Wraith characters in Stargate

This is a list of Wraith characters in the television series Stargate Atlantis. The Wraith are a hive-based parasitic species that drove the Ancients out of the Pegasus Galaxy around 8000 BC.

Thus far, none of the Wraith to appear on Stargate Atlantis have had their true names revealed (Ellia doesn't count because she was named by Zaddik, see below). Because of their unwillingness to speak their own names to humans, Lt. Colonel Sheppard often gives the captured Wraith amusing/generic earth names.

The majority of male leader, scientist and female queens have been played by the same actors, James Lafazanos and Andee Frizzell respectively. James Lafazanos has since left the show after the end of season 2. Other male wraiths have been played by Christopher Heyerdahl (season 3 onwards), Jeffrey C. Robinson (season 2), Dan Payne (season 3), James Bamford (season 3) and Brendan Penny (upcoming season 4).

"Steve"

Template:Stargate character Steve (a.k.a Steve the Wraith) appeared in several episodes of the TV show Stargate Atlantis. "Steve" was played by James Lafazanos, who also portrayed other Wraith characters (notably "Bob" the Wraith). Steve is considered very popular amongst fans. He has several music videos mourning his loss, and has created a fandom similar to the Klingon fandom amongst the Star Trek community though admittedly not to that size.

"Steve" was a Wraith commander tasked with tracking Teyla Emmagan via a short-range homing device embedded in her necklace. Upon this discovery, the Atlantis exploration team under Major John Sheppard set a trap for the Wraith, hoping to capture one to interrogate; "Steve" was the only survivor from Sheppard's trap. "Steve" was held in a force field prison in the Atlantis base and it is assumed that he was under constant surveillance by two guards. While imprisoned, "Steve" unsuccessfully attempted to use telepathic hallucinations to distract the guards.

The captured Wraith would not reveal his true name, so Major Sheppard named him "Steve" while interrogating him (The Wraith replied to the name that all Sheppard needed to know was that the Wraith would be his death, prompting Sheppard to say "I prefer Steve"). Steve died after exposure to a prototype anti-Wraith vaccine, developed by Dr. Carson Beckett and the Hoffans; tested on "Steve" with the permission of Dr. Elizabeth Weir, despite being a violation of the Third Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. Major John Sheppard originally rationalized the experiment by claiming that, when the Third Geneva Convention was assembled, the Wraith would have eaten the attendees if they had been present. Eventually, Weir was swayed to allow Steve to be used in the experiment. Steve was unable to feed on the test subject, but the vaccine caused a toxic reaction in Steve, causing his major organs to shut down simultaneously and kill Steve.

Quotes

• "I am your death. That is all you need to know."
• "Keeping me here will only hasten your doom."

External links

• The Steve Appreciation Thread at the GateWorld forum
• Wraith Steve Community at LiveJournal

"Bob"

Template:Stargate character Bob (a.k.a. "Bob the Wraith" to fans) was, like most male Wraith, played by James Lafazanos.

He was named "Bob" in the same manner that Sheppard named an earlier Wraith, "Steve", since "Bob" refused to disclose his true name.

Bob piloted a Wraith Dart on a reconnaissance mission to Atlantis ahead of the Wraith assault. To throw off the scent, as it were, Bob self-destructed the dart as he feinted an escape from pursuing Puddle Jumpers. Unknown to the Atlantis team, he actually used the Dart's culling beam to transport into the city. There he proceeded to commit sabotage, badly injure Sgt. Bates and appear in Teyla Emmagan's dreams, during which she also saw herself as a Wraith. However it is unknown if this happened because of deliberate use of telepathic powers on Bob's part, or if she only had nightmares because of his presence. Bob was able to hide in Atlantis for approximately two weeks. Bob was finally discovered when Atlantis's biometric sensor array was calibrated to show Wraith life-signs. When he was confronted, Bob attacked Major John Sheppard with his stunner rifle. His intention to feed on Sheppard was thwarted by the arrival of Lieutenant Aiden Ford, who stunned the Wraith. Bob was then taken to a cell and interrogated. There, he refused to disclose any information about his mission, the approaching Wraith fleet, or even his true name. Teyla attempted telepathic contact with Bob, who responded by forcing himself into Teyla's mind. Sheppard was forced to shoot him several times. Since the damage was severe, and since it is possible that Bob had not fed in some time (Wraith healing ability is thought to be linked to feeding), Bob was unable to regenerate and died.

