Rodney McKay
Rodney McKay is a male television character who features in Stargate.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Meredith Rodney McKay was a male human born in the modern day on Earth in the year 1968. (Episode: Quarantine) He had a sister who was later known as Jeannie Miller who was born with a similar intellect as himself. (Episode: McKay and Mrs. Miller)
In the sixth grade, he decided to build an atomic bomb for his grade six science fair exhibit though it was a non-working model. The incident led to him being questioned by the CIA who believed he was part of a secret pre-teen organization and actually led to his first job. (SGA: Underground)
Stargate
This saw him being recruited by the U.S. Airforce where he was tasked with reporting directly to the Chiefs of Staff. As a result, he came to get access to the Stargate program where he was stationed at Area 51 for over a year. Doctor McKay was able to get a virtual computer model on the second Stargate when it as located there. In time, he was considered the foremost expert on the Stargate by the Pentagon. (SG1: 48 Hours)
In March 2002, when a mission ended with Teal'c failing to materialize through the Stargate on Earth, Colonel Frank Simmons hired McKay to help, and McKay gave the Pentagon a 48-hour deadline before they should give up the attempt and resume gate activity. Arriving at the SGC, McKay was revealed to have been studying the Stargate Program at Area 51 for over a year and upon meeting Major Samantha Carter, became immediately infatuated with her. A conversation with her quickly turned sour when he began poking holes at the structure of the dialing computer, a device Carter had personally worked on and also created. Their relationship grew even more sour when Carter later realized that McKay was the one who had suggested the 48 hour deadline because he thought Teal'c was already dead, believing that the Stargate's data storage program had already degraded Teal'c's pattern so much that the Jaffa could never be restored. This triggered Carter's fury and led to her calling him a "jerk". McKay remarked, "I've always had a real weakness for dumb blondes." Carter told him to "Go suck a lemon." as an insult due to his allergy, however, he still considered her "Very sexy." After the situation was resolved, with McKay's theories about Teal'c's pattern being proven incorrect, McKay was given an assignment in Russia to help with their Naquadah generator technology. McKay further protested against the operation, even going so far as to call Carter a certifiable whack-job and upon learning of his assignment, initially protested, stating that he was a civilian and didn't follow orders until Carter pointed out that he was still on the United States Air Force payroll. He eventually left to get ready, but not before complaining that the situation he'd been thrown into really sucked. (SG1: 48 Hours)
Nearly four months later, presumably in June 2002 and as a result of Anubis using the Stargate destroyer to target the SGC's Stargate which left the Stargate itself permanently open, McKay was recalled from Russia on the orders of the Pentagon and sent straight to the SCG which left Carter deeply annoyed. McKay came up with a solution to shut down the Stargate before Anubis used it to destroy the Earth with the Stargate destroyer. He suggested they use an EMP generator to shut down the gate, which ultimately was ineffective. Consequently, by opening the iris, the power build up was increased and the time to detonation was accelerated by 24 hours. In the end, the solution to the problem was to use the X-302 hyperspace fighter's hyperdrive to make a "short jump" with the gate strapped to the underside of the 302. This sent the Gate far enough away that the Earth wasn't affected by the gate's explosion. Carter later kissed McKay on the cheek, which he interpreted as meaning that Carter no longer hated him. (SG1: Redemption, Part 2)
Atlantis
He was later stationed at the Ancient outpost in Antarctica where he helped study the technology located there whilst working for Elizabeth Weir. During this time, they uncovered from the database there the location of Atlantis where it was believed that after suffering from a plague that the Ancients had departed for the Pegasus Galaxy. It was believed that a colony of the Ancients may still reside in that region in the universe and an expedition was gathered to travel there by using the power of the Zero Point Module. (SGA: Rising, Part 1) In July 2004, McKay was one of the scientists involved in the technological study of the Ancient outpost in Antarctica. Through numerous efforts, including trying the chair himself twice and attempting to interface it with Human computers, he was able to determine (with reluctant assistance from Dr. Carson Beckett) that it could only be used by someone with the Ancient Technology Activation gene. After testing with numerous personnel, everyone was stunned when Major John