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Stargate Information Archive _ Atlantis Season 1 _ 112 - The Defiant One
Posted by: Arcady Nov 16th 2004, 12:54 AM
Episode 12 - The Defiant One
Air Dates - Canada: Nov 15 2004, UK: Jan 4 2005, US: Jan 28 2005
Sheppard's team investigates a downed Wraith ship, and find themselves stuck on a planet with a lone Wraith survivor.
http://www.sg1archive.com/atlantis/s1.shtml#112 | http://www.sg1archive.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8914 | http://www.sg1archive.com/teasers/a112.html
(This topic is for people who have seen the episode to discuss it. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this topic.)
Posted by: anja Nov 16th 2004, 7:35 AM
Sheppard's team investigates a downed Wraith ship, and find themselves stuck on a planet with a lone Wraith survivor. When the wraith finds they?re ship he is clearly surprised that they have an atlantian jumper ? because he is sure they defeated them long ago.
There have been some people speculating that it was a different foe and not the wraith that defeated the Atlantians. But in this episode the wraith confirmed that it was the wraith that won the war.
(He (the wraith) certainly thinks so, it isn?t a 100% proven that there wasn?t anything else?)
Posted by: SGx Nov 16th 2004, 9:28 AM
I thought this was a great episode. Suspenseful and creepy at times with one scene that made us jump in our seats when the "wraith shadow'' moved behind a couple of the team members.
Good interaction betwwen MacKay and Shephard. Both of them kick some wraith butt in this episode and its final demise was great.
Almost seemed like a shippy momemt when Wir was talking to Ford and Shephard and going after them. Ford seemed almost too concerned about Shephard, not that there's anything wrong with that.
One recycled actor from SG1 used on Shephard's team. The young actor that played Nyan in New Ground has a role in this episode.
Posted by: Ghostdraconi Nov 16th 2004, 12:06 PM
I like this episode, this is the first time that I've seen the Wraith as a credible threat. Most of the ones before have either gone down too easily or seemed too stupid to live.
Posted by: Zoidman Nov 17th 2004, 3:50 AM
I hope we will se more of that weapons platform 
Posted by: Mental Case Nov 17th 2004, 4:58 AM
Wasn't too impressed with this ep. However I thought it was nice how they tied in those glow flies into the story in the end. I was not sure how they would fit into the story.
I want to find out about that satellite though :/
Posted by: Drizzt's Syn Nov 17th 2004, 7:25 AM
I was expecting those flies to attack the wraith, because he was killing them. Are they or aren't they the same ones from SG-1? Nice episode, though.
A very obvious redshirt on the team 
Plus the other guy who shot himself...I didn't expect that. Looks like the Wraith can't live some sort of symbiotic relationship with humans, as their victims seem to die anyway. More proof that they aren't "evil" out of choice.
Posted by: dr_n_tesla Nov 17th 2004, 8:54 AM
It was a pretty good storyline, had lots of character development. We learnt more in general about the wraith and the tech of both races. Seems the ancients also had a big honkin space gun, O'niell would've loved that!
The puddle jumper is completely unreactive to the wraith, but it can still be hotwired. Since the war went on for so long the wraith had so much time to learn about the ancient technology building their own dhd interfaces so given enough time I'm sure the wraith would've figured out a way. He even believed severing Sheppard's hands to operate the controls would work, I take it he's done something like that before.
It was good how they re-used another SG-1 actor Richard Ian Cox, who played Gall (spelling?). He played Nyan i Season 3, Episode 19 - New Ground.
Great acting, though it was a shame we couldn't save him.
| QUOTE (OT) |
| I wonder if the Telchak Fountain Of Youth box is powerful enough to return the life stolen by the wraith provided the person was still alive? It is based on an Ancient device so I'm sure that it can make a crossover appearance, the sarcophagus cannot due to it's closeness to the Stargate movie. It could be an excuse for a miracle recovery of a vital Atlantis crew member. |
Those glowing bugs were funny, knew that it had an important role to play, who ever pays attention to bugs on an outing? Yes, you can quite easily make allies with a bar of chocolate!
Now that we've seen the damage a drone can do on the surface in an atmosphere, we can sort of compare it's power to conventional explosives...say a wad or two of C4?
I was expecting McKay to know what to do when he jumped into the saddle and started shooting the wraith, yeah McKay reload! He should've taken Gall's gun since he was dead. You know what? The wraith grenade should've taken off some part of his body! If it behaves anything like a high explosive, the shockwave from being that close should've taken something off, let alone scramble his insides to mush (a.k.a the butterfly effect) unless it wasn't really that powerful. I guess we'll learn more about wraith physiology in the episodes to come.
I was relieved that the wraith was only frustrated when it was screaming and not broadcasting a wakeup call. He did say that he ate his crew, so he was definitely the only survivor of his ship. Well it's ours now hehe, since the distress beacon was so weak, it's unlikely the wraith were on their way to salvage it, it's been thousands of years already. So it's safe to say that we can find the antenna, cut it off and then the ship will be ours to study.
The Satellite was left unobliterated, so perhaps it's shields were powerful enough to keep the wraith at bay (able to keep shooting down the wraith) until it ran out of juice which by then the wraith had gone somewhere else as there was no defeating the defences and nothing worth eating on the planet as well as no Stargate.
8/10 for me.
Posted by: Evo Nov 17th 2004, 2:15 PM
This episode was cool. The satellite weapon looked familiar, so I went through an animated movie that I recently saw; Titan A.E. Somehow the weapon that is in episode looks like the weapons that the bad guys in Titan AE had. The episode was scary, I was bit scccared but that soon ended. It's interesting to know that the Wraith would feed off its own species just to stay alive. Does all Wraith look like Steve? Because he looked like him.. but older 
Posted by: SGx Nov 17th 2004, 3:38 PM
Had forgotten about the glowing entities until I saw a preview on Space about the next episode Prodigy (4-19). So not only are we reusing actors now, we are reusing alien life forms - in another setting. Although perhaps they are the same life forms but this time we didn't "p" them off as Shephard actually fed them.
Posted by: JaffaKree Nov 18th 2004, 4:01 AM
The enemy in this episode just didn't seem Wraith to me. Was he green because he represents an earlier, less evolved Wraith? He also seemed a bit dumber than your average Wraith. Chasing orange smoke and falling for that radio on the ground trick were almost comical. Shepard was just toying with him. Maybe the Wraith were just that dumb back in the day. This makes me wonder how they even beat the Ancients though.
One other thing I noticed was the timing of Ford's arrival. I didn't rewatch it yet, but didn't they say that it took 14 hours to reach that planet from Atlantis? The action on the planet would seem to suggest it took significantly less time between his departure and timely saving of Shepard and McKay.
I guess one more thing comes to mind. I don't know why I'm so hard on Atlantis, but it just stands out to me. Was the only remote for the Jumper the one that the Wraith stole? If it was, why didn't Shepard keep it originally? If it wasn't, why wasn't Shepard able to deactivate the shield?
Despite this, I give the episode a 6.5/10. Nothing really special but an entertaining watch because of all the action. Shepard is John McClain.
