I will admit that I haven't been fully following this thread but I think that the what has to be remembered is that everyone is basing their observations on what they saw on the television series. A series we all enjoyed, but have to reallize was written by writers who often exhibited a less than perfect record in writing our main characters with a consistant personality.
The needs of the storyline often overruled what would seem logical for the character.
Over the years it appears that part of the fun of this folcdom had been coming up with 'reasonable' explainations for the inconsistant behaviors that were written into scripts for the sake of plot.
Tank (who says that, at least, this varied behavoir gives fic writers a basis in 'canon' to allow actions to fit their own stories)
