an actor, but with Higginson's drive in her eyes, this would make the scene more believable for the audience. The scene was not written in the original script. The set for the core room in the Asuran city was the same set as Atlantis' gate room, though in order to make it look as different as possible, the cameras were placed at angles not usually used for filming in the gate room, such as where they would normally place lights.