"You are in no danger. I am now Queen of this Hive." - Teyla
"Wait, what?!" - McKay

The Atlantis team arranges a meeting with everyone's favorite Wraith ? Todd the Wraith (Christopher Heyerdahl).

The team proposes a plan to help both the Wraith, who are fighting over food, and the humans, who don't want to be said food. Dr. Keller (Jewel Staite) has made a breakthrough after studying Michael's research. Gene therapy that will allow Wraith to gain sustenance from 'normal' food; in essence negating the need to feed on humans. Todd is skeptical, but agrees to the plan.

But, there is a snag. To apply the treatment to all Wraiths he will have to convince the primary queen of the alliance. But queens only talk to queens and Todd's Wraith posse is missing one. The solution -- to disguise Teyla as a Wraith queen and have her (with Todd's guidance) convince the primary queen.

Sounds risky, but simple ? right? Of course, nothing ever goes to plan, and Todd has a surprise for Teyla when he assassinates the primary queen -- turning Teyla into the new primary queen.

Things get even more complicated when their Wraith hive ship encounters an enemy Wraith hive ship and the former primaries "first prime" suspects something isn't quite right with this new queen.

In the end, Todd ends up in charge of the alliance as the representative of "Queen" Teyla. Of course, Todd says he needs to wait before trying to convince the others to take the treatment. Is Todd up to something, or is he being honest? Either way, Teyla makes it clear that if she is betrayed, the queen will return and Todd?s head will roll.

What Worked

This episode was an improvement over last week's "Whispers." I still feel that "Shrine" is the stand-out episode this season so far.

"The Queen" did a good job continuing and tying in previous story lines: Michael's research, Todd the Wraith and Teyla's Wraith DNA.

Seeing Christopher Heyerdahl as Todd is always fun, and he did another great job portraying the clever and devious Todd. And hey, Sheppard named another Wraith! I wonder, will we ever see Kenny the Wraith again?

I was also pleased with the final scene between Teyla and Todd. Teyla comes off a little too nice sometimes, and it was nice to see her take charge with her newfound "queen" attitude.

It was also interesting to see more of the inner working of Wraith society. But there is always that danger of removing so much mystery and make them to easy to relate to that they lose their "threat factor," similar to what happened to the Borg in "Star Trek."

I?ve complained before, especially last year with Carter, about the writers not explaining when the leader doesn?t make an appearance or isn't even mentioned. Kudos to the writers for beginning with the team on mission and then a quick line about Woolsey giving them a message. That is all it takes to make me happy.

The ending was appealing. I'm curious as to what happens next. Did Todd play them? Does he have any desire to implement the gene therapy, or did he use that as a way to gain power? Will Queen Teyla ever make a reappearance?

Finally, I enjoyed seeing the transformation from human Teyla to Wraith Teyla. Uber-kudos to the make-up department and to Rachel Luttrell for showing so much emotion through all that make-up.

What Didn't Work

I'm a little fuzzy on how the heck they transformed Teyla into a Wraith. I know that Teyla's DNA helps hide her mentally from them, but how did they make her physically look like them? Make-up perhaps or super science plastic surgery? All I know is that Keller did some kind of surgery. And I'm sure that didn?t transform her into a Wraith on a genetic level. She would have been a little hard to control.

That part felt a little too rushed and reminded too much of one of those episodes of "Star Trek" when one of the crew goes undercover as a Romulan or something.

I'm also tired of this "golly gee" act with Dr. Keller. I like that actress (Jewel Staite), but the character needs to grow up into her new role. Otherwise, why ever take her in the field? It would make sense that they would replace her with someone more experienced, like the resurrected Dr. Beckett.

I also didn't like the scene where the primaries' hive ship was getting dren kicked out of it by the other hive ship. Not only did it make Teyla look kind of dumb, but it didn?t make sense. They had the jump on the other ship and, I would assume, it should be more powerful than a typical ship.

I know that the writers were trying to show how much Teyla hates the Wraith, but I don?t buy it. I?ve never seen Teyla give in to her emotions that much and she didn?t show obvious hatred to the Wraith on the ship or to Todd. There was definitely no indication that she would go so far to endanger the mission. I could see Ronon doing that, but not Teyla.

I was also disappointed that Teyla was unable to hold her own better against the "first prime" Wraith. Where was the kick-ass, stick-fighting Teyla we've seen before? I can see her not winning, but she should have been able to hold her own better than that.

Overall, a good episode that further developed the Wraith portion of the Stargate mythology. Hopefully we will see more Todd the Wraith and Teyla the Wraith Queen.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"The Queen" was written by Alan McCullough, Alan McCullough and Alex Levine, and was directed by Brenton Spencer. "Stargate: Atlantis" airs Friday nights at 10 p.m. on the SciFi Channel. The show stars Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell, Jason Momoa, Jewel Staite and Robert Picardo.

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