SGA 5.17 "Infection" Episode Guide

Précis

A distress call from a hive ship over Atlantis leads the team to discover a Wraith crew in stasis, with all hands stricken with a disease caused in part by Dr. Keller's gene therapy.

Guide | Transcript

MGM/SciFi.com Official Summary

The official summary is not available as this episode has not yet aired in the United States.

Spoiler Summary

Sheppard, Lorne, Lt. Williams (one of Lorne’s men), and Marines are aboard a Wraith hive ship. They are spread out, but in radio contact. With orders to report “anything unusual”, Lt. Williams immediately radios Lorne as soon as he sees a wall “melting”. As he approaches the wall to get a closer look, he is grabbed by a Wraith drone who isn’t wearing the normal bony mask. The Wraith drags Williams off, leaving his unfired weapon behind.

When Williams fails to continue his report, Lorne, Sheppard, and a Marine look for him at his last location, but only find his weapon. Lorne asks if this is cause for reinforcements to be sent from Atlantis.

Meanwhile, Keller is faced with working with Wraith physiology and “having the fate of the galaxy hang in the balance.” She is being encouraged by McKay, who manages to get her to smile. He even takes her hand in a gesture of encouragement.

Cast

• Joe Flanigan as Lt. Col. John Sheppard
• Rachel Luttrell as Teyla Emmagan
• Jason Momoa as Ronon Dex
• Jewel Staite as Dr. Jennifer Keller
• Robert Picardo as Richard Woolsey
• and David Hewlett as Dr. Rodney McKay

Guest Stars

• Kavan Smith as Maj. Lorne
• Christopher Heyerdahl as Todd
• Lt. Williams
• Marine

Production

• Written by Alan McCullough
• Directed by Andy Mikita

Production Gallery

The following are links to images concerning the production of this episode and were published by Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog:

• None

Related Articles

Keywords

• Wraith

Other

• Season Five Episode Guides
• Episode Guides
• Season Five Transcripts
• Transcripts
• Previous: SGA 5.16 "Brain Storm" Episode Guide
• Next: SGA 5.18 "Identity" Episode Guide

Production Notes

• Paloosa writes: “Also, I was wondering if the storylines have been decided for the last few episodes? And are you, cast and crew itching to take off for hiatus?” Answer: "Nope. There are two slots still open. They’ll go to Carl and Alan. We have two weeks to spin these stories. That way, everyone will have something to work on during a hiatus we are all very much looking forward to." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, May 31, 2008.
• PG15 writes: “Do you guys know, generally, what you want to put in those 2 empty spots at the end of the season, or is it completely blank? Are there “notions” for those spots?” Answer: "No notions, but there are a couple of loose ends that could use tying up." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, June 1, 2008.
• "Help spin Alan’s story for episode 18 (or maybe 17?). A mysterious arrival, a difficult dilemma, and the continuation of a storyline introduced in The Queen." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, June 4, 2008.
• "And, speaking of casting, we’re looking into the availability of the pallid one for Alan’s eppy ..." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, June 5, 2008.
• "Afterwards, Marty G. headed down to post, leaving Paul, Carl, Rob, and I to help Alan break his story, tentatively titled The Antidote. We spent most of the day beating it out, stopping only to eat lunch and partake in a sparring session using some weapons Lawren discovered in the storage closet ... We completed the first three acts and most of act four before running out of steam. We agreed to go our separate ways to think about a phenomenal ending for the episode on the condition that we all reconvene first thing in the morning. ..." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, June 11, 2008.
• "We finished breaking Alan’s script today, formerly Antidote, now Infection." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, June 12, 2008.
• "Alan finished his rewrite of Infection, Martin is prepping Brain Storm, Carl is poised to prep Identity, and Paul has broken ground on #20. With less than two months to go, it looks like it’s going to be a mad dash to the finish line." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, July 23, 2008.
• "Alan preps Infection (in which Todd makes his return following the events of the mid-season two-parter)..." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, July 31, 2008.
• "Infection has started shooting (infirmary scenes in Stage 6 to start the day, then a move over to the hive ship set in the FX stage) ..." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, August 12, 2008.
• "The one I'm doing right now is called "The Infection" and without giving away too much; it's not necessarily his own storyline but Joe (Flannigan) and I work together quite a bit in this one. At least two-thirds of the episode are basically Joe and I, so even though it's not Lorne's own storyline, it's definitely a good one for the Lorne character. So fingers crossed that they might go another season and maybe throw a few more storylines in there for our boy." — Kavan Smith, SF Universe interview, August 18, 2008.
• "Alan's episode 517 "Infection" is shooting..." — Alex Levine in his scifi.com blog, August 18, 2008.
• "The hardest scripts to direct were Vengeance (making one hall look like many, and trying to make the creature attacks scary) and Infection (6 days in the Hive set – a fate worse than death)." — Andy Mikita, Joseph Mallozzi's weblog, September 3, 2008.

Further Reading

• Joseph Mallozzi's Blog
• SF Universe: Supporting Atlantis: An Interview with Kavan Smith, August 18, 2008.
• Alex Levine's scifi.com blog, August 18, 2008.
• Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog Q&A with Andy Mikita, September 3, 2008.

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--DeeKayP 18:43, 21 July 2008 (PDT)