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| Race | Tau'ri/Asuran hybrid (present) Tau'ri, (past) |
| Home planet | Earth |
| Date of birth | October 14, 1970 [1] |
| Rank | Doctor |
| Allegiances | Atlantis expedition, (formerly) Stargate Command (formerly) |
| Appearances | Elizabeth Weir - List of Appearances |
| Actor | Jessica Steen, Torri Higginson, Michelle Morgan, Holly Dignard (Old Weir) |
- "I've heard of her. She's, um, an expert in international politics. She, er, she mediates top level negotiations for the UN. I actually referenced some of her work when I drafted the first treaty with the Tok'ra."
- —Daniel Jackson
Elizabeth Weir was an American diplomat, the first civilian commander of Stargate Command and the original commander of the Atlantis expedition in the Pegasus Galaxy.
Biography[]
Background information[]
Before becoming involved with the Stargate program, Weir was a skilled civilian diplomat who worked behind the scenes in the U.S. government for several years. An expert in international politics, Weir was well-known for mediating for the United Nations. She brokered a dozen of the most sensitive international accords in modern history. She has two Ph.D.s, taught political science at Georgetown University, served in embassies all over the world and speaks five languages, including Russian and Latin. Though she began her career as a political activist lobbying against government spending on the military, she later decided to change things from the inside and entered the realm of government. She concluded that the best way to stop weapons proliferation was to try and end the need for them. Dr. Daniel Jackson referenced her work while drafting the Tau'ri-Tok'ra Treaty. (SG1: "Lost City, Part 1", "Lost City, Part 2")
2004[]
| File:Stargate Command Logo.jpg Commanders of Stargate Command |
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Maj. Gen. George S. Hammond (1997-2000) Maj. Gen. Henry Bauer (2000) Maj. Gen. George S. Hammond (2000-2004) Dr. Elizabeth Weir (2004) Brig. Gen. Jonathan J. O'Neill (2004-2005) Maj. Gen. Henry Landry (2005-20??)
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She was handpicked by President Henry Hayes to replace Major General George S. Hammond at Stargate Command, as part of his restructuring of the program. Hayes indicated that her diplomatic background, and ideological problems with the military, would make her both an effective leader of the SGC and a suitable public face for the program if and when it was made public. Vice President Robert Kinsey also attempted to manipulate Weir as part of his own agenda, and the circumstances of her arrival led some members of SG-1 initially to distrust her. She allowed Colonel Jack O'Neill to go to Proclarush Taonas in search of the Lost City of the Ancients. In the ensuing confrontation with Anubis, however, she rebuffed Kinsey and made a good impression on the staff at the SGC, and seems to have struck a very quick friendship with Dr. Jackson. (SG1: "Lost City, Part 1", "Lost City, Part 2")
For most of her tenure, travel through the Stargate was discontinued as part of Hayes's reorganization, though Major Samantha Carter did convince Weir to authorize a mission to the Othala galaxy using a recovered Goa'uld Tel'tak, so that Carter and Teal'c could seek help from the Asgard in saving the life of Colonel Jack O'Neill. Shortly afterward, the System Lords contacted Stargate Command for help in defeating Ba'al; Weir and Dr. Daniel Jackson entered into negotiations with them. In order to prevent the System Lords from suspecting Earth's vulnerability, she attempted to stall the talks, to the point of demanding Ba'al's territory in exchange for helping defeat him. The attempt failed, but she did grant political asylum to Camulus, whose domain had already been destroyed and released Yu and Amaterasu. After SG-1 returned from saving O'Neill, she informed him that she would be transferring to the Antarctic outpost as leader of the Atlantis expedition and that he was being promoted to Brigadier General and commander of the SGC. (SG1: "New Order, Part 1", "New Order, Part 2")
Weir soon departed Stargate Command to focus on negotiations over the Ancient outpost in Antarctica, eventually organizing an expedition team to explore the lost city of Atlantis. It was at her insistence that then-Major John Sheppard was included, due to his particular affinity for using Ancient technology. (ATL: "Rising")
 Commanders of the Atlantis expedition |
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| Dr. Elizabeth Weir (2004-2007) Col. Samantha Carter (2007-2008) |
2005[]
When Weir departed for Atlantis, she left behind her fiancé, Simon Wallis. She was forced to end the relationship for good when she found that she was stranded indefinitely in the Pegasus Galaxy. She later discovered that he had indeed "moved on" when she returned to Earth several months later. (ATL: "Letters from Pegasus", "The Intruder")
2006[]
At first, Weir retained the strong backing of the International Oversight Advisory that oversaw the Atlantis expedition, to the point where she bluntly overruled the United States Air Force's attempt to replace Major John Sheppard as the expedition's military commander, forcing them to promote him instead. However, once regular communication with Atlantis became possible, the Air Force and IOA began to demand an increasingly larger role in the city's management and operation, especially after a failed alliance with one Wraith faction allowed a pair of Hive Ships to learn the location of Earth. Though Weir managed to coordinated an attack that stopped the ships just outside the Pegasus galaxy, she was recalled by the IOA to answer in person for the situation. Interestingly, she seemed to develop a stronger relationship with the SGC's military commander, Major General Henry Landry, partly as a result.(ATL: "Trinity", "No Man's Land")
