Rodney McKay
Encyclopedia
Doctor Meredith Rodney McKay, Ph.D, is a fictional character
in the Canadian-American Sci-Fi Channel
television series Stargate SG-1
and Stargate Atlantis
, two military science fiction
television shows about a military team exploring two galaxies (Milkyway, and Pegasus) via a network of alien transportation devices. Played by Canadian
actor David Hewlett
, McKay was a main character in all five seasons of Stargate Atlantis (2004–2009). Earlier he held a recurring role in Stargate SG-1 for four seasons (2002, 2004, 2006–2007). In 2011 McKay was featured in an episode of Stargate Universe
.
Doctor Rodney McKay is a contractor for the United States Air Force
and makes his first appearance in the Stargate SG-1 episode "48 Hours", the fourteenth episode of Stargate SG-1 Season 5, as a scientist who joins the fictional Stargate Program. McKay was seen in two more episodes of Stargate SG-1 before becoming a main character in Stargate Atlantis which was set in the Pegasus Galaxy. His next appearances in Stargate SG-1 were in Alternate timeline and different realities
until the crossover
episode "The Pegasus Project" in season ten
. Overall, McKay and Joe Flanigan
's character John Sheppard
are the only two characters who appeared in every episode of Stargate Atlantis, with McKay being the character with the most screentime.
), who is similar in intellect. McKay feels that his parents blamed him for their problems. McKay originally turned to science after his piano teacher told him he was a "fine clinical player" but had no sense of the art. During his youth, McKay joined a Scouting Troop
, Lodge 14 of the Fort McMurray Eager Beavers
Prior to his first appearance in Stargate SG-1
, McKay was stationed at the Area 51
facility where he became one of the premier experts on the Stargate network outside of Stargate Command
. In "48 Hours", he is assigned to help Major Carter recover Teal'c
from being trapped in the Stargate
, but McKay's theories are proven wrong. He is subsequently reassigned to Russia
where he oversees the transfer and development of the naqahdah generator technology. McKay is again assigned to help the SGC in "Redemption
" when Anubis tries to overload the SGC's Stargate with a harmonic energy pulse. McKay later makes a sincere apology to Carter for being wrong.
With the discovery of Atlantis
' location in the Pegasus Galaxy, McKay is assigned to Dr. Elizabeth Weir
's expedition to Atlantis, serving as chief scientific adviser. He leaves his apartment and a cat
on Earth, and becomes the expedition's leading expert on the Ancients, and is assigned to an exploration team consisting of Major John Sheppard
, Teyla Emmagan
and Lieutenant Aiden Ford
. Born without the ATA gene, McKay volunteers to be the first human subject for Dr. Beckett
's gene therapy and becomes the carrier of an artificial ATA gene of his own.
McKay loses Sheppard's trust in "Trinity" after he refuses to listen to Dr. Zelenka and assures both Weir and Sheppard that he can make a piece of Ancient technology ("Project Arcturus") work on an alien planet, but the device explodes and destroys 5/6ths of the surrounding star system. Sheppard tells McKay that it might take a while to earn his trust back, but that he was sure Rodney could do it if he really wanted to. In the episode "The Long Goodbye" McKay claims that he is in charge should both Weir and Sheppard be unavailable or incapacitated, but Col. Steven Caldwell takes command of Atlantis to Weir's later satisfaction.
Some months after the season 2 episode "Duet" where the mind of a female soldier - Lieutenant Laura Cadman - was trapped inside McKay's body, McKay starts a relationship with Katie Brown.
McKay's problems attempting to resurrect Project Arcturus cause him to seek the help of his sister, Jeannie Miller, a fellow scientist whose intelligence matches his—but who lacks the worst of his most aggravating personal qualities. Though there is obvious friction in their relationship, McKay manages to reconcile his differences with his sister.
When living Ancients
reclaim Atlantis and ask the expedition to leave, McKay is reassigned to Area 51. Upon learning that the Asurans have taken Atlantis, McKay joins Sheppard's and Weir's team to retake the city.
During "The Tao of Rodney," Rodney's genes are mutated by a device designed to aid with Ascension on the Ancients who were physiologically incapable of doing so. During this time, Rodney invents several equipment upgrades, writes several theories and books, including a biography of Dr. Weir, and optimizes the city's power grid, believing himself a dead man. After accepting that Ascension is his only hope of surviving, Rodney attempts to make amends to his colleagues and gives final gifts to several friends, including healing the massive scarring on Ronon's back. He is later returned to normal at the last minute.
