Stargate Atlantis
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Stargate Atlantis trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Stargate Atlantis sent a team of soldiers and scientists through the Stargate on a one-way trip to a legendary lost city, far beyond the reach of help from home. Over five seasons the show built its own mythology, its own villains in the life-draining Wraith, and a cast of characters that fans still quote and rewatch. This quiz covers the whole run: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex, the allies and enemies they meet, and the episodes fans return to most, including the guest-star-packed Brain Storm. It also looks at the actors, the familiar faces who dropped in, and the production stories behind the series. The questions suit longtime fans and newer viewers alike. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something about the show.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Jason Momoa, who played the warrior Ronon Dex on Stargate Atlantis, later starred as which DC Comics superhero?
Aquaman
Momoa landed Aquaman after first auditioning to play Batman. He had joined Stargate Atlantis in its second season, after Baywatch: Hawaii and North Shore.
Q 02In the Stargate Atlantis series finale, the flying city splashes down on Earth beside which famous landmark?
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is in sight when the city lands off San Francisco, having flown home on an experimental wormhole drive to stop a Wraith attack on Earth.
Q 03Which TV science presenter appears as himself beside Neil deGrasse Tyson in the Stargate Atlantis episode Brain Storm?
Bill Nye
Bill Nye turns up at a physics unveiling in the episode, and years later he mentioned Rodney McKay by name while guesting on the drama Blindspot.
Q 04Rodney McKay of Stargate Atlantis keeps warning his teammates that he is deathly allergic to which food?
Citrus
Citrus was a producers' in-joke about a crew member who swore he was violently allergic to it, while a local restaurant kept serving him salads containing it with no effect.
Q 05Robert Patrick, the doomed Colonel Sumner of the Stargate Atlantis pilot, played the liquid-metal villain of which film?
Terminator 2
Terminator 2 made Patrick famous as the T-1000, and MGM first announced him for only half of the pilot before his role grew to cover both parts.
Q 06The Stargate Atlantis expedition leaves Earth for a lost city in which galaxy, home of the Wraith?
Pegasus
Pegasus was chosen after the writers moved the city out from under Antarctic ice, so that viewers would not ask why Stargate Command never came to the rescue.
Q 07What nickname does John Sheppard give the small Ancient ships that fly through the Stargate on Stargate Atlantis?
Puddle Jumper
Puddle Jumper bays were almost entirely digital on screen: the crew built just one physical wall with a doorway and created the rest by computer.
Q 08Robert Picardo, Richard Woolsey on Stargate Atlantis, is best known as a holographic doctor on which series?
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager cast Picardo as its Emergency Medical Hologram only after he had first auditioned for the role of Neelix.
Q 09Which Stargate SG-1 regular crosses over to lead the expedition in season four of Stargate Atlantis?
Samantha Carter
Samantha Carter stayed for 14 episodes, which made Amanda Tapping the only actor to appear in the opening credits of both series.
Q 10On Stargate Atlantis, what does ZPM, the Ancient power source the expedition keeps hunting for, stand for?
Zero Point Module
A Zero Point Module supplies the vast energy needed to hold a wormhole open between galaxies, which is why the expedition arrives with no way to dial home.
Q 11Mitch Pileggi, Colonel Caldwell on Stargate Atlantis, spent years as FBI boss Walter Skinner on which series?
The X-Files
The X-Files made Pileggi a familiar face as Skinner; his Atlantis colonel is the Pentagon's pick to run the city's military, a job Sheppard keeps instead.
Q 12Jewel Staite, who joined Stargate Atlantis as a doctor in season three, played Kaylee Frye on which short-lived series?
Firefly
Firefly fans had already seen Staite on Atlantis in season two, when she guest-starred as a Wraith girl named Ellia before the producers gave her a bigger role.
Q 13Stargate Atlantis was filmed on soundstages and nearby glaciers and canyons around which Canadian city?
Vancouver
Q 21The nanite-built Asurans of Stargate Atlantis are usually called by the name of which Stargate SG-1 villains?
Replicators
Replicators in this galaxy were built by the Ancients as a weapon against the Wraith, then abandoned as too dangerous; the survivors built a civilization of their own.
Q 22On Stargate Atlantis, what are the small Wraith fighter craft that beam up fleeing humans called?