When SG-1 came to Atlantis to implement a plan by using a Stargate next to a Pegasus black hole to dial to the Supergate in the Milky Way, to prevent more Ori motherships from getting through, she was briefed on the plan and allowed Dr. Rodney McKay to join them. She stayed on Atlantis and help Dr. Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran search the Atlantis database in the Holo room. When Dr. Radek Zelenka detected a Wraith Hive Ship heading toward the Odyssey, she contacted Stargate Command to have them relay a message to Teal'c at the Supergate. When she returned to the Holo room, she didn't believe that the hologram was actually Morgan Le Fay until Chuck informed her that the room was not using power. She, Daniel and Vala questioned her and she was about to tell them the location of the Sangraal but the Others stopped her. (ATL: "The Pegasus Project")
In the Atlantis expedition's third year, they encountered the Asurans, a form of Human-form Replicators created by the Ancients to better combat the Wraith, but who possessed a violent hatred of humans. Weir was infected with nanites, which for a time imprisoned her within her own mind, causing her to believe that her time on Atlantis was only a false memory. Though she eventually overcame the experience and the nanites were shut down, they remained within her system. (ATL: "Progeny", "The Real World")
After a group of Ancients took up residence in the city again and asked the expedition to leave, she had difficulty moving on after her experiences, ultimately attempting to write a memoir of her experiences, mostly for herself, she admitted, as few would likely be able to read it. When she heard about this attack she joined the team that went to stop it herself in order to save the city she called home and like the rest of the team, played in major role in the destruction of the Asurans inhabiting it. (ATL: "The Return, Part 1", "The Return, Part 2")
2007[]
When the Asurans launched an attack that forced the Atlantis expedition to move Atlantis, Weir was seriously injured and suffered brain damage as a result. Dr. Rodney McKay used the deactivated nanites in her system to repair the damage. This had the side effect of allowing her to interface directly with the replicator collective; as a result, she accompanied Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team on a mission to gather a Zero Point Module from Asuras, but the team discovered a code that would cause the Asurans to attack the Wraith. Weir managed to delay the Asurans, but Oberoth, their leader, physically grabbed her. Weir ordered Sheppard to take the team out, and she was left behind. According to a Replicator version of Dr. Jennifer Keller, Weir was subsequently killed because Oberoth deemed her too great a threat. (ATL: "First Strike", "Adrift", "Lifeline", "This Mortal Coil")
2008[]
It was revealed that she was not in fact killed but somehow became a member or leader of a group of Asurans that left the main group. Weir believes that with the Asurans dead, they can implement their plan without having to look over their shoulders anymore. (ATL: "Be All My Sins Remember'd")
Weir, in the body of FRAN.
Elizabeth floating in space.
It was revealed that her group was in fact what was left of Niam's group that was seeking ascension. There were only nine left including Elizabeth. She and her group digitally ascended, but became trapped. In a desperate attempt to regain physical form she hitched a ride along with Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's and his team on a Puddle Jumper. She took control over the Atlantis computer systems and eventually used the city's technology to build herself a new body, albeit one that looks like FRAN. She explained that she was never killed but was turned into a full Replicator when she was captured. Her human self remained despite being a Replicator and it was only detected by the members of Niam's group. That group ended up on the run until the other Replicators were destroyed in the Battle of Asuras. She summoned the others in the hopes of them being able to build themselves new bodies with the same technology that gave her one and ultimately proposed that the Replicators build themselves human bodies to live in. When Koracen goes rogue and tried to escape, she saved Sheppard from him and killed Koracen. She believed that the Asurans were now too much of a threat and helped the team trick the Replicators through the Stargate to a space gate, leaving all of the remaining Replicators, herself included, trapped and effectively neutralized. (ATL: "Ghost in the Machine")
2009[]
After McKay is turned into a Wraith, Dust tells him of Weir who the Wraith see as a great Queen they name She Who Is A Strong Place. While telling McKay, now known as Quicksilver of Weir's actions, Dust expresses admiration for her strength.
Weir later appears in McKay's dreams where he's walking through Atlantis and heading towards the Control Room to see the dialing address. As McKay tries to get to the consoles, Weir blocks him and tells him he's dreaming and must wake up. After waking up, McKay tells Dust of the encounter and recognizes who Weir is despite having supposedly never met her before. He also has the sense that Weir was forbidding him from seeing the consoles despite standing quietly by.