McKay takes Dr. Beckett's death in "Sunday" quite badly. He assumes the duty of telling Beckett's mother that her son had died (the two are revealed to be, in fact, close friends) and subsequently serves as one of Beckett's pallbearers. A mourning McKay was comforted at the end of the episode by what appeared to be Beckett's spirit.
"Reunion" shows McKay deflated when the newly-promoted Colonel Samantha Carter is announced as the new leader of Atlantis after Dr. Weir worsened condition. McKay tells Carter of his relationship with Katie Brown and that he hopes that the old attraction between them will not get in the way of them working together. In the episode "Quarantine", McKay decides to propose marriage to Katie Brown, but a city-wide lockdown traps him and Katie in the botany lab for several hours. McKay ultimately decides not to move forward with his marriage proposal, although Katie is left in the belief that he intended to propose. Katie and Rodney are no longer speaking in "Trio" because she interpreted his recent decision as a break-up and lack of interest, and she adds her name to a list to be transferred back to Earth. At the end of the episode, Dr. Keller asks Rodney out. In an alternate future in the season finale episode, "The Last Man", McKay loses Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, and Carter, quits the Atlantis expedition team and becomes romantically involved with Dr. Keller. In the episode "The Shrine", Rodney suffers from a disease with symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease
and reveals in a video to Dr. Keller that he has loved her "for some time now". Later, in "Brainstorm", Dr. Keller finally confess to Rodney their feelings were mutual.
member and believes himself to be the smartest person in the city, as mentioned in a conversation between Dr. Weir and Carson in "Hide and Seek". What makes it worse for his fellow team members is that, while he does not possess the wisdom of many of the other characters, in terms of raw intelligence, he is. Despite his irritating demeanor, many members of the Atlantis expedition are on friendly terms with him, and McKay is able to keep steady relationships. An alternate version of himself has admitted that he likes McKay for the simple fact that he is able to speak his mind so freely and simply. Expedition commander Dr. Elizabeth Weir states in "Tao of Rodney" that she and the members of Rodney's team love him. Although McKay enjoys deriding medicine as voodoo and fake science, he considered Dr. Carson Beckett to be "the closest thing to a best friend" he ever had. He is close to the people he works with, having referred to them as a surrogate family in a message to his sister Jeannie.
McKay is a hypochondriac, claiming at various times to suffer from hypoglycemia, restless leg syndrome, allergy to bee stings and citrus fruit, none of which have ever been confirmed. He enjoys veal
, MRE
s, hospital food, and airline food. He studied medical science at one time, but stopped because too much information on the human body made him start diagnosing himself with many phantom diseases. McKay comes up with his most brilliant ideas while faced with the threat of death.
Despite his shortcomings, McKay has performed acts of genuine courage, overcoming his own fears to, for instance hand-carry, and then throw, a naquadah generator through the Stargate in order to lure a creature of floating energy out of the city, or evacuate entire populations from planets about to be destroyed. In "The Defiant One", he is torn between staying with a dying man or going to help the outmatched Sheppard. He often provides comic relief in addition to his considerable technological expertise, and his ability to find solutions in situations of imminent death have been used against him several times to motivate him. Also his ability to talk fast is used to great comedic effect many times in the series, particularly when explaining just how "screwed" they all are. His relationship with Dr. Keller is also used for comedy as no one believes that they are dating, even Colonel Sheppard.
McKay's character frequently makes references only a Canadian of his age would get. On one occasion he laments he hates ropes, that they are the reason he only got a silver ParticipACTION Badge
. On another he offers to give a bewildered Sheppard the "Coles Notes
" version of an explanation. It is not known where in Canada he comes from.
McKay has a predilection for women with short blonde hair—particularly (or perhaps because of) Col. Samantha Carter
. He named the people of Geldar after a blonde girl he once dated; and went so far as advising their women to wear their hair in a manner similar to Col. Carter's. In "Grace Under Pressure", a hallucination of Carter tells McKay the reason he could never have a relationship with her is because "you don't work with people, you don't trust them". By his own admission, he has always envied Carter's aptitude for creativity and for having a "sixth sense" when it comes to problem solving. He has called Carter "an artist", and although he considers himself smarter than Carter, he believes her to be wiser.
