We had the honor of sitting down with Robert Picardo (Star) and Joseph Mallozzi (Executive Producer) to talk about the upcoming season five, where "Stargate Atlantis" has been and where its going. Here's what they had to say:

I'm anticipating this hotly discussed script, Whispers.

Joseph Mallozzi: Oh yeah.

It's got a horror tinge and I was wondering if you could elaborate?

Joseph Mallozzi: Okay. You know, I've always been a big fan of horror and one of the things that - you know, one of the great things about Stargate is that we can do, you know, such a variety of different types of stories.

I mean, we do our funny episodes. We do our serious episodes, the off world episodes, the, you know, ship based episode. And, you know, I just realized that we've never really done a horror episode.

And we've done monster movies but never really kind of a scare fest. So I mean, you know, I - you know, I pitched stuff to the guys and they really liked the idea.

And, you know, I spoke to Will about it and he's like yeah - Will Waring, who is, you know, our Director who directed the episode and he's also a big fan of horror movies.

So, you know, we actually did a little mini horror movie for the episode, Whispers. What we did, you know, Joe Flannigan and Paul McGillion -- two of our regulars -- joined a team of - an all female team on an off world adventure.

I mean, one of the things about just, you know, TV, (office) episodic television in general is, you know, at the end of the day you kind of know that your heroes are going to come out of it in one piece, more or less, unless you happen to be, you know, Carson Beckett (and trend A) or, you know, what have you.

So I thought I was important to add this all female team for kind of two reasons. One, with Amanda leaving, I thought there was kind of a gender imbalance in the show that I kind of wanted to address by bringing in, or at least introducing some potentially recurring female characters.

And two, you know, have the audience invest in characters that, you know, you don't really know whether they're going to survive or not. And, you know, it was just really a fun episode.

I mean, right now - I mean, I went by a couple of days ago and Mark Savelo, our VFX Supervisor, he was just showing me some of the temps on the visual effects and, you know, I'm - you know, gosh I hope it's not one of these episodes that angry parents, you know, write the network about.

But, you know, I - you know, hopefully, you know, it'll be an atypical episode and, you know, I'm hoping that people will enjoy it - especially fans of the horror genre.

Can you tell us kind of - I know you can't reveal everything, but kind of in general what's coming up story wise and for the teams this new season, and how it's going to be different from previous seasons?

Joseph Mallozzi: Well it - this is Joe again. You know, in previous seasons - I mean, you know, season one was set up and season two was (telling). And season three, I think, you know, we're stepping out and exploring more, you know, sort of a variety of stories.

Throughout those first three seasons, though, we were always I guess securing resources with, you know, SG-1 - be it a series or the movies and, you know, as a result I guess it taught you - because of the time constriction, we weren't able to really sit back and I think plan out the season quite as concisely as we could have which is what we did in season four.

We realized okay, you know, there is - there was an imbalance in, you know, some of the stories being told. I mean, there were a lot of McKay stories but one of the things we set out to do in season four that we did in season five as well was, you know, give each character a story and then, you know, a spotlight and really focus on them, and give them a chance to really step up.

And, you know, we did that again - you know, we did that once again in season five. And where in season four we wanted to deal with some of the, you know, our standing villains.

We kicked off the Wraith/Replicator war. We got rid of the Replicators. We weakened the Wraith and now season five is kind of a step forward in a couple of ways.

One, in a big picture way we are introducing a couple of new races. We're suggesting that with the Wraith weakened in the Pegasus Galaxy, there are a number of civilizations that are basically standing up and assuming power.

So I mean, in a big, you know, big picture way that's what we're doing. In another big picture way we get a - we have a new commander on the Atlantis expedition with Carter leaving.

You know, what we said in season four was, you know, with the threats that Atlantis is facing -- especially with regard to Wraith -- you know, the military essentially flexed their muscles and wanted to exert some influence over the Atlantis expedition.

So Carter was appointed as a compromised candidate. In season five, with -- as we said -- the Wraith, you know, back on their heels the (IOA) in turn flexed its muscles and they appoint Richard Woolsey as the new interim leader of the Atlantis expedition.

And that will be a big and - you know, a big change and frankly, it's been a great change. You know, we've been big Bob Picardo fans for years and, you know, what started off as a - as, you know, a couple of episodes in Heroes and through a recurring role which eventually when the opportunity presented itself, I mean, there was no hesitation.

We said, you know, if Bob can do it, you know, we would love to have him on the show and Bob was kind enough to, you know, make time for us I guess.

Robert Picardo: This is very interesting for me to listen to as well because I find out, you know, all the secret things that the Executive Producer has in store. I was a little worried momentarily when he mentioned - when he made reference to a bit of a gender imbalance.

I thought that by Episode 20 perhaps he'd be given full reign to (pull) the feminine side - at least that he'd be, you know, cross-dressing on the base. But I'm happy to hear that that's not in the planning.

Robert, how did you get mixed up with these guys on this level? Was it as simple as them asking and you saying yes?

Robert Picardo: Yes, they - I think they have a tradition of using actors from the other franchise, the name of which I dare not speak, as some casting. Many of my colleagues from the different Star Trek shows have been guest stars.

And I think that they either last from one to four episodes. In fact, I think around the fourth time they asked me back, I was flipping to the end of the script to see if I was killed yet.

But I managed to outlast them all and, you know, it's been a lot of fun working with both casts, and with the Writer/Producers. They've really built the character from his initial impression of being kind of a hardnosed, you know, a vicious blame layer.

I call the characters that are coming to find out who has screwed up and whose head is going to roll in his initial appearance. And in Heroes: Part 2, they really fleshed him out.

And although he still has kind of insufficient people skills perhaps to be a leader, he's developing them now that he's assumed command. I think there's something inherently interesting in the Monday morning quarterback, the guy who, you know, sits in the - at one end of the briefing room and tells everyone, you know, what they should've done and how they've screwed up.

Now that he's suddenly making the decisions himself, it's a very interesting dynamic that has its own kind of built in dramatic tension. He's not used to - you know, he's used to evaluating others but not to having that responsibility rest solely on his own shoulders.

And in fact, we have an upcoming episode where his own new command will be evaluated by someone who's taken over his old position. So there's a lot of, I think, fun layers to explore this year.