Questions for Stargate Atlantis fans

[schmevil]

Why does the Stargate program remain classified? Has this been satisfactorily explained in the show?

Don't the people of earth have a right to know about the alien invasions that seem to happen every week?

And what's with the replicators on earth thing? I mean seriously - why would you spend all that money to develop nano-soldiers when it's so much cheaper to hire some mercs? I don't get it! The writers could have come up with a much more plausible explanation for earth-based nano-experimentation. But T2 there didn't make a whole lot of practical sense.

And finally, how the hell is Ronan so damned pretty!?!

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Why does the Stargate program remain classified?

Because tyranny is natural and normal. If truth rumors get out the sheeple would panic and maybe even rebel against their wise overlords leaders, and that would be Bad.

Don't the people of earth have a right to know about the alien invasions that seem to happen every week?

No, because there's absolutely nothing wrong with super-secret military projects unless a few bad apples get into them. The President knows, after all, and if the President knows then how can it be wrong?

And what's with the replicators on earth thing?

Blackwater ordered them. And Blackwater wouldn't do anything wrong, you know. They're just trying to protect you!

how the hell is Ronan so damned pretty

Sekrit government project, natch.

[I don't have an icon cynical enough, unfortunately]

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

That's a... surprisingly useful answer. *g* It does say something about the show-runners that they don't feel the need to examine/question these issues.

Also - LOL. ;)

[naked-birthday.livejournal.com]

I was a fan of Stargate Atlantis, until the massive ethical violations of 02x18. :( I would have liked to see just ONE earthling saying "Um, it's wrong to change him. It's ok to kill him because it's war, but not with the non-con medical experimentation."

On the Ronan thing, though - it's because the actor's a mongrel.

yeah, this was completely irrelevant to the questions you were asking. :) Except for Ronan.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I didn't see that episode. I skipped most of the first season, after being put off by the stupid, and almost all of the second season. When I got free Movie Network On Demand I started watching it again, sometime during the third season.

So what's this about non-con medical experimentation? Because there seem to be a lot of ethically dubious situations in this show.

[naked-birthday.livejournal.com]

Episode 2x18, "Michael"

...well. Michael is one of Sheppard's team, OR SO THEY WOULD HAVE YOU THINK WHEN THIS EPISODE STARTED. He has amnesia from the terrible fighting with the wraith. And he's diabetic, Beckett says as he shoots Michael up. Everyone is Very Worried about him, and some are Very Wary of him. And Ronan hates his guts.

Poor Michael doesn't know what's going on. People are telling him he's their friend, he has family back on Earth, he's a great soldier & One Of The Team (tm).

But he's a bit suspicious. He goes snooping in Beckett's lab, after being made more suspicious. What he finds are many dvds of footage, of HIM... him as a wraith... being experimented on. Beckett's gene-therapy to de-wraith him. And it worked physically, although it's not stable yet and they keep giving him higher and higher doses of the therapy.

EVERYONE seems to be in on this, they actually don't seem that what they've done is wrong. Teyla keeps trying to tell him "It's for the best, you'll thank us later!!!" while they're hunting him to give him another dose in the hope that he loses his memory again.

Basically they're not sorry they did it, they're sorry they got caught. Like a pack of 3-year-olds.

Ronan, at least, is HONEST. He thinks they should've just killed Michael, not experimented on him.

I just don't like it that the geneva convention seemed to fly OUT THE WINDOW just because they were in the pegasus galaxy. As did all the standards and ethics the scientists and doctors had. There should've been someone who didn't sleep through their ethics classes in uni.


Stargate Atlantis is now sitting in the Naughty Corner, and it can't come out to be watched until I've forgiven it. Which might take a while. :) It's not like BSG, where people do some shitty and wrong things, and you see them agonise, get their just desserts, or get slapped down. I can forgive BSG a lot more, because they show the REASONS why people do horrible things, and the characters learn and grow with time. Also, the humans in BSG are in a much worse strategic position than the SGA mob are.

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

From someone who has watched the Michael storyline play out (and continue to play out) over the past three years I've got to say that they have been paying for their moral mistake the whole time and it's a constant reminder of how wrong they were.

Michael has repeatedly become a thorn in their sides, reminding them "you made him this way." He doesn't fit in with humans (because he's a Wraith), he's not accepted by the Wraith (because he reeks of humanity). The way the writers have used this character as yet another example of how much the Atlantis expedition has screwed over the Pegasus galaxy is amazing to watch.

