Guide

"Every time we get involved with you, I feel like I'm walking around with a live grenade in my pocket, just waiting for it all to go wrong - for that one thing you forgot to mention [...] If I find out you're playing us, I'm not going to wait for authorization, there isn't going to be any paperwork, I'm just going to kill you."

- Sheppard to Todd.

Guide, known to the Atlantis expedition as "Todd" is a Wraith with whom the Atlantis expedition has made contact several times. He first appeared in 2006, returning in subsequent years. He is distinguished by a starburst-shaped tattoo centered around his left eye. He was named "Todd" by Lt. Colonel John Sheppard after a guy he knew from college who was very pale.

Background information
"I was there ten thousand years ago."

- Todd

Before his capture, Todd was a Wraith of some political standing; after being freed he is in loose command of about a dozen Hive Ships (out of at least sixty in the galaxy), and these had remained loyal to him during his imprisonment, implying that he used to command even more, most probably because he is at least 10,000 years old. He notes that his time spent in Commander Acastus Kolya's prison diminished his standing among the Wraith, further supporting the notion that he held a great deal of influence beforehand. He's also an adept scientist, having a significant understanding of nanite coding as well as Wraith technology.

2006
"Each in our own way, we suffer!"

- Todd, to Sheppard

When first introduced, "Todd" (then unnamed) first appeared as a prisoner of the Genii forces loyal to Commander Acastus Kolya. As part of their plan to get the Atlantis expedition to turn over Ladon Radim, the current leader of the Genii, Kolya threatens to have Todd periodically feed on, but not completely drain, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. He was allowed to feed on Sheppard three times only for several seconds to force Dr. Elizabeth Weir to give him Ladon, before they finally conspired together to escape the Genii prison; Sheppard having given Todd a new sense of hope. Working together, the two overpowered Kolya's guards and escaped, only to be cornered as they neared the Stargate. In order to gain the strength to fight them off, Todd almost completely drained Sheppard, leaving him barely alive but allowing Todd to easily kill the Genii soldiers approaching them. To repay Sheppard for freeing him, he drained the Genii soldiers he overpowered and used their life-force to regenerate Sheppard, an action which he referred to as the Gift of Life; Dr. Rodney McKay even claimed that Sheppard looks younger than he did before. Sheppard, in return, left Todd on another planet to link up with his Hive Ship. Both he and Sheppard agreed to honor their deal of letting the other go with Sheppard warning Todd again that should they meet again, they would be enemies. Todd suggested that it would be good, for both their sakes, that they never meet again.

2007
Todd returned a year later to forge an alliance with Atlantis expedition against the Asurans, with whom the Wraith were now at war, while also informing Atlantis of the Asurans new strategy of wiping out every human in the galaxy to deprive the Wraith of a food supply. Since the efforts of the Atlantis personnel have rendered the Wraith's previous virus ineffective in shutting off the Asuran Wraith-attack command, he needs their help to adjust it, jokingly offering to secure their truce with a handshake. He was stranded on Atlantis after the Hive Ship which brought the virus is destroyed by another suspicious Hive.

He remained in custody on Atlantis for weeks, working with Dr. Rodney McKay on the nanite coding. He also agreed to help McKay in shutting down the nanites in Jeannie Miller's body, but only after he was allowed to feed on Henry Wallace, who had infected Jeannie. During this time on Atlantis, he hacked McKay's computer and took the macro for the McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge (which was later stolen from him), allowing the Wraith to later attack the Midway Station and Stargate Command.

2008
"We have a deal. Seven hives will join us in the fight."

- Todd

Todd secured his freedom when he convinced seven Wraith Hive Ships to join the Daedalus and the Apollo along with the Travelers on an assault of the Asuran homeworld. Todd used the battle as a distraction to steal several Zero Point Modules from the planet before it was destroyed, in order to power a massive Wraith cloning facility, which he wanted to use to create his own Wraith army able to wipe out the rival Wraith factions. He was, however, betrayed and imprisoned by a rival hive, set to be fed upon by a Wraith Queen once he outlived his usefulness. Sheppard's team located his damaged ship and freed Todd, and together they destroyed the facility by ramming it with the damaged Hive Ship. He escaped this Hive Ship on a Dart separately from Sheppard's team.

