Who is the worst Captain?

[Durandal_1707]

Is the title of "Captain" necessary to be on this list? Because if not, I'd like to submit all the commanders of Stargate: Atlantis for consideration. Did those guys ever accomplish anything that didn't turn out to be a giant Charlie Foxtrot?

[Ghilz]

Of that bunch, Weir is the worst. The Michael clusterfuck had no reason to ever happen. Only their desire to make a weak facade and dupe Michael (a whole series of lie that was bound to collapse at any time), basically only existed to make them feel better about themselves and what they were doing. Had they accepted what they were doing, treated Michael like a prisoner, none of this would have happened.

[Durandal_1707]

The Replicators were also a big one. Yeah, the knee-jerk reaction against replicators based on their experiences with the Milky Way ones was sort of understandable, but these guys 1) seemed to be actual sentient beings, 2) were preserving a crapton of otherwise-lost knowledge, such as the ability to build ZPMs and Aurora-class ships, and, most importantly, 3) were just sitting on their planet minding their own business and leaving everybody else alone before Atlantis showed up. So Atlantis: 1) rewrote their base code, resulting in them having a vendetta against Atlantis (but still pretty much leaving the rest of the galaxy unmolested), 2) rewrote their base code again, causing them to go on a genocidal rampage against the rest of the galaxy, and then 3) committed genocide on them by blowing up their planet to stop the genocide that they caused. Good Lord.

[Ghilz]

I'm more forgiving on the Replicator/Asurans bit since the humans approached them peacefully, and the Asurans made it clear that peace wasn't ever going to be an option.

Granted on the Genocide bit, but the grudge against Atlantis was there the moment they attacked it. Heck, twice.

[Durandal_1707]

Yeah, but they turned a personal vendetta into two full-scale genocides. That's... I don't even know what that is. But it's bad.

[Ghilz]

Point of Order, the Asurans were already quite genocidal before the reprogramming, wiping out the last existing Lanteans, and mindprobing O'Neill and Woolsey in a preparation to attack Earth. Heck, they then attacked atlantis AGAIN.

Furthermore, the code that made them go Genocidal wasn't from the team, but from the Ancient's own design. All Rodney did it turn it back on (after the Wraith turned it off), so they'd go after the Wraith.

Don't get me wrong, they fucked up, but these are fuck up in the light of a deadly, night unstoppable enemy. I hold that lower than "We purposely did everything we could to antagonise this guy and maximise his chances of escape mostly so we'd feel better about ourselves."

Every death Michael causes stems from "But we'd feel all sad if we kept him in a cell strapped down 24/7 like the lab rat we've made out of him"

[Durandal_1707]

Point of Order, the Asurans were already quite genocidal before the reprogramming, wiping out the last existing Lanteans,

They didn't wipe out the Lanteans; the Wraith did that. The Asurans actually had a lockout in their base code that prevented them from harming the Lanteans, until McKay screwed that up by mucking with it. This is specifically mentioned in the episode where they occupy Atlantis; the Ancients who had recently repossessed it thought they would be safe due to the lockout, because they didn't know about McKay's tampering (and our heroes were apparently too self-absorbed to warn them about it).

and mindprobing O'Neill and Woolsey in a preparation to attack Earth. Heck, they then attacked atlantis AGAIN.

This all happened after McKay's tampering. If not for that, they never would have retaken Atlantis, due to the re-established Ancient presence there.

Furthermore, the code that made them go Genocidal wasn't from the team, but from the Ancient's own design. All Rodney did it turn it back on (after the Wraith turned it off), so they'd go after the Wraith.

Splitting hairs a bit, don't you think? They weren't a threat to the galaxy until McKay made them that way.

Don't get me wrong, they fucked up, but these are fuck up in the light of a deadly, night unstoppable enemy.

They were only unstoppable once they started, and they didn't start until our heroes got involved.

I hold that lower than "We purposely did everything we could to antagonise this guy and maximise his chances of escape mostly so we'd feel better about ourselves."

Every death Michael causes stems from "But we'd feel all sad if we kept him in a cell strapped down 24/7 like the lab rat we've made out of him"

Michael and the Asurans were both massive screwups by the team.

[Arkle]

Yeah, looking back, Atlantis wasn't that great a show. It's saving grace is how the characters interacted with each other as opposed to how they interacted with the world around them. I mean, it's aged better than some other shows I liked at the time then years late wonder why *cough*Charmed*cough*, but, yikes.

[lsgreg]

Megatron was technically a captain in G1 right? My vote would be for him.

[Durandal_1707]

Yeah, looking back, Atlantis wasn't that great a show. It's saving grace is how the characters interacted with each other as opposed to how they interacted with the world around them. I mean, it's aged better than some other shows I liked at the time then years late wonder why *cough*Charmed*cough*, but, yikes.

Yeah, I've been doing a watch over the past year of the Stargate franchise, after videos on them kept popping up on this site and I was curious what it was about, and Atlantis... seems like it's SG-1's evil twin. SG-1 was great comfort food for dealing with depression; the tone was light, the characters were fun, and there was never any doubt that everything would always work out in the end. Even SG-1's biggest fails usually led to a positive outcome overall, like Sam's screwup with trusting RepliCarter directly leading to the defeat of both the Goa'uld and the Replicators. Atlantis... is the opposite of that. Every seeming win turns out to be a fail that makes things worse than they already were. The whole show reminds me of a fake "horoscope" I read in the Onion once: A curse will turn out to be a blessing in disguise, until the blessing turns out to be an even bigger curse in an even more convincing disguise.

It doesn't help that I can't ever seem to figure out what Atlantis's mission statement is supposed to be. SG-1's was straightforward; the team explored the galaxy, looking for allies against the Goa'uld, as well as new technology. They indeed did make new friends, and acquire new technology, and eventually liberated the galaxy from the Goa'uld, resulting in a safer Earth and a better galaxy. Atlantis, though... it seems they occupied the city, in order to defend the city, which only needs defending because they occupied the city. What is Earth or the SGC supposed to be actually getting from this?