McCoy's marriage?

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Where in canon is it said that he was married once before Natira? --LauraCC (talk) 16:28, May 27, 2016 (UTC)

I tried looking for a reference but found none. Is it just an assumption that he was in fact married once before, rather than just once in a relationship that produced Joanna, or a holdover from the novelverse? --LauraCC(talk) 17:20, August 16, 2016 (UTC)

 

[Albertese]

It was mentioned on screen in Star Trek (2009). McCoy enlisted because he lost everything in the divorce. He tells Cadet Kirk that she got "the whole damn planet" and only left him with his bones, which became Kirk's inspiration for the "bones" appellation he uses. At least in the Kelvin Timeline.

That was the first on-screen mention, though the idea goes back to a episode called "Joanna" which was written by D. C. Fontana in which McCoy's daughter shows up and there's some tension between McCoy and Kirk regarding her. Evidently the divorce would have been mentioned in this episode. However, the episode got rewritten and rewritten and evolved into "The Way to Eden" and Fontana was so disgusted by it (rightly so, the episode is a stinker) that she had her name removed from its final incarnation. Basically all the McCoy history stuff was dropped from the episode.

There is some fan speculation, but just speculation, mind you, that the marriage ended due to McCoy's infidelity, and that Nancy Crater from "The Man Trap" was the 'other woman.' I personally like the idea, but there is no firm canon to back it up. Like I said, pure conjecture.

--Alex

P.S. I'm pretty sure I'm right about all of this, but if not, I'm sure I'll be corrected.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It was mentioned on screen in Star Trek (2009). McCoy enlisted because he lost everything in the divorce.

That was the first on-screen mention

Yeah, I was looking for TOS. In the prime universe McCoy article, it says:

McCoy eventually married and had a daughter named Joanna. Sadly, McCoy's marriage ended in a bitter divorce, separating him from his daughter and deepening his hardships.

I was looking for a citation for that "fact".

 

[The Old Mixer]

It was in The Making of Star Trek, published in 1968 (while the show was on the air) and co-authored by Gene Roddenberry--The closest thing you're going to get to offscreen canon for TOS, and I take it as such if it wasn't contradicted by anything onscreen.

He was married once, but the details are a mystery to all in the Space Service. What is known is that the marriage ended unhappily in a divorce. However, he has a twenty-one-year-old daughter named Joanna, from that marriage. McCoy has properly provided for her well-being, hears from her as often as interstellar communications permits, but his duty aboard the Enterprise keeps them apart. Ordinarily, a general practitioner would be of little practical value aboard a starship, but McCoy's unhappy marriage and subsequent divorce made him long for an escape from familiar and painful surroundings. He therefore plunged into intensive courses in Space Medicine and then volunteered for Star Fleet. Dr. McCoy, like many a man before him, has taken up wandering in order to get away from painful memories.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"A general practitioner would be of little practical value aboard a starship"? What's up with that?

 

[The Old Mixer]

I was wondering about that myself. As opposed to a group of highly trained specialists, I guess...? Or perhaps the distinction is that he wasn't originally versed in "Space Medicine," which he had to train for to get into Starfleet.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Given that Earth is visited and settled by aliens, all kinds of things could crop up. The more exotic things that you only run into once in a quadrillion quadrillion individuals/places, not so much. But still, any tourist hub is bound to be a hotbed of disease.

 

[Lance]

Although McCoy's daughter was never confirmed in TOS, she was name checked in the Animated Series ("The Survivor".)

 

[Spock's Barber]

Memory Alpha states that the original title for 'The Way To Eden' was 'Joanna', and it was supposed to feature McCoy's daughter. As we know, it ended up being a Chekov love story.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Are Kool & The Gang songs canon?

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[JonnyQuest037]

It was in The Making of Star Trek, published in 1968 (while the show was on the air) and co-authored by Gene Roddenberry--The closest thing you're going to get to offscreen canon for TOS, and I take it as such if it wasn't contradicted by anything onscreen.

He was married once, but the details are a mystery to all in the Space Service. What is known is that the marriage ended unhappily in a divorce. However, he has a twenty-one-year-old daughter named Joanna, from that marriage. McCoy has properly provided for her well-being, hears from her as often as interstellar communications permits, but his duty aboard the Enterprise keeps them apart. Ordinarily, a general practitioner would be of little practical value aboard a starship, but McCoy's unhappy marriage and subsequent divorce made him long for an escape from familiar and painful surroundings. He therefore plunged into intensive courses in Space Medicine and then volunteered for Star Fleet. Dr. McCoy, like many a man before him, has taken up wandering in order to get away from painful memories.

And from what I understand, those biographical pieces in TMOST were drawn directly from the TOS Writer's Guide.

 

[Greg Cox]

Basically, the idea that McCoy had been married has been around since the earliest days of TOS, but never actually made it onscreen until the new movies.

 

[Tracy Trek]

Where did the idea of McCoy's ex-wife being named Jocelyn come from? The novels only? I'm sure I've seen it a few times in the books. Ann Crispin's Time for Yesterday being one of them. And another one where she was actually a character in the book.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Wasn't it Karl Urban's idea to mention McCoy's divorce? IIRC, it was Urban who adlibbed those lines in the shuttle where he meets Kirk.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I find it interesting that in some places, her last name is Darnell, and in "The Man Trap", while he visits (who he believes to be) an old flame (Nancy Crater), a crewman named Darnell is killed by Nancy. Possibly related to McCoy's ex?