Is Eli the most valuable person on the ship?

[Doorlocks]

Wray was definitely talking up Eli to persuade her superiors to make an exception...but not by much. He is definitely one of the most valuable people on Destiny, a group that also includes Scott and Greer, T.J., Rush, and Young. Also, he does have the potential to be much, much more. As Rush himself admits, Eli has a brilliance he cannot even fathom. He solved the mystery of the 9th chevron almost effortlessly. With a little drive and some confidence, he could surpass Rush in brilliance pretty darn quickly.

[Descended]

Wray was definitely talking up Eli to persuade her superiors to make an exception...but not by much. He is definitely one of the most valuable people on Destiny, a group that also includes Scott and Greer, T.J., Rush, and Young. Also, he does have the potential to be much, much more. As Rush himself admits, Eli has a brilliance he cannot even fathom. He solved the mystery of the 9th chevron almost effortlessly. With a little drive and some confidence, he could surpass Rush in brilliance pretty darn quickly.

Which doesn't really mean much when you have the stones and could bring in a Sam or Rodney McKay at any time. Eli may be important as a person who is physically present, but you could stick an expert in anyone's body. It is getting more and more unrealistic that they haven't used the stones to bring in either of the two greatest experts on Ancient technology. I know they are milking it, but Sam or Rodney would have had that damn thing turned around in a few days.

[Doorlocks]

Which doesn't really mean much when you have the stones and could bring in a Sam or Rodney McKay at any time. Eli may be important as a person who is physically present, but you could stick an expert in anyone's body. It is getting more and more unrealistic that they haven't used the stones to bring in either of the two greatest experts on Ancient technology. I know they are milking it, but Sam or Rodney would have had that damn thing turned around in a few days.

Not necessarily. Presumably Sam, Rodney, and Daniel attempted to crack the code of the 9th Chevron but couldn't. It was the unsolvable mystery, which is why it was put in that game. But Eli did it in his spare time.

[garhkal]

Never forget who Wray is: power-hungry and self-important. She's already staged one coup d'etat in a bid to get herself elevated to control of Destiny and after that she's managed to worm her way into a position of some authority.

To anyone with dreams of taking over the ship, Eli is vital. Rush is great at what he does, but so totally not a team player. Brody, Volker, and Park are all excellent resources to have, but Eli is the key to being able to run the ship without relying on Rush (and his ego-centric machinations).

But even Eli admitted he knows no where as much as rush when it comes to the ship (S1 E11, when the blues are coming again)... and again with the ship disconnecting in last ep.

He solved the mystery of the 9th chevron almost effortlessly. With a little drive and some confidence, he could surpass Rush in brilliance pretty darn quickly.

I hope they Don't do that. Cause if they do make him more knowledgeable than rush, there is NO reason to keep rush around.. especially with as coniving as he has been..

[Steelbox]

In his case, solving the riddle of the ninth chevron, he did it mainly because he had no prior knowledge of the Stargate technology. Sam, McKay, Rush and Daniel are all to bound by the limitations of the Stargate tech that they could not cope with the possibility that a PoO that is not that of the planet they are, could possibly make a connection.
See, Eli could think out of the box and Rush could not, Eli was too green and challenged the common knowledge that only the exact point of knowledge will connect.

[castigear]

If and when Eli catches up to Rush, Sam, Daniel, and Mckay in terms of knowledge, he will be formidable. He has already shown that he is on par in terms of intelligence and ability to comprehend the information, which is a big hurdle.

[xxxevilgrinxxx]

Which doesn't really mean much when you have the stones and could bring in a Sam or Rodney McKay at any time. Eli may be important as a person who is physically present, but you could stick an expert in anyone's body. It is getting more and more unrealistic that they haven't used the stones to bring in either of the two greatest experts on Ancient technology. I know they are milking it, but Sam or Rodney would have had that damn thing turned around in a few days.

Perhaps because it's not the Sam and Rodney show? In their own circles, in their own shows, those two were ubers, but SGU isn't SG1 or SGA, it's something else entirely.

Not necessarily. Presumably Sam, Rodney, and Daniel attempted to crack the code of the 9th Chevron but couldn't. It was the unsolvable mystery, which is why it was put in that game. But Eli did it in his spare time.

I love that he did it in his spare time - just adds to his awesomeness

[Descended]

I love that he did it in his spare time - just adds to his awesomeness

Not necessarily in "his spare time" - they built the code into a MMO game which anyone who has ever been addicted to World of Warcraft will tell you can quickly become the equivalent of a full-time job. To keep up with the most basic demands of a guild most raiders play at least 20-30 hours per week, with some people playing 50-60 hours a week or even more. He might have seriously been crunching on that solution... people can be insanely obsessive about things they are addicted too, even if they still think of it as a "game."

[smart]

Based on Eli's past notable accomplishment of unlocking the ninth chevron which was the key for discovering Destiny as well as his apparent skill in Science , Eli is consdered quite valuable[ as Wray suggested]. His great knowkedge in science combined with his desire to return to Earth to retinite with his mother is what could make him a likeky imdividual in helping find a way home [ as Rush is no hurry to do so]. Doing everything possible to help his mother take her meds , is important in that he will be motivated to continue to search for a way home if he has her to return to. Otherwise, he could have potentially developed a detachment from Earth , with no desire to return home[ thus further minimizing the chances of return to Earth]

Also, his skills allow him to be a highly contributive member to issuers relating to survival billions of llight years away from Earth, on Destiny.

[garhkal]

Not necessarily in "his spare time" - they built the code into a MMO game which anyone who has ever been addicted to World of Warcraft will tell you can quickly become the equivalent of a full-time job. To keep up with the most basic demands of a guild most raiders play at least 20-30 hours per week, with some people playing 50-60 hours a week or even more. He might have seriously been crunching on that solution... people can be insanely obsessive about things they are addicted too, even if they still think of it as a "game."

Yup... Heck they have people in china, taiwan, vietnam, and those countries who actually make a JOB of it, by farming for gold, xp etc and selling it on to others.

[Rudy Pena]

Sigh... people just don't get the reference :-)

Spoiler:

Its over 9000!!

[rsanchez]

Eli is pretty valuable, that can't be denied. But, I would bet that Wray said Eli is the most valuable person on the ship since Eli is both very technically capable and close with Wray. Rush is looking out for himself only, and he can't really be trusted. To Wray, Eli is probably more valuable than Rush simply because Eli can be trusted much more easily, and Eli is far more trusting than Rush. Eli is just a better team player, and that is often more valuable than having extensive technical knowledge.

[The Destiny]

Meh, Eli is technically skilled and all ( and they appear to need him all the time ) but I think she was exaggerating a bit to get them to bring the stones.

Wray: "He's probably the.. erhm... #7th? most valuable person the s.. hello?...hello?"

How convincing is that?

He's technically skilled though, and important to the running of the ship, but the most valuable?

[Shadow_7]

He's technically skilled though, and important to the running of the ship, but the most valuable?

Eli seems to be the one to fix all of Rush's mistakes, so perhaps the most valuable. He just does it with the Humm, and done. Versus all of the theatrics that Rush seems to need.

- power math
- point of origin
- shuttle sling shot
- ...
...
...

[Nemises]

He shouldn't even feature in top 5 most valuable crew members list.