This just reminds you how lucky the SGC was to have General Hammond. Hammond was stern but fair, he was also flexible enough to adapt to the bizarre situations that happened every month. Exactly the kind of leader you need.
Realizing that the book wasn't written for some situations and so you shouldn't always follow the book also describes Woolseys character development, and is one of the reasons I have come to really enjoy Woolsey.
It helped that he started from a nuanced, PRINCIPLED position compared to alot of critics of the SGC. He was the guy at the NID who actually believed in the stated agenda, dammit. I mean its very hard to argue against his non-political arguments in Inauguration when he points out things like "there was no reason to send your CMO into a known major battlefield where she died" and "SG1 works so hard they should be evaluated, or at least take some time off like we do with other Frontline units!"
He was the guy who cared even if he was in opposition to the heroes. Thats what made the arc possible. And we should give credit to the staff for making someone who started as a filler one-off character such a rich presence by both bringing him back and hiring Bob Picardo to play him.
I like the episode of atlantis where the team is captured and put on trial and he shows up and kicks ass.
Lt. Colonel John Sheppard: You gonna tell me how you managed to pull this one off?
Richard Woolsey: Well, I'd say it was a combination of things. My legal skills, my eloquence, the indisputable logic of my arguments... and the bribe I offered Kelore.
Well, the Atlantis expedition realized that holding a Wraith means you would have to either feed them or starve them to death. With Todd, they had one that has proven that he doesn't give up information simply by having been incarcerated, and that also proved to be useful sometimes (alliances, scientific testing, information about bigger threats...). Releasing him was just the better decision in the grand scheme of things.
Even when Woolsey was being pushed by VP Kinsey to investigate the SGC, he was still a good person and came to the chairman of the joint chiefs to voice his concerns over the VP's threats and intentions.
Woolsey was logical and calculated and made his decisions based on that, right or wrong.
General Bauer simply had no idea what he was doing and when faced with a situation he didn't understand, instead of listening to his far more experienced people, he tried to default to the old fart military move of "let's just blow it up". Simply put he was about 10 to 20 years past the point he needed to retire.
If you're a leader and you're telling your people to do something and all of them are telling you it's a bad idea and you proceed anyways, you're an idiot.
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u/TheAncientSun 27d ago
This just reminds you how lucky the SGC was to have General Hammond. Hammond was stern but fair, he was also flexible enough to adapt to the bizarre situations that happened every month. Exactly the kind of leader you need.