Wraith Survivor

In the first season episode "The Defiant One," the Atlantis crew encountered a crew member of a Wraith "supply ship" that had crashed, containing hundreds of captured humans in suspended animation. He had survived over 10,000 years by feeding on the cargo of humans as well as his fellow Wraith crew members. He was killed when a team coming to rescue Sheppard and McKay fired a drone weapon at him.

The Wraith Survivor was noticeably more durable than previous Wraiths encountered, regenerating within minutes from more than 20 bullets of P90 fire and even a direct blast from a detonated wraith grenade. Dr. McKay theorized that the Wraith's rapid regeneration was due to the fact it had fed recently, while Sheppard thought that there was something significant about this particular Wraith. He also appeared different from other Wraith because he seemed to feed on humans not only for food, but also for sadistic purposes. However, that may have simply been a result of 10,000 years of isolation.

Ellia

Template:Stargate character Ellia is a young female Wraith who has been raised as a human. Appearing in the second season episode "Instinct," Ellia is played by Jewel Staite.

Encountering a primitive people who claimed they are being fed upon by a mysterious beast, but who otherwise seem ignorant of the Wraith, the members of the Atlantis team begin to search the surrounding forest for what they have deduced is a lone Wraith soldier. While searching in the woods for the Wraith that had been terrorizing the village, the Atlantis team meets a man named Zaddik and his adopted daughter Ellia, a Wraith whom he rescued as a baby. A lone Wraith Dart had crashed on the planet years ago and, though the villagers had slain all Wraith that survived the crash, Zaddik spared the baby he found because of its apparent innocence. Raised with compassion and love, treated as no different from any human daughter, Ellia demonstrates typical human emotions and characteristics (Including fear and guilt). According to Zaddik, Ellia has never fed on a human. When she first began craving human life force, Zaddik began experimenting and developed a serum as an alternative.

Dr. Beckett visits Zaddik and Ellia's home to study the serum, and Ellia overhears him mention a retrovirus he is developing to potentially turn Wraith into humans. Ellia hates being a Wraith, and takes the drug without Dr. Beckett's knowledge, despite the fact that it isn't yet ready. The retrovirus has the exact opposite effect intended, and increases the effects of the Iratus bug on her DNA.

Ellia confesses to Zaddik that his serum has never worked and she has been feeding on humans in the village for years. Another Wraith survived the crash, an adult male, and Ellia had been following him to feed whenever he did, hiding her involvement by only picking the scraps he left behind. The effects of the retrovirus appear to grow in intensity over time, and she becomes increasingly violent. She throws Zaddik against a tree and runs away. As he is dying, he reveals that while he was developing the serum he allowed Ellia to feed on him to relieve her hunger. He was, in fact, the missing son of one of the villagers; and his apparent age is only a result of the feeding of Ellia. Colonel Sheppard tracks Ellia down, and though he tries to convince her to return with him and be treated to reverse the effects of the retrovirus, she attacks him and begins feeding on him, and he and Ronon are forced to kill her. Her attack on Sheppard, though, had consequences since she infected him with the retrovirus .

Michael

Michael is a Wraith who was transformed into a human by the crew of the Atlantis expedition. Michael is played by Connor Trinneer, except in "Allies" where he was played by Brent Stait.

The transformation was made possible by using a retrovirus developed by Dr. Carson Beckett and his team. It suppresses the Wraith DNA and allows the human DNA that the Iratus bug absorbed to come through.

When he turned into a human, he lost all of his former Wraith memories as well. The Atlantis team thought it wiser not to inform him of this information.

Michael eventually learned about his Wraith origins and returned to the Wraith , only to later return in a bid to join forces with the Atlantis team to help destroy the Wraith. It was later found out that they were not intending to join forces at all, but simply trying to learn Earth's coordinates and how to modify their hyperdrive. . He was not made privy to the plans made by the Hive Queen in this regard.

