The Hive (211)

[spg_1983]

I saw all sorts of side effects, maybe the part where he started acting crazy around Wier? High Blood pressure, passing out, all sorts of side effects. The enzyme appears to boost aggresive tendencies and strength first in a user and then go on to effect them mentally and then physically.

yes there were eventual side efects, but my point was that he took a massive massive dose of the enzyme all at once, as much as ford has in his system and his body just accepted it. that kind of massive overdose should have killed him instantly

We now know that the Wraith have human followers and that the Wraith are basically high evolved predators and very territorial. With the shortage of food in the galaxy, its no wonder that the Wraith would fight among themselves where food is concerned. Its not inconcivable that a Wraith Queen would send a follower to infiltrate another hive ship to find out where they are going in order to secure a larger source of food. As far as the telepathic link, didn't they say in the part one that the Waith had limited hive to hive contact and were trying to block it all together because of Teyla?

yes they have limited contact because of teyla, but they had to be communicating to some extent to coordinate the culling. Plus why wouldnt the Wraith lady on the second ship at least give the first one a mental call just to say "What the hell?" when the dart started attacking? one dart wasnt going to do that much damage in the few seconds it would take to call her up. One single dart on an unfocused attack run is the grand scheme to destroy the ship? if the wraith had half a brain it is painfully obvious the dart was acting on its own.

Really? I saw the shield activate both times and the worm hole form behind the shield before they chevron guy confirmed the IDC.

when sheppard and ronin and teyla returned at the end. the gate started dialing and weir came out and asked, "Who is it?" the tech paused and you could hear the gate still dialing, and he said "Its sheppard's IDC." then you hear the last chevron lock and the gate engage. He said it was sheppard before the gate had even finished dialing.

[MasySyma]

I despised The Lost Boys, so I was pleasantly suprised by the episode. It was not my favorite SGA moment, but it was ok.

I'm not enjoying the new Ford. I like Ford; I hate Super Ford. I hope the writers either find a way to return Ford to his original self or leave him gone. The actor does fantastic, but I just hate the character. He's billigerant, whiny, and a general nusiance.

That said, I loved McKay. He made the hard choice, and I loved the character development, albeit breifly, of Carson. He understands drug withdrawal . . . Interesting.

Teyla and Ronon were ok, but Ronon, never a favorite of mine, was better in this episode, and I was grateful that Sheppard spotted the hot, alien, spy almost as fast as everyone else. I can't accuse him of Kirking this time because he looked confused, not pleased when she tried to cuddle.

Weir was fine, and yes, all SG generals and team leaders always encourage extra rescue missions for the key teams, but if they didn't we wouldn't have a show.

All in all, the episode worked, but it was a bit too cliche. Ok, the Wraith have human followers. Duh. The alien girl was a spy. Yep, we knew that. And the team didn't die. Given the need for a Season 3, they obviously weren't dead. Uck.

The episode was ok, but I'll look forward to Michael instead.

[Arative]

yes there were eventual side efects, but my point was that he took a massive massive dose of the enzyme all at once, as much as ford has in his system and his body just accepted it. that kind of massive overdose should have killed him instantly

It wasn't that soon after he took that he started to feel the side effects. I figure 10 minutes or so from the time he took the enzyme to the time he gated back to Atlantis. Rather poor analogy coming up but I can take like 3 shots of tequlia in 10 minutes and not really feel anything for about 20 minutes, well 10 minutes if its been a while since I ate something. Just as with anything entering the body via needle, breathed or ingested it takes time for it to spread throughout the system. Now the fact that he got the super strength right away is rather suspect because it should have taken some time to get into his system and then he should have gotten the other side effects at the same time but then that wouldn't make for much of a good scene.

yes they have limited contact because of teyla, but they had to be communicating to some extent to coordinate the culling. Plus why wouldnt the Wraith lady on the second ship at least give the first one a mental call just to say "What the hell?" when the dart started attacking? one dart wasnt going to do that much damage in the few seconds it would take to call her up. One single dart on an unfocused attack run is the grand scheme to destroy the ship? if the wraith had half a brain it is painfully obvious the dart was acting on its own.

Well as far as the Queen on the first ship, the follwers of the queen from the other ship just shot her, so maybe she wasn't accepting any calls and then a dart from the first queen started firing on the second queen and the 2nd queen was like the hell with you, your not talking to me and now your firing on me so all of the 2nd queen's dart's started firing on the dart's from first queen and things esclated from there. At least thats what I took away from the scene.

when sheppard and ronin and teyla returned at the end. the gate started dialing and weir came out and asked, "Who is it?" the tech paused and you could hear the gate still dialing, and he said "Its sheppard's IDC." then you hear the last chevron lock and the gate engage. He said it was sheppard before the gate had even finished dialing.

