She essentially taught herself to be a physician and kept 11 people alive for almost a year. She could have concentrated on her survival, instead.. That's pretty warm, just with a hard exterior. In a bad situation I'd rather have one person like that with me than a lot of incompetent well wishers that cut and run when things get bad.
I don't see that as a bad thing? A character connected to an existing character or event in some way comes with more instant meaning (or resentment, in Burnham's case) than someone totally random and new. Trek has been around for 50 years and spawned so much lore, I'm all for it being explored and fleshed out.
Honestly, I don't see Reno as being the type of lady that McCoy would find desirable. As a drinking buddy, sure, but not marriage. Based just on what we saw in TOS, he's more likely to go for the "Playboy Bunny" type. I'm not sure in his early years he was 'brains' over 'beauty' kinda guy. (read: shallow) Although if he did marry someone like Reno, I could certainly see why it didn't last, the clash of personalities must have been spectacular.
It makes sense too. There are military dynasties that have been seen before, and even now. People tend to marry into other military families or now, to other members of the service. With star-fleet spread out so far, seems even more like it would just be hard to meet anyone else. No wonder the Parises never seem to have gotten out of the starfleet business.
Roddenberry even suggested (in his lovely TMP novelization) that people who join Starfleet are of a different type than most of human society; somewhat more hardy, but not quite as philosophically/intellectually advanced or progressive, so didn't quite fit in on Earth. Or something like that. It kind of makes sense that they would tend to stick together. Kor
The difference Mccoy: My God, man,drilling holes in his head's not the answer! Reno (hands over the drill and a wad of bubble gum for a suture) McCoy: We're dealing with medievalism here.
I dunno...they scream back and forth at each other for a while, exchanging insulting barbs, then look at each other in the eyes and engage in wild passionate sex. Having said that, I'm not in favor of the universe being so small that they were married. However, if McCoy is currently on the Enterprise at this time (in some capacity, maybe as CMO), that could be why Reno doesn't hitch a ride back to the Enterprise with Number One in order to eventually find her way back to a starbase or something.
If you are a writer and have plans to reveal that a character is related to another famous one, you might use things like a similar background or personal quirks as hints for the eventual revelation
I don't care if they hypothetically make Reno related to McCoy... but I'd prefer something else: like if one of her ancestors was Janet Reno. I got to see Janet Reno speak at my college in 2004. So I'd be two fictional degrees removed from Jet Reno, minus two-and-a-half centuries.
"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t."
The surname Reno is a local name, derived from the Rhine River. The Rhine starts in Basel, Switzerland, and bends north through the German countryside until it reaches the North Sea, passing through the cities of Freiburg, Frankfurt, Bonn, and Cologne. Local names are based upon the place where the original bearer lived or held land. The surname Reno was first found in Switzerland, where this family name became a prominent contributor to the development of the district from ancient times. Always prominent in social affairs, the name became an integral part of that turbulent region as they emerged to form alliances with other families within the Feudal System and the nation. The first settler with that surname in the New World was Claude Reno, who landed in Pennsylvania in 1749. idk what that means other than if there is any relation to McCoy it probably happened not earlier than the mid-1700s
^^^^ So, she lives 100 years and changes her name to Katherine Pulaski and serves on the 1701-D <--- NOW that makes sense!