McCoy a racist?

[Nerys Myk]

It’s now only 50 or so years since the show first aired and the crew seem awfully dated in their attitudes and demeanour.
Honestly none of the characters convince as 23rd century humans,McCoy least of all.

Probably because they were written by and for 20th Century humans. They're weren't out to reinvent the wheel.

 

[Airin]

McCoy in "Metamorphosis", about the relationship between Cochrane and the Companion:

"There's nothing disgusting about it. It's just another life form, that's all. You get used to those things."​

I don't think we'll be as open-minded as this, by the time we really reach the 23rd century...

 

[Frontis]

Are you discounting all the racist things he said while/when drunk on duty/screen?

McCoy wasn't drunk often as far as I remember.

 

[Guy Gardener]

McCoy wasn't drunk often as far as I remember.

Way less than Scotty, but I'm saying if they were awake, they were probably a little bit tipsy, because it's the only way not to go space crazy.

 

[Nerys Myk]

McCoy wasn't drunk often as far as I remember.

The only time I recall is in This Side of Paradise.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Way less than Scotty, but I'm saying if they were awake, they were probably a little bit tipsy, because it's the only way not to go space crazy.

That's so Guy

 

[Frontis]

The only time I recall is in This Side of Paradise.

Well, this was not alcohol, rather some LSD flowers

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, this was not alcohol, rather some LSD flowers

I think he was sucking down Mint Julips.

 

[feek61]

Of course he's racist. He represents the american south of the 1960s. This is one of the least dated elements of the show.

Generalize much???

 

[Orac]

Everybody knows it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Everybody knows it.

Yeah, no.

 

[Forbin]

It's good-natured ribbing. See also the Spenser detective novels, Where Spenser and Hawk (later played by Avery Brooks in the TV series) playfully traded racial vocal elbow-jabs at each other. The current "you can't kid about that!" attitude has ruined harmless good-natured amusement.

 

[Moonglum]

He's no Judd Larabee, that's for sure!

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

It's good-natured ribbing. See also the Spenser detective novels, Where Spenser and Hawk (later played by Avery Brooks in the TV series) playfully traded racial vocal elbow-jabs at each other. The current "you can't kid about that!" attitude has ruined harmless good-natured amusement.

I think it started being less amusing when it became more obvious that a lot of people weren't joking.

 

[M'Sharak]

I think it started being less amusing when it became more obvious that a lot of people weren't joking.

But when was that?

And how reasonable (or meaningful) is it to take assessments based on perception of real-world people from one period and apply them to material written and produced for the purpose of entertaining audiences who lived in a different period?

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

But when was that?

When the internet became mainstream.

 

[Nerys Myk]

When the internet became mainstream.

Fictional people use the internet?

 

[scotpens]

It’s now only 50 or so years since the show first aired and the crew seem awfully dated in their attitudes and demeanour.
Honestly none of the characters convince as 23rd century humans,McCoy least of all.

Probably because they were written by and for 20th Century humans. They're weren't out to reinvent the wheel.

That's exactly what David Gerrold said (at considerably greater length) in The World of Star Trek:

The crew of the Enterprise is in no way meant to be representative of future humanity -- not at all. They are representative of the American Sphere of Influence today. Their attitudes, their manner of speaking, their ways of reacting, even their ways of making love, are all contemporary.

We have met the Enterprise -- and they are us.

The crew of the Enterprise is twentieth-century America in space.

And -- although it takes a bit of justification -- that's the way it has to be.

Remember, this is drama we are talking about, as well as American television. It has to make money.

That means it has to have appeal and that its characters must be attractive and interesting -- an audience has to be able to relate to them. Even if the show is alien to the audience's experience, the characters have to be recognizable.

 

[RubySlipppers]

Dr. McCoy is not nice to Mr. Spock about anything. He was quite rude to him in The Tholian Web and Galileo Seven. I didn't like when the writers wrote McCoy this way.

 

[Moonglum]

Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not the Grand Dragon!