Sfdebris.net

https://sfdebris.com/videos/stargate/atls1e4.php

Thoughts of the video? Is the leader lady that bad?

Wait, wasn't this review done already?

Edit: In reaction to "Thoughts of the video? Is the leader lady that bad?"

It doesn't make Weir a bad character in the series, IMO, because we've also seen her at her best, and that's happened a lot more than seeing her at her worst, but that scene isn't a good one for her.

It's Cavanaugh's job to alert her about the downsides, and then she can decide the approach. He would have been derelict in the performance of his duties not to alert her to something that could kill a lot of the expedition members. In return, she undermines him and accuses him of cowardice in front of his staff.

She's effectively told him not to bring up things that could kill a lot of the people she's responsible for.

If he'd let her know of the downside and then argued with the decision she made, she would have been right to slap him down. He'd be undermining her authority in a crisis.

And when he privately objects to this later, she threatens to put him in exile, a situation that will likely kill him. No administrative procedures, no hearing, just "You're boned, dude." IMHO, that's inexcusable under anything remotely like these circumstances.

It could have been saved, IMHO, by Weir apologizing to Cavanaugh later, noting that she's not used to this kind of time-sensitive, lives are at stake situation. That's human. Nobody's perfect, and it could have been an opportunity to show her growing from a diplomat to a mission commander.

I still enjoyed the episode. I did like them showing their work, like Rodney pointing out to Ford that he can't push the jumper forward from inside the jumper, and pointing out to Weir that poking at random is worse than methodically. It left me wondering if Atlantis was submerged in salt water because the Iratus bug has a problem with saltwater, but I suppose that really didn't make much sense and it was probably best not to go there.

Mabus wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:58 pm Wait, wasn't this review done already?

I think that bit with Weir and Cavanaugh was referenced in an earlier review.

Darth Wedgius wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 6:14 pm

Mabus wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:58 pm Wait, wasn't this review done already?

I think that bit with Weir and Cavanaugh was referenced in an earlier review.

Critical Mass?

Weir got all her leadership advice from the bestselling "Leadership of Dummies" by K. Janeway.

They ought to have had a jumper ready to go in case the gate shut off happened, as long as the people in the rear of the jumper exhaled as best they could, then they ought to have had a couple of minutes that they could have survived in vacuum, and that could have feasibly been enough to get a jumper through, recover them into it, and get back to Atlantis for emergency treatment. That ought to have been plan B.

She is not bad person, she is bad leader. There is difference between two. So yeah, I can see Chuck's cripe about her leadership in this episode.

Mabus wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 6:26 pm

Darth Wedgius wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 6:14 pm

Mabus wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:58 pm Wait, wasn't this review done already?

I think that bit with Weir and Cavanaugh was referenced in an earlier review.

Critical Mass?

Found it. The Stargate Atlantis review of "Letters From Pegasus".

I honestly don't see why Weir being a bad leader is a problem. It's definitely the truth - she makes a lot of terrible decisions.

And "you people deserve the bad things that happen to you"? That's unquestionably true throughout the series!

Why does a character having a flaw harm the episode as a whole?

Yerushalmi wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:32 pm I honestly don't see why Weir being a bad leader is a problem. It's definitely the truth - she makes a lot of terrible decisions.

And "you people deserve the bad things that happen to you"? That's unquestionably true throughout the series!

Why does a character having a flaw harm the episode as a whole?

A character having a flaw is one thing, the writing having a flaw in that it does not recognise the character's flaw as a flaw and giving them protagonist fiat is quite another. This episode had the latter.