3.07: Common Ground

[Eway]

Colonel Sheppard finds himself the prisoner of a Genii commander, along with a Wraith who has been separated from his hive.

[dustinzgirl]

Great episode, and now we understand the Wraith more. I like the wraith, and seeing them on a more personal level than always in a giant armada is pretty cool---

This episode logically followed the second season where we saw the cure develop and so on.

[Dave]

This episode lacked something for me. It was meant to be a 'humanizing' the Wraith episode, showing them to be 'just like us' really. It was trying to make us respect them as 'carnivorous hunters' rather than as a 'disease'.

SPOILERS FOLLOW.... obviously!

Who else guessed at the great revelation at the close of the episode as Shepard lay dying, a wasted aged man? I saw it coming about a mile away, but as everyone said 'wow, we didn't know that about the Wraith', and the final credits rolled, I thought "but what??"

There are huge philosophical implications that were dismissed far too easily:

Shepard was given his 'life force' (for sake of a better term) back again by the Wraith - the process is now seen to be reversible. But Shepard was made well only as a result of the Wraith taking the lives of two Genii soldiers.

Is that moral?

How can the team be so okay with that?

How long before someone takes a pet Wraith prisoner in order to keep it as a (Picture of Dorian Grey) 'life force' top up?

Instead of wiping out the Wraith, everyone will want one for themselves. There can now never be any peace in the Pegasus Galaxy. No longer can there be a treaty where the Wraith stay on one side and humankind on the other. No longer will the retro-virus be an option. The secret of eternal youth is much too big a prize. That Wraith has signed the death warrant on all Wraith.

What he did by giving life back was even worse for his species than taking a life. Discuss?

[Delvo]

You couldn't use a prisoner that way because a Wraith only does this for an exceptionally rare human who somehow impresses the Wraith and makes the Wraith want to do it for him/her.

Plus, he really has no reason to think that Wraiths in general would be in any danger. Humans have long wanted to kill them all, and it hasn't mattered.

[Dr.Jackson]

Originally Posted by Dave

There are huge philosophical implications that were dismissed far too easily:

Shepard was given his 'life force' (for sake of a better term) back again by the Wraith - the process is now seen to be reversible. But Shepard was made well only as a result of the Wraith taking the lives of two Genii soldiers.

Is that moral?

How can the team be so okay with that?

In the strictest sense they wouldn't have been okay with sacrificing two people to save one, but as the two belonged to the enemy (in their terms) then it would have been a kill or be killed situation, and therefore would have been more acceptable than having them die, and Sheppard die as well.

Originally Posted by Dave

How long before someone takes a pet Wraith prisoner in order to keep it as a (Picture of Dorian Grey) 'life force' top up?

Instead of wiping out the Wraith, everyone will want one for themselves. There can now never be any peace in the Pegasus Galaxy. No longer can there be a treaty where the Wraith stay on one side and humankind on the other. No longer will the retro-virus be an option. The secret of eternal youth is much too big a prize. That Wraith has signed the death warrant on all Wraith.

What he did by giving life back was even worse for his species than taking a life. Discuss?

The Wraith has to choose to give, rather than take life. This means that the idea of Wraith as pets is a moot point. You would have to spend years conditioning it, assuming it didn't kill you first, before you could use its life-giving abilities. Also, you would have to be willing to sacrifice others for your own gain - since this is generally unnacceptable in civilized places, it would be difficult to maintain unless you had a horrendously malicious evil streak, or a lot of enemies.
The secret of eternal youth comes at a high price, very much a Faustian deal if you ask me, and how many people would truly be willing to take the risk. It would be more dangerous than trying to tame a hungry lion whilst wearing a suit made of ham!

Could it be, perhaps that the Wraith had somehow developed a sense of honour that none of the others seem to have. Unfortunately it only lasted until the end of the episode. Leopard and spots, eh!
You could see the giving back of life-force a mile away though. And Kolya escaping again? The man has more lives than a cat!

[Sattrega]

Even though this was a predictable episode from the start, it wasn't all that bad. What TPTB did with the Wraith was a really good twist but they pretty much ended any possibility of a future storyline by saying that Sheppard would kill the Wraith the next he saw him.
The Sheppard and Kolya arc is getting boring now, all that happens is Kolya captures him, Sheppard manages to escape then Kolya escapes through the Stargate. Kolya was a good character to begin with but now he's just being written the same arcs over and over again.