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    FAN REVIEWS: 'Spoils of War'

    Visit the Episode Guide
    STARGATE ATLANTIS - SEASON FOUR
    EPISODE NUMBER - 412

    The team finds their former Wraith ally's hive ship drifting in space, which leads them to a secret project that could turn the tide of a civil war.

    VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >>



    GATEWORLD FAN REVIEWS

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    Last edited by GateWorld; 04 February 2021, 01:04 AM.

    #2
    If there’s one thing I’ve been looking for over the course of the past couple of seasons, it’s more depth for the Wraith. The first two seasons explored the origins of the Wraith and their unique physiology relatively well, but since then, advances have been sporadic at best. Most of the progression has come from Michael and the recently captured Wraith scientist.

    This episode helps to change that, as the reproductive aspects of the Wraith are explored in grim detail. The writers manage to avoid too many exposition-heavy scenes, letting the brief glimpses of the process speak for themselves. This episode also explains how the Wraith managed to overwhelm the Ancients, despite the gaps in technology and evolution. All in all, it’s a heaping plate of Wraith goodness.

    The end result appears to resolve any possibility that the Wraith will quickly expand to take control of the Pegasus Galaxy in the wake of the Asuran defeat. The Wraith will continue to operate as competing factions, giving Team Atlantis the opportunity to counter them as effectively as they have to this point. This takes some of the pressure off the writers, in a sense, because they can’t be accused of ignoring the latest shift in interstellar state of play.

    This episode also addresses Teyla and her situation, which is a bit more mundane. She resents the thought of being handled with kid gloves by Sheppard, which is understandable, but this encounter with the Wraith forces her to acknowledge her role as the salvation for her people. Logically, she and her child won’t be able to restore the Ethosian race alone, but they are vital until her people can (hopefully) be found. This realization is hardly surprising, but the writers made it work within the context of the Wraith conflict.

    I found it interesting, from a character perspective, that Sheppard was upset with Teyla over lack of disclosure. I’ve felt, since the first stirrings of an impending Weir exit, that Teyla and Sheppard were being pushed towards each other. While this is an admittedly subjective interpretation, I can’t help but wonder if part of Sheppard’s annoyance comes from learning about Teyla’s hidden relationship.

    This has been a surprising season for “Stargate: Atlantis”. After a quick start, the momentum seemed to diminish, but the last few episodes have been well above average for the series. Considering that the series has already been renewed for a fifth season, there’s reason to believe that the rest of the fourth season will continue on the same path.


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

    Comment


      #3
      Reproduction forms the theme of Spoils of War and subtly weaves the connection between the main plot dealing with the Wraith’s plans to create a super-army and the ramifications of Teyla’s pregnancy revelation. The mix of a very character driven sub-plot and the action driven main plot creates a tight, tense episode that captures the attention and provides a great hour of entertainment.

      In many respects this episode brought back memories of Submersion for me. There is a strong comparison with Teyla given the role of heroine by virtue of her ability to telepathically control the Queen. However, Spoils of War achieves everything that Submersion did not. Where Submersion – ostensibly a Teyla story failed to fully give the character the spotlight, here, Teyla truly shines. Her bravery, steely determination and stubbornness are evident throughout the episode and never more so than in the fabulous segment dealing with her rescue of the boys and mind games with the Queen. The wonderfully eeriness created by the green lighting in the mental battle, with the Queen’s whispering in her ear, the close-up shots – fantastic lighting, fantastic direction and fantastic acting – did I mention that it was fantastic? More so, Spoils of War deals nicely in the plot with how Teyla manages to take control in a way that Submersion never quite did. Here, it is already clear that the Queen is weakened, hungry and Teyla in comparison has been given a mental power boost thanks to the child she carries. It all makes it believable that Teyla takes control of the Queen.

      But this isn’t the only wonderfully executed part of Teyla’s story as the scenes with Sheppard and Lorne are used to tell the more personal story of her shift from her initial standpoint of wanting to remain on active duty with the team to her realisation that she cannot continue taking the risk. What is really amazing is that this thread allows Teyla’s softer side to emerge as her continued distress over her missing people, her worries about becoming a mother and her growing sense of maternal responsibility is shown. As a result, she springs from the screen as a three-dimensional, beautifully rounded character. The last scene of Teyla confiding in Sheppard and her distress at how close she came to losing her child is well-played by Rachel Luttrell.