Posted by: Raxor Nov 18th 2004, 4:42 AM
good fun episode to watch, always funn giveing them wraith a good bollocking, and i agree, it was funny
Posted by: Krystian SG1 Nov 18th 2004, 11:50 AM
This episode was good
I really liked the scene when McKay and Sheppard where talking on the radio.
Sheppard: McKay!
McKay : Major?, whats happening
Sheppard: I thought you should know, Round one was a draw.
McKay : I don't like the sound of that
Sheppard: Me neither. I took some fire
McKay : Are you injured?
Sheppard: Yathats what i mean by "I took some fire" 
Posted by: phantom1 Nov 18th 2004, 11:40 PM
how did you all get to watch this episode it doesnt air until jan 05???
Posted by: dr_n_tesla Nov 18th 2004, 11:44 PM
I'm Canadian
jk.
hehehe
I found it on the net and that's all I can say at the moment. Watched it on Squintyvision.
Posted by: phantom1 Nov 20th 2004, 9:40 AM
come on u mean none of you people watched this on tv???
Posted by: Pitry Nov 20th 2004, 10:54 AM
Umm... what's going on with PDL? first Affinity, now this.. his episodes used to be amusing. 
*sigh*
Why do all Wraith have to be super exaggerated over-dramatic Evil Ones? (just to note the perspective, Apophis, Anubis, Sokar are on the "over dramatic side".) and why do they have to be so dumb? How did this dumb race win over the obviously technologically superior Ancients?... And why did he walk like he was a monster from a 50s B-rated horror movie?...
Teyla was pointless, again. I dunno when she's worse, when she's deliberately pointless like here or supposedly have a depth of character like The Eye... Ford was also pointless, since when did he get the soldier "yes ma'm no ma'm" shick?
Can they please stop recycling actors! Nareem and Elliot were one thing, they're both dead, and elliot played an alien while Nareem was a human in Atlantis. But Richard Cox?... In SG1 he was a scientist who eventually started working for the SGC. In Atlantis he's... a scientist who used to be in the SGC. Couldn't they just call the character Nyan, give some nice sense of continuanity and be done with it....
What's with the timelines? I'm very confused here. Both in Frozen and I'm quite sure Lost City they date the Ancient plague to 50 million years ago. So, the Ancients came to explore the Pegasus galaxy, met the Wraith, started a war, lost ten thousand years ago, retreated to our galaxcy and died out\ascended 50 million years ago?...Huh?...
And - can they stop making Puddle Jumper episodes? This is Stargate. Not Star Trek.
Oh. And the worst part. I don't know if PDL should be wacked or the design team. If the lightning bugs have nothing to do with Prodigy, then glareglare at the design team. Check what you're doing! If they are... I'll go back to my original question, i.e what's up with PDL? What's their significance - was all the securityu over the planet because of them? Where did they originate? Why didn't they bother going through that Wraith when he caught them?! I kept expacting them to either go through Sheppard's hand, or kill the Wraith in the last minute. They did none. It would have served a lot better ending than Ford blowing up the Wraith from space....
This one defintiely takesthe worst Atlantis episode title from Childhood's End - so far.... the only thing that saved it was, once again, McKay, but for how long? Quite nice save though.... *snigger*
"What do I do now?"
"shoot him with all you got!!"
"what now?"
"reload!!"
"what now....?"
Posted by: infra172 Nov 20th 2004, 10:14 PM
If you hate the show so much why do you watch?
Posted by: rkenshin Nov 21st 2004, 8:48 PM
Season 1 of SG-1 wasn't so hot either.. I use that as comparison so I won't be dissapointed as much, and hence why I'm liking the episodes..
I don't get what's eating people about recycling actors.. Sure you have seen them before but the people they are playing are totally different and the directors/producers have dealt with them before and know they are good at what they do.
Just my two cents, but I'm sure what I wrote won't change anyone's minds.
Posted by: Christy Nov 22nd 2004, 1:14 AM
season one of any series is slow...they're having to build a series up and so i think that might be why.
Stargate SG-1, Star Trek Voyager...it just takes time.
but the episodes on SGA are proving to be quite good.
This episode was quite good as well.
It's not a lame episode, it isn't lacking anything important.
Posted by: davestormuk Nov 22nd 2004, 9:03 AM
Whoever commented on the shield, the wraith guy hot-wired the shield to his control, just like if you hot wire an alarmed car by bypassing the alarm arming the alarm would have no effect etc.
The timeline issue is interesting, i must look into that more, perhaps the ancient female from 50 million years ago was an early ancient (with no life signs because she was frozen would mean no way for the ancients to see her on standard scans etc), whereas later on they had already solved the virus problem, then eventually they ascended.
Posted by: Chrominium Nov 22nd 2004, 12:36 PM
The time is definitely interesting - I didn't think Ford can actually reach them in time. Was the wraith stupid? He can afford to be, there was nothing to lose but everything to gain. This episode is quite good overall, everything from character interation to consequences and action. I'm glad they didn't work with the enemy to get out.
One thing that bugs me - I still hate the main characters - and after this episode even more so. I assume they send there best out to Atlantis but this is terrible!
Dr Wier got persuaded again by Sheppard! Who is the lead negotiater here? Who is supposedly the best?! Dr Wier should have better sense than let them go ahead, these people aren't SG1!
They lost two people in this episode (50% casualty rate) and I blame both McKay and Sheppard. They are like school children seeing some candy and it got their men killed. If it werent for Dr Wier sending Ford out early, they would have been dead, probably best IMO. They really shouldn't be on this mission. Sure they can get themselves out of the situation they put themselves in most of the time, but it is always at a major cost. At this rate, they probably only have the core group left by the end of the year.
Have they not learnt from everything they've seen, did and done?
Posted by: PAL Nov 23rd 2004, 8:06 PM
Some of you have been saying this episode makes the Wraith appear weaker. If anything, I'd say the cunning of the lone Wraith makes them seem more like a real threat now. The grenade under the radio is not something that a Wraith should've been expected to suspect. I will admit that walking out of the jumper after Sheppard baited him and getting shot was pretty stupid. Then again, the Wraith was probably counting on his regenerative abilities to give him the advantage and allow him to be more aggressive. The fact that the Wraith managed to rewire the jumper to put up a shield on his signal shows that they are more knowledgeable about Ancient technology than we had previously seen. Plus, it was implied that this Wraith is somehow different from the other ones. His skin was a different colour, and Sheppard suggested that his enhanced regenrative capabilities were likely due to something other than recent feeding.
I think that this episode presents the Wraith as more than just thugs, and adds speculation into how they've changed over the years, and how it is they defeated the Ancients.
