I've only got a civilian background but like to think I'm discerning enough to know what is authentically military verses Hollywood fiction. That said, I think SG-1 and SGA did a pretty good job of depicting it.
O'Neill was believable as the war-weary lifelong soldier and he never seemed to be over the top as stereotypes go. Probably the least believable military character would be Daniel Jackson who, as we all know, isn't military at all but as the show progressed he became something of a super soldier. :roll:
Sheppard I thought was a good military character who, while not as cynical and dry as O'Neill was still pretty sincere in his "realness".
As for SGU, the military depictions to me just aren't believable at all. I won't critique how they hold their rifles because that would be nitpicking something that I'm not an expert on. I do know that the stereotype of the out of control grunt (Greer) is rather played out. When the show first started we discover that he's in the brig for fighting or something. Yeah, we get it, he's a cartoon version of a worn out character that we've all seen before. Then, they don't even deal with that part of the character they just go on their merry way with the story.
Young doesn't strike me as someone who would have advanced that far in the military but to be honest someone as incompetent and disinterested as he is might just be exactly how things are in the military.
Lt. Scott doesn't really bother me so much except for the fact that he seems rather young for the position.
The biggest problem I have with the military depictions in SGU would be Telford. It's beyond laughable that this man runs everything at the SGC singlehandedly. I can suspend my disbelief for many things, not the least of which would be inter-galactic travel and the existence of aliens but I have no doubt that Telford wouldn't be in charge of anything at the SGC, certainly not after being brainwashed, then dragged across the universe to Destiny, then being bunk mates with an alien species where he had to live in a pod to get sustenance to keep himself alive, then being in a huge space battle and finally being the sole person to gate back to Earth.
Seriously, how bleeping stupid do the writers think we are? And how cheap can the producers be to not cast other people to head up the SGC? This is such a glaring example of outright cheapness and stupidity that I'm insulted to even think about it. It's clearly BW and JM saying to the viewers: "Hey, you're too stupid to notice how lame it is to use Telford for EVERYTHING SGC related so we'll do just that and save a few pennies." :roll:
