Enemy at the Gate

"Enemy at the Gate" is the 100th and final episode of the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis. The episode aired on January 9, 2009 on the Sci Fi Channel in the United States, and on January 13, 2009 on Sky1 in the United Kingdom. Written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie as their fifth and final script in the fifth season, "Enemy at the Gate" was produced as the nineteenth episode of the season and was directed by Andy Mikita. It is dedicated to Don S. Davis (Stargate SG-1 George Hammond), who died from a heart attack in 2008. "Enemy at the Gate" involves a Wraith plan to significantly upgrade a Hive Ship by integrating it with stolen Zero Point Modules from Asurans, and picks up a weak transmission from Earth from an alternate reality ("Vegas"), alerting the ship to Earth's location. Plot "Todd" (Christopher Heyerdahl) informs Atlantis that a group of Wraith have multiple ZPMs and they plan to use one of them to power a new super Hive Ship. "Todd" urges the expedition to destroy it, but when the team reaches the hive, they realize that the ZPM has already made the ship far more powerful than expected, and causes significant damage to Daedalus before jumping into hyperspace. The team then finds out that the Hive has picked up a subspace transmission from the alternate reality depicted in "Vegas", giving the Wraith the location of Earth. Earth sends Apollo and Sun Tzu to stop them, but the two ships are quickly disabled. Lt. Col. Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) gates to Earth and warns Carter (Amanda Tapping) of the situation. However, before their plan of fitting nukes on the F-302s is complete, they discover that the ship has already arrived, and is sending a large squadron of darts, which perform a kamikaze run into Area 51, destroying the Antarctic Ancient control chair, and ZPM losing hope of using the Antarctic drone weapons against the ship. Sheppard, however, plans on using his F-302 to break into the Hive, where he might detonate a nuclear weapon destroying the Hive from within. Meanwhile, Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion) returns and flies the city to Earth, after finding more ZPMs from "Todd". However, the stardrive shuts down just as they approach the Milky Way. Zelenka (David Nykl) is able to implement a "wormhole drive", which sends the city to Earth within seconds.