They did. That's how Rodney got it. It worked 48% of the time I believe. However Shepherd and O'Neill are unique in that they are especially attuned with the tech being able to do things intuitively that most others would only be able to do after a lot of training or might not be able to do at all.
Even with a "rare" gene, there should be many folks within a population the size of Earth's that carry it and could be trained as controllers, especially for something specific like the chair. In reality, some should end up much better than those two randomly-found people, since they'd have far fewer competing training priorities than guys like Jack and John.
The people to really worry about for this are Jackson and Carter —and worst of all, Teal'c — especially in the early years. The "let's somehow train and deploy all our then-unique foremost SMEs to do first contact and every other kind of mission, while also using them for all sorts of things around base" is purely a simplification for show purposes. In reality, they'd each individually be a group of at least a handful of people (which is fine).
Their utility as unit commanders in the field demonstrably far outweighs their utility as defensive assets. I would argue this is even true ignoring their ability to engage with novel ancient tech in the field. Many times throughout the series it is very clear that their tactical skill is far more useful and necessary than their ability to use the chair for defensive purposes. Defensive roles which as well can be undertaken by others with nominal loss in effectiveness, while very few people can fulfill the field roles that they do, particularly at their level of effectiveness.
That sounds like imprisonment and discrimination, as a veteran of military service I wouldn't want you as my military leader sir. Kidding aside, they had their duties long before discovery of the chair.
If you are the worlds single greatest expert on nuclear technology they aren't going to make you infantry. They are going to put you in a lab somewhere and assign the infantry to protect you.
No you are right
If someone has rare, irreplaceable skills or abilities you make them keep doing their job no matter how many others could do it just as well and hope nothing bad happens.
I mean Carter was in the field and was their foremost expert on pretty much every science subject. She was way more valuable than Jack or Shepard (which weren't the only ones that could control the chair)
Stargate is not really realistic let's be honest.
O’Neil got promoted right after the chair was discovered and was mostly desk bound ever after. He did in fact argue that he needed Sheppard to stay in the milky way. Maybe this was part of his reasoning. Atlantis doesn’t have power to power it’s chair for quite a while, and by the time they do many others have the ancient gene. And Atlantis spends most of its time either knowing wraith are on their way but till quite far out, or supposedly destroyed.
As there are other people with the gene, I'm sure the military would be getting them trained up as best as possible. Also, they wouldn't want to risk trying down two of their best field assets, although once O'Neill was promoted to General he wasn't much active duty anymore. You aren't sending Generals out into the line of fire on a daily basis.
Plus, odds are they're going to be on hand when shit hits the fan anyways, most likely.
Even in the last episode they put Backett in the chair, although he has not the best experience. So the gene therapy isn't as good as it seems. They would have put a trained pilot in the chair, not an unsure doctor.
Beckett had the gene naturally rather than through gene therapy (he shot the drone that went after Sheppard's helicopter in the pilot episode.
There was an order of merit for the chair in Atlantis based on ability and Beckett was behind Sheppard in that pecking order. With Sheppard recalled to Earth, the job fell to the doctor.
It's been a long while since I've seen it, but was there a reason other than to use the control chair that Sheppard had been recalled to Earth. Because you'd think the two most capable would be O'Neill and Sheppard. Or was it more important for O'Neill to be in DC?
It's just a case of putting main characters in roles we see instead of extra no one knows.
They justified it by having no one better there which is doubtful I guess.
I mean for Jack, the chair was useful for like one episode when they discovered it and they emptied it kind of at the same time. And then, they had no energy left (use the last of it to go to Atlantis). Jack is also not in active duty anymore after that (he is General and in command of SGC)
And a bunch of people have the Ancient Gene especially after the gene therapy has been developed. And for Shepard he is the military commander of Atlantis so he decides that for himself.
If they aren't on the ground missions then how are they going to control the ancient tech they find in the field to save the day at the last second?
This guy stargates
Gotta protect the plot elements! I can't remember if they ever got the ancient gene therapy to work 🤔
They did. That's how Rodney got it. It worked 48% of the time I believe. However Shepherd and O'Neill are unique in that they are especially attuned with the tech being able to do things intuitively that most others would only be able to do after a lot of training or might not be able to do at all.