McKay's biggest fear (as seen in "Childhood's End") is children. He also has a fear of being eaten by a whale after being read Moby Dick by his father in his childhood. He admitted one of his bad habits is "reacting in a certain way to certain doom".
portrayed McKay in "48 Hours" and "Redemption
" in the sister show
Stargate SG-1
. McKay's citrus allergy was the producers' in-joke about a SG-1 crew member who insisted he was violently allergic to citrus and thus refused going out to lunch with others, not knowing the local restaurant regularly served him salad contained citrus without anything happening. When the new Stargate Atlantis
production crew came up with the casting, they originally created Dr. Benjamin Ingram, an African-Canadian scientist. Hewlett auditioned for the character, despite not being African-Canadian. It was decided that McKay would replace Ingram as a main character for the series.
Producer Joseph Mallozzi
described McKay as "an insufferable ass [in "48 Hours"] who, over the course of the franchise's run, ended up redeeming himself in surprising fashion." According to Mallozzi, McKay "takes another giant step toward redemption [in "Redemption"] – a process that would be completed by the time he assumed a lead position in the Atlantis expedition" and that "He's snarky, smug, and annoying as hell but – damn – he is good at what he does. And what he does is use his smarts to save the day."
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Canadian-American Sci-Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
television series Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
and Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1, which was created by Wright and Jonathan Glassner and was itself...
, two military science fiction
Military science fiction
Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which the principal characters are members of a military service and an armed conflict is taking place, normally in space, or on a planet other than Earth...
television shows about a military team exploring two galaxies (Milkyway, and Pegasus) via a network of alien transportation devices. Played by Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
actor David Hewlett
David Hewlett
David Ian Hewlett is an English-born Canadian actor best known for his role as Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay on the science fiction television shows Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis.-Early life:...
, McKay was a main character in all five seasons of Stargate Atlantis (2004–2009). Earlier he held a recurring role in Stargate SG-1 for four seasons (2002, 2004, 2006–2007). In 2011 McKay was featured in an episode of Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe is a Canadian-American military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. It follows the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team traveling on the Ancient spaceship Destiny many billions of light years distant from the Milky Way...
.
Doctor Rodney McKay is a contractor for the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
and makes his first appearance in the Stargate SG-1 episode "48 Hours", the fourteenth episode of Stargate SG-1 Season 5, as a scientist who joins the fictional Stargate Program. McKay was seen in two more episodes of Stargate SG-1 before becoming a main character in Stargate Atlantis which was set in the Pegasus Galaxy. His next appearances in Stargate SG-1 were in Alternate timeline and different realities
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
until the crossover
Fictional crossover
A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fans, or even amid common...
episode "The Pegasus Project" in season ten
Stargate SG-1 (season 10)
Season ten of Stargate SG-1, an American-Canadian television series, began airing on July 14, 2006 on Sci Fi Channel . The final season of the series concluded after 20 episodes on March 13, 2007 on British Sky One, which overtook the Sci-Fi Channel in mid-season. The series was developed by Brad...
. Overall, McKay and Joe Flanigan
Joe Flanigan
Joe Flanigan is an American television actor best known for his portrayal of the character Major/Lt. Colonel John Sheppard in Stargate Atlantis.-Early life:Flanigan was born Joseph Dunnigan III in Los Angeles, California...
's character John Sheppard
John Sheppard (Stargate)
John Sheppard is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis, a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices...
are the only two characters who appeared in every episode of Stargate Atlantis, with McKay being the character with the most screentime.
Character biography
Rodney McKay was born in 1968. He has a sister named Jeannie Miller (played by David Hewlett's sister Kate HewlettKate Hewlett
Katherine Emily "Kate" Hewlett is a Canadian actress, writer and songwriter.-Biography:Hewlett was born in Toronto, Ontario. Her brother is actor David Hewlett, who portrayed Rodney McKay in Stargate Atlantis who was also her brother on-screen. Kate guest-starred as McKay's sister Jeannie in four...
), who is similar in intellect. McKay feels that his parents blamed him for their problems. McKay originally turned to science after his piano teacher told him he was a "fine clinical player" but had no sense of the art. During his youth, McKay joined a Scouting Troop
Scouts Canada
Scouts Canada is a Canadian Scouting association that, in affiliation with the French-language Association des Scouts du Canada, is a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement...
