Role in Stargate
Dr. Radek Zelenka is a careful and precise scientist of the original Atlantis Expedition who often supplements the scientific decisions of the "equally brainy" Dr. Rodney McKay, with whom he has a friendly rivalry. He frequently appears in the control room with McKay and the leader of the Atlantis expedition for expository scenes to lay out an episode's premise to the audience, and is "a key player in helping the Atlantis team stay one step ahead of the bad guys as well as solving some of its most perplexing scientific conundrums". GateWorld's David Read felt that while Zelenka may "play second fiddle to Rodney", he is also "the only one who even has the potential to put McKay down." Actor David Nykl explained that Zelenka has "reasonably well honed social skills" and "can put up with a lot of stress and a lot of pressure, particularly from McKay and the situations that he can get into", but he may be too focused and determined to get one thing done.
Zelenka recurs in all five seasons of Stargate Atlantis and is also among the Atlantis characters to appear in the Stargate SG-1 crossover episode "The Pegasus Project". In his first appearance in the early Atlantis season 1 episode "Thirty-Eight Minutes", Zelenka helps devise a plan to free Major Sheppard's team including Dr. McKay from a potentially lethal technical problem. After a first short collaboration in "Suspicion", Zelenka and McKay are the driving forces in finding a solution to protect the city of Atlantis from a massive hurricane in "The Storm".
"Hot Zone" reveals that Zelenka has been given the ATA gene therapy to enable him to operate Ancient technology, but the therapy had no effect on him. Season 2's "Duet" shows Zelenka off-world for the first time, where he needs to save McKay and a soldier from being captured in a Wraith dart. Following a major dispute about an experimental Ancient power generator in "Trinity", McKay apologizes to Zelenka when the experiment causes the death of a scientist. McKay saves Zelenka from certain death in "Tao of Rodney" and later apologizes for so often putting him down, admitting that Zelenka is "a brilliant scientist and a decent human being". Zelenka last appears in the series finale of Atlantis, "Enemy at the Gate", where he implements a wormhole drive that sends the city of Atlantis from the Pegasus Galaxy to Earth within seconds.
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