In the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis, the Wraith are the original enemy alien species, first introduced in the pilot episode "Rising". In the series, they are a vampire-like telepathic race who feed on the "life-force" of humans, and are the dominant power in the Pegasus galaxy. The first season of Atlantis is focused on the main characters finding a way to survive an overwhelming attack by the Wraith. Although in the later seasons new enemies have taken some of the attention away from the Wraith, they remain a potent and ever-present threat to the Atlantis Expedition.
All of the named Wraith who have appeared on Stargate Atlantis are named by humans, as no Wraith has been willing to reveal his true name. John Sheppard often gives captured Wraith amusing/generic Earth names. The majority of non-warrior male and female Wraith were played by the same actors, James Lafazanos and Andee Frizzell respectively. James Lafazanos left the show after season 2. Other male Wraith have been played by Christopher Heyerdahl (season 3 onwards), Jeffrey C. Robinson (season 2), Dan Payne (season 3), James Bamford (season 3), Brendan Penny (season 4), and Tyler McClendon (season 5).
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The Wraith are key characters in the TV show Stargate Atlantis, which is a spin off from the fellow American military science fiction series, Stargate SG-1.[1][2][3]
The Wraith are intelligent humanoids who are genetically close to insects, though they are predominantly human. They evolved in the Pegasus galaxy after a human population seeded by the Ancients was fed upon by an insect called the iratus bug, which has the ability to draw upon a human's life to heal itself. As they fed, the bugs incorporated human DNA into themselves, giving rise to the Wraith.[4] The Wraith too feed on humans, treating them akin to livestock and regarding the act of feeding as nothing more than natural predation.[5]
Some ten thousand one-hundred years ago, the Wraith went to war with the Ancients (whom they knew as the Lanteans) over control of the galaxy. Although technologically superior, the Ancients were a passive people by nature, and lacked the familiarity with aggression and strategic thinking to successfully neutralize the Wraith. This naivete allowed the Wraith to lure Ancient warships into unprotected areas of space where they were ambushed and captured, along with their ZPM power supplies, which the Wraith used to power cloning facilities that increased the size of their army a hundredfold.[6] Vastly outnumbered, the Ancients sent a delegation protected by their most powerful warships to sue for peace, but they were wiped out.[7] The Wraith steadily pushed back the Ancients until only Atlantis remained. The war with the Ancients lasted for more than 100 years, until the Ancients decided to submerge the city and return to Earth. With the Wraith victorious, they became the dominant power in Pegasus.[5]
In the ensuing feeding frenzy following their victory, the Wraith quickly learned that their wartime population was too great to sustain. Lacking the technology for intergalactic hyperdrive, and having depleted the ZPMs for the war, the Wraith were unable to safely venture outside of Pegasus to explore neighboring galaxies; ignorant of Earth or prior Ancient civilizations in the Milky Way, they had little incentive to try. Unable to leave, the Wraith were collectively forced to hibernate for extended periods of time, often centuries, while the human population of Pegasus regenerated. A small selection of Wraith were tasked with remaining active during this time to maintain watch on the galaxy to prevent human reprisals. With most of the population in suspended animation, and given the competitive nature of their species, the Wraith were unable to make significant advancements in their technology, and aside from small experiments by individual Wraith over the millennia, they have remained largely stagnant for 10,000 years. Their existence is restricted to waking en masse every few centuries to replenish their health by galaxy-wide abductions of humans called "cullings."[5]
The Atlantis Expedition first encounters the Wraith in the series premiere "Rising", in which a number of personnel are captured by Wraith darts while scouting the planet Athos. They are brought back to a Wraith hive ship, where the hibernating Wraith are being watched over by the "Keeper". The Keeper telepathically probes Colonel Marshall Sumner's mind and learns of a "new feeding ground" richer than any the Wraith have ever known: Earth. Major John Sheppard kills the Keeper during his rescue mission, but her death awakens all the others from hibernation.[5] Soon, hive ships appear all over the galaxy, exacting a devastating toll on the Pegasus human population.[8] In "Poisoning the Well", the Hoffan drug is introduced as a means to make humans poisonous to the Wraith, albeit with an extremely high mortality rate.[9] At the end of season 1, it becomes apparent that the ultimate goal of the Wraith is Atlantis, which contains the only Pegasus Stargate capable of connecting to Earth as well as intergalactic hyperdrive technology.[10] Atlantis destroys the first three hive ships with help from Earth reinforcements and the Genii, but another twelve hive ships soon follow. The Atlantis team manages to fool the Wraith into believing that they have enacted the city's self-destruct, by converting the city's shield into a cloaking device and using a judiciously timed nuclear explosion.[11]
