SG:A - 8x18 - The Gift [Spoilers!]

ixoy

Right, what did everyone make of this one - the final episode before the 2-parter finale? Personally, I found it to be the weakest episode of the second half of the season. It wasn't bad per se... just a little dull.

Teyla, often underused, at least got her own episode here and she didn't come off too badly. However, I'm not that sure we learnt anything new about her - we already knew she cared for her people and that she was strong. This episode merely reinforced it. And the other characters got sidelined, although McKay was still the scene stealer at the start.

I think there was some interesting points. I enjoyed the briefing at the beginning, which made me think the episode would go elsewhere (it was merely setup for next week) and glad to see the asshat Kavanagh is still around - what are the odds that he'll die in the finale and that he betrayed the location of the Alpha Base based on the idea that they'd die otherwise? Still the briefing gave us a sense of fear and imminent doom - the Wraith have come some way from their somewhat corny intro.

Not sure what to make of the Wraith being a possible by product of Ancient experimentation. It's certainly within keeping of the show - we know they practiced things they wanted best left forgotten and this is a pretty nasty "dirty secret". It could be quite interesting to see how they evolved from this without the Ancients noticing the new threat around them.

Also what to make of "the gift". It reminds me somewhat of the advanced detection abilities that Carter has post-Jolinar, although the genetic fusion isn't really the same thing.. sounding more like something Niirti would have dreamt up in her harceisis quest. Nonetheless I hope the creators address why the ability only manifests itself so strongly now rather than when the Wraith first awakened.

Finally, the Wraith want to get to earth - not much of a surprise is it? Logistically, given they have huge hive ships, they'll have a ZPM equivalent to dial the 8th chevron but surely earth can just lock them out? I mean Weir can do a quick dialout, like in "Letters From Pegasus" and tell earth to accept no Atlantian signal. That way, if they're captured, the old signals will be locked out and be of no use. Even if they got the gate signal, they can only go through in small forces and are much more vulnerable....
I suppose, what may be good, is that this element SCREAMS crossover. It's a pity the airings of the two aren't fully synchronized if that's the case.

Still, with all the buildup, looking forward to the finale a lot. Impressive debut season .. hope it goes with a worthy bang.

Random

Well, having watched the first half of the ep....

You say the wraith was a by-product of Ancient expermintation....

So far I'm getting from the episode that the only ancient involvement was to put humans on a planet with those bugs that attacked shepard.... they weren't experimenting...

Maybe I'll learm otherwise in the last 12 mins though

MrPinK

ciaranfo wrote:

the only ancient involvement was to put humans on a planet with those bugs that attacked shepard.... they weren't experimenting...

It has too many holes for my liking. So one of the groups of humans that they seeded managed to evolve into a different species, advance to a technological level near that of the ancients, breed like rabits till their numbers were huge, and the Atlanteans never noticed any of this during all that time?

mr_angry

MrPinK wrote:

It has too many holes for my liking. So one of the groups of humans that they seeded managed to evolve into a different species, advance to a technological level near that of the ancients, breed like rabits till their numbers were huge, and the Atlanteans never noticed any of this during all that time?

Admittedly, it sounds a lot more like Ancient experimentation than simple chance, unless the bugs themselves had a much, much faster breeding rate, and hence could adopt evolutionary change more easily. That might also account for the sheer number of wraith, and their need for thousands of years of sleep, but who knows.

The one thing we did learn about Teyla is that she's part-wraith, but nowhere near strong enough to resist their mental intrusions. I doubt the rogue scientist Kavanagh is all that keen to betray everyone either, since he seems keen to point out how bad an idea it is that Weir is leading them towards a date with death. And I don't know why they don't just scramble their IDC codes and prevent the Wraith from ever reaching Earth.

As a plan, it also stinks. Would the Wraith attampt to mount an all-out assault on Earth through the Stargate alone? Even if they got the iris open, they'd still have to face the problem of getting enough troops through before the humans had the sense to bury the gate again. A more logical perspective would be that the Wraith want to examine Earth's gate address, extrapolate the rough location, and set sail through hyperspace with a few hive ships. Considering they're immortal, and they sleep for large amounts of time anyway, they might make it, but it'd take them a while. Plus, they'd find a whole Goa'uld empire and replicator army there aswell - could be interesting.

NeoSlicerZ

I wonder, can the Atlantian stargate dial other stargates in our galaxy.

Ivan

In theory they should be able to, provided they had the co-ordinates to the planet relative toi the pegasus galaxy.

The impression I got from 1x18 was that Tayla's "power" was only so intense, because there were so many wraith so close. And it was the insect which bit Sheperd which evolved, not humans. It combined human dna with its own to "evolve".

The wraith are technologically superior and as such may be able to devise a way through the stargate also they may just not even know about it.

User45701

Good epsidoe i liked it allot loved the excutation fo the wraith VERY dark.

Do we know how fast wraith ships are? since wraith that are fed could live for 10,000 years could they not just dispatch a few dozzen hive ships to earth and then go into hibernation?

Still tho very good epsisode

savemejebus

Where does the whole wraith evolution fit into the Atlantis timeline, I would imagine that in order for the wraith to evolve both genetically and technologically (they don't seem to use ancient derived technology)to a level where they could kick the Ancients asses, it would take and awfully long time, much longer than from when Atlantis arrived in Pegasus to when the ancients evacuated.