What are you doing here, Bones?

[J.T.B.]

Some random observations: Doesn't McCoy have the rank of lieutenant commander or commander too? It may be that he's passed the bridge officer exam that we see Troi take, so he's entitled to be there.

McCoy makes it pretty clear in "A Taste of Armageddon" that, unlike Scotty, he is not an officer "of the line" and isn't qualified to make command decisions. That shouldn't make a difference as to whether he can be on the bridge, though. If it's OK with the captain that he hangs around there, who's going to say different?

 

[David Strickhouser]

Kirk says McCoy has "clearance throughout the ship" in "Ultimate Computer". Works for me.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

KIRK: Doc. Sorry.
MCCOY: For having other things on your mind? My fault. I don't how the devil you keep from punching me in the face.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

McCoy makes it pretty clear in "A Taste of Armageddon" that, unlike Scotty, he is not an officer "of the line" and isn't qualified to make command decisions. That shouldn't make a difference as to whether he can be on the bridge, though. If it's OK with the captain that he hangs around there, who's going to say different?

And the bridge officer's test isn't required just to BE on the bridge. It's for any blue shirted officer who wants to 1) be promoted beyond Lieutenant Commander, and 2) actually command the bridge.

So we can be sure McCoy hasn't taken the test during the series, because he's still a LCDR and is clearly not interested in standing watch. However since he is a full Commander in the films, he must have taken it by then.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Maybe the bridge has better coffee than sickbay.

 

[J.T.B.]

So we can be sure McCoy hasn't taken the test during the series, because he's still a LCDR and is clearly not interested in standing watch. However since he is a full Commander in the films, he must have taken it by then.

I'd rather not apply that TNG silliness to TOS. His job is to be a physician, and his advancement should depend on how good he is at that, rather than on unrelated duties that can be performed by plenty of other officers.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

That always annoyed me: the monitor footage showing McCoy in his uniform with the Enterprise delta, even though it was supposed to have occurred before his posting.

An annoying inconsistency!

Well, possibly. If you imagine that his assignment on Capella IV takes place between WNMHGB and "The Corbomite Maneuver", the uniform is not an anachronism.

I'd rather not apply that TNG silliness to TOS.

This is generally my policy when I'm working on my TOS timeline. Just because something is true in the TNG era doesn't necessarily mean that it was true 75-100 years before. That's like saying, "Well, I have a DVR, therefore everyone in 1916 also had a DVR."

If it makes logical sense to include it, then sure, toss it in, but I'm not going to bend over backwards to retroactively apply TNG assumptions to TOS when it's often just as easy to say that was a change introduced sometime during the gap between the two eras.

 

[The Old Mixer]

That always annoyed me: the monitor footage showing McCoy in his uniform with the Enterprise delta, even though it was supposed to have occurred before his posting.

There's other evidence in TOS that the delta, while not yet universal, also wasn't unique to the Enterprise.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

That always annoyed me: the monitor footage showing McCoy in his uniform with the Enterprise delta, even though it was supposed to have occurred before his posting.

An annoying inconsistency!

It would have been a nice touch if they had put McCoy in a pilot-episode uniform with the gray excursion jacket and everything. I wish they had thought of it.

As it was, McCoy looks like he walked directly from the planet set to the briefing room and resumed filming without changing a hair on his head. The Police Squad and/or the Airplane! movies have done gags like that, where an old photo of a guy looks precisely like the guy standing there in person.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

It would have been a nice touch if they had put McCoy in a pilot-episode uniform with the gray excursion jacket and everything. I wish they had thought of it.

I agree, that would have been great, but I'm sure it fell into the "more trouble than it's worth" category. I'm sure it was more important for viewers to recognize McCoy at a glance than it was to make it look like it was definitively taking place years before.

 

[UnknownSample]

Lower ranked crewmen and officers must stick to one assigned location, no matter what. Reponsible, trusted, senior officers use their own judgment. They decide what's needed or not needed to get the job done. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all check out each other's departments. How do you keep on top of a crisis otherwise? Is Bones supposed to keep calling the Bridge for updates?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Me neither, but I really liked the backstory that Goodman came up with for their friendship. The commonality they originally bonded over and the source of Kirk calling McCoy "Bones" were both really clever, I thought.

