Meredith Rodney McKay
From Stargate Wiki
| Meredith Rodney McKay | |
|---|---|
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| Biographical information | |
| Race | |
| Homeworld | |
| Gender |
Male |
| Born | |
| Political information | |
| Rank | |
| Allegiances |
Atlantis expedition (formerly) Stargate Command, Area 51 |
| Out of universe information | |
| Appearances | |
| Actor | |
- "Please, I'm Rodney McKay, difficult takes a few seconds. Impossible, a few minutes."
- — Rodney McKay
Doctor Meredith Rodney McKay, commonly called and preferred to be called Rodney McKay, is a male Tau'ri astrophysicist, a ATA gene holder and the head of the science and research departments of the Atlantis expedition.
Contents |
Biography
Early life
McKay was born in 1968. His parents hated each other which McKay felt was his fault. When he was six years old his father read him read him Moby Dick which caused him to have nightmares about being eaten by a whale. He joined a scouting organization, the Fort McMurray Eager Beavers, until he was asked to leave. McKay wanted to become a concert pianist, but when he was twelve years old his teacher asked him to quit, stating he was a fine player but had no sense of the art. He also won the Sears drama festival
He also once went on a date with a girl named Jocelyn Rutger to see Alien and threw up on her during the movie. McKay went on to study physics, obtaining two PhDs in physics and mathematics. He tried cannabis once and claimed it had no effect on him despite becoming itchy and wanting to eat an entire loaf of bread. During his doctoral studies he had a rivalry with Malcolm Tunney. His sister, Jeannie Miller left school and got married, deciding to start a family, something McKay felt was wrong, the two had a massive argument and did not speak for four years. (ATL: "Doppelganger", "Letters from Pegasus", "Phantoms", "Duet", "McKay and Mrs. Miller")
Area 51
McKay started working for the U.S. government at Area 51 studying the Stargate and became known as its foremost expert. Despite his position he had never seen the gate and had no desire to do so. When Teal'c's energy signature became trapped within the Stargate, McKay analyzed the data and due to his report, Colonel Frank Simmons allowed for a 48 hour deadline to rescue him, before using the gate and losing Teal'c forever. McKay became attracted to Major Samantha Carter, which was not returned. When Teal'c was rescued, McKay was sent to Russia to organize their Naquadah generator program. Months later McKay returned to Stargate Command to help come up with a solution when the Stargate would not shut down and a build up of energy was discovered which would lead to the gate exploding. McKay suggested using an EMP generator to disable the device being used to build up the energy, resulting in damage to the base and injuring Carter. When the problem was resolved, Carter kissed McKay on the cheek, which he interpreted as meaning she no longer hated him. (SG1: "48 Hours", "Redemption, Part 1", "Redemption, Part 2")
Atlantis expedition
McKay was transferred to the Antarctic outpost to study the Ancient technology and was chosen by Dr. Elizabeth Weir to become part of the Atlantis expedition. McKay was studying the Ancient Control chair trying to get it to get it to work and when Dr. Carson Beckett activated the chair, sending a Drone into an automated, he attempted to get him to turn it off. With authorization to use the Zero Point Module to dial Atlantis, McKay helped connect it to the Stargate and then proceeded with the rest of the expedition through the gate. Once on the other side, McKay analyzed the power systems finding the final ZPM was nearing depletion. When a rescue mission to find those taken by the Wraith was being planned, McKay showed John Sheppard to the Puddle Jumpers. Following the successful mission, McKay attended a social gathering on a balcony over looking the city with the expedition and the Athosians. (ATL: "Rising")
McKay was the first human trial for Dr. Beckett's ATA gene, which worked, however McKay was unable to deactivate a Ancient personal shield he had put on himself. When an energy creature began siphoning off power from the city and a plan was formulated to trick it into going through the Stargate by chasing a Naquadah generator, McKay used the shield to protect himself while he walked through this creature and threw the generator into the gate, allowing the creature to follow. McKay became part of Sheppard's team going to investigate a Wraith Hive ship and when fleeing, their Puddle Jumper became lodged in the Spacegate. McKay worked quickly managing to retract the Jumper's drive pods to save the ship. (ATL: "Hide and Seek", "Thirty-Eight Minutes")