, Lodge 14 of the Fort McMurray Eager Beavers
Beavers (Scouting)
Beavers in Scouting is one name for the youngest section of Scouting with members younger than Cub Scouts and sometimes going to as young as five years of age. Other names are used in some countries...
Prior to his first appearance in Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
, McKay was stationed at the Area 51
Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
facility where he became one of the premier experts on the Stargate network outside of Stargate Command
Stargate Command
The Stargate Program is a fictional top-secret program that plays a key role in the Stargate franchise: it surrounds the operations of the Stargate on Earth. The core of the Stargate Program is Stargate Command , based at the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station near Colorado Springs, Colorado...
. In "48 Hours", he is assigned to help Major Carter recover Teal'c
Teal'c
Teal'c is a fictional character in the military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. Played by Christopher Judge, Teal'c is a Jaffa warrior from the planet Chulak. As a Jaffa, Teal'c is a genetically modified human with an abdominal pouch that serves as an incubator for a larval Goa'uld...
from being trapped in the Stargate
Stargate (device)
A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
, but McKay's theories are proven wrong. He is subsequently reassigned to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
where he oversees the transfer and development of the naqahdah generator technology. McKay is again assigned to help the SGC in "Redemption
Redemption (Stargate SG-1)
The two-part episode "Redemption" is the Season 6 premiere of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. Airing on June 7 and June 14, 2002, it was the first all-new SG-1 episode to be broadcast by SCI FI, the new home of SG-1 after the series' move from Showtime. The episode was written...
" when Anubis tries to overload the SGC's Stargate with a harmonic energy pulse. McKay later makes a sincere apology to Carter for being wrong.
With the discovery of Atlantis
Atlantis (Stargate)
In the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis, the spin-off of Stargate SG-1, Atlantis is a city-sized starship originally located in the Pegasus galaxy. Atlantis serves as the base of operations for the main characters, from which they explore other planets through the Stargate...
' location in the Pegasus Galaxy, McKay is assigned to Dr. Elizabeth Weir
Elizabeth Weir (Stargate)
Dr. Elizabeth Weir is a fictional character in the Canadian-American Sci-Fi Channel television series Stargate Atlantis, a military science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices. Elizabeth Weir is introduced as a recurring character in...
's expedition to Atlantis, serving as chief scientific adviser. He leaves his apartment and a cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
on Earth, and becomes the expedition's leading expert on the Ancients, and is assigned to an exploration team consisting of Major John Sheppard
John Sheppard (Stargate)
John Sheppard is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis, a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices...
, Teyla Emmagan
Teyla Emmagan
Teyla Emmagan was a primary fictional character played by Rachel Luttrell in the science fiction series, Stargate Atlantis. In the show, she is the daughter of Tagan, and was a leader of a village on the planet Athos...
and Lieutenant Aiden Ford
Aiden Ford
Aiden Ford is a fictional character in the Canadian-American Sci-Fi Channel television series Stargate Atlantis, a military science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices...
. Born without the ATA gene, McKay volunteers to be the first human subject for Dr. Beckett
Carson Beckett
Dr. Carson Beckett is a fictional Scottish character in the Canadian-American science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis, a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1. He is portrayed by Scottish-born Canadian actor Paul McGillion, who previously played Dr. Ernest Littlefield in the first season of...
's gene therapy and becomes the carrier of an artificial ATA gene of his own.
McKay loses Sheppard's trust in "Trinity" after he refuses to listen to Dr. Zelenka and assures both Weir and Sheppard that he can make a piece of Ancient technology ("Project Arcturus") work on an alien planet, but the device explodes and destroys 5/6ths of the surrounding star system. Sheppard tells McKay that it might take a while to earn his trust back, but that he was sure Rodney could do it if he really wanted to. In the episode "The Long Goodbye" McKay claims that he is in charge should both Weir and Sheppard be unavailable or incapacitated, but Col. Steven Caldwell takes command of Atlantis to Weir's later satisfaction.
Some months after the season 2 episode "Duet" where the mind of a female soldier - Lieutenant Laura Cadman - was trapped inside McKay's body, McKay starts a relationship with Katie Brown.