Yeah I just watched that scene again, I heard the kawoosh sound and him saying its sheppard at virtually the same time, looks like the got the sound effects about 5-10 seconds off.

[FoolishPleasure]

This was an "okay" episode. I give it a "B".

McKay on drugs was interesting and humorous. What was really intriging was Beckett's words. I get the feeling sweet Carson has had some probs of his own in the past (wants to hug him).

Ford - Goodness, Rainbow has turned into quite a good actor, given the chance. I sincerely hope we have not seen the last of him. This is too good a character to lose completely.

Ronon - I love the guy, and the knife scene was a blast.

Clowns - I hate the buggers too! Nice touch and very funny.

Good to see Lorne and Zelenka, even though they didn't have much to do. Wier was good, especially when Rodney came through, alone.

Sheppard was, well, a bit stale. When he got stuck with the pretty girl I almost threw my soda at the TV - So he didn't do the "kirkin" this week, but the writers were, by having another young gal come on to him. Come on guys. . enough of this.

The down side for this episode - I felt we had the opportunity to really have a fun/interesting discussion with the Queen, but her scenes were minimal. The Wraith are looking dumber and dumber. The only interesting one this year was in "Condemned", and I'd really like to see "Shawn" (as fans have named him) again.

Dumbest plot hole - Teyla actually was quite good in this episode, but why is she able to sense a hive ship approaching, and feel individual Wraith emotions, but she can't sense the Wraith in the next room in Ford's cave during "Lost Boys"?

[Hyperspace]

Not bad of an ep, I liked the battle scenes, and liked the resolution and plotting. Hope to see Ford again soon!

[Atlantis1]

What Sheppard said at the end of the show left it open.

[Qasim]

Yes I did

[greytop]

I like it. I did figure when Neara was working for Wraith.

[Quinn Mallory]

I echo the sentiment that I want Ford back in Season 3 in some capacity.

[AnonyMouse]

Gah. There was so much potential for this episode. Shep and the Hive Queen barely got so much as a flirt on. I understand that there's only so much you can do with 44 minutes to play with, but ... For one, what was up with McKay going from hopped up and in mortal danger to squeaky clean and reporting for duty in one scene break? For another, the man nearly killed himself to get back to Atlantis in a hurry and rescue his teammates, but then takes the time to get fully dressed in uniform and chat amiably about his experience before he gets around to reporting the situation to Elizabeth ...? Unh-uh, not buying that. At the very least, he could have told Carson, once he was lucid, or grabbed a headset from the Doc. All of the tension built up by McKay's desperate choice got a wee bit smashed by the screenwriters there.

I also want to know why the team camaraderie and mutual concern/appreciation has evaporated this season. Again, McKay risks his life for the team and no one even mentions it. The attitudes of Weir and Sheppard towards him super annoyed me in this ep. The actors are good (and DH was brilliant in this, per usual, I thought), the writing was good enough (the clowns ... they just keep sending them in), so that leaves me to cant a hairy eye toward the director(s).

Nng.

[CalmStorm]

Dumbest plot hole - Teyla actually was quite good in this episode, but why is she able to sense a hive ship approaching, and feel individual Wraith emotions, but she can't sense the Wraith in the next room in Ford's cave during "Lost Boys"?

Maybe the reason she was unable to sense the wraith in the next room was because she was more focused on being kidnapped with a bag over her head and then the shock of seeing Ford. There is also a chance that she could sense them but ignored the feeling or found it confusing due to the circumstances. Also, and more likely, perhaps since the wraith seemed to be unconcious, there was nothing to detect as there were no emotions or communications occuring between the captured wraith.

There could also be the possibilty that her ablity was negatively affected by the wraith enzyme. It did not seem that she was able to "read" the wraith in the beginning of the episode when they were captured, but more so as the episode moved forward and the effects of the wraith enzyme started the wear off.

As for being able to sense individual wraith.....I guess practice makes perfect. When she first learned she had the ability to sense the wraith, it was a shock and confusing. However, as time went on, she conected to the wraith several times during 'The Gift' and then again in 'The Siege'. So it could be effort on her part to develop the skill.

