Young has psychologically crumbled and needs be removed from command.

[PG15]

I can see him hesitating to delay the air evacuation to try to save his friend Telford but to turn over food and water and then computer control to Kiva was incredibly stupid. Once Kiva shot that hostage he should have known she is not to be trusted or reasoned with. He should have evacuated the room to near vacuum to incapacitate them and then sent in an armed team to dispatch any LA still consciousness; immediately followed by civilians to attempt resuscitation (if possible) of all the hostages. Rush was right, Young needed to act and cut his losses before the situation escalated but he didn’t and was completely paralyzed by his fear of hurting anyone.

The moment the LA realizes that the air is being vented they will not hesitate to kill the hostages themselves. After all, what's stopping them? It'll look to them like Young is ready to go through with ending this once and for all.

That said, I absolutely LOVED seeing Young lose it in this episode. I agree with you that he was livid and hysterical when he returned to confront the scientists about the power outage - it was the kind of emoting I would expect (and hope to see) from someone who just lost somebody under his command and who isn't the perfect robot soldiers that the military expects them to be. Comparing his reaction to past Stargate commanders just exemplifies the whole "these characters are flawed" theme of the show.

IMHO everything Young has ever done on the ship, besides the Stranding-Rush debacle, has been based on his mindset that everyone under his command and protection must be saved. This includes his not wanting to immediately vent the gateroom, this includes the multiple times he tried to sacrifice himself in place of someone "less important", this includes the events of "Water" when he wouldn't let Scott go, this includes the overprotectiveness of TJ, etc. etc. I am just loving how consistent he is. It might not be that rational, and it might not be what a proper military commander should do, but it makes him so very Human and I love him for it.

I don't want Young replaced. I want him to step down by his own accord. That would be character development. Ever since that outburst I've been thinking of a scenerio where he finally reflects over everything that he's done over the first season (and whatever happens at the beginning of season 2), and reiterates to himself what he and TJ talked about in "Space" - that he let all those people who died under his command down. I want him to realize for himself that he has made mistakes, and that perhaps he is not fit to command - at least, not for the time being. I want him to beat himself up emotionally/psychologically, maybe making his actions seem even worse than how they really are. I think it's fascinating to see someone (fictional) basically spiral into depression because they think they deserve that emotional punishment when they actually don't, or at least not to that extent.

It'd be cool, I think, for him to have this revelation when he's staring at Rivers's bloodstains on the gateroom floor. That is one piece of set dec that needs to remain. Blood has been shed there, and it ain't easy to clean off, if you know what I mean.

I also think it'd be cool if, when he reveals to Scott, Greer, Telford, etc. that he's stepping down, they'll give reasons why he shouldn't. Clearly there are reasons since there are plenty here who defend Young on a regular basis (me included).

As for who should replace him - I vote for Telford. I thought he was great in Incursion I and II. As someone had said, he has great presence, and he certainly handled himself just fine while pretending to still be loyal to Kiva. Sure, his plan eventually backfired, but desperate times and all that. Besides, it'd be interesting to see a scene where Young gives command over to Telford, since those two seemed to have been friends before the brainwashing; it'd be a good chance for bromance banter.

I...really want to write for this show. There is so much emotional baggage to claim.

[Blackhole]

The moment the LA realizes that the air is being vented they will not hesitate to kill the hostages themselves. After all, what's stopping them? It'll look to them like Young is ready to go through with ending this once and for all.

That said, I absolutely LOVED seeing Young lose it in this episode. I agree with you that he was livid and hysterical when he returned to confront the scientists about the power outage - it was the kind of emoting I would expect (and hope to see) from someone who just lost somebody under his command and who isn't the perfect robot soldiers that the military expects them to be. Comparing his reaction to past Stargate commanders just exemplifies the whole "these characters are flawed" theme of the show.

IMHO everything Young has ever done on the ship, besides the Stranding-Rush debacle, has been based on his mindset that everyone under his command and protection must be saved. This includes his not wanting to immediately vent the gateroom, this includes the multiple times he tried to sacrifice himself in place of someone "less important", this includes the events of "Water" when he wouldn't let Scott go, this includes the overprotectiveness of TJ, etc. etc. I am just loving how consistent he is. It might not be that rational, and it might not be what a proper military commander should do, but it makes him so very Human and I love him for it.