In the second season, it is revealed that due to their waking early, there are not enough humans in the Pegasus galaxy to sustain all of the Wraith.[12] Tensions between hives rise over the limited food supply, and in "The Hive" Sheppard is able to incite two hives into firing on one another. Meanwhile, Dr. Carson Beckett develops a retrovirus designed to suppress the iratus bug DNA in the Wraith genome, hopefully transforming them into humans.[13] In the episode "Michael", Atlantis personnel test the virus on a Wraith subject they name "Michael Kenmore", only to have the experiment backfire disastrously when Michael reverts back into a Wraith and returns to his people with knowledge of Atlantis' continued existence. This information leads to Atlantis being coerced into working with a Wraith hive ship in the season 2 finale "Allies", to weaponize the retrovirus for the hive to use against other Wraith. However, this turns out to be a ploy to steal hyperdrive technology from Atlantis' database so as to reach Earth. The Daedalus and the Orion battle the two hive ships at the edge of the Pegasus galaxy, destroying one and converting the crew of the other into humans.[14] Once again, the effect of the retrovirus is less lasting than is hoped, forcing the Atlantis team to destroy the transformed Wraith to keep them from informing others of Atlantis' survival.[15]
The Wraith have a diminished presence in the third season and fourth seasons, with the introduction of the Asurans, a hostile race of Replicator nanites,[16] and the return of Michael as a now-separate threat from the Wraith.[17] In the season 4 episode "Lifeline", Dr. Rodney McKay activates the Wraith attack command in the Replicator base code. The Wraith once dealt with the Replicator threat by using a computer virus to deactivate the command, but due to McKay's meddling this is no longer effective.[18] The war takes on a new dimension when the Replicators begin annihilating human worlds to deprive the Wraith of their food supply, forcing the Wraith and Atlantis into a reluctant alliance to find a way to defeat them.[19] In "Be All My Sins Remember'd", seven hive ships fight alongside Earth and Traveler forces over Asuras to eliminate the Replicators once and for all. It is later revealed that at least a dozen hive ships were destroyed in the Wraith's conflict with the Asurans. After a Wraith named Todd gets his hands on several ZPMs, he tries to reactivate the Wraith cloning facility and take over the galaxy with a new army of his own, but he is betrayed to a rival hive which attempts the plan, but has their Queen killed and the facility destroyed. At the end of season 4, the Wraith suffer another blow at the hands of Michael, who distributes the Hoffan drug to random human populations, making them poisonous to the Wraith but exacting a great toll on human lives in the process.[20] According to Stargate Atlantis writer Carl Binder, the Wraith have been weakened by these conflicts, leading to "a new order to the galaxy" that will be explored in season 5.[21]
In season 5 Michael is defeated in battle by the Daedalus and later killed by Teyla, ending his threat to the Wraith and other peoples of the galaxy, but his use of the Hoffan drug leaves the Wraith vulnerable to being poisoned when they feed. As a result, the expedition is able to make a deal with Todd to use a gene therapy to get rid of the Wraiths need to feed on humans and restore their ability to eat normal food. However as part of the deal, the team helps Todd become the leader of a powerful alliance of Wraith hive ships. The attempt to use the therapy goes wrong as the Vanir force Doctors McKay and Jackson to activate the Attero Device which destroys Wraith ships when they enter hyperspace, causing Todd to believe they betrayed him. Later, a hive ship led by Todd tries the therapy on their own, but it proves unviable as it causes a cancer-like disease in Wraith that only Todd is cured of. In "Enemy at the Gate", a Wraith under Todd manages to integrate a ZPM into a hive ship and creates a new, practically invincible hive ship that learns of the location of Earth and heads there to cull the planet. The Daedalus, Apollo, Sun Tzu and Atlantis itself are unable to defeat it and Earth is nearly culled, but the hive ship is destroyed at the last minute by John Sheppard who managed to sneak aboard with a nuclear weapon and detonate it on the inside of the ship, obliterating it.
