Why I like Gia Kelly
Chief Technician Gia Kelly the second in command of T-Mat in "the Seeds of Death," and the only person on earth (or on the moon for that matter) who really understands how the system works. Let me say that again. Gia Kelly is literally the ONLY PERSON who fully understands T-Mat. People keep saying things like "Without her, we are lost." A ridiculous percentage of the dialog in the story is about how Miss Kelly is The Best and everyone else is pretty much useless. And they're not wrong. The basic plot of the episode is Miss Kelly Fixes All The Things - or at least, all the things involving T-Mat. There are one or two things not involving T-Mat (say, the titular "Seeds of Death") but those aren't her department. She lets other experts get on with that, and she gets on with doing her job. Like a Boss.
Gia Kelly is the first real character in the episode. Technically the computer speaks first, but nobody cares about computers. She is already at her station and in control of every situation when the rest of T-Mat starts arriving for work. Right off the bat she is professional, no-nonsense, competent, and confident. She has noted a problem (T-Mat being behind schedule), correctly identified the source of the problem (Fewsham's endemic incompetence) and, as soon as one is available, dispatches a technician to go take care of it (Osgood). All before Commander Radnor even turns up. And when he does, she delivers her character defining statement: "Nothing will go wrong. I won't allow it." Gia Kelly is On Top Of Things.
A brief note on Radnor - if Kelly is so On Top of Things, why is Radnor the big boss? Well, have you ever seen an organization where the person at the top is the one who does all the work? Kelly runs the technical side of T-Mat, Radnor runs the political side. His role is to liaise between Kelly and the Government - and, in fact, when it becomes clear that this is a global crisis, it's Kelly, Radnor, and Sir James who are in conference with each other solving it. And they do - or rather, Miss Kelly does, and the political types do what is needed to implement her solution. This is all very realistic, except for the bits about how mutually supporting and effective they all are. But everyone in the episode values Miss Kelly and defers to her expertise, heroes and villains alike, including Miss Kelly herself. She never feels the need to downplay her own accomplishments, and that's very refreshing.
Gia Kelly is the only female character in this story outside the main cast, and that is a fact that is never brought up even once. The only noticeable difference is that she gets a much better uniform than anybody else, in that it is actually flattering. At no point is she ever told "you can't do this because it's too dangerous for a woman" - she is told "you can't do this because it's too dangerous and THE ENTIRE WORLD DEPENDS ON SPECIFICALLY YOU" which is a little bit different, and the second time it's tried her response is "FFS it's my job get out of my way" and off she goes. The only thing that comes close to a dismissal on sexist grounds is when Professor Eldred is disdainful at the prospect of joining T-Mat to be Miss Kelly's assistant. Professor Eldred is a grumpy old man though, so this is totally in character. And, when it comes down to it and they are rigging up the homing beacon on the satellite, it turns out that he is quite happy working as Miss Kelly's assistant, and not a single word is said about that either. Everyone understands that Miss Kelly is the best person for the job - the best person for every job - and the brilliance and expertise upon whom the fate of the world rests. Her authority is unquestioned. Even the Ice Warriors know better than to bully her, relying on trickery to get her to repair T-Mat instead.
If Miss Kelly has a flaw it is that she is single-minded. It is both her flaw and her great strength. She is fully aware of the world's reliance on T-Mat and that it is her job to keep it reliable. She doesn't care that we're being invaded by Martians - she cares that T-Mat is still down and that that is leading to global food and medicine shortages and crises. A dozen people die due to the titular Seeds of Doom - but hundreds are suffering due to the T-Mat outage and that is the problem that Miss Kelly is solving. When she goes to the Moon, yes, things are suspicious perhaps, but she's there to fix T-Mat and she fixes T-Mat. She can figure out why it went down once cities have food supplies again. This plays into the Ice Warriors' plans, but that doesn't mean it was the wrong decision from where she stood. And though she is frightened by the Ice Warriors, she is never cowed by them; she escapes at the first opportunity and joins up with our heroes in trying to retake the Moonbase. And when everyone else is trying to deal with the fungal blight, Kelly is the only one still working on the T-Mat problem. And she solves it. By herself. It's easy to miss, since it ends up being overtaken by other plans and interests, but she figures out how to reroute control of T-Mat from the Moon to the Earth, then reprograms a satellite to use as a relay, then arranges a rocket launch, then commandeers and old petrol-car from a museum to get it to the launchpad. And she even talks about how the satellite won't be as effective as the Moonbase because it doesn't have the processing power, but it should relieve the immediate pressure and stop population centers from starving to death. She does that. I dunno, I'm just really impressed that she doesn't lose sight of the immediate problem and just...gets on with solving it. And then solves it. And it is her satellite that ends up carrying the false homing signal to deflect the Martian Fleet. And she's the one who programs it to do that as well, with the help of her lovely assistant of course. Gia Kelly personally saves the world, with her quick thinking, single-mindedness, and technical expertise.
