Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Through some VERY creative problem solving, the ship figured out that it could wake up Jim, a mechanic whose data and statistics say would be capable of repairing the ship. After doing everything it possibly can to fix itself within the constraints the engineers have set, the Avalon runs down the manifest and finds the lowest possible denominator that has the capability of fixing the problem and for whatever reason that turns out to be Jim. At this point, the only things really wrong with the ship are those pesky meteor holes, which Jim, being a mechanic, was certainly capable of fixing. During his time on the ship, Jim showed us that he has several impressive skills that combined might lead him to finding a way to that platform and fixing those holes. But he wallows in his misery, ignoring all types of glitches that might suggest that something is wrong with ship. At no point did he even try to figure out what actually made his pod open, only how to get back in hibernation.
Now, at any point, he could’ve woken up any number of people on that ship who most definitely would have known how to troubleshoot the situation. Instead, he starts listening to an android and wakes up Aurora. The ship can’t straight up tell him to start waking up engineers, but it can certainly steer him in that direction. Arthur probably knew way more stuff about the ship than what was revealed but could only answer if Jim asked just the right question. Once Jim proved himself suicidal and oblivious to the needs of the ship, it had to provide something to help him. Arthur never told Jim to wake up Aurora, or anyone for that matter, but as soon as he firmly landed on the idea on his own, Arthur was all smiles and approval. Sure, Aurora probably wasn’t the ship’s first choice, but at this point they still need Jim, and her to keep him from killing himself. So they let them carry on for a while. Jim’s in good spirits; maybe the two of them might even save the day. But, naturally, Ji'm no longer concerned with finding or solving the problem. Eventually, things start to get dire and the ship decides it has to stop this. Arthur reveals that it wasn’t a malfunction that woke Aurora up. Naturally, Aurora leaves him, and Jim goes back to tinkering. At this point, the Avalon’s probably hoping that he’ll actually start paying attention and figure this whole thing out, but unfortunately, they’re just out of time.
Things get beyond crucial, and now the ship has the creative wiggle room to actually wake up someone with some legitimate credentials: Gus Mancuso. The Avalon is still running down a command hierarchy, which is why it can only wake up a deck chief. Mancuso isn’t a big fish as far as personnel goes, but he still has those overrides they so desperately need. With the Captain’s direction, Jim and Aurora now have the tools they need to fix the ship. But because the Avalon could only wake up Mancuso once there was no other feasible way to fix itself, he was forced out of his hibernation too abruptly to sustain life functions.
Basically, tAvalon has one hand tied behind its back the entire movie and is basically a couple passwords away from total autonomy. Due to some creative loopholes and fancy footwork, it manages to get some passengers in the exact position necessary to save it when it's damaged beyond its capabilities to repair.
- Doubtful - human security guys would have hibernation sickness (do we have such a trope?) of unknown severity and wouldn't be able to break a fight straight out of the pods.
- The ship was programmed to wake the crew a month before the passengers. Hence, if there was a fight, the procedure would have been to try and notify the already-awake crew.
- And then forgot all about it? It looks more like something out of Janusz Zajdel, except his trademark Sleeper Starships always have some crew awake (in shifts). Then again, the Avalon is pretty much the Titanic In Space, so someone might have thought it was unsinkable...