His transformation back into a Wraith was not a complete process, and he resembled a human being more than other Wraith, which made him a pariah among the Wraith. Fearing for his life, he decided to help Col. Sheppard rescue Dr. McKay and Ronon in exchange for getting him out the hive ship.

Following his return to Atlantis, Michael was stunned by Ronon Dex and then given an updated dosage of the retrovirus, then shipped off to a quarantine planet. Whilst there, he was one of a few of the humanized Wraith who began to revert to their original forms, contacted a nearby Hive Ship, overpowered the guards, and imprisoned Dr. Beckett. It was assumed that he and the other Wraith on the planet were killed in the ensuing attack by the then-Human-controlled Hive Ship.

It was later discovered that Michael had indeed survived the attack and was transported onto the other Wraith Hive Ship that arrived on the scene. However, after being rescued, Michael was seen with suspicion by the other Wraith who realized that he was not 'clean' or 'pure' due to the Human taint in his DNA. He barely managed to escape with his life from the Hive Ship after which he began making several bases on various worlds.

Within these locations he would begin genetic experiments on the Iratus bug with the goal of creating a powerful creature that would serve him. These creatures had the Iratus bug qualities enhanced to make them appear more insectile, vicious and ruthless in battle. He would create the creatures by feeding Humans to the Iratus bug and would then begin manipulating the eggs of the creatures. Numerous failures were done until he finally succeeded in breeding a warrior species for himself. He would journey between his bases through the use of a Wraith Dart. The Taranian people were one civilization that fell before Michael's creatures until the Atlantis Expedition arrived and discovered his work. He managed to escape from the world with several hundred of his creatures and his activities are currently unknown.

Trivia

• Connor Trinneer was unable to play Michael in "Allies" because his wife was about to give birth to their first child, but he did provide the voice.
• The name Michael Kenmore echoes Royal Canadian Air Farce's Mike from Canmore. The show is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Hive Keeper

The first female Wraith that the Atlantis team meets is the "hive keeper". She takes one Athosian and then Colonel Sumner for questioning. Upon interrogating Sumner, she learns of Earth, with its huge population. Sumner refuses to give her Earth's Stargate address, so she starts draining his life away when he refuses to answer. Major Sheppard, who lead a rescue party onto the hive ship that their friends were taken to, finds Sumner having his life sucked out of him by the Keeper and shoots him to spare him more suffering. Sheppard is captured, and the Keeper finds the Lantean life signs detector on him. But right before the Keeper starts feeding on him, Ford appears and shoots her Wraith warriors. Sheppard frees himself and rams a Wraith stunner into the Keeper's stomach. Just as Ford and Sheppard start to leave the Keeper says that by killing her they will awaken all the other Wraith, and then she dies. Within seconds, the entire hive begins to awaken—and each one is aware that there is a rich new feeding ground available, and the only way to get to it is through Atlantis.

Wraith Queen 1

The first Queen seen in the series, appears in "The Lost Boys" and "The Hive" played by Andee Frizzell.

When Lt Col Sheppard, and former Lt Ford combined their teams to assault a Wraith Hive-Ship, they were captured and Sheppard was brought before the Hive Ship Queen . Inflicting similar mind control techniques on him as the Wraith keeper used on Col. Sumner, she tried to interrogate him, wanting to know where he obtained the Wraith Dart he used to board the Hive. She left when she sensed another Hive ship had pulled up alongside her own. Sheppard and the remnants of his team later escaped, only to be captured again and put into separate cells. Sheppard was put in a cell with a young woman who appeared to be a victim, but turned out to be a Wraith worshipper and was attempting to gain information from him. When Sheppard was brought before the Queen again, he revealed that he had figured out the Queen's plan. He also claimed to be a worshipper (or rather, a business partner) of the Queen of the other Hive that was currently traveling along with them and that they were planning on attacking (a lie which worked to Sheppard's advantage later, resulting in the destruction of both Hive ships). Infuriated with Sheppard, the Queen was about to feed on him when Lt Ford, having escaped his own cell, shot her with Ronon's blaster, killing her instantly.