When fleeing back to Atlantis, McKay is struck in the face with a Wraith stunner and falls unconscious. Later when examining a Puddle Jumper, McKay and Zelenka discovered the opening door in the roof of the Jumper bay. Later on after another mission, McKay wanted to return to rescue Ford and Teyla who were left behind. Sgt. Bates came to McKay and wanted him to examine Teyla's things and he discovered a tracking device. He then took part in a mission to capture a Wraith for interrogation. When finding a planet with an electromagnetic field powered by a ZPM, he removed it, taking it back to the city for analysis. Later he replaced the ZPM, modifying the field to cover a larger area. (ATL: "Suspicion", "Childhood's End")
McKay and Sheppard discovered the underground facility used by the Genii and McKay later agreed to help the modify their nuclear weapon and went on a mission to gather Wraith intelligence. When offworld McKay discovers a mist which contains a great deal of energy, he realizes it could be used to power a wormhole back to Earth, however when attempting to do so, he and the others were rendered unconscious by the mist, actually living beings, and had hallucinations that they did return to Earth. McKay came up with a plan to use electrical power generated by a storm to power the shield and protect the city from the storm, however a Genii force invaded the mostly evacuated city and McKay was captured and forced to tell them of the plan, being cut in the arm. He had to enact the plan, moving slowly to allow Sheppard time to rescue him and Weir. (ATL: "Underground", "Home", "The Storm", "The Eye")
McKay went to examine a defensive satellite and located a Wraith distress call on a planet in the Lantean system. When a Wraith survivor was found and Sheppard attempted to stop him, McKay had to help out, shooting at the Wraith to distract it from Sheppard. Back on the city, McKay found him self in a quarantine, when a nanite was released infecting his team searching part of the city. He examined the material on the nanites and deduced that using an electromagnetic pulse would disable them and save everyone.
McKay went to Dagan and helped track down a ZPM, getting the attention of Allina a local archaeologist. McKay figured out that pieces of stone tablet were located in a grid and when dug out gave a gate address, which in fact correlated to a location on a map leading them to find the ZPM, however it was taken from them. Faced with an incoming Wraith attack fleet, McKay devised a means to tie together all of the city's power generation capabilities to send a burst transmission back to Earth, letting them know what was happening and what they had learned. With a large chunk of their data burst free for personal messages, the expedition filmed message for their family and McKay talked for a long time on video, leaving a message for his sister as well. (ATL: "The Brotherhood", "Letters from Pegasus")
Defending the city
As a last line of defense, McKay traveled with Dr. Grodin and Lt. Miller to the defensive satellite and reactivating it. The satellite destroyed a hive ship but then itself was destroyed. McKay returned to Atlantis and was about to be evacuated when a team from Earth arrived informing them that a ZPM was on its way aboard the Daedalus so all they had to do was hold off the Wraith for three days. McKay had to help modify some Genii nuclear bombs to be used to destroy the ship and then had to install the ZPM in the city and activate the shield, completing his mission seconds before hundreds of darts collided with it. (ATL: "The Siege, Part 1", "The Siege, Part 2", "The Siege, Part 3")
When more hive ships showed up in orbit, McKay helped convert the city's shield in to a cloak and hide the city from the Wraith, detonating a nuclear weapon above the city and making it look like a self destruct. Following this McKay returned to Earth through the Stargate for debriefing and had to return on board the Daedalus, where he found a Wraith computer virus had been installed on board and was taking over the ship. McKay suggest a system shutdown but the virus hides itself in a F-302 computer module and retakes the ship upon reactivation. He and Sheppard begin removing the computer modules and then take a F-302 out to destroy the final computer module within a F-302 controlled by the virus. (ATL: "The Siege, Part 3", "The Intruder")
Back to work
McKay went offworld to help track down the renegade Lt. Ford, only to be captured by him and recruited to help rescue Sheppard and Teyla from a man who had kidnapped them. When checking on a planet that had been culled, McKay and Lt Laura Cadman were beamed aboard a dart, which was subsequently shot down. When attempting to remove McKay and Cadman, McKay was beamed out and lost consciousness. Later McKay discovered that Cadman's mind had been merged into his own. When Cadman took control on McKay's date with Dr. Katie Brown, she made him kiss her. The strain of two minds began to cause problems for the two and McKay figured out to use the Stargate's control crystals to aid in the separationof the two and returning them both. (ATL: "Runner", "Duet")