Posted by: Pitry Nov 24th 2004, 5:31 AM
| QUOTE (infra172 @ Nov 21st 2004, 6:14 AM) |
| If you hate the show so much why do you watch? |
I didn't say I hated that show, I said the episode was bad. I watch it because oit still has some amusing points, and also it has enough potential to become better with time. As for SG1... I dunno., I really liked season 1! Yeah, they had some weird and slow episodes, but some of the best episodes IMHO are in season 1 (Thr Nox, Fire and Water, The Torment of Tantalos, There But for the Grace of God, Enigma, Within Serpent's Grasp...)
| QUOTE |
| I don't get what's eating people about recycling actors.. Sure you have seen them before but the people they are playing are totally different and the directors/producers have dealt with them before and know they are good at what they do. |
It's a bit bothering when its a very known character, such as Nareem. Elliot I actually didn't mind so much. What bothered me with this character is that it had exactly the main charecteristics of Nyan from New Ground - so they could just as well have made it Nyan and be done with it.
| QUOTE |
| whereas later on they had already solved the virus problem, then eventually they ascended. |
I'm quite sure both Window of Opprtunity and Full Circle said they died out because pof the virus... meh. fine fine I'll stop nitpicking now.
Posted by: 38 Minutes Nov 25th 2004, 12:54 PM
I thought that it was a good episode.
Although the Satelite must have been orbiting quite far out from the planet.
Im surprised it took about half a day (15 hours)? to get to the Satelite if the planet is roughly the same size as Earth.
Those little yellow flies were smaller than what the SG team encountered? So maybe a new speicies?
Posted by: Chrominium Nov 25th 2004, 12:57 PM
| QUOTE (Pitry @ Nov 24th 2004, 10:31 AM) |
| Yeah, they had some weird and slow episodes, but some of the best episodes IMHO are in season 1 (Thr Nox, Fire and Water, The Torment of Tantalos, There But for the Grace of God, Enigma, Within Serpent's Grasp...) |
I agree. Personally, I think SG1's season 1 is a lot better than those of Atlantis. The storylines were far more interesting, new discoveries at every turn, and I definitely like the characters and the team a lot more in SG1.
I'm worried that maybe they are running out of stories to tell, as Atlantis and SG1 are very similar in nature although under different cicumstance.
| QUOTE |
I'm quite sure both Window of Opprtunity and Full Circle said they died out because pof the virus... meh. fine fine I'll stop nitpicking now. |
That was never proven, they always speculated on this and we just took it up as true. It could also be that the Ancient's illness weakened them too much to defend themselves against the Wraith properly - and the attacks made never allowed them to truly concentrate on a cure.
Posted by: PAL Nov 25th 2004, 5:51 PM
| QUOTE (Chrominium @ Nov 25th 2004, 12:57 PM) | ||
That was never proven, they always speculated on this and we just took it up as true. It could also be that the Ancient's illness weakened them too much to defend themselves against the Wraith properly - and the attacks made never allowed them to truly concentrate on a cure. |
Actually, the Ancient's of Atlantis didn't carry the disease. They were the last of the healthy Ancients, and left for Pegasus to start over, again. The Ancients that stayed behind either died of the virus or ascended.
Posted by: Christy Nov 25th 2004, 9:49 PM
i'm not sure if i remember correctly but in Window of Oppertunity (sp?) it was the sick ancients in the galaxy which earth is in tried to keep turning back time in order to either find a way to get rid of the virus or to stop it from happening.
The ancients in the earth galaxy were sick...and later on wasn't it the ancients in the pegasus galaxy got a plague?
anyhow, i have no idea what i am talking about.
This was a kind of plain episode, Ford seemed to be pushing it, trying to get something out, trying to be macho.
Posted by: Changeling Nov 26th 2004, 12:42 AM
I just ::cough:: downloaded ::cough:: this episode and quite like it cause it didnt have Teyla in it... 
There should have been more Ford though... they should develop his character better... ANYWAYS, Sheppard was great, Mckay was hilarious as usual and that Gall guy was predictable, it was obvious with mckay ranting about needing to help or whatever, that he was going to kill himself.
Thought it was a little too convenient that Weir had a gut feeling about them being in trouble, and i totally dont see what the problem is with using the same characters as SG1... i didnt even realize it was the Nyan guy until i read all of your posts.... 
i give this episode 8/10 (losing 2 points for not enough Ford and two minutes too much of Teyla)
Posted by: Christy Nov 26th 2004, 4:11 AM
They had said Wraith ship, most people would have a gut feeling and they hadn't gotten into communication with the Atlantic base, so obviously something must have happened.
it was not obvious that Gall (however you spell it) was going to kill himself, i actually think he killed himself because he was in pain, did not want to live older than his years and he was obviously in a lot of pain.
Posted by: Changeling Nov 26th 2004, 11:07 AM
yeah he was in a lot of pain, but i think he also didnt want to be the reason that Mckay wasnt able to go and help out Sheppard (who was a lot more alive and healthy than Gall was). I thought it was predictable... especially after Sheppard told Mckay to give him a gun. Usually characters that are in only one episode die.
Good point about the gut feeling/wraith ship thing (i think i would be uneasy about my team searching a wraith ship too)... but it hadnt been time for them to check in yet when she was sending ford and a team. She said it was just as a precaution.
Posted by: Chrominium Nov 26th 2004, 12:10 PM
| QUOTE (Changeling @ Nov 26th 2004, 4:07 PM) |
| Usually characters that are in only one episode die. |
I agree. It was predictable. There are many instances where you should never give a gun to a certain someone - and this was one of them.
There were many decisions flaws in this episode that makes me not like it very much. It's a Wraith ship! They don't know that much about it, and Shepperd and McKay thinks it's okay to go in with just 1 military and 3 scientist???
I seem to always question the decision making abilities of the Alantean team.
Posted by: Pitry Nov 26th 2004, 5:03 PM
| QUOTE (Chrominium @ Nov 25th 2004, 8:57 PM) |
| I agree. Personally, I think SG1's season 1 is a lot better than those of Atlantis. The storylines were far more interesting, new discoveries at every turn, and I definitely like the characters and the team a lot more in SG1. I'm worried that maybe they are running out of stories to tell, as Atlantis and SG1 are very similar in nature although under different cicumstance. |
I'm not sure though - from reading the spoilers for the second half of s8 it sounds like it's gonna be a fantastic half serason, something like the second part of season 5 or 3. I agree that I connected more to SG1 in season 1 than Atlantis... But it might have to do with the fact that exploring the galaxy was still new in season 1 for SG-1. Atlantis is in a very big problem with it, befcause just like exploring the glaaxy feels old in season 7-8 episodes of SG1, it feels old already in season 1 of Atlantis. I think they have to have a lot more general idea of a line-up, some kind of a guiding idea to the entire show, that would "un-tire" the episodes. Something like the entire Ancient thing that got blown up full scale from The Torment of Tantalos til Atlantis... but unlike SG1 where it was an idea buildiung up on another idea, they have to have some sort of an outline now. Of cou8rse random exploration episodes could also be amusing when written properly... but unlike SG1 they can't build up the entire show on that.
| QUOTE (PAL) |
| Actually, the Ancient's of Atlantis didn't carry the disease. They were the last of the healthy Ancients, and left for Pegasus to start over, again. The Ancients that stayed behind either died of the virus or ascended. |
That would actually explain -and fix - the timeline. Although it doesn't explain what happened to the Ancients who went back to the Milky Way after being defeted by the Wraith...
| QUOTE (Christy) |
| The ancients in the earth galaxy were sick...and later on wasn't it the ancients in the pegasus galaxy got a plague? |
I'm quite sure they said the Ancients were defeated by the Wraith or realised they can't defeat them and went back to the Milky Way.
