Meredith Rodney McKay

"Well I've discovered you're pretty good under the threat of impending death!"

- John Sheppard

Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay is a brilliant Canadian astrophysicist, and one of the leading experts on not only the Stargate and wormhole physics, but also Ancient and nanite technology in both the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies. Although he is able to formulate many ground-breaking ideas on a broad range of subjects, his phobias and arrogance continually serve as a hinderance to his abilities.

McKay was initially involved with the Earth Stargate program, and later as the leading scientist on the Atlantis Expedition. He is a self-important scientist with a great deal of knowledge relevant to the Stargate, wormhole physics, and Ancient technology, but, according to Samantha Carter, has no feel for it.

When he joined the expedition to Atlantis he was very eager of being part of the expedition, and he continues to excel in many scientific aspects. He is also a member of Atlantis 1. Despite his mannerisms and insecurities he does occasionally show endearing moments of vulnerability and bravery. Together with Radek Zelenka, he works miracles with the tools at hand, but he has trouble acknowledging other people's work.

Biography
McKay was born in Canada sometime in 1968. . He said that when he was six years old, his father read him Moby Dick and ever since then, has recurring nightmares that he was eaten by a Whale. During his education years, he earned two Ph.Ds in Physics. He also once admitted to have "toked" Cannabis when he was in University and claimed he didn't feel any adverse affects, apart from itching and a desire to eat an entire loaf of white bread. He has a younger sister named Jeannie Miller, who is also a talented scientist, but when she decided to start a family, they had a massive argument and never talked for four years before seeing her again. He says he is allergic to citrus. He works for the Stargate program. Despite being Canadian, he worked for the United States Air Force and was on their payrole.

2002
When Teal'c failed to materialise through the Stargate back to Earth, Colonel Frank Simmons hires McKay to help, but they have a 48 hour deadline before they should resume gate activity. McKay was immedietly infatuated with Carter and tried to talk to her, but the conversation quickly turned sour when Carter realises that he was the one who 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 led to Carter calling him a "jerk". After the situation was resolved- with McKay's theories about Teal'c's pattern being proven incorrect-, McKay was ordered to come to Russia to help with their Naquadah generator technology. McKay initially protested, stating he's a civilian and doesn't follow orders, until Carter points out that he is still part of the USAF payrole.

A few months later, he returned to the states to help Carter with a solution to shut down the Stargate before Anubis uses it to destroy the Earth. He suggested they use an Electromagnetic pulse to shut down the gate, but that only made things worse. In the end, the solution to the problem was to use the X-302's hyperdrive to make a "short jump" (in relative terms which means still a really long way) with the Gate strapped to the underside of the 302. This sent the Gate far enough from Earth that it wasn't effected by the Gate's explosion. Carter later kisses McKay on the cheek, which he interpreted as meaning that Carter no longer hates him.

2004
When the Ancient outpost was discovered in Antarctica, Rodney McKay was one of the scientists involved in studying the technologies of the outpost, namely the outpost's control chair. 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 Carson Beckett) that it could only be used by somebody with the Ancient Technology Activation Gene. Afterwards, he assisted in setting up the outpost's Zero Point Module to connect to Earth's Stargate, which activated the connection to Atlantis. He joined the Expedition to the Pegasus Galaxy and 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.



Wanting to work Ancient technologies, McKay acted as the guinea pig for Carson Beckett's first human trial of the Ancient Technology Activation gene therapy. The test proved successful and McKay attached an Ancient personal shield to himself, testing it out by having Sheppard shoot him and pushing 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. Eventually, the shield became depleted and fell off.

When Sheppard and Teyla discovered a massive storm covering 20% of Lantea's surface that is also heading for Atlantis, McKay discovered a way to power Atlantis' shield by using lightning strikes from the same storm that seemed poised to destroy the city. When the city was temporarily evacuated, McKay, along with Weir, Sheppard and a couple of marines stayed behind to disable the grounding stations, when several Genii soldiers, led by Acastus Kolya stormed the city after the first contact with them went sour. They tried to retrieve supplies the Tau'ri promised (medical supplies and C4). However, McKay managed to have bought enough time so Sheppard could save the city and McKay managed to have activated the city shield before being wiped out by a massive tsunami.

One of his first acts of bravery during his time in Atlantis was on the Light Bugs' Planet where he stood up against a Wraith by distracting him before it killed Sheppard.

2005
Before the siege McKay went with Dr. Grodin and Lt. Miller to the Ancient defense satellite to reactivate it and to take care of the three Hive Ships. One was destoyed before the satellite was. During the siege, the Daedalus arrived and beamed down the ZPM Altantis desperately needs to protect the city. In the process, he was cornered by Wraith guards. After a spontaneous show of courage, until he accidentally ejected the magazine of his sidearm, Teyla managed to have saved him and the ZPM was installed and the sheild activated before the Wraith Darts made a kamikaze run on the city. He was later working with Zelenka to cloak the city to make the Wraith believe the city is destroyed.

