FAN REVIEWS: 'The Queen'

[GateWorld]

ATLANTIS SEASON FIVE THE QUEEN EPISODE NUMBER - 508 Teyla goes in disguise as a Wraith queen when Todd seeks the team's help securing an alliance with another Wraith hive. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE > SPOILERS! PHOTOS! AND MORE!

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[entil2001]

If there’s one seldom-spoken truth about Team Atlantis, it’s that they repeatedly underestimate their enemies. They operate with the questionable confidence of those who have survived on a combination of luck and determination. Success often breeds contempt, after all. But when one looks back on the series as a whole, the victories have been surrounded by vast fields of defeat.

Whether it’s the Genii, or the Asurans, or the Wraith, Team Atlantis has been more than willing to ignore the intelligence of their enemy, even after they’ve been fooled in the past! Todd has been a worthy strange bedfellow since he first arrived on the scene, and he has been quite good at turning situations to his own advantage.

Granted, the usual suspects were wary, and they knew something wasn’t quite right. But this is in part due to a very Western trait: dismissing the importance of understanding the enemy’s culture and perspective. Quite frankly, Team Atlantis has a rather poor track record when it comes to intelligence gathering. They rely on convenient allies for key information, and this has come back to haunt them on more than one occasion. (Similar to how often the worst situations are a product of their own mistakes.)

It might sound like this is a complaint; it’s not. If anything, it has been the mantra of the Stargate franchise from the beginning. The reason why the IOA is so potent a force in the Stargate universe is the simple truth behind their oppositional stance. The Stargate program has initiated a number of problems since its inception. On the other hand, they’ve also been the solution to those problems, and the end result has generally been positive.

The allure is watching the team get out of each and every new mess. Too often, in the past, this was left to Sheppard and McKay. In a nice twist, their best intentions are actually more dangerous than helpful. They do manage to help Teyla pull a victory out of her suicidal battle plan, but on the whole, their assumptions come very close to getting them all killed. It’s Teyla and her decision to take matters into her own hands (and Todd’s timely rescue) that saves the day.

Even with all that being true, did they actually gain anything? It seems obvious, about halfway through the episode, that Todd has been using Teyla and the others in a power play. There’s little reason to think that Todd will even honor the agreement to spread the genetic treatment around his alliance. Teyla would have to be willing to make good on her threats, and while she pulled it off in this situation, who’s to say that it would be successful in the future? Especially after Todd has been given time to consolidate power in her name?

It’s hard to argue that Atlantis is in any better position when the operation is over, and I think that’s part of the appeal. The team survived, but things could have easily gone the other way. Even if that is just the “reset button” kicking in again, and even if the tension was resolved a bit too quickly in the final act, it was still a solid outing. One can only hope this is just the setup for something bigger.


John Keegan
Reprinted with permission
Original source: c. Critical Myth, 2008
All rights reserved
Link: http://www.criticalmyth.com

[Rachel500]

The idea of Teyla assuming the place of a Wraith Queen to carry out an Atlantis plan sounds fantastic especially given the superb Spoils of War last season. The possibilities for intrigue, action and character development bubble up and overflow like uncorked champagne. Add the Wraith Todd, one of the finest characters the show has invented, into the mix and the whole episode promises a veritable feast. Unfortunately, rather then the Michelin starred gourmet meal promised, the episode delivers the usual home-cooked fare: solid with some tasty bits but overall, uninspiring.

The plot really deserves to take the blame as ultimately it just doesn’t push the envelope enough and leaves the concept underdeveloped. To be fair, the plot as written is well-structured: the opening reasons for why Team Atlantis need Todd’s help and the idea of Teyla assuming the place of Todd’s Queen seamlessly introduced and the subsequent scenes of the plan going into motion only to unravel with Todd’s political machinations and the inevitable Team Atlantis attempted rescue are well drawn with everything leading to the reset of Teyla back to herself at the end.

It all flows nicely; there are a couple of nice twists which I personally anticipated – the quick death of the Primary Queen and the saving of Teyla by Todd at the end. The story also provides an interesting peek into the Wraith culture, the matriarchal hierarchy, the way treachery and Machiavellian plots are the usual stuff of their politics. It really isn’t a bad story but that’s the thing; damned with faint praise is the phrase that comes to mind.

The story could have been so much more especially around Teyla’s internal conflict at transforming into a Wraith. The details are not provided on how she transforms and the suggestion seems to be that Teyla is simply physically altered to appear as a Wraith but is otherwise human. The fact that much of Teyla’s personality remains intact including her very real fears and emotions post transformation supports this. Yet nothing is done to explore how Teyla herself truly reacts to being Wraith – to wearing the face of the enemy, to even assess whether she is truly becoming a Wraith Queen. Had the plot suggested Teyla’s own Wraith DNA had been stimulated or that she was fully transformed perhaps more would have been done. As it is the only sign of any emotional impact around this idea is toward the end when she looks at her once-again human hand contemplatively. Without this exploration of character and impact on character, the plot lacks any kind of emotional pull for the audience.

