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Leonard McCoy

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Template:Star Trek character

Leonard H. McCoy, M.D. (2227-) (nicknamed "Bones", as in the old-fashioned colloquialism "Sawbones" for a doctor or a surgeon), played by DeForest Kelley, is a Starfleet officer in the fictional Star Trek universe. He is one of three main characters in the original Star Trek series, the humanistic counterpart to the logical Spock: capable of great compassion, yet also cranky, superstitious, and irrational. He is suspicious of advanced technology, especially the transporter, which he regards with distrust and often outright dismay, and occasionally is bigoted with regard to Spock's half-Vulcan ancestry. He is the only American Southerner depicted among the racially and ethnically diverse crew of the USS Enterprise.

McCoy professes a preference toward "good ol' fashioned country medicine," however when he encounters highly invasive 1980s medicine, he refers to it as "medievalism" and reacts to it with anger and disgust (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). McCoy is a physician of considerable skill, capable even of successfully treating creatures whose physiologies he is unfamiliar with, such as the Horta (TOS: "The Devil in the Dark").

History

Template:Spoiler Little is established about McCoy's biography in the official Star Trek canon. McCoy was born in 2227 (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint"). He attended Ole Miss, which is the University of Mississippi, where he once met Emony Dax, a female Trill athlete with whom it is implied he had a sexual relationship (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"). McCoy euthanized his terminally ill father, Dr. David McCoy, for which he carried lasting guilt because a cure for his father's ailment was discovered not long afterward (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier).

McCoy was not a graduate of Starfleet Academy but rather was commissioned by Starfleet as a lieutenant.[citation needed] By 2265, he had been promoted to lieutenant commander and was assigned as a medical observer to the planet Capella. The assignment was unfruitful, as the Capellans found little need for medical arts and existed under a tribal society where only the strong survived (TOS: "Friday's Child").

In 2266, McCoy was named chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk, replacing Doctor Mark Piper. McCoy and Kirk become good friends, but the passionate, sometimes cantankerous McCoy frequently argues with Kirk's other close friend and confidante, Spock. McCoy served until 2269, when the ship's five-year mission ended. He retired to private medical practice by 2270.

During the 2271 V'Ger Crisis, Kirk uses a "little-known, seldom used, reserve activation clause," which McCoy likens to being drafted, to recall McCoy to Starfleet as a commander and chief medical officer aboard the refit Enterprise (Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

By 2285, McCoy was an instructor at Starfleet Academy. Shortly before Spock's death, Spock uses McCoy as a receptacle for his katra (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). The experience is traumatic for both McCoy and Spock; McCoy is taken into custody in response to his brazen attempts to reach the Genesis Planet in an attempt to reunite Spock's katra with his body. Kirk and Hikaru Sulu break McCoy out of custody and, after stealing the Enterprise with the aid of Montgomery Scott, Pavel Chekov, and Uhura, recover Spock's body and facilitate the return of Spock's katra to his body. In the process, the Enterprise is destroyed (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock).

During the Enterprise crew's three-month stay on Vulcan, McCoy makes a full recovery. McCoy's "fine sense of historical irony" leads to him naming the crew's captured Klingon ship the HMS Bounty. McCoy, along with the rest of Kirk's crew, are not prosecuted for their illegal actions regarding the theft of the Enterprise and travel to Genesis; Kirk, however, is demoted and given command of a new starship, the USS Enterprise-A (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home); McCoy joins the crew as the chief medical officer (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier). McCoy is briefly taken into custody in 2293 and imprisoned on Rura Penthe, along with Kirk, when General Chang frames the Enterprise crew for the murder of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon. McCoy and Kirk are rescued, and McCoy aids Spock in constructing a torpedo to destroy Chang's experimental bird-of-prey (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country).

File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF9a.png
Admiral McCoy's shoulder board

Between 2295 and 2363, McCoy's life and activities are unknown, although a FASA roleplaying manual states that McCoy held a special staff rank known as "branch admiral".

In 2363, Admiral McCoy is briefly aboard the recently-commissioned USS Enterprise-D, and compares Data's mannerisms and speech to that of Vulcans (Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Encounter at Farpoint").

DeForest Kelley filmed no additional Star Trek scenes, although he is briefly visible in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations" via footage from Star Trek's "The Trouble With Tribbles".

McCoy's book Comparative Alien Physiology became a classic among medical textbooks on par with Gray's Anatomy, and part of the knowledge base of the Emergency Medical Hologram (VOY "Message in a Bottle").

McCoy appears in several non-canon novels, several of which revolve around him. In William Shatner's novels, McCoy is over 150 years old, thanks in large part to synthetic body parts (heart, lungs, digestive system, legs, etc.) outnumbering his original ones. DeForest Kelley's death in 1999 lead to a DC Comics story chronicling McCoy's death, in which Spock and Scott - two TOS characters shown to be alive in the 24th century - visit McCoy on his death bed. This comics story, however, continues to be contradicted by McCoy's continued appearances in Trek novels penned by Shatner up to and including the recent ones.

In the series Star Trek" Voyager, the holographic doctor, while talking to a patient states Leonard McCoy invented a procedure that involves grafting Klingon skin.

Catchphrases

"He's dead, Jim."