Carson, John, and Rodney between them have manipulated genetics, woke up the Wraith (thereby condemning thousands upon thousands), and set the Replicators on a course of wiping out entire civilizations. Every choice they've made, no matter how small, has had huge complications and implications. That's one of the reasons I love SGA. My heroes are human and they screw up ALOT.

[logovo.livejournal.com]

mongrel

0_o

[naked-birthday.livejournal.com]

Appropriate icon. :/ Sorry for offending, it wasn't intentional.

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

On the Ronan thing, though - it's because the actor's a mongrel.

It's Ronon (with an O). People tend to misspell that alot.

And...did you honestly just call Jason Momoa a mixed breed dog?

[naked-birthday.livejournal.com]

I didn't intend to call him a mixed-breed dog if that makes any difference. Myself and other half-and-half friends got into the habit of using the word to refer to our own ethnic status, and I didn't realise it was considered so offensive. We just considered it to be indicative of more than one clear ethnic background.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

I'm a white fan, so I guess I can respond without people commenting on my tone:

mon·grel [ móng grəl ]

noun (plural mon·grels)
Definition:

1. dog of mixed breed: a dog that is a mixture of different breeds

2. animal or plant of mixed breed: an animal or plant that is a mixture of different breeds or strains

3. offensive term: an offensive term for somebody who is of mixed racial ancestry

4. strange mixture: a combination or mixture of different people or things, especially one that seems particularly strange

(source (http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861630938).)

[naked-birthday.livejournal.com]

My use of the word was aimed at option two if it makes any difference. It was a word that part-Maori friends and I used for ourselves/each other, probably starting off as a joke, and I didn't stop to think "Hey, in the rest of the world--to most people--that's probably offensive." My mistake, sorry.

[mischief5.livejournal.com]

"Mongrel"? Jason Mamoa is a mongrel because he's Hawaiian? Pray tell, what am I then? Irish, English, Welsh, Scots, Norwegian, Swiss, and Dutch. One of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower. Does that make me more acceptable to you? Or am I still a "mongrel" because she didn't keep her blood "pure"?

Jason Mamoa is a beautiful man. No explanation is required.

[naked-birthday.livejournal.com]

One of your ancestors coming over on the Mayflower doesn't really make much difference to me personally, I'm not American, nor am I white. :)I was dragged up in New Zealand, myself and kiwi friends used the term in self-reference and I never saw it as offensive. I have (obviously from other comments, sorry!) learned that the rest of the world does not see it as a harmless term.

[sorchasilver.livejournal.com]

Mongrel

?????

I do not understand how you can think it acceptable to use animalistic terminology to refer to a human being. I hope the previous comments have made it clear to you how offensive this term is, and why. Please THINK about the message behind the words you choose to use.

Jason Momoa is bi-racial,, of mixed Hawaiian and Caucasian ancestry.)

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

On the Ronan thing, though - it's because the actor's a mongrel.

What. The. Fuck.

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

The use of the term mongrel to describe people who are mixed-race or biracial is exceedingly offensive and has a horrible amount of history associated with it.

Having slept on this...

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

On the Ronan thing, though - it's because the actor's a mongrel.

Joking or not, I don't want to see that kind of language in my journal.

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

On the Ronan thing, though - it's because the actor's a mongrel.

Is it really okay in your world to say this? Because it's not, in mine...

[dajaje.livejournal.com]

Re: Jason: the correct term you're looking for is biracial. Mongrel refers to dogs.

[naked-birthday.livejournal.com]

I'm used to it referring to anything which is not all one ethnicity or type. Sorry, I didn't realise it was considered offensive to most (I have learned!) due to my own upbringing.

[vida-boheme.livejournal.com]

Mongrel? I... *speechless*

[naked-birthday.livejournal.com]

Sorry. It wasn't intended to be offensive and I wasn't aware that it was considered to be so. Whether this is due to the country I was brought up in or to my general obliviousness, the jury's still out on.

[hellpenguin.livejournal.com]

the real question we should be asking is this:

In Aurora, when they blow up the ship and go back to Atlantis, John breaks out a bottle of champagne that he said the commander of the Aurora wanted him to share.

Have you ever heard of 10,000 year old champagne? Did champagne exist that long ago? Did the Ancients invent it? Or is it actually made from alien grapes?

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

The Ancients invented everything. Including Rodney.