- McKay: I'm going to be responsible for the destruction of my own planet!!!Ronon: If it was anyone, it was going to be you.
The Daedalus is badly damaged, Sheppard is missing in action, Earth is screwed, and Rodney won't shut up. Things are looking pretty bleak for our heroes. The one good thing is that, being organic technology, the two Hives will have to stop at some point to recover from "hyperspace radiation." The Daedalus and the Orion should be able to just catch them—although without time for desperately needed repairs, this will probably end in their destruction. Earth, however, has no other options.
At this point, the International Oversight Advisory (I.O.A.) decide to recall Dr. Weir to answer for her last two seasons of leadership. She heads out, leaving Teyla in charge of Atlantis. The IOA needs a scapegoat, and Weir is the likely (and justified) target. General Landry is confident she'll come out of it all fine… presuming the Earth doesn't get destroyed of course.
Working on that is Colonel Sheppard, alive and well in his F-302, which managed to hide out on one of the Hive Ships as it went into hyperspace. He tries to raise Ronon and McKay on his radio… but reaches Michael instead. Not to fear—Michael is pretty irritated at the Hive Queen for not sticking to the retrovirus plan (which he really thought was a good one) and for treating him like a second-class citizen. Realizing he's as much a pariah (or more) among the Wraith as among the humans, he offers Sheppard his help in taking out the Hive Ships. Sheppard manages to take out the hyperdrive on the first ship, then comes aboard to rescue McKay and Ronon—who have already escaped and are trying to cause trouble with the computers.
At this opportune moment, the Daedalus arrives and launches all of its nukes at the Hive Ship where the team is at, managing to score a direct hit and severely damaging it, soon afterwards Orion arrives as well and manages to destroy the other hiveship with a massive drone swarm at the cost of losing shield power allowing Michael's hive to take them down just after Major Lorne and his crew beam out to safety. Michael and Sheppard meet up with Ronon and McKay and together they steal a transport ship. They are able to destroy the dart bays, before they too must be beamed to safety aboard the Daedalus. The two ships continue shooting at each other until they're both left dead in the water. It is a stalemate—the hiveship can't escape or attack them, but the Daedalus is severely damaged when the Hive's last couple of shots manage to disable its engines.
Worse, the Daedalus is venting atmosphere and life-support is down. They stop the leak, but even if they somehow managed to destroy the Hive, there wouldn't be enough hours of breathable air for the return journey to Atlantis. And because they're between galaxies, the only source of O2 for light-years is… that hiveship right next to them. It's also full of Wraith—but that can be solved. Michael proposes returning to the original plan—using the Daedalus to beam in the canister of aerisolized retrovirus (remember that?), thus turning hostile Wraith into amnesiac humans.
Waiting for the retrovirus to run its course takes up almost all their remaining time. Sheppard and his team beam in to find that the retrovirus has succeeded almost perfectly. Many of the Wraith killed each other when the transformations began, but the nearly 200 survivors are all human. Oh, except the Queen, but they shoot her. They put the ex-Wraith into stasis and let Michael fly their shiny new Hive Ship back home.
Tropes
- Achilles' Heel: Even with the hyperdrive upgrades, the Wraith Hives still need to make periodic stops to allow their organic hulls to recover from hyperspace radiation exposure. This allows Zelenka to calculate their trajectory and where and when the Daedalus and Orion can intercept and attack.
- Almost Out of Oxygen: the final third of the episode
- Chekhov's Gun: The canister of aeresolized retrovirus from the last episode.
- Character Overlap: General Landry and Richard Woolsey (who incidentally makes his first crossover apperance on Atlantis with this episode). With an impending Wraith attack on Earth, the SGC's commander would naturally be on the front lines and getting involved. With the SGC and Atlantis Expedition now reporting to the IOA, Woolsey's presence is also justified (as he was appointed the IOA's American Ambassador during "Prototype"). Woolsey's also joined by previously established IOA members from SG-1 (Russel Chapman and Shen Xiaoyi).
- Continuity Overlap: "No Man's Land" originally aired the same night as the Stargate SG-1 Season 10 premiere "Flesh and Blood". It uses the events of SG-1 to further its own narrative (and justify Woosley's presence as he was already on site at the SGC over in SG-1).
