Quote from: stephen on May 13, 2014, 02:52:18 AM
Quote from: oberonqa on May 10, 2014, 02:37:53 PM
Frankly the entire mission was a bust from it's inception due to Burke being there representing corporate interests. The team basically disregarded Ripley's report (I have to question if they even read the disc that was referenced in the briefing). Gormon being there with more experience, as others in the thread have posted, probably wouldn't have changed the outcome. They were not prepared for what they were walking into and the one person on the mission who could have put the brakes on the mission to ensure a higher chance of success was a greedy suit who saw the entire thing as an opportunity to climb a few rungs in the corporate ladder.
Heck... it's entirely possible Burke may have had a hand in getting Gormon assigned to the unit specifically because of his inexperience and therefore willing compliance with maintaining a good relationship between the USCM and W:Y. A more experienced and veteran CO would have been more cautious during the initial sweep... probably only sending a small team into the nest instead of the entire unit... and would have known about the danger to the cooling units from weapons prior to the unit entering the structure (shake and bake colony, remember - atmosphere processors weren't a new thing) and would have compensated for the change to the rules of engagement accordingly.
A better question to ask would be what if Burke hadn't gone along?
So you start out by saying that if Gorman was more experienced it wouldn't have changed the outcome but in your second paragraph you actual go on to explain that a more experienced Lt would have changed the outcome?
Burke being there or not wouldn't have changed the outcome - he had no influence on the group at all and the only time he tried to exert his influence he was very quickly rejected. Any influence Burke had (if any) on the situation was done before he got there.
He MAY have had an influence on Gorman being selected, he may not have. Ultimately I don't think it makes a difference.
Thing is... why was Burke even there? His presence on the mission was superficial at best. Ripley at least had a purpose for being there, being something of an advisor. But Burke? He had no business being there and his half-baked excuse when this was brought up merely adds to the confusion. I believe he said something about jurisdiction and colonial rights (this is during the initial "pitch" scene in Ripley's apartment). What purpose does an inquest advocate (which is basically what Burke was introduced as during the beginning of the movie) serve on the mission? He was, for all intent and purposes, a lawyer. For that matter, what was a lawyer doing sending exploration coordinates to Hadley's Hope? Burke was all about bettering his position and he didn't mind who he stepped over and what laws he could bend or break to do it.
And yes, my second paragraph does appear to contradict the first... but the point I was trying to make was Burke being involved gives the impression that an experienced veteran wasn't even on the cards. I think he wanted Gormon along because he could influence the mission through Gormon. As you pointed out, when he did try to assert his authority, he was rebuked. The only card he had to play was Gormon and once Gormon was indisposed, he lost control of the situation. But up until that point, it's very likely that it was Burke who was in control of the mission... not Gormon. Even a wet-behind-the-ears rookie wouldn't have sent an entire unit to basically retrieve civilians, which is exactly what Gormon did.