McKay later has a second dream of himself and Weir in the SGC and questions why he keeps dreaming her. Weir tells McKay that he dreams her because he wants to and causes the Stargate in the dream to open. Weir tells McKay that he has to go through that Stargate alone and Weir asks him if he remembers what happened the first time she was infected with Replicator nanites and asks him where he believes the Stargate to go. McKay questions why Weir can't come with him and she tells him that its because he's not dead, only sleeping. When asked if she is dead, Weir simply hints at her Ascension by telling him to ask Doctor Jackson about it and urging him once more to step through the Stargate. Before McKay can however, he wakes up. McKay is disturbed by his dreams of Weir and tries to put them out of his mind. (SGA: "The Lost")
McKay once more dreams of himself in the SGC where he accesses the dialing computer. Weir joins him in the dream again and urges him not do it despite his insistence that he has to go home, telling McKay that its a very bad idea. As McKay finds his way into a system that's not the Stargate at all in the dream, Weir clarifies that this is what he wants then makes them appear before the Stargate. After commenting that she should probably say something cryptic but finds it pointless, Weir makes people appear in the SGC control room in the dream and the Stargate to dial with McKay trapped in front of it before disappearing. After the Stargate vaporizes him in the dream with its unstable vortex, McKay awakens remembering several things, including how to make shields for Wraith ships and his backdoors into the systems of Atlantis. (SGA: "Legacy: Allegiance")
2010[]
Eventually, she boarded a Traveler ship, traveling to a rendezvous with the Durant, another Traveler ship that could get her to Sateda. On the Durant, she became the assistant of the doctor of the ship, Dekaas. Later, in another dream, Elizabeth had a vision of Ran, who asked her for help. She disembarked on a mining planet, where she used the Stargate to travel to Sateda. After a few days there, she was encountered by Major Evan Lorne and Dr. Radek Zelenka, as her memories of them returned. Sheppard and his team made their way to Sateda to confirm she was the real Elizabeth Weir, but soon after they were attacked by a Vanir scout ship, who took Ronon and Elizabeth. McKay managed to incapacitate the Vanir ship with a Puddle jumper, preventing their escape, but the ships crashed. Elizabeth and Ronon were recovered from stasis pods with Daniel Jackson's knowledge of the language, and one Vanir remained alive. With Atlantis in lockdown due to an alien infection, Elizabeth suggested bringing Dekaas over. Although he was at a loss for what to do, he recognized the Vanir architecture from a structure on a Traveler outpost; deciding to look for Vanir medical equipment there, the group left Sateda. (SGA: "Unascended")
On the planet, the group run into Todd and his Hive-Ship confronting a Traveler ship about the identity of Wolf. Once he was revealed to be Aiden Ford, Elizabeth suggested that as a compromise to Todd's demands for justice, Ford would be "exiled" back to Earth. Resolving the situation, and with the Vanir Dis healed, it was revealed they wanted to deascend Ran, an ascended Asgard, to use her genetic material to make the Asgard a viable race once again; that was the reason they captured Weir. She, although appalled, asked Dis if they attempted to contact Ran. Deciding that it was their best chance to resolve this peacefully, Elizabeth, Sheppard, Jackson, McKay, Teyla, Ford and his family, with the Vanir Dis, travelled to the Milky Way galaxy on a Vanir ship, going to Earth to find a Shrine to commune with the Ancients, per Jackson's idea.
