Colonel is an Air Force officer played by
Mitch Pileggi in the television series
Stargate Atlantis .
He is the commander of Earth's battlecruiser
''Daedalus'' . He first appeared in the season 2 premiere,
The Siege, Part 3 and he has been a recurring character during season 2.
Unlike Col.
Dillion Everett , Col. Caldwell did not attempt to relieve
Dr. Weir of command.
After saving
Atlantis from the Wraith, the ''Daedalus'' takes
Major Sheppard ,
Dr. Weir ,
Dr. McKay and
Dr. Beckett back to Earth to report. During a meeting (with Caldwell present), General
Hank Landry implies to Weir that the Pentagon wants to make Col. Caldwell military commander, but Weir tells them that Atlantis already has a military commander, Major Sheppard. When they complain he's just a Major with a questionable record, she simply tells them to promote him. With the
President and the International Committee on her side, Sheppard gets promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and remains military commander of Atlantis, which angers Caldwell. On the voyage back, he's quick to remind Weir that chain of command in Atlantis may get "fuzzy", but that in his ship, things are done as he says and that he has a job to do. She pointly reminds him that it wasn't the job he wanted ("
The Intruder ")
Back in Atlantis, after they get wind of Lt.
Ford 's whereabouts, Caldwell callously reminds Sheppard that Ford's a significant threat to the security of the base and, if he cannot capture him, he's duty bound to eliminate him and that, after all, he didn't seem to have a problem with mercy when it came to Colonel
Sumner ("
Runner ").
After Sheppard is infected by a retrovirus that is slowly changing him into a
Iratus' Bug , he's temporarily put in charge of the Atlantis military by Dr. Weir. She doesn't like, however, that he starts making changes immediately, giving the impression that Sheppard wouldn't be back ("
Conversion ").
More recently, Caldwell was revealed to be a Goa'uld after he attempted to destroy Atlantis by rigging the ZPM to overload ("
Critical Mass ").
Hermiod announced his intention to attempt to remove the Goa'uld symbiote using
Asgard beaming technology. It is not known for how long Caldwell has been a Goa'uld, though it is expected that it has probably been at least several months.
The Goa'uld was later successfully removed by
Hermiod and Colonel Caldwell reappeared not long thereafter, again as commander of the Daedalus. When both Weir and Sheppard were compromised by alien entities, Caldwell took command of Atlantis until the threat was removed ("
The Long Goodbye ").
