2.07: Instinct

[ray gower]

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Synopsis
While experimenting with a retrovirus that could turn Wraiths back into humans, Dr. Beckett inadvertently puts Sheppard's life at risk.

Storyline c/o SciFi.com
n an unexplored planet, Sheppard, McKay, Teyla and Ronon hike into a village at dusk. The startled inhabitants insist that they spend the night. Apparently, after darkness falls, a mysterious killer stalks the area, sucking the life from its victims. Sheppard and his team instantly guess what they're dealing with: a Wraith.

Sure enough, a leading villager, Goran, explains that a spaceship crashed near the village ten years ago. Frightened, the villagers tried to kill all the crash survivors, but one survived and began to feed. Two years later, Goran's own son vanished into its clutches.

As morning dawns, Sheppard and his team head into the forest to track down the Wraith, but they're in for a surprise. The trail leads into a cave, where a young female Wraith cowers in a candlelit laboratory. She lives there with a human scientist named Zaddik, who begs the team not to kill his "daughter."

Zaddik claims that he helped in the massacre ten years ago, but when he found a young Wraith child, he couldn't bear to kill her. Instead, he brought her to this cave, where he has hidden her ever since. He has even developed a serum that he believes allows his adopted daughter, Ellia, to survive without feeding on humans. The two love each other, and they dream of a day when Ellia can be accepted in the village.

Sheppard doesn't let down his guard. A Wraith has been killing villagers, and this girl is definitely a Wraith. Still, he brings in Dr. Beckett to test Zaddik's serum. Beckett arrives with an experimental retrovirus that has the potential to remove a Wraith's alien DNA, leaving behind only human genetic material. It's not finished yet, but someday, perhaps Ellia can fulfill her dream of living as a human.

While Ellia remains at the cave, another villager is murdered. Forced to conclude that Ellia was not the only Wraith to survive the crash, Sheppard sets out with Teyla and Ronon to hunt down the second Wraith.

Unfortunately, Ellia harbors more deadly secrets than anyone guesses. Desperate for acceptance, she risks injecting herself with the retrovirus — without Beckett's permission. The untested drug strips away her human side. With Ellia transformed into a mindless monster, Sheppard's team now must confront two killers.

 

[ray gower]

Not a great deal to recommend this one, to be honest.

The locals have a problem with something lurking in the dark forrest and killing off the odd tourist who visits. Could it be the rather formal gent with the fixation for long teeth, cloaks and the stately pile only approachable by a windy stone bridge?
:alienooh:Sorry think that was a Hammer experience:alienooh:
Actually we have a kind of nice old guy who wants to save his life sucking daughter, whom he feeds on carrot juice and claims he has a vegetarian cure for Wraithisim.

He is sort of half right, I suppose, she hasn't killed him.
But she has a boyfriend who has a rather more practical attitude to being a Wraith.

Hail the arrival of Doctor Beckitt, waving an experimental drug around as the saviour of all things not Wraith. But it is not ready to be used- So I'll leave it on the table.

Some of you may have children now or in the future. The one thing you do not say to children of any age between 1 and 100 is, "This is wonderful stuff, you mustn't touch it," and leave it behind anything less than 3 very locked doors with the entire county constabulory to guard it.

 

[Krystal]

I like the story of Ellia and what his poor father was trying to do but how you could change something that is in her nature. Is not like some kind of personality is something she have to do to live. Since we haven't see another kind of food for the wraith. She definitely was torn between be a good daughter or be what she is, I think later nature always call. It was a good episode.

Krystal

 

[Dave]

It was Kaylee from 'Firefly' under that make-up. Anyone recognise her voice?

And Ray is spot on with the Hammer Horror, all that fog, pitchforks and burnings, and the bar where the the strangers are not welcome! Unfortunately, it just shows how unoriginal an enemy the Wraith are, second-rate Vampires!

Ronin is some expert tracker, finding a cave none of the locals have before, or are they just too afraid to look? They seem like real wimps.

How can Teyla sense Ellia, yet she couldn't sense the other Wraith?

How can the locals give them food and drink, in return for ridding them of the killer, and yet they let them leave the planet without any proof that they had killed it, or even had done anything at all?

Where did Zaddick get all his food and supplies from without the locals getting inquisitive? They didn't even remember who he was.

I wouldn't say it was the worst episode. The pet Wraith & retro-virus ideas were interesting and Ellia would be the natural subject for a first trial, but am I missing something? Has he been working on this for some time? I can't remember any reference before.

And to be fair, Beckett didn't know she was listening in to his conversation, but then why did he ever bring it if it wasn't ready to be used yet?

How did the villagers know that the Wraith had been killed and Ellia was still 'out there'? As far as they knew there was one Diamos and they couldn't have known it had been killed by Ellia, or that she even existed.

There were certainly a few holes to be picked in this.

 

[Brit Chick]

this first scene with the villagers "no, you can't make them leave, not on a nite like this" the furtive glances etc etc, I was having an American Werewolf in London flashback - and pretty much that was right !

I guess beckett brought the unfinished serum with him to test on Elia's blood cells to see how they would react so guess thats why he had it.

I noticed in the start credits Jewel Staite was gonna be in it, and it was her voice that clued me in to who she was.

Nice twist at the end tho, her father being the son of the other villager who they assumed had been killed 10 years earlier.