posted
Interesting how they grow wraith ships. I wonder if this is the standard way the wraith grow their ships or if it's one of Michael's experiments. Maybe a way for him to rapidly grow a fleet. That external shot of the tower made the ship look big as well, so maybe it was a baby cruiser or hive ship.
If this is standard wraith-tech, does that mean at the heart of every wraith ship is a human host? Perhaps with this phage they'll have a new weapon to use against wraith ships. Something a little less destructive than the Asgard Oblito-ray.
Good to see Beckett in action once again, although he's off to Earth now.
As for Woolsey, he was fitted into the role vacated by Sam a little too easily. I was expecting him to decide that easiest way to protect the base was to kill Keller, then the team would have to go against him to save Keller, maybe in the end have him grudgingly agree that going by the book is not always the best way.
Or have Woolsey be in over his head, as he doesn't know what to do. When Atlantis was overrun by the Replicators he kinda fell apart, so that was the reaction I was expecting from him this episode. With him not knowing what to do and call conferences over every minor new issue that arises, or have him dialing up Earth every 5 minutes asking for a decision from his bosses in the IOA. Then over the course of the episode have him find his own leadership qualities and finally make decisions on his own.
I was expecting some conflict between him and the rest of the team in the first few episodes. Then slowly over the season have them build a trust with him, allowing Woolsey's character to develop, until he fits the role of base leader better. It would have been an interesting B-plot to the earlier episodes of this season. I mean I like character development, but having him act so completely out of character straight away?
It was the same when Carter arrived on the show, she was completely different to how we remember her.
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Daniel Butler
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posted
If it was a hive ship, it was very much a baby - hives are bigger/as big as Atlantis, aren't they?
I thought Woolsey sort of did seem like he was at a loss and didn't know what to do - he pretty much did what everyone else suggested.
I agree, though. I kept getting flashes of the early TNG, with a different Chief Engineer every episode - thinking how awful it'd be if they just kept swapping out leaders every time a character didn't work.
I wonder if it need be a human host the ship grows from. It could probably be a wraith just as easily.
Finally, the pathogen was released when Michael's base was destroyed, but they've blown up plenty of wraith installations without anyone growing into a hive ship. Also, I have a bit of a hard time believing the wraith need a humanoid brain to allow their ships to grow - they've got plenty of organic computers, we've seen them. And if a growing ship has a conscious mind, why don't the full-grown ships we've seen? It'd be a bit of a hard swallow if they said "Well they do but they just never mentioned it on-screen." So, I think it was one of Michel's experiments.
Registered: Jul 2005
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quote: Or have Woolsey be in over his head, as he doesn't know what to do. When Atlantis was overrun by the Replicators he kinda fell apart, so that was the reaction I was expecting from him this episode.
It's called character growth. He also had that episode with that nasty swarm at the Gamma site. He may be a bureaucrat, but he's not a fool, nor is he the indecisive type.
quote:Finally, the pathogen was released when Michael's base was destroyed, but they've blown up plenty of wraith installations without anyone growing into a hive ship.
This is the first time they were in a Wrath building when it went down, no? Also, usually they blow up with a MUCH bigger bang, so any of these "hive seeds" that may be in there would be destroyed in the blast.
quote:Also, I have a bit of a hard time believing the wraith need a humanoid brain to allow their ships to grow - they've got plenty of organic computers, we've seen them. And if a growing ship has a conscious mind, why don't the full-grown ships we've seen? It'd be a bit of a hard swallow if they said "Well they do but they just never mentioned it on-screen." So, I think it was one of Michel's experiments.