I much prefer the 2009 origin of the "Bones" nickname. Yes, I know that the original intention was that "Bones" came from the old "sawbones" nickname doctors once had. But "all I have left is my bones" was pretty clever in the '09 movie.

You're probably aware that Kirk was pitched as "Hornblower in space". Forester's fictional British Navy captain Hornblower's first command was HMS Hotspur.

Which was a nice touch. Vonda Mcintyre did something similar in her novel Enterprise: The First Adventure, combining two of Hornblower's commands (the Lydia and the Sutherland) into one ship—the Lydia Sutherland—as Kirk's previous command.

 

[Vandervecken]

And the bridge officer's test isn't required just to BE on the bridge. It's for any blue shirted officer who wants to 1) be promoted beyond Lieutenant Commander, and 2) actually command the bridge.

So we can be sure McCoy hasn't taken the test during the series, because he's still a LCDR and is clearly not interested in standing watch. However since he is a full Commander in the films, he must have taken it by then.

I don't recall this ever being stated on TNG--that higher ranks require line officer status. As far as I know Crusher's bridge officer command status didn't change her rank. La Forge was just a lieutenant when he commanded the Enterprise in the Arsenal of Freedom--so high rank itself isn't required. I don't doubt that a physician could have even higher ranks if they have more to command, such as if there is a Chief of the Medical Corps for Starfleet, or a doctor in charge of a large starbase research facility.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Geordi is different, because he's a line officer.

The test is only required for "blue-shirts" like scientists, doctors or counselors.

 

[Vandervecken]

Geordi is different, because he's a line officer.

The test is only required for "blue-shirts" like scientists, doctors or counselors.

Alright--but wouldn't it be likely a physician with command over a whole installation or hospital or even a particular hospital department might have high rank?

 

[Commishsleer]

Assuming the Enterprise is ferrying around an ambassador or doing star-mapping or the like just how busy would McCoy be with a crew of 400? At my work we have around 30 people and there's always at least one away sick but still I don't think that McCoys going to be busy all day every day.
Besides McCoy doesn't sit on the bridge all day - only when the action happens.
Anyway I also wonder what the captains do all day. I'm thinking when there's no crisis on what does Kirk do all day aside from sign fuel reports. Picard doesn't even have that to do.

 

[UnknownSample]

Assuming the Enterprise is ferrying around an ambassador or doing star-mapping or the like just how busy would McCoy be with a crew of 400? At my work we have around 30 people and there's always at least one away sick but still I don't think that McCoys going to be busy all day every day.
Besides McCoy doesn't sit on the bridge all day - only when the action happens.
Anyway I also wonder what the captains do all day. I'm thinking when there's no crisis on what does Kirk do all day aside from sign fuel reports. Picard doesn't even have that to do.

I'm sure Kirk bops around the ship, checking on this or that issue or department. He wouldn't just keep his ass planted in the big chair all day any more than a king does...

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'm sure Kirk bops around the ship, checking on this or that issue or department. He wouldn't just keep his ass planted in the big chair all day any more than a king does...

Well, we know from "Dagger of the Mind" that he drops in on the Science Lab Christmas parties...

 

[kkt]

I'm sure Kirk bops around the ship, checking on this or that issue or department. He wouldn't just keep his ass planted in the big chair all day any more than a king does...

Yes, in fact the captain usually doesn't have a fixed watch during which he's expected to be on the bridge. He'd be on the bridge when trouble was likely, on historic occassions, and certainly once in a while in order to stay comfortable with the bridge crew. But other times he'd be doing paperwork, deciding who to promote, making passes at visiting female guest stars, etc.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Almost getting killed by a treacherous guest star of either persuasion...

Maybe McCoy is there to make sure restless Kirk spends a minimum amount of time during the day on the bridge in his chair.