Stargate Atlantis, Season 3

[Weir and Sheppard walk into the chair room to talk to McKay.]

Dr. Weir:
Rodney, we need to talk.

[Rodney deactivates the chair and reads their minds]

Dr. McKay:
What do you mean I'm gonna die? I'm not even sick! I feel great -- never better!

Lt. Col. Sheppard:
That Ancient device...

McKay:
[Reading his mind] ...has accelerated my evolution. [Reading Weir's mind] Eventually I'll reach a point where I'm physically capable of ascension, but ascension takes more than that -- there's a mental component. I need to know how to make it happen... which I don't. [Reads Ronon's thoughts] Yet!! I'm getting smarter by the minute, it's a pretty good assumption I'll be able to figure it out on the way. [Rodney reads Weir's mind again]. OK, so it's not as easy as that. Well, even if I don't, so I stay a highly-evolved human. I mean, I don't have to ascend, it's a choice, right? [John grimaces slightly] No? What do you mean, no? Oh, that stupid Ancient device doesn't work properly, does it? [He reads Elizabeth's mind again] It's set in motion a series of genetic mutations that will result in my death if I don't ascend?!

Lt. Col. Sheppard:
[To Weir] There is something easier about this.

Dr. McKay:
That's why the Ancients didn't put it into common use, it's just one more in a long line of abysmal, over-ambitious failures! Oh God. I'm a dead man!