Well seeing a Wraith screen and control panel isn't the same as seeing a Wrath computer. For all we know, buried inside the thing is what remains of a small mammal. If a human brain can be adapted to run a whole ship, then lower life-forms should have enough raw processing power to run a terminal. As for the Wraith not talking about having, why would they even mention it? They're not exactly the talkative type. Still, this dose call in the question just how many ships the Wraith have and how easy is it for them to grow new ones. Of course the speed at which this thing grew was mostly due to having a city full of refined minerals and ready access to a power supply. I imagine if they seeded one of these on the surface of an average planet, it'd probably take years to convert all the materials and grow to full size. That's assuming it doesn't require intervention at some point to install they hyperspace engines. For it to do that on it's own I imagine for it to do that on it's own, it would at least need a naquada deposit to mine - Pegasus has naquada too, right? I mean the stargates are still made of the stuff, no?
posted
My wife & I just kinda looked at each other when he mentioned the "phage". Seriously? I don't remember them mentioning this before, so if it is new, they had to have named it because of Picardo.
And it was kinda funny having the holodoc ask Beckett to dumb down the medical speak.
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Daniel Butler
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posted
Rev: Good points. I rebut, however, because I didn't mean the wraith would talk about it, I meant "they" never talked about it as in "the show." I mean, why don't wraith ships have voice interfaces if the main computer can talk?
Also, we did see a wraith computer once - when they hacked McKay's wormhole-forwarding macro to hijack the Midway Station. It was sort of...well it looked like one of the Thunderheads from that book Deadman's Switch...Anyway, I also kind of assumed if they could manipulate genetics to the point of not only creating entirely new life-forms but actually creating giant hulking interstellar life-forms with guns on them, that they knew how to grow brains/organic computers (the same thing in this case?) from scratch, just like the rest of the ship.
The gates are indeed naqadah, and I'd assume the power supplies on space gates are naqadah generators (although I can't rule out some Ancient/Lantean micro-ZPM tech or something else completely different).
BJ: Funny, to me he doesn't seem like the Doctor at all. Maybe only because he's holder, but he also seems to have a different persona for Woolsey. I've always bought him fully as a different character without being reminded of the Doctor. (Then again, perhaps I simply haven't watched enough Voyager.)
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Funny, I still see Picardo as Wak from "Explorers".
quote:Rev: Good points. I rebut, however, because I didn't mean the wraith would talk about it, I meant "they" never talked about it as in "the show." I mean, why don't wraith ships have voice interfaces if the main computer can talk?
Well technically it was still Keller talking. By that I mean they opened the intercom circuit that was in the room and the Wrath Hive OS was making her talk. So it wasn't say a direct interface with the system. I'm sure that in a fully developed ship, there'd be very little of the host body left, perhaps just the brain in a knotted mass of tendrils that have taken over the support functions, while the body is allowed to die, or is just consumed into the surrounding mass. So no throat, lungs, tongue or lips left with which to speak the old fashioned way. Even if the body was still intact, it'd be locked away deep in a protected cocoon and I doubt the Wraith would engage it in conversation.
quote:Also, we did see a wraith computer once - when they hacked McKay's wormhole-forwarding macro to hijack the Midway Station. It was sort of...well it looked like one of the Thunderheads from that book Deadman's Switch...Anyway, I also kind of assumed if they could manipulate genetics to the point of not only creating entirely new life-forms but actually creating giant hulking interstellar life-forms with guns on them, that they knew how to grow brains/organic computers (the same thing in this case?) from scratch, just like the rest of the ship.
True, they could conceivably grow it from scratch, but then they'd need a hive ship queen to gestate and produce them. Which opens up the possibility of the "queen" dying, which would mean you'd have to have more than one, which means breeding stock and a whole support system to keep them all going. Something that they already do for the Wrath themselves, they don't need a parallel system for their hardware too. However, using an existing life form as a host is a neat little short-cut since most of the work is already done. Plus, of course the Wraith themselves are hybrids born out of a parasitic fusion. So of course their ships would follow the same model. I wouldn't be surprised that the darts also start life as living beings, perhaps left over humans on-board the hive that haven't been entirely drained, or perhaps they use lower life-forms simply culled from human worlds, or maybe even the Iratus Bug itself as the seed hosts. Perhaps somewhere on the hive ship there's a colony of Iratus that are farmed for just this purpose. It would certainly explain how they can manufacture darts in such large numbers.
