Stargate: Atlantis (thoughts on ethics and stupidity)

[butterfly]

This is a thing that I've noticed, something of a dividing line in how SGA is viewed -- there are people who see the show as darker than SG-1 and people who see the show as lighter (there are also people who don't watch SG-1, but they're in a different, non-comparison section).

I see SGA not as lighter or darker but as... more confused and less ethical/moral than SG-1.

I mentioned, in my post about the episodes, that both Morpheus and Misbegotten made me think about how much I love Daniel. And that, to me, is the place where I'm not quite in the same place with Atlantis as I am with SG-1. They don't have a Daniel. Not even that they don't have Daniel, but they don't have a Daniel-figure, a non-military, strongly ethical advisor who refuses to back down in the face of military certainty. Daniel Jackson can be pig-headed and self-righteous, but after watching Atlantis for two seasons and change, I am so happy that he is. His stubborness and his conviction in himself are the tools that he's used to stand up against his military commander (who was his friend).

On Atlantis, we appear have a civilian leader. We're told that Elizabeth Weir is a diplomat and a negotiator, that she's used to getting warring factions to agree with each other. On the basis of this, I thought that there was a chance that Atlantis would be more ethically run than the military SGC.

For me, it comes down to this -- both Michael and Misbegotten are the results of unethical stupidity on the parts of the Atlantis crew. Daniel Jackson would have protested (not just looked uncomfortable and stopped complaining when his military commander was unhappy with him).

I agree that the only choice in the end of Misbegotten was to fire on the colony. In fact, it was the first smart thing that the Atlantis people had done the entire episode! They never should have come to that choice.

The retrovirus is a failure. At this moment in time, it is a failure. It doesn't work. You can't rely on prisoners to give themselves daily injections and you can't devote all your resources to making sure that it gets done. As long as the retrovirus is temporary, it is a failure.

In addition to that, it is unethical to perform medical experiments on prisoners. Massively shortening a prisoner's lifespan, making them vulnerable to all kinds of sickness that they weren't prey to before, making them total amnesics and pretty much dependent upon you for survival is all hideously unethical.

More than that, it was the height of stupidity to change Michael on Atlantis itself. How much of their current strife could have been avoided if they'd been intelligent enough to use the Alpha site from the start? Also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, they should not have had Ronon there. No. You do not put 'hunted for years' guy in with someone who is of the type that hunted him. And if you do, then you should remove him the second that he shows himself incapable of rational thought when it comes to your prisoner.

Finally, if they really had to stab Michael in the back, it was criminally stupid of them to do so using a method that Michael had already once overcome. And that's not even touching the ethical issues involved with fucking over someone who has been playing straight with you.

All in all, very badly played by the Atlantis crew.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Because I do think that killing the prisoners off the bat would have been far more ethical than the medical experiment/permanent imprisonment route.

I agree. It also really bothers me that they decide to try to rehabilitate a group of prisoners with long-distance telepathic capabilities who have knowledge they cannot allow into the general Wraith population, lest Earth be destroyed. They've fucked up so much so far that they're at a point where they need to be swift and decisive if they want to prevent xenocide on Earth. This to me doesn't say "ethical," it says "incompetent." As in this woman is in a position to affect the future of humanity and she does not have the balls to do what must be done. If she were the president on BSG instead of Roslin, the Cylons would have wiped them out in the second episode.

I can't decide though if this is because the character is conflicted or because the writers haven't decided what kind of show this is. I'm leaning towards the latter.