Leonard McCoy
Encyclopedia
Leonard "Bones" McCoy is a character in the Star Trek
media franchise. First portrayed by DeForest Kelley
in the original Star Trek series
, McCoy also appears in the animated Star Trek series
, seven Star Trek movies, the pilot episode
of Star Trek: The Next Generation
, and in numerous books, comics, and video games. Karl Urban
assumed the role of the character in the 2009 Star Trek film.
and is a divorcé
. In 2266, McCoy was posted as chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk
. McCoy and Kirk are good friends, even "brotherly". The passionate, sometimes cantankerous McCoy frequently argues with Kirk's other confidant, science officer Spock
, and occasionally is bigoted toward Spock's Vulcan
heritage. McCoy often plays the role of Kirk's conscience, offering a counterpoint to Spock's logic. McCoy is suspicious of technology
, especially the transporter
; as a physician, he prefers less intrusive treatment and believes in the body's innate recuperative powers. The character's nickname, "Bones", is a play on sawbones, an epithet
for physicians, in particular, those qualified as surgeons.
Kirk orders McCoy's commission reactivated in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
(1979); a resentful McCoy complains of being "drafted
". Spock transfers his katra—his knowledge and experience—into McCoy's mind before dying in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
(1982). This causes mental anguish for McCoy, who in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
(1984) helps restore Spock's katra to his reanimated body. McCoy joins Kirk's crew aboard the USS Enterprise-A
at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
(1986). In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
, McCoy (through the intervention of Spock's brother Sybok) reveals that he helped his father commit suicide to relieve him of his pain. Shortly after doing so, a cure was found for his father's disease and he carried with him the guilt about it for the rest of his life. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
(1991), McCoy and Kirk escape from a Klingon
prison world, and the Enterprise crew stops a plot to prevent peace between the United Federation of Planets
and the Klingon Empire. Kelley reprised the role for the "Encounter at Farpoint" pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), accepting the minimum Screen Actors Guild
payment for his appearance.
In the Star Trek: The Animated Series
episode "The Survivor", McCoy mentions he has a daughter. Chekov's friend Irina in the original series episode "The Way to Eden" was originally written as Dr. McCoy's daughter Joanna, but changed before the episode was shot.
, which McCoy joins after a divorce that he says "left [him] nothing but [his] bones." This line, improvised by Urban, explains how McCoy came to be known as Bones. McCoy later helps get Kirk posted aboard the USS Enterprise
.
had worked with Kelley on previous television pilot
s, and Kelley was Roddenberry's first choice to play the doctor aboard the USS Enterprise
. However, for the rejected pilot "The Cage" (1964), Roddenberry went with director
Robert Butler's
choice of John Hoyt
to play Dr. Philip Boyce. For the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before
" (1966), Roddenberry accepted director James Goldstone
's decision to have Paul Fix
play Dr. Mark Piper. Although Roddenberry wanted Kelley to play the character of ship's doctor, he didn't put Kelley's name forward to NBC
; the network never "rejected" the actor as Roddenberry sometimes suggested.
Kelley's first broadcast appearance as Doctor Leonard McCoy was in "The Man Trap" (1966). Despite his character's prominence, Kelley's contract granted him only a "featuring" credit; it was not until the second season that he was given "starring" credit, at the urging of producer Robert Justman
. Kelley was apprehensive about Star Treks future, telling Roddenberry that the show was "going to be the biggest hit or the biggest miss God ever made". Kelley portrayed McCoy throughout the original Star Trek series and voiced the character in the animated Star Trek.
Kelley, who in his youth wanted to become a doctor, in part drew upon his real-life experiences in creating McCoy: a doctor's "matter-of-fact" delivery of news of Kelley's mother's terminal cancer was the "abrasive sand" Kelley used in creating McCoy's demeanor. Star Trek writer D. C. Fontana
said that while Roddenberry created the series, Kelley essentially created McCoy; everything done with the character was done with Kelley's input.
"Exquisite chemistry" among Kelley, William Shatner
and Leonard Nimoy
manifested itself in their performances as McCoy, Captain James T. Kirk
and science officer Spock
, respectively. Nichelle Nichols
, who played Uhura
, referred to Kelley as her "sassy gentleman friend"; the friendship between the African-American Nichols and Southern
Kelley was a real-life demonstration of the message Roddenberry hoped to convey through Star Trek.
