SGA 5x08: The Queen **SPOILERS**

Overheal

Teyla is posing as Todd's (Christopher Heyerdahl) Wraith Queen, giving him the authority to enter talks with another hive and its Queen. It's not too long before suspicion is cast upon them and they must work together to maintain their plot..

Great Episode, and my favorite all season by a good stretch. The wraith actors were good in this, the action was deacent and the humour was good.

Kenny. Who else thinks he's going to end up dead in a future episode?

McKay: "Oh My God!"
Sheppard: "You killed kenny?"

Sherifu

It was very good, if there were more Wraith episodes like this they'd be a much better enemy. Todd is a smooth operator.

ixoy

This episode goes to show that Tey-lo works an awful lot better when she's mixed up in a Wraith-centric episode. She was very good in this, and that's something I've pretty much never said about her before.
Todd also cemented himself as my favourite Wraith and he's got a nice line in black humour - loved him commenting about how he had fed on the people who had produced the food the team were eating. Very dead-pan delivery.

The episode also moved the Wraith storyline along, as it had become a bit stagnant. They seemed more formidable, although the Queen was a bit too easily defeated. I'm wondering what the repercussions will be? It reminds me a little of the Goa'uld and tritonin storyline but the difference being that this may ultimately give the Wraith an advantage. Will be interesting to see (as much as we'll get to see it with the show's final season).

So far I think this is a stronger season than last year's more lacklustre effort.

token56

Very nice episode, Todd was excellent again, love seeing episodes with him in it.

Nukem

Excellent Ep - best of the season to date

User45701

ixoy wrote: »

This episode goes to show that Tey-lo works an awful lot better when she's mixed up in a Wraith-centric episode. She was very good in this, and that's something I've pretty much never said about her before.
Todd also cemented himself as my favourite Wraith and he's got a nice line in black humour - loved him commenting about how he had fed on the people who had produced the food the team were eating. Very dead-pan delivery.

i liked his joke about shaking hands when they first made a deal with him last season

J-blk

Definitely one the best episodes so far this season but it still felt like something was missing - the rest of the team mostly got to sit this one out but overall, Todd and Teyla carried the episode very well. We still don't know if the Wraith will take the gene therapy offer though - Todd is capable of anything and by the end of episode, it's not resolved if he's planning a double-cross or not.

And since when can a Jumper blow a Hive up with a handful of shots?

Ivan

Since its already getting its ass kicked by another hive mothership and a bunch of darts and the jumper shoots at point-blank range and presumably, strategically placed shots.

I concur with the general sentiment here. Todd good, teylo not awful, episode on the whole; pretty damn good.

krpc

Excellent episode. It's a shame that this sort of quality isn't produced on a regular basis.

Overheal

J-blk wrote: »

And since when can a Jumper blow a Hive up with a handful of shots?

Well there wont be much debate on that when they turn jumpers into flying beam weapons

astrofool

It also sets up how they are going to "win" the battle against the wraith by the end of the season/mini movie.

Karl Hungus

Best episode this season, but also makes it obvious just how dull and by the numbers the writing is, and how unadventurous (even cowardly) the writers are.

The fact that Teyla was transformed into a wraith was completely underplayed, nothing of it was explored, and it was all cleared up and back to normal at the end of the episode. "She turned me into a newt! Well, it got better..." This story was begging for Teyla to suffer hunger, eventually feed on someone, and suffer the emotional fallout therefrom. Maybe even take it that bit further and have her not want to become human again, you know, something interesting to happen with the character, some conflict. In fact, if she didn't want to return to being human, it would've added some incredible depth to the show, as further down the line she'd have to face abondment issues with her son.

Maybe it's just me, but I think that having Teyla transformed into a wraith is an incredibly dramatic thing, especially seeing as she previously had nightmares about that very thing, and it was just strided through without given it a moments note bar a brief mention in the "Previously on..." section, but nowhere in the episode did it have any continuity of character.

As well as that, this whole wrapped up by the end of the episode thing is getting extremely tiring. Everything's back to normal, nothing has really changed in any significant way, even the whole gene therapy plot isn't followed through, it's given a "It'll take time" excuse, leaving it open to be brought up in another episode further down the line, or severed.

What Stargate Atlantis is absolutely screaming out for is a proper story arc. This is why it'll never come near to being as mind-blowingly good as Farscape or Babylon 5. Take Farscape for example,

the episode where John is split in two, it's not wrapped up neatly, it's run with for half the season and there's two Johns running around, and even after one dies, there's still plotlines explored from that as Aeryn fell in love with one of them.

Amazing stuff, but Stargate? All ends up happilly ever after at the end of the episode.

Now don't get me wrong, this was a terrific episode compared to other Stargate episodes, when Todd murdered the Queen, I was genuinely surprised, it was a twist the likes of which I just didn't expect from these writers. But, in the grand scheme of things, it was not that great.

Oh, and did anyone else notice the Queen that Teyla usurped? Quite the hottie:

Pugsley

Very entertaining episode, some interesting ideas Karl, but Stargate has always ended up fairly neatly after each episode, Stargate has never had anywhere near the story arc of B5, Farscape, or Battlestar Galactica (new), things plod along slowly on a per episode basis, with fairly minimal continuing story. Even in its prime SG-1 tended to be wrapped up nicely, with most of the episodes making little to no advance on the overall story.

Oh and you may want to put that Farscape bit in spoilers, while being a good example, some people still haven't watched it.

Karl Hungus

Pugsley wrote: »

Very entertaining episode, some interesting ideas Karl, but Stargate has always ended up fairly neatly after each episode, Stargate has never had anywhere near the story arc of B5, Farscape, or Battlestar Galactica (new), things plod along slowly on a per episode basis, with fairly minimal continuing story. Even in its prime SG-1 tended to be wrapped up nicely, with most of the episodes making little to no advance on the overall story.

Oh and you may want to put that Farscape bit in spoilers, while being a good example, some people still haven't watched it.

I'm fully aware of the kind of show Stargate is, I've 8 seasons of SG1 on DVD after all. But the fact is, Atlantis has been languishing for a while now, and I seriously think that a good arc would inject some serious life into it, even if that is a change of format so to speak.

Spoilers added.

Overheal

i only wish i could dream up some real character development. those were good points karl

Mahatma coat

meh, not bad, would have been cool if Tayla had Fed. plus they seem to have lost another Jumper for no good reason, possibly Todd can figure out how to use it later on

ixoy

True - I'd have loved Tey-lo to stay a Queen for longer and then deal with the ramifications afterwards, e.g impulses to feed, sudden anger, etc. It would have potentially made interesting viewing.

Bajingo

Where can I see this episode I usually watch the episodes on youtube but this episode doesnt seem to be there.

Sherifu

Bajingo wrote: »

Where can I see this episode I usually watch the episodes on youtube but this episode doesnt seem to be there.

It should be on sky soon enough I imagine.

jor el

Did anyone else think Tayla looked really hot as a Wraith queen?

Should I seek professional help?


Good episode, first very good one in a while. Would have been nice to leave Tayla in charge of the Wraith for a while though, and see what sort of havoc she could cause.

Good point made about leaving another jumper behind too. How many of these do they have? They seem to treat them like they have an endless supply.

Karl Hungus

jor el wrote: »

Did anyone else think Tayla looked really hot as a Wraith queen?

Yes.

jor el wrote: »

Should I seek professional help?

Depends. Are we talking about the kind of professional that does fantasy/costume stuff?

jor el

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Depends. Are we talking about the kind of professional that does fantasy/costume stuff?

We are now :eek: