Production
Filming of the episode, and the season itself, began on February 18, 2008 at The Bridge Studios in Vancouver. The regular cast of Joe Flanigan (Lt. Col. John Sheppard), Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan), Jason Momoa (Ronon Dex) and David Hewlett (Rodney McKay) would from this point be joined by Jewel Staite (Jennifer Keller) and Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey) as regular cast members. Picardo's character Woolsey replaces Col. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) as commander of the Atlantis Expedition. Tapping's decision to leave Atlantis came after her show Sanctuary was picked up by the U.S. SCI FI channel.
The episode also introduces Captain Alicia Vega (Leela Savasta), who will become a recurring character on the show. Several scenes in "Search and Rescue" were to feature Vega, however, the majority were cut from the final episode. The episode features an appearance by Rainbow Sun Francks as Lt. Aiden Ford, and is his first appearance since Season Two's episode "The Hive".
During the production and writing process, "Search and Rescue" was said to have gone through fourteen different working titles, before finally settling on its final name. Producing the episode also proved expensive, and the visual effect sequence during the introduction where they zoom through space from M2S-445 to Michael was considered to be cut due to the high cost of such a sequence, though since Stargate Atlantis is in good terms with Mark Savela and the visual effects team, the sequence was still produced. During filming, an actual fifteen day-old baby was cast during the scene where Teyla gave birth, since the producers did not wish to follow other TV series and movies, and use a fake baby. The full final version of the episode was leaked to the Internet on June 19, 2008, continuing a trend since Season Two of premiere episodes leaking before their television air date.
The Simpsons trademark "Duff Beer" is mentioned in the episode during the scene where Michael's hybrids are trying to dig Sheppard and Dex out of the debris. Sheppard asks the hybrids whether they would like "Oprah Ale" or "Duff Beer" upon returning to Atlantis; when the hybrids respond that they want Duff, Sheppard is alerted to the fact that they are not from the Atlantis Expedition.
Read more about this topic: Search And Rescue (Stargate Atlantis)
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