Overview[]
Leonard McCoy is the chief physician aboard the USS Enterprise. And damn it, he's a doctor and not many other things. Better known by his nicknames, "Bones", he served as Chief Medical Officer aboard the USS Enterprise and it's successor the USS Enterprise-A.
The cantankerous McCoy became close friends with Captain Kirk who gave him his unflattering nickname from the old physician's epithet of "Sawbones" as well as developing an antagonistic personal feud with Science Officer Spock. The duo often found themselves arguing over the value of emotion and logic and have had numerous bitter and humrous disagreements over the decades.
Culturally, the irascible Dr. McCoy is best known for his infamous catchphrases, "He's dead, Jim," and "Dammit, I'm a Doctor, not a(n)..." which has been parodied in any number of other series. He is often seen by critics as Captain Kirk's humanity; a representation of his conscience and emotional moral center while Spock is the hyper-rational, extreme science, and logic part to his personality. Of the dysfunctional trio, it is McCoy who acts as the glue that holds them together and functioning despite their different personalities and opinions.
Leonard "Bones" McCoy first appeared on September 8, 1966 in the television series Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "The Man Trap". He was portrayed by DeForest Kelley who would go on to reprise in role in the various television series, animated cartoons, and movies until the actor's death in 1999. He was actually the third replacement for the ship's physician due to the prior pilot episodes. Although the original television series was intended to focus on William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy as the stars of the show, Kelley's interactions with the pair quickly made him a fan favorite and he subsequently graduated to equal billing by the second season of the series.
In the 2009 feature reboot film Star Trek and its sequels, he was replaced by Karl Urban.
Background[]
Major Plots[]
Personality and Traits[]
Appearances[]
Films[]
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
TV Series[]
Star Trek[]
Season 1
- The Man Trap
- Charlie X
- The Naked Time
- The Enemy Within
- Mudd's Women
- Miri
- Dagger of the Mind
- The Corbomite Maneuver
- The Menagerie: Part 1
- The Conscience of the King
- Balance of Terror
- Shore Leave
- The Galileo Seven
- The Squire of Gothos
- Arena
- Tomorrow is Yesterday
- Court Martial
- The Return of the Archons
- Space Seed
- A Taste of Armageddon
- This Side of Paradise
- The Devil in the Dark
- Errand of Mercy
- The Alternative Factor
- The City on the Edge of Forever
- Operation - Annihilate!
Season 2
- Amok Time
- Who Mourns for Adonais?
- The Changeling
- Mirror, Mirror
- The Apple
- The Doomsday Machine
- Catspaw
- I, Mudd
- Metamorphosis
- Journey to Babel
- Friday's Child
- The Deadly Years
- Obsession
- Wolf in the Fold
- The Trouble with Tribbles
- The Gamesters of Triskelion
- A Piece of the Action
- The Immunity Syndrome
- A Private Little War
- Return to Tomorrow
- Patterns of Force
- By Any Other Name
- The Omega Glory
- The Ultimate Computer
- Bread and Circuses
- Assignment: Earth
Season 3
- Spock's Brain
- The Enterprise Incident
- The Paradise Syndrome
- And the Children Shall Lead
- Is There in Truth No Beauty?
- Spectre of the Gun
- Day of the Dove
- For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
- The Tholian Web
- Plato's Stepchildren
- Wink of an Eye
- The Empath
- Elaan of Troyius
- Whom Gods Destroy
- Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
- The Mark of Gideon
- That Which Survives
- The Lights of Zetar
- Requiem for Methuselah
- The Way to Eden
- The Cloud Minders
- The Savage Curtain
- All Our Yesterdays
- Turnabout Intruder
Star Trek: The Next Generation[]
- Encounter at Farpoint
Trivia[]
- Much of McCoy's history and personality were either crafted specifically by DeForest Kelley himself or had his personal input on as Gene Roddenberry had a blank slate for the character who was essentially the third replacement of the doctor character of the Star Trek series. DeForest Kelley had only portrayed a country physician on several Western decided to be a modern update of the character as a "irascible country doctor ... in space".
Quotes[]
- "I signed aboard this ship to practice medicine, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across space by this gadget." ―Dr. Leonard McCoy discussing the transporter; Star Trek, "Space Seed"
- "I've found that evil usually triumphs...unless good is very, very careful." ―Dr. Leonard McCoy; Star Trek, "The Omega Glory"
- "I'm trying to thank you, you pointed-eared hobgoblin!" ―Dr. Leonard McCoy 'graciously' thanking Spock for saving his life; Star Trek, "Bread and Circuses"
- "Well, Jim, I hear Chapel's an M.D. now. Well I'm going to need a top nurse... not a doctor who will argue every little diagnosis with me. And they probably redesigned the whole sick bay, too! I know engineers... they love to change things." ―Dr. Leonard McCoy to James T. Kirk; Star Trek: The Motion Picture