I don't want Young replaced. I want him to step down by his own accord. That would be character development. Ever since that outburst I've been thinking of a scenerio where he finally reflects over everything that he's done over the first season (and whatever happens at the beginning of season 2), and reiterates to himself what he and TJ talked about in "Space" - that he let all those people who died under his command down. I want him to realize for himself that he has made mistakes, and that perhaps he is not fit to command - at least, not for the time being. I want him to beat himself up emotionally/psychologically, maybe making his actions seem even worse than how they really are. I think it's fascinating to see someone (fictional) basically spiral into depression because they think they deserve that emotional punishment when they actually don't, or at least not to that extent.

It'd be cool, I think, for him to have this revelation when he's staring at Rivers's bloodstains on the gateroom floor. That is one piece of set dec that needs to remain. Blood has been shed there, and it ain't easy to clean off, if you know what I mean.

I also think it'd be cool if, when he reveals to Scott, Greer, Telford, etc. that he's stepping down, they'll give reasons why he shouldn't. Clearly there are reasons since there are plenty here who defend Young on a regular basis (me included).

As for who should replace him - I vote for Telford. I thought he was great in Incursion I and II. As someone had said, he has great presence, and he certainly handled himself just fine while pretending to still be loyal to Kiva. Sure, his plan eventually backfired, but desperate times and all that. Besides, it'd be interesting to see a scene where Young gives command over to Telford, since those two seemed to have been friends before the brainwashing; it'd be a good chance for bromance banter.

I...really want to write for this show. There is so much emotional baggage to claim.

An excellent post; very thoughtful and well written.

I agree with everything you have said.

You are right they probably would have tried to kill the hostages. I had considered that. The only thing Young could have done was to initiate a major diversion immediately before he vents the room. That may have given the hostages a chance to scramble out of the way. Unfortunately lives would probably be lost but delaying further would only put more at risk which is exactly what happened.

[Nataku27]

ok! im lost here who is BAG?

Who is BAG ?

One of the deepest mystery of SGU of course

[The Swarm]

I think Varro should take command of the people on Destiny, he wants peace between the two sides, is level headed, has military experience and he likes T.J.

[Kelara]

IMHO everything Young has ever done on the ship, besides the Stranding-Rush debacle, has been based on his mindset that everyone under his command and protection must be saved. This includes his not wanting to immediately vent the gateroom, this includes the multiple times he tried to sacrifice himself in place of someone "less important", this includes the events of "Water" when he wouldn't let Scott go, this includes the overprotectiveness of TJ, etc. etc. I am just loving how consistent he is. It might not be that rational, and it might not be what a proper military commander should do, but it makes him so very Human and I love him for it.

While I agree wholeheartedly with the rest of your post (Young should step down, of his own accord -because otherwise he will never acknowledge the monumental mistakes he made and thus end up bitter, angry and in denial- preferrably to Telford), the above part I just as wholeheartedly disagree with .
In my opinion, Young is mainly looking out for himself and playing favourites entirely too much to convincingly care about "everyone under his command". The saving of Scott in water? Young seemed to have him adopted and wanted Scott saved for his own sanity. If it was someone Young didn't have a psychological connection to, he would have waved goodbye to them (maybe not happily, but he'd not have gone to the point of self- sacrifice). Same for TJ, she's his past love interest and carrying his freaking baby. If he wouldn't go to bat for her and his kid now that would demonstrate even more clearly a psychological disorder, wouldn't it?
Similar thing with the wife on earth. He needed her to wait for him (indefinitely, if need be). Did he care any what that would actually mean for her? If he did, it was not shown on screen (yet). Or let's take a look at the last scenes on the faith planet. People Young cares about: Scott, TJ, Greer (maybe Chloe, but at that point she pretty much went where Scott went anyway). Scott wants to stay down out of a feeling of obligation and TJ wants to stay for the child. Both couldn't care less about insubordination charges as they will probably never see anyone from earth ever again if they stay, so he can't just order them back on destiny. So how does he keep his most favourite people? Guilt tripping them with the shuttle (greater chance of survival of the rest Young didn't give a damn about with the shuttle, but only if all military leaves... which, well, didn't exactly contribute to their survival chances all that much... but well, no one chose to point that out in depth).
I think that is the interpretation of Young Rush even commented on that in the last episode (with the "what if it wasn't Rivers but Eli or Chloe or TJ" jibe). So Young might fancy being seen as the benevolent "I will everything for everyone under my command" commander, but in truth his actions can be interpreted in hugely different ways, if one wants to.