When Sheppard's team was captured by prisoners, McKay was forced to repair their Puddle Jumper in order to try to help the prisoners escape. Later when they discovered an Ancient power generation experiment, McKay was adamant that he would be able to complete it, however a problem caused the entire planet to be destroyed. McKay later helped track down a Wraith who was terrorizing a planet, where he was attacked by the Wraith. When Sheppard became infected with a mutated Iratus bug retrovirus, McKay was part of the team to go in search of Iratus bug embryos to cure him. After Atlantis discovered an Ancient vessel, the Aurora, Sheppard's team went to go investigate, McKay discovering the entire crew still in stasis. When Sheppard went into the virtual reality the crew were engaged in, McKay went in after him. (ATL: "Condemned", "Trinity", "Instinct", "Conversion", "Aurora")
McKay was captured along with his team by Ford and a group he put together and got addicted to the Wraith enzyme. McKay had his food source laced with the enzyme and worked with Fords people to fix a Wraith Dart. McKay was to stay behind while the rest of the team joined Ford and some of his men for an attack on a hive ship, and when the team was late returning he became worried and tried to get those men Ford left behind to do something. With no other way to get past the guards and retrieve the D.H.D crystals he gave himself a massive dose of enzyme, beat the guards and returned to Atlantis. He had to undergo withdrawal in the infirmary, before helping the Daedalus track down Sheppard and the others. (ATL: "The Lost Boys", "The Hive")
After Sheppard became trapped within a time dilation field, McKay quickly returned to Atlantis bringing back what he needed to save Sheppard. Using a probe, McKay was able to locate the field's power source and went with a team to enter the field and shut it down. While in the control room, McKay found a message from the Daedalus informing them not to use the Stargate as a bomb had been placed in the city, McKay examined the operating system finding the city's safeguards had been removed which would cause the ZPM to overload and destroy the city. When the code to reactivate the safeguards was discovered, McKay entered the code and saved the city. (ATL: "Epiphany", "Critical Mass")
McKay was testing a repaired Puddle Jumper, when it lost power and crashed into the ocean on Lantea. As it sank to the bottom of the ocean McKay, suffering from a head wound, began to hallucinate Samantha Carter who helped him in coming up with a plan. Luckily another Jumper arrived and rescued him. Upon discovery of another City-ship, McKay entered into the catacombs of the crumbling areas around its main tower, locating the drone storage area and then had to find the auxiliary control room. He overload the ZPM, draining its last amount of power and disabling the city's weapons which were being used on a defenseless village. (ATL: "Grace Under Pressure", "The Tower")
McKay was captured along with other expedition personnel by the Genii but were freed by Ladom Radim who had deceived both the expedition and Chief Cowen in order to kill Cowen and seize power. While in the mess hall, McKay spoke with Michael Kenmore, who recognized some of McKay's work as Wraith technology. While on Taranis, McKay discovered the imminent destruction following the Taranian continued use of their shield. When the Stargate was cut off, McKay had to repair the ship in the Ancient bay in order to save the people and his team. (ATL: "Coup D'etat", "Michael", "Inferno")
When given a great deal of information on Wraith technology, McKay examined it. Working with Michael's hive ship, McKay agreed to stay on board to help them with damage control and to gain more intelligent on their tech. The Wraith however had gained the location of Earth and took McKay and Ronon prisoner, placing them in stasis coccoons. The two escaped and managed to get off the ship onto the Daedalus. The ship was damaged and McKay helped to repair the ships life support systems, however it took too long and they were forced to beam a canister of Iratus bug retrovirus over to the hive, converting the Wraith and using their life support systems. McKay then had to devise a means to control the hive ship, barely capable of making the ship move forward or fire. (ATL: "Allies", "No Man's Land", "Misbegotten")
McKay was originally annoyed with a man brought the city, Lucius Lavin, and became very suspicious when the entire expedition became enamored with him, searching the man's quarters he found a vial and analyzed the remains. McKay too became infatuated with this man, after being exposed to a chemical Lucius used. SG-1 arrived on Atlantis to both try an locate several worlds in the database and use a black hole to permanently tie up the Supergate, McKay aided in arming and detonating nuclear weapons to achieve this goal. While on a world, McKay was shot in the behind with an arrow and then spent some time in the infirmary recuperating. When Ronon was found to have been taken by the Wraith and made into a Runner again, McKay tracked him down and helped in the rescue mission. (ATL: "Irresistible", SG1: "The Pegasus Project", ATL: "Sateda")