Later, it was discovered that Todd provided information to a Wraith faction allowing them to attack the Midway space station and Stargate Command, implying that he conducted espionage on the expedition during his stay in Atlantis, and that he is still alive. This is later confirmed when random outbreaks of a modified version of the Wraith-poisoning inoculation prompt Todd to arrange another collaboration in order to stop the threat to both races. When confronted with his apparent involvement in the Midway incident Todd admits to stealing information from Dr. Rodney McKay's laptop, but insists that the Wraith who planned the Midway occupation stole the information from him in turn. Given his shock over their accusation that he had something to do with this, he was likely telling the truth.

Some time after, Dr. Jennifer Keller found a gene therapy within Michael's database that should eliminate the Wraith's need to feed on Humans again. The Expedition met with Todd to discuss this major discovery. He told them that although he saw the benefits of the endeavor- particularly since the recent plague meant that the Wraith were taking a risk any time they fed in case they came across a plague survivor who would kill the Wraith if they were fed on-, in order to disseminate the therapy with the other hives in the alliance they would need to convince the leader, the Primary queen. There was a slight problem to the plan--the Primary would only meet with another queen, and Todd's was killed a year ago when his Hive Ship was destroyed. However, the Primary did not know this. He then proposed a plan in which Teyla Emmagan, being a Wraithkin, could pose as a queen for the dealings. She agreed and the two set off to meet with the Primary's hive ship and the queen. As soon as they were on board, the ship jumped into hyperspace, surprising Todd and Teyla. The Primary met them soon after, but Todd killed her almost immediately and told Teyla to take the blame. After a brief confrontation with the hive's commander, Teyla was made the new queen. She then ordered the ship to drop out of hyperspace.

Meanwhile, Todd's second in command and the Atlantis team were pursuing them in Todd's own hive ship. They arrived at the last known position of Todd's tracking device, but Teyla's hive had already moved to confront a rival hive at one of their feeding grounds. Todd recommended to Teyla that she should negotiate with the other hive, but instead she opened fire on them. She deployed the Darts to face the brunt of the enemy fire, during which Todd remarked on how she is doing this intentionally, to kill Wraith on both sides.

Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and his team had left Todd's hive in their Puddle Jumper, and they arrived at the battle through the Stargate quickly enough to destroy the enemy ship with drones and board Teyla's hive, but were stunned and captured. Teyla came to their cell and explained the situation, but the hive's original commander overheard their conversation. He attacked Teyla in her quarters and was about to kill her when Todd intervened and killed the commander. Shortly after, she left the ship with the other team members on the Jumper. Todd was left in command of the ship, and with Teyla giving him full authority, effectively lead the Wraith alliance. The team later commented on how it could have been his intention all along.

Some time later, Todd's hive ship and two of his Wraith cruisers rendezvoused with the Daedalus so he could come on board and work with Keller on the gene therapy drug. Meanwhile, the Atlantis expedition discovered the Lantean, Janus' secret lab in Atlantis. Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Daniel Jackson unknowingly activated a signal alerting the rogue Asgard faction, the Vanir, of their location. The Vanir then infiltrated Atlantis and kidnapped Daniel and Rodney with the intention of activating the "Attero device", which destroys any Wraith ship going into hyperspace as well as making active Stargates explode with the power of a dozen nuclear warheads.