So in summary: Young = very ambiguous character, but agree that he shouldn't be in command (which obviously hinges on Telford staying alive. I personally can't imagine Young stepping down to his quasi- son Scott or to grief stricken TJ any time soon.)

[Shai Hulud]

getting a serviceman pregnant

^That would be quite the achievement, fair play to Young, he must be shooting some uberstrong stuff if he can get serviceMEN preggers!

[JustAnotherVoice]

I wanted to give Young the benefit of the doubt but based on his performance and behavior in this last episode I think he has emotionally and psychologically crumbled. His intentions were good but he no longer possesses the psychological stability to continue in command and needs to be replaced. It was his inaction from fear to do anything to risk the hostages’ lives that was responsible for LA taking control of the ship and putting everyone’s lives in imminent mortal peril.

It was a combination of things that led to the LA gaining a foothold. Plan (A) went with those nifty spinny keys. Plan (B) went with the radiation burst interrupting the medical supply exchange. Plan (C) went with Kiva discovering Telford.

It has been argued by some that it was a mistake to not to immediately evacuate the air from the gate room. Tactically I agree but I can understand his decision to delay to first see if he could negotiate their surrender and save Telford who was likely his good friend before he was brainwashed. He didn’t expect they would have the door opening devices that would very quickly allow them to exit (Although, they could have just as easily used explosives to free themselves). Once Eli told him they had devices to open the door he gave the order to evacuate the air but it was too late.

Meh, other's opinions, not yours, so it seems.

From this point Young completely lost his control once Kiva had taken hostages. Remember his emotional outburst to Park and the others and when he tried to attack Rush when he accurately criticized his tactics. Young stormed into the command center and started yelling at everyone to fix the problem. When they attempted to explain that they didn’t know what was wrong he yelled louder “Don’t analyze just fix it!”. I think for a moment he was completely out of control and hysterical. The expressions on all their faces confirmed they had similar thoughts as well. Rush was being Rush and tactlessly pointed out that Young’s fear to act and endanger anyone’s life was what was responsible for getting him killed. He knew that Young was paralyzed by his fear of doing anything that would risk the hostages’ lives and by default was allowing Kiva free reign. Rush spent a lot of time with her he knew how ruthless she was and that the death toll was just going to rise the longer he delayed taking action against her. Rush rubbed Young’s nose in that reality and Young lost it and tried to attack him. Circumstances unfortunately proved him absolutely correct.

It came across more as "no excuses, just get it done" without his command poker face.

Young may like chess, but he isn't much of a poker player, and I'd wager that anyone would get a bit angry when things are going south for no apparent reason with such high stakes involved. Young is already a tightly wound guy, especially after the previous 2 or 3 episodes; no doubt the sh!t hitting the fan isn't good for his temperment.

I can see him hesitating to delay the air evacuation to try to save his friend Telford but to turn over food and water and then computer control to Kiva was incredibly stupid. Once Kiva shot that hostage he should have known she is not to be trusted or reasoned with. He should have evacuated the room to near vacuum to incapacitate them and then sent in an armed team to dispatch any LA still consciousness; immediately followed by civilians to attempt resuscitation (if possible) of all the hostages. Rush was right, Young needed to act and cut his losses before the situation escalated but he didn’t and was completely paralyzed by his fear of hurting anyone.

Think about that bolded bit for a minute. If she was willing to send Young a message for a deal not going to her exact plan, what do you think she would have done in the 60 seconds it would take to vent the atmosphere? Sure, all of his people are dead, but at least his ship is safe...which goes against everything we've seen of Young.

Trying to incapacitate them may end up angering the LA (or killing hostages outright), and, as we've seen from Young, he doesn't want anymore blood than neccessary on his hands. Once the O2 started to thin, Kiva would have executed every hostage. On top of that, how long is long enough to make sure everyone is weak/incapacitated enough but still alive?

Relying on Telford's plan imo was asinine as evidenced by what happened. It was far too risky and too many things could have gone wrong.

Telford's plan was risky, but there were just as many variable in trying to suffocate the LA members. Young is gambling high risk vs high reward (Telford's plan) or high risk vs low reward (pulling the atmosphere). He made his decision and is rolling the dice, letting fate decide and history judge - military commanders have done that, for better or worse, since the dawn of warfare. Any time the Iron Lady sent in the SAS, WWI/II (until Germany got America's ire), the American Civil War, the American Revolution, Hannible crossing the Alps, Julius Caesar crossing the Rhine, Marathon, Thermopylae. The list is as long as my arm.