Succeeding, Ran went with Dis while Elizabeth was taken to the SGC, where she was welcomed by General Landry. Later she was debriefed by Landry, General O'Neill and Richard Woolsey. With the IOA considering her a security risk for Earth, it was decided that she was to return to Atlantis until such time that tests proved her to be the real Elizabeth Weir and not a Replicator. Upon her return to the City of the Ancestors, she was given a warm welcome by the expedition on the gate room as she settled for life back on Atlantis for the time being. (SGA: "The Third Path")
Although allowed to rejoin the expedition while her status is determined by the IOA, Elizabeth was not restored to command and instead began working under Sheppard, the current interim leader of the expedition. Elizabeth assisted Sheppard's team during a crisis with the Genii and the squid-like aliens that inhabit the frozen planet Atlantis landed on. Elizabeth and Sheppard came into some conflict during the situation due to their change in roles, but Elizabeth reassured him that she didn't blame Sheppard for anything that happened or him being in charge despite finding it frustrating that she no longer had the authority to play things her way. However, Elizabeth admitted to being proud of helping shape Sheppard into the leader he became and promised to follow his orders exactly as much as he had followed hers. (SGA: "From the Depths")
Alternate timeline[]
Elizabeth is alone in Atlantis
In an alternate timeline, Alternate Elizabeth Weir's expedition team was killed when the shield around Alternate Atlantis collapsed. Alternate Weir, along with Alternate Major John Sheppard and Alternate Dr. Radek Zelenka, managed to board a Puddle Jumper, but were thrown back in time to the siege of Atlantis by the Wraith. Alternate Sheppard and Alternate Zelenka were killed when the Jumper they were in crashed. Alternate Weir was healed by Janus, who built the time machine, and later secured her an audience with the Ancient Council, asking them to allow her to travel back to her time with a Zero Point Module that would prevent Atlantis from being flooded. While Melia was sympathetic to her plight, High Counselor Moros refused, fearing for the timeline, and offered her a chance to return to Earth with the Lanteans. Instead, Janus calculated that three ZPMs rotated sequentially would allow the city to survive ten thousand years. Janus programed a stasis pod for Weir to use, as well as included a Failsafe mechanism into the city. Janus told Moros that Weir went through the Stargate, when in fact she stayed behind. Every 3,300 years, Weir would awaken to rotate the ZPMs. Ten thousand years later, Weir was revived by the Atlantis expedition—ironically, on her own birthday—and told her story to them. However, she was already weak, and died by day's end. Elizabeth Weir poured her ashes over the city in a pot that Alternate Major John Sheppard had gotten her that day. (ATL: "Before I Sleep")
Relationships[]
Simon Wallis[]
Before leaving for Atlantis, Weir was engaged to Dr. Simon Wallis. She left him a goodbye video before she left and told him to move on with his life in a video created before the siege by the Wraith. After returning to Earth, she attempted to convince him to come to Atlantis but he declined because he had met someone else. (ATL: "Rising", "Letters from Pegasus", "The Intruder")
John Sheppard[]
Although she initially only recruited Major John Sheppard for his powerful Ancient Technology Activation gene, Elizabeth came to greatly respect John's abilities as a soldier, particularly after he single-handedly saved Atlantis from a Genii invasion. When Colonel Dillon Everett arrived to take command of Atlantis following Earth's discovery of a new Zero Point Module and the news of the approaching Wraith Hive Ships, it was Sheppard who convinced Everett to keep Elizabeth in the loop if he wanted to maintain the support of the rest of the city. Elizabeth reciprocated this respect by insisting Sheppard be promoted to Lt. Colonel rather than allow someone else to take command of Atlantis. Elizabeth continued to visit Sheppard even after he began to mutate into a Wraith-like creature following his confrontation with Ellia and the mutated Iratus bug retrovirus, Sheppard reciprocating this compassion by risking his life to try and urge her to keep fighting after she was infected by Asuran nanites during her encounter with Niam. Sheppard was clearly deeply affected by Elizabeth's loss when he was forced to leave her behind on Asuras, and his grief when he learned that she was dead- having first heard a second-hand account from the Organic Asuran duplicates of his team and subsequently witnessing her return and sacrifice to defeat the remaining Asurans- was particularly pronounced, hinting at the strong bond between them that was never given the chance to develop into something more. (ATL: "Rising", "The Eye", "The Siege, Part 2", "The Intruder", "Conversion", "The Real World", "Lifeline", "This Mortal Coil", "Ghost in the Machine")
Behind the scenes[]
Dr. Elizabeth Weir played by Jessica Steen.
- Weir was originally played by Jessica Steen in the Season 7 finale, but was soon replaced by Torri Higginson by Season 8 and Stargate: Atlantis.
- Torri was originally contracted to appear as a regular for six years. However, she was later given a recurring status after only three years.
- When Weir was declared dead, Torri Higginson had been contracted for four episodes of Season 4. As of This Mortal Coil, she had only appeared in three episodes. This led to speculation that Weir was still alive, a theory given credence by Joseph Mallozzi, who mentioned on his blog that RepliKeller may have been lying.[2] Confirmed deaths turning into survivals are nothing new to the Stargate franchise (the various deaths of Dr. Daniel Jackson and Apophis being prime examples). Since Weir appeared on the next episode, it is probable that RepliKeller was working for her all along and lied at her command.
References[]
- ↑ Stargate SG-1: The DVD Collection 51
- ↑ Joseph Mallozzi's blog
External links[]
- Dr. Elizabeth Weir on the official MGM website.
- Elizabeth Weir on the official Syfy website.
- Elizabeth Weir in Kathleen Ritter's Lexicon.
- GateWorld's article on Elizabeth Weir in The Stargate Omnipedia
- Stargate SG-1 Solutions' article on Elizabeth Weir in The StargateWiki
- Elizabeth Weir on Wikipedia
| Preceded by George S. Hammond |
Commander of Stargate Command 2004 |
Succeeded by Jonathan J. O'Neill |
| Preceded by New office |
Commander of the Atlantis expedition 2004-2007 |
Succeeded by Samantha Carter |