Daniel Butler
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posted
I figured they grew them from scratch, again ;P Not like a new life-form, but rather like fruit grow on plants - perhaps whole internal "seed pods" (like a pomegranate) of little baby darts.
And I have to clarify a second time - I didn't necessarily mean that hive ship would talk with the human's larynx, either. They do, presumably, have speaker-equivalents capable of synthesizing a voice. I mean, the Enterprise computer talked on Star Trek, and they didn't have to graft a human head to the console to do so
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posted
Sure, but again, why would they? Talking computers aren't as useful as you might think, especially when dozen of people all over the ship would be talking with it at once. It's fine if they're all out of earshot, but more than one in the same room and the poor computer will find itself trying to talk over itself. The wraith are somewhat telepathic, no? I wonder if they can at least partly interface with their tech on that basis.
As for the Darts, having the hive itself spawn them might work, but you'd need some way of regulating their growth so you only grow them as and when needed.
posted
And when you don't need them, would they be re-absorbed into the ship? It's a good idea, but I'd say that replacements are grown as needed. In any case, Hive ships don't seem to have the cloning facilities we saw last year. Wraith resources must therefore be a limiting factor, as Darts need pilots.
-Keller x McKay. Yep, it's happening.
-New table! AND THEY MENTION IT! Now if they'd only acknowledge that they kept changing the tables between those wierd sectionals and that big black one back and forth in the first two seasons.
-I don't see Woolsey as having changed too much. He certian HAS changed from the first appearance, having previously been a pencil pusher and finger pointer for the NID, and going to a civilian adjundant and moral standout while still being under the thumb of the IOA. Now he's essentially free of direct supervision, which will allow him to develop further as a character, hints of which we saw last year when he was trapped on a Replicator-infested Atlantis. He's no soldier, but he IS the type who will stand up when he needs to. I see him as bringing more of the Hammondesque quality Atlantis hasn't had, without him being a true military leader. Think ECH.
-Atlantis has taken some serious damage AGAIN, with no followup as to how they'll repair the damage. Last year they suffered a lot of damage in that asteroid field, and another building gets partially transformed into a Wraith SOMETHING. How do they fix this? The CGI model doesn't change between episodes. It's not like the city fixes itself, right?
Daniel Butler
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Member # 1689
posted
The ship being biological, a simple negative feedback loop when they're not needed would suffice - down-regulate production via some hormone or electrochemical signal. Likewise, when they need more, up-regulate production.
Maybe the city DOES fix itself - nanotech and all ;P
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
If it did, it has yet to be mentioned in the series... The only time that catastrophic damage has been repaired is in "The Return, Part II" when Sheppard and company lay waste to the central tower, with huge sections of it falling off. The Replicators managed to fix it by the time they were defeated, using their ship as raw materials, but it was their tech that did it.
posted
How do we know that Lantean technology is not partially organic? The Wraith got their tech originally from the Lanteans... so I guess the knowledge for organic technology is there.
That panel that raised out of the floor of the gate-room when that Lantean vessel returned and they took over Atlantis again looked sorta organic.
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posted
Well the way that the walls don't pulsate and ooze is a bit of a give-away. Other than that, the damaged buildings are relatively small ones on the one of the outer platforms, no? So we can pretend that when we see the usual stock footage, any damaged buildings may simply be out of shot, perhaps of the far side of the city.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
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posted
I take issue with your first point, although it's consistent with the SG universe so it isn't really *your* fault - organic technology just means "genetically engineered carbon-based life serving as a technology," which by no means has to have oozing and pulsating walls. (Moya didn't have oozing and pulsating walls )
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- organic technology just means "genetically engineered carbon-based life serving as a technology," which by no means has to have oozing and pulsating walls. (Moya didn't have oozing and pulsating walls 
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