When Samantha Carter assumed command of the Atlantis base, she had to get to know a new group of people, including Sheppard, Ronan and Teyla. She already knew Rodney McKay (David Hewlett), who first appeared back in Stargate: SG-1 in the season five episode 48 Hours, and who had done several guest spots since, before going on to star full-time in Stargate: Atlantis. But while Amanda Tapping, who plays Carter, had worked with David Hewlett before, there was also another Atlantis cast member with whom she had acted with previously: Mitch Pileggi. Pileggi, who stars in Atlantis as Colonel Steven Caldwell, the commander of the earth battleship Daedalus, is probably best known for his previous role as Assistant Director Walter Skinner on The X-Files.

Back in 1996, long before Stargate: SG-1 had even started, Amanda Tapping had guest-starred on The X-Files (which, at that time, also filmed in Vancouver, B.C.--where Stargate would eventually film). In the third season episode Avatar, she played Carina Sayles, a woman whom Skinner, despondent over his impending divorce, picks up in a bar one night. After a tumble in the sack, Skinner wakes up to find Sayles dead, her head twisted around a full 180 degrees. Ouch! Stargate fans beware: Tapping spends the better part of the episode--including all of her scenes with X-Files stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson--as a corpse in the morgue. She's alive only in the first five minute teaser that airs before the opening credits.