To the people who said Keller was too young.

[Erised]

Well now you have your answer.........She's young for a doctor because she skipped 3 grades!!!!!

She is still too young to be a neurosurgeon who has proven herself enough to be the best choice OF ALL DOCTORS to go to another galaxy.

and she whines

[Agent_Dark]

She is still too young to be a neurosurgeon who has proven herself enough to be the best choice OF ALL DOCTORS to go to another galaxy.

and she whines

so blame weir for picking her

[Mitchell82]

She is still too young to be a neurosurgeon who has proven herself enough to be the best choice OF ALL DOCTORS to go to another galaxy.

and she whines

I don't care if she is young, as you just said she has proven herself. So I don't see the issue.

[FallenAngelII]

Ok I'm going to use your point to make mine. Mitchell lacked gate experience but so does every other soldier that is selected for the program. He earned the postition on SG-1. Keller had medical experience but was not ready for the responsibilty as CMO. She proved herself however just like Mitchell did.

I'm still not seeing any of this proof. Heck, she seems a bit scatterbrained. In "Quarantine", she didn't even think of putting on a hazmat despite genuinely believing a real outbreak to have occured. Yeah, what are they gonna do when their CMO gets sick from a careless mistake like that?

Anyway, you made a few points on how she's "proven herself to be a capable CMO" earlier (among other arguments, you put forth her ability to, um, scan people and discover cancer with superior Ancient technology...). I replied to that post... you haven't replied yourself.

So are you unable to counter-argue my counter-arguments or did you find them too inane to even waste breath on? Because I personally don't see how she's redeemed herself (you even put forth her actions in "Quarantine" as proof of how she's proven herself worthy of being CMO of Atlantis.

Excuse me, I watched the episode yesterday. And I don't see her doing anything but whine, stitch up Ronon (wow, what skillful CMO-worthy stitching!) and fail to do the first thing doctors should do in case of an outbreak; put on a hazmat suit. Well, she did come up with that they could use the oxygen tanks as improvised explosives. I guess that's CMO-worthy. If anything that episode showed how incredibly scatter-brained and green she is. Not putting on a hazmat when she and Ronon are among the only ones having them available (besides possible people in labs with them) and with her being CMO (if the doctors get sick, there'll be no one to treat the sick)... she was probably too busy flirting with Ronon to think of such trivial things.

so blame weir for picking her

You see, you say that as if I wouldn't blame Elizabeth. I liked Elizabeth, I liked her a lot, lot, lot, lot more that Sam. However, I'm perfectly capable of recognizing that unlike Sam, Elizabeth actually, you know, makes mistakes, like most humans do.

Appointing Keller CMO? Big mistake. Making it a permanent decision (I can't remember if she or Sam or some other big-wig did it), though? Bigger.

[Erised]

TPTB picked her, not Elizabeth!

[magie]

When I watch Stargate Atlantis, all the actors chosen to play in this series, just seem to fit. I am not thinking "what the hell is he/she doing here?". That was true until Keller. It's just not working for me. I think TPTB wanted a cute female doctor. I watched Stargate, who could forget the switch Frasier/Lam ? Bis repetita in SA.

They just don't learn from their past mistakes, do they, when it comes to doctors on Stargate shows.

[GateLadyM]

I don't see Keller as any type of competent doctor. In Adrift she operated on Weir's brain, then said there was nothing she could do. In Tabula Rasa, she studied everyone getting sick and said there was nothing she could do. In The Seer, the guy was sick and Keller said. . .there was nothing she could do.

Is there ANYTHING she can do (other than whine and cry about not getting to go to parties)?

[jelgate]

Yeah, all doctors know exactally what to do and can save their patients. Its not like doctors have research dieases to find cures

[ToasterOnFire]

Mitchell lacked gate experience but so does every other soldier that is selected for the program. He earned the postition on SG-1.

