ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo
My argument is that the writers are either being very lazy or arnt very knowledgeable, neither of which is fair to me as a viewer. If youre a good writer, you can find more creative ways to produce drama than having your characters be idiots.
For rank and file cast for mundane issues, I'll cut 'em some slack. If they're professional soldiers, or tactical gurus then I expect a modicum of composure and experiential expertise to go along with the characters. Nothing gets my goat quite as much as "subject matter experts" that are full of **** in their given field.
Case in point,
Jurrasic Park. The wildlife veterinarian seems completely baffled about a toxic plant issue in a triceratops at the park. Some Noob "paleobotanist" finds the answer by digging through some triceratops poop while the veterinarian stares on in slack-jawed ignorance. [:@] My father in law (retired nuclear physicist) laughed himself silly when the two little dweeb kids hacked the "Unix" mainframe at the park in that movie too. "Doesn't look like any Unix I've ever seen." [:D]
I rooted for the velociraptors.