Does anyone else find McCoy annoying?

[Lordsuhn]

Hi all - back on the trekbbs after a long hiatus.

Have been re-watching TOS after a long time and have really been annoyed by McCoy in almost every episode. Here are some of my reasons.
For one thing, every time Spock is in command he questions all of Spock's decisions and makes his job harder.
He also seems to be pretty dumb, almost always preferring his gut to scientific analysis and usually wrong.

Anyway - just wanted to see if I was the only one.

 

[kirsten187]

I'm sure a similar thread (s) have been in here so no doubt someone will

I certainly used to when I 1st started watching in the mid 1990s.

 

[jayrath]

You're coming at this decades later. Part of McCoy's work, dramatically speaking, was to serve as the original viewers' stand-in, to point out how alien he was, how different. That way, we get to see Spock struggle with his human side, question himself.

And yes, of course the character was the polar opposite of Spock: emotion vs. logic, with Kirk in the middle. Yes, it was a little strident at times, but it's the same dynamic as in the cell scene in "Bread and Circuses," likely the best McCoy/Spock scene of all time -- and in the third season, at that!

 

[Harvey]

Second season, actually.

 

[Greg Cox]

Nah. McCoy is great. He adds plenty of humanity, character,and, yes, attitude to the show.

 

[ALF]

Never found him annoying, but the fact that so many scenes he appears covered in sweat is kind of annoying. I know, it was the 60s so the lights were super hot.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

Not Annoying but a border line Bigot if that can be used., he was not always politically correct.

 

[Michael]

I love McCoy! Always have. Sure, sometimes he questions Spock a little too much, but Spock always finds a way to come back at him, which makes it very entertaining to watch. McCoy is the most human and most casual of the characters. He often says exactly what I as the viewer am thinking. Also, if I was sick there's no one I would rather pay a visit.

 

[horatio83]

Hi all - back on the trekbbs after a long hiatus.

Have been re-watching TOS after a long time and have really been annoyed by McCoy in almost every episode. Here are some of my reasons.
For one thing, every time Spock is in command he questions all of Spock's decisions and makes his job harder.
He also seems to be pretty dumb, almost always preferring his gut to scientific analysis and usually wrong.

Anyway - just wanted to see if I was the only one.

It took me some time to warm up to him. When you first see TOS he does indeed appear to be just a rude, ignorant old man but after some time you realize that he is actually friends with Spock and deeply cares about his patients.

 

[bbailey861]

I love Bones. I think it's easy to pick apart a character that is almost 50 years old. You can do it with almost every series that ever ran. The fact of the matter is that, in the 60s, he represented the humanity in all of us during all those great adventures. He was irascible, but considering how new the idea of space flight was in those days - the idea of meeting new life and exploring new civilizations - he did a great job of asking the questions we were all thinking, all the while caring deeply for all his shipmates - especially the other two of the triumvirate.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Best character of them all. TNG desperately needed someone like him, but the closest they got was Q.

 

[Avro Arrow]

^ TNG had someone just like him... Dr. Pulaski in season 2.

 

[T'Bonz]

I love McCoy. He's one of my favorite Trek characters, just behind Kira Nerys.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

McCoy's good into the second year. Then, like a lot of details of the show, his eccentricities become rote character tics and a routine part of the writers' kit for getting through the episode.

In the movies he's quickly reduced to most often being an exaggerated parody of himself.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

McCoy/Kirk interchanges in episodes such as The Ultimate Computer and A Private Little War are golden. McCoy is a great Star Trek character.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

McCoy/Kirk interchanges in episodes such as The Ultimate Computer and A Private Little War are golden. McCoy is a great Star Trek character.

Don't forget their "Balance of Terror" scene in Kirk's quarters. "Captain, I know you don't really expect an answer-- but I've got one."

 

[CorporalCaptain]

... and The Corbomite Maneuver ...

 

[JarodRussell]

^ TNG had someone just like him... Dr. Pulaski in season 2.

It's a real shame they brought Dr. Crusher back. I liked Pulaski.

 

[SchwEnt]

Not Annoying but a border line Bigot if that can be used., he was not always politically correct.

I suspect modern day viewers may take McCoy's political incorrectness and bigotry much differently than old time viewers who first saw McCoy decades ago.

Back in the day, commenting on such things as McCoy does was not that unusual or unduly insensitive.

Judging him by current day standards of cultural sensitivities and political correctness may give an impression of the doctor that was not originally intended.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

If you mentally merge McCoy and Spock in the transporter, or just philosophically, of course the result is you get Kirk.

It may not have been true in the first year, but by the second, it's virtually inescapable. Kirk is the marriage of Spock and McCoy. The synthesis of his two best friends.
And the three of them combined are almost as good as Scotty.