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 Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard after a guy he knew from college who was very pale. He is currently in the custody of the Atlantis Expedition on Earth after again seeking help from them against a common threat.

Biography
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 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, Colonel John Sheppard. He was allowed to feed on Sheppard three times only for several seconds to force Elizabeth Weir to give him Ladon Radim, 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; Doctor 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. 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 him is destroyed by another suspicious Hive.

He remained in custody on Atlantis for weeks, working with 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 the man who had infected Jeannie. During this time on Atlantis, he hacked McKay's computer and took the macro for the Carter-McKay Inter Galactic Gatebridge (which was later stolen from him), allowing the Wraith to later attack 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 with Atlantis' two Daedalus-class battlecruisers and the Travelers on an assault of the Asuran homeworld. Todd used the battle as a distraction to steal several ZPMs 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 frees Todd, and together they destroy 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 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 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, 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, 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 onboard, 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.

Sheppard and his team had left Todd's hive in their Gateship, 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 Gateship. 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 onboard and work with Keller on the gene therapy drug.

Meanwhile, the Atlantis Expedition discovered the Lantean, Janus' secret lab in Atlantis. The Drs. Rodney McKay and Daniel Jackson unknowingly activated a signal alerting the rogue Asgard faction, the Vanir, of their location. The Vanir then infiltrated Atlantis and kidnapped Daniel Jackson and Rodney McKay 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 the gate 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, Sheppard and Radek Zelenka came onboard Katana's 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 starships, 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 shuttle. 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 appeared in orbit over M35-117 where Atlantis was floating. He had stolen the experimental drug created by 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. 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 strenghten a Hive 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.

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 usefull as occasional allies than enemies. He also seems to care about the collective good of the Wraith.

During his imprisonment with 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 begins sabotaging the ship, Ronon assumes he's bluffing, while this claim made by any other Wraith would be taken seriously.

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'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.

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 station's location (later resulting in its destruction) and kept his real plan secret when seeking Teyla's help in dealing with the Primary.

Alternate realities
"Wraith are never ending!"

- Todd to John Sheppard


 * In the alternate future 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.


 * In another 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.