The Wraith/Atavus from Earth Final Conflict

[KreeApophis]

I was gonna post this a while ago but I'm just now getting a screen name. The first time I learnt about the Wraith being the new "enemy" I immediately thought in my opinion, that the Wraith idea was borrowed from the "Atavus", the dominant enemy species from "Earth: Final Conflict". Here's a brief picture of who the Atavus are according to an EFC website:


"The Atavus are sentient parasites. They feed off Human life force, or Chi, which allows them to sustain immortality.

The Atavus are pathologically carnivorous, hedonistic, exotic, and erotic. They have human form but are more quick, agile, intelligent, and unstoppable. They feed with a "cleave" -- blade-like extensions from their fingers that illuminate and penetrate the skin of a Human, draining it of its Chi

hmmm, sounds like the Wraith to me, and I know the Atavus have been there way before the thoughts of starting up SG Atlantis. I'm curious about other opinions about this though.

[aAnubiSs]

From the description they sound atleast siblings =)

but Wraith erotic.... dunno about that one.

[aschen]

"The Atavus are sentient parasites. They feed off Human life force, or Chi, which allows them to sustain immortality.

The Atavus are pathologically carnivorous, hedonistic, exotic, and erotic. They have human form but are more quick, agile, intelligent, and unstoppable. They feed with a "cleave" -- blade-like extensions from their fingers that illuminate and penetrate the skin of a Human, draining it of its Chi

They sound more like Goa'ulds than Wraith to me. Although we don't know them too well yet, they're too damn scary looking to be hedonistic.

[KreeApophis]

From the description they sound atleast siblings =)

but Wraith erotic.... dunno about that one.

...what I'm trying to say is that they "borrowed" the Atavus idea and used it to make the Wraith. Apparently they took out some characteristics of the Atavus such as their erotic behaviour, but still the Wraith and Atavus are awfully similar.

[Ugly Pig]

...what I'm trying to say is that they "borrowed" the Atavus idea and used it to make the Wraith.

Or they based the Wraith on the idea of vampires. This seems to be a more popular story...

[KreeApophis]

They sound more like Goa'ulds than Wraith to me. Although we don't know them too well yet, they're too damn scary looking to be hedonistic.

why do they sound like Goa'ulds. The Atavus are humanoid, the Goa'uld are snake-like creatures.

[Persephone]

I think the idea was that they sounded more like Goa'uld because of their lifestyle rather than their physiology

As for me, while I would certainly say there are similarities between the Wraith and these Atavus, I don't think it's anything conclusive. Thus far, the Wraith motivation seems pretty straightforward: Eat people. Really eat them, not just their life force.

[KreeApophis]

I think the idea was that they sounded more like Goa'uld because of their lifestyle rather than their physiology

As for me, while I would certainly say there are similarities between the Wraith and these Atavus, I don't think it's anything conclusive. Thus far, the Wraith motivation seems pretty straightforward: Eat people. Really eat them, not just their life force.

the Wraith DO NOT eat people. They suck the life out of people leaving the body lifeless. They DO NOT eat human flesh. Thats why I fail to see the comparison between Wraith and Vampires. Vampires actually suck human blood. Trust me, the Wraith idea was gotten from the Atavus species in the SciFi channel series "Earth" Final Conflict"

[Teal'c]

...what I'm trying to say is that they "borrowed" the Atavus idea and used it to make the Wraith. Apparently they took out some characteristics of the Atavus such as their erotic behaviour, but still the Wraith and Atavus are awfully similar.

Yeah, because I'm sure the Atavus were an original idea

[uknesvuinng]

the Wraith DO NOT eat people. They suck the life out of people leaving the body lifeless. They DO NOT eat human flesh. Thats why I fail to see the comparison between Wraith and Vampires. Vampires actually suck human blood. Trust me, the Wraith idea was gotten from the Atavus species in the SciFi channel series "Earth" Final Conflict"

The Atavus were just alien vampires, hardly original themselves. They weren't even as good as the original Atavus (Atavi?) from S2-S4. S5 suffered from a lot of budget and other problems, as I recall, which is why it went straight downhill.

When Col. Sumner was being fed upon, he seemed to be bleeding around the edges. I think the Wraith probably feed upon the plasma of the blood and/or some other important bodily fluids, while using some kind of compound to artificially age the victim so that more of whatever they consume is produced. At least I hope its something believable like that and not consuming lifeforce which causes people to age. That's almost as bad as the Voyager episode "Threshold" in which the Janeway and Paris get evolved quickly after hitting "infinite" velocity (apparently the universe loops back around because he ends up going to the other end of the galaxy and elsewhere, all the while travelling in a straight line, only to end up a short distance away from the start). At the end, they end up lizard creatures that are much smaller than humans, and they are placed in a radiation chamber of sorts, and revert back to human form, magically regaining mass they didn't have.

[EYU86]

When Col. Sumner was being fed upon, he seemed to be bleeding around the edges. I think the Wraith probably feed upon the plasma of the blood and/or some other important bodily fluids, while using some kind of compound to artificially age the victim so that more of whatever they consume is produced. At least I hope its something believable like that and not consuming lifeforce which causes people to age. That's almost as bad as the Voyager episode "Threshold" in which the Janeway and Paris get evolved quickly after hitting "infinite" velocity (apparently the universe loops back around because he ends up going to the other end of the galaxy and elsewhere, all the while travelling in a straight line, only to end up a short distance away from the start). At the end, they end up lizard creatures that are much smaller than humans, and they are placed in a radiation chamber of sorts, and revert back to human form, magically regaining mass they didn't have.

I think the blood came from the Wraith digging her nails into his chest.

[Persephone]

the Wraith DO NOT eat people. They suck the life out of people leaving the body lifeless. They DO NOT eat human flesh. Thats why I fail to see the comparison between Wraith and Vampires. Vampires actually suck human blood. Trust me, the Wraith idea was gotten from the Atavus species in the SciFi channel series "Earth" Final Conflict"

Well, I've only gotten to see it once, so I'm just going off of first impressions. I haven't read much about the Wraith, just sort of drew my own conclusions from what I saw. When she had her hand on Sumner I figured she was killing him and trying to use her mental powers to torture him into revealing more information and that she was going to eat him after he was dead. Just one question, though-- if they don't eat flesh, what was with the stripped skeleton guy from ten minutes before? He was chiefly responsible for said assumption.

(I'm not saying you're wrong-- you probably know better than me. Just trying to clear some of this stuff up for my own benefit)

[uknesvuinng]

Just one question, though-- if they don't eat flesh, what was with the stripped skeleton guy from ten minutes before?

The end of the aging process after he was fed upon.

[SGTLopez]

. Just one question, though-- if they don't eat flesh, what was with the stripped skeleton guy from ten minutes before? )

He was just finger licking good I guess.

[vikingjedi]

From what I saw, the wraith somehow literally take your "life force" and cause you to age. I guess they stop when there is no energy left, which would mean when the person is dead (just a skeleton remaining).

As for the atavus, they were very similar to the Wraith. The only difference is the Wraith are scary, and they seem like they're truely a formidable evil species. The atavus on the other hand, were pretty much a joke. They looked like the Cardassians from Star Trek and they had these "claws" made of energy (if I remember right). I stopped watching EFC after they debuted.