Carson Beckett

Carson Beckett is stated to have been born in Scotland in a family of seven.[2] His mother, who is mentioned throughout the series, is only briefly shown in "Rising". Beckett was born with the Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) gene, which gives the carrier the ability to access Ancient technology. At the beginning of Stargate Atlantis, Beckett is a doctor with an extended knowledge of medicine and just discovered the Ancient gene. Elizabeth Weir selected him for the Atlantis Expedition and stationed him at the Ancient outpost in Antarctica,[1] where the SG-1 team had defeated the nemesis Anubis in the Stargate SG-1 season seven finale, "Lost City".[3]

While in the Antarctic outpost in the pilot episode "Rising", Dr. Rodney McKay forces Beckett to sit in an Ancient control chair. Beckett's Ancient gene causes him to accidentally activate a drone weapon zeroing on General O'Neill and Major Sheppard's helicopter, but he manages to stop it. After finding and arriving in the city of Atlantis, Beckett examines a severed Wraith arm that Major Sheppard brought back from the planet Athos. Beckett can provide the first information about Wraith physiology[1] and becomes the chief medical officer in Atlantis. In "Hide and Seek", he creates a gene therapy that emulates the ATA gene in normal humans with a 48 percent success rate.[4][5] In "Poisoning the Well", Beckett helps the Hoffans develop a drug that kills the Wraith who feed on humans, but the drug has the side effect of killing 50 percent of the human recipients as well. One of the casualties is Perna, a Hoffan woman he has grown attached to. Carson leaves in disgust when the Hoffans decide to disseminate the drug among their people at all costs.[6] In "The Gift", he discovers that Teyla has Wraith DNA in her genetic makeup, which allows her to tap into the Wraith psychic network in this and future episodes.[7] In the second season, Beckett takes up more offworld activities, including one mission where he removes a Wraith tracker from Ronon Dex's spine in "Runner".[8]

In "Instinct", Beckett develops a retrovirus to turn Wraith into humans by stripping the Iratus DNA from them. After the first subject, a Wraith girl named Ellia, experiences the opposite of the desired effect,[9] he tests a perfected retrovirus on a captured Wraith named Michael. Although the experiment works, Michael discovers his identity and reverts into a Wraith after his escape.[10] In the season two finale, "Allies", Michael contacts Atlantis with a proposal to use the retrovirus against rival Wraith hives, but Beckett realizes Michael's betrayal too late.[11] After Michael's Wraith ships are stopped from getting to Earth in "Misbegotten", the humanized Wraith are transported to an isolated planet (M8G-352), where Beckett teaches them how to administer the retrovirus. However, a group led by Michael realize their true histories and capture him. Beckett is later rescued by his teammates,[12] not knowing that Michael has taken a sample of Beckett's DNA.[13] A group of Ancients evict the expedition from Atlantis in the mid season three two-parter "The Return". Beckett is given a surgery post at Stargate Command (SGC) on Earth, but he and some former expedition teammates return to the city to save it from Asuran siege and imminent destruction by the SGC.[2] In "Sunday", Beckett is killed while attempting to safely dispose an explosive tumor that he had removed from a patient. His body and personal effects are sent back to his family on Earth. McKay, who had developed a close friendship with Beckett, tells Beckett's mother himself. McKay later has a vision of Carson, brought on by his subconscious mind, which gives him the opportunity to say goodbye.[14]

During Beckett's capture on the planet M8G-352 in season 3's "Misbegotten", Michael took some of Beckett's DNA to make a clone. Michael forces the clone to work for him in perfecting the Hoffan drug until Sheppard and Lorne rescue the clone in season 4's "The Kindred", a year after the death of the real Beckett. Although the clone suffers from a degenerative condition that will lead to his death, he insists on helping the team find the pregnant Teyla from Michael's capture. Eventually, Dr. Keller places the clone into stasis until a cure can be found.[13] In season 5's "The Seed", the clone is injected with a cure from Michael's database on M2S-445 and is called upon to help discover a cure for an advancing disease on Keller. Upon completion, he is sent back to Earth.[15] Cloned Beckett briefly returns to Atlantis in "Whispers" to stop a herd of Michael's failed experiments.[16] In "Outsiders", cloned Beckett hopes to make up for the horrible deeds Michael performed using Beckett's research, and he begins to help humans in the Pegasus Galaxy who were infected with the Hoffan plague.[17] In the Atlantis series finale, Beckett flies the city from M35-117 back to Earth to defeat a super Wraith Hive Ship. Beckett pilots the city in battle against the hive ship, but is unable to defeat it. The city is nearly destroyed, but is saved at the last moment when Sheppard manages to destroy the hive ship from the inside with a nuclear weapon. Beckett is forced to land Atlantis, cloaked, outside San Francisco Bay and later stares at the view with the rest of the command staff.[18]

Producer Martin Gero described Carson Beckett as the "older brother" in the Atlantis crew, a "superswell" and "loveable guy" who has a lot of "heart and warmth".[19] McGillion described his character as trepidatious, but Beckett gains more courage throughout the series as he becomes more familiar with his surroundings in Atlantis and offworld.[19] Beckett can fly a Puddle Jumper, albeit reluctantly, and his piloting skills are shown to be flawed at best.[20][21][22] He also despises Stargate travel, and is once compared with the Star Trek character Dr. McCoy.[6] In "Duet", Beckett admits to be somewhat infatuated with Lt. Laura Cadman, who at the time is trapped in McKay's consciousness. When Cadman learns of this, she shares a passionate kiss with Beckett through McKay's body.[23] Beckett and Cadman have an off-screen relationship until season 3; Beckett blames the difficulties of the relationship on their first kiss through McKay.[2] Although McKay often condescends Beckett as he usually does to all his colleagues, McKay considers him a close friend.[14] Martin Gero stated that Beckett and McKay often complement each other in a "wonderful" way. Although they have completely different personalities, they are the "everyday hero guys", and often share their thoughts after saving Atlantis or the galaxy from dire situations.[19] Paul McGillion and David Hewlett (McKay) are also good friends in real life.[19] Despite their personality differences, Beckett and Ronon Dex get along fairly well. In their first meeting, Beckett removed Ronon's tracking device, effectively saving his life. When Ronon is about to be killed by a powerful Wraith, Beckett disobeys Ronon's wishes to let him fight alone and kills the Wraith himself, quipping "if he doesn't like it, he can sue me." Surprisingly, Ronon is grateful to Beckett for his assistance rather than angry. Ronon is later shown to be devastated by the real Beckett's death and admits its hard for him to see the cloned Beckett be forced into stasis to possibly never return.