Eli was an extremely gifted child with both a high IQ and strong creative intuition. At age 14, he grew closer to his mother, Marian, when his father abandoned them. He was accepted into MIT's advanced mathematics program where he studied for several years. However, his mother, a nurse, contracted HIV from an accidental needle prick, and he dropped out of school to care for her. Needing a supplemental income and flexible work hours, he started several odd jobs when they were available; he often needed to quit because of the frequency and duration of his mother's treatments, as well as the unpredictable nature of acute attacks, leading to periods of unemployment. During one such period in 2009, Eli discovered an online game called Prometheus, featuring several extremely difficult puzzles widely believed to be 'unsolvable' by the gaming community. In truth, the game itself was a recruiting tool developed by Stargate Command at the urging of Chloe Armstrong, who insisted that the medium might be an unconventional way of finding new talent; as such, the puzzles were based on real Ancient artifacts and calculations left behind in the Ancient Database, which required learning their alien language and solving mathematical proofs. Deeply engaged, Eli spent many of his off-work and unemployed hours for over a month solving the problem, only to have the game abruptly end. Within a day of finding the solution, Dr. Nicholas Rush and General Jack O'Neill, arrive in person to offer him a chance to see the fruits of his labor. He politely refused, prompting them to beam him aboard the George Hammond; Rush wins Eli over by promising that the Air Force will provide his mother with the best medical care they have to offer. Eli is transported to the Icarus Base to help Rush solve the mystery behind the ninth chevron of the Stargate. He jokingly gives himself the nickname "Math Boy" during a dinner conversation, which sticks. Though his formula is initially unsuccessful, during an attack on the base, Eli solves the problem under extreme pressure, allowing Rush to dial the ninth chevron. As a result, the remaining Icarus personnel are sent to the Destiny, an Ancient spaceship several billion light-years from Earth. On Destiny, Eli quickly proves his value through his intelligence and creativity, quickly translating many of the ship's systems and deciphering the technology onboard; while not as well-versed on the Ancient language as Rush, he demonstrates more adaptability in leveraging their discoveries, notably by using the Kino technology to scout gated worlds, record diaries from the crew, patrol as security drones, and improvise a material sled for hauling cargo. Each of the main leaders come to rely on Eli for different reasons: Rush respects Eli's intelligence, even when he secretly resents it; Young relies on Eli as a "second opinion" because he does not trust Rush; and Wray trusts his motivations, as she believes Rush does not want to return to Earth. As a consequence, Eli is a frequent participant in secret plans and meetings, causing the crew to come straight to him when they feel that they are being left in the dark. As such, Eli increasingly confronts his own fears of abandonment and his self-doubts as the leaders and crew come to rely on him. The end of season 2 is a cliffhanger for which Eli is crucial: everyone on the ship has been put into stasis pods except for Eli, who volunteers to stay behind to figure out how to fix the final, malfunctioning stasis pod so that he too can go into stasis. Before fixing his pod he goes to the observation deck and looks out at the stars as Destiny shuts down most of its systems around him. Eli smiles enigmatically as the show ends.
Conceptual history
became a fan of Stargate SG-1 when it moved from Showtime to the SCI FI Channel and used to watch it when he came home from school. He also later caught up with Stargate Atlantis. His interest in the franchise later influenced him to audition for one of the main roles. Blue was shooting a scene for an episode of Ugly Betty when he heard that the Stargate Universe producers were casting actors. He soon after had an audition and a screen test. Blue has commented that he wanted the role even more when he heard that Robert Carlyle had been signed on for a part. Blue had never acted in the science fiction genre before being cast for Stargate Universe. Prior to Stargate Universe, he was best known for his portrayal of Cliff in Ugly Betty. Blue himself has said that Stargate Universe is "completely different" from his previous work.