Posted by: Christy Nov 27th 2004, 3:56 AM
ah yes, they were beseiged for many years...finally defeated they left Atlantid.
Posted by: Chrominium Nov 29th 2004, 11:55 AM
| QUOTE (Pitry @ Nov 26th 2004, 10:03 PM) |
| I'm not sure though - from reading the spoilers for the second half of s8 it sounds like it's gonna be a fantastic half serason, something like the second part of season 5 or 3. I agree that I connected more to SG1 in season 1 than Atlantis... But it might have to do with the fact that exploring the galaxy was still new in season 1 for SG-1. Atlantis is in a very big problem with it, befcause just like exploring the glaaxy feels old in season 7-8 episodes of SG1, it feels old already in season 1 of Atlantis. I think they have to have a lot more general idea of a line-up, some kind of a guiding idea to the entire show, that would "un-tire" the episodes. Something like the entire Ancient thing that got blown up full scale from The Torment of Tantalos til Atlantis... but unlike SG1 where it was an idea buildiung up on another idea, they have to have some sort of an outline now. Of cou8rse random exploration episodes could also be amusing when written properly... but unlike SG1 they can't build up the entire show on that. |
That is true. There is still half a season left, and maybe the show is taking a slow transition of what it will become for SG1 viewers. Although I haven't read any spoilers except the sypnosis, there is one episode I am looking forward to.
The series is good and it does contain an interesting back story and history, but it still isn't great. SG1 is a great series managing to get 9 seasons even though they thought it might have ended 3 or 4 seasons ago. But at the moment, Atlantis doesn't seem to have that potential - maybe because of all the reasons you listed.
Posted by: ftt Dec 31st 2004, 5:04 PM
i also liked this episode it is one of the best episodes in the series
Posted by: Dafmeister Jan 4th 2005, 5:01 PM
Great episode. Got me wondering what those little 'bug' aliens were, that we have just seen and those that were on 'Prodigy' on SG1. I wonder if they are anything to do with the Ancients.
So the Ancients are really called the Lantians. Kind of figures since from the Wraiths' and the humans of Pegasus point of view, they were from Atlantis. I like the fact that were are learning more about them.
Posted by: Parmenides Jan 4th 2005, 5:38 PM
I have to say, I think this was one of the best episodes so far. Quite a lot of tension in the showdown between Sheppard and the Wraith. The only problem was that it took up so much of the screen time that other characters (Teyla, Ford, Weird) felt like guest stars!
I really liked the Wraith...so what if he was a bit stupid - he was a bit rusty, not having had much practice in the last 10,000 years! Plus, I'd probably be as aggressive as he was if I had regenerating tissue! I was a little bit disappointed that the big "difference" between him and the modern Wraiths wasn't explained. At first, I thought it might be that the longer a Wraith lives, the harder they are to kill...but that wasn't it!
To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the drone explosion at the end. Talk about weak!
Hehe, gotta love the Wraith's attitude: "Ooh! Ooh! Pretty smoke! I follow!"
Okay, so I'm being very critical in general, but I'm concentrating on the bad bits...there were lots of good bits too!
[Edit]
Here's the timeline I've been following:
Ancients in Milky Way catch the plague
Last few Ancients travel to Pegasus in Atlantis
Wraith wipe the floor with Ancients
The survivors sink Atlantis, and return to Milky Way
The survivors live out the rest of their lives (passing on their genes, diluting them in the process?), ascend, catch the plague, or DIE!
[/Edit]
Posted by: Dafmeister Jan 4th 2005, 6:01 PM
Last few Ancients travel to Pegasus in Atlantis
But can you be sure of this. We have been told that is the case. We know that at some point the Ancients contracted the plague, but we dont know for sure if it was before they went to Pegasus.
Posted by: Parmenides Jan 4th 2005, 6:34 PM
There are quite a few topics on the Ancient timeline thing...some are harder to swallow than others! I'd never really thought about it before, but this urged me to look for some!
Hmm...a slight, possible nitpick here. Puddle jumpers travel quickly, yes? So it'd travel pretty far in 15 hours? If the Lantean solar system has only a single sun like our own, isn't it fairly unlikely that two planets so far apart would both be able to sustain life, just peachily? (ooh, peachily! 
)
Posted by: nitesoul Jan 5th 2005, 3:17 AM
what difference? if you are refering to why he was harder to kill, it was mentioned that it was because he had fed very recently
yeah, it was a bit weak, i'm hoping thats only because ford(or whoever fired it) didnt know exactly what he was doing, ^^
sheperd and the wraith said the nights where gonna be really chilly so that might indicate that the planet other then having a very long rotation period, is in an orbit around the sun somewhere between earth's and mars' orbits(the planet the city is on being earth like and the other being further out but still close enough to sustain life) and 15 hrs is still fast as going to the moon takes days and going to mars takes months(they could also share the same orbit around the sun but be on almost opposite sides)
Posted by: Dafmeister Jan 5th 2005, 7:16 AM
)Good point. I suppose that their solar system could have two life sustaining planets. Imagine the planet Atlantis is on and try to visualise its orbit around the sun. It is possible to have another planet that is in nearly the same orbit as Atlantis, but could be on the opposite side of the sun (e.g, Atlantis is at point A during its orbit and the planet they went to in this episode could be at a point B, where point B is around 180 degrees from point A) Sorry, not very well explained, but its there.
Posted by: Parmenides Jan 5th 2005, 7:26 AM
Meh, I was hoping for something a bit more grand, like some kind of insight into the evolution of the Wraith or something...haven't we encountered Wraith that have just fed before, and not made a big deal out of it? (eg Marilyn Manson in Rising) I suppose we didn't really spend a lot of time trying to kill her, and she was the first one we had really tried to kill...
As for planetary orbits, being on the opposite side of the sun is an interesting point! And nitesoul, I was assuming that the Jumper went at a speed faster than our current space rockets do!
Posted by: fan_83 Jan 5th 2005, 8:35 AM
errr this wraith has just eaten on 2 peeps..
the first one we meet has only eaten on 1... myabe thats the diff....
maybe they work by storing the lifeforce they steal... and when injured use teh lifeforce to heal.... as this wraith has just eaten for 2... he would have more leftover energy stored than the first one ... makes sense ???
Posted by: Dafmeister Jan 5th 2005, 11:17 AM
With the Wraith queen, we saw her being shot, but they left the ship soon after, so we didnt see her later on. Although i find it strange that ,if she was their queen, we have only seen her once.
Posted by: Parmenides Jan 5th 2005, 1:13 PM
Some responses:
Yes, the ancient Wraith (snicker) had just eaten two people...(well, one and a half 
) but how long had he been without food before that? I'd say a pretty long time, so surely that would also play a part in his ability to regenerate?
Also, wasn't the Marilyn Manson wanabee just the caretaker of that specific Wraith ship? Was she ever referred to as a queen? Isn't she dead anyway, because they blew the entire ship to kingdom come? My memory is a little fuzzy, please feel free to correct me!
