Why did SGA create the Wraith

[Davey]

Doesn't a Wraith need to feed 2 or 3 times a year to survive? How would any such as the one on The Defiant One survive for 10,000 years with only a few preserved humans in cocoons??

[Davey]

I have been wondering about the possibility of disarming the Wraith by developing a product that would paralyze the Wraith's right arm, and/or provide a kind of shield protection that every person could wear that would deactivate and/or paralyze or poison the right hand when it attempts to feed. This came to mind when I saw Shepard aim and stab the right hand of the Wraith in the Defiant One.

[Davey]

In Season 1 when Sheppard was attached to the Iratis bug why didn't its feeding make Sheppard age for all that time??

[Xaeden]

Doesn't a Wraith need to feed 2 or 3 times a year to survive? How would any such as the one on The Defiant One survive for 10,000 years with only a few preserved humans in cocoons??

The Wraith can go hundreds of years without feeding if they're in stasis. This is what they were doing en mass at the beginning of the series. The Atlantis expedition woke them up about a hundred years too soon.

Thus, the trapped Wraith's survival method was to go into stasis, wake up a few hundred years later, feed on a human or fellow Wraith, sleep for another few hundred years, and repeat. Similarly, his companion Wraith would have eventually had to feed on others of their kind after each sleep cycle, so once they were out of humans they would have cut their numbers in half after waking up each time.

While the method is viable if sufficient numbers exist, it was never addressed why they couldn't send out a telepathic message asking for rescue when they first crashed.

In Season 1 when Sheppard was attached to the Iratis bug why didn't its feeding make Sheppard age for all that time??

Iratus bugs don't feed on a person's life force. That's a mutation that developed at some point in the hybridization process.

[Davey]

What do the Iratus bugs do when attached to humans? Sheppard said he couldn't feel his legs and was numb in his arms. He didn't expect to live long.
And what are the circumstances when a wraith will actually feed on another wraith? Do we ever see a Wraith attacking a female human to feed? Do we ever see the life of Wraith in a community on a planet where they are not in a hive ship, not hibernating and not feeding? Just going to the beach or playing hockey together? ;-)

[WraithRichard]

I have been wondering about the possibility of disarming the Wraith by developing a product that would paralyze the Wraith's right arm, and/or provide a kind of shield protection that every person could wear that would deactivate and/or paralyze or poison the right hand when it attempts to feed. This came to mind when I saw Shepard aim and stab the right hand of the Wraith in the Defiant One.

Are there left-handed wraith? (insert Princess Bride Joke here)

[Davey]

What is the score with the Wraith who came back to work with Rodney to destroy the Nanites, who enabled his sister to be saved? Does he get the injections and become human like Michael? The end of Miller's Crossing Season 4 doesn't address that.

I have to admit that I really do like the way the story attributes issues of some "humanity" to a Wraith in these arcs. On the other hand, when Rodney asks the nameless wraith if he has family, it would have been nice to hear a reply on this regard from the Wraith.

Second, how do such events function at the SGC with no leadership in the episode? Where was Landry? Carter?

[Xaeden]

1) He's later named Todd. You'll see him again in "Be All My Sins Remember'd" (season 4, episode 11).

2) Sometimes allowances need to be made for the absence of certain characters due to problems with actor availability and pay.

[Davey]

I just watched the next episode where Sheppard names him Todd. It's definitely giving a different flavor to the possibility of humanity among the Wraith.....now let's see if the Wraith would agree to do a Michael and revert to removing their Wraith nature. Heck, we'd see an SG team including non-feeding Wraith relying on regular injections to be liberated from that nature......like Teal'c joining SG1 or the Klingons on the Federation ships....

[Davey]

Is there any interaction between Michael and Todd? I can just imagine a whole realm of possibilities for human-friendly Wraith abandoning feeding thanks to the retrovirus.....

[Xaeden]

The retrovirus makes a return in season 5's mid-season finale. Todd is in the same episode. I can tell you more if you don't mind being spoiled.

[Davey]

No problem about being spoiled to learn of the fate of Todd, Michael, Replicator Elizabeth and even what's her name, the replicator on Earth in Outcast.......

[Xaeden]

The replicator from Outcast...

Spoiler:

you will not see again.

Elizabeth will return...

Spoiler:

one final time in season 5, episode 5. Sort of, kind of: She's played by the actor who portrayed Fran, not Torri Higgenson.

Michael returns in...

Spoiler:

two episodes toward the end of season 4.

Todd discusses with the team a plan to use...

Spoiler:

a modified version of the retrovirus to remove the Wraith's need to feed without otherwise changing them. The updated retrovirus is derived from Michael's research. It is mentioned another time later toward the end of season 5 when consequences ensue.

[Davey]

I'd love to see a story Arc of episodes of Wraith who struggle to use the retrovirus to get rid of the need to feed, and the struggle of mean goa'uld to become Tok'ra.....

[Davey]

The way the Wraith story is presented in the last two episodes of Season 4 is really very good, along with cloned Beckett. It creates a certain "humanity" potential for the Wraith through both Michael and Todd. I just wonder what Beckett's mother will be told once Carson is restored from the stasis pod since Sam promised to deliver a letter to her.