three questions
First, the non-fandom question:
What kind of physical injury would take a cop out of the force entirely? Is there any such thing or would they just move them into bureaucracy or something non-physical?
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And onto the fannishly-inclined question.
Would the scientists on Atlantis be under some kind of contractual obligation not to disobey or disregard the advice/goals of the military? ie. If, say, Rodney wanted to do something that would go very directly against the directives of the Earth military?
And in a corollary, I imagine there's more leeway for Teyla and Ronon since they're not from Earth, although I imagine that if they didn't just philosophically oppose but also actually acted in opposition to Earth directives (Earth's good first, and the primitives can have the scraps), they'd possibly get kicked off Atlantis, or at least be made to feel very unwelcome by the IOA and possibly some of the city personnel.
That's something that never came up in the show, I don't think - not explicitly. Not the idea that Earth wasn't 100% right, correct, and justified in their actions. Michael was acknowledged as a mistake, but IIRC, there was still a lot of justification flying around as to what they did. I don't think any of the Earth personnel from Atlantis ever actually apologised for what was done to Michael. (Memory is growing fuzzy, here.) And they mostly seemed to gloss over the idea of total annihilation of the Wraith instead of attempting a more moderate genetic modification.
(i.e. rather than making them human or immunising humans from Wraith feeding, why not adjust the rate of feeding and the years able to be taken by the Wraith? If the Atlantis expedition can make a retrovirus that can be disseminated through air and can turn Wraith into humans, then surely they could make and disseminate a retrovirus that would only make it possible for any Wraith to take, say, five years from a human, and which would provide the Wraith with five years of life. Currently, a Wraith drains a person of their entire life and it only lasts them a couple of days, weeks at most, months if they hibernate. Back in S1's The Gift, they mentioned a Wraith scientist trying to make the feeding process more efficient - it seemed like a practical proposition to me. Yet they never followed this up, IIRC. Not even to dismiss it.)
I'm also wondering how far John and Rodney would support Teyla and Ronon if their team-mates went against the directives of Earth - perhaps not putting Earth in direct danger, but doing something that isn't "in Earth's best interests". Would they understand and make allowances for them? Would they argue the IOA down? Would they collude if it was something big enough? Would they just turn a blind eye? If it was big enough an issue, would they disobey?
I know, I know - The Return - but that was just John making the decision to disobey for himself, with (theoretically) no danger to anyone else (although serving up Atlantis' four most knowledgeable personnel to the Asurans on a platter? Clearly neither John, nor Rodney, nor Elizabeth, nor Carson, nor anyone on the SGA writing team had possession of The Logic Circuits that day). This is...well, Earth. Not in danger, but with an "increased risk" due to the actions of Teyla and Ronon, however justified they might be.
--
And finally and most crucially: What do you do with someone who contacts you on Facebook and seems to know all about you, but whom you don't ever remember meeting at all?
What kind of physical injury would take a cop out of the force entirely? Is there any such thing or would they just move them into bureaucracy or something non-physical?
--
And onto the fannishly-inclined question.
Would the scientists on Atlantis be under some kind of contractual obligation not to disobey or disregard the advice/goals of the military? ie. If, say, Rodney wanted to do something that would go very directly against the directives of the Earth military?
And in a corollary, I imagine there's more leeway for Teyla and Ronon since they're not from Earth, although I imagine that if they didn't just philosophically oppose but also actually acted in opposition to Earth directives (Earth's good first, and the primitives can have the scraps), they'd possibly get kicked off Atlantis, or at least be made to feel very unwelcome by the IOA and possibly some of the city personnel.
That's something that never came up in the show, I don't think - not explicitly. Not the idea that Earth wasn't 100% right, correct, and justified in their actions. Michael was acknowledged as a mistake, but IIRC, there was still a lot of justification flying around as to what they did. I don't think any of the Earth personnel from Atlantis ever actually apologised for what was done to Michael. (Memory is growing fuzzy, here.) And they mostly seemed to gloss over the idea of total annihilation of the Wraith instead of attempting a more moderate genetic modification.
(i.e. rather than making them human or immunising humans from Wraith feeding, why not adjust the rate of feeding and the years able to be taken by the Wraith? If the Atlantis expedition can make a retrovirus that can be disseminated through air and can turn Wraith into humans, then surely they could make and disseminate a retrovirus that would only make it possible for any Wraith to take, say, five years from a human, and which would provide the Wraith with five years of life. Currently, a Wraith drains a person of their entire life and it only lasts them a couple of days, weeks at most, months if they hibernate. Back in S1's The Gift, they mentioned a Wraith scientist trying to make the feeding process more efficient - it seemed like a practical proposition to me. Yet they never followed this up, IIRC. Not even to dismiss it.)
I'm also wondering how far John and Rodney would support Teyla and Ronon if their team-mates went against the directives of Earth - perhaps not putting Earth in direct danger, but doing something that isn't "in Earth's best interests". Would they understand and make allowances for them? Would they argue the IOA down? Would they collude if it was something big enough? Would they just turn a blind eye? If it was big enough an issue, would they disobey?
I know, I know - The Return - but that was just John making the decision to disobey for himself, with (theoretically) no danger to anyone else (although serving up Atlantis' four most knowledgeable personnel to the Asurans on a platter? Clearly neither John, nor Rodney, nor Elizabeth, nor Carson, nor anyone on the SGA writing team had possession of The Logic Circuits that day). This is...well, Earth. Not in danger, but with an "increased risk" due to the actions of Teyla and Ronon, however justified they might be.
--
And finally and most crucially: What do you do with someone who contacts you on Facebook and seems to know all about you, but whom you don't ever remember meeting at all?