Carson Beckett
Summary
Dr. Carson Beckett, a medical doctor, was assigned to conduct research at that Ancients' Antarctic Outpost. He discovered the gene which Jack O'Neill possessed in order to activate the defense systems. He then joined the Atlantis Expedition to the Pegasus Galaxy and served as the city's chief surgeon and physician. Beckett was killed in an explosion after having served the Expedition for nearly three years.
A clone of Beckett was discovered and rescued nearly a year after Beckett's death. He has all of Beckett's memories and personality from the time of the cloning, which occurred about two years before the clone's rescue.
Character Biography
The team's medical doctor, Beckett was a Scottish man with a witty sense of humor. Beckett became an expert in xenobiology when he joined the Expedition to the Pegasus Galaxy, and he learned that he was the reluctant possessor of the rare gene that allowed him to use the Ancients' technology. (Season One)
In the fight against the Wraith, an insect-human hybrid, Beckett engineered a retrovirus that suppressed the insect DNA to allow the human DNA to dominate. The actual use of the retrovirus against Wraith brought up serious ethical issues, however. (Season Two, Season Three)
Beckett was killed in the accidental detonation of an explosive tumor that he had surgically removed from one of Atlantis's scientists who had been exposed to a rare form of radiation in the city. (Season Three)
Character Biography: Beckett's Clone
Beckett's clone was created by "Michael Kenmore", the Wraith who was the first test subject of Beckett's Wraith-to-Human retrovirus. Remarkably, this cloning process not only duplicated Beckett's body, but his memories and personality as well. This clone started out as a version of Beckett from six months prior to Beckett's death and was kept by Michael for nearly two years. Michael created this clone with a dependence on a weekly injection that would prevent his death due to organ shutdown (from "old age"). When Sheppard's team rescued him, they weren't aware of this dependence until the clone started dying. Beckett's friends had to say goodbye to him one more time as they placed him into a stasis chamber to allow themselves time to come up with a cure. (Season Four)
After Sheppard's team found Michael's database, Dr. Jennifer Keller removed Beckett from the stasis chamber and tried a serum on him that she derived from Michael's research. With the new treatments, Beckett showed no signs of deterioration, but he was far from recovered. After handling a medical crisis using his knowledge of Wraith organic technology, saving Keller and several others in the process, Beckett was sent back to Earth for recuperation. (Season Five)
Episodes
Related Characters
Related Articles
Related Links
Actor
--DeeKayP 07:17, 29 Oct 2004 (PDT)