Sheppard sat in the chair, demonstrating a natural ability far greater than anyone else thus far, presumably on a level with Brigadier General Jack O'Neill. (SGA: Rising, Part 1) Prior to departing, he decided to leave his pet cat with his neighbour to look after whilst he was away. (SGA: Home) McKay later assisted in setting up the outpost's ZPM to provide the power needed to connect the Earth's Stargate to Atlantis. McKay later joined the Atlantis expedition to the Pegasus Galaxy. McKay was one of the key members to determine the various functions of the city. Along with that, he determined that the city's last working Zero Point Module was nearly depleted and began searching for a new planet. However, just as the ZPM was about to be completely depleted, the city rose up from the ocean floor, settling on the surface. (SGA: Rising, Part 1)
Wanting to use the Ancient technologies, McKay acted as the guinea pig for Dr. Beckett's first human trial of the Ancient Technology Activation gene therapy. The test proved successful and McKay attached a personal shield emitter to himself, testing it out by having Major John Sheppard shoot him and push him off a balcony. Although he was jubilant about surviving such occurrences with the shield on, he determined that he could not eat or drink with it. However, when Dr. Elizabeth Weir suggested that he could 'trap' the 'shadow' since he would be protected by the shield, it fell off. Sheppard was assigned in his place. A naquadah generator on a MALP was used in an attempt to get the creature to leave the city through the stargate. After the creature quickly depleted the MALP's power source and began feeding off the generator, McKay used the personal shield to protect himself long enough to throw the generator through the gate to M4X-337, leading the creature through the gate. (SGA: Hide and Seek)
Whilst visiting another world, the team were attacked by the Wraith once again making this the fifth time they were found by the enemy. Returning to Atlantis, McKay was struck by a stray stunner shot that briefly left the side of his face paralysed. After recovering, he was in a meeting with Weir as she discussed the possibility of a Wraith collaborator on the base who was leaking information to the Wraith to explain why they had encountered their enemy so many times. The security concerns led to the Athosians being kept within their rooms whilst interviews were conducted of them as the expedition believed a spy was among them. Rodney in the mean time came to find a new subroutine within a Jumper that revealed that the hanger bay had a roof allowing for the craft to depart the city. Afterwards, tensions only rose with the Athosians who ultimately decided to depart the city to settle the newly discovered mainland on the planet. Afterwards, another mission was launched where the team once again were attacked by the Wraith leading to suspicions that the spy was Teyla as she was the only Athosian among them. Sergeant Bates then forced McKay to inspect all Teyla's equipment for a transmission device. Rodney came to find a transmission device that was a family heirloom that Sheppard had found for Teyla on the Athosian's former world. Thus, they learnt that she had unwittingly been giving away their position when in the field as the machine activated in the presence of someone with the Ancient gene. (SGA: Suspicion)
He accompanied the team as they sought to resolve their potential food shortages by making trading partners with the Genii. They appeared as simple farmers who initially were not willing to part with their crop due to the amount of food being requested of them. Major Sheppard then suggested that they could help clear fields easier by trading their C4 explosives. Dr. McKay accompanied Sheppard to confirm the contents of the trade agreement with Dr. Weir where they returned to the Genii homeworld. (SGA: Underground)
Dr. McKay and Dr. Zalenka later came upon a new strategy to help combat the coming Hiveships. They suggested the use of a naquadah generator power the LaGrangian Point satellite that could potentially destroy all three Wraith Hiveships with ease. Doctor Weir agreed to the initiative with McKay heading the group that would travel to the satellite via Puddle Jumper. Zalenka attempted to convince Rodney to remain behind on Atlantis in case the mission was dangerous but McKay was adamant to help bring the weapon platform online. Accompanying him on the mission were Dr. Peter Grodin and Lt. Lou Miller where they confirmed that the station was indeed dead with Rodney having to bring back life support. This allowed them to dock with the station as he went about to repair it though found that part of the damage necessitated external work. By the time the repairs were complete, the Hiveships had arrived with Dr. Grodin being trapped on the station. He decided to remain behind to help direct the station's weapons and once they had dealt with the Wraith that the Puddle Jumper recover him. The weapon platform managed to destroy one Hiveship where it suffered an overload that shut it down. This allowed for the Wraith fleet to destroy the satellite thus killing Peter Grodin with a saddened Dr. McKay reporting the death to Weir at Atlantis. (SGA: The Siege, Part 1)
