Stargate Atlantis Season Four News!!

Producers of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate Atlantis told SCI FI
Wire that the upcoming fourth season will add former Firefly cast member Jewel
Staite to the cast as a new doctor. Staite, who also appeared in the Firefly
feature film, Serenity, as well as the short-lived fantasy series Wonderfalls,
will play Dr. Jennifer Keller. She joins Stargate SG-1 cast member Amanda
Tapping, who also joins Atlantis' cast, reprising her role of Col. Samantha
Carter.

Staite is "fabulous," executive producer Robert C. Cooper said in an
interview on the show's Vancouver, Canada, set over the weekend. Other cast members
hinted that Keller may develop a romantic relationship with one of the other
characters and will become friends with Carter.

As for Carter's joining the Atlantis team, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi
said the transition won't go smoothly. For one thing, Carter and Rodney McKay
(David Hewlett) have a history, as fans of SG-1 know well. "There will be a
little friction off the get-go," Mallozzi said. "But they're both adults [about
it]." McKay's unrequited lust for Carter will be addressed, Mallozzi
promised. "That gets touched on very early on."

"The difference between Carter and [Dr.] Weir [Torri Higginson] is that
Carter is in the military," Cooper added. "In fact, when she joins them she's a
full-bird colonel, and she's a superior to [Lt. Col. John] Sheppard [played by
Joe Flanigan], so there's really not much he can say or do; she's his superior
officer."

As for the season's storylines? "In terms of the stories, because we're not
doing 40 episodes a week—we're doing 20 episodes—we can concentrate more on
the individual characters," Mallozzi said. "Each of the characters will have a
story in the front half. We'll be developing a lot more of the overall arcs.
We'll be exploring a bit more of the Replicators and what makes them tick, we'll
be finding out a little bit more about the Wraith as well. That should be
interesting."