Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the "Best Of" series for The Original Series characters with a look at Dr. Leonard McCoy, AKA "Bones." Here are some of his best quotes and appearances.
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp184
Dr. McCoy is most often seen debating with Spock and Captain Kirk, and he often becomes frustrated with the cold, logical approach of Spock, as evidenced in this clip from Spectre of the Gun (season 3):
McCoy: Mr. Spock, why don't you join us common humanoids in trying to find a way out of here and quit explaining why we can't get out of here.
That episode also gives us a variation on one of McCoy's most memorable often-used lines:
McCoy: Let it go, Jim. He's dead.
Although it is rare, sometimes McCoy gets the upper hand on Spock in these circumstances and he can't help but let a zinger fly in the Vulcan's direction. One example of this is in The Galileo Seven (season 1), where Spock's leadership style with a marooned shuttle crew turns out to not be perfect leadership:
Scott: Mr. Spock, you said a while ago that there were always alternatives.
Spock: Did I? I may have been mistaken.
Dr. McCoy: Well at least I lived long enough to hear that.
Dr. McCoy was such a good character he has inspired bands like Warp 11 to memorize him in songs. As requested by Sunshine and Mike, here's a quick intermission interlude from that band.
INSERT WARP 11 CLIP
Bones is one of the older members of the crew and he never shies away from sharing his southern wisdom or crankiness. His level of cranky humor hit all-time highs in the movies when he's dragged out of retirement to go aboard the Enterprise again, as evidenced in The Wrath of Khan:
McCoy: [reference to the turbolift] Who's been holding up the damn elevator?
That movie also references McCoy's love for fine alcohols like bourbon and:
Kirk: Romulan Ale. Why, Bones, you know this is illegal.
McCoy: I only use it for medicinal purposes.
Our final clip comes from Journey to Babel, where the Doctor finally has the last word when Kirk, Spock, and Sarek all end up bed-ridden:
McCoy: [to Spock] Shut up.
[Kirk opens mouth to comment, McCoy interrupts]
McCoy: Shh. Shh.
[Kirk lays back dejectedly]
McCoy: [smiles] Well, what do you know? I finally got the last word.
McCoy set the standard for both doctors in Star Trek and close counsel to a captain. We can see his influence in almost every subsequent Star Trek series, and it's a credit to the late Deforest Kelley who breathed life into this complex character and made him a charming legend.
Insert "I'm a Doctor..." medley
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