From io9:
You asked for it! The new Stargate is finally delivering. Next season, SGU will be unleash a battle of epic nerdiness proportions. David Hewlett will be brain fighting David Blue in a McKay and Eli showdown. Our money’s on Meredith!
Nerd Thunderdome: Stargate Universe finally pins Eli Vs.McKay
Good. Maybe this’ll give us some small bit of closure on Atlantis, considering how the delay of the movie has kind of left us in the lurch.
I’m looking forward to this match-up!
Looks good on the surface, but unless they explore more of Eli’s character (rather than stereotyping him as the useful nerd, second to Robert Carlyle), Rodney McKay is a much more rounded character with more to give to the mission.
We’ve only seen a half season of Eli. I’m sure he’ll be rounded out as the series progresses provided they don’t kill him off prematurely.
Not going to spoil, but he doesn’t get more rounded than he is after the first few eps 
It’s a shame that with such a large cast proper time can’t be given to develop each character. I very much love Eli because he’s really easy to identify with, and while he knows he’s a genius, he’s the strong silent type of genius, as opposed to Rodney who’s very much not. I just hope that at least once Eli makes Rodney balk. Eli doesn’t know astrophysics, he’s just a natural at complex math, so I foresee him picking apart some proof of Rodney’s. Rush (pardon the pun) rushes to defend Eli, not because he likes him necessarily but because they’re in this together, and forces Rodney to admit Eli’s on to something. God I can’t wait, I’m currently rewatching SGA because I need my Stargate fix!
B.S. Firefly did it in half a season.
Seriously, the writers should’ve gotten gold medals.
Good point, I think approaching the story with humour makes developing likeable characters easier, fine tuning border line and well even questionable characters for me takes more time if you don’t want them to be pantomime villains and the SGU group with one maybe two exceptions are all borderline.
Not to mention that by grounding the series in “now” it added a whole dimension of interaction and complication that Firefly didn’t have to bother with.
With Rodney who really liked the guy via his SG1 appearances?
It wasn’t until his whole character and interaction with others was softened and more humour pumped in did with get the Meredith we all love now:D
Eli versus Rodney, no contest really unless they really do some work on Eli which from the hints dropped and trailers looks like they will do.
In terms of character development and overall intelligence, I’d agree with you. However, in terms of math skills, Eli might be closer than you’d think. In time, he might even get closer in overall knowledge. Right now, he has a lot of potential, but hasn’t really had all that long to develop it. In contrast, when we met Sam and Rodney, they were already pretty well developed.
I imagine they would have tried to figure out the calculations for dialing the ninth chevron in house before bringing Rush in. When even Rush couldn’t get it, they put it into the game and Eli figured it out, meaning in that focused area, he has probably already passed McKay.
Sort of the same way they brought in the paraplegic character to look at the FTL in Sabotage. Sam and Rodney are generalists. If you don’t know what you’re getting into, they’d be the best choices, but if you do know, it might be better to pick someone with a more focused skill set.
Well, I did. He was allowed to develop more in SGA, I will admit.
It’s difficult to gauge Eli, he attended MIT which in itself says something about his intelligence but I don’t think we know enough about his pure skills as demonstrated so far. The solution to the puzzle of the ninth chevron could have been more inspiration than calculation but I suppose how someone comes to the result is secondary. One thing we know from the SG universe is that intent/karma/self belief and maybe luck all play a part and of course being exposed to higher technology from other races, neither Sam nor Rodney could have done what they have done without such a resource and Eli has been deprived of that level of opportunity so far.
Either way if they do it right having Rodney’s input thrown into the mix should be great fun:)
Yeah?
I liked his impact on SG1 but I can’t say I liked him but I will admit he was the character in SGA, the writers knew what they had with the character and the acting of David.
I’m with Jarrak. I liked what he did in SG-1, but he wasn’t supposed to be liked. You were supposed to hate him because with no villain character present in his debut episode, they had to personify the technology that created the episode’s conflict. He represented the negative outcome, the death of Teal’c, just wrapped up in a snarky, socially inept candy shell. His second appearance followed a similar presentation.
In Atlantis he retained the candy shell but was allowed to represent the positive scientific outcome of the conflict, cleverly disguised as a pessimistic and whiny impossibility.
Eli on the other hand represents a sense of awe and wonder no one has really exhibited in the show since season one of SG-1. He’s not the lead scientist but he’s not a B-level character either so he’s got to serve another purpose, the optimistic and hopeful side of the conflict. He’s a combination of O’Neill’s humor and Daniel’s constant curiosity, wrapped up as a sorta chubby, cute and fuzzy, loveable plushy. Sorry, I just got done playing with my baby.
Well put. I’d just add, that Eli also has a sense of naiveté, honesty, and innocent-like quality that you just know he’ll eventually lose in a hard, fast way on that ship.
We may say something akin to “He got real evil, real fast” is my prediction. But, I could be wrong and he’ll stay like Daniel. Some external force makes him evil twice or thrice. Who knows?