"Lost City" is the two-part finale to the seventh season of the science fiction television show Stargate SG-1. The episode was written by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, with Martin Wood directing. The first part originally premiered on October 2, 2003, with the second part showing a week later on October 9, 2003 on Sky One in the United Kingdom. SciFi Channel in the United States then aired part one on October 12, 2003 and part two on October 19, 2003.

"Lost City" was originally conceived as a Stargate SG-1 feature film, with Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper first discussing the project in 2001. As it developed, it was reimagined as a finale to Stargate SG-1 and the beginning of spin-off series Stargate Atlantis. Ultimately, with the knowledge that SG-1 would return for an eighth season, the story was shaped into both a season seven finale as well as informing parts of the Atlantis pilot, "Rising".

The episode had the largest budget since SG-1's pilot, "Children of the Gods". In February 2002, he elaborated that Robert C. Cooper was writing the script with him, with the intent to present it to MGM. Wright also revealed that Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), who at that point had left the show was included in the story. In June 2002, Wright revealed that they had submitted their first draft of the script and that the feature film would bridge the end of SG-1 and a new spinoff series called Stargate Atlantis. Later that year, Richard Dean Anderson noted that MGM had instead decided to pursue a sixth season of SG-1, with the hope that it would raise both the interest and capital to produce the feature film. Anderson, who was further reducing his working days on SG-1 also conveyed his interest in being a part of the feature film.

As well as setting up the Atlantis spinoff, Cooper wanted the feature to conclude SG-1, completing their search for the Lost City of the Ancients, which had been introduced the season prior, as well as wrapping up the Anubis arc and revealing the Stargate program to the public.

Wright and Cooper's original, far longer feature script was 120 pages, which meant reducing it to fit within the two hour slot. Revealing the Stargate program to the public of Earth was one of the most significant redactions to the story. Both the feature film and earlier version of the television script would have featured an action sequence involving SG-1 parachuting from the Cargo ship in Antarctica to reach the Ancient outpost below. The writers and producers kept this the sequence in the script until one of the final drafts, but ultimately had to cut it due to the cost.

Cast

William Devane, who had made his first appearance in the episode prior, returns as the newly elected President Henry Hayes, with James McDaniel also returning from the previous instalment as General Francis Maynard.

Jessica Steen was cast in the role of Dr. Elizabeth Weir, a role that the producers intended to carry over to the upcoming spinoff series, Stargate Atlantis. Cooper commented that he found it challenging writing Weir's character, as she was an antagonist in the story, "dethroning Hammond, and threatening the role of SG-1", but they wanted her to be a character that the audience would ultimately embrace and want to see in the spin-off series.

The then real world Air Force Chief of Staff, General John P. Jumper was asked to appear in the episode. Jumper had originally been slated to appear the season prior, after taking over the role from Michael E. Ryan who had also appeared on the show, but was unable to make it to Vancouver due to the Iraq War. Originally appearing in three scenes set in The White House, Jumper was given additional scenes and dialog by the producers. Because of his position, Jumper was not paid for his role, with Air Force film coordinator Doug Thar remarking that Jumper had "a great time", joking that "he's not going to give up his day job". Members of the cast and crew were invited to dinner with Jumper and his wife during their stay in Vancouver.

Showrunner and writer Robert C. Cooper felt that Richard Dean Anderson really embraced his transformation in the episode. Cooper had previously written the season 2 episode "The Fifth Race", where, as with the premise of "Lost City", O'Neill has the repository of the Ancients downloaded into his brain. Cooper felt that Anderson didn't previously enjoy it and was very reluctant when it came to speaking the Ancient language, but this time he took it much further.

Anubis' commanding Jaffa, Her'ak played by Michael Adamthwaite makes his finale appearance on the show. Adamthwaite joked that he would skip to the end of the script every time he was asked to return to the role, anticipating that he would meet his demise. Reoccurring guest stars Tony Amendola, Ronny Cox, David Palffy, Gary Jones return for the episode, as Bra'tac, Vice President Robert Kinsey, Anubis, and Walter Harriman respectively. The shows long-time military consultant & advisor Ron Blecker made his first onscreen appearance as a member of the SG-3.

Sci-Fi Channel ran a "Get in the Gate" competition to appear as a background extra in the episode. Out of the 56,000 entrants, Bonnie Arbuthnot from Chicago won the role, appearing in scenes with Don S. Davis, James McDaniel & William Devane.

Filming

Filming for "Lost City" took place in August 2003.

Grass fields around Maple Ridge, British Columbia were used as the backdrop to the alien world which SG-1 travel to in search of an Ancient Repository of Knowledge. The scenes involved heavy use of gasoline mortar explosions to simulate attacking spaceships. British Columbia was experiencing uncharacteristically warm weather at the time, with an increase in wildfires, so to lessen the risk, Wray Douglas' effects team sprayed over 10,000 gallons of water onto the fields, with the Maple Ridge Fire Department on location and standing-by. Since they were not allowed to damage the room, a number of props were made to simulate gunfire, including a portrait. The scene was then further hampered when the technocrane broke prior to filming. Wood was ultimately unsatisfied with the finished scene as he felt Anubis wasn't imposing enough. Due to running out of time, one of the scenes in the Stargate Command briefing room had to be shot with four cameras shooting simultaneously.

Post-production

The first cut of the episode was nineteen minutes over the required length.

The volume of visual effects meant splitting the work between Rainmaker Digital Effects, Image Engine and GVFX. Digital effects supervisor Bruce Woloshyn described the episodes visual effects as being the biggest and most ambitious on Stargate SG-1 to date. Rainmaker and Image Engine collaborated on the Death Glider air assault scenes from the first part of "Lost City". Other sequences such as Anubis' super-soldiers killing Jaffa and later engaging SG-1, the lava Ancient Outpost planet, Anubis' face and the freezing of O'Neill were handled by Rainmaker. Image Engine were responsible for creating Antarctica and the battle between Earth's forces including Prometheus, the F-302 fighters and Anubis' fleet. GVFX created some of the smaller shots, such as the ring-transporters.

The cargo ship fight scene between Bra'tac and Ronan was originally supposed to lead to a visual effects sequence involving the out-of-control cargo Ship colliding with the dome structure on the planet. Due to the cost, this was scaled back, with the ring-transporter instead being responsible for destabilizing the dome on the planet, oppose to the ship colliding with it. In the United Kingdom, both parts of "Lost City" came in as the second most popular broadcasts on Sky One that week, both behind new episodes of The Simpsons. Part 1 had an audience of approximately 920,000 viewers, making it Sky One's most watched broadcast of Stargate SG-1s seventh season, whilst part 2 had around 900,000, making it the channel's second most watched broadcast of the season. In Canada, the channel Space first aired part 1 on January 27, 2005, with part 2 airing on February 3, 2005.

Reception

IGN wrote that whilst neither this episode or the series as a whole had the reputation for "presenting ground breaking science-fiction", viewers would find "an entertaining story with the usual humorous dialogue and rock steady performances that have been the show's trademark for 7 years". The performances of the guest casting, including Ronny Cox's Vice President Kinsey were also highlighted, with the reviewer writing describing him as "a great weasel of a character that you just can't wait until you see his butt get kicked". Darren Rea for Sci-fi Online called the episode "next best thing to having a theatrically released Stargate: SG1 movie", proclaiming it had the "best visual effects battles seen so far on SG-1". Rea also highlighted the presence of Richard Dean Anderson in the episode, commenting that his "unique sense of humour has been largely absent from this season", so welcomed him being in the entire duration of "Lost City".