Episode of the Week: ‘Condemned’

The Atlantis team finds a culture that lives in relative safety from the Wraith, because they hand over their criminals to the Wraith — and crash-land in the volatile penal colony.

“Condemned” Facts:

• Alan C. Peterson, the man behind the cunning Magistrate, previously appeared on SG-1 — but in both of his appearances we never learned his character’s name. He played a similarly calculating, self-serving alien leader — identified only as the village Canon — in the third season episode “Demons.”
• Before actor Christian Bocher played the criminal Torrell in this episode, he had a very different role on Stargate SG-1: as Raymond Gunne, an actor playing the Daniel Jackson role in the show-within-a-show Wormhole X-Treme!
• Bocher is actually one of a very small cadre of actors who has played more than two different roles in the Stargate universe. Before he was Raymond Gunne he played Major Neumann, a member of Harry Maybourne’s rogue N.I.D. unit (“Shades of Grey”).
• “Condemned” gave Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson) a rare opportunity to join the team for a trip off-world. Weir’s character was conceived of as an expert diplomat, but only in a few episodes (such as this one) was she able to visit an alien world and negotiate directly with its leaders.
• This is the first episode in which we see a Wraith eat food with his mouth. It’s not something they can draw nourishment from, but here it makes for a rather creepy scene where a Wraith officer sits across the table from a human being who he really regards as little more than cattle.
• This episode was originally intended to involve clones — perhaps created to keep the hungry Wraith satiated, though the producers never revealed the story that was left behind in favor of the prison island angle of the story that became “Condemned.”

“Condemned” on GateWorld:

• Episode Guide
• Episode Transcript
• Photo Gallery
• Screencap Gallery
• Discussion Forum
• Interview with Torri Higginson (2005)
• Interview with David Hewlett (2005)
• Interview with Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper (2005)
• Atlantis Season Two Podcast

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Rewatch “Condemned” this week! Then post your comments below, or head over to the episode discussion forum and see what people were saying back in the day. What are your favorite moments?

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