For the 2009 reboot film Star Trek, writers Roberto Orci
and Alex Kurtzman
saw McCoy as an "arbiter" in Kirk and Spock's relationship. While Spock represented "extreme logic, extreme science" and Kirk symbolized "extreme emotion and intuition", McCoy's role as "a very colorful doctor, essentially a very humanistic
scientist" represented the "two extremes that often served as the glue that held the trio together." They chose to reveal McCoy befriended Kirk first, explaining the "bias" in their friendship and why he would often be a "little dismissive" of Spock. Urban said the script was "very faithful" to the original character, including the "great compassion for humanity and that sense of irascibility" with which Kelley imbued the character. Urban trained with a dialect coach to create McCoy's accent. Urban says he looks forward to reprising the role in the next Star Trek film.
to Spock
. Grace Lee Whitney
, who played Yeoman Janice Rand
, described McCoy as Kirk's "friend, personal bartender, confidant, counselor and priest". Urban said McCoy has a "sense of irascibility with real passion for life and doing the right thing", and that "Spock's logic and McCoy's moral standing gave Kirk the benefit of having three brains instead of just one." Jennifer Porter and Darcee McLaren wrote that McCoy is an "unintentional" example of how "irrational prejudices and fixations, wishful thinking and emotional reasoning, denial and repression, and unresolved neurotic disturbances" compromise "scientific rationality" in Star Trek.
Kelley said that his greatest thrill at Star Trek conventions was the number of people who told him they entered the medical profession because of the McCoy character.
The Guardian
called Urban's performance of McCoy an "unqualified success", and The New York Times
called the character "wild eyed and funny". Slate.com said Urban came closer than the other actors to impersonating a character's original depiction.
as Montgomery Scott
says "He's dead already" instead. The line has entered popular culture as a general metaphor, with uses as diverse as descriptions of an unresponsive electronic circuit,
an example of how to add an audio file to function as an alert sound in a computer system, and an illustrative quote regarding how to know if one's opponent has been destroyed in an action hero game.
USC
Literature Professor Henry Jenkins
cited Dr. McCoy's "He's dead, Jim" line as an example of fans actively participating in the creation of an underground culture in which they derive pleasure by repeating memorable lines as part of constructing new mythologies and alternative social communities. One including Google, as they use this line in Google Chrome as an error message that comes up when the user's operating system terminates the browser or a running tab due to a serious error. Kelley joked that the line would appear on his tombstone.
-based Horta alien in "Devil in the Dark" (1967), saying, "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer." Dr. Julian Bashir
(Alexander Siddig
) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
, The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager
and Star Trek: First Contact
and Dr. Phlox from Star Trek: Enterprise
all use variations of the line, which has also made its way into many other shows such as Stargate Atlantis
, Robot Chicken
and Friends
. In a parody sketch titled "The Restaurant Enterprise", on an episode of Saturday Night Live
, Kirk (guest host William Shatner) directs McCoy (Phil Hartman
) to help a man who's choking. McCoy snaps, "Dammit, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a ... (suddenly realizes the situation; slightly embarrassed) Oh ... oh, sure." DeForest Kelley himself parodied the phrase for a Trivial Pursuit
commercial ("How should I know? I'm an actor, not a doctor"). In the 2009 Star Trek film, McCoy says to Spock "I'm a doctor, not a physicist."
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
media franchise. First portrayed by DeForest Kelley
DeForest Kelley
Jackson DeForest Kelley was an American actor known for his iconic roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek.-Early life:...
in the original Star Trek series
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
, McCoy also appears in the animated Star Trek series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...
, seven Star Trek movies, the pilot episode
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
, and in numerous books, comics, and video games. Karl Urban
Karl Urban
Karl-Heinz Urban is a New Zealand actor.He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Julius Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess...
assumed the role of the character in the 2009 Star Trek film.
Depiction
McCoy was born in 2227. The son of David, he attended the University of MississippiUniversity of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
and is a divorcé
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
. In 2266, McCoy was posted as chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk
James T. Kirk
James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. Kirk was first played by William Shatner as the principal lead character in the original Star Trek series. Shatner voiced Kirk in the animated Star Trek series and appeared in the first seven Star Trek movies...
