The origin of Dr. McCoy's origin

[Jsplinis]

In both Howard Weinstein's Better Man And Michael Jan Freidman's Shadow of the Sun Dr. McCoy' background is explored. In fact, the two versions are quite similar.

In each story McCoy's wife Jocelyn cheats on him and then he serves on the Republic. However if I remember correctly they differ on who gets custody of Joanna.

I'm curious is any one knows where the different elements of the stories originated. For example, I know that McCoy's daughter was at one point going to be featured in the TOS TV show and was actually mentioned in an episode of TAS. But does anyone know who came up with the following ideas?

1. McCoys ex-wife's name: Jocelyn.
2. McCoy's daughter's name.
3. The fact that Jocelyn cheated on him and then they got divorced.
4. The idea that McCoy left on the Republic as one if his first assignments.
5. Any other interesting details.

By the way, did Howard Weinstein an Michael Jan Freidman's 2 stories have similar elements by coincidence or did one inspire the other?

Thanks,
Jsplinis

 

[Stevil2001]

McCoy's ex-wife was actually called "Honey" in one of the Bantam novels (Planet of Judgement, I think). "Jocelyn" originated with Enterprise: The First Adventure.

The Better Man and Shadows on the Sun were definitely co-ordinated, as they share some backstory in common, such as McCoy's service record. (Shadows makes a lot of McCoy's training on the Republic, which was mentioned in The Better Man.)

The name "Joanna" goes back to the original story proposal for "The Way to Eden," when it featured McCoy's daughter. It was never mentioned on screen, and the Gold Key comics give McCoy's daughter a different name (Barbara).

In A Choice of Catastrophes, Leonard cheats on Jocelyn.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

If I remember right, McCoy's backstory also comes up in Crisis on Centaurus.

 

[Christopher]

1. McCoys ex-wife's name: Jocelyn.

As stated above, that was coined by Vonda N. McIntyre in Enterprise: The First Adventure. Before that, Joe Haldeman named her Honey in Planet of Judgment (at least, I think it was her name rather than a term of endearment). And in the recent Abramsverse comics, McCoy's ex was named Pamela Branch.

2. McCoy's daughter's name.

The name Joanna was coined by D.C. Fontana in the second-season edition of the TOS writers' bible, and in her original script for the episode that became "The Way to Eden."

Gold Key's comics gave McCoy's daughter the name Barbara instead.

3. The fact that Jocelyn cheated on him and then they got divorced.

The idea of McCoy being divorced with a daughter was DeForest Kelley's own suggestion when Fontana asked him if he had a character backstory in mind. The specifics of why they broke up and who cheated have varied from telling to telling. Haldeman was the first to write about the divorce, and in his version, it doesn't seem as if either of them cheated; Honey left him because he hardly paid any attention to her and they were both unhappy. It was implied that there was another man in Honey's life, but the specifics were not established.

4. The idea that McCoy left on the Republic as one if his first assignments.

I believe that was from Shadows on the Sun.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Was ST XI the first to suggest the name 'Bones' as anything other than a shortening of 'Sawbones'?

 

[Christopher]

Was ST XI the first to suggest the name 'Bones' as anything other than a shortening of 'Sawbones'?

It's the only time the origin of the nickname has ever been addressed onscreen at all, as far as I know. So yeah.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Something I found very fascinating, an old Best of Trek volume actually suggests that it was McCoy who cheated on his wife (with Nancy Crater, IIRC) - something which seems a lot more fitting for his "I've got nowhere else to go, the ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce!" line from ST'09.

 

[Stevil2001]

Something I found very fascinating, an old Best of Trek volume actually suggests that it was McCoy who cheated on his wife (with Nancy Crater, IIRC) - something which seems a lot more fitting for his "I've got nowhere else to go, the ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce!" line from ST'09.

Really? Do you know which volume? That's essentially the reasoning we went with in A Choice of Catastrophes.

 

[F. King Daniel]

After almost an hour looking through every McCoy-related BoT article I could find, I eventually found it - in the very first Best of Trek, "A Look at Leonard McCoy" by Walter Irwin.

I like that A Choice of Catastrophes uses similar ideas. I wouldn't have thought official Trek lit would portray McCoy in a less-than-flattering light like that. I'll bump it up my reading list

 

[Stevil2001]

Ah, I haven't read that one; I have a couple Best of Treks, but they're later.