Go back and rewatch the scene in the command center after Kiva kills the solider before you disagree with me. You can see in Young’s face that he looked hysterical for a moment and from the expressions on the faces of Park, Volker, Brody, and Rush they all realized it as well. I am not Young bashing. Imo the show is not just portraying a character that has made mistakes in judgment but as one that is psychologically crumbling. O’Neill’s direct criticism of his judgment is more evidence. It was Young’s inability to act from a fear to risk the hostages’ lives that resulted in LA taking over the ship and placing everyone’s life in mortal peril.

The Mighty 6 platoon’s assessment that he has PTSD may be accurate and intended by the writers. I would be extremely surprised if his mental state doesn’t continue to deteriorate over future episodes and is the focus a major plot line.

We've seen, time and again, that this is part of Young's personality make up. PTSD wouldn't shock me one bit, especially if he's lost a lot of men in combat. Having a guilty conscience can make a person do all sorts of crazy things, everything from crying himself to sleep at nights to being short with people who callously treat whatever triggered the guilt (in Young's case, needlessly wasting lives, it seems). If momentarily losing control under that kind of pressure is "hysterical" then I wouldn't want to know what you call more serious outbursts.

Who will replace him is the problem. All the other officers are junior and not ready for command. TJ’s comment of disapproval to Young when he told her about his plan to evacuate the gate room shows me she probably isn’t suited either. If Telford survives it is a possibility but even though he was brainwashed having him assume command doesn’t sit well with me. Wray certainly isn’t qualified. It will be interesting to see what happens. Who knows if LA will take over the ship and for how long? Maybe Young will redeem himself and retake the ship? Will have to wait and see.

It's easy to judge from the sidelines, where you can be objective. You "rip apart" the de facto commander then p!ss over everyone else's ability to step up.

Biased Young bashing is biased.

[Phenom]

Interesting opinion about Young having PTSD. I am not sure if he has that, or if he just really hasn't got the ability to keep it together when things go pearshaped. It really isn't a question that can be answered as that sort of diagnosis takes a long time and many hours on the couch, but it certainly isn't out of the question.

The biggest indicator to me that Young has lost control of himself was when he yelled at the scientists. It reminded me of when I get so frustrated with the kids that I yelll too much and then immediately after I think, 'yep i went too far' and apologise or something similar. I think Young had that moment of self-reflection immediately afterwards, but he hesitated and didn't say anything to the group which could have saved his standing amongst them. As it is, their respect for him no doubt dropped after they saw him fail to reign in and recognise his emotional meltdown.

[janus4ever]

He is too incapable to be SGC leader. O'Neill is not happy with him as well. Young is the looser of Season 1, imho.

[Shai Hulud]

At the end of S1 Young's lost pretty much everything; his ship, his baby, his bit on the side, his temper, his limp... He'll be tempered by adversity and emerge from it a far stronger, better person.

[Blackhole]

It was a combination of things that led to the LA gaining a foothold. Plan (A) went with those nifty spinny keys. Plan (B) went with the radiation burst interrupting the medical supply exchange. Plan (C) went with Kiva discovering Telford.

All started by Young delaying to immediately evacuate the gate room.

Meh, other's opinions, not yours, so it seems.

So...I am not allowed to learn from others? You are saying I can only post arguments I personally thought of?

It came across more as "no excuses, just get it done" without his command poker face.

How can they fix something if they don't understand what the problem was? So Young has a right to be upset because Park, Volker, Brody and Rush are not all knowing?

Young may like chess, but he isn't much of a poker player, and I'd wager that anyone would get a bit angry when things are going south for no apparent reason with such high stakes involved. Young is already a tightly wound guy, especially after the previous 2 or 3 episodes; no doubt the sh!t hitting the fan isn't good for his temperment.

A competent commander is suppose to keep cool during a crisis situation and not fly off the handle.

Think about that bolded bit for a minute. If she was willing to send Young a message for a deal not going to her exact plan, what do you think she would have done in the 60 seconds it would take to vent the atmosphere? Sure, all of his people are dead, but at least his ship is safe...which goes against everything we've seen of Young.