Asuran war
McKay went with his team to Asuras meeting the Asurans, an apparent race of Ancients. It was discovered that they were in fact a race of Replicators and interrogated them, McKay having a "hideous" and "intimate" torture within a virtual environment in his mind. When they managed to escape, McKay utilized their ZPM's to overload and destroy the city-ship they had sent to Atlantis. When Sheppard was captured by Acustus Kolya, McKay was part of a team to look for him on a Genii world, however he was not found. Later he and a team took a Jumper to another planet, locating Sheppard and a Wraith. When McKay's sister Jeannie Miller came up with a way to create an interdimensional bridge, McKay returned to Earth and convinced her to come to Atlantis to test it. When an alternate McKay made his way through the bridge to Atlantis, McKay was jealous of his sister and his teams interest in him. Helping get the alternate McKay back to his reality, McKay and his sister started to patch up their relationship. (ATL: "Progeny", "Common Ground", "McKay and Mrs. Miller")
When investigating a Wraith device on another planet which caused hallucinations, McKay had to deactivate it to save the others. After the Lanteans returned and reclaimed Atlantis, McKay returned to Earth and took a job at Area 51, however when it was discovered that the Asurans had killed all of the Lanteans and taken over the city, McKay joined the rest of his team to take it back. Coming up with a plan to place the control crystals from the Anti-Replicator Guns in the shield control systems so when the Asurans activated the shields, it caused a pulse of energy and destroyed them. When it was discovered that an enormous coronal mass ejection was threatening Lantea, he helped use the ZPM to power the Daedalus' shield and save the city. (ATL: "Phantoms", "The Return, Part 1", "The Return, Part 2", "Echoes")
Working with a piece of Ancient technology, McKay was altered at the genetic level gaining telekinesis and telepathic abilities as well as accelerating his evolutionary development. It was discovered that McKay would either die or ascend and so with Sheppard's help he began to meditate hoping to reach ascension, retaking human form immediately after. Nearing death, McKay discovered how to save himself, communicating the info the Dr. Carson Beckett who used the machine to revert back McKay's genetic structure. McKay went to a M4D-058 where images of himself were made by the people and it was uncovered that a game that McKay and Sheppard had been playing on Atlantis was in fact altering these peoples lives and had brought them to the brink of war. McKay managed to help show the people that war was not the answer. (ATL: "Tao of Rodney", "The Game")
McKay was to go fishing with Dr. Beckett on a mandatory day-off but got out of it by having a date with Katie Brown. During this day, an explosion rocked the tower and McKay uncovered that a device had caused the growth of an explosive tumour. When Dr. Beckett died in a second explosion, McKay was one of the pallbearers to take Beckett's body back to Earth, later on McKay hallucinated a goodbye to Beckett. An underwater Mobile drilling platform was discovered under the ocean on Lantea and McKay was on the team to investigate it, finding a crashed Wraith Cruiser nearby and a Wraith queen. While checking on the Taranians, McKay and the team found that Michael Kenmore had used them all in an experiment to create a hybrid human/Wraith creature. (ATL: "Sunday", "Submersion", "Vengeance")
McKay helped oversee the Horizon, a weapon system designed to destroy ships the Asurans were building. Shortly after destroying these ships, a satellite showed up in orbit and fired a beam at the city, draining the shield. McKay devised a plan to submerge the city to allow the water to absorb some of the beam, however it did not have the desired affect. Following this the city was raised off the planet and entered hyperspace however it was damaged, ending up lost in space. McKay worked to save the city however power levels were too low so he came up with an idea to infiltrate Asuras and steal ZPM's to power the city. Dr. Weir had been injured and McKay reactivated her nanites to save her. When on Asuras, McKay converted the Jumper's cloak into a disruptor field to clear the building of Asurans and allow the team to obtain a ZPM. While there McKay hacked the Asuran base code and found their attack directive, reactivating it and causing the Asurans to go to war with the Wraith. (ATL: "First Strike", "Adrift", "Lifeline", "Reunion")
