To gather some Ancient intel on the Sangraal and Morgan le Fay, SG-1 heads to Atlantis. While in the Pegasus Galaxy, SG-1 and the Atlantis team hatch a seemingly impossible plan: use a space Stargate and a black hole to barricade the Ori’s Pegasus Supergate and prevent the entry of more Ori ships into the Pegasus Galaxy. Sam, Mitchell, Teal’c, Rodney, and the Odyssey take up the job.
This was the first full team-up between the casts of SG-1 and Atlantis, and it was totally worth the wait. For a team-up, this episode’s conflict is surprisingly restrained. It’s mainly driven by tension rather than action. The main plot, where the Odyssey tries to work out their complex plan to block an Ori supergate, is where all the fun is. With that being said, the plan itself is admittedly kind of insane, but the Stargate franchise is no stranger to believable, if not plausible, insanity when it comes to its scenarios.
When it comes to the Ori and the Wraith showing up in the same episode, we only see their ships—nothing more. The Wraith mainly serve as an obstacle for the Odyssey to overcome. The fanboy in me would’ve loved to see the Wraith and the Ori battle each other in person, but I understand fully why Brad Wright chose a more restrained approach: it keeps the conflict in focus to avoid any possible continuity butterfly effects that might arise from both races clashing. While other franchises such as Marvel, DC, and Kingdom Hearts are much heavier on interconnected continuity with casual ease, I like this separation of stories in the same universe because it makes each series easier to follow.
The parts where Daniel and Vala are researching the Holo Room for any connections to Morgan le Fay can feel a little slow at times, even if the quick quips between the two are enough to satiate it. It only gets interesting once they manage to actually contact Morgan le Fay. Its execution is unpredictable in a fittingly satisfying way. (Notwithstanding the usual Ancients’ non-interference policy—don’t we all just love that?) For what it’s worth, it reflects back on Stargate Atlantis by additionally enriching the lore of that series.
The interactions between both casts suit their characters very well, as SG-1 and the Atlantis team’s reactions to each are all, very much, consistently in character. It’s always thrilling to see how everyone on SG-1 (especially Sam) is still annoyed by Rodney, or how Sheppard and Mitchell see eye to eye with each other, or just Vala being genuinely amazed by how massive the city is. Although Teyla, Ronon, and Dr. Beckett are sadly absent for this, there’s only so much fanservice you can cram in without it feeling either forced or overstuffed. Same thing goes for Teal’c staking out on an Al’kesh for the entire episode; again, his crucial role in the episode is prioritized over, say, a meeting with Ronon. (Which we thankfully got in “Midway”—and that was worth it.) It helps that both shows had the exact same production staff, so the two series slip into each other so naturally well.
It may be lenient on the fanservice, but “The Pegasus Project” is still a worthy team-up between SG-1 and Atlantis. It makes the smart choice of favoring plot over fanservice, and the characters’ interactions still fit seamlessly into each other. When writing this episode, Brad Wright clearly understood that maintaining a separation between each show’s storyline was important so as not to disrupt either narrative. As far as I’m concerned, he succeeded.
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