Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) has his hands full in Common Ground. Written by Ken Cuperus, this episode was first broadcast on 25 August, 2006.

Sheppard is not only captured by the Genii and Kolya (Robert Davi), but finds himself imprisoned alongside a Wraith (Christopher Heyerdahl). Capturing Sheppard is only the first step in Kolya’s plans.

Ladon (Ryan Robbins) of the Genii arrives on Atlantis to talk with Weir (Torri Higginson) and the rest in an attempt to locate Sheppard.

Kolya says he wants Ladon turned over to him. and to help move Weir’s decision along, allows the Wraith to feed on Sheppard. But can the Wraith and Sheppard work together to escape? And even if they work to escape together, can they trust one another? Or will the Wraith feed on Sheppard the first chance he gets?

I quite like this episode, there’s some great character moments with Sheppard. But there is also some wonderful stuff on Atlantis, as we seem the way the team researches and works together. I love watching Flanigan and Davi go toe to toe.

The episode also shows the way the show has grown (again), it continues the Genii arc, something that hasn’t been touched on for awhile and it works incredibly well. It shows that things continue to happen around the Pegasus galaxy, even if Atlantis isn’t involved.

And we see that yes, the Wraith aging can be reversed by the Wraith… We don’t know as much about the Wraith as we thought.

And Kolya? He runs and is still out there somewhere.

McKay and Mrs. Miller was written by Martin Gero, with excerpts by Carl Binder, and debuted on 8 September, 2006. And it welcomes Kate Hewlett to the Stargate universe. Hewlett plays the sister, Jeannie Miller, of McKay (David Hewlett, her real life brother).

She arrives on Atlantis after completing a mathematical proof that could transfer particles to parallel universes. Well, she gets to Atlantis, after a long battle over an NDA, one that causes Carter (Amanda Tapping) to reach out Rodney McKay to come back and deal with this sister.

The pair are so funny together. It helps that they are both accomplished actors, but they are just so great to watch as they play off of each other. The fact that the episode is about family, and actually is cast with family make this one exceptional.

It’s smart, funny, and really lets both the Hewletts shine. And we learn Rodney’s first name is Meredith (Meredith?).

Jeannie is able to look at the wonder of everything the series has introduced to viewers, the ships, the Asgard, Atlantis, and deliver some great moments because of them.

And their work? Well it allows someone from another universe to cross over into ours! And that opens up a whole new can of worms about parallel universes and alternate versions of characters, like Rod Mckay.

But how does Rod McKay get home? And how do they fix the damage they’ve done?

It’s a fun episode, and the Hewletts are perfectly on point in this episode. Love this episode!