Why did they get rid of Carson and Weir?

[The Dark Destroyer]

I know a lot of Atlantis fans are annoyed at the fact the writers wrote out Carson and Weir. I happen to be one of those fans. However, I still really enjoy watching the series anyway. At any rate, I was just wondering why the writers decided to remove them from the series. Neither of the actors wanted to leave. When they killed off Beckett the writers said that they needed to kill off a character so that people wouldn't think the team was invulnerable. However, they didn't kill anyone off from SG1(with the exception of them dieing and coming back to life in the same episode) until the end of season five, and that was only because Michael Shanks wanted to leave. And not only did they Kill off Carson but a few episodes later they killed off Weir too. They wouldn't need to kill off two characters in a row if they were just trying to make the audience feel that Atlantis wasn't going to come out of every jeopardy unscathed. I know they probably had several reasons for wanting to cut out Weir and they may have had more reasons for cutting out Carson than they let on. Maybe they didn't think enough people liked Weir but I know Carson had a lot of fans. She wasn't my favorite character but I was accustomed to her being in charge of Atlantis and I really liked the chemistry between her and Sheppard. But I was thinking that maybe one of the reasons they cut her out was so they could bring Carter over. As I said I wish they didn't get rid of them but I still really enjoy watching the show. What do the rest of you guys think on the matter and why do you think they wrote them out of the script?

[ponycake]

Personally I think the idea of killing off Carson and Weir to add 'realism and jeapordy' was a public relations spin to appease fans, especially for a series that's never exactly been big on arcs or realism.

My guess is that Amanda Tapping and Jewel Staite have some clout and name recognition in the sci fi world and they were brought in to bump up ratings and that it was perhaps more of a financial rather than necessarily a creative decision. Obviously I'm merely guessing and I could be wrong, but I think the removal of those two characters were to pave the way for the new additions and it would have been rather undiplomatic of TPTB to have come out and announced the change in cast that way. Hence the spin.

[Falcon Horus]

I believe the first reason given for killing Carson was to shake things up. Can't remember exactly why Weir was being removed from command at the end of First Strike (in a manner of speaking) but I'm sure it's around somewhere.

I'll see if I can dig something up about it.

[maxbo]

Personally I think the idea of killing off Carson and Weir to add 'realism and jeapordy' was a public relations spin to appease fans, especially for a series that's never exactly been big on arcs or realism.

My guess is that Amanda Tapping and Jewel Staite have some clout and name recognition in the sci fi world and they were brought in to bump up ratings and that it was perhaps more of a financial rather than necessarily a creative decision. Obviously I'm merely guessing and I could be wrong, but I think the removal of those two characters were to pave the way for the new additions and it would have been rather undiplomatic of TPTB to have come out and announced the change in cast that way. Hence the spin.

I agree. Despite the various official reasons for killing off Carson and Elizabeth, I also believe that the real reason was because they wanted bring in JS and AT because they thought JS and AT would bring in some of the Firefly and SG-1 fans. Of course, being on the outside looking in, we can't know for sure, but I base my opinion on the fact that they wrote Sam practically the same way they wrote Elizabeth, so it was obvious to me that they didn't make that change for fresh storyline reasons.

As for the Carson to Keller switch, they never seemed to plan out the Keller character beyond their desire to add JS to the cast because Keller just never made sense as a character to me. The only development they gave her was whatever they had cannibalized from the other characters. For instance, she was given a version of Carson's anti-virus storyline, a version of Teyla's hand-to-hand combat ability and, they even tried to give her a version of Rodney's snark at times. And, in First Contact we even saw an attempt to make it appear that she knew more about strategy against the Wraith than Ronon did.

Instead of plotting out how to create a realistic, well-rounded character, they wanted to create a well-liked character and took the lazy way out by giving Keller storylines and character traits that had worked for the more popular characters. Based on their interviews on this subject, they remain stunned to this day that their plan didn't work. Amazing.