Wraith Queen 2

Template:Stargate character Appears in "Allies" and "No Man's Land", played again by Andee Frizzell.

She came to Atlantis under the pretenses of wanting the retrovirus. When Atlantis asked why they wanted to talk, the Wraith sent their jamming codes to Atlantis. They had the retrovirus tested on an enemy hive ship. When the "friendly" Wraith were searched the virus was found and the Wraith were killed. The enemy hive opened fire on the "friendly" hive. They returned to Atlantis to repair their ship. She gave the Wraith database to Atlantis in exchange for help in repairs. The Wraith later betrayed them by including a piece of spyware that forwarded the location of Earth, as well as the Aurora mission report (which contained how to convert hyperdrives to intergalactic hyper drives). She later ostracized Michael by claiming him to be "polluted". She was killed by Sheppard after luring Major Lorne into a trap.

The retrovirus did not work on her and she did not change into a human. Dr. McKay says that Dr. Beckett wondered that the females may be immune to the retrovirus.

Wraith Queen 3

Template:Stargate character Appears in "Submersion" and played by Andee Frizzell.

This Wraith Hive Queen is over 10,000 years old and was present in the first wave of Wraith ships that laid Siege to Atlantis during the time. She was said to be a Queen of a powerful alliance, however, during the battle her cruiser's drive system was damaged and crashed onto the planet Atlantis is located on. Crashing into the sea and buried at the bottom, she remained there, attempting to survive. She cannibalised her own crew in order to accomplish this and went into hibernation in hope of living long enough until a rescue could be mounted for her but none came.

This changed when she awoke and felt the presence of members of the Atlantis Expedition who were journeying to a nearby Lantean mobile drilling platform. Her mind was invaded by Teyla, through the use of her own telepathic abilities granted by her Wraith DNA. However, the Queen was the stronger mind and she 'possessed' Teyla and made her accomplish her goals. The Hive Queen swam from her cruiser, whose depth would have killed an unprotective human, however, her regenerative abilities as well as determination kept her alive. As part of a contingency plan, she activated her cruisers self destruct system which, along with being present over a geothermal vent that was weak, would have caused catastrophic devastation to the planet. Upon reaching the drilling station, she made Teyla sabotage the facility before disengaging telepathic contact. She fed on two scientists at which point she encountered a Puddle Jumper, however, she did not possess the Lantean gene that would have allowed her to pilot the craft. She attempted to force Colonel John Sheppard, through telepathy, to pilot the ship to the nearest Stargate in order for her to rejoin her kind, however, it was damaged when Ronon Dex fired at the window, letting water to surge in and leaving the Queen unconscious.

She would be drugged and probed for information by Teyla at which point her self destruct plan for her cruiser was revealed. She would goad Teyla into probing her mind and succeeded in repossessing her. However, she learnt that the Atlantis Expedition had repaired her ships engines and she planned to journey back to her kind in the cruiser. She travelled by to her ship and deactivated the self destruct and attempted to feed on Colonel Sheppard however she was ambushed and killed. It was revealed that the cruisers engines had never been repaired and that Teyla had implanted a false memory in her mind in order to deceive the Queen.

Wraith King

Appears in "Sateda" and is played by Dan Payne.

The Wraith "king" who appeared in the episode Sateda, was the presumed leader of a hive that captures Ronon Dex. This Wraith took a very personal interest in Ronon, offering a village exemption from all future cullings in return for Ronon's capture (a deal he later went back on, after capturing Ronon the village was culled). When Ronon was captured, the "king" had a new transmitter placed in Ronon's back and released him on the ruined world of Sateda, where Ronon was hunted by ever increasing numbers of Wraith. However Ronon defeated all the hunters (with some help from John Sheppard and Teyla). Eventually, after Ronon taunting him via a Wraith probe, the king engaged Ronon in a one-on-one fight. Ronon forbade Sheppard or Teyla from interfering threatening them with death (Teyla dismissed his remark but told Sheppard that Ronon might never forgive them if they interrupted the fight). However it soon became clear that the injured Ronon was no match for the Wraith "king" and Rodney McKay and Carson Beckett (who were unaware of Ronon's threats to Sheppard and Teyla) ended the fight by firing a drone from their cloaked jumper and killing the "king". Beckett was the one who fired the drone but once he was sure Ronon wasn't angry with them for interfering, Rodney claimed to have come up with the idea.

