How did Teyla change?

[rarocks24]

Actually Ouro, Todd could have used anyone he wanted. The reasoning for Teyla however went much more than a small amount of Wraith DNA. Remember, it would not be difficult to give a human Wraith mental abilities, as evidenced in "The Gift".

Teyla had very strong mental abilities, abilities he himself was witness to. The fact that she could control a queen if she had to made her the only candidate that he believed could be believable.

Teyla also has been exposed to a Queen's mind more than once. And she is the leader of a people (the Athosians). She has leadership experience, experience with the Wraith, experience with Wraith mental abilities. Although he could use anyone in the galaxy, he chose Teyla because of those abilities.

[Ouroboros]

I don't know about that. Teyla's special powers come from her Wraith DNA which comes from the experiments done by the scientist in "the gift". Now it's possible the results of those experiments could be duplicated on someone else in time but it's not really a sure thing and Todd needed somebody right now.

Your right that her experience with the Wraith, her leadership abilities and just her overall personality traits also make her a very good candidate though. I don't think that for example, Keller, could have pulled this off at all.

[ToasterOnFire]

It's all either horrible bad science or a continuity contradiction either way which is probably why they didn't spend much time on the details of it.

That's my take on it.

[marty2006]

good question.....if it was possible to completely change someone to a wraith, why woouldn't michael do that to himself? or have his minions do it?

Because he doesnt want to be wraith.

[Ripple in Space]

Because they've already established with Michael that other Wraith can sniff out the human "taint" of a halfbreed and that it repulses them, and Michael was a lot closer to being a full Wraith than Teyla is.

They didn't need to "sniff Michael out," they noticed he was different, but already knew the situation. With Teyla, Todd trained her, and also, how much contact have those Wraith had with queens? Aside from the one commander, who did notice, probably the bulk of them had never even spoken to another queen (outside of their own).

[GateTrek2004]

At the end of The Queen, Teyla was RECOVERING 2 weeks after the mission was over! I'm thinking it might have been an altered version of the retrovirus to make teyla more wraith-like, but still feel and act as a human would, as if she was really transformed into a wraith, she would start sucking the life out of anyone that stood in her way. I'm looking forward to

Spoiler:

the conclusion/continuation to The Queen-Infection: "A mysterious arrival, a difficult dilemma, and the continuation of a storyline introduced in 'The Queen.'"
(Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)

[UNRE4L]

Todd should have visited Thailand. Queen surgeries are pretty cheap down there.

[SoulReaver]

The only thing that irks me is how did they change Teyla into a wraith?

Did they alter her DNA to make her a full blown wraith or did she just get plastic surgery?

I also wondered whether it was a full-fledged artificially induced mutation or just an elaborate facelift. the fact that they needed Tood for the procedure suggests the former. furthermore the final scene between Shep & [human] Teyla strongly suggests this, namely :

1) Shep asking Teyla if she was hungry, and Teyla replying with the affirmative, and emphasizing her desire for human food (and not for humans -)

2) Teyla subsequently contemplating her hand



PS. and the fact it took her 2 weeks to revert back to humans isn't much of a surprise, in fact I expected even less - what we do know is that humans & wraith are not that different genetically, and if a virus can change a wraith into a human in a matter of hours, why should it be so difficult to effect a change the other way around ?

[Mitchell82]

The only thing that irks me is how did they change Teyla into a wraith?

Did they alter her DNA to make her a full blown wraith or did she just get plastic surgery?

That is the only thing that irks me.. The fact that it wasn't a 2 parter made me sad but how did she change??

My guess is a combination of plastic Surgery, her high Wraith abilities due to her Wraith DNA, and possibly a reverse retrovirus.

[FallenAngelII]

It was probably mostly plastic surgery + some way to alter her voice. After all, they specifically said that only Teyla could do it because of her Wraith DNA. Anyone else would be sniffed out immediately.

On other words, the treatment does not alter her DNA significantly.

[Jeff O'Connor]

You've gotta wonder just what Baldy was thinking Teyla was when he found solid proof she wasn't really a Wraith Queen. A defective, traitorous heathen or maybe he pieced together that she had the DNA? The Wraith as a whole know about those with her capabilities, I'd imagine.

[Lahela]

You've gotta wonder just what Baldy was thinking Teyla was when he found solid proof she wasn't really a Wraith Queen. A defective, traitorous heathen or maybe he pieced together that she had the DNA? The Wraith as a whole know about those with her capabilities, I'd imagine.

I got the impression that he just thought she wasn't "one of them" in the sense that she had her own agenda.

[Brain_Child]

It was probably mostly plastic surgery + some way to alter her voice. After all, they specifically said that only Teyla could do it because of her Wraith DNA. Anyone else would be sniffed out immediately.

My guess is a combination of plastic Surgery, her high Wraith abilities due to her Wraith DNA, and possibly a reverse retrovirus.