As for the weak drone, I've been thinking about it, and here are a few possible explanations:
- Ford knew that McKay and Sheppard were within close proximity, and somehow "dumbed down" the explosive power of the drone. (UNLIKELY)
- Although it looked weak, it really wasn't, because it did completely obliterate the Wraith's body into NOTHING, after all! (POSSIBLE)
- A single drone really is that weak, and for larger targets, more drones should be used, a la Lost City II and Rising II. (LIKELY)
Discuss! 
Posted by: The Doctor Jan 5th 2005, 1:51 PM
First thing I saw when I saw the lights was "copy". I strongly suspect the weapons platform featured in "The Seige"...
Interesting.
Posted by: nitesoul Jan 5th 2005, 3:08 PM
Also, wasn't the Marilyn Manson wanabee just the caretaker of that specific Wraith ship? Was she ever referred to as a queen? Isn't she dead anyway, because they blew the entire ship to kingdom come? My memory is a little fuzzy, please feel free to correct me!
she was only a caretaker, i think the being a queen remark was in there but only used loosely(or sarcasticly) as she is a she and seemed to be in charge
and yes she died, she said that once she dies the others will awaken and they did just that at the end of rising II
also the ship is still there(they revisited it or was looking to see if it moved in "38 minutes") the expolsion we saw played out on the outside of the ship was only meant as a distraction to cover their escape
it was 3 am, i word things very badly when i cant sleep, what i meant to say was that comprared to our own rockets which has travel times measured in days and months, the 15 hours it took for the pj the travel to another planet is relatively fastInteresting.
umm, huh?
Posted by: Parmenides Jan 5th 2005, 3:40 PM
Hehe, no worries about the confusion, nitesoul! 
Wasn't the hive ship from Rising just plain GONE when they revisited in 38 Minutes, leaving only a massive crater? But I see your point, it must have survived the initial explosions.
...and thanks for reminding me, the caretaker biatch DID die, and after such a little stab! Can't get much more of a fresher feeding than she had, so who knows?
Posted by: fan_83 Jan 5th 2005, 8:59 PM
parmenidas: she was also shot a couple of time by sheppard before she got stabbed.... maybe that exhausted her surplus of energy ??
i still believe that ancient wraith is tougher cos he fed on 2 peep recently...and he isn;t starving...
my reasoning..
i believe that there are at least 100 humans kept as cattle and only 2 wraiths...
now they can go into hibernation for hundred of years at a time.. lets use 200..
ship crashed for 10000 year taht means each wraith have to feed on 50 human and hibernate to survive... now assuming that the other wraith found hasn;t rotted or decayed yet, we can assume its recently done... so just maybe..
they ran out of humans and the other ancient wraith has just fed on his friend and is about to hibernate when sheppard and co arrived...
plausible ???
Posted by: Parmenides Jan 6th 2005, 3:56 AM
Meh, plausible, but I still prefer the idea of a Wraith starving for hundreds of years!
Who knows, maybe they didn't ration right away, thinking their distress signal would be picked up at the "end of the war". Was anything said about power still being intact in the human refrigeration unit? (snicker)
On the subject of the Wraith "queen": boohoo! She died after a few bullets and a stabbing, AND having just fed on Colonel Doggett? If these are the regenerative capabilities of the toughest enemy we've ever met...are they really that tough? (okay, okay, so she was quite tough! )
I, personally, hope that the caretaker was weaker than normal Wraith...it would make sense, because surely the Wraith would want to be awakened by even a small threat? Just because someone could kill the weak caretaker does not mean that the Wraith would be so easy...but from what we've seen, other Wraith are just as "wussy" as she was! (muahahaha)
And I hereby deem it acceptable for a Wraith to die due to drone impactation...they CAN destroy whole motherships after all!
Posted by: stargatesweetie Jan 6th 2005, 12:05 PM
I enjoyed this episode, the character of McKay is definitely growing on me. he has gone from being a very annoying individual to someone who has had to "mature" and think of others. The interplay between him and Sheppard is a highlight of the show now.
Like many others, I was very surprised at the resilience of the Wraith especially when Sheppard set the trap with the grenade-type wraith thing, unless most of the force from the explosion was "diluted" (sorry, can't think of a better word) by the surrounding sand and only very little of the blast went upwards?
I was a little disappointed that the satelllite was not investigated-maybe next time?
Posted by: Parmenides Jan 6th 2005, 3:29 PM
Hee, in the middle of rewatching this episode just now, and just noticed a cheeky wee nitpick - when McKay shows Gall his reflection in the mirror, for the audience to be able to see his aged face, Gall must not have been able to himself, but the camera! Oh the whimsicality of light reflection!
Okay, so it's not really a nitpick, more of an amusing, technical sidenote!
Other things I noticed whilst rewatching:
- Weir says that they're on the other side of the solar system, which gives evidence for both orbital theories really...
- Even after McKay has explained Beckett's theory about the regeneration feed-time relation, Sheppard still says "No, that's not it," so there must have been something even specialer about this Wraith, so I wasn't wrong for getting my hopes up!
Posted by: fan_83 Jan 6th 2005, 4:24 PM
parmenidas: how many wraiths have then kept around...or met..
theres only marilyn manson, steve and now this guy...
not much to say in way of being unique....
Posted by: Parmenides Jan 6th 2005, 4:38 PM
"We've" met plenty of Wraith - the Atlantis team have met even more, as quite a lot of things seem to happen "between" episodes.
That being said, we, the audience, have met Steve, the caretaker, and the defiant one, yes, but we've met plenty of soldiers and "lesser" Wraith too - these are the only "characters" we've met.
I think we're flogging a dead horse here, I say we drop this subtopic and get back to the episode as a whole...we're pretty much saying the same thing again and again. If anyone has anything fresh to add, though, feel free!
Posted by: nitesoul Jan 6th 2005, 7:49 PM
just becasue we only saw the one that was running around and that one corspe does not mean there was only a crew of 2, i mean its a pretty big ship, it just means that we havent found or the producers didnt bother showing us the rest of his eaten crew
going along that thought, i looked through the transcript and when they can upon the dead wraith sheppard also says that that feeding might not have been that long ago so thats another advantage "the defiant one"(we should give him a better name, lol, how about bob) over the other wraith we have seen(and we have seen plenty, everyone of those guards that have been shreded by our guns *ie the ones with those ugly faceplates* is a wraith too)
on another note, the wraith caretaker got stabed straight thru the chest(did he pull that gun out of her or did he just let her slump to the floor with that thing still in her?) so that may have damaged her more then she could heal(they are not invincable you know) rather then just a bullet which makes a small hole and would go in and out the other side, might also be because shes a woman(i have nothing against women and believe they are every bit the equal of men but nonetheless, *cowers away from the feminists*)
Posted by: ali Jan 11th 2005, 3:00 PM
I loved this ep! I actually watched it 3 times the day after it showed. It was great the fact that Mckay has changed so much, the fact that he actually wanted to get out and help Sheppard fight the Wraith was really cool, even if he didn't have a clue what he was doing.