[berryblade]

I agree. Despite the various official reasons for killing off Carson and Elizabeth, I also believe that the real reason was because they wanted bring in JS and AT because they thought JS and AT would bring in some of the Firefly and SG-1 fans. Of course, being on the outside looking in, we can't know for sure, but I base my opinion on the fact that they wrote Sam practically the same way they wrote Elizabeth, so it was obvious to me that they didn't make that change for fresh storyline reasons.

As for the Carson to Keller switch, they never seemed to plan out the Keller character beyond their desire to add JS to the cast because Keller just never made sense as a character to me. The only development they gave her was whatever they had cannibalized from the other characters. For instance, she was given a version of Carson's anti-virus storyline, a version of Teyla's hand-to-hand combat ability and, they even tried to give her a version of Rodney's snark at times. And, in First Contact we even saw an attempt to make it appear that she knew more about strategy against the Wraith than Ronon did.

Instead of plotting out how to create a realistic, well-rounded character, they wanted to create a well-liked character and took the lazy way out by giving Keller storylines and character traits that had worked for the more popular characters. Based on their interviews on this subject, they remain stunned to this day that their plan didn't work. Amazing.

Agreed wholeheartedly.

[Aer'ki]

I agree. Despite the various official reasons for killing off Carson and Elizabeth, I also believe that the real reason was because they wanted bring in JS and AT because they thought JS and AT would bring in some of the Firefly and SG-1 fans. Of course, being on the outside looking in, we can't know for sure, but I base my opinion on the fact that they wrote Sam practically the same way they wrote Elizabeth, so it was obvious to me that they didn't make that change for fresh storyline reasons.

As for the Carson to Keller switch, they never seemed to plan out the Keller character beyond their desire to add JS to the cast because Keller just never made sense as a character to me. The only development they gave her was whatever they had cannibalized from the other characters. For instance, she was given a version of Carson's anti-virus storyline, a version of Teyla's hand-to-hand combat ability and, they even tried to give her a version of Rodney's snark at times. And, in First Contact we even saw an attempt to make it appear that she knew more about strategy against the Wraith than Ronon did.

Instead of plotting out how to create a realistic, well-rounded character, they wanted to create a well-liked character and took the lazy way out by giving Keller storylines and character traits that had worked for the more popular characters. Based on their interviews on this subject, they remain stunned to this day that their plan didn't work. Amazing.

I think this is the real reason here. Also, it's not just them. They have inserted characters from other series in order to 'steal' fans and bump up the ratings by association rather than by quality writing.

Woolsey came from Star Trek. Lam came from Andromeda. Mitchel and Vala came from Farscape.

See the pattern?

[fumblesmcstupid]

I never liked Firefly so I wasn't a fan. Plus I had NO IDEA who Jewell Staite was. So I was like BFD...then Keller came in and I couldn't believe the stuff they had her doing. I have NEVER disliked a character as MUCH as I do Keller.....I like T-bag from "Prison Break" way better than Keller.

On the other hand I know who Amanda was so I was excited about her coming over...NOT how they did it However, It was crappy the way Torri was treated as well as Paul.

Hey we're ganna kill ya...but we'll bring ya back as a clone and a replicator and make ya EVEN more useless than you were before *sarcasm*

[puddlejumperOZ]

Hollywood politics...it happens all the time, and the producers never really consider the fans. But having said that, Ben and Claudia in SG1 was a good move, they weren't replacements as more additions as RDA had already moved on personally.

[Alan Wake]

You have to clean the sore out for it to heal...

[AK89]

Weir was killed off because Amanda Tapping had a 2 year contract with the franchise and after SG-1 went down she had to be put somewhere. Sure there was probly a way to make her coexist with Weir but it was just easier to put her in charge, as much as I missed Elizabeth.

[Ben 'Teal'c would WIN!!' Noble]

Why kill carson to just bring him back next season as CLONE!!!
why not, for exaple he decides to leave atlantis and help the people of the pegasas galaxy just like the CLONE did in season 5. This way they can still bring JS in as the new head of medcine.

[Tobyisking]

Like they said to add realism and jeopardy adding Jewel Staite to the cast was a big mistake to me i liked amanda tapping but keller was soooo annoying to me i loved beckett so maybe that is why i am biased.