McKay became infected with a entity and Sheppard used a device to enter his subconsciousness and help him out. When Sheppard was kidnapped by unknown race, McKay managed to help track him down. After a sickness caused the expedition to lose their memories, McKay awoke in his lab. He watched a message left by himself to find Teyla and then had to work on a way to alter the city's ventilation and life support so a cure could be disseminated throughout the city. (ATL: "Doppelganger", "Travelers", "Tabula Rasa")
Searching for the Athosians
When Teyla and Keller were late in checking in, McKay went with his team to find them, discovering the Athosians had all disappeared. He goes with his team to Vedeena to meet the seer Davos, who shows McKay a vision of him and his team being ambushed by the Wraith. Later he is working with the Wraith Todd on the Asuran coding to find the means to stop them as they are now attacking human worlds. When his sister is kidnapped, McKay returns to Earth to aide in finding her, helped by Agent Malcolm Barrett however he himself is also captured and forced to work on nanite coding when Jeannie herself is injected with them. (ATL: "Missing", "The Seer", "Miller's Crossing")
McKay continued to work with Todd to devise the means to stop the Asurans. When the Asurans retreated to their homeworld, McKay came up with the idea of using their bonds to attract them close enough together and destroy them, however he was incapable of creating the necessary material to accomplish the task and so was forced to create a fully working Asuran, albeit one with diminished functionality, called FRAN. The plan was to overload the planets many ZPMs and destroy the Asurans, however the power conduits on the planet were damaged and so McKay came up with the idea of increasing the Asuran nanites attractions creating a super critical mass and destroying them. Following this he deleted the planet from the database. (ATL: "This Mortal Coil", "Be All My Sins Remember'd")
McKay goes with his team to investigate a Wraith Hive ship and then track down a subspace signal finding a Wraith Cloning facility intending to overload the facilities ZPM to destroy it. McKay had planned on asking Katie Brown to marry him and when going to do so, was locked with the plant room when the city went into lock down. Following this McKay came to the realization that he was not ready for marriage and the two broke up. McKsy went with Sheppard offworld where they were asked by the local royalty to help their youngest sister, Harmony, on her journey to the Great Temple of Larris where she would be given guidance to become queen. McKay was originally very annoyed at the task and Harmony herself purposefully annoyed him, however after he saved her life, she had a painting made depicting him as a hero. (ATL: "Spoils of War", "Quarantine", "Harmony")
He had to accompany Keller and Carter to M5V-801 where they became trapped within an old Genii mining facility and came up with several ideas on how to escape, McKay even using what was available to construct a rudimentary canon to fire a grappling hook. After this Keller asked him out for a drink. When the Midway space station was infiltrated by the Wraith, McKay went with the team to take it back, having to escape on board the Puddle Jumper when the station's self destruct was activated, spending over a week in space awaiting rescue. Later McKay gives Teyla a present, an MP3 player with McKay's voice talking about science, which Teyla can play to her unborn baby, in the hopes it would lead the child to science. When it was found that the Hoffan drug was being used on other worlds, McKay went to Hoff to find out how someone got their hands on the drug, finding a group of children
McKay meets this Beckett, actually a clone, and informs him of what he is. Later he goes on a mission to save Teyla from Michael's facility. When the clone begins to die, McKay helps him into the stasis pod to save his life, offering to program in dreams for him. When the location of Teyla is actually discovered, McKay goes with the team, finding Michael's database and discovering that the facilities self destruct was active, trapping McKay and the others under rubble. McKay examines Michael' database, find a subspace beacon alerted him and he is on his way. McKay goes aboard Michael's cruiser, finding Teyla and having to help her give birth. (ATL: "The Kindred, Part 2", "The Last Man", "Search and Rescue")
Final year
McKay would often go to see Beckett in stasis, talking to him. He is called to Keller's quarters, having to open them to see if she was alright and later was found to be infected with a Wraith pathogen, discovering that the pathogen in Keller was growing tendrils towards power supplies. McKay takes part in a rescue mission to locate Ronon Dex, and planned to talk to Ronon and attempt to get through the brainwashing. When an alternate Daedalus arrived in orbit, McKay and the team went aboard, becoming trapped when the ship jumped to another reality. McKay attempted to shut down the drive to stop them from moving to other realities, however had to increase the number and frequency of jumps to escape a dangerous situation before finding the means to reverse the drive and get back home. (ATL: "The Seed", "Broken Ties", "The Daedalus Variations")
