The Defiant One

"The Defiant One" is the twelfth episode of the first season of Stargate Atlantis.

Plot
Sheppard and the team are surveying a planet on the opposite side of Atlantis' planetary system. They find a defensive satellite in orbit, believing it to once have belonged to the Ancients. On further investigation, they find a Wraith ship on the surface of a planet that was shot down by the satellite ten thousand years earlier during final stages of the Wraith-Atlantian war. They land the Puddle Jumper on the surface to investigate.

Sheppard's team finds the Wraith ship dead and devoid of life, but are shocked to find evidence that indicates the Wraith crew of the ship resorted to cannibalism by feeding off each other - most likely out of desperation due to the lack of food supply on the barren desert planet. Further investigation of the ship reveals hundreds of stasis chambers for storing humans, thus indicating that the Wraith ship was actually a giant supply vessel.

Unknown to Sheppard and his team, a single Wraith from the ship's original crew was still alive. The Wraith was not detected on any life sign scans because the Wraith was hibernating. Once Sheppard's team entered the derelict Wraith ship, the ten thousand year old Wraith reawakened from hibernation and killed a scientist on Sheppard's team and drained the life force another, Dr Gaul, but still left him alive. Leaving Dr. Gaul alive provides the Wraith with a tactical advantage, because it forces McKay and Sheppard to split up: one has to stay back to look after the weakened Dr. Gaul and instead of both going after the Wraith.

The Wraith finds the puddle jumper and Sheppard unsuccessfully tries, single-handedly, to reclaim the vehicle. Sheppard finds it impossible to kill the Wraith as the creature had survived for ten thousand years and therefore was a formidable opponent. The Wraith also possesses strong regenerative abilities because he had fed twice, very recently. Even when Sheppard unloads an entire magazine from his P90 submachine gun, the Wraith is only temporarily stunned before springing back to life. Not even a close quarters blast from a Wraith explosive device kills the creature or causes any kind of permanent injury.

The Wraith remains stranded on the planet, despite being in control of the puddle jumper, because it does not possess the Ancient gene and therefore cannot activate the vessel's controls.

While Sheppard tries to retake the puddle jumper from the single Wraith, McKay stays with weakened and severely aged Dr. Gaul. During that time, Gaul tries to persuade McKay to go help Sheppard. McKay refuses to leave so Gaul takes the decision out of McKay's hands by shooting himself.

In a last ditch effort to retake the puddle jumper, Sheppard distracts the Wraith with a flare and makes a dash for the puddle jumper only to be foiled when he bounces off the puddle jumper's shields which the Wraith activated before it left the puddle jumper unattended. Sheppard's failed plan causes the Wraith to smile. The Wraith then taunts Sheppard over the foolishness of his tactics - the Wraith's military tactical senses had been sharped by over ten thousand years of survival on a barren desert planet, with nothing left to feed on but its own Wraith crew.

Out of ammunition, Sheppard engages the Wraith in a futile and short lived knife fight. The Wraith is about to kill Sheppard when McKay shows up and distracts the Wraith by shooting it. Sheppard and McKay continue to distract the Wraith until Ford and Teyla arrive in a second Puddle Jumper and are able to destroy the Wraith from space using a drone weapon.

Production

 * This episode was filmed at the Richmond sand dunes.
 * Richard Ian Cox previously appeared in the season 3 Stargate SG-1 episode New Ground as Nyan.