The Wraith are defined by their need to feed on humans; they have a feeding organ on the palm which is applied to the chest of the victim near the heart, drawing out their "life-force". The effect of this in humans is akin to aging, and the act of feeding is sometimes said to "take away years". Eventually, only a desiccated husk remains.[5] In addition to humans, the Wraith can also feed on each other.[22] The Wraith are driven by their hunger, which they describe as akin to being burned alive.[23] Adult Wraith are capable of eating and drinking, but it provides no nourishment.[12] The act of feeding is so traumatic to the victim that it would normally cause immediate death; the Wraith inject an enzyme into their victims throughout the process to strengthen them and ensure that the heart continues to beat for as long as possible.[11] If taken by a human in high doses, the Wraith enzyme enhances strength, speed, and resilience, though it also heightens aggression and impairs judgement. The enzyme is also addictive and a person taking it may die from withdrawal if suddenly deprived.[24][25] A Wraith can return the life taken from a human; this "gift of life" is performed only for their most devout worshipers and their brothers.[23]
Wraith are biologically immortal and do not possess the life-inhibiting proteins that cause aging.[5] Provided they have something to feed on, their life span is effectively indefinite. They are stronger than humans,[26] with some individuals being strong enough to hurl an adult human a considerable distance with minimal effort.[27] They are also extremely agile, able to leap up several meters from a standing start.[22] Wraith bodies are highly resilient, able to survive oceanic pressures that would crush a human,[28] and possess remarkable regenerative abilities. Their regeneration is directly related to how recently they have fed; a fully fed Wraith can heal multiple bullet wounds in seconds.[5][22] In dire circumstances, a Wraith can allow a queen iratus bug to feed on them, potentially healing all their injuries; the practice has long since been abandoned because of the high risk of death it poses.[29] Although the Wraith are capable of speech, their primary means of communication with each other is telepathic. Due to an ancient Wraith experiment to splice Wraith genes into humans, a few humans such as Teyla Emmagan are also capable of accessing the Wraith telepathic network.[4] The Wraith can share each other's perceptions,[13] and a group working together can send a telepathic signal over light-years of distance.[15] The Wraith are also capable of projecting fleeting hallucinations into the minds of their prey in order to confuse and distract.[5]
Three types of Wraith can be distinguished in the series.[5] The most numerous are the warriors, basic foot soldiers who have well-defined musculature and masks that entirely cover their faces. A scene in "Spoils of War" suggests that these masks also allow them to breathe more easily. The warriors also possess the ability to activate a self-destruct mechanism. According to Michael in "Misbegotten", the warriors are "unimaginative" and have "rigid thought patterns". No warrior has ever been shown to speak in the series due to their cloned reproduction of Ancient technology and wraith DNA. The second type are natural Wraith. A Male Wraith is slimmer and more intelligent, and appears in more sophisticated roles. The females are the least frequently seen; apart from Elia, an adolescent Wraith in "Instinct", and the Keeper in "Rising", all the female Wraith on the show have been adult Queens. The Wraith Queens command hive ships[25] and are the only Wraith capable of reproduction.[30] The episode "Instinct" shows that young female Wraith eat and grow in the same way as humans, until in adolescence their digestive systems become non-functional and they develop the need to feed on humans. In "Spoils of War", a Wraith Queen is shown providing genetic material to produce Warriors, which quickly grow to maturity inside pods. The same episode establishes that while large numbers of Wraith Warriors can be grown through cloning, the cloning process requires a ZPM to meet its immense power requirements. Female Wraith have the strongest telepathic ability of all Wraith; they can force most humans into submission through the power of suggestion, and draw information from them against their will.[5][25] In "Submersion", a Wraith Queen takes complete control of Teyla's body, although Teyla is able to accomplish the reverse in "Spoils of War" when her telepathy is being bolstered by that of her unborn child.
