SGA: An Essay on Keller

[gnine]

This wasn't meant to be quite so long, it kinda got away from me. xparrot and I have been spending a lot of far too much time discussing one of our growing frustrations with SGA: the character of Keller. Finally, enough was enough, and I realized I just had to get it all down on paper, to get it out of my system, if nothing else. And thus, this monstrosity was born:

A Question of Motivation

First off, I want to be clear: this isn't meant as character bashing. It's a question, a fundamental issue with the character that's been bothering me more and more.

Also important to establish right off the bat: I was never a particularly big Carson fan. I didn't dislike him, but he was in no way my favorite. I say this to make it clear that while yes, I was sorry to see him go, I wasn't heartbroken, and his loss didn't bias me against Keller. Just the reverse: when I first heard that Jewel Staite would be replacing him, I was ecstatic. I loved her in Firefly, enjoyed her portrayal of Kaylee-Wraith in "Instinct," and was enthusiastic to see what she would add to the Atlantis assemble. Sadly, while I continue to love the actress, I don't think the writers have delivered in terms of character.

That said, on to the question: What is Keller doing on Atlantis?

This is really a two-fold inquiry: Why did Atlantis/SGC/IOA bring her on board? and What was Keller's own motivation for going there? For all the other major (and many of the minor) characters, we can easily answer at least one of those two questions, and in many cases, both. But Keller?

I've seen several people cite her ordinariness and her lack of confidence as pluses. Something "normal", "believable" amidst a cast of "superheroes." In other shows, I might agree. But what place does "normal" have on Atlantis? As your Head of Medicine? At that young an age? In that prestigious, not to mention dangerous, a place? She better be damn special, better outshine them all. Because that's how you get and retain a position such as that. Atlantis is not a mundane place and neither are the people on it. Is Keller?

People argue that Keller is no worse off-world/in battle/outside of her standard duties, etc. than Carson or early Rodney. And I agree. She's no worse, but she's no better, either. And she *should* be. Why? No double standard, just a fundamental difference: Carson and Rodney both were on Atlantis from the beginning. That first year was different. They didn't even know if there would be other gates in Pegasus, or if they'd ever need to go off-world. Additionally, they were both *vital* to the mission. No one (except perhaps Carter, who couldn't be spared at the time) knew more about Ancient tech than Rodney, and Carson had the gene, the second strongest manifestation of it after John. Plus there was his research on the gene therapy. Weighed against these skills, their lack of experience in the field was moot.

Keller, on the other hand, joined the project late in the game. By the time she came, everyone knew what they were getting into. Medical personnel had been sent off-world multiple times, not to mention there were all the dangers on Atlantis itself. Back in "Intruder", when Carson is picking new staff, he's bemoaning the fact that all these people are more qualified than him, especially noting their physical prowess: "hobbies include judo, horseback riding and base-jumping". Totally reasonable. The SGC is looking to recruit civilians with varied skill sets, beyond their chosen field. People who will do well in *any* situation Pegasus can possibly throw at them. And Pegasus certainly pitches a lot of extreme ones. What are Keller's "extra" skills?

Then there's her age. Being SG, which is notoriously bad about giving characters' ages, we can't know for sure how old she is. In at least one case (David Hewlett) we know the character is meant to be the same age as the actor. If this holds true with Keller/Jewel, that puts her somewhere around twenty-six. *Maybe* they could bump that up to thirty, but even so, that's awfully young to be the head of anything, especially the Head of Medicine at an international, highly elite facility. Keller mentions skipping grades (which one would assume would be true of virtually everyone on Atlantis) but still, head positions are usually based not just on smarts, but *experience*. 'Quarantine' suggests she got her bachelor's at seventeen. Which means she might have gotten her MD by twenty, so she has six years' experience tops, including her internship. Every other position of authority on Atlantis has been filled by people in their mid-thirties or older.

Now, they might overlook Keller's lack of field experience/physical ability, not to mention her youth, if she had something else going for her. Something beyond 'competent doctor'. But so far we have never been given an example of any special skill, nothing that makes her "vital" or "unique" to the project. Yes, she's a good doctor, I'm not denying that. But there are a LOT of good doctors out there. What separates her from the crowd? Why did the SGC single her out? And not just for any position, but a position high in the command structure, later granting her Head Medical Officer of *Atlantis*?

