Stargate Universe became the black sheep of the long-running sci-fi franchise by doing away with the trappings of SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. In SGU there are shades of grey instead of clear good vs. evil, there’s more conflict among the team, planets no longer look like Vancouver, and there’s a lot of shaky cam.
Fans have found a lot to dislike about the changes in the series, but what they tend to agree on is that Eli Wallace, the hyperintelligent teen who finds himself stranded onboard the Destiny, is an annoying character. Those detractors are correct, but he’s also an evolved version of Wesley Crusher, and by the time Season 2 comes to an end, he’s developed and grown far beyond anything Star Trek: The Next Generation attempted with Crusher.
Fans Love To Hate Eli Wallace
Brought to life by David Blue, Eli is a different type of hyperintelligent kid. For starters, he’s not actually a kid; he’s in his early 20s, but from watching the first few episodes of the series, you wouldn’t know it.
Eli’s maturity and emotional intelligence were stunted when he was 14, and his mom, a nurse, contracted HIV. To pay her medical bills, Eli, having solved a video game that hid an unsolved Stargate mystery, agrees to go to work for the Air Force after attracting the attention of Dr. Nicolas Rush (Robert Carlyle). That’s a little different from an alien telling Picard that Wesley Crusher is a prodigy who needs encouragement.
Eli being weird in Stargate Universe season 1
Like Wesley, Eli is out of place on board the Destiny. He sticks out among the military officers and lacks the cunning of Dr. Rush.
Instead, Eli is a sci-fi fan ripped out of his basement and thrust into the adventure of a lifetime, cracking self-deprecating jokes and making references to other sci-fi franchises, notably Star Wars. For the entire first half of Stargate Universe Season 1, Eli makes the wrong decisions, struggles to assert himself, and seemingly fails to grasp the severity of their situation.
Eli in his natural nerd habitat
In short, he’s annoying, he’s unlike any other Stargate character, and fans hated him with a burning passion that continues to this day. What good is an audience character if he’s screwing up?
The point of Eli is that he’s very intelligent, but emotionally, he’s still a teen who needs to grow up. That’s one of Season 2’s best running subplots, and by the series finale, it’s clear that if Season 3 were to happen, Eli would have become the main character.
Eli on his way to becoming the main character in the Stargate Universe season 2 episode “Blockade”
Star Trek: The Next Generation set the bar for the entire genre, but even Wil Wheaton admits Wesley is an annoying character from beginning to end. Most kid genius characters are.
Then Stargate Universe added a wrinkle to what could have been a generic character by allowing Eli to grow and challenge Rush, providing a counterpoint to the scheming doctor. Even if they often agreed, they’d butt heads, and Eli was the only one whom Rush considered an intellectual peer.
Eli Struggles To Save The Day
“Blockade,” the second-to-last episode, planted the seeds for Eli’s ascendence. Faced with a fleet of drones surrounding the Destiny, Eli develops a plan to power the ship back up by flying into the heart of a star.
It’s an insane idea that no one could pull off, but against all odds, Eli keeps the ship flying, saves a crewmember, and gets them clear of the drones. From feeling awkward every time he spoke to Colonel Young or Lieutenant Scott, to saving the day, not one character on Stargate Universe grows and develops like Eli.
Wesley Crusher after saving the day in “The Naked Now”
Compare that moment to when Wesley saves the Enterprise in “The Naked Now,” a moment that defies The Next Generation’s own internal logic, and is done so easily, it makes Wesley look like a superhero. Eli has to struggle, not only against the politics and maneuvering of his own crew, but to function day in and out as his emotional intelligence starts developing to match his academic intelligence. Wesley’s worst day is better than Eli’s best.
It’s alright to hate him and to consider his early crush on Chloe to be strange and wildly inappropriate, but by the time the final credits roll, Eli Wallace is, surprisingly, one of sci-fi’s best characters. When the camera pans out on the poker game in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wesley Crusher is almost forgotten; he’s been relegated to the sidelines, where he belongs.
David Blue as Eli Wallace on Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe is flawed, and its early cancellation killed the franchise seemingly for good, but it dared to be different. Not every character is meant to be liked, and though it can be argued that the series took that far too seriously, SGU allowed them to grow, develop, overcome faults, discover new ones, and behave more like humans struggling to survive surrounded by their annoying co-workers. If Season 3 had been greenlit, Eli Wallace would be loved by the fans, but as it is, he’s the very best gifted kid in sci-fi and embodies everything that was lost when SyFy decided to air professional wrestling.
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