. McCoy and Kirk are good friends, even "brotherly". The passionate, sometimes cantankerous McCoy frequently argues with Kirk's other confidant, science officer Spock
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
, and occasionally is bigoted toward Spock's Vulcan
Vulcan (Star Trek)
Vulcans, or sometimes Vulcanians, are an extraterrestrial humanoid species in the Star Trek universe who evolved on the planet Vulcan, and are noted for their attempt to live by reason and logic with no interference from emotion. They were the first extraterrestrial species in the Star Trek...
heritage. McCoy often plays the role of Kirk's conscience, offering a counterpoint to Spock's logic. McCoy is suspicious of technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, especially the transporter
Transporter (Star Trek)
A transporter is a fictional teleportation machine used in the Star Trek universe. Transporters convert a person or object into an energy pattern , then "beam" it to a target, where it is reconverted into matter...
; as a physician, he prefers less intrusive treatment and believes in the body's innate recuperative powers. The character's nickname, "Bones", is a play on sawbones, an epithet
Epithet
An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
for physicians, in particular, those qualified as surgeons.
Kirk orders McCoy's commission reactivated in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
(1979); a resentful McCoy complains of being "drafted
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
". Spock transfers his katra—his knowledge and experience—into McCoy's mind before dying in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T...
(1982). This causes mental anguish for McCoy, who in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 motion picture released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the third feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the center of a three-film story arc that begins with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and concludes with Star Trek IV:...
(1984) helps restore Spock's katra to his reanimated body. McCoy joins Kirk's crew aboard the USS Enterprise-A
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)
The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-A is a starship in the fourth, fifth, and sixth Star Trek films.-Origin and design:The Enterprise-A used the same shooting model as the preceding NCC-1701...
at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a 1986 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the fourth feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series and completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and continued in Star Trek III: The...
(1986). In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a 1989 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the fifth feature in the franchise and the penultimate to star the cast of the original Star Trek science fiction television series...
, McCoy (through the intervention of Spock's brother Sybok) reveals that he helped his father commit suicide to relieve him of his pain. Shortly after doing so, a cure was found for his father's disease and he carried with him the guilt about it for the rest of his life. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the last of the Star Trek films to include the entire main cast of the 1960s Star Trek television series. Released in 1991 by Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Nicholas Meyer and...
(1991), McCoy and Kirk escape from a Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
prison world, and the Enterprise crew stops a plot to prevent peace between the United Federation of Planets
United Federation of Planets
The United Federation of Planets, also known as "The Federation" is a fictional interplanetary federal republic depicted in the Star Trek television series and motion pictures...
and the Klingon Empire. Kelley reprised the role for the "Encounter at Farpoint" pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), accepting the minimum Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
payment for his appearance.
In the Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...
episode "The Survivor", McCoy mentions he has a daughter. Chekov's friend Irina in the original series episode "The Way to Eden" was originally written as Dr. McCoy's daughter Joanna, but changed before the episode was shot.
Alternate timeline
In the 2009 Star Trek film, which takes place in an "alternate, parallel" reality, McCoy and Kirk become friends at Starfleet AcademyStarfleet Academy
In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet Academy is where the future's recruits to Starfleet will be trained. It was created in the year 2161, when the United Federation of Planets was founded...
, which McCoy joins after a divorce that he says "left [him] nothing but [his] bones." This line, improvised by Urban, explains how McCoy came to be known as Bones. McCoy later helps get Kirk posted aboard the USS Enterprise
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701, is a fictional starship in the Star Trek media franchise. The original Star Trek series depicts her crew's mission "to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before" under the command of Captain James...
.
Development
Star Trek creator Gene RoddenberryGene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
had worked with Kelley on previous television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
s, and Kelley was Roddenberry's first choice to play the doctor aboard the USS Enterprise
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701, is a fictional starship in the Star Trek media franchise. The original Star Trek series depicts her crew's mission "to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before" under the command of Captain James...
. However, for the rejected pilot "The Cage" (1964), Roddenberry went with director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
Robert Butler's
Robert Butler (director)
Robert Butler is an American film director. He helped launch actor Kurt Russell's career through four Walt Disney movies , but his strongest and most fondly remembered contributions have been to the small screen.-Biography:Butler began his career as a stage manager and an assistant,...
choice of John Hoyt
John Hoyt
John Hoyt was an American film, stage, and television actor.-Early life:Hoyt was born John McArthur Hoysradt. Before becoming an actor with Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre, the Yale University graduate worked as a history instructor, acting teacher and even a nightclub comedian...
to play Dr. Philip Boyce. For the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before
Where No Man Has Gone Before
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is the second pilot episode of the television series Star Trek: The Original Series. It was produced in 1965 after the first pilot, "The Cage", had been rejected by NBC. The episode was eventually broadcast third in sequence on September 22, 1966, and was re-aired on...