Moving on to the second part of the question: Keller's own motivation.

When we first meet Keller, she's *begging* Elizabeth to find her a replacement, and Elizabeth denies her request. Leaving aside the question of *why* Elizabeth has faith in her , if Keller didn't want to be in charge, didn't feel she could handle it, why did she take the position? One that placed her one step away from being in command? In a place as dangerous and unpredictable as Atlantis, the odds that you're going to have to step up and replace your boss are *high*.

Personal ambition could explain it (like with Kavanagh, who is a much greater coward, but keeps returning regardless because his ego demands it. He believes, however misguided, that he's got the chops). But Keller wants *out* of command, eager to give it away. The very opposite of ambition.

Carson, beyond the needs of his gene, comes because of his research. He states in "Hide and Seek" that the ATA gene therapy couldn't be tested back on Earth, too many regulations. He's come to Pegasus to play mad scientist. But we haven't seen Keller really engage in research, beyond what she did in "Kindred" and "The Seed", which was borne not of personal interest but a desperate need to save Carson and the Athosians, and which was entirely based on Michael's and Carson's previous research.

Doctor Porter, in "Whispers", states she's interested in adventure, exploring, meeting strange new people. Considering Keller's reactions in "Missing" and "Trio", adventure and exploration are the furthest thing from her mind.

Conversely, she's been given several reasons to stay back on earth. Besides her seeming lack of love for danger/adventure/physical exertion, all things she should have expected to face on Atlantis, she mentions her father back in "Missing". She's "all he's got left." Why take a position as far from home as you can *ever*, in any realm of the imagination, get? One in which the odds of coming back from aren't so hot. You'd need some pretty hefty motivation to overcome that. We've never gotten even a hint.

She first tells Elizabeth she hopes the IOA will make a quick decision, she'd like to go back to being "a regular doctor." You can *never* be a regular doctor as the head of medicine on Atlantis. Circumstances won't allow it. What made her want to stay after the grand FUBAR that was "Adrift"/"Lifeline"? What made her want to go in the first place? She's certainly not military, she wasn't assigned there. Atlantis, canonically, has a very rigorous application process. Why struggle through it when you can be a regular doctor in the comfort and safety of your own galaxy?

The reason these questions matter so much to me, besides the obvious fan-urge of "I need to know," is that a character's goals, their motivations and passions, are how I form emotional attachments to them and thus to the show.

Teyla leaves her people for her people. She feels Atlantis is her people's best hope of salvation. She will do *anything* for them, and when she loses them? You can empathize, fully support her drive to find them, cheer when she's reunited, because they are her passion, her focus.

Ronon will keep fighting until "every Wraith in the galaxy is dead". When he's forced to work with them, when they get the better of him, you wince for him, you understand his anger and frustration, and you cheer when he turns the situation back around, kicks some Wraith ass, because you *know* how damn satisfied it's making him.

Rodney's passion, his life, his reason d'etre, is his science, his intelligence, his hope of a Nobel. Every brilliant break-through, every discovery, you know he's a bit closer to that goal. And when it fails him, when his smarts betray him (Trinity), it *hurts*, and the audience sighs/whimpers/writes copious amounts of tag fic.

John never really wanted to come to Atlantis in the first place, had to be talked into it, in face of resentment from his CEO. But he overcame that, made a home there, a family, people he will do *anything* for. His team, his 'family' is John's motivation. And every time he goes batshit crazy determined to help/save them, we cheer (or squee) over his loyalty, his dedication, his ability to protect what he loves.

Their traits, their passions and goals are defined and focused. A clear path for the characters to walk on, for the writers to build upon, for the fans to latch onto. What is Keller's drive, what is her character's destination? What are her obstacles and pitfalls along the way?

Her ambitions are murky and her flaws? Superfluous. Her lack of confidence, which comes and goes, could make for a character arc, except she never has to overcome it.