I find it highly unlikely that a soldier who's never seen the gate before would be certified to lead the highest ranking SG1 team. Realistically, he'd serve first on other SG teams offworld, then move up to leading one of them, then take command of SG1. The sort of jump in command we saw would never happen in the military.

Likewise, Keller would never be certified to head the medical team on Atlantis, a position that requires a great deal of medical experience (that she doesn't have due to her young age) and ability to handle yourself offworld (that doesn't seem apparent after 'Missing'). If she did get into the Atlantis program she would need to spend years there getting more hands-on training before anyone would even consider her as CMO, same as Mitchell and SG1.

Is there ANYTHING she can do (other than whine and cry about not getting to go to parties)?

Stitches?

[ciannwn]

The problem I have with Keller is due to the way she's being presented. I could accept one or two things if that was all there was.

1: She's a young prodigy who somehow has enough experience in her job to be considered CMO material. Well, there's always suspension of disbelief because this is sci-fi after all and we're supposed to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast where the Stargate universe is concerned.

2: Her brief stay at a summer camp didn't prepare her for the events in 'Missing'. Well, it wouldn't.

3: She's got an inner ear problem. Well, OK - Rodney's allergic to citrus.

What really puts me off the character is that TPTB are laying it on with a trowel as far as I'm concerned. She's scared, she sprains her ankle, she has an inner ear problem which causes her to slip on the bridge, she can't face the thought of eating unappetising looking food, she had no social life and missed out on parties, she feels like she's never belonged, she didn't feel up to the task of remaining as CMO, she cries, when she's scared she whines in the Rodney/Beckett tradition etc. etc. etc. To crown it all, she's also the victim of 'let's give the viewers as much background information as we possibly can here' - it gives me the impression that she likes to tell people her life history at the slightest opportunity whether they're interested or not. If Keller was a 'toned down' version of the current character then yes, I'd have liked her even though I'm a Beckett fan.

Then there's Ronon apparently falling for her. I wouldn't mind if his lost love, Melena, had followed an occupation other than nurse (or possibly doctor because we can't be 100% certain about Satedan hospital staff uniforms). I'm now left wondering if Ronon is interested in Keller as a person in her own right or whether he just has a thing about women in the medical profession.

[Chrysalis]

I don't care if she is young, as you just said she has proven herself. So I don't see the issue.

Uh, that's NOT what Erised said.

Here's her quote, with the bold bit the way anyone else who read it would have understood it

"She is still too young to be a neurosurgeon who has proven herself enough to be the best choice OF ALL DOCTORS to go to another galaxy.

and she whines"


She very clearly said that she's too young to have proven herself. How you got that she HAS proven herself out of that is beyond me.

[Ebeneezer_Goode]

Weir seemed confident she was the best person for the job, even though Keller herself didn't.

[VSS]

It's possible for her to skip only 3 grades. If she skipped 3 grades, she would have graduated high school at 15. Then, she goes for a pre-med program, which is about 2 to 3 years and gives her a non-Honours Bachelor's degree (Queen's university offers something like that in Canada; it's also possible to get a full Honours Bachelor's degree in science in 3 years - the curriculum isn't that hard). Medical school is 4 years and the residency is 5 to 8 years. That would make her 26 to 30 years old, which isn't that much older than Jewel Staite (25). It's pushing it into the realm of "unlikely" but not impossible.

But- she skipped only 3 grades. I think she's American and pre-med programs are 4 years, not 2-3, just because of the timing of the tests and applications, not just the material- but you're giving her another 2 so there's five. Residency 8-10 minimum for a trauma/neuro surgeon, so you've given her another three or five, now we're up to eight. Then there's board certification (another 2 years) now we're up to ten or twelve, just like I said. She has to get ten extra years- and that doesn't even count experience, which she apparently lacks. Sure, she can skip 3 years, but she can't skip years at every level- K-12, college, residency, boards. Can't be done.

[erb]

Weir seemed confident she was the best person for the job, even though Keller herself didn't.

Because it was "in the script".

[Ebeneezer_Goode]

Because it was "in the script".

Same with everything she does/says..