Gia Kelly is, alongside Fewsham, the central character of "the Seeds of Death," and she is unfailingly magnificent. The narrative never feels the need to take her down a notch, and absolutely everyone is in awe of her. She gets the job done, without being reduced to an automaton or Defrosting Ice Queen. For one thing, she never defrosts. She just does her job and gets on with things, and her job is keeping the world going.
Gia Kelly is the first real character in the episode. Technically the computer speaks first, but nobody cares about computers. She is already at her station and in control of every situation when the rest of T-Mat starts arriving for work. Right off the bat she is professional, no-nonsense, competent, and confident. She has noted a problem (T-Mat being behind schedule), correctly identified the source of the problem (Fewsham's endemic incompetence) and, as soon as one is available, dispatches a technician to go take care of it (Osgood). All before Commander Radnor even turns up. And when he does, she delivers her character defining statement: "Nothing will go wrong. I won't allow it." Gia Kelly is On Top Of Things.
A brief note on Radnor - if Kelly is so On Top of Things, why is Radnor the big boss? Well, have you ever seen an organization where the person at the top is the one who does all the work? Kelly runs the technical side of T-Mat, Radnor runs the political side. His role is to liaise between Kelly and the Government - and, in fact, when it becomes clear that this is a global crisis, it's Kelly, Radnor, and Sir James who are in conference with each other solving it. And they do - or rather, Miss Kelly does, and the political types do what is needed to implement her solution. This is all very realistic, except for the bits about how mutually supporting and effective they all are. But everyone in the episode values Miss Kelly and defers to her expertise, heroes and villains alike, including Miss Kelly herself. She never feels the need to downplay her own accomplishments, and that's very refreshing.
Gia Kelly is the only female character in this story outside the main cast, and that is a fact that is never brought up even once. The only noticeable difference is that she gets a much better uniform than anybody else, in that it is actually flattering. At no point is she ever told "you can't do this because it's too dangerous for a woman" - she is told "you can't do this because it's too dangerous and THE ENTIRE WORLD DEPENDS ON SPECIFICALLY YOU" which is a little bit different, and the second time it's tried her response is "FFS it's my job get out of my way" and off she goes. The only thing that comes close to a dismissal on sexist grounds is when Professor Eldred is disdainful at the prospect of joining T-Mat to be Miss Kelly's assistant. Professor Eldred is a grumpy old man though, so this is totally in character. And, when it comes down to it and they are rigging up the homing beacon on the satellite, it turns out that he is quite happy working as Miss Kelly's assistant, and not a single word is said about that either. Everyone understands that Miss Kelly is the best person for the job - the best person for every job - and the brilliance and expertise upon whom the fate of the world rests. Her authority is unquestioned. Even the Ice Warriors know better than to bully her, relying on trickery to get her to repair T-Mat instead.
If Miss Kelly has a flaw it is that she is single-minded. It is both her flaw and her great strength. She is fully aware of the world's reliance on T-Mat and that it is her job to keep it reliable. She doesn't care that we're being invaded by Martians - she cares that T-Mat is still down and that that is leading to global food and medicine shortages and crises. A dozen people die due to the titular Seeds of Doom - but hundreds are suffering due to the T-Mat outage and that is the problem that Miss Kelly is solving. When she goes to the Moon, yes, things are suspicious perhaps, but she's there to fix T-Mat and she fixes T-Mat. She can figure out why it went down once cities have food supplies again. This plays into the Ice Warriors' plans, but that doesn't mean it was the wrong decision from where she stood. And though she is frightened by the Ice Warriors, she is never cowed by them; she escapes at the first opportunity and joins up with our heroes in trying to retake the Moonbase. And when everyone else is trying to deal with the fungal blight, Kelly is the only one still working on the T-Mat problem. And she solves it. By herself. It's easy to miss, since it ends up being overtaken by other plans and interests, but she figures out how to reroute control of T-Mat from the Moon to the Earth, then reprograms a satellite to use as a relay, then arranges a rocket launch, then commandeers and old petrol-car from a museum to get it to the launchpad. And she even talks about how the satellite won't be as effective as the Moonbase because it doesn't have the processing power, but it should relieve the immediate pressure and stop population centers from starving to death. She does that. I dunno, I'm just really impressed that she doesn't lose sight of the immediate problem and just...gets on with solving it. And then solves it. And it is her satellite that ends up carrying the false homing signal to deflect the Martian Fleet. And she's the one who programs it to do that as well, with the help of her lovely assistant of course. Gia Kelly personally saves the world, with her quick thinking, single-mindedness, and technical expertise.
Gia Kelly is, alongside Fewsham, the central character of "the Seeds of Death," and she is unfailingly magnificent. The narrative never feels the need to take her down a notch, and absolutely everyone is in awe of her. She gets the job done, without being reduced to an automaton or Defrosting Ice Queen. For one thing, she never defrosts. She just does her job and gets on with things, and her job is keeping the world going.