Michael (218)

[redfox000]

What was your guys thoughts on Michael?

I thought it was a little naive of them to think that there would not be consequences to keeping Michael alive. Now they are stuck with the Wraith knowing about Atlantis and probably on the way again. What would have been the harm in keeping him in Atlantis. Could he really communicate with the Wraith if that part of him was being suppressed? At least in Atlantis they had better security facilities. And what was up with just the velro on the bed keeping his hands down?

Two questions.

1) How do you think they will be able to defend Atlantis now?
2) Do you think we will see any sympathy from Michael the next time we meet him?

[TheWarrior]

Just to let you know.

There is an official Gateworld.net episode thread on "Michael" where there are tons of fans opinions on the episode.

Check it out here

[redfox000]

I'll check it out. thx.

[redfox000]

Well... not that I think that the Wraith are so wonderful that no-one should do them any harm. It's war, and war often calls for desperate measures. But did they have the right to take an individual and force him to undergo this drastic changes which, and let's try to be realistic, won't have a happy ending? I mean, they couldn't really expect that this will work and that he'll be a happy member of the Atlantis crew/earth citizen from then on, could they?

Why not. Voyager did it with 7 of 9 who used to be a borg. It might have been intresting to have a member of Atlantis who used to be a wraith. They could provide valuble input.

[FallenAngelII]

I'm not sure if this is going to make sense, and whether it's tied in with the current discussion...

Michael's memory was just wiped clean during the transformation from Wraith to human.

So, when you can't a remember a thing of who you were before the "trauma" isn't it logical then that you start picking up things from the people around you.

They fed him stories which he believed to be through and reacted accordingly. Though Michael always felt something was off otherwise he wouldn't have told Heightmeyer that.

We don't really know if it was from the retrovirus or from them somehow blocking his memory using some weird drug or technology. >_>' After all, they kept giving him more. So if the drug makes you forget things, he'd keep forgetting everything again and again and again.

[entil2001]

Plot elements from the first half of the season finally come back into play in this episode, and it’s a welcome change of pace. The writers were struggling since the less-than-stellar Lt. Ford subplot last reared its ugly head, and part of that was a lack of focus. If this episode is any indication, the intention is to shake things up a little just in time for the season finale.

If I were going to emphasize the negative a bit more, I would note that the writers chose a convenient time to remember, all of a sudden, that they had been messing with the “cure” to the Wraith for quite some time. After all, it hadn’t been mentioned for several episodes. More to the point, after flirting with several possible leaks regarding the survival of Atlantis, now one appears just in time to force a battle (presumably) in the finale. It’s a bit predictable (and now “The Tower” seems even more contrived as a means to an end).

That said, I enjoy the idea of self-inflicted wounds, because Weir took a morally questionable choice, and now it’s blown up in her face. It takes the story back into the kind of desperate territory that the series was supposed to address, and something that the links to Earth this season may have stripped away. Weir didn’t play it safe this time around, and if anything, the entire team let their defenses down, with the exception of Ronon.

What I like about this is the dangerous quality of the choice. Weir and the team conducted a biological experiment against the will of the subject. It’s morally ambiguous at best and a war crime at worst, especially since the ultimate goal would be to generate a biological weapon to eliminate the enemy. As it is, one cannot predict how Michael’s reintroduction will affect the Wraith. Michael has a lot of reason to hate the humans, but he also seemed unable to treat them as prey anymore.

In a lot of ways, Ronon was the weak link of the plan, and Weir should have done something to keep him away from Michael. If it wasn’t for his hostility, would Michael have tried to uncover the truth so quickly? For that matter, this is where the self-inflicted wounds come into play: it was far too easy for Michael to find the record of his conversion. It’s as if the experiment came along before anyone was properly prepared to conduct it.