McKay's problems attempting to resurrect Project Arcturus cause him to seek the help of his sister, Jeannie Miller, a fellow scientist whose intelligence matches his—but who lacks the worst of his most aggravating personal qualities. Though there is obvious friction in their relationship, McKay manages to reconcile his differences with his sister.
When living Ancients
Ancient (Stargate)
The Ancients are a humanoid race in the fictional Stargate universe. They are called "Ancients" in the Milky Way, but are also known as Lanteans or Ancestors in the Pegasus galaxy and as the Alterans in their home galaxy, and they sometimes call themselves Anquietas in their language...
reclaim Atlantis and ask the expedition to leave, McKay is reassigned to Area 51. Upon learning that the Asurans have taken Atlantis, McKay joins Sheppard's and Weir's team to retake the city.
During "The Tao of Rodney," Rodney's genes are mutated by a device designed to aid with Ascension on the Ancients who were physiologically incapable of doing so. During this time, Rodney invents several equipment upgrades, writes several theories and books, including a biography of Dr. Weir, and optimizes the city's power grid, believing himself a dead man. After accepting that Ascension is his only hope of surviving, Rodney attempts to make amends to his colleagues and gives final gifts to several friends, including healing the massive scarring on Ronon's back. He is later returned to normal at the last minute.
McKay takes Dr. Beckett's death in "Sunday" quite badly. He assumes the duty of telling Beckett's mother that her son had died (the two are revealed to be, in fact, close friends) and subsequently serves as one of Beckett's pallbearers. A mourning McKay was comforted at the end of the episode by what appeared to be Beckett's spirit.
"Reunion" shows McKay deflated when the newly-promoted Colonel Samantha Carter is announced as the new leader of Atlantis after Dr. Weir worsened condition. McKay tells Carter of his relationship with Katie Brown and that he hopes that the old attraction between them will not get in the way of them working together. In the episode "Quarantine", McKay decides to propose marriage to Katie Brown, but a city-wide lockdown traps him and Katie in the botany lab for several hours. McKay ultimately decides not to move forward with his marriage proposal, although Katie is left in the belief that he intended to propose. Katie and Rodney are no longer speaking in "Trio" because she interpreted his recent decision as a break-up and lack of interest, and she adds her name to a list to be transferred back to Earth. At the end of the episode, Dr. Keller asks Rodney out. In an alternate future in the season finale episode, "The Last Man", McKay loses Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, and Carter, quits the Atlantis expedition team and becomes romantically involved with Dr. Keller. In the episode "The Shrine", Rodney suffers from a disease with symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
and reveals in a video to Dr. Keller that he has loved her "for some time now". Later, in "Brainstorm", Dr. Keller finally confess to Rodney their feelings were mutual.
Personality
Dr. McKay is one of the most arrogant and condescending personalities found in the Stargate franchise. He once identified himself as a MensaMensa International
Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test...
member and believes himself to be the smartest person in the city, as mentioned in a conversation between Dr. Weir and Carson in "Hide and Seek". What makes it worse for his fellow team members is that, while he does not possess the wisdom of many of the other characters, in terms of raw intelligence, he is. Despite his irritating demeanor, many members of the Atlantis expedition are on friendly terms with him, and McKay is able to keep steady relationships. An alternate version of himself has admitted that he likes McKay for the simple fact that he is able to speak his mind so freely and simply. Expedition commander Dr. Elizabeth Weir states in "Tao of Rodney" that she and the members of Rodney's team love him. Although McKay enjoys deriding medicine as voodoo and fake science, he considered Dr. Carson Beckett to be "the closest thing to a best friend" he ever had. He is close to the people he works with, having referred to them as a surrogate family in a message to his sister Jeannie.
McKay is a hypochondriac, claiming at various times to suffer from hypoglycemia, restless leg syndrome, allergy to bee stings and citrus fruit, none of which have ever been confirmed. He enjoys veal
Veal
Veal is the meat of young cattle , as opposed to meat from older cattle. Though veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, most veal comes from male calves of dairy cattle breeds...
, MRE
MRE
The Meal, Ready-to-Eat — commonly known as the MRE — is a self-contained, individual field ration in lightweight packaging bought by the United States military for its service members for use in combat or other field conditions where organized food facilities are not available...
s, hospital food, and airline food. He studied medical science at one time, but stopped because too much information on the human body made him start diagnosing himself with many phantom diseases. McKay comes up with his most brilliant ideas while faced with the threat of death.
