"Stargate SG-1" is going to expand, and it's going to do it with "Atlantis."

According to Sci-Fi Channel, the new "Stargate Atlantis" will be a weekly series set to premiere in Summer 2004. The first season will include 20 hour long episodes of the series that will be produced by Sci-Fi and MGM Television Entertainment.

This is not the end of "Stargate SG-1," however. The eighth season of "Stargate" also will premiere around the same time.

According to a release, the new show will center on a secret Earth base left by the originators of the Stargate, buried among the ruins of the legendary city of Atlantis. A new team of explorers will travel to a distant galaxy, where a primitive human civilization is threatened by a siniser new alien.

The show will debut with a two-hour movie, and will feature crossover appearances by the cast of SG-1. Unlike "Battlestar Galactica," this show already has received a series commitment.

Brad Wright and Robert Cooper will serve as executive producers. Cooper is the executive producer of "SG-1" while Wright is co-creator of "SG-1" as well as an executive producer.

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