Episode of the Week: ‘Allies’

Michael and his Wraith faction arrive at Atlantis to propose an alliance, hoping to use the retrovirus to transform their Wraith enemies into prey.

“Allies” Facts:

• Stargate Atlantis‘s second season finale brought back the Wraith Michael — who had just been introduced only two episodes earlier. Unfortunately, actor Connor Trinneer was not available to shoot the episode. The solution was a bit of TV magic: another actor was put in heavy prosthetics to play the character on screen, and Trinneer later dubbed all his dialogue to keep consistency with the character’s voice.
• The actor who stepped in to play Michael? There’s a familiar face under all that make-up: Brent Stait had previously played Major Louis Ferretti — a member of the first team to go through the Stargate — in the early days of Stargate SG-1. (Genre fans will also know him as Andromeda’s Rev Bem, another prosthetics-heavy role.)
• Dr. Beckett’s new retrovirus introduces a very unsettling new dynamic to the Pegasus Galaxy: The Wraith are perfectly content to be cannibalistic and consume the life force of their own kind, with the Wraith warriors of enemy factions transformed (more or less) into humans. In reality, the opportunity to witness Beckett’s work will inspire Michael to go on to much bigger, and more genocidal, plans of his own.
• This is the last we see of Michael operating within the established Wraith hierarchy. Here he’s pretty much subservient to his Queen; after breaking from the hive in Season Three, he would strike out on his own and establish himself as a rogue player in the Pegasus Galaxy.

“Allies” on GateWorld:

• Episode Guide
• Episode Transcript
• Photo Gallery
• Screencap Gallery
• Discussion Forum
• Atlantis Season Two Podcast
• Interview with Connor Trinneer (2006)
• Interview with Andee Frizzell (2006)
• Interview with Paul McGillion & Jason Momoa (2006)
• Interview with David Nykl (2006)
• Interview with Brad Wright (2006)

Download “Allies” now from Amazon or iTunes!

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

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