Professionally, she's told over and over she's doing a great job and never once has she had to face consequences for her fuck-ups. Using the nanites on Elizabeth was originally her idea, but Rodney takes all the heat for it. It's ironic that the decision Elizabeth so loathed started with the person she had such faith in, an irony that's never once touched upon. In "The Shrine", *Keller* blames herself for missing what happened to Rodney, and as his doctor, she's right. It's her fault she didn't diagnose it sooner. But no one else accuses her. On the contrary, they reassure her. Every other character on the show has had their actions questioned, doubted. Argued against. Forced to prove they're correct, or give in in the face of irrefutable fact. Most of them have had their jobs directly on the line, the IOA demanding justification.

In "The Shrine", there's disagreement, but they never outright state they think Keller's wrong, that she won't cure him. They imply it, considering their one want is the chance to say goodbye, meaning they've given up on her finding a cure, but they don't accuse her directly. When tensions run high, the characters often turn the professional personal. "Hot Zone" (John and Elizabeth), "Trinity" (John and Rodney, Teyla and Ronon), "Adrift" (John and Rodney). They get angry with each other. But in "The Shrine", no one gets angry at Keller for refusing them, just frustrated at the situation. Jeannie is the only one who can resist the Keller-love enough to directly point out her failing, that she's no closer to a solution.

Which brings us to her social "flaws". She tells Ronon it's "the story of my life", never fitting in. But she's been accepted into the inner circle of Atlantis faster and closer than any other character except Jeannie (and she's Rodney's family.) By "Doppelganger", only her third ep, Keller's already eating lunch all chummily with the team, in a way that we never saw even Carson or Elizabeth doing, let alone Zelenka, Lorne, Heightmeyer, etc. Ronon, who hasn't felt ready to be with anyone in nine years, starts expressing interest. Teyla's ready to open up to her about her personal life. Keller's feeling comfortable enough to tease Rodney about his hypochondria by "Tabula Rasa". Her interaction with Carson in "Kindred II" suggests a fairly close relationship with him before he died. She doesn't have to struggle with being accepted; they all love her and welcome her into the group immediately.

Comparatively, Sam, who already had personal connections with Rodney, never gets that close. It takes until "Kindred" for her to feel comfortable enough to invite Teyla to address her by her first name.

So much of Keller, her strengths and her weaknesses, her confidence and her competence, her social awkwardness and familiarity with the main cast, vary wildly from episode to episode. I believe most of this stems from the lack of direction. She has no clear problem to overcome, no obvious goal to strive for, no dream to fulfill, no passion to indulge in. Every writer, in every individual script, has to answer that question anew, instead of having it clearly before them. Here her purpose is as love interest, there it’s being a doctor. Here it suits the plot for her to be meek, there flirtatious is the key. It makes for screenwriter schizophrenia to the extreme, the cure for which, at least in part, would have been to answer, at the character's conception: What is she *doing* here, and why does she stay?

Comments

[sholio]

In "The Shrine", there's disagreement, but they never outright state they think Keller's wrong, that she won't cure him. They imply it, considering their one want is the chance to say goodbye, meaning they've given up on her finding a cure, but they don't accuse her directly. When tensions run high, the characters often turn the professional personal. "Hot Zone" (John and Elizabeth), "Trinity" (John and Rodney, Teyla and Ronon), "Adrift" (John and Rodney). They get angry with each other. But in "The Shrine", no one gets angry at Keller for refusing them, just frustrated at the situation. Jeannie is the only one who can resist the Keller-love enough to directly point out her failing, that she's no closer to a solution.

Er ... I'm confused by this.

I agree that Keller was blinded, in the beginning, by her attraction to Rodney, so she didn't begin looking for a cure until it was possibly past the point where she could have safely operated. And she beat herself up over it, and maybe the other characters should have been angry at her for it (though, IMHO, it would have been unfair). But she kept looking for a cure long past the point where all the other characters had given up on him. Everyone else wanted to take Rodney to the Wraith planet to say goodbye -- i.e. they had accepted that he was going to die and that he couldn't be cured. Keller was the one who was still trying to fix him. If the others would be justified in anger at her for failing to diagnose him sooner, she would be just as justified to be angry at them (and Jeannie) for giving up on him, and on her, which they DO. No one believed that the Shrine would fix Rodney -- at the very best, they believed it would give them a chance to say goodbye at the cost of shortening his already very limited lifespan.