Wraith civilization centers around massive hive ships, of which there are over sixty in the Pegasus galaxy.[31] Most hive ships are ruled by Queens, although Todd mentions in "Be All My Sins Remember'd" that after years of conflict many hives are now without Queens and cannot replenish their numbers. The Wraith perform mass human cullings once every few centuries; the rest of the time they hibernate within their hive ships on the surface of planets, guarded by a small force of soldiers and the Keeper (of those who sleep). This hibernation allows the human population of Pegasus to replenish its numbers.[5] During cullings, Wraith hive ships unleash hundreds of darts to scour the surface of the target planet, and dial the planet's Stargate to prevent escape.[8] If given the opportunity, individual Wraith will self-destruct rather than be captured, using a powerful explosive device built into their armor.[26][32] Wraith warriors are also equipped with homing beacons to signal for reinforcements if required.[33] The Wraith are an extremely aggressive species; they do not tolerate the existence of advanced civilizations other than their own and destroy any culture that poses the most remote threat to them, such as the Hoffans[34] and the Satedans.[35] During the war with the Ancients, a splinter faction of Asgard settled in Pegasus to conduct human genetic experiments in secret, but after the war's conclusion, the Wraith immediately destroyed both the settlement and its intergalactic ships; the Asgard escaped, but were forced to remain in hiding for the remaining ten-thousand and five years on a planet with a toxic atmosphere. The Wraith also regard the Asurans as "abominations" because they are machines.[18]
The Wraith have a strong territorial instinct and the various hives are largely autonomous from one another,[25] cooperating only against a common enemy such as the Ancients or the Atlantis Expedition.[10] In the later seasons of Stargate Atlantis, the Wraith hives engage in fierce competition over an inadequate human food supply, with civil war breaking out as multiple factions jostle for advantage.[6][12][36] The Wraith language is a derivative of Ancient.[4] A few Atlantis episodes have added complexity to the Wraith, particularly in the character of "Todd", who shows an appreciation for beauty, a personal code of honor,[23] and even a sense of humor.[19] In "Condemned", a Wraith states that some of his kind still enjoy "the finer things", human food and drink.
A few exceptional humans, such as Ronon Dex, are turned into "Runners" rather than being fed upon. The Wraith implant them with subspace tracking devices, and set them loose to be hunted as a form of sport.[35] As of "Sateda", there are seven Runner tracking devices active in the galaxy, although it is not known if all seven were implanted in Runners. In that episode, the Wraith recapture Ronon and stage a new hunt for him on his ruined homeworld of Sateda. They send successively larger waves of Wraith warriors after him, and monitor the entire event from their hive ship. Another Runner, named Kiryk, is featured in the fifth season of Atlantis.
