Portraying a recurring character, David Nykl was not under contract and neither knew his number of episodes nor his character's story arc in advance. Nevertheless, he appeared in approximately half of each season's episodes. No scenes with Zelenka were cut in the first two seasons of "Atlantis", and extra scenes involving Zelenka were shot in the first episodes of the season 3 to fill time. However, all of David Nykl's scenes were cut from the season 5 episode "The Shrine" due to time constraints, although Nykl's credits appear in the finished episode.