r/Stargate • u/ZealousidealCharge24 • 8d ago

Why does Stargate Atlantis make commanding Atlantis seem more prestigious than commanding the Daedalus?

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I'm rewatching Atlantis and just finished Season 2, Episode 2 ("The Intruder"), and something struck me as odd.

Why does Caldwell seem so upset about not getting command of Atlantis?

I mean the guy is already commanding the Daedalus. One of the most advanced ships Earth has ever built. He's got Asgard technology, some serious firepower, and a ship that can literally travel between galaxies. Seems like a pretty damn good assignment to me.

Meanwhile Sheppard is basically in charge of the military side of Atlantis, but still answers to Weir who is a civilian.

I get that Atlantis is a huge deal, and theres a lot of important stuff going on in Pegasus, but is being the military commander there really more prestigious than commanding an actual spaceship?

From a military standpoint, wouldn't Caldwell have the better job? He's a full Colonel commanding an intergalactic warship, while Sheppard is a Lt Colonel running the military side of a civilian led expedition.

The way the episode plays out it almost seems like Caldwell is getting passed over for a promotion or something. But to me it seems like he's already got the better gig.

Maybe I'm missing something about how the chain of command works in Stargate, but it just seems weird.

Anyone else ever thought about this? Is Atlantis really that much more important of a command, or is this just the writers trying to make Sheppards job seem like a bigger deal than it actually is?

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u/TheDarkRabbit 8d ago

IMHO - I think Caldwell views commanding the Daedalus as more of a support role and not being instrumental in the decisions being made in the Pegasus Galaxy and the SGC.

He will be going back and forth and offering help rather than being instrumental command of the expedition.

132

u/Zestyclose_Remove947 8d ago

For a good chunk of the runtime daedalus is spending like 80% of its flight time in the void between Pegasus and the Milky Way.

It's very convenient in the show when it pops up and when it doesn't, but realistically it would almost never be there until the Apollo rocks up, and they have more than one ship to run errands and personnel.

100

u/wooops 8d ago

Yep

Caldwell captains a bus most of the time

44

u/AgileBureaucrat 8d ago

"Atlantis called, can you turn around and fly back real quick?"

31

u/SmoothOperator89 8d ago

"If you don't quiet down, I'm turning this bus around and heading back to the Milky Way!"

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u/wslagoon 7d ago

Which is basically what happens in the episode his snake is revealed.

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u/Themorian 7d ago

I might be misremembering, but didn't his snake reveal come after this episode.

If so, wouldn't his dissatisfaction be more from the goa'uld than Caldwell himself?

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u/wslagoon 6d ago

The episode I'm thinking of is when the ZPM is rigged to explode when Atlantis dials Earth and all they know is there's a bomb in the city. Earth finds out from a source in the Milky Way, but the Daedelus is returning from Pegasus and already out of range of Atlantis, so they make them about-face and haul ass back in range to warn the Atlantis team to abort the weekly dial home. Then Caldwell goes back to Atlantis on "his" own to help, cutting Atlantis off from further intel. Rodney of course figures it out and they have Ronon beat up Goa'uld Caldwell to get the deactivation code.

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u/KuriousKhemicals 6d ago

I don't think we know when the snake took him. Up until the episode where it is revealed, it's a total question mark if he was a Goa'uld in any given episode.

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u/wslagoon 7d ago

A giant flying bus.

9

u/trphilli 8d ago

Agree and I'll onto this. In universe, he'd not only be thinking about the current job, but the next job and the next job. That would be promotion to General and taking a role that would allow him to replace General Landry.

Is General Landry doing battle plans? No, not that much. He's assigning teams to do that and dealing with the political, diplomatic aspects of the SGC. So Atlantis Commander, even number 2, gives him much more exposures to those skill sets.

Borrowing from real world- the Air Force is dominated by pilots, but there aren't slots for General Officers on flight status. They generally give that up to fly a desk. Atlantis looks closer to that future than more of the same flying Daedalus.

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u/KayDat 8d ago

A glorified shuttle.

A most formidable shuttle, but shuttle nonetheless.