      What still feels a little uncomfortable to me is Sheppard’s characterisation in this storyline in particular his initial reaction in the previous episode and initial statements in Spoils of War. That initial reaction; the dialogue in the gym; at the cafeteria table; all just shade Sheppard’s reaction to one of a military commander reacting to an insubordinate team member than one of a friend to a friend who he considers to be family. While it could be argued that Sheppard should react as a military commander – after all, he is one, it’s not this reaction that I would have expected him have with Teyla given the dynamic to date has been played on a more personal friendship level. It’s difficult to explain but here goes; Sheppard’s reaction is the one I would have expected Mitchell to have had if Vala had kept the knowledge of a pregnancy to herself in mid-S10; or even a S1/S2 SG1 Jack O’Neill reaction had Sam Carter ever kept a pregnancy secret. Those relationships at those points in time were primarily being played as military commander/team member. Sheppard/Teyla has always seemed to me at least to have been played as a friendship with Sheppard viewing Teyla, as a member of his team, but equally as a friend and equal. That doesn’t come across in his reactions within this storyline and for me that’s why his characterisation here feels off.

      I acknowledge that there are attempts to explain within the dialogue – Teyla’s view that he was angry at not being told immediately, his own ‘this is exactly why’ statement when Teyla is woozy (with the implied underlying reason that he didn’t want to place her and the rest of his team potentially at risk because of her situation) but the dialogue, scripted reactions, acting/direction just don’t go anywhere close enough at providing a solid explanation for why he doesn’t ever express his concern for her as a friend. The last scene is great as he checks on her but it’s very little, very late to redress the balance.

      Sheppard’s characterisation aside, my only other complaint with this episode is minor; another Tapping-less episode means that Carter isn’t even referenced. If there is one thing I hope is corrected in Season 5 is that if an actor is absent that some attempt is made to reference the character anyway. That said, I’m going to stop banging on about it now.

      The rest of the episode is very well-executed. I loved the touches of humour with McKay – Ronon dragging him from the locker room, his reaction to being chosen by the Queen, his disgust at the Wraith birth. The rich history of how the Wraith cloning facility and its place in winning the war with the Lanteans is weaved into the story and doesn’t feel like exposition in the telling. The special effects and make-up outdo themselves. The pacing is perfect and I loved the teaser with its recap of the battle from the Wraith point of view without any real nod to Team Atlantis.

      Christopher Heyerdahl deserves a special mention as the newly named ‘Todd’. He and the writers have truly managed to create a Wraith that is an individual without their nature as a Wraith being compromised. Andee Frizzell also deserves heaps of praise for making each rendition of a Wraith Queen unique. All in all, these different Wraith characters are a great way of making the Wraith more relatable and giving them personality; it gives them a three-dimensional feel in the same way as Apophis and Ba’al gave personality and dimension to SG1’s enemy of the Goa’uld.

      So, Spoils of War is fundamentally a great Atlantis episode with a wonderful character story woven amongst the action. I said in my review of Submersion that I was still waiting for a great story that showcased Teyla as a character and with Spoils of War, I finally have it. Kudos to all: I thoroughly enjoyed it.
      sigpic
      Women of the Gate LJ Community.
      My Stargate Fanfiction. My LiveJournal.

      Comment


        #4
        After a couple of fast-moving and streamlined episodes, Spoils of War feels more down-to-earth. Although the episode is brought together by the central plot of the cloning complex, it branches off in many different directions and is much more diversified as a result.

        The central plot, sadly, suffers for this. The sense of danger when the team is creeping around a Wraith complex is, by this point, thoroughly gone. This kind of episode has been done before many times throughout Atlantis, and the result of this is that you know what will happen: the team will be ambushed, stunned, wake up in a cell, be rescued, accomplish the original goal, get out. This plot is starting to show its age, and it's a shame that the Wraith had to suffer through another of these at a time when they really need to be asserting themselves as the series' major villains again.

        Fortunately, the subplots of the episode are much stronger. The first of these of Teyla's pregnancy. Obviously, this is intended to be a major arc throughout the series, but it's good to know that this doesn't just mean that Teyla will be taking a back seat while the rest of the team go on missions. In this episode, both Teyla and Sheppard were forced to revise their point of view. When Teyla realises that she came very close to losing her child, partially through her own recklessness, she is able to accept that John may have had a point after all.
        But the episode avoids turning itself into "a lesson for Teyla", and John too is forced to revise his position when he needs Teyla to control the Hive, to disable the Queen and ultimately rescue his team. He admits that he may have overreacted, and both characters come away with a better understanding of each other’s concerns. It is this fact that both parties are forced to look at things from a different perspective that makes this part of the episode so good.

