Should Young have handled things differently?

[MattSilver 3k]

I think Young wasn't thinking about genetic diversity and long, long, long-term survival, for some reason. If he did and decided to go through with the lotto anyway, it speaks volumes of his character. He didn't want to be the guy to choose, and he wanted all the wrong people on the Destiny to get a chance, and not just let them burn up in the star because they don't have the right skills.

[Pharaoh Atem]

Col. Young should handle things differently yes.

He should choose 7 males & 8 females for human survival. Young and healthy.

and what if half of those 15 people didn't have any training in survival

would have been tough

[garhkal]

Young is the polar opposite of Rush in this regard. He is all about honor and integrity. So he acted within the bounds of his personality. He made the logical choices about the pilot and medic and left everything up to fate. I think it would have broken his character if it happened any other way.

Agreed. A leader of military folk knows he is expected to make the picks, but when civilians come into the equation, it is best to leave it to chance. And i loved how Chamile, started to argue, and when Young said he was going to pull her sheet out, she immediatly stopped and groveled. Teaches her to ignore the head guy!

I don't consider it fair. The amount of survivors guilt that lottery could've wrought is immense. While I enjoy his personality and strength, it still struck me as a decision more based in emotional/physical exhaustion than some sense of fairness.

True. Humans have always delt with survivor guilt, and some have even killed themselves over it.

You also have to admit the fact that, sometimes, there is no right answer.

True dat.

[Franklyn Blaze]

I don't really think 17 people in any combination make up a diverse enough genetic pool anyways. Isn't the number around 200 or 500? They didn't take into account hetero and homosexuals so I doubt they were thinking long term. (They had at least one homosexual) Or if people could have kids or not or if they had a genetic disease that would prevent them from having healthy kids and other criteria for long term survival.

[Descended]

In that situation sexual preference wouldn't come into it, all females would need to have offspring with as many different males as possible. (gay or not)

The survival training is fine, but none of them really had the necessary skills set needed. This isn't basic survival, this would be creation of agriculture and food procurement from scratch. They may not have the diversity to create a stable population, but with luck they could have survived for many generations before succumbing to genetic disease (possibly long enough for a rescue from Earth (given how quickly we are advancing in technology). Of course, there may be environmental factors which could increase the diversity of the population (i.e. higher than Earth standard levels of ionizing radiation) by increasing mutation rates. That would decrease the population bottleneck but would have problems with cancers and other diseases.

Young was basically passing the buck and not planning for survival. Harsh realities call for harsh measures. He was basically sending them there to die slowly.

[Eternal Density]

On one hand, Young avoided his responsibility by leaving most of the picks to fate.
On the other hand, if he'd chosen everyone on the shuttle, he'd now have to live with the questioning of everyone he hadn't picked. So it turned out better this way. Not that the end justifies the means.

[face of jase.]

I think Young wasn't thinking about genetic diversity and long, long, long-term survival, for some reason. If he did and decided to go through with the lotto anyway, it speaks volumes of his character. He didn't want to be the guy to choose, and he wanted all the wrong people on the Destiny to get a chance, and not just let them burn up in the star because they don't have the right skills.

For sure. I don't think a U.S Colonel with integrity and honor would sit on his hands pondering genetics and reproduction. He did was just and fair for these people. You guys are talking about best chances for survival and male to female ratios etc etc... they aren't animals... they're people with lives, skills, personalities and all of them deserved an equal right to leave the ship.

[TonyB1972]

I was fine with it. They would of had more problems if he picked the names and risked a more open mutiny.

When you have a chance, you don't object too much...well until you don't have one, like the one guy.

I think they were just worried with surviving the present, not continuing the human race also.

[Radahldo]

I got a good sense of how awful everyone who were left behind felt. I would rather be assessed and rejected, rather than die because of random game that I couldn't protest. Although on the other end I don't know how I would handle the responsibility Young had.
What he did reminded of this book I read in which Napolean was described as running his hand through a stack of letters on his desk, answering the ones that remained on top and disregarding the ones knocked to the floor. It's that same sort of caprice.

[syfygal47]

I am not impressed with Young so far. This was a difficult situation, but I feel that he should have picked the people who had the best skills for survival. However, he has said several times that none of the crew have the right qualities, but then his leadership and doubt certainly do not inspire the crew to try to step up to the problems. There are also the inevitable comparison to Jack in SG-1, who certainly was inspiring. I also do not think that the actor who plays Young has anywhere near the acting ability of RDA. I don't feel that Young is a sympathetic character either.

[rlr149]

... they aren't animals... they're people

people are animals, WE are biased towards our particular species of animal.

things worked out, but really, for genetic survival they'd need all 80ish people. minimum sustainable genetic diversity is 40ish i think. so 80 would be good, especially since the gender divide is about 50/50 or 60/40

depends who you ask, some people think its 2. some say 5000!
there's some remote island off the coast of the UK somewhere, where everyone is related, on the documentry i saw it said something like 136 were needed for minimum sustainability, and you still needed to be careful about who got together with who. 80 might be possible adhering to stricter guidelines for "pairing".

[StarFighter]

I think it was pretty fair. He picked a pilot and a medic. The rest of them had a fair chance to be picked. It isn't like Young was planning who should go in order to populate a planet. Young picked more who would survive and get a chance to live the rest of their lives on the planet. Populating the planet was not the plan.

[scruffyisasuperhero]

I think Young handled the situation correctly. By picking people impartially he shows himself to be a fair leader and it's those kind of qualities that show why people like Greer are so loyal to him even in bad situations.

[ronin36]

I think Young handled the situation perfectly. He chose to exclude himself. And he chose the two key people needed to keep those people safe.

I think of it this way.. How would General Hammond have handled it. He would have done exact same thing.. I'm sure of it.

Young is a Colonel. Obviously he has some skills or would have never risen to that rank. He has the respect and adoration of the soldiers reporting to him. Look at Greer, look at Scott and James. The only soldier that's questionable is that sargaent. (He's gonna die sometime soon, I bet.)

But I see a Colonel version of General Hammond. A couple subtle differences. Hammond would call the men "son". Young calls them by their names. But so far.. He's very, very much like Hammond.

[Yoshi442]

As opposed to hand picking the most skilled people that give the shuttle group the best chance for survival?

I'm torn on it myself. I would lean towards hand picking the best crew to get the job done. Maybe a line in the middle, hand pick 12 and make a lottery of 5, or something along those lines.

At the very least he needed to make sure there were an equal number of fertile women and men (and maybe slightly more women) for genetic diversity purposes. If they did have to land and the planet could sustain a human colony, they'd have to reproduce to survive.