I'm not sure if I'm going to comment on the rest of it, because you already know how I feel about Keller *g*, though I will mull it over. But I stopped on this, because I've seen a lot of people suggesting that Keller, in Shrine, was somehow standing in the way of the others helping Rodney -- and what everyone seems to be forgetting is that they took him to that planet to DIE. Keller was the one who wanted to stay on Atlantis (where all the medical equipment is, where the most likely solution could be reasonably found) and try to find a cure. Through a total Pegasus Galaxy fluke, Rodney was healed by magic handwaviness, but no one expected that to happen. They took him to the planet in the full expectation, based on everything Teyla and Ronon said about the Shrine, that they'd just sealed his death warrant - that they would not be bringing him back alive.

Edit: The thought also occurred to me that no one else appears to have noticed anything wrong with Rodney in the early stages of the disease, either, at least not based on how Keller presented the situation to Jeannie (and given that she was blaming herself for it, it seems like something she would have mentioned if she'd received a warning from someone else and ignored it). I mean, if one of the others had gone to Keller and said, "Something's wrong, you need to examine him" and she'd ignored that, then yeah, she's definitely guilty of dereliction of duty! But if even his friends, who know him best, didn't catch on to what was happening, it's hardly fair to blame Keller, who hasn't known him nearly as long, for not noticing anything either.

[alysnforthought.livejournal.com]

Keller was standing in the way of helping Rodney. She did want to keep him back but for the wrong reasons. She felt quilty and she had to be the one to cure him. She made that very clear in her actions. If she had been thinking like a doctor she should have considered that the shrine might have had a way to treat Rodney. This is the pegasus qalaxy and weird stuff is normal. Even if it was magical fairies and pixie dust with both Teyla and Ronon vouching for it she should have at least considered it even with it being fatal. Many cures are until perfected. With her running out of options they should have at least sent someone to check it out preferably when Ronon first suggested it. This was her Doranda. Rodney was almost out of time and nothing she tried was working. If Ronon hadn't insisted on going Rodney would have been dead and it would have been her fault. What she did wrong wasn't the late diagnosis but the fact that she let her crush and her guilt and her need to be the one to cure him blind her to a way to treat him. I think people would have been ok with this if she had been called on it but no she was even given all the credit for saving Rodney when really Ronon and John were responsible for coming up with the solution.

[sholio]

This may come down to a matter of interpretation, then, because I saw her actions as being motivated by a genuine concern for Rodney's welfare and a desire to cure him. Whereas Rodney's friends were acting selfishly -- motivated by love, yes, but a selfish form of love where they weren't really interested in Rodney's welfare so much as their own desire to say goodbye and let him go. Keller's heart wasn't totally pure here, I'm sure, but neither were the others'.

I don't know how to emphasize this strongly enough -- no one was expecting a cure. Not Ronon and Teyla, not Sheppard, not Jeannie and least of all Keller. Ronon and Teyla saw it as a chance to say goodbye to Rodney and let him die a dignified death; this was what they'd always seen at the Shrine and what they'd heard it was for. Jeannie was hoping for much the same thing: one last day with her brother. Sheppard, I think, didn't expect much of anything, but was going along because he couldn't resist the possibility of one last day with the "real" Rodney. As much as I adore them for loving him that much, none of them were thinking about what it would do to Rodney to get everything back and then die in full awareness of his situation. The only person taking Rodney's wishes into account was Keller. And, yes, her motives might not have been entirely pure -- she certainly felt guilty, and she was certainly driving herself to find a cure, and there may have been some ego involved in that. But from where she stood, all she saw waiting for Rodney on the Wraith planet was death, and possibly death for his friends as well. It wasn't even a situation like, say, "Conversion", where they risked great danger to find something they hoped would be a permanent cure for John. There was no cure here -- just an old legend of a temporary reprieve that even the Pegasus natives did not believe would be permanent. What's a doctor supposed to do -- risk a bunch of lives in the hopes that their patient can get one disease-free day followed by death, or keep working to find a permanent cure? I think most of us should hope our doctors would try for the cure!