When the digitally ascended Elizabeth Weir arrived on Atlantis, McKay managed to quarantine her and devise a means to communicate with her. McKay became infected with a parasite and begins to revert to a child-like state, similar to Alzheimer's disease and creates a video log to track his progress, losing his memory quickly and nearing death. The team took him to Talus to visit a shrine which allowed him to return to his previous state to say goodbye, however it was discovered that the shrine emitted a radiation which harmed the parasite and Keller quickly began to operate, the parasite taking the chance to flee him. Later McKay was aboard one of Todd's hive ships, tracking Teyla who was disguised as a Wraith queen. (ATL: "Ghost in the Machine", "The Shrine", "The Queen")
McKay decided to accompany Keller offworld to help her, Ronon thinking the same. The two worked together to track her down after she was kidnapped by a Runner named Kiryk. McKay was ordered to help Dr. Daniel Jackson with his research on the Lantean Janus, locating a secret lab and inadvertently activating a subspace beacon. McKay and Jackson were kidnapped by aliens who came to the city and taken to another planet forcing McKay to activate the Attero device, which he attempted to shut down when he discovered its side effects of destroying Stargates. Breaking out, the two donned armored suits and disabled the device. (ATL: "Tracker", "First Contact", "The Lost Tribe")
When helping evacuate a group of humans, McKay and Beckett were captured by the Wraith. Invited offworld, McKay and the team are captured and put on trial for crimes against the Pegasus galaxy, luckily Richard Woolsey steps in to defend them. McKay and Sheppard are racing cars in an isolated area of the city when the power goes out as Michael Kenmore infiltrates the city and takes over the control room. He works on fixing a Puddle Jumper in the Secondary Puddle Jumper bay and then flies it up to the tower, dialing the gate in order to destroy the Puddle Jumper in the gate room powering Michael's stun field. Locating a device underwater, McKay examines it finding it to be able to cause hallucinations as well as a massive repository of information. (ATL: "Outsiders", "Inquisition", "The Prodigal", "Remnants")
McKay asked Keller to accompany him to a presentation from an old colleague, Malcolm Tunney, finding him using his work to siphon heat energy from the atmosphere and into another reality, solving global warming. When the experiment was unable to be shut down, McKay helped come up with a plan to shut it down, however he had to leave to save Keller who had become trapped. Following this the two started a romantic relationship. Finding a ship in orbit, McKay and a team go aboard and discover that Todd, his crew and ship were infected with a dangerous disease. McKay is asked by Keller to take her in a Puddle Jumper to the mainland, however it is not Keller, it is a woman named Neeva Casol who swapped bodies with Keller using the long-range communication device, so he and the team go in search of Neeva's body and Keller. (ATL: "Brain Storm", "Infection", "Identity")
McKay and the team go to examine a new hive ship powered by a ZPM, finding it much larger and more powerful, detecting the cloaked Jumper and firing upon it. McKay examines a signal discovered finding it from another reality and containing the location of Earth. McKay helped fly Atlantis to the Milky Way then using the Stargate to dial Earth, discovering they dialed into the hive ship in orbit, so McKay and a team goes to sabotage the ship. While on board McKay finds Sheppard and then has to reprogram the Dial Home Device to dial the Alpha site in order to escape. Following this he meets with the other senior staff on a balcony on the city, overlooking San Francisco bay. (ATL: "Enemy at the Gate")
Dialing Destiny
McKay began working on the calculations for dialing Destiny, finding an apparent solution to prevent the destruction of the dialing planet. Presenting his findings to the Langaran ambassador, McKay's presentation was cut short when the ambassador announced he would prefer that his scientist looked over the research. McKay then used the long-range communication device to swap bodies with Dr. Adam Brody and go aboard the Destiny talking with Eli Wallace. McKay then went to Langara, which the facility had been secretly taken over by Homeworld Command and oversaw the dialing of the ninth chevron, making it to the eighth before he was ordered to stop. (SGU: "Seizure")
Personality
Morality and Wisdom
