Meta on Legacy: But why were they so STUPID?

[sg_fignewton]

Legacy is chock full of angst and teamy goodness and loyalty and friendship (and bare Daniel toes, if that's your kind of thing). It is also, however, generously supplied in the plot hole department, particularly in the matter of the characters actually thinking. In order for events to unfold as they did, too much of the story depends on

Comments

[rydra_wong]

And now we can understand why everyone so complacently went along with the Terran-centric schizophrenia theory

We should also note that two competent medical professionals spontaneously came up with a description of schizophrenia which bears no known relation to any Earth form of schizophrenia, then made a diagnosis of it in a patient who doesn't meet any known set of diagnostic criteria for it.

Clearly further evidence for your theory!

(The psychiatry in Legacy hurts my brain. Even leaving aside the obvious "alien influence" potential, no way is Daniel presenting as schizophrenic, and no way are they treating him appropriately even if he is. I can go on about this at length.)

[sg_fignewton]

Oh, yes, good point on professional approval of the non-supported-in-any-way theory.

I can go on about this at length.

::puts chin in hands::

Oh, please do. :)

Sending you a private message, btw.

[rydra_wong]

::puts chin in hands::

Oh, please do. :)

Short version: what Daniel has is an extremely rapid onset of hallucinations, mostly visual ones.

Given what he's perceiving, he's completely lucid. He's not delusional (he comes up with theories to explain what he's experiencing, but he says they're just theories). He's perfectly capable of recognizing that what he's seeing may not be real, even though he's disturbed by it.

He displays ordinary emotions (i.e. he's not gone "flat" in his affect), he's capable of carrying on a conversation just fine, he's not showing any "knight's move" jumps of logic, and he's perfectly coherent until Mackenzie drugs the crap out of him.

None of this looks anything like schizophrenia.

You could maybe handwave it and say that it's possible that he's having a psychotic break, but with hallucinations in someone who's otherwise lucid and rational, it's way more likely that you're looking at some kind of drug influence or maybe something like a brain tumor -- or, in their situation, some kind of alien

[sg_fignewton]

Hm. I knew some of this, but not all - especially about the dopamine levels. Very interesting stuff.

I was amused, however, by he's not showing any "knight's move" jumps of logic, because seriously, that sounds like a textbook definition of Daniel's brain for any day of the week!

The coherence is, I think, the most powerful argument - he was rational, he knew he was hallucinating, he was lucid in between, and he responded to his hallucinations in what would have been rational, had they been real.

In other words? Pretty much the least plausible diagnostic label to slap on Daniel.

Is there, in fact, any plausible diagnostic label that could have been used?

[ultranos_fic]

This episode is full of plot-holes big enough to drive a truck through.

This also explains Dr. Warner's bizarre behavior, when he repeatedly dismisses the possibility of isolating the protein marker, and the team is forced to depend on poor infected Janet to remember basic medical procedure

It's very sad when a fifth grader remembers how to separate plasma when a trained medical professional can't. (Because, um, I played with a centerfuge when I was, what, 11?)

I totally agree with you; there was clearly an outbreak of stupidity in this episode.

[sg_fignewton]

Well, with me it was 7th grade, but the principle's the same. :)

And isn't it nice to have a ::cough:: rational explanation?

[ultranos_fic]

Well, it's either an outbreak of stupid or Daniel managing to skip universes again and ending up in one where the SGC and the entire medical field do not operate by the same rules nor by Earth-logic.

[sg_fignewton]

That actually makes more sense than a diagnosis of schizophrenia...

[myystic]

plot-hole transmitted disease!

*sporfle*

[sg_fignewton]

Well, it was obviously contagious... :)

*cough* {puts on running shoes]

[kiri_l]

MOJITOS AT DAWN!!!!

(scuse me.. simply couldn't resist... but it COULD explain the lowered IQ's...)

bakc when I've mulled this over for real. =)

Re: *cough* {puts on running shoes]

[sg_fignewton]

How many, would you estimate, to reach this level of stupidity?

Admittedly, that would be a lot more fun than Machello's little buggers.

Re: *cough* {puts on running shoes]

[lokei]

Well, Sam's smarter than I, and it takes me at least 3 mojitos to do anything more stupid than waking my roommate up at 2am as payback for when he did it to me several weeks earlier.

As a scuba diver, I could suspect a certain imbalance in the air filtration system, giving them all nitrogen narcosis? 28 floors under a mountain, 'rapture of the deep' is as decent an excuse as any. *snicker* They call that the Martini rule, rather than mojito, but same idea.

Fabulous parody meta, btw. I couldn't stop laughing.

[sg_fignewton]

Glad you liked it!

Rapture of the depths at Level 28? Maybe the Stargate really does mimic underwater more than we think!

[natsuko1978]

LOL

It's nice to have ANY explanation for the outbreak of plot-holes and no-sense in this episode. A humorous is even better - it highlights what this episode really is: a forty minute JOKE.

Even with how good MS is at acting "crazy" this episode was still painful to watch. :(

[sg_fignewton]

::nods:: In a lot of ways, this ep reminds me of Need - great angst, great team support, but way too much that makes me hugely uncomfortable to watch. We could've gotten the good parts without the wincingly bad ones - just look at all the episode fixes, for starters.

[sg_betty]

I totally agree! And even more so with Need. How unfortunate that two episodes that really give Michael Shanks a chance to show some range have such enormous problems!