Plus the Wraith was cool and I loved the way he was so arrogant..as Wraith generally are..
The way that Sheppard was fighting him really reminded me of Jack O'neill, which I liked. I was convinced they were going to be exactly the same characters, and they are very similar, but I like that.
Were those little light things supposed to be like the ones from Prodigy or were they supposed to be different? And what was their significance? I thought the wraith was going to get killed by them but it didn't happen so I got kinda confused...*sorry if this has already been discussed*
And also,was the guy who shot himself previously in SG? He looked very familiar.
I didn't really like the way that they could be joking around at the end of the ep, after 2 people had been killed really nastily. But the fact that Mckay just couldn't drive the Puddlejumper was pretty funny.
Posted by: nitesoul Jan 11th 2005, 3:36 PM
a perfect example of recycling, ali
the "space bugs" should be the same as the ones that we found in "prodigy" but as they didnt fight back when the wraith started to squish them it seems that they just recycled the cg effects
and the doc that shot himself played nyan(sp?) in "new ground", since at the end of "new ground" nyan came back to earth, i dunno why they didnt just reuse the character(the character's names are different) instead of just recycling the actor and confusing us all
Posted by: fan_83 Jan 11th 2005, 8:45 PM
errr nitesoul... it may been a big ship but its function is to transport food...
you are not going to fill up your food transport with soldiers now would you,,,
Posted by: nitesoul Jan 12th 2005, 1:51 AM
you are not going to fill up your food transport with soldiers now would you,,,
o.O
no not with soldiers, but definitely with a crew larger then 2(imo a captain, a engineer, a stasis technician, one soldier/guard and a pilot/navaigator) the ship was freaking huge after all
Posted by: Dafmeister Jan 12th 2005, 11:43 AM
no not with soldiers, but definitely with a crew larger then 2(imo a captain, a engineer, a stasis technician, one soldier/guard and a pilot/navaigator) the ship was freaking huge after all
The other Wraith bodies could have been somewhere else. Just because we didnt see them doesnt mean they werent there.
Posted by: nitesoul Jan 12th 2005, 2:34 PM
i feel ignored sometimes,
Posted by: BrandonTheGreat Jan 13th 2005, 9:51 PM
Wouldn't we say this is the weakest episode in the whole season?
Posted by: Desideratum Jan 16th 2005, 3:43 PM
I particularly like the fact that they made McKay's character evolution obvious (i.e. "You've changed, man ...").
Posted by: stargate_addict Jan 28th 2005, 10:17 PM
Who was that guy that shot himself in the end, i thought he was on an sg1 ep. but i cant remember which one. does any one know?
Posted by: Arcady Jan 29th 2005, 1:53 AM
That was http://www.sg1archive.com/characters/n.shtml#nyan from episode 319: http://www.sg1archive.com/s3.shtml#319.
Posted by: mithwriter Jan 29th 2005, 11:07 AM
I thought this was a pretty good episode, and to tell you the truth the only 'recycling' that stood out for me were the fireflies, but only because they were a major plot device in Prodigy. I too, was expecting them to start attacking the Wraith for trying to hurt their new friend (Sheppard), because it would've made more sense to me to have that be the cause of the Wraith being a nice, stationary target just when the plot needed him to be. Anyone else remember O'Neill curled up on the ground in Prodigy trying to ward off those things?
Also, I think from a writing standpoint I don't think they worked out the timeline correctly. Even if supposing that Sheppard's team arrived in the morning (hence some residual frost left from the night before)..say, even 8am planet time, even 12 hours for the puddle jumper would still make it 8PM, which is closing in on at least dusk in most places, yes? I mean, I know the Wraith said 'the days are long', but are we meant to believe that the night is only 5 or 6 hours?
I don't know why PDL decided to make it such a long trip. I mean, overdue is overdue, so why not just make the place an hour or two away and work it out that way? You can still get there in the 'nick of time' either way.
Also, when Ford was doing his 'yes ma'am' thing I had the urge to start humming an obscure "GI Joe, A Real Amercian Hero"(based on the toys) theme song. That didn't play very well. Zero personality on Francs's part, but if PDL directed him...then why the stoicism?
Onto another point. I thought the stuff between Gall and Rodney was excellent. I like that Gall points out Rodney's conflicts in his personality. He's afraid to go help, and yet he's also worried that if he doesn't it'll make things worse on all of them. I really admired the fact that Gall killed himself, wether it be because he didn't want to die a horrible death or to make it easier for Rodney to leave seemed irrelavent. I don't imagine it would be easy for a scientist to willingly put a gun to his own head and pull the trigger no matter what the circumstances.
So um, yeah....I uh..liked this episode.
Posted by: Lana_Jackson Jan 29th 2005, 1:03 PM
S P O I L E R S P A C E (just in case)
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Hey....I finally know what happened to Nyan (Scientist - "New Ground"/S3/SG1)! They changed his name to Brendan Gaul, and sent him to Atlantis. I'm telling you it was him.
I liked this episode a lot. I think this my favorite SGA episode so far. I like the interaction with Sheppard, McKay, and they other scientists (Gaul & Abrams). The two geeky scientist (I mean, Daniel was never THIS geeky) were really funny. And, McKay was annoying as usual, but I think I'm getting use to it. I especially love how Sheppard and McKay interact with each other. I liked how they played off each other. Sheppard was hot as always. He is really good at what he does. I like how this episode shows off his survival skills. I thought it was cute with Sheppard and those lightning bugs, and how they kept coming back for his energy bar. Oh...and the Wraith was cool. Mean and nasty, but cool.
But, those poor scientists (Gaul and Abrams). It was painful, and heartbreaking to watch Gaul dying. That scene really brought tears to my eyes. Then, cried when Gaul shot himself. It was so sad. 
This was an excellent episode with an awesome performance buy Joe Flanigan, Richard Cox, and David Hewlet. 
Posted by: Aquila Jan 29th 2005, 2:53 PM
the "space bugs" should be the same as the ones that we found in "prodigy" but as they didnt fight back when the wraith started to squish them it seems that they just recycled the cg effects
and the doc that shot himself played nyan(sp?) in "new ground", since at the end of "new ground" nyan came back to earth, i dunno why they didnt just reuse the character(the character's names are different) instead of just recycling the actor and confusing us all
I agree with your statement about Nyan...why didn't they just reuse the character?!!
Oh, and the glow bugs from "Prodigy" were a welcome return to me...I found them quite entertaining...I just wish they were a little more sentient and able to side with Sheppard in the fight against the "defiant Wraith." Nevertheless they did help in the end didn't they?
All in all, the action was terrific, the interplay between the actors great, and the special effects/introduction of the Ancient super Satellite weapon was pretty cool.....I wish they could somehow bring it back online and use it in Season 2?
Posted by: stargate_addict Jan 29th 2005, 7:02 PM
Good interaction betwwen MacKay and Shephard. Both of them kick some wraith butt in this episode and its final demise was great.
Almost seemed like a shippy momemt when Wir was talking to Ford and Shephard and going after them. Ford seemed almost too concerned about Shephard, not that there's anything wrong with that.