He briefly had the conscioussness of Lt. Laura Cadman after they were both beamed by the Wraith and rescued. During that time, they had difficulty co-existing and after some embarrassing incidents, the Wraith transporter was finally repaired and Cadman was restored to her proper body, but not before sharing a passionate kiss with Dr. Beckett.

He was in charge of Project Arcturus found on the Doranda outpost. He convinced Weir and Sheppard that after the first attempt resulted in the death of an expedition member, they should try again. However the second attempt resulted the destruction of 5/6th of its solar system.

2006
He was test flying a newly-repaired Jumper after it was shot down on Olesia when one of its engines failed, causing it crash land into the Lantean Ocean. While trying to find a way out of the sinking craft, he had a hallucination of Samantha Carter, who told Rodney to use whatever power left for survival, because Zelenka and Shepperd were working on a way to rescue him. However, McKay ignored "Carter's" advice and attempted a different means to get out of the ocean. The hallucinatory "Carter" tried to delay McKay by being one of his fantasies, which in the end, didn't work. McKay then used up most of the Jumper's remaining power trying to raise it out of the water. However, the weak distress signal he was transmitting attracted the attention of a Flagisallus. The fish was the reason Zelenka and Shepperd managed to have found McKay and rescued him.

McKay's problems of attempting to resurrect Project Arcturus, eventually caused him to seek the help of his sister, Jeannie Miller, a fellow scientist whose intelligence matches his, but lacks the worst of his most aggravating personal qualities. She first thought of a way to bridge two universes, which would cause a benefit for the succession of the project. This ultimately failed as the other universe was threatened to be wiped out from existence, and in order to shut it down, meant the depletion of their ZPM. Although there is obvious friction in the relationship with Jeannie, McKay manages to reconcile his differences with her.

In the space of just a few months, he was shot twice. The first time was when one of Keturah's people fired an arrow into his Glutius Maximus, and the second time when Sheppard mistaken him for a Taliban soldier and barely missed his chest. He did manage to have recovered from the two events, but is said to be prone to Sciatica since being hit in the arrow.

He, along with Carter had figured out a way to go back and forth to Earth and Atlantis without the use of a ZPM and waiting three weeks while sitting in the Daedalus, by building the McKay-Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge.

2007
At one point, McKay came across an ascension lab, which has augmented his body to a point, where he was eventually capable to ascend. He had developed several new-found powers including Telekinesis, Healing powers, mind reading and increased intelligence. He eventually figured out a way to save him through using his telepathy to Beckett.

McKay was deeply affected by the death of Beckett, who was killed in an explosion. He felt somewhat responsible when he didn't go fishing with him. When he was hallucinating Beckett, Rodney tells him that he considers him a best friend.

Alternate realities

 * In an alternate timeline, McKay stayed behind on the newly discovered Atlantis to attempt and open the bay doors of the Puddle Jumper bay. He drowned as the control room of Atlantis became submerged. The alternate-timeline Weir called him "heroic" for giving his life on the chance that the city and the expedition might be saved.
 * In an alternate reality Dr. Rodney McKay was the lead astrophysicist working at Cheyenne Mountain. Unlike the McKay in our reality, he was not allergic to lemon and, in fact, considered lemon chicken his favorite food. However, like the McKay in our reality, he was infatuated with Samantha Carter and wished to name the Puddle Jumper a "Gateship."
 * An alternate reality Dr. Rodney "Rod" McKay came to our reality to prevent his from being destroyed by a power generating experiment. The project was shutdown, but the exotic particles were still being created in his reality. Rod, our McKay, and his sister found a way to disconnect their realities, stopping the creation of any more particles. The plan was successful and Rod was sent back to his reality, however this depleted the ZPM.
 * ''In an alternate reality the McKay wears glasses and is, according to Lorne a "dotcom millionaire smart-ass". He is a high-tech industrialist and was once married to Carter before getting a divorce. Carter wanted his help to bridge his universe with Carter's, something he has done was his sister back in her own reality.
 * In an alternate timeline when Sheppard travelled to 48,000 years in the future and Michael successfully took over the Galaxy, McKay eventually resigned when the IOA and the Earth military abandoned helping the humans of Pegasus. On the way back to Earth, he became romantically involved with Keller, until she died due to complications with the Hoffan drug. He then spent 25 years to figure out a way to leave a message for Sheppard in the future that would allow him to work out a way to return to the past and undo those events.