Hot Zone is episode 13 of season 1 of Stargate Atlantis, first aired in 2004.
An exploration team brings back an invisible passenger: a nanovirus that kills in a few hours, hallucinations first, hemorrhage next. The city seals itself off in a chaotic quarantine while McKay looks for a countermeasure, and as the death toll climbs, so does the question: what if these microscopic machines weren't a disease, but a weapon designed to kill only humans?
Why it matters to the mythology
The nanovirus probes the shadowy corners of the Ancients' war: someone, long ago, built weapons that sort their victims.
The review
The series' best contagion episode: death heralded by visions, each person seeing their nightmare before the hemorrhage, adds a layer of psychological horror to the quarantine clock. The Weir-Sheppard clash over the chain of command, the city's first real crisis of authority, gives the episode its dramatic backbone. And a nuclear explosion used as an electromagnetic pulse remains a deliciously McKay solution. Tense from start to finish.
Written by Sebastian
Founder and editor-in-chief of Stargate Initiative
Gallery · 5
Stills from the episode, via TMDb.
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