One recycled actor from SG1 used on Shephard's team. The young actor that played Nyan in New Ground has a role in this episode.
oh ok now i remember who that guy was, maybe he wasnt recycled scince he was put on earth after that thing happend and he was an archeologist they sent him to atlantis.
Posted by: RJLCyberPunk Jan 29th 2005, 8:20 PM
This was for the most part a good and suspensfull episode! I give it a 7/10!
Posted by: xayeidemon Jan 30th 2005, 2:12 AM
Here's my review straight from my LJ:
"Atlantis was good...I thought Sheppard made some really dumb decisions (seriously, no good can come of inspecting a crashed Wraith ship), but in the end, I was really pleased with McKay coming to try to save the day. Speaking of which, InuYasha was in this ep! Actually, Richard Cox was, but there were little instances where he sounded so much like our favorite hanyou. I was sad about what ended up happening to him. So un-InuYasha. "
After I rewatched the ep, I had to wonder: what happened to the glowy bugs? The ones that got blown up with the Wraith? Those poor things. I actually felt sorry for them. They just wanted something to eat.
Posted by: ancient01 Jan 31st 2005, 7:09 AM
I couldn't remember the recycled actor's name from SG1, so I kept wondering is this the same guy? I think they need to be a little more careful with that. At least with the other recycled actors they played people who were obviously new characters. Overall I enjoyed the episode, despite some small nitpick items. 7 out of 10...
Posted by: IndyJan Jan 31st 2005, 2:14 PM
First, regarding the Wraith, anyone that has read my comments from the beginning know that I have not been impressed with the Wraith. They have not been intimidating or frightening in any way. They have been very cliche. This was the first time that I thought the Wraith could have defeated the Ancients. This one showed intelligence and cunning in his pursuit of Sheppard and the ship to get off the planet. In fact, I do believe he is different from the other Wraith. His color certainly is different. Even Sheppard picked up on the fact that there was more to him.
Like others, I don't understand why they changed the actor's name from Nyan to Gall. This actor was already a part of the SGC. He was helping Daniel with translations and other things. From what I could tell, the Gall character was pretty much the same type, archeaologist, or something. So why change the character's name? Just keep it the same.
Like others, the space bugs were recognizable. I loved that Sheppard was able to feed them and they left him alone. So why didn't they go through the Wraith when he was attacking them? That made no sense. I guess they figure that the people that watch SGC are not watching Atlantis so we won't recognize actors, or special effects from SGC.
As always, I loved Sheppard and McKay. Like always, Teyla and Ford were worthless and boring. Weir is still just Weir.
Posted by: KoKi Feb 1st 2005, 4:29 AM
why would the wraith feed on his own people
Posted by: Dafmeister Feb 1st 2005, 8:31 AM
To survive. One of the Wraith corpses had marks on its chest showing that another had fed off him.
Posted by: CitizenK Feb 1st 2005, 8:57 AM
I have to agree with alot of the comments... loved Sheppard and McKay. They seem to be getting better and better together. It was just hilarious watching McKay learning to drive the puddle jumper. Sheppard's response was great ! "This is why parents get someone else to teach their kids to drive"... wonderful.
The episode was pretty good although the story wasn't very original. Yeah, we're stuck on a planet with a wraith. what will we do ?
The nitpick I have is at the end when McKay is shooting at the Wraith. Why did he keep asking Sheppard what to do next ? He's a brilliant (albiet pompous) scientist. Wouldn't he know to just keep shooting until his ammo ran out ? and then, wouldn't he know to run once it did ? that really was just too comical. McKay just watched his colleague die right in front of him. You'd think he would have just wanted to KILL the wraith himself for what he did to Gall.
but, no... that last scene was far too comic relief. it was very out of place. Was the episode supposed to be comedy or drama ? it had elements of both. It can't even qualify as black comedy. something wasn't right.
Teyla ? she's okay, but didn't have much to do. Ford ? I feel bad for rainbow franks. He really does have a pretty useless character. A red shirt in the making, if you ask me.
still... I think this ep was way better than the Eye.
Posted by: Lana_Jackson Feb 1st 2005, 6:21 PM
"Richard Cox does the voice does Inuyasha? I didn't know that. I love Inuyasha! Cool!
Posted by: DanielKJackson Feb 23rd 2005, 8:45 PM
The name of ancient is really called Lantian.But the Lantian is the location that in China.In palaeoanthropology,the LantianMan is called Lantian.
Posted by: kem Apr 27th 2005, 5:31 PM
I've just seen the ep.
and i liked it... that ancient 
wraith really freaked me out...
he looked really evil, even more than the recent wraiths... the most scary thing was how fast he learned using the weapons... only by watchin shep shooting (with another type of weapon) he learned how to use earth weapons... incredible
and i liked mckay... the thing with the jumper he flew in wavy lines... funny
Posted by: Christy May 29th 2005, 12:48 AM
This episode was pretty funny...especially at the start when Mckay was driving, as someone has already said.
It was just funny the way Shep and Mckay interacted with each other and you just know that when the two of them are together you are going to get something interesting.
Weir...yeah not getting her...she's getting a bit bland for my liking, she's not really doing much so if she died tomorrow i don't think many of us would miss her...so she is a disposable character.
Teyla...what's there to say about her? nothing at all, that girl needs to get some better lines...and some better clothes in my opinion...as usual but as i've been told the clothes are not that bad.
The bugs bugged me a bit because they could have changed them a bit.
I mean...they should have just changed the colour...maybe a nice pink would have done? who knows?
Um...Yeah, the wraith was different which was a plus i think for me because it gave a better view of them and has showed that they have changed in time.
So then it got me thinking...they have changed over time and what could have caused this?
I'm hoping that one day we will get an answer to this and learn a bit more about the way the wraith grew...changed...you know what i mean? like over time what happened to them.
Posted by: cosmos May 30th 2005, 1:45 PM
I liked that they used that space bug again from SG-1 episode 'The Prodigy'. Its a nice touch, this lifeform has been developed elsewhere as well; perhaps this time the level of intelligence is lower than the previous one we have encountered.
I liked how this wraith was so resourcefull too. All in all very good episode.
Posted by: General Jen Jun 15th 2005, 9:07 PM
this ep was ok but not one of my favourites 
mcay talks a bit too much and too fast sometimes.
sheperd is fantastic
Posted by: piggy_sabinring Sep 19th 2005, 5:10 AM
McKay/Sheppard interaction, very good. Check.
Gaul/McKay interaction, very good. Check.
Big honking space gun, worthy of O'Neill? Cool ... and check.
I liked this episode very much. I give it 9/10 (less 0.5 for some sillyness by Rodney).
Now some rebuttal:
# It is never established in "Prodigy" whether Carter is right, or Hailley is right. In fact, Hailley says, "We're never going to find out which one of us was right, are we?" Peter DeLuise has obviously brought the space bugs back to confirm Hailley's theory; ie. the bugs were NEVER sentient!
# It is quite possible that the planet with the Wraith fridge ship IS the next planet over from Atlantis. The Puddle Jumper being on the "other side of the solar system" is meaningless. The planet could just be on the opposite side of the sun to Atlantis at that time in it's orbit.