[xkawaiix]

I think that over all, The Hive was a good episode. Not as good as the first half of s2 or the Eye/Storm but good.

[NotAscended]

I also want to know why the team camaraderie and mutual concern/appreciation has evaporated this season. Again, McKay risks his life for the team and no one even mentions it. The attitudes of Weir and Sheppard towards him super annoyed me in this ep.

I think you summarized the problem really well there. In this ep it seemed like all the characters were not working or thinking as a team. McKay got no real recognition for trying to save his team. Plus, when they returned, Shep just says "Sorry, we're late" when his first thought should have been "We've got to go get McKay." Except for the short scene between Teyla and Ronan in the cell in which Teyla shows concern for Ford and Ronan gives her a Ronan-style pep talk, there wasn't really any sense that they were very concerned about the fates of their teammates. That's been one of the strong points of the series (esp. in S1), and it's lacking in this episode.

[ancientalliance]

Good epidsode... could have been a bit more tense though in the sense of 'we really need to get out of here' when they were on the Hive ship... I thought the parts while Mckay was trying to get it and being on the enzyme were hilarious though...

[Vapor]

Atlantis- "The Hive"

Well... it wasn't terrible.

I think "The Hive" is yet another episode that suffers from Part 1 Envy Syndrome. Basically, Part 1 sets up an awesome cliffhanger, and a lot of provocative ideas from a writing standpoint. You have drug addicts, superhumans, a Wraith Hive Ship, and people being held captive all over the place. Problem is, when you get to Part 2, then comes the painful process of trying to get us out of all of that, and make it seem like it was all suppose to go like this from the beginning (which, more times than not, it seems, wasn't planned out until much later).

I don't know if "The Lost Boys" and "The Hive" were planned at the same time, but it doesn't come off that way. I just can't imagine them automatically thinking, when they were working on Part 1, "the best way to get them out of this is to make McKay go crackhead."

And that whole McKay situation is a good example of another aspect of the whole multi-parter problem. You get these seemingly great ideas, but you know you're gonna have to spend a lot of time with them to really sell them. But, since you're only got Part 2 left to deal with, it becomes an issue. You have to rush through it so we can get back to the reason we did the whole McKay-on-drugs thing to begin with (in other words, saving Shep & Friends).

What, on another show, could have been a whole episode on its own, becomes a subplot to an ep that's arleady got a whole lot more on its mind. I mean, the idea of characters using the enzyme, and becoming addicted, and going through withdawl could have made a nice ep by itself, but when you squash it into what was already there, it just doesn't hit me like I would have liked.

Anyway, the Wraith Queen was pretty spiffy. I can't be sure, but she does look a lot like the woman that played the Caretaker in the series premiere. Nice. I love that so many look so much alike. And, even though this had already happened before this ep, thank the Gods they changed the look of the big Wraith Stunners. The new ones look much nicer.

So, these Wraith have Humans that worship them... Hm. See, if this was just its own show, totally disconnected from the SG francise, I would have thought this was a fascinating development. But, since it isn't its own show, then I have to point out the eye-twitchingly annoying fact that the whole "Humans worship aliens" thing has been done, and within the same damn franchise too. I can only hope that not all the Wraith are like this, and this was just some really wierd unorthodoxed sect or something. Otherwise, that's just too much for me.

And ya know what else is too much for me? Dr. Weir's make-up.... I'm sorry, but I just feel like they should tone it back to what it used to be. It's not a matter of them being on Atlantis and away from every little fashion thing they want to have with them (although you could make that argument). It's really just that I like her the old way. I don't really care to see her so... glamorized like that. It's the same thing as Teyla. Actually moreso, since she' an alien.

Okay... I'm done complaining now. The ep wasn't all bad.

I was loving the show toward the end, once Sheppard scoops everyone up in the Wraith Dart and flies out during the culling, and the oh-so-cool Daedalus battles the Hives. Loved how Shep caused the two Hives to go at each other-that was pretty cool.

It also brings up some interesting ideas about how the Wraith operate. Teyla remarks that they're more territorial than was once believed. And, as out-of-nowhere that concept came from, at least it gives us something new to look forward to in terms of the enemy and the whole "mission" of the season. The best way to fight the Wraith is to let them continue to fight each other. Sweet.

All in all, the episode didn't completely suck, but it doesn't do much to change my opinion of season two. It's just not nearly as strong as season one. Hopefully, with the return of the Genii, and some other interesting stuff I'm seeing in promos, the rest of S2 will be better. I give "The Hive" a C. Good. Not great.