        The other subplot of the episode, is, of course, information about the Wraith. It is good to know that after the diversion of the Asurans, the real antagonists of Atlantis are starting to emerge again. The information about how they reproduce, both normally and their cloning method, is interesting. In most cases, it feels naturally placed and not forced into the episode. However, one scene in particular, when even the writers seem forced to admit it's an infodump, is slightly cringeworthy.

        An interesting point is the way this episode seems to blur the line between a stand-alone episode and a multi-episode story arc. This is something that is becoming quite noticeable in Season 4 of Atlantis, and is definitely a good thing as far as I'm concerned. This Mortal Coil, Be All My Sins and Spoils of War are all connected, but not overly strongly as to require each episode be watched in sequence. This allows for a greater degree of continuity, and draws together the season well.

        In conclusion, although the main plot of the episode was notably weak and somewhat predictable, the various subplots were far more appealing. Information about the Wraith is interesting, and the ongoing theme of Teyla’s pregnancy is well explored in Spoils. On the whole, Spoils of War stands as a solid, but uninspiring episode of Season 4, and does a good job of maintaining the quality of earlier episodes.

        Comment


          #5
          A touch of wraith history and their individualism is shown in Spoils of War, as another episode struggles with who's in charge and how pregnancy will affect Teyla's team participation.

          It was good to see someone had the idea of a secondary mission to nab some ZPMs while our heroes were imploding the planet. It also gave a reason for some ships getting caught in the implosion though there seemed to be ample time for escape once the orbiting replicators disintegrated towards the planet.

          Nice twist having Todd insist they are not leaving the battle scene until he gets those ZPMs, even with his pilot whining about imminent destruction. Later, Todd is the one whining about imminent destruction when Teyla and Loren won't leave without the others.

          The idea of wraith brotherhood continued as the Wraith who ordered the queen to be awakened then listed sound reasons for keeping Todd around. It didn't track with me that there weren't any cocooned food provisions on either hive ship. Did they really expect to make hundreds of clones and not feed their queen?

          Graphics and make-up of wraiths, their vessels inside and out, and the hive planet were spectacular and detailed. The queen intwined in her chair with the hoses to pass along her DNA was displayed well.

          Kudos to the actor who portrayed a wraith soldier being birthed.

          Seemed like a touch of Star Wars theme music when our group entered the hive and another touch when they find out about the Wraith Clone War with the Ancients.

          Another glaring absence of Carter, the alleged Commander of Atlantis. The team did not go on a mission without consulting Weir, if just to mention her o.k. In this episode they go on two: checking out a hive ship and searching a secret wraith base. They even throw in a scene with Sheppard returning to Atlantis and having a discussion with Zelenka for the purpose of delivering a one liner--". . . and that's not the hard part." The scene flowed but was unnecessary unless it was with the commander for mission approval.

          Also, I can't figure out why Maj. Loren tells Col. John to keep looking when John informs him of finding bodies. Who's in charge?

          The conversations between John and Teyla worked well throughout. In the last scene where Teyla seeks to be held, I had more of a sense of soldier to soldier comfort than friendship or romance. Like Weir hugging O'Neill when he agreed to let her have charge again over Atlantis after they wiped out the Replicators from the city in Return II. They'd been through a lot regaining the city and O'Neill hesitated before reciprocating the hug, as did John.

          Nice concept of pregnancy giving Teyla enhanced abilities to work hive ship controls and both minds working to subdue the queen.

          Didn't work for me that they didn't all shoot the queen once they knew she was being controlled by Teyla and they had their guns. And since when does six shots from a pistol kill even a lowly no face wraith, let alone a queen? Ronon still has plenty of aggression for taking out Todd, but he never even draws his weapon against the queen. Doesn't fit. Nor does it fit that taking out the queen was not considered as an option when the team realized the extensiveness of the hive.

          The typical male to pregnant female dialogue between Ronon and Teyla as she pedals, played fine and added to the skepticism of Teyla's continuing to go on missions.

          I still laugh out loud when Ronon hauls McKay out of the locker room so John and Teyla can argue. McKay left on his own after her dizzy spell on the ship.

          Maybe the scene with Teyla and Loren is unnecessary, but it is nice to see development between secondary and primary characters. It was a natural conversation for this setting of waiting for others and we learn of Teyla's apprehensiveness about her motherhood.

          I want to thank the director for not shining Sheppard's light directly into the camera lens, though he did get close. I have yet to figure out why directors think it is good work flashing lights directly into viewers' eyes. I miss nearly the whole visual experience of the scenes when they do this. If I was a team member I wouldn't be experiencing lights directed into my eyes.