# McKay states during the teaser the weapons platform is in a "Lagrangian" position. A Lagrange Point is a special point in space where the gravity exerted by a large body (eg. the Sun) and the gravity exerted by a small body orbiting it (eg. the Earth) is effectively cancelled, resulting in effectively no gravity. (See "Discovery" in the movie "2010"). There are only five Lagrangian Points.
Four are on the same side of the "sun" as the "planet". The remaining one is directly opposite the "planet", 180 degrees to it, on the "planet's" orbital path.
Assuming Rodney is using Atlantis' planet as his reference point, and the Lagrange Point is the fifth point mentioned, this would be consistant with a 15 hour Jumper trip AND them being on the "other side of the solar system". (After all it would be several million kilometres at least).
# Now for the pesky Sally complainers. Oh, I'm sorry, I think someone called her the Marilyn Manson clone. Whatever! Not only was she impaled with the spikey end of a Wraith stunner, Sheppard made a rather vicious upthrust while holding the stunner. Considering the amount of blood coming from her mouth as she died, I would say she probably had at least a few shredded internal organs.
# Sally HAD fed upon TWO people before Sheppard shot, maimed and subsequently killed her. Teyla's somewhat nameless shadow (you know the guy), and Sumner.
# Defiant One (how about we call him Joe as Bob's taken) is green and the previous Wraith are blueish-white. Big deal; all the subsequent Wraith are green. Somebody in the makeup department probably got careless with the costumes.
Anyway, I have somewhat diverged.
The other -1 off the ten out of ten rating:
Oh, wow! He figured out how to use the pistol!!! I'm sorry, did Sheppard leave all those pistols in the box, LOADED, COCKED, AND WITH THE BLOODY SAFETY OFF?!?!?!?! The Wraith hadn't seen him load, cock or turn the safety off on his P-90. But he managed to make the M9 shoot, and magically (without knowing what it was for) hit and broke Sheppard's P-90's cocking handle.
Dude. Do you know, first, how manifestly unsafe/dangerous it would be having firearms like that in the rear of your vehicle, and, secondly, how implausible that scenario (described above) would be?
I have my own Wraith feeding theories. Perhaps, another time ...
Posted by: X303kicksass Sep 19th 2005, 6:09 AM
Well for the weapon part, the Wraith have probably seen similar weapons, I.E. the Genii's guns.
Posted by: cosmos Oct 9th 2005, 4:15 AM
It makes sense to be different as he is one forgotten survivor from a different era. In all this time; a 1000 years?! there has to have been some physical evolutionary change to the other Wraith. So the others look different.
In addition, it also makes sense that since the downfall of the Ancients, the Wraith had no significant adversaries for a thousand years, making them stagnant and less concerned towards any threat, as they would assume there is nothing to really worry about.
The Wraith beeing isolated on that planet since a time of war, not knowing of anything that has transpired would have continued to be on alert for the enemy coming for him and of course had to stay alert and fit so he would be among the survivors of his own crew.
---
About the weapon thing. Just because it was not shown on screen doesn't mean that he did not put the safety off before he fired, that is assumming the gun was loaded which may very well have been as this is a military craft and everybody is supposed to have been versed on safety protocols and the container was there for emergency back-up which means making them useful right away, even if a scientist were in need to use them.
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All in all, very good episode and what happened to Gall was kind of original and well placed as it is not something that you usually see on such a series, nor one that you would have expected to see.
Posted by: togar Nov 16th 2005, 7:52 PM
so, the guy who was half eaten by the wraith then killed himself, was he the guy from new ground on sg1? that had the eye device?
so, those bugs, were they actually bugs, or the things from the 1 ep on sg1 where the "bugs" can fly through matter? i dont think they flew through ne thing, so im guessing no
Posted by: Dafmeister Nov 16th 2005, 8:07 PM
Posted by: snow_girl Nov 20th 2005, 11:37 AM
I loved that episode, even though I think it could have been better(more drama maybe: the aftermath of loosing 2 people, Shep's injuries, the concern of Weir, etc---> I love drama =P)....But I loved Sheppard, always has to be the hero lol.
And I love Shep whumping always, so....This episode and 38 minutes are my favorites.
Posted by: blackbelt83 Jan 31st 2006, 3:00 AM
I really liked this episode I thought it was great you got to see the fudal side of the wraith for the first time. I know the wraith can stay alive for some time but ten thousand years if nothing els you would go crazy spending that much time by your self.
Posted by: Dafmeister Jan 31st 2006, 5:54 PM
Posted by: blackbelt83 Feb 1st 2006, 2:26 AM
The Wraith wasnt alone for the entire period. We see that he fed off another Wraith. We are meant to assume that the Wraith were in hibernation for most of that period, only awaking when they needed to feed.
I do remember that part where they mentiond the wairth feeding off the othere wraith but I dint think of the hibernation. but still ten thousand years you would still think he would go crazy then again they dont seem like they talk much anyway.
Posted by: Sheppard007 Feb 20th 2006, 6:10 PM
I have some comments to make. I just saw the episode for the first time last week
- Sheppard is highest in Rank for the military part and that is where Weir supports on his advise s a good military. That is why he probably wins most of the discussions
- That Marilyn Manson clone indeed also had fed herself 2 times. However I found it also strange that this one was harder too feed. My theory until now is also that the Wraith have evolved over time like humans did. I would certainly not underestimate the Wraith as I think they are clever
- For the person with the timing problem. Not every planet has a rotage of 24 hours. Days on some planets sometimes 6 or 36 hours depensing how fast it turns on there own spill.
- The part that bothers me a little is that I wonder why did not went back to the ship to investigate it further for its technology or even get the Stick which contained all the data from the transport ship, so they could learn more about the Wraith.
- If I am correctly the defiant one did not feed himself on the same way as the Marilyn Manson Clone. I do not know whether somebody else noticed this. This one was more bloody
- The thing I wonder as well is that there seem to be several types of wratih. Keepers/Caretaker, Steve look a like and masked guards, but not much is exposed on there hierachy.
Like to know your thoughts.
Posted by: Dafmeister Feb 20th 2006, 7:38 PM
Posted by: JC1 Feb 20th 2006, 8:51 PM
In actual fact, Weir is in command of Atlantis so she doesnt have to go along with everything that Sheppard suggests. She can make her own decisions and can issue orders regardless of what Sheppard thinks.
Yes she can. But if Sheppard doesn't like those orders, he tends to go against them and do what he thinks is best. The difference is, the military personel will follow Shepards orders over Weirs, as seen in "Hot Zone."
Posted by: spookwomann Feb 25th 2006, 5:36 PM
Has anyone else thought that when the wraith was "squishing" the light bugs that he was actually feeding on them.
Posted by: Dafmeister Feb 25th 2006, 7:15 PM
He could have been but he was most likely killing them. I doubt that tiny bugs like that would have much life energy for the Wraith to absorb. If the Wraith had been that desperate for food then he would have totally drained Dr Gaul of life.
Posted by: spookwomann Feb 27th 2006, 2:17 PM
True he could have been doing both.
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