The Defiant One (112)

[alz0rz]

Very observant Welcome to the forum

I remember that part and actually thought of a movie but didnt I've never watched star trek

[Blueicus]

I believe the quote "Remember where we parked" is from Star Trek 4, when they land the Klingon Bird of Prey in the San Francisco park and activate its cloaking device.

[CrackedButter]

Thats something I like about SGA, it quotes othef sci-fi nicely and doesn't take itself seriously.

[MadJaffa]

I just felt like watching the Episode again and noticed a cute little Star Trek reference (again, another ST reference... Any more of these and they'll be seriously overdoing it)

"He's in my ship" - Shep
"Who do you think you are; Captain Kirk?" - McKay

Right after this, Shep notices the ice, because of my tv, I thought it was just some mineral and I thought "Oh god, he's going to make gunpowder, oh wait he already has a gun."

[Standback]

I'm afraid I didn't enjoy this episode much... I'm really not fond of the Wraith, who I think have yet to rise above "Oooooo, we're creepy life-sucking vampires... ooooooo.... life-sucking, y'hear? We're creeeeeepy..." Ahem.

The impression I'm getting of the Wraith so far is horror-movie baddies, whose strength is in their numbers and, well, strength. This is, to me, a poor choice, because it doesn't lend itself well to interesting stories about fighting the Wraith. "What're we up against this episode?" "Well, you know how we fought against the Wraith a few episodes ago? Well, today it's the same thing... but there's more of 'em." Or "Today it's the same thing, but they've got bigger guns." Or whatever. They (IMHO) lack the complexity, the uniqueness, the level of detail, and the depth of character that should be serving as a springboard for original, fascinating and exciting episode plots.

SGA has done a wonderful job in other areas. They've been focusing a great deal on the effect the Wraith have had on other civilizations, which has lots of room for originality and complexity, and also gives a real sense of consequence - each episode is important, because look, what's going on in the main storyline has massive repurcussions on everyone else in the galaxy. What SGA do means something, carries beyond each individual episode. We've also been introduced to the Genii, who have all the complexity, character and deviousness the Wraith lack. SGAs doing very, very well... except with the B-Movie Vampire Army.

"The Defiant One" did a great job with the SGA team. Sheppard's grim determination and resourcefulness are well-done. McKay's neurotic heroism, and Gaul's sacrificial suicide, were excellent. But the Wraith character was still just a flat bogeyman, easily summed up by:

Defiant Cannibal Wraith: You cannot defeat me! I will kill you! You will all be-- GAK!

This is why I found the episode disappointing. The Wraith look like SGA's main baddies, and I'm just waiting for them to actually make them interesting. But "The Defiant One" was a plain horror episode. "Stranded on a desert planet, stalked and hunted by a life-sucking monster who cannot be killed..." I get the feeling that "oooo, creeeeepy"-type horror is all the Wraith are going to be, and we're not gonna see them gaining much character anytime soon. And that, especially when compared to all the great things Atlantis does have to boast, is a cryin' shame.

[GatetheWay]

I don't know if this was mentioned before but did anyone notice that McKay's jacket was a different color. It was blue and a kind of dark gray instead of his usual blue and little yellowish gray. His pants were also different to match his jacket. Just thought it was interesting. In my opinion I like that color better then his usual.

[Lt. Aiden Ford]

[Major Tyler]

LOL, I'm stealing that iris one!

[Carbito]

Quick question:
That shield that the Wraith activated around the puddle jumper, was that generated from the ship or from some sort of Wraith device he had on him?

[aschen]

My thread was better.

[sshspooky]

i don't think the bugs can be classified as definately different. were they a different size? hard to tell on a small screen, but then all bugs vary slightly in size so this would be no surprise. didn't go through things? they didn't in the SG-1 episode much, and didn't go through people until they were angered. Wraith could just squash them in his hand? well, to me i like the suggestion that the wraith ws able to absorb their energy so they couldn't just go straight through him. could explain why he decided to use up his time squashing them. also they could just bea similar species that have slightly diferent properties. i'd guess they went with the slowy designs as on a tv screen a glowy bug stands out to the viewer, while a small black bug does not.

[JackDaniels]

I really enjoyed this episode. It was a strong follow-up episode to The Eye and had a lot of McKay and Shephard so I'm happy.
Oh bless little Nyan, comes back only to get himself sucked on by a wraith and then shoots himself just to be done. The bit where he shut up because McKay told him too was good, as was the bit where he showed there was obvioulsy a lot of rivalry between the two of them.
The wraith was class, though when Shepard mentioned he thought there was something different about this wraith i thought they may have expanded upon this, as he didn't accept McKay's belief that they regenerate quicker if they've more recently fed.
Those little bugs very similar to those from 'Prodigy' (they obviously knew everyone would make the comparison and its noteable that Peter DeLuise directed both episodes) seemed annoying and pointless at first, but it was great how they were used to get the bad guy, even if they didn't deserve to die in the process.
There was very little from the other main cast members (starting to feel really sorry for Ltnt Ford esp cos he never does anything except get excited about weapons and go on rescue missions and speak to people over the radio) We at least know that Teyla and Dr Weir have big eppys coming up.

All in all a good episode, and showed some good military tactics from John and some clear growth in McKay's character. He wants to fight as well as think (I thunk there's a little Daniel Jackson to him) and i for one would like to see more of that. I also love the banter that they've got going between the two.
My only complaint is i feel Teyla is becoming a little too 'Teal'c for me. Her misunderstandings of what's being said, and ger stoically standing there with her weapon saying not a damn thing at all. There were some way underused characters and some pretty obvious wraith fodder.

[Anubis]

Didn't the orange, glowy bugs look like those we see on SG-1, though I can't remember which episode. I liked how they kept annoying Sheppard when he was fighting the Wraith.

Sheppard showed some good military skills there and I'm kinda glad he got shot, just to show that not everyone is perfect. The Wraith are very hard to defeat after a recent feeding -- very. He must of took about 1,000 bullets, a grenade and a few more bullets from pistols too and then finally being destroyed by the Ancient Drone.

[TheWarrior]

Quick question:
That shield that the Wraith activated around the puddle jumper, was that generated from the ship or from some sort of Wraith device he had on him?

I thought about that as well - was it a device that was in the Puddle Jumper and the Wraith then put round his wrist or was it a device the Wraith had. Most likely it will be the first idea - it was a device in the Jumper he put on his arm. But then - how do McKay and Sheppard get into the Jumper to go home - as the sheild deactivation is on the wristband that got blown up.

Now the shield might have collapsed when the device was blown up, but still the device that activated the shield was not the same device that the team had to cloack the Jumper.

That was one nitpick I had with the episode as well as McKay running out of Ammo, he should have had another clip when he ran out full stop. He had the clip in his berratta - the spare clip he carries and he was given the clip from the dead scientist, so he should have had another clip to put rounds in the Wraith.

Overall a good episode - shame not much Ford, Weir, Tayla etc.
I didn't think Sheppard would have allowed the scientists to go round on there own even if the ship was deserted.

McKay has deffo changed since he first appeared on our screens in "48 Hours" he has become more rounded as a character and a team player.

[Na'onac]

I loved this episode, I thouight that it was very funny in places and nice to see different angles to Mackay and Sheppard as well as the technical side of the Wraith.

To answer the nit pick of the remote and forcefield around the jumper:

Mackay could probably mess around with his own remote to decloak the ship and change it to disable the force field set up by the wraith. That's my opinion anyway!