A larger question emerges: is the goal of wiping out the Wraith and making them into something more human really a good idea? Especially if the long-term effect would be unpredictable at best? What if the process ended with Wraith characteristics returning, but with the human appearance intact? Then the problem becomes much worse. Of course, it’s already worse, because the Wraith now have evidence that Atlantis is intact and the humans living there are close to finding a way to wipe out the Wraith, possibly for good. The Wraith have every reason to attack Atlantis regardless of internecine warfare, and while that’s a predictable direction going into the finale, I really like how they finally decided to get there.

[nicholas]

"michael" was like watching the wizard of oz in reverse..
.. and humanizing the wraith made the distinction between the good guys and the bad guys gray-er than its ever been.

there have got to be consequences for the genetic experiment somewhere down the line dont there?

[vaberella]

"michael" was like watching the wizard of oz in reverse..
.. and humanizing the wraith made the distinction between the good guys and the bad guys gray-er than its ever been.

there have got to be consequences for the genetic experiment somewhere down the line dont there?

It doesn't seem there will be. I think even Caldwell is in agreement with this decision. The problem is earthlings are doing what earthlings do best, we conquer and if your different from us you either are elminated or clustered in some place to die. To them the wraith is the ultimate threat and their God complex played means nothing. They forget the laws of evolution they just see evil because they could be on the next menu. And that goes for any alien race who may feel threatened by these guys. So again no consequences the dillemma is then on their own personal moral codes.

[GatetheWay]

The whole "Wraith aren't evil because they have to eat to survive" bit as never flown true for me. The Wraith are smart enough that if they truely didn't want to eat humans they could find another way.

[Liam Kincaid]

Why not. Voyager did it with 7 of 9 who used to be a borg.

It's different, isn't it? The Borg are not really a species,are they? Aren't all Borg (or most of them) members of other species who have been assimilated into the collective by implanting the Borg devices in them? So 7 of 9 was merely restored to her original condition. But what they did to Michael was something else.

[timdalton007]

In the series up to this point we have been trained to think that the Atlantis team are the good guys and the Wraith are evil with no exceptions. Yet with this episdoe, for the first time in the series, I didn't find the Atlantis team likeable at all. For once, it was hard and in the end impossible to sympatize with them. What they did to the Wraith (Michael) just seemed...wrong. For as evil as the Wraith are, do we have the right to do medical experiments on them? sure this gives us a way to defeat the Wraith but what about morals? How can we expect to defeat an enemy when we have to abandon our morals to do it?

timdalton007

[GatetheWay]

It kind of brings back the whole issue in SG-1's 'Cure'.

[BackStageJim]

I rather enjoyed this show. Given that the previous episodes were lacking in mind-stimulating sci-fi creativity. This presented a number of story arch for future shows.

Actually, I would enjoy an episode totally from the perspective of the wrath. Given that the actors would be in wraith make-up all week, it might be painful. It wouldn’t be good to have seven guest stars and no contact players. Perhaps the writers could make it a group dream but with true content form the Wraiths point of view.

I still say that the Ancients/Atlantians might have been more conqueror then explorers.

[mckaychick]

This was an excellent but very dark epiosde. I cant wait for the season finale.

[Galilahi]

In the series up to this point we have been trained to think that the Atlantis team are the good guys and the Wraith are evil with no exceptions. Yet with this episdoe, for the first time in the series, I didn't find the Atlantis team likeable at all. For once, it was hard and in the end impossible to sympatize with them. What they did to the Wraith (Michael) just seemed...wrong. For as evil as the Wraith are, do we have the right to do medical experiments on them? sure this gives us a way to defeat the Wraith but what about morals? How can we expect to defeat an enemy when we have to abandon our morals to do it?

timdalton007

I really liked the angle that you mentioned, the team not being likeable. Real life is ambigous with no true "good guys" and i'm so glad that TPTB explored the darker side of human nature with this ep. the road to hell is paved with good intentions. i hope michael does come back, maybe not as a good guy but the enemy of my enemy is my friend way. and instead of a "cure" beckett should be working on an alternate food source. the only trick would be getting the wraith to use it.