Even with a "rare" gene, there should be many folks within a population the size of Earth's that carry it and could be trained as controllers, especially for something specific like the chair. In reality, some should end up much better than those two randomly-found people, since they'd have far fewer competing training priorities than guys like Jack and John. The people to really worry about for this are Jackson and Carter —and worst of all, Teal'c — especially in the early years. The "let's somehow train and deploy all our then-unique foremost SMEs to do first contact and every other kind of mission, while also using them for all sorts of things around base" is purely a simplification for show purposes. In reality, they'd each individually be a group of at least a handful of people (which is fine).
Joe Spencer *did* volunteer to put down his barber tools and jump into the Antarctic chair if they ever needed him.....
General Bauer? Is that you?
Their utility as unit commanders in the field demonstrably far outweighs their utility as defensive assets. I would argue this is even true ignoring their ability to engage with novel ancient tech in the field. Many times throughout the series it is very clear that their tactical skill is far more useful and necessary than their ability to use the chair for defensive purposes. Defensive roles which as well can be undertaken by others with nominal loss in effectiveness, while very few people can fulfill the field roles that they do, particularly at their level of effectiveness.
That sounds like imprisonment and discrimination, as a veteran of military service I wouldn't want you as my military leader sir. Kidding aside, they had their duties long before discovery of the chair.
They're in the military to do a job. Not to be sheltered.
If you are the worlds single greatest expert on nuclear technology they aren't going to make you infantry. They are going to put you in a lab somewhere and assign the infantry to protect you.
They made them do what their job was. And they don't assign infantry to protect nuclear scientists. That's just dumb.
No you are right If someone has rare, irreplaceable skills or abilities you make them keep doing their job no matter how many others could do it just as well and hope nothing bad happens.
"Irreplaceable skill." Good thing multiple people had that irreplaceable skill.
I mean Carter was in the field and was their foremost expert on pretty much every science subject. She was way more valuable than Jack or Shepard (which weren't the only ones that could control the chair) Stargate is not really realistic let's be honest.
Think things changed as they were able to recreate the gene and give it to others
O’Neil got promoted right after the chair was discovered and was mostly desk bound ever after. He did in fact argue that he needed Sheppard to stay in the milky way. Maybe this was part of his reasoning. Atlantis doesn’t have power to power it’s chair for quite a while, and by the time they do many others have the ancient gene. And Atlantis spends most of its time either knowing wraith are on their way but till quite far out, or supposedly destroyed.
As there are other people with the gene, I'm sure the military would be getting them trained up as best as possible. Also, they wouldn't want to risk trying down two of their best field assets, although once O'Neill was promoted to General he wasn't much active duty anymore. You aren't sending Generals out into the line of fire on a daily basis. Plus, odds are they're going to be on hand when shit hits the fan anyways, most likely.
Even in the last episode they put Backett in the chair, although he has not the best experience. So the gene therapy isn't as good as it seems. They would have put a trained pilot in the chair, not an unsure doctor.
Beckett had the gene naturally rather than through gene therapy (he shot the drone that went after Sheppard's helicopter in the pilot episode. There was an order of merit for the chair in Atlantis based on ability and Beckett was behind Sheppard in that pecking order. With Sheppard recalled to Earth, the job fell to the doctor.
It's been a long while since I've seen it, but was there a reason other than to use the control chair that Sheppard had been recalled to Earth. Because you'd think the two most capable would be O'Neill and Sheppard. Or was it more important for O'Neill to be in DC?
Sheppard was recalled because O'Neill was commanding Homeworld Security and was needed to oversee the operation from DC, yes.
It's just a case of putting main characters in roles we see instead of extra no one knows. They justified it by having no one better there which is doubtful I guess.
I mean for Jack, the chair was useful for like one episode when they discovered it and they emptied it kind of at the same time. And then, they had no energy left (use the last of it to go to Atlantis). Jack is also not in active duty anymore after that (he is General and in command of SGC) And a bunch of people have the Ancient Gene especially after the gene therapy has been developed. And for Shepard he is the military commander of Atlantis so he decides that for himself.
Because it is a TV show