" (1966), Roddenberry accepted director James Goldstone
James Goldstone
James Goldstone was an American director of both television and theatrical films during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s....
's decision to have Paul Fix
Paul Fix
Paul Fix was an American film and television character actor, best known for his work in westerns. Fix appeared in more than a hundred movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career spanning from 1925 to 1981...
play Dr. Mark Piper. Although Roddenberry wanted Kelley to play the character of ship's doctor, he didn't put Kelley's name forward to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
; the network never "rejected" the actor as Roddenberry sometimes suggested.
Kelley's first broadcast appearance as Doctor Leonard McCoy was in "The Man Trap" (1966). Despite his character's prominence, Kelley's contract granted him only a "featuring" credit; it was not until the second season that he was given "starring" credit, at the urging of producer Robert Justman
Robert H. Justman
Robert Harris "Bob" Justman was an American television producer, director and production manager. He worked on many television series including Lassie, The Life of Riley, Adventures of Superman, The Outer Limits, Then Came Bronson and Mission: Impossible.- Career :Bob Justman was one of the...
. Kelley was apprehensive about Star Treks future, telling Roddenberry that the show was "going to be the biggest hit or the biggest miss God ever made". Kelley portrayed McCoy throughout the original Star Trek series and voiced the character in the animated Star Trek.
Kelley, who in his youth wanted to become a doctor, in part drew upon his real-life experiences in creating McCoy: a doctor's "matter-of-fact" delivery of news of Kelley's mother's terminal cancer was the "abrasive sand" Kelley used in creating McCoy's demeanor. Star Trek writer D. C. Fontana
D. C. Fontana
Dorothy Catherine "D. C." Fontana is an American television script writer and story editor, best known for her work on the original Star Trek series.-Work with Gene Roddenberry:...
said that while Roddenberry created the series, Kelley essentially created McCoy; everything done with the character was done with Kelley's input.
"Exquisite chemistry" among Kelley, William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
and Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
manifested itself in their performances as McCoy, Captain James T. Kirk
James T. Kirk
James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. Kirk was first played by William Shatner as the principal lead character in the original Star Trek series. Shatner voiced Kirk in the animated Star Trek series and appeared in the first seven Star Trek movies...
and science officer Spock
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
, respectively. Nichelle Nichols
Nichelle Nichols
Nichelle Nichols is an American actress, singer and voice artist. She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting...
, who played Uhura
Uhura
Nyota Uhura is a character in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, the first six Star Trek films, and the 2009 film Star Trek...
, referred to Kelley as her "sassy gentleman friend"; the friendship between the African-American Nichols and Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
Kelley was a real-life demonstration of the message Roddenberry hoped to convey through Star Trek.
For the 2009 reboot film Star Trek, writers Roberto Orci
Roberto Orci
Roberto Gaston Orci is a Mexican-American film producer, television producer, and screenwriter.-Biography:Orci was born in Mexico City to a Mexican father and a Cuban mother. His mother had left Cuba for Mexico after Fidel Castro came to power. He is the older brother of screenwriter-producer J....
and Alex Kurtzman
Alex Kurtzman
Alex Kurtzman is an American film and television screenwriter and producer.Kurtzman was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where he met his high school friend and long time collaborator Roberto Orci...
saw McCoy as an "arbiter" in Kirk and Spock's relationship. While Spock represented "extreme logic, extreme science" and Kirk symbolized "extreme emotion and intuition", McCoy's role as "a very colorful doctor, essentially a very humanistic
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
scientist" represented the "two extremes that often served as the glue that held the trio together." They chose to reveal McCoy befriended Kirk first, explaining the "bias" in their friendship and why he would often be a "little dismissive" of Spock. Urban said the script was "very faithful" to the original character, including the "great compassion for humanity and that sense of irascibility" with which Kelley imbued the character. Urban trained with a dialect coach to create McCoy's accent. Urban says he looks forward to reprising the role in the next Star Trek film.
