I love that snippet. The organization of an entire Soup worth of minor/outside/OC characters might suggest that I kinda have a thing about good outsider perspective. :)
(The On the Outside, Looking In project might suggest the same, actually.)
I don't think Kinsey can be humanized any more, although it certainly would've been possible by the end of S1, when you know what? He had a lot of good points. The same good points that the NID had at the beginning, and even the IOA. But it's a tremendous weakness on the writers' part to make Our Heroes the Only Good Guys on the planet. I hate that. It forces a castle mentality on the SGC that shouldn't exist. I loved Area 51 in the Touchstone ep - Reynolds the SGC fanboy (love what you send us!), the work on curing Alzheimer's, honest research on alien tech, and so on. Maybourne et al were presented as outliers. Compare that with the NID by the time you reach S6, where the only honest guy left, apparently, is Barrett. (I have this whole elaborate Maybourne theory on this progression which I ranted about somewhere or other.)
The SGC do lots of things wrong, and they OUGHT to be called on them when they happen. People make mistakes. They waste resources. They lose focus on what's important (although the human factor is, and always should be, important too.) You NEED someone to call them on it - and to question a lack of efficiency. If they have enough naquadah reactors by the end of S3, frex, that they can afford to casually take one with them to dial out of a planet in New Ground, then why can't they hook up a few and thus detach themselves from the electrical grid? Why can't there be a carefully layered and misdirected series of patents for back-engineered tech and/or medicines that they can funnel funds back to the SGC to help offset costs?
Kinsey wasn't wrong when he said the SGC is draining money and security with little to offer in return. But by making him into a ridiculous Hollywood caricature of a Republican (and really, writers, can you be a little more subtle once in a while?), there's nowhere for him to go at this point. He's too one-note - he hates SG-1, especially Jack! He claims to believe in the power of America, but he wants to run through the Gate to safety! He says that it's unethical, but he's pals with the NID! - to be redeemed any longer.
Also, he's Goa'ulded and, I am relatively certain, dead. :) (Even by Stargate standards.)
If Felger hadn't been created as comedy relief first and then as a character second, there might have been hope for him. In Avenger 2.0, he's obviously a competent scientist in designing Avenger (it got approved - not his fault Ba'al played games with it). But as it is - no, no, no.
Would you even survive writing a sequel to BaBS?
(The On the Outside, Looking In project might suggest the same, actually.)
I don't think Kinsey can be humanized any more, although it certainly would've been possible by the end of S1, when you know what? He had a lot of good points. The same good points that the NID had at the beginning, and even the IOA. But it's a tremendous weakness on the writers' part to make Our Heroes the Only Good Guys on the planet. I hate that. It forces a castle mentality on the SGC that shouldn't exist. I loved Area 51 in the Touchstone ep - Reynolds the SGC fanboy (love what you send us!), the work on curing Alzheimer's, honest research on alien tech, and so on. Maybourne et al were presented as outliers. Compare that with the NID by the time you reach S6, where the only honest guy left, apparently, is Barrett. (I have this whole elaborate Maybourne theory on this progression which I ranted about somewhere or other.)
The SGC do lots of things wrong, and they OUGHT to be called on them when they happen. People make mistakes. They waste resources. They lose focus on what's important (although the human factor is, and always should be, important too.) You NEED someone to call them on it - and to question a lack of efficiency. If they have enough naquadah reactors by the end of S3, frex, that they can afford to casually take one with them to dial out of a planet in New Ground, then why can't they hook up a few and thus detach themselves from the electrical grid? Why can't there be a carefully layered and misdirected series of patents for back-engineered tech and/or medicines that they can funnel funds back to the SGC to help offset costs?
Kinsey wasn't wrong when he said the SGC is draining money and security with little to offer in return. But by making him into a ridiculous Hollywood caricature of a Republican (and really, writers, can you be a little more subtle once in a while?), there's nowhere for him to go at this point. He's too one-note - he hates SG-1, especially Jack! He claims to believe in the power of America, but he wants to run through the Gate to safety! He says that it's unethical, but he's pals with the NID! - to be redeemed any longer.
Also, he's Goa'ulded and, I am relatively certain, dead. :) (Even by Stargate standards.)
If Felger hadn't been created as comedy relief first and then as a character second, there might have been hope for him. In Avenger 2.0, he's obviously a competent scientist in designing Avenger (it got approved - not his fault Ba'al played games with it). But as it is - no, no, no.