- Distracted by the Sexy: Sheppard, in a flashback where McKay and Zelenka are discussing some information that would have been really useful in the present.Sheppard: I've got to pay more attention to those guys!
- "Eureka!" Moment: Rodney gets one when Zelenka suggests they try and repair the Daedalus communications array to let Earth know they stopped the Wraith and their sacrifice wasn't in vain. A snarky Rodney replies that while it's a noble sentiment, he'd prefer to dedicate his last breath of air to finding more air. Then it hits Rodney: there is more air nearby...on board the disabled Wraith Hive.
- Fantastic Racism: Michael gets this from the other Wraith on account of his transformation.
- Heel–Face Turn: Michael.
- Idiot Ball: Everyone gets their turn!
- Laser-Guided Karma: Michael gets his revenge on the Hive by hitting them with the retrovirus.
- Locked Out of the Loop: It turns out the Wraith betrayal during "Allies" was just as much of a surprise to Michael as it was to the Atlantis Expedition. As Michael learns, the Queen despises him because he wasn't fully converted back to a Wraith after the Retrovirus wore off. She feels there's still too much human in him and so withheld the details of her true goals (while making him think weaponizing the Retrovirus against rival Hives was the plan).
- Macross Missile Massacre: The Daedalus launches one with all of its nuclear warheads at one of the Hive Ships as soon as it drops out of hyperspace, overwhelming the Wraith Dart screen that would normally intercept them and scoring a single direct hit, crippling the ship.
- This is quickly followed up by the Orion arriving and launching a massive salvo of drones at the second Hive Ship destroying it completely.
- Morton's Fork: The situation facing the Daedalus characters after Rodney proposes the "There's air on the Hive!" plan. If they do nothing and remain on the Daedalus, they'll die of asphyxiation. If they beam over, they're still about about 200 USAF personnel against the full might and much larger crew complement of an entire Wraith Hive. And even after Michael proposes a third option (beam the gas over), they're still in danger of dying of asphyxiation anyway (given there's not enough oxygen left on the BC-304 to sustain them while the retrovirus runs its course).
- Neck Lift: How Major Lorne learns that the retrovirus doesn't work on Wraith females.
- Operation: [Blank]:Sheppard: Operation "This will most likely end badly" is a go.
- The Reveal: Michael had no knowledge of the Wraith's plans. He was just as much an Unwitting Pawn as the Expedition.
- Running Gag:
- With the destruction of the Orion, Atlantis formally inherits the old SG-1 "tradition" of the Tau'ri getting a new alien spacecraft...and losing it almost as quickly.
- As with "The Siege, Part 3", an observation about their hopeless situation from Zelenka allows Rodney and/or Sheppard to figure a way out.
- Shout-Out: Sheppard's trick of hiding the F-302 on the hull of the hiveship is right out of The Empire Strikes Back He even says so:Sheppard: Saw it in a movie once.
- Stealth in Space
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: A justified instance (possibly the very best one during the period when SG-1 and Atlantis were running in tandem with one another). Again, "No Man's Land" aired the same night as "Flesh and Blood". While SG-1 isn't technically mentioned, they're busy dealing with the Ori Crusade and are thus unable to lend a hand to stopping the inbound Hives. And even if they were, SG-1 couldn't as the SGC has no available ships because of the Battle of the Supergate (with the destruction of the Korolev and the damage sustained by the Odyssey). The Jaffa trying to stop the Crusade's advance also explains why the can't lend a hand either.
- Too Much Information: McKay when he realizes the Wraith found out the location of Earth by uploading a virus to his computer.McKay: Something like spyware. Something like when I stupidly downloaded porn…*Realizes what he's just said*McKay: Music! When I downloaded music!
- This Is Gonna Suck: As stated above in Operation: [Blank], Sheppard as he prepares to attack the Hive Ships in his F-302.
- Worf Had the Flu: The Daedalus is still damaged from the sneak attack and betrayal at the end of "Allies". While Caldwell's crew enacts repairs before and after leaving Atlantis, the BC-304 isn't operating at 100% and it does affects its performance in the Battle of the Void.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Sheppard's moves throughout the episode.