Trying to incapacitate them may end up angering the LA (or killing hostages outright), and, as we've seen from Young, he doesn't want anymore blood than neccessary on his hands. Once the O2 started to thin, Kiva would have executed every hostage. On top of that, how long is long enough to make sure everyone is weak/incapacitated enough but still alive?

Yes venting the atmosphere may have resulted in LA killing all the hostages. Young needed to cut his losses and end the threat. He didn't and now instead of 10 hostages at risk the entire crew is and he has lost the ship.

Telford's plan was risky, but there were just as many variable in trying to suffocate the LA members. Young is gambling high risk vs high reward (Telford's plan) or high risk vs low reward (pulling the atmosphere). He made his decision and is rolling the dice, letting fate decide and history judge - military commanders have done that, for better or worse, since the dawn of warfare. Any time the Iron Lady sent in the SAS, WWI/II (until Germany got America's ire), the American Civil War, the American Revolution, Hannible crossing the Alps, Julius Caesar crossing the Rhine, Marathon, Thermopylae. The list is as long as my arm.

No there wasn't and doing what Young did lost the ship and put everyone's' life in imminent mortal peril.

We've seen, time and again, that this is part of Young's personality make up. PTSD wouldn't shock me one bit, especially if he's lost a lot of men in combat. Having a guilty conscience can make a person do all sorts of crazy things, everything from crying himself to sleep at nights to being short with people who callously treat whatever triggered the guilt (in Young's case, needlessly wasting lives, it seems). If momentarily losing control under that kind of pressure is "hysterical" then I wouldn't want to know what you call more serious outbursts.

Much more hysterical. Keeping cool are what good commanders are suppose to do.

It's easy to judge from the sidelines, where you can be objective. You "rip apart" the de facto commander then p!ss over everyone else's ability to step up.

Biased Young bashing is biased.

No I pointed out a catastrophic tactical mistake that would have thwarted LA's attack and saved the ship and only put Telford's life at risk; a life that may have been able to be saved if he was resuscitated in time. A mistake that General O'Neill thought serious enough to threaten to remove him from command for.

[xxxevilgrinxxx]

....

You know, Dr "I'm the whole reason everyone is marooned on this miserable rust bucket" Rush really can't be seen as having much logic either. Also nice to see how you define people with deep seated psychological trauma and scarring. Perhaps you should tell your own servicemen and veterans of your country how they are wackjobs. I'm sure they'd appreciate that.

In recent episodes it has become clear that Young is suffering from PTSD. It's almost a textbook case. Traumatic events in his past which he can remember in vivid detail. Anger problems, anger and denial at certain topics which may led to a repeat of such events. Worse you can't cure PTSD, it's something you carry with you for the rest of your life. But it is treatable, and people with it are perfectly capable of functioning with it, you'll see them every day in the street and not even no. In the end even those with severe PTSD, are perfectly capable of carrying on their jobs. Everyone carries round past baggage.

However thanks to comments like yours, veterans who go through psychological trauma are often seen as wackjobs or nutters. I know Young is a fictional character, but your attitude is the same, PTSD has been turned into a mark of Cain, you get it and some see you as a broken and dangerous individual.

In the end Young has had his command ability impaired by psychological trauma. Is he capable of recovering in order to take charge of the Destiny. I don't know, but it's possible. The one thing Young isn't is a wackjob.

Thank you. I could write a big long bit but I think thank you will have to work for now

The attitude is the same. Calling Chloe a slut on this board is disallowed, its seen as character bashing. I think calling a character with psychological trauma and damage from PTSD a wackjob is also character bashing.

amen
There are lots of things that could be said about Young's character but I think slinging that kind of crap around definitely is character bashing and it gets really damned tiresome

[carmencatalina]

<snip>

Anyhow, I'm thinking Young is definitely close to cracking again (I say again, because I think he lost it on the planet with the alien ship where he left Rush - and I think he thinks he lost it there, too).

When he yelled at the scientists - that was a sign of impending Young-break-down. He managed to reel it in, though, which is good. I think Park saying "Don't yell!" to him was awesome - and maybe more of the crew need to say stuff like that to him. Dude, they want to live as much as you do - let them do their stuff!

This is why I LOVE Young - he is falling apart, and then he pulls himself together, and then he starts falling apart again. I spend more time yelling at Young than any other character (in my mind, of course, I don't actually yell at the television, well, not much). He has so much potential! He fails so mightily! He knocks up his officers! He is brave! He has serious anger management issues! What's not to love?