Reception and cultural impact
McCoy is someone to whom Kirk unburdens himself and is a foilFoil (literature)
In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character in order to highlight particular qualities of another character....
to Spock
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
. Grace Lee Whitney
Grace Lee Whitney
Grace Lee Whitney, also known as Ruth Whitney and Lee Whitney is an American actress and entertainer. She is best known for playing the role of Janice Rand on the Star Trek television series and subsequent films.-Early life:...
, who played Yeoman Janice Rand
Janice Rand
Yeoman Janice Rand, played by Grace Lee Whitney, is a character in Star Trek: The Original Series. She subsequently appears in several Star Trek films and in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.-Depiction:...
, described McCoy as Kirk's "friend, personal bartender, confidant, counselor and priest". Urban said McCoy has a "sense of irascibility with real passion for life and doing the right thing", and that "Spock's logic and McCoy's moral standing gave Kirk the benefit of having three brains instead of just one." Jennifer Porter and Darcee McLaren wrote that McCoy is an "unintentional" example of how "irrational prejudices and fixations, wishful thinking and emotional reasoning, denial and repression, and unresolved neurotic disturbances" compromise "scientific rationality" in Star Trek.
Kelley said that his greatest thrill at Star Trek conventions was the number of people who told him they entered the medical profession because of the McCoy character.
The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called Urban's performance of McCoy an "unqualified success", and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the character "wild eyed and funny". Slate.com said Urban came closer than the other actors to impersonating a character's original depiction.
"He's dead, Jim."
Twenty times on the original Star Trek McCoy declares someone or something deceased with the line, "He's dead", "He's dead, Jim", or something similar; the phrase is considered a catchphrase of the character, although actor Kelley disliked repeating such lines, and refused to say it on The Wrath of Khan when Spock is near death; James DoohanJames Doohan
James Montgomery "Jimmy" Doohan was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek...
as Montgomery Scott
Montgomery Scott
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott is a Scottish engineer in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by James Doohan in the original Star Trek series, Scotty also appears in the animated Star Trek series, seven Star Trek movies, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", and in numerous...
says "He's dead already" instead. The line has entered popular culture as a general metaphor, with uses as diverse as descriptions of an unresponsive electronic circuit,
an example of how to add an audio file to function as an alert sound in a computer system, and an illustrative quote regarding how to know if one's opponent has been destroyed in an action hero game.
USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
Literature Professor Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins III is an American media scholar and currently a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts...
cited Dr. McCoy's "He's dead, Jim" line as an example of fans actively participating in the creation of an underground culture in which they derive pleasure by repeating memorable lines as part of constructing new mythologies and alternative social communities. One including Google, as they use this line in Google Chrome as an error message that comes up when the user's operating system terminates the browser or a running tab due to a serious error. Kelley joked that the line would appear on his tombstone.
"I'm a doctor, not a(n)..."
Another of McCoy's catchphrases is his "I'm a doctor, (Jim) not a(n)..." statements, used 11 times. McCoy repeats the line when he must perform some task beyond his medical skills, such as the "classic moment" when he is confronted with the unusual siliconSilicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
-based Horta alien in "Devil in the Dark" (1967), saying, "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer." Dr. Julian Bashir
Julian Bashir
Lieutenant Julian Subatoi Bashir, M.D., played by Alexander Siddig, is a main character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Bashir is the chief medical officer of space station Deep Space Nine and the USS Defiant.-Overview:...
(Alexander Siddig
Alexander Siddig
Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi is a Sudanese-born English actor, also known as Siddig El Fadil and his stage name Alexander Siddig. He is known for playing Dr...
) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
, The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
and Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: First Contact is the eighth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise, released in November 1996, by Paramount Pictures. First Contact is the first film in the franchise to feature no cast members from the original Star Trek television series of the 1960s...
and Dr. Phlox from Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...
all use variations of the line, which has also made its way into many other shows such as 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...
, Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
and Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
. In a parody sketch titled "The Restaurant Enterprise", on an episode of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, Kirk (guest host William Shatner) directs McCoy (Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
) to help a man who's choking. McCoy snaps, "Dammit, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a ... (suddenly realizes the situation; slightly embarrassed) Oh ... oh, sure." DeForest Kelley himself parodied the phrase for a Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
commercial ("How should I know? I'm an actor, not a doctor"). In the 2009 Star Trek film, McCoy says to Spock "I'm a doctor, not a physicist."