While Todd and Keller were working, his cruisers attempted to go into hyperspace and were disintegrated, leading Todd to assume that the Atlantis expedition had located and deliberately activated the device. Believing he was betrayed, Todd hijacked the Daedalus and set off to destroy it. At the same time, the device destroyed both Atlantis' Stargate and another gate near a Traveler settlement, the former being controlled by Atlantis' shield and the latter obliterating the settlement and killing three thousand Travelers as well as destroying their Lantean warship. As a result of this, Katana Labrea was sent by Larrin to Atlantis to find the cause of the explosion. Because Todd would probably destroy the lab with McKay and Jackson still in it, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and Dr. Radek Zelenka came on board Katana Labrea ship in an effort to get there first and rescue them. Ronon Dex, who was still on the ship, sabotaged the Daedalus' systems, delaying Todd.

Three Vanir spaceships, the hijacked Daedalus and Katana's ship confronted each other around the planet M6H-987, where the device was. Ronon freed the Daedalus' original crew and they stormed the bridge, only to find that Todd had locked the Daedalus into a collision course with the device. Soon after, Todd and his Wraith escaped the vessel in their Wraith scout ship. The Traveler ship managed to open a hyperspace window to save the Daedalus and its helpless crew, then destroyed Janus' lab and the Attero device with its weapons.

"If I'd not agreed to meet with you to discuss this innovation of yours, my crew and I would not be in this predicament!"

- Todd

Todd was forced to work with the Expedition once again when his Hive Ship appeared in orbit over M35-117 where Atlantis was floating. He had stolen the experimental drug created by Dr. Jennifer Keller. It took away his ability to feed but also gave him a disease, like cancer. The disease spread to his Hive Ship when in symbiosis with the crew during stasis. His warriors turned feral and tried to eat several humans, while the hive's systems behaved erratically. Todd told the team that being fed on by an Iratus bug queen could reverse the effects of the disease and that there was a planet three days' journey away inhabited by the insects. Lt. Colonel John Sheppard rejected the suggestion because the ship was too damaged to make a hyperspace journey. After a short altercation between the two, Todd was imprisoned in a holding cell on the hive. Soon though, the ship could no longer handle the strain and broke in half, with the team in the forward section, which began to fall towards M35-117's surface. With no other choice left, Sheppard asked Todd to help him in exchange for allowing him to seek an Iratus queen to cure himself. Todd successfully landed the front portion of the hive on water, saving them. Sheppard told Richard Woolsey to let him go find his cure. He was released and left Atlantis on good terms.

2009
"Well, you can bet there's something he's not telling us."

- Sheppard

Later he contacted Atlantis revealing that, though the process was extremely painful, the Iratus bug had completely cured him of the horrid disease, also reversing the gene therapy causing him to turn back into a normal Wraith. He also told them that he had been defeated by one of his crew, who had gotten his hands on several Zero Point Modules, a vast power source that can strengthen a Hive Ship greatly. He was allowed back to Atlantis, but was held in a cell. The Wraith who had betrayed Todd was on his way to Earth having received the coordinates from a subspace transmission from an alternate reality. Therefore, Todd provided the expedition with two ZPMs so it could fly to Earth and battle the Hive before it attacked. Atlantis landed on Earth after the Hive had been destroyed and Todd was still in custody.

After putting Todd into stasis to keep him alive without dealing with the ethical issue of whether or not to feed him, he was released after the expedition had returned to Pegasus and were investigating reports of a new Wraith Queen, known as 'Queen Death'. When studying a holographic projection left by Queen Death, Todd appeared to be slightly attracted to her image, but he was recovered by Wraith responding to the message's activation before Sheppard could question him about Queen Death's implied status in Wraith mythology.

Alternate realities
"Wraith are never ending!"

- Todd to John Sheppard


 * In an alternate reality Todd is seen in the captivity of the Tau'ri. He had been captured when his hive that had attacked Earth was destroyed and his dart had crashed. The Tau'ri kept him in a cell but hadn't fed him, which had made him delusional from starvation. This version of Todd seemed to be quite poetic.

Alternate timelines

 * In the Alternate timeline Sheppard learned about Todd's final fate when he accidentally traveled 48,000 years into the future. It is revealed that Todd died fighting alongside Ronon Dex in an attempt to destroy one of Michael's research facilities. This is ironic in a poignant point of view, as Ronon had always held a begrudging resentment towards Todd since they first met. It is possible the two may have come to terms with one another, seeing as they had a common enemy to deal with at the time.