The second area that the plot fails to fully explore perhaps because of that is Teyla as the Queen. That’s not to say it doesn’t explore it at all; it does. Teyla’s ‘act’ of being Queen is highlighted in quite a few places: her initial arrival and interaction with the Primary, her assumption of power, the battle with the other Wraith and her goodbye scenes to her Wraith hive and to Todd. These scenes do keep Teyla in character: she’s ‘acting’ as the Queen but not really being a Queen. It’s a fine line and Rachel Luttrell performs and delivers this wonderfully despite the make-up. But, again, the plot needed that moment where the audience wonders whether the power of being Queen is seducing Teyla – and it never comes. Perhaps the battle where Teyla coldly sends a vast number of Wraith to their deaths was meant to convey it or her threat to Todd at the end that she will hold him to their deal but those scenes are in-character for Teyla as herself.

Finally, the plot is too anti-climatic. Teyla’s showdown with the bald commander of the Primary’s hive is over before it begins and disappointingly Teyla doesn’t put up too much of a fight. The ending without the original plan going into play and Todd simply left in charge of the Alliance feels like a damp squib especially as the characters dumbly wonder whether they got played – well, duh! I’m not a fan of episodes which have the main characters stupid without good reason.

The plot issues and the lack of a great story aside, the episode delivers on almost every other level. There are some great moments: the team watching Teyla’s transformation with McKay turning away disturbed, Ronon’s warning to Todd, Teyla squirming in the throne, Sheppard naming Todd’s second ‘Kenny’, the jumper taking out the second hive. The make-up artists deserve a shout-out for Teyla’s Wraith make-up which is fantastic and for continuing to keep all the Wraiths very individual while the special effects team deserves a well-deserved round of applause for the Wraith battle.

There is a lot to enjoy in the episode particularly Christopher Heyerdahl’s performance as Todd. He continues to delight. He delivers his lines with fabulous timing and more, makes Todd real. The character never comes across as one-dimensional; Todd has layers and Heyerdahl revels in exploring them. His quiet horror at realising Teyla is simply sending Wraith to their deaths contrasting sharply with his earlier light humour with the team. In fact, the performances of both Heyerdahl and Luttrell really carry the episode and elevates it beyond the OK story.

The final episode is a solid entertaining hour of television. There’s a good mix of intrigue and action, and the team bond is nicely evident. Yet at the end there is the sense that the show settled for being average when it could have produced another Common Ground. This was definitely a missed opportunity.

[Othala08]

The Queen was the second episode this season that offered Rachel Luttrell the chance to show what a truly wonderful actress she is, and also to display the intensity and depth of her journey as Teyla. Her giving birth in the first episode of the season was pretty dramatic, but this story promised more. It was about time she was given something decent to get her teeth into.

That said, the great potential of this story was given the usual concertina - over in an episode - treatment by TPTB. Surely it deserved to be a two parter with all the potential themes in there that barely scratched the surface.

Regarding her 'transformation' - [by the way is Keller now supposed to be an ace plastic surgeon as well as the up and coming 'superwoman'?] - was the final effect just an elaborate cover-up [which the Wraith would have sniffed out immediately], or was it actual genetic manipulation? Surely if it was a real 'morphing' into more of a Wraith-like state, Teyla should not have shown all those very human doubts about her role at the beginning [though since that was what the actress was given to do, she did it very well] I think it would have made more sense for her to realize she truly was changing and feel internal conflict because of that [like Sheppard's awareness of his slipping humanity in Conversion]. Her awareness of her own Wraith DNA and her experience of Wraith Queen energy on a couple of previous occasions would surely have made the genetic transformation into a true Wraith-like state much more plausible. Her sudden transformation back to her usual self at the end was far too quick, and as usual there were only hints of residual feelings or thoughts.

Like other people commenting on other threads, I agree that it would have made an amazing plot twist to have her take on the role of Queen for real, to really explore the Wraith from within their world. She could have given Todd a run for his money and created some real opportunities for internal and external conflict and drama. But of course that's too much to ask.

Todd the Great is amazing - words fail me. Chris Heyerdal is so talented, his line delivery and presence are positively Shakespearean. He just fills the screen with his presence and his voice is mesmerizing. Todd is one of the best secondary characters ever created in Atlantis - thanks to Chris' acting abilities.

I think Todd and Queen Teyla would have made an AMAZING pair - as a major story arc!!