Joe Flanigan, star of SCI FI Channel’s upcoming original series Stargate: Atlantis, told SCI FI Wire to expect the same mix of out-of-the world adventure and contemporary reality, mixed with a little humor, as its predecessor series, Stargate SG-1. "One of the things when I started watching Stargate [SG-1] that I really enjoyed was precisely what you’re talking about: It’s set in the present day, and there are very real things that people can relate to," Flanigan said during a break in filming on the show’s Canadian set. "It’s the military as it is. This show is still a lot like that. Moving from military to a civilian group doesn’t necessarily change that."

One thing will be different, added Flanigan, who plays Air Force Maj. John Sheppard, a rebellious pilot who finds that he holds the key to the technology of the Ancients. The show moves from Earth to the distant Pegasus galaxy, home of the lost city of the Ancients. "The setting is clearly going to be different," Flanigan said. "The setting is more fantastical. I mean, we are in the lost city of Atlantis, which is a massive, absolutely enormous place that will take us years to discover all the ins and outs of the place. So we never take our settings for granted like sometimes they do [on SG-1], and that is actually what I think is exciting about the whole thing. But it’s still the here and now, and we’re not set in the future. ... We may be in a different galaxy at this particular point, but the roots still point back to Earth. So it’s human-centered."

A recent visit to the show revealed the massive Atlantis set on a soundstage in Burnaby, B.C., next door to the set that houses the familiar Gateroom of SG-1. The set includes a new Stargate, enhanced with fiber-optic lighting and new, blue illuminated chevrons. The rest of the set, full of stained glass, backlit stairways and bubbling aquaria, recalls Frank Lloyd Wright-if he were an ancient alien.

Flanigan added that his character, an irreverent military leader in the mold of Richard Dean Anderson’s Col. Jack O’Neill, will add a bit of humor to Atlantis. "That was certainly the criteria for doing this role, that we could inject some fun into it," Flanigan said. "He’s a guy who enjoys having fun, and his way of handling pressure is not to [succumb] to pressure, [but] to make comments that are sometimes funny and sometimes not so funny." Stargate: Atlantis premieres with a two-hour episode, "Rising," at 9 p.m. ET/PT on July 16.