[copracat]

Yes, what you said. Ronon wasn't holding out a cure, he was holding out a chance for goodbye. Both he and Teyla were clear that the shrine was a place for hopeless cases of delerium to regain some mental capacity to speak to their loved ones for the last time.

It also seems to be skipped over in this discussion that the planet with the shrine was inhabited by a very large number of Wraith, making the trip there dangerous for everyone.

[tipper-green.livejournal.com]

I think I'm lost on the very first line--that Keller was standing in the way of "helping" Rodney. The point of the shrine was that, after you are there for a day, you DIE. He had days, maybe even weeks, left and Jeannie hadn't even had a chance to get there to say goodbye to her brother (I'm assuming she was on route, but who knows when Ronon and Teyla actually broached the idea--all we know is it was before Jeannie got there).

Keller *was* thinking like a doctor. She was trying to cure him. To save his life. The Shrine = Death. How could she possibly have extrapolated from Ronon's description of the place that a place you take someone to die could lead to a cure?

[gnine.livejournal.com]

maybe the other characters should have been angry at her for it (though, IMHO, it would have been unfair). But she kept looking for a cure long past the point where all the other characters had given up on him. Everyone else wanted to take Rodney to the Wraith planet to say goodbye -- i.e. they had accepted that he was going to die and that he couldn't be cured. Keller was the one who was still trying to fix him. If the others would be justified in anger at her for failing to diagnose him sooner, she would be just as justified to be angry at them (and Jeannie) for giving up on him, and on her, which they DO. No one believed that the Shrine would fix Rodney -- at the very best, they believed it would give them a chance to say goodbye at the cost of shortening his already very limited lifespan.

Okay, I'm gonna cover this in two points. Leaving aside for a moment who was "right," I agree, Keller should have been equally angry at them. THAT was actually my point. There is no *conflict* there, from either side. They're all LOVE and reassurances when dealing with Keller. I would have liked to see her pissed with them. Each side giving as good as it got. Take "Hot Zone" for example. I think John and Elizabeth both had very legitimate points (though I side more with John, in particular), but they ARGUE about it, it becomes personal, they become emotional, worked up. There's CONFLICT. These characters don't always get along, they have to work through their problems, their personal disagreements and hang-ups. Except there's none of that with Keller. They just let everything slide when it comes to her. And she never has the balls to stand up to any of them. (How she EVER survived med-school, especially at her age, being that meek, is a question in and of itself, but...I'm sorry, but "cute" just reeeaaally doesn't cut it when your talking high level professional careers.)

To the other point, of them giving up versus her not. Yes, I agree, Teyla and Ronon gave up (neechan points out, and I tend to agree, that I really don't think John thought it was "good-bye" so much as, 24 hours of Rodney as himself, he's bound to think of something. He ALWAYS does, at the last minute. Like in Tao, or Inferno, etc. Supported by John's wonderful "maybe we can ask Rodney in a minute"), and Keller says she hasn't. But WHAT is she doing. (And this is again where I blame the writing and direction) The two times she is SO adamant that she hasn't given up, we see her standing by gently rubbing Rodney's neck as everyone leaves, and watching a video of him saying "I love you" over and over again. We NEVER see her actually attempting anything. When Jeannie brings the accusation that they only have a day or so left, and she's not any closer, Keller can't refute it. She doesn't even protest with a "well, I have *this* left to try, or I have that one more [insert medical babble] test left to verify." She says she's not giving up, but she's not DOING anything, either. Faith is great, but, even though they *thought* they were saying good-bye, if they had left it in Keller's hands, by all the evidence we're given, Rodney would have died a day later. Keller might have kept her conviction, but Rodney'd still be dead. Good for her. (And now I'm reminded of a "Highlander" quote: "He died, screaming in agony. But, he kept his integrity.")

But compare that to Carson and his med team in "Conversion". We see the whole group of medics sitting around brainstorming possible solutions (and just where did all the older, more experienced doctors GO when it was time for someone to step up to replace Carson, anyway?!) right up to the end. Elizabeth is saying that it's their last chance for a private good-bye, she's started giving up. But Carson hasn't, just like Keller. But unlike Keller, we SEE him doing something about it, not sitting by John's beside, wringing his hands going, I have faith, I have faith, I will save you.

