Who are you...Oram or Daniels?

I'm with Daniels. The first thing I would do is establish what the bonus situation is. If there is a clause in the contract, then I would then have to go with Oram. The next step would then be to send down a couple of security guys wearing red shirts.

daliens, I understand that it's not typical to let all of the crew of a ship in on the decision-making process but this is far from a typical crew and mission.

auximenes There would be protocols for things like that- command chain and all. That said, it is pretty common to seek the sense of the crew and weigh that against the mission- the mission comes first for a disciplined crew. It can be complicated.

Another consideration is that everyone knew they were on a one way trip. If they decided to change plans against the original mission objective, how could they be held accountable and how would it be enforced? To me, the long and short answers are that they couldn't be held accountable nor suffer any administrative consequences bar a self destruct sequence of the Covenant engaging for straying off course. 

Except Daniels all the crew was in favor of a closer look at planet 4 and that helped the hesitating Oram to make his decision. The captain is overall in command and fully responsible for the fate of the mission. That's why Oram felt not fully equipped for the rank, being a huge responsibility. 

Yep, not to be rude, but shit happens and sometimes a Commander has to make real time decisions since nothing ever goes as planned. You are correct that ultimately Oram was responsible. I also assume it is a competent commander or at least one that cares. If a commander has a mindset to complete a mission by the numbers no matter what, that invites dissension and possible mutiny among the crew. Not easy to command and I could not blame Oram completely since he was not prepared to assume command- but like I said- shit happens. 

Thank you dk. That'my point exactly and for me they handled the script/characters in a very believable way. A good reason to set Jacob on fire.

Good topic, I Moon Girl !

Well, hindsight is 20/20 and we'd all like to claim to be Daniels, but I definitely, 100% would have gone Oram's route.

For one thing, to me it would have actually seemed safer than having everyone go back into hypersleep for seven more years, especially with the suddenly apparent risk of stellar flares and spontaneously combusting hypersleep pods.

For another thing, I'm very prone to Oram's same sort of faith-based mystical thinking, and whenever something unexpected happens I tend to think there's a deeper meaning behind it.

I definitely would have interpreted the sudden appearance of the planet as a sort of meant-to-be gift from God.