McCoy frequently declares someone or something deceased with the line, "He's dead", "He's dead, Jim", or something similar. He makes such pronouncements for several people and things, including:

In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the script originally had McCoy say "He's dead, Jim" in Spock's death scene. However, Kelley objected to it on the grounds that it would provoke unintended laughter[citation needed]. Instead Scott tells Kirk, "Sir, he's dead already!" McCoy confirms it by telling Kirk that it is too late to save Spock.

"I'm a doctor, not a(n)..."

When McCoy is pressed to perform as something other than a doctor, he often reminds whoever's nearby that he is "just" a doctor, frequently by saying, "I'm a doctor, not a(n)...", concluding with whatever profession relates to what it is he's asked to do. Such professions include:


In The Animated Series's "Albatross", McCoy says, "I'm a doctor, Spock, a doctor."

The phrase is frequently misquoted as being prefaced with "Dammit, Jim...", but McCoy never uses the clause on the television series.

  • Also from Star Trek: Voyager, Tom Paris says "I'm a pilot, Harry, not a doctor" when Paris is temporarily assigned to sickbay after The Doctor is sent on an away-mission ("Message in a Bottle").
  • In an episode of the Star Trek: Enterprise series, "Doctors Orders", Dr. Phlox proclaims "I'm a physician, not an engineer!" when confronted with the problem of restarting the warp reactor by himself.
  • In the computer game Starcraft: Brood War, when the player repeatedly clicks on a Terran Medic, she will eventually say "His EKG is flatlining! Give me a defib stat!" followed by "He's dead, Jim."
  • The Transformers cartoon parodies McCoy in the episode "The Return of Optimus Prime" with Wreck-Gar saying "I'm a doctor, not a forklift" and "He's dead, Jim" when asked if he can repair Optimus Prime. (Wreck-Gar also parodies Montgomery Scott in the same scene.)
  • In keeping with Stargate Atlantis' profusion of Star Trek references, Dr. Carson Beckett is often linked to McCoy. On at least one occasion, he says "I'm a medical doctor, not a bloody fighter pilot!" ("The Storm", "The Eye"). In addition, Dr. Rodney McKay needles Beckett about how, like McCoy, he doesn't like going outside his safety zone (in McCoy's case, the ship; in Beckett's case, Atlantis) or using a teleportation device (in McCoy's case, a transporter; in Beckett's case a Stargate), at which point Teyla Emmagan inquires about McCoy. Major John Sheppard describes McCoy as "The TV character Beckett plays in real life."(Template:Sgcite)
  • In Stargate SG-1 season 9 episode "Babylon", Col. Mitchell is saved from dying in a duel to the death by being drugged to feign death -- the same strategy used to save Kirk from dying in combat with Spock in the Original Series episode "Amok Time". When he revives, he thanks his benefactor by saying, "Good work, Bones."
  • In Treasure Planet, Dr. Doppler reverses McCoy's famous line: "Dang it, Jim, I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor."
  • In the film Zoolander, Derek Zoolander's father says, "Damnit, Derek, I'm a coal miner, not a professional film or television actor."
  • In a late 1990s episode of "Saturday Night Live" hosted by William Shatner, a skit involving the Enterprise as a rotating restaurant has Kirk turning to McCoy for help after a patron starts to choke. McCoy (played by Phil Hartman) responds with "Dammit, I'm a Doctor, not a... Oh! Oh, sure!" and proceeds to administer the Heimlich maneuver.
  • On the TV series Unfabulous, Principal Brandywine uses lines that follow the pattern of, "This is school [or name of a school-related object or place], not a/an/the [event, time, place or object unrelated to school]!", or "You're a middle school student, not [a famous person who does what the student is doing]!", or "I'm a middle school principal, not a doctor [or other jobs outside school]!"
  • In a television commercial for Trivial Pursuit, a player asks another player a medical question from one of the cards. The camera whip-pans to reveal DeForest Kelley, who says, "How should I know? I'm an actor, not a doctor."
  • In an episode of Family Guy, Peter Griffin, looking for someone to give him a prostate exams, comes across McCoy. McCoy then responds with, "Forget it. I'm a doctor, not a patsy."
  • An episode of Beavis and Butthead has the pair witnessing a Star Trek episode in which McCoy is heard to state: "Captain, there is a limit to what one man can do. Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a... oh yeah. I'll get right on it."
  • In the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, at the completion of a specific quest in which the end result is the questgiver 'accidentally' blowing himself up, the NPC goblin "Doc" quips, "Dammit Boots! I'm a doctor, not a priest!"
  • In an episode of House, "Mob Rule", Dr. Gregory House says, "I'm a doctor, not a lapdog for the feds."
  • On the "Guide to Fundraising & Competition" episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Vice Principal Crubbs, Mr. Sweeney, and Coach Dirga told Ned and Cookie "You're the worst fundraisers ever!", and then Cookie's response is "We're students, not salesmen!"

Future casting

Since Star Trek XI will, by all accounts, take place during the same time frame as the original Trek series, it is possible that McCoy will make an appearance. No casting has, as yet, been made for any roles in the film; however, fans are already speculating over who will play (among others) McCoy. Gary Sinise is a fan favorite for the role.

John M. Kelley plays doctor McCoy in the Star Trek New Voyages fan films.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Star Trek: The Original Series.

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