Joe Mallozzi, executive producer of Stargate Atlantis, told reporters that the show will be expanding the Pegasus galaxy with a new, technologically advanced race known as the Travelers.
"Just coming into the fourth season, one of the things that we felt that Atlantis kind of lacked that SG-1 had was technologically advanced races," Mallozzi said in a press conference in Vancouver, Canada. "Because, unlike in the Milky Way galaxy, in the Pegasus galaxy, as soon as a civilization attained a certain level of technological development, the Wraith would come in and wipe them out. So we created this race that we call the Travelers."
Mallozzi explained that the race is made up of nomads who have incorporated technology from many different worlds following the destruction of their own planet. "They go from planet to planet and just scavenge civilizations that have been razed by the Wraith," he said. "And we created a specific look for their ship, which looked like it was assembled together from various parts of different other ships, and it has a very sort of rustic, very cool look. A lot more like the Nostromo [from the film Alien] than the Enterprise, with clean lines."
David Hewlett, who plays Dr. Rodney McKay on the show, added that his character refers to the Travelers at one point as "hot leather aliens."
According to Mallozzi, the new race will be introduced in an episode early in the upcoming season and may be recurring throughout the year. Mallozzi also ruled out any appearances by familiar villains from SG-1. "In terms of the bigger story elements, like the Ori and the Goa'uld, I don't think we want to go there," he said. "Just because Atlantis has fairly well established its own burgeoning mythology with the Wraith and the human-form replicators, I don't think we want to go there right now." Stargate Atlantis returns with all-new episodes later this year. —Cindy White