The existence of humans who worship the Wraith is first revealed in "The Hive", where a Wraith Queen states that thousands have come to serve them in exchange for sparing their lives. A Wraith worshiper, Neera, mentions the "prophecy of the Great Awakening" and the "end of days". In "Common Ground", Todd notes that the act of returning a person's life is performed only for their most devout worshipers and their brothers. Some Wraith worshipers are assigned as infiltrators to collect information,[37] while others act as mercenaries.[18] In "Reunion" and "Broken Ties", the Wraith are shown to be able to create worshipers out of even the most implacable enemies by feeding on them and then returning that life over and over again. The repeated infusions of feeding enzyme has an addictive effect and bends the victim to the Wraith's will, though only the strongest survive the process. The Wraith used this technique to convert a number of Satedan soldiers after the fall of Sateda, and eventually do the same to Ronon Dex. The conditioning will break if the individual is deprived of enzyme for long enough, although the withdrawal symptoms are severe.[18][38]
Although not as advanced as their enemies, the Ancients, the Wraith were able to drive them out of the Pegasus galaxy by virtue of superior numbers,[5] made possible by cloning technology powered by stolen ZPMs.[6] The Wraith have been shown to be tactically and technologically adaptable,[10][22][39] being able to quickly develop a countermeasure to Asgard beaming technology,[11] and creating highly sophisticated computer viruses for use against the Daedalus[40] and the Asurans.[18] The Wraith also operate an extensive network of transmitters and relay devices throughout Pegasus that allow them to respond rapidly to events of interest.[26][33] Many pieces of Wraith technology, including their ships, are a hybrid of organic and mechanical parts with the ability to heal damage.[41] Significant Wraith technologies include culling beams and stunners, both of which primarily function to capture human prey.[5]
"Michael Kenmore" is the identity given by the Atlantis Expedition to a Wraith they had transformed into a human in the episode "Michael". He is played by Connor Trinneer, except due to scheduling conflicts during the filming of "Allies" where he was portrayed by Brent Stait. (Trinneer still provided the voice of Michael for the episode.[42]) Michael is the result of the first successful test of Dr. Carson Beckett's retrovirus, which suppresses iratus bug DNA in the Wraith genome. As the process eliminates memory, Atlantis personnel gave Michael a fabricated history and attempt to integrate him into the city. However, he is never fully accepted by the others and the drug is not completely effective; Michael becomes suspicious and eventually learns the truth. He escapes custody and reverts into a Wraith, rejoining his people.
In the episode "Allies", Michael returns with the Hive that took him in, proposing an alliance with Atlantis to use the retrovirus against other Wraith. Michael is unaware, however, that the Wraith Queen only intends to use Atlantis to find a way to Earth. It is revealed that the other Wraith do not accept him either since his transformation, and in "No Man's Land", fearing for his life, he helps John Sheppard stop the Hive Ships and rescue McKay and Ronon. Nevertheless, at the end of the episode he is forcibly given another dose of the retrovirus. Michael and the other transformed Wraith are deposited on a quarantined planet in "Misbegotten". However, Michael has retained his memories as a Wraith, and engineers a revolt amongst the others. He is believed killed when the Atlantis team bombards his camp with their captured Hive Ship.
Michael is found to be alive in "Vengeance", having been rescued by the Wraith but once again rejected by his kind for his "human" taint, and forced to escape. Embittered, he sets about building his own personal army, mixing iratus bug DNA with that of humans to create a new creature, destroying several human populations in the process. One of his labs is destroyed by the Atlantis team, though Michael escapes to continue his work elsewhere. In "The Kindred", Michael is revealed to be responsible for distributing the Hoffan Wraith-poisoning drug to several human worlds, and for the abduction of the Athosians in "Missing" to use in his experiments. He learned about both from a clone of Carson Beckett he created. The final part of his plan is abducting Teyla, whose unborn child is the key to perfecting his race of Wraith-human hybrids. Michael has subjected himself to the treatments, and no longer possesses the Wraith feeding organs.
In the alternate future of "The Last Man", Michael kills Teyla after she gives birth, as he had no further use for her. With his Hybrids and the Hoffan drug, he defeats the Wraith within a year and then turns to the human population, converting the strong into Hybrids and eliminating the weak. The future Dr. McKay changes this course of events by returning John Sheppard to his original time, with information on Teyla's whereabouts. However, when Sheppard and his team go to investigate, a booby-trap collapses the building they're in. The trap alerts Michael to their presence, and he arrives at the planet and attempts to capture them. The Daedalus arrives and engages his cruiser, destroying it after Sheppard's team rescues Teyla.[43] The IOA believed Michael to be dead, although the Atlantis team suspects otherwise since the jumper they used to board his ship went missing.[44]
In "The Prodigal", Michael invades Atlantis with the stolen puddle jumper in an attempt to kidnap Teyla's son. The team manages to destroy the jumper, trapping Michael in the city. A fight ensues between Michael, Sheppard, and Teyla atop Atlantis' central spire, ending with Teyla throwing Michael off to his death.
