"And look where we are now, and where he is." McKay could very well go into a treatise about stagnated worlds where they've plateaued, and humans have continued to learn, to grow, to move, change and even surpass those others. The fact that the astrophysicist has a shot of -understanding- the science behind the time travel speaks volumes. At least in his book.

"Not bad for an 'ape' to be able to understand what they've been doing for 'millions of years', all in... what? A blink of a cosmic eye? Hmmmm?" Clash of the egos. Still, while McKay wasn't necessarily smiling, his tones didn't carry a combative tenor, simply an intellectual challenge, exchange. He's willing to grant the timelord's people millions of years of experience, but the human physicists have done a pretty credible job in playing 'catch-up'.