Before his appearance it was assumed that all Wraith Hives were run by Queens, however in the episode he was shown as a leader of the Hive, even sitting in the throne that the queen in No Man's Land had occupied. There is no Queen shown in the episode, so it is unknown if this character was the actual leader of the hive ship, or if he was simply some sort of Hunt Leader. The IMDB listing for Dan Payne records the character as "Big Wraith".

Dan Payne has appeared numerous other times in Stargate - he played the original Kull Warrior or Supersoldier and over the years made many appearances as one of Anubis' new supersoldiers. He will be playing another male Wraith in season 4 of Stargate Atlantis.

"Todd"

Template:Stargate character Appears in "Common Ground" in season 3, and later in "The Seer", "Miller's Crossing", and "Be All My Sins Remember'd" in season 4. Played by Christopher Heyerdahl.

This Wraith was held in an old Genii prison for many years by soldiers loyal to Commander Acastus Kolya. The Wraith was used as part of a plan to get the Atlantis expedition to turn over Ladon Radim, current leader of the Genii, by having him feed on Colonel John Sheppard. He feeds on Sheppard three times before they conspire to escape from the prison, Sheppard having given the Wraith a new sense of hope. Working together, the two overpowered their guards and escaped from their cells, fleeing to the surface, but they were cornered by Genii soldiers as they approached the Stargate. In order to gain the strength to fight them off, the injured Wraith feeds off Sheppard, leaving him barely alive, and easily defeats the Genii. As a repayment for freeing him, he gave Sheppard back the lifeforce he had fed off, restoring his age; indeed, Doctor Rodney McKay said that Sheppard almost looked younger than he had been earlier. The Wraith was then dropped off on a planet to link up with his hive, but both he and Sheppard agreed that if they met again in the future, all bets were off. The Wraith suggests that it would be good, for both their sakes, that they do not meet again.

Heyerdahl had previously played Athosian leader Halling on Atlantis and Pallan in the SG-1 episode "Revisions." Heyerdahl has also played Male Wraith in previous episodes No Man's Land and Misbegotten and continues to play Male Wraith characters in season 4.

He has appeared once again in The Seer, contacting Atlantis in order to help reactivate the Wraith virus to disable the Asuran Wraith-attack command. He is also able to dissuade Sheppard's reactionary attitude to this goal with news of their enemy's tactic: eliminating Wraith food sources by massacring human worlds. Using a tracking device to lure his own Hive Ship to Atlantis, they are able to obtain a copy of the original virus, but his ship is later destroyed by another suspicious Hive. It is also revealed that his time spent in Commander Kolya's prison has diminished his standing with many of the Wraith. As of the end of the episode, he is being held in Atlantis.

In the episode Miller's Crossing, the captive Wraith is taken to the SGC on Earth. Near starved by his time in captivity, he is nourished by the willing sacrifice of industrialist Henry Wallace - a man having just lost his daughter to lukemia and failed experimental nanites - to repair such devices inside Rodney's sister, Jeannie Miller.

Information released by Joe Mallozzi in his blog implies that he will play a role throughout the season, and will be named 'Todd'.

External links

• Wraith from StargateWiki. Visited May 29, 2006.
• Steve from GateWorld. Visited May 29, 2006.
• Bob II from GateWorld. Visited May 29, 2006.
• Ellia from GateWorld. Visited May 29, 2006.
• Keeper, Wraith from GateWorld. Visited May 29, 2006.
• Hive Queen from GateWorld. Visited May 29, 2006.
• Hive Queen, Michael's from GateWorld. Visited May 29, 2006.
• Hive scientist, Michael's from GateWorld. Visited May 29, 2006.