"Todd" first appears in the third season episode "Common Ground", and is a recurring character in the fourth season, where his "name" is given. He is played by Christopher Heyerdahl and distinguished by a starburst-shaped tattoo centered around his left eye. His personality is rather unusual for a Wraith, as he possesses a sense of humor and a certain degree of honor.[19] He is first encountered as a prisoner of Acastus Kolya, who uses him to torture Sheppard by allowing Todd to feed on him repeatedly. He and Sheppard come to an understanding and help each other escape, during which Todd drains Sheppard's life to defeat the Genii and then returns it, an act performed only for their most devout worshippers and their brothers.[23]
Todd returns in "The Seer", to forge an alliance with Atlantis against the Asurans, informing Atlantis of their new strategy of wiping out every human in the galaxy to deprive the Wraith of their food supply. He requests Rodney McKay's cooperation in modifying their computer virus to shut off the Asurans' attack command, as it was McKay's tampering with the Asuran base code that made it ineffective in the first place. Todd is stranded on Atlantis after his hive ship is destroyed by another suspicious hive, and remains in captivity working with McKay until the episode "Be All My Sins Remember'd". During this time he hacks McKay's computer and obtains data on the Intergalactic Gate Bridge, allowing the Wraith to invade the SGC.[39] Todd, however, claims that the data was stolen from him.[20]
In the episode "Be All My Sins Remember'd", Todd convinces seven hive-ships to join the Atlanteans in battling the Asurans, gaining his freedom in the process. During the battle he commands one of the hive-ships, surreptitiously launching a mission to steal ZPMs from the Asuran city.[6] The ZPMs are stolen from him in "Spoils of War" by another hive, to use in powering a cloning facility. Todd is due to be fed upon, but is rescued by the Atlantis team and helps them destroy the facility. He escapes in a dart separately from Sheppard's team. The Atlanteans encounter Todd again in "The Kindred", while investigating a Wraith facility where many have been killed by the Hoffan drug. Todd informs them that all the Wraith factions have been affected, and asks for information on the drug so that he can develop an antidote for just his hive. The Atlantis Expedition trades him the data in exchange for intelligence on where Michael is keeping Teyla. In the alternate future of "The Last Man", Todd dies fighting alongside Ronon Dex to destroy one of Michael's research facilities, the two sacrificing themselves to allow Ronon's strike force to escape before setting off their explosives.
In "The Queen", the Atlantis team negotiates with Todd to distribute a gene therapy among the Wraith that would remove their need to feed on humans, as Michael had done to himself. Todd convinces Teyla to act as his hive's queen to propose the plan to the leader of his alliance, but instead installs her as the new leader. After Teyla's position as the leader is made secure, Todd is left to lead in her place, effectively giving him control of all the Wraith in the alliance, which Sheppard suspects he might have planned all along. He opts against proposing that the Wraith take the gene therapy immediately, suggesting that such a sweeping change would not go over well so quickly. His alliance with Atlantis becomes strained during "The Lost Tribe" when the Attero device is activated during an attempted test of the gene therapy. Todd blames Atlantis and steals the Daedelus to destroy the device, nearly killing the entire crew to do so. He grudgingly returns to ask for their help in "Infection", having stolen the data concerning the gene therapy and tested it on his crew, creating a deadly cancer in them. All but Todd are killed by the Hive ship's destruction; Todd is released by the Atlantis team to attempt a dangerous cure using a queen iratus bug, which he survives. In the series finale, "Enemy at the Gate", Todd seeks the help of Atlantis to destroy a ZPM-powered Hive Ship stolen by one of his underlings (the ZPM having come from the ones he stole from the Asuran homeworld). He provides Atlantis with two additional ZPMs after the initial attack fails, and remains in their custody (in Atlantis on Earth) once the Hive is destroyed. His long term fate is not elaborated upon; however, he was slated to play a part in the upcoming Stargate Atlantis film, however, the project was shelved indefinitely.
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