Despite his shortcomings, McKay has performed acts of genuine courage, overcoming his own fears to, for instance hand-carry, and then throw, a naquadah generator through the Stargate in order to lure a creature of floating energy out of the city, or evacuate entire populations from planets about to be destroyed. In "The Defiant One", he is torn between staying with a dying man or going to help the outmatched Sheppard. He often provides comic relief in addition to his considerable technological expertise, and his ability to find solutions in situations of imminent death have been used against him several times to motivate him. Also his ability to talk fast is used to great comedic effect many times in the series, particularly when explaining just how "screwed" they all are. His relationship with Dr. Keller is also used for comedy as no one believes that they are dating, even Colonel Sheppard.
McKay's character frequently makes references only a Canadian of his age would get. On one occasion he laments he hates ropes, that they are the reason he only got a silver ParticipACTION Badge
ParticipACTION
ParticipACTION is a national non-profit organization, originally launched as a Canadian government program in the 1970s, to promote healthy living and physical fitness...
. On another he offers to give a bewildered Sheppard the "Coles Notes
Coles notes
Coles Notes are student guides to literature, published in Canada. The Coles bookstore first published Coles Notes in 1948. The first title published was on the French novella Colomba by Prosper Mérimée....
" version of an explanation. It is not known where in Canada he comes from.
McKay has a predilection for women with short blonde hair—particularly (or perhaps because of) Col. Samantha Carter
Samantha Carter
Samantha "Sam" Carter is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction Stargate franchise, appearing in television series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe. SG-1 and Atlantis are both about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien...
. He named the people of Geldar after a blonde girl he once dated; and went so far as advising their women to wear their hair in a manner similar to Col. Carter's. In "Grace Under Pressure", a hallucination of Carter tells McKay the reason he could never have a relationship with her is because "you don't work with people, you don't trust them". By his own admission, he has always envied Carter's aptitude for creativity and for having a "sixth sense" when it comes to problem solving. He has called Carter "an artist", and although he considers himself smarter than Carter, he believes her to be wiser.
McKay's biggest fear (as seen in "Childhood's End") is children. He also has a fear of being eaten by a whale after being read Moby Dick by his father in his childhood. He admitted one of his bad habits is "reacting in a certain way to certain doom".
Conceptual history
David HewlettDavid Hewlett
David Ian Hewlett is an English-born Canadian actor best known for his role as Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay on the science fiction television shows Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis.-Early life:...
portrayed McKay in "48 Hours" and "Redemption
Redemption (Stargate SG-1)
The two-part episode "Redemption" is the Season 6 premiere of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. Airing on June 7 and June 14, 2002, it was the first all-new SG-1 episode to be broadcast by SCI FI, the new home of SG-1 after the series' move from Showtime. The episode was written...
" in the sister show
Sister show
Sister shows are two or more television shows which exist in the same fictional universe and which may have crossovers. They differ to a degree from spin-offs in that shows may air simultaneously, rather than being derived from, and replacing, another. The popularity of most shows is limited to a...
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
. McKay's citrus allergy was the producers' in-joke about a SG-1 crew member who insisted he was violently allergic to citrus and thus refused going out to lunch with others, not knowing the local restaurant regularly served him salad contained citrus without anything happening. When the new Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1, which was created by Wright and Jonathan Glassner and was itself...
production crew came up with the casting, they originally created Dr. Benjamin Ingram, an African-Canadian scientist. Hewlett auditioned for the character, despite not being African-Canadian. It was decided that McKay would replace Ingram as a main character for the series.
Producer Joseph Mallozzi
Joseph Mallozzi
Joseph Mallozzi is a Canadian writer and producer.He is most noted for his contributions to the Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Stargate Universe television series. He joined the Stargate production team at the start of Stargate SG-1s fourth season in 2000...
described McKay as "an insufferable ass [in "48 Hours"] who, over the course of the franchise's run, ended up redeeming himself in surprising fashion." According to Mallozzi, McKay "takes another giant step toward redemption [in "Redemption"] – a process that would be completed by the time he assumed a lead position in the Atlantis expedition" and that "He's snarky, smug, and annoying as hell but – damn – he is good at what he does. And what he does is use his smarts to save the day."
External links
- Rodney McKay at Stargate wikia
- Rodney McKay at scifiSci Fi Channel (United States)Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
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