And now I have to break this onto a second comment screen...oops...

[tipper-green.livejournal.com]

There's no conflict? But Keller was the only one standing between all of them and a death sentence. She stood up to them -- to the undipusted leaders of Atlantis -- and said no. She argued, then she flat out refused to let them take Rodney away to die. And good thing she did, because, if she hadn't, Jeannie would never have had the chance to say goodbye as well. If being diametrically opposed to the other three, effectively shutting them down until Jeannie got there, isn't conflict, then I'm totally in the wrong profession.

As to the second point, we know what she's done. We're told. Did you want to see her with a pipette in hand, or something? This story wasn't about Keller's attempts to find a cure, it was about the other's reactions to Rodney's deterioration. I'd much rather watch the latter than the former. It's one of those things we know about, but don't need to see. Why would we need to see it? Why isn't telling us about it enough?

And, technically, she does say to Jeannie that she has other treatments she has yet to try. Jeannie's overruling of her is emotional, not logical.

It's also a little unfair to compare this to Conversion. Besides the fact that Conversion was set up by Instinct, meaning you didn't need to hear as much exposition, Conversion was about fear. John was turning into a bug. It was filmed in dark places, intended to frighten and shock the viewer. We didn't see much of John for that reason. Whereas, here, this was about Rodney's slow, sad deterioration, and that's what the show was about. It's a very, very different story. Taking time away from that to show Keller brainstorming would have been unnecessary and taken away from so much that was beautiful about the episode.

[gnine.livejournal.com]

The thought also occurred to me that no one else appears to have noticed anything wrong with Rodney in the early stages of the disease, either, at least not based on how Keller presented the situation to Jeannie (and given that she was blaming herself for it, it seems like something she would have mentioned if she'd received a warning from someone else and ignored it).

Yeah, I might give you this one, except for two things. One, we don't see anyone else interacting with Rodney. She had him in the infirmary, under medical observation. Now, true, we never did see how the disease was caught. But, for all we know, when she did release him, he went back to work and people were all like, um, what the hell is wrong with you, Rodney? And sent him back. We just don't know, so this, again, is a lack of knowledge and script. But the only thing concrete they give us is Keller with him.

But secondly, she's known Rodney for over a year, she even says she was taken with this "new" McKay. She clearly realized he was acting different. Now, maybe this sounds crazy, maybe I've been watching sci-fi for too many years. But she has him in the infirmary, because he passed out/was unresponsive, for no reason she can find. And when he wakes up, he's acting differently. Not only is he nicer, he's not particularly concerned about his strange, not-fully-explained unconscious stint. Which, hello, hypochondriac? Which Keller knows of and teases him about on occasion. But he's not worried. No, that's not suspicious AT ALL. Leaving aside alien parasites, there are quite a few diseases and medical reasons, found right here on Earth, that change behavior. Something STRANGE and unexplained happened to him, enough so that she's keeping him overnight for observation, and he wakes up from it with a personality change. This doesn't set off any bells? Hell, beside alien parasite, in this universe, I'd be wondering about possession. Especially since that doesn't show up on brain scans and stuff half the time.

What we don't see, you can make go either way, depending on personal biases. But what we do see, what the show gives us, often puts Keller in not the best of lights.

[sp23.livejournal.com]

I think this is the best, most coherent argument of how Keller completely messed up in The Shrine that I've seen. Because, yes, while Rodney, can, on occasion be incredibly sweet and charming, when it comes to his health, splinter removal is like major surgery. She should have realized that something was wrong when he woke up not panicked, but flirty, after his coma of at least nine hours!

And while I do understand her not wanting to send her patient to his death prematurely by authorizing the trip to the shrine, the fact that she (and just about everyone else, actually) looked down her nose at both Ronon and Teyla and dismissed their observations about what happened there as some sort of ignorant aboriginal belief in "magic" (OMG! the stupid, it burns) totally pissed me off.

There's so much about that episode I loved (mostly centered around how wonderful The Hewlett and Kate Hewlett were), but there was a total lack of logic and an overabundance of Earth-based arrogance of the non-Rodney kind in play in too much of the episode.