Personality
Todd's personality is unusual for a natural pure-blooded Wraith. He is reasonable, surprisingly loyal, and to a degree quite honorable, usually keeping his bargains. He is far more willing to make compromises and deals with humans, and acts far less arrogantly in their presence, serving in many ways as the Wraith version of the Goa'uld System Lord Yu, as both were willing to work with Earth's forces to achieve mutual goals. He regards the Atlantis expedition with neutrality, knowing that they are more useful as occasional allies than enemies. He also seems to care about the collective good of the Wraith, recognising the benefits of developing a means of freeing the Wraith of their need to feed on humans after the wide-range dispersal of the Wraith-inoculation plague making it risky for the Wraith to feed at random as they had done before.

During his imprisonment with Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, he commented that it would be worth escaping just to see the stars again, implying that he has a sense of beauty and appreciation of freedom. He also seems to regard the act of feeding as more of a necessity than an act of sadistic pleasure. He attempts to justify the Wraith's actions when it comes to feeding by comparing Wraith hunger to the pain of being burned alive. Notably, when he threatens to feed on the Daedalus crewmembers when Ronon Dex begins sabotaging the ship, Ronon assumes he's bluffing, while this claim made by any other Wraith would be taken seriously, demonstrating that even he has a degree of respect for Todd despite his usual anti-Wraith stance.

More recently, due to his continued presence among the Atlantis teams, he seems to have developed a grudging respect for the teams' various abilities. During Teyla Emmagan's telepathic struggle with a Queen, he is seen looking on with a degree of surprised admiration. It is unknown how much of his personality is due to his long imprisonment and contact with humans.

Todd also has a unique relationship with John Sheppard. The two were forced to trust each other to get away from Acastus Kolya and afterwards both spared each others lives, with Todd even restoring all of the life he took from Sheppard with the Gift of Life, something he refers to being reserved for the Wraiths most devout worshipers and their brothers. The two agree that "all bets are off" after that, but both agree that its best that they not meet again as neither really seem to want to kill the other, although Sheppard does repeatedly threaten to kill Todd over time. As a result of this, when the situation calls for it, Todd shows a willingness to work with Sheppard, despite a lack of trust between the two on at least Sheppard's side after the first experience. While Sheppard is mostly unwilling to believe Todd, noting that some of their collaborations have resulted in Todd withholding information or possibly using them to get what he wants- such as Todd establishing his authority over other Wraith hives while claiming that this will allow him to convince them to accept Atlantis's 'treatment' to remove their need to feed-, Todd trusts John to keep their deals at the very least. Todd and Sheppard also seem to know what to say to each other to get them to do what they want of the other, with Todd even telling Sheppard "you know how to talk to me" when Sheppard convinces him to give up two Zero Point Modules for Atlantis.

However, he is still very cunning and manipulative and does not hesitate to mislead or deceive the Atlantis expedition when he is working with them to serve his own ends. Most notably, he hacked into the Atlantis computer to find the Midway space station's location (later resulting in its destruction) and kept his real plan secret when seeking Teyla's help in dealing with the Primary.

One thing Todd doesn't seem to take well is betrayal by someone who he has given his trust to: when he believes the expedition betrayed him and activated the Attero device using his ships to test it, he is clearly furious and upset. This is also demonstrated when the Wraith underling mutinies against him and steals the ZPM powered Hive Ship. Todd is so furious he immediately dials Atlantis to alert Sheppard about the existence of the ship and to get the team to destroy it, just to spite his former second in command, leading to the Battle of the ZPM powered Hive Ship in which Sheppard kills the Wraith underling and destroys the ship with a nuclear weapon.

Behind the scenes

 * Christopher Heyerdahl previously played Pallan in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Revisions" and Halling in several episodes of Stargate: Atlantis.