[AVFan]

Personally, I think that Young is just as fit for command as anyone on the ship at this point.

The next best obvious candidate would be Rush and he wouldn't care enough for the safety of the people aboard the ship. As we've seen in SG-1 and SGA, sometimes the emotional decision is the one that pays off. Logic will cut your losses, but won't save everyone. Young has shown that he cares about everyone under his command- civilian and military both.

Next would be Wray, and she's so ignorant it's not funny. Not to mention she's an IOA Scumbagâ„¢ as well as friggen annoying. She likes to negotiate with everything, and with cold-blooded criminals, it's not going to happen. Reminds me a little of Lost City Weir wanting to negotiate with Anubis. Even Daniel, who doesn't like violence, knows that it's idiocy. Same situation with the Lucian Alliance. So no Wray, please. (While we're at it, can someone please airlock her? Kthxbai)

Then you have a bunch of wildcard candidates:

Telford- seems to have his head on straight now that the brainwashing is gone. Only problem is that he's probably dead.

Varro- seems to want both sides to work together. Whether this is true remains to be seen.

Scott- next in command if Telford is out of the picture. He's pretty weak mentally though and would make even more emotional decisions than Young, IMO.

BAG- There's no doubt he would be the best commander any Earth or MW personnel have ever seen. But would they be able to stand his sheer note-taking awesomeness without passing out? Who really knows.

That said, Young surely hasn't been the best commander possible, there's no doubt about that. He can sometimes be a Nutbar© (congrats whoever made up that word, it stuck ) as evidenced by going off on the scientists after the radiation hit the ship; however, he has shown the best leadership qualities out of anyone on board.

All of his decisions have made at least some sense, and would've worked out had things gone according to plan (no Ancient door-openers, no radiation blast). He has also made some brilliant decisions along with his bad ones (taking Telford to the edge of life, then reviving him; having O'Neill put a tail on Rush in Subversion; as well as some other smaller ones, such as deferring to Wray to negotiate for some of the hostages). IMO, none of the other members of the crew of Destiny could do a better job than he has during their time on the Destiny.

[Blackhole]

Personally, I think that Young is just as fit for command as anyone on the ship at this point.

The next best obvious candidate would be Rush and he wouldn't care enough for the safety of the people aboard the ship. As we've seen in SG-1 and SGA, sometimes the emotional decision is the one that pays off. Logic will cut your losses, but won't save everyone. Young has shown that he cares about everyone under his command- civilian and military both.

Next would be Wray, and she's so ignorant it's not funny. Not to mention she's an IOA Scumbagâ„¢ as well as friggen annoying. She likes to negotiate with everything, and with cold-blooded criminals, it's not going to happen. Reminds me a little of Lost City Weir wanting to negotiate with Anubis. Even Daniel, who doesn't like violence, knows that it's idiocy. Same situation with the Lucian Alliance. So no Wray, please. (While we're at it, can someone please airlock her? Kthxbai)

Then you have a bunch of wildcard candidates:

Telford- seems to have his head on straight now that the brainwashing is gone. Only problem is that he's probably dead.

Varro- seems to want both sides to work together. Whether this is true remains to be seen.

Scott- next in command if Telford is out of the picture. He's pretty weak mentally though and would make even more emotional decisions than Young, IMO.

BAG- There's no doubt he would be the best commander any Earth or MW personnel have ever seen. But would they be able to stand his sheer note-taking awesomeness without passing out? Who really knows.

That said, Young surely hasn't been the best commander possible, there's no doubt about that. He can sometimes be a Nutbar© (congrats whoever made up that word, it stuck ) as evidenced by going off on the scientists after the radiation hit the ship; however, he has shown the best leadership qualities out of anyone on board.

All of his decisions have made at least some sense, and would've worked out had things gone according to plan (no Ancient door-openers, no radiation blast). He has also made some brilliant decisions along with his bad ones (taking Telford to the edge of life, then reviving him; having O'Neill put a tail on Rush in Subversion; as well as some other smaller ones, such as deferring to Wray to negotiate for some of the hostages). IMO, none of the other members of the crew of Destiny could do a better job than he has during their time on the Destiny.

You are very right about the difficulty of finding his replacement. Unfortunately he was in command and he lost the ship. No matter how you slice it imo it is hard to let someone who made such a catastrophic mistake continue in command.