Barry White does tend to make anything seem a little smarmy.

I wanted to have a character in this story who was more, um, serious about military life than the rag-tag Air Force kids of the SGA. The arguments between the branches of the forces continue unabated... but SGA only touches on the Marines. I wanted to explore a little of that ethic, regardless of the other issues, and that morphed into Carlos. He's got a lovely role to play in Rory's development in Atlantis.