At the end of The Queen, Teyla was RECOVERING 2 weeks after the mission was over! I'm thinking it might have been an altered version of the retrovirus to make teyla more wraith-like, but still feel and act as a human would, as if she was really transformed into a wraith, she would start sucking the life out of anyone that stood in her way. I'm looking forward to

Spoiler:

the conclusion/continuation to The Queen-Infection: "A mysterious arrival, a difficult dilemma, and the continuation of a storyline introduced in 'The Queen.'"
(Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)

The fact that everyones is "thinking" and "guessing" and no one actually "knows" exactly what happened is a serious problem. I accept that in some cases the specific details may need to be glossed over and ignored. But really the human-to-wraith queen operation is a key part in the storyline.

It is this procedure that will allow Teyla to pose as a queen and try to persuade the Primary. But in 'the queen', the details on the operation were so few that what should have been a key moment became filler, and not good filler either, confusing filler.

How does it work? is it a real change or just temporary? Why does Todd need to be there at all?

IMO this episode could have been on up there or even on par with Daedalus Variations if only this "Teyle Transformation" issue was handled in a way that doesnt leave the reader slightly confused throughout the episode.

One last point is that the issue was brought to the foreground once again in the final moments. BIG MISTAKE for 2 reasons. Firstly the issue is still confusing by the end of the episode and including another scene about the mysterious transformation does not help the matter at all. It just leaves people thinking "How did Teyla change back?" instead of what people should be thinking when the credits are rolling, which is more along the lines of "Woah, very good episode. I loved it." or perhaps even "OMFG that was so cool!".

And secondly, one of the more climatic scenes was when Teyla threatened Todd, stepping out of her character and into the boots of a true wraith queen, an excellent moment. End it there! Why why why would you add another scene?!?!? Things just go downhill. I find atlantis does that far too often. For some reason there always has to be this final scene in Atlantis where things are kind of wrapped up in preparation for the next episode. Its not needed, we already knew Teyla would return to normal, I believe Shep had told Teyla this before the operation. It would have been infinitely better to cut that last scene down, no joking around by Keller or Shep about how Teyla looks, just the bare essentials, that Todd is in charge of the alliance (but even so this isnt even needed because it is assumed, we just saw Teyla give a big speech about obeying Todd as much as you would her) and use the extra time to add another scene earlier in the episode which explains that confusing procedure! That way when the episode ends we have that Teyla-Todd conversation and we know how the procedure works.

The Queen was close, but a few simple changes couldve got it the A+ mark instead of a B- that it turned out to be

[2ndgenerationalteran]

considering that beckett said in the the rising "the wraith have none of the normal human proteins" which is really weird now that humans can transform into wraiths and vice versa i guess that is scifi for you

[Nath]

That was one of the only thing that bothered me about the episode.... I mean the writers could have come up with something. Reverse retreovirus, plastic surgery, a cool mask, whatever. Just a one line mention of what it actually was would of been nice.

I agree. I liked the episode very much. It's creepy to see Teyla changed into a Wraith queen but interesting.

And as you said, the only thing that bothers me is the lack of explanation. How did they manage to transform her ? What did they do to her in surgery ? Just a sentence, a little explanation about the retro virus or something else. Because when Sheppard was infected by the retro virus, his behaviour had changed. And Teyla was herself, no Wraith' s behaviour.

I hope someone has an explanation (anyone please ?).

The fact that everyones is "thinking" and "guessing" and no one actually "knows" exactly what happened is a serious problem. I accept that in some cases the specific details may need to be glossed over and ignored. But really the human-to-wraith queen operation is a key part in the storyline.

It is this procedure that will allow Teyla to pose as a queen and try to persuade the Primary. But in 'the queen', the details on the operation were so few that what should have been a key moment became filler, and not good filler either, confusing filler.

How does it work? is it a real change or just temporary? Why does Todd need to be there at all?

IMO this episode could have been on up there or even on par with Daedalus Variations if only this "Teyle Transformation" issue was handled in a way that doesnt leave the reader slightly confused throughout the episode.

One last point is that the issue was brought to the foreground once again in the final moments. BIG MISTAKE for 2 reasons. Firstly the issue is still confusing by the end of the episode and including another scene about the mysterious transformation does not help the matter at all. It just leaves people thinking "How did Teyla change back?" instead of what people should be thinking when the credits are rolling, which is more along the lines of "Woah, very good episode. I loved it." or perhaps even "OMFG that was so cool!".

And secondly, one of the more climatic scenes was when Teyla threatened Todd, stepping out of her character and into the boots of a true wraith queen, an excellent moment. End it there! Why why why would you add another scene?!?!? Things just go downhill. I find atlantis does that far too often. For some reason there always has to be this final scene in Atlantis where things are kind of wrapped up in preparation for the next episode. Its not needed, we already knew Teyla would return to normal, I believe Shep had told Teyla this before the operation. It would have been infinitely better to cut that last scene down, no joking around by Keller or Shep about how Teyla looks, just the bare essentials, that Todd is in charge of the alliance (but even so this isnt even needed because it is assumed, we just saw Teyla give a big speech about obeying Todd as much as you would her) and use the extra time to add another scene earlier in the episode which explains that confusing procedure! That way when the episode ends we have that Teyla-Todd conversation and we know how the procedure works.

Ok sorry, I didn't see your answer. I agree.