Weir/Sheppard vs Janeway/Chakotay
Oct. 19th, 2004 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woodfaceI was pondering over the Weir/Sheppard dynamic in the series. I must disappoint you and warn in advance that I am not talking about a ship pairing here. I'm just talking about dynamic.
Let's be honest to ourselves about this. Weir/Sheppard is nothing more than a copy of Janeway/Chakotay, and a bad one too. Why do I make this comparison? Let's see. In Voyager Janeway and Chakotay were put together to cross the gap between the maquis and starfleet crew. Both professionally and emotionally they grew to respect each other, their example being essential to both crews merging and working together.
Weir and Sheppard are in a similar position. Only, Weir is in command of a mostly military crew while she as a civilian is supposed to defend the rights of the scientists as well. Sheppard is her 2IC but represents the driving force of Atlantis. While the writers are desperately trying to make us believe that they respect each other, that respect does not go nearly as far as J/C went. Sure, Sheppard has a sort of sense of duty and will listen to Weir but only when it serves him right. He makes decisions when he likes it and very much disregards what Weir thinks, putting her on the spot and forcing her to go along with the idea. She can then wag a finger at him and tell him he shouldn't do it, but point is that he only will listen if he feels like it.
The interrogations they did when they thought they had a spy proved that Weir has no control whatsoever over the military part of her crew. At the same time, she squashes down the scientists in favour of what the military part thinks. My believe is that if something would happen and Sheppard and Weir came to a disagreement, the military side would follow Sheppard. More than likely a lot of the scientists would do too(of course McKay would only pick his own side).
Weir, in my opinion, lacks authority. If that Colonel hadn't been killed, she would probably constantly be butting heads with him and I'm really not sure if she would have been able to hold her own. It is Sheppard's decision to follow her that keeps things together for now. My opinion is that while Sheppard respects Weir personally, the professional respect is still lacking. The writers are trying to copy the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay but have failed to make it actually work. Weir just does not have a believable position in Atlantis.
Let's be honest to ourselves about this. Weir/Sheppard is nothing more than a copy of Janeway/Chakotay, and a bad one too. Why do I make this comparison? Let's see. In Voyager Janeway and Chakotay were put together to cross the gap between the maquis and starfleet crew. Both professionally and emotionally they grew to respect each other, their example being essential to both crews merging and working together.
Weir and Sheppard are in a similar position. Only, Weir is in command of a mostly military crew while she as a civilian is supposed to defend the rights of the scientists as well. Sheppard is her 2IC but represents the driving force of Atlantis. While the writers are desperately trying to make us believe that they respect each other, that respect does not go nearly as far as J/C went. Sure, Sheppard has a sort of sense of duty and will listen to Weir but only when it serves him right. He makes decisions when he likes it and very much disregards what Weir thinks, putting her on the spot and forcing her to go along with the idea. She can then wag a finger at him and tell him he shouldn't do it, but point is that he only will listen if he feels like it.
The interrogations they did when they thought they had a spy proved that Weir has no control whatsoever over the military part of her crew. At the same time, she squashes down the scientists in favour of what the military part thinks. My believe is that if something would happen and Sheppard and Weir came to a disagreement, the military side would follow Sheppard. More than likely a lot of the scientists would do too(of course McKay would only pick his own side).
Weir, in my opinion, lacks authority. If that Colonel hadn't been killed, she would probably constantly be butting heads with him and I'm really not sure if she would have been able to hold her own. It is Sheppard's decision to follow her that keeps things together for now. My opinion is that while Sheppard respects Weir personally, the professional respect is still lacking. The writers are trying to copy the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay but have failed to make it actually work. Weir just does not have a believable position in Atlantis.