          Spoils of War is a believable and workable wraith history and wraith Todd has worked with our heroes so much they are not afraid to turn their backs on him or insist on keeping him bound.

          Comment


            #6
            Spoils of War

            After the episode that was "BAMSR", we get our very own spoils of war which involves Wraith, Teyla and our beloved crew in action once again...

            It starts off in your usual fashion; team discovers that one of their allies hive ships is drifting in space, team goes to explore it, there's a very mysterious sense of what happened. You can tell that there are going to be a lot of questions about what's going on or what happened; at least there was had they not decided to reveal some of their intentions in the teaser of the episode. While I admit that linking it to the previous episode is cool and seeing them in action is interesting; it just ruins much of the mystery in exchange for an awesome scene that sets apart something else. I miss the days when sci-fi just focused on a mysterious ship without any foreshadowing beforehand, that would let us get engaged in the story at hand and feel what the crew is feeling. Anyways, though the teaser ruins much of the surprise, it's still mysterious because it contains those things like the small details that can't be easily explained. The mystery is cut short however, and it transitions itself into an adventure where the entire crew is involved (even Teyla) and the Wraith manage to get some newfound exploration. The crew definitely seems to have the adventure thing down as usual, working together, looking around with caution, having each others backs, reacting appropriately to what they see and everybody plays their role well as usual; judging from how far we've gotten in Season 4, it's nice to see an episode where a crew is on an adventure except... this doesn't seem to be the adventure we hoped for.


            Adventure time.

            Part of the problem is that the Wraith has lost all of the scariness and are essentially common villains... acting as if they're in a school play; for example, whenever a Wraith threatens to feed on someone, they do it in an melodramatic way emphasizing nuance, style and posturing in a way that causes me to not giggle at them and not take them seriously. The environments are a problem as well, they try to make it look scary and alien but it comes across as cheesy and somewhat overdone with it's lighting, web plastering and detailing; looking like a science exhibit more then a sci-fi setting and this is supposed to be a race with a certain creepy and questionable quality. Another problem has to do with the pacing of the episode combined with the performances of the crew. For what can be considered to be the majority of the episode, the scenes just dragged along with barely anything happening, it was just shot after shot after shot of the crew walking around with only some scenes (action scenes and scenes that reveal the inner workings of the Wraith.) that help break up the monotony; scenes that don't make much of an impact. What we see of the crew is also something to be desired as much of them sleepwalk throughout the episode; they do try to put in a sense of energy with their routines, McKay's jokes spicing things up, Sheppard's quotes being enjoyable, Ronan being Ronan but it seems like they're aware of what they're trying to do and much of it ends up being stale, you can even predict (with 100% accuracy) that McKay is the one that's possibly going to be fed on.

            Surprisingly, Teyla comes across as the best character here with many of the scenes exploring her pregnancy being the best moments in the episode. You can just see the character of Teyla inside her, who doesn't want to sit down and keep pushing herself despite what she's told. The scenes with Sheppard are perhaps the most interesting out of these scenes mainly because it reveals stuff in both characters; Sheppard's need to protect the crew comes here the most because there is a sense that he thinks Teyla isn't in a position to go out and we don't know whether or not it's because of a desire to protect her or because of the baby that's inside her. She puts up an amazingly strong performance, utilizing every ounce of ferocity that she can while utilizing a subtle sense of sweetness; though she may be underused at times, she shows that she is not willing to be pushed to the background so easily and she even gives herself a sense of power that makes her essential in nearly every scene, scenes such as the one where she interacts with the Wraith Queen playing like a face off between her will and determination against her strength and power. The nature of a young life being influenced raises the stakes for Teyla, it makes her more determined but at the same time, more vulnerable as well. Every pain she feels, every word that is said, you'll be on the edge of your seat just hoping for the outcome and hoping that it'll at least come out good. Her plot is well focused, well acted and it even ends on the sweetest note it can possibly get, showing a possible mother side of Teyla we're only beginning to experience.


            Teyla in command.

            While the title seems accurate, nobody seems to reap the "Spoils of War" The adventure sounds promising but only comes across as middling in execution, not everybody seems excited enough to pick up the slack and there are only a few interesting scenes that would grab anybodies attention. The best thing about this episode has to be Teyla who's pregnancy plot is put to good use and who provides an essential part to many of the episodes best moments; the rest doesn't seem to compare. It's a shame; it has a good concept, it has interesting stuff but it's all a reminder of what could of been. If only they could of enhanced the pacing, made the characters awesome and at least extract one ounce of scariness from the Wraith...

            6.0/10
            Back from the grave.

            Comment

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