Despite being arrogant and condescending towards many people and often believing himself to be perfect and infallible, McKay has demonstrated a desire to help others, not entirely for his own reasons. McKay will put his own life at risk to help others and even more when helping the members of his team. He also displays some unique mannerisms such as snapping his fingers when wanting someone's attention or at the realization of an idea and is known to hallucinate when under stress. McKay is also a hypochondriac claiming to suffer from numerous disorders such as hypoglycemia and restless leg syndrome and allergies to Bee stings and citrus. (ATL: "The Lost Tribe", "The Seer", "Hide and Seek", "Suspicion", "Sateda", "Progeny", "Adrift", "Grace Under Pressure", "Sunday", "Rising", "Runner", "Instinct", "Missing")
Abilities and Skills
McKay has immense skills in physics and math, as well as studying technology and programming computers. In his youth, McKay had some great skill at piano but was encouraged to give it up, he also has some skill in acting. Since joining the Atlantis expedition, McKay has gained skills in Ancient technology examination as well as gaining the ATA gene and being trained in the control of the Puddle Jumper. (ATL: "Rising", "Hide and Seek", "Critical Mass", SG1: "Redemption, Part 2", ATL: "The Defiant One", "The Return, Part 2", "Tao of Rodney")
Languages
Relationships
Family
- Unnamed - Father
- Unnamed - Mother
- Jeannie Miller - Sister
- Kaleb Miller - Brother-in-law
- Madison Miller - Niece
- Unnamed - Aunt
Romantic
- Jennifer Keller - Romantic interest
- Katie Brown - Romantic interest
- Samantha Carter - Romantic interest
Personal
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- John Sheppard - Friend
- Teyla Emmagan - Friend
- Ronon Dex - Friend
- Carson Beckett - Friend
- Elizabeth Weir - Friend
Alternate Timelines
- In an alternate timeline, McKay was part of the expedition who arrived to find the city very low on power. He attempted to override the city from locking down and activate the Stargate to save people from the water. He tried to open the door in the Jumper bay to let the ships out but drowned before he could do so. (ATL: "Before I Sleep")
- In an alternate timeline McKay was called to Cheyenne Mountain to examine a discovered Puddle Jumper. He was not allergic to lemons and considered Lemon Chicken as his favorite food. This McKay was infatuated with Samantha Carter and was convinced that the Stargate would not work. (SG1: "Moebius, Part 1", "Moebius, Part 2")
- In an alternate future where Michael Kenmore took over the Pegasus galaxy and John Sheppard went missing, McKay left the expedition and returned to Earth, becoming romantically involved with Dr. Keller. After she died, he began work on discover when exactly in time Sheppard traveled to and devised the means to get him home, returning to Atlantis and leaving a holographic artificial intelligence to guide Sheppard home. (ATL: "The Last Man")
Alternate Realities
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- In an alternate reality, McKay was known as "Rod" and was a much loved member of the expedition. When a rift in the universe appeared above Atlantis, he figured out that another reality was performing a power generating experiment and he and his Sheppard drew straws to see who would get to be transported into this reality and get them to shut the experiment down. He was successful and helped come up with a plan to get back and seal the rift. (ATL: "McKay and Mrs. Miller")
- In an alternate reality, McKay was an internet millionaire and was once married to Samantha Carter until they divorced. He was approached by the Carter from another reality who wanted his help in creating a bridge back to her universe but he was reluctant to help. The U.S. government forced him to come and work for them when Carter returned to her universe. (SG1: "The Road Not Taken")
- In an alternate reality, McKay helped design and construct an alternate reality drive which was put aboard the Daedalus. (ATL: "The Daedalus Variations")
- In an alternate reality, an alternate Daedalus arrived using the alternate reality drive and he and his team went aboard to investigate and were trapped when the ship jumped to another reality. With very little food on board he and his team starved to death. (ATL: "The Daedalus Variations")
- In an alternate reality, McKay was part of the Atlantis expedition that returned to Earth when a Wraith Hive ship made its way there and was destroyed. He then helped track down a Wraith who crashed on the surface and informed a detective John Sheppard of the Wraith to get his help in tracking it down. (ATL: "Vegas")
Behind the scenes
- McKay was originally going to be an entirely different character named Dr. Ingram, however the production team decide to bring back McKay.
- Rodney McKay had appeared in every episode of Stargate: Atlantis, along with John Sheppard.
- McKay is also one of eight characters to appear in all three series.
| First Atlantis Reconnaissance Team | ||
|---|---|---|
| Current members | John Sheppard - Teyla Emmagan - Rodney McKay - Ronon Dex | 
|
| Former members | Aiden Ford | |