Darts
Darts dematerialize the people they scoop up, and one botched rematerialization left a Marine's mind sharing Rodney McKay's body.
Q 23On Stargate Atlantis, what nickname goes to the Wraith who escapes Kolya's jail with John Sheppard and becomes an ally?
Todd
Todd is played by Christopher Heyerdahl, who had earlier appeared in the first season as the Athosian villager Halling.
Vancouver held so much of the franchise's infrastructure that Robert C. Cooper called moving the sets to Los Angeles nearly impossible.
Q 14Before leading the expedition on Stargate Atlantis, Elizabeth Weir made her name in which profession?
Diplomat
Diplomat Weir was first put in charge of Stargate Command by the president to give the secret program a civilian face, then left that post for the expedition.
Q 15What did Jason Momoa cut off after season four, leading Stargate Atlantis to fit him with a $10,000 replacement?
Dreadlocks
Dreadlocks had become Ronon's signature, so the network overruled a plan to cut the character's hair on screen and Momoa wore a custom wig as heavy as the real thing.
Q 16Whose real-life pregnancy was written into season four of Stargate Atlantis as her character Teyla Emmagan's?
Rachel Luttrell
Rachel Luttrell had prepared for Teyla's fight scenes by spending the first season's hiatus training in martial arts with science fiction veteran Ray Park.
Q 17In the Stargate Atlantis episode Brain Storm, a rival of Rodney McKay unveils a machine meant to solve which crisis?
Global warming
Global warming was to be cured by dumping Earth's heat into another universe, an idea borrowed from McKay and his sister, until the machine refused to shut off.
Q 18On Stargate Atlantis, what are people like Ronon Dex called, whom the Wraith tag with trackers and hunt for sport?
Runners
Runners carry a Wraith tracker in their backs; Ronon survived seven years that way before Sheppard's team arranged to have his removed.
Q 19Which people on Stargate Atlantis pose as simple farmers while secretly building atomic bombs in underground bunkers?
The Genii
The Genii hide a militaristic society beneath their fields, and in the first season they invade the city while most of the expedition has evacuated ahead of a huge storm.
Q 20Which Earth battlecruiser, commanded by Colonel Caldwell, arrives just in time to save the city on Stargate Atlantis?
Daedalus
Daedalus ends the expedition's isolation: from the second season, its runs between galaxies give the city semi-regular contact with Earth.
Q 24Which Stargate Atlantis doctor dies in an explosion in season three and later returns as a clone?
Carson Beckett
Carson Beckett's clone was grown by the rogue Wraith Michael from DNA taken while he held the doctor captive.
Q 25Which original Stargate Atlantis team member leaves after an overdose of Wraith enzyme turns one eye black?
Aiden Ford
Aiden Ford was written out because the producers and actor Rainbow Sun Francks agreed the character was underused, which made room for Ronon Dex.
Q 26What rank does John Sheppard hold when Stargate Atlantis begins, before his promotion in season two?
Major
Major Sheppard only took over the city's military because his commanding officer was killed in the pilot; Earth made it official with a promotion in season two.
Q 27David Ogden Stiers, Asuran leader Oberoth on Stargate Atlantis, played Dr. Charles Winchester on which sitcom?
M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H earned Stiers two Emmy nominations; on Atlantis his cold machine ruler refuses any alliance against the Wraith.
Q 28Dr. Radek Zelenka, second only to Rodney McKay on Ancient technology in Stargate Atlantis, is of which nationality?
Czech
Czech scientist Zelenka began as a guest in an early first-season episode and went on to appear in about half of every season, earning actor David Nykl a Leo Award nomination.
Q 29Which Stargate Atlantis star, who plays John Sheppard, also helped devise the stories for Epiphany and Outcast?
Joe Flanigan
Joe Flanigan later tried to revive the show himself, lining up investors to lease the franchise from MGM for a sixth season before the studio's bankruptcy ended the plan.
Q 30Which Stargate Atlantis star arrived on set a day after filming began, his part hastily renamed from a Dr. Ingram?
David Hewlett
David Hewlett had played Rodney McKay as a guest on SG-1, so the pilot script was kept and only the name changed; his real sister Kate later played McKay's sister.