He was on a mission on Thenora to search for any survivors during the Wraith culling there. However, there was none. He was later scooped up by a Wraith beam with Lt. Laura Cadman before the Wraith Dart was shot down. After discovering that there was only enough power to save one of them, they beamed out McKay, who fainted. After he regained consciousness, he discovered that Cadman's consciousness was inside his. He had to live with Cadman until Dr. Radek Zelenka's team found a solution. During that time, they found it hard to co-exist. Cadman agreed to help McKay through his first date with Dr. Katie Brown, which led to Cadman taking control of Rodney and leaving the date. He also found out that Dr. Carson Beckett was quite fond of Cadman. Eventually, the strain of having two separate minds in one body had caused a near fatal seizure and Zelenka's team wouldn't find a solution in time. However, McKay worked out how to save both of them by using the Stargate's crystals. Before they went through the procedure, Cadman took control of McKay's body one last time, using him to kiss Beckett, in case it would not work. (SGA: Duet) He was in charge of Project Arcturus found on the Doranda outpost. He convinced Dr. Elizabeth Weir and Lt. Colonel John Sheppard that they should make another attempt after the first resulted in the death of an expedition member. However the second attempt resulted in the destruction of 5/6 of its solar system. (SGA: Trinity) By the end of the year, he and the team was taken by Aiden Ford's Coalition to formulate a plan to destroy a Wraith Hive ship. McKay worked on fixing the Wraith Dart, but was left behind on the mission. McKay needed to escape to inform Dr. Elizabeth Weir of Ford's plan. However, in order to do that, he had to inject a considerable amount of the Wraith enzyme to knock out two guards, for his escape. He went through withdrawal and managed to completely recover. Dr. Carson Beckett thought that his own stubbornness helped him through. He later found out where Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and the team were and took part in the Battle of Edowin, where two Hive ships destroyed each other. (SGA: The Hive)
Overview
Personality and attributes
McKay admitted that he was an arrogant man who tended to think all his plans would work. (SGA: The Eye, Part 2)
He was said to enjoy military rations and hospital food though he did not like airplane food but Rodney said it was because one could not get seconds on a plane. (SGA: Suspicion)
McKay said that he never cared for dogs as he found that they were too much work, too needy and too unpredictable. This seemed to had been based on a prior incident when he had a puppy as a child that ran away. In terms of pets, he liked cats as they were self-sufficient and dependable. (SGA: Letters from Pegasus) Rodney once had a pet cat though he had to part with the feline when he went to the Pegasus galaxy and asked his neighbour to look after it. (SGA: Home) He felt that his cat genuinely enjoyed his company and that he found it comforting seeing his pet's familiar face waiting for him when he came back home. (SGA: Letters from Pegasus)
He always regretted not being closer to his sister and had a desire to renew their friendship. (SGA: Letters from Pegasus)
When McKay had a brush with near ascension, his behavior changed somewhat. He spent what time he thought he had left as best he could. He used his knowledge to try to create technologies to help the expedition, did things to help others personally, such as writing a book about Weir from his perspective, asked Ronon about his scars and healed them, saved Zelenka's life when he was dying, and served the remembrance tea for Teyla's father's death so she wouldn't have to do it alone. (SGA: Tao of Rodney)
Powers and abilities
From a young age, he demonstrated considerable knowledge of science where he could build a non-working model of an atomic bomb back in grade six. (SGA: Underground)
He helped refine the encoding for a high compression data burst that allowed for a large amount of information to be sent in a .3 second transmission. Dr. McKay had developed an algorithm for containing complex information where he claimed it was extraordinarily efficient. (SGA: Letters from Pegasus)
McKay was mortally allergic to citrus where even a drop of lemon could effectively kill him according to him. (SG1: 48 Hours)
Notes
- Rodney McKay was created by Robert C. Cooper where he was portrayed by actor David Hewlett and featured in the setting of the Stargate universe.
In other media
Novels
Appearances
- Stargate: SG-1:
- Stargate: Atlantis:
External Links
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