McCoy & Clark Terrell: Old Friends?

[Captain Clark Terrell]

The TWOK novelization establishes that McCoy and Captain Terrell from Reliant are old friends. McCoy took Terrell's death extremely hard and blamed David for being too reckless. The dialogue was cut from the actual film. Terrell's Memory Beta entry doesn't make it clear how or when the two worked together. Both appear in the Vanguard novels (I've not read these). Did they serve on a ship together? Did they know each other at the Academy?

--Sran

 

[Mysterion]

^^^
Was it cut from the film, or is that just one of the things Vonda McIntyre added to her novelization? she did do a lot of exapnsion in both her version of TWoK and TSFS.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

^^^
Was it cut from the film, or is that just one of the things Vonda McIntyre added to her novelization? she did do a lot of exapnsion in both her version of TWoK and TSFS.

Memory Alpha suggests it was in the film itself and removed. There's a blurb about it being in the shooting script.

--Sran

 

[Mysterion]

Fair 'nuff.

 

[Leto_II]

It's in the screenplay -- a brief mention aboard Spacelab Regula I:

118 - FULL SHOT - IN THE LAB
A moan is heard. All three now converge on the area. As they near it, Saavik's tricorder hums furiously. Be this a room, a locker of some other place, this time they -- "open the door." The limp bodies of Chekov and Terrell fall out.

UHURA'S VOICE
(on screen)
Admiral Kirk, Enterprise. Come in, please. Come in please.

She will continue sporadically.

KIRK
My God!

Chekov emits a live, reassuring moan.

BONES
That's Clark Terrell, Jim, I've served with him.

Vonda McIntyre added a bit more to the novelization, but it originated in the shooting script itself.

 

[Nightowl1701]

McCoy spent a few months on the planet Capella IV ('Friday's Child'). Judging from the uniform he's wearing in the screencap, this must've been what he was doing immediately before joining (or rejoining, depending which writer you believe) the Enterprise crew in between 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' and 'The Corbomite Manuever.' Terrell was Kirk's age (32 in 2265*), and serving as first officer of the scout ship Sagittarius starting around that time period (The ship is 'nearly new' in Vanguard: Harbinger). If the other elements of his backstory via Memory Beta (specifically the part about Derus VI) are to be believed, seems he'd be a natural to accompany McCoy for a few months on a Federation goodwill tour of Capella while recovering from his ordeal on Derus, before getting the XO gig on the Sagittarius.

* He would have already graduated from the Academy by the time McCoy signed up, assuming McCoy-prime went in the same time Abramsverse McCoy did.

 

[publiusr]

I had no idea.

 

[Christopher]

McCoy spent a few months on the planet Capella IV ('Friday's Child'). Judging from the uniform he's wearing in the screencap, this must've been what he was doing immediately before joining (or rejoining, depending which writer you believe) the Enterprise crew in between 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' and 'The Corbomite Manuever.'

I tend to disregard the uniform, since the episode seems to suggest it's been a longer time since he was there. I think it may fit best as part of the same medical relief mission that took him to Dramia in 2251.

 

[Noddy]

Well Abrams' Star Trek has McCoy enlist in Starfleet in 2255, and haven't the writers indicated that may well be one of the things that happened the same way in the prime reality? As per what appears to be the standard Academy system, McCoy would likely have graduated in 2259, so his trip to Capella IV would most likely have fallen around this time.

 

[Christopher]

^"May well be" implies "may also not be." We don't know for sure.

 

[Noddy]

I actually rather like the idea that McCoy's entry into Starfleet happened in roughly the same way and at the same time in the prime reality as it did in the altered one (apart from meeting Kirk at the same time though, as Kirk would already have graduated at that time, thanks to his father's influence). Perhaps Starfleet Academy is where McCoy met and became briefly involved with Nancy, from "The Man Trap"?

 

[Christopher]

^Well, "Albatross" doesn't specify whether McCoy was in Starfleet or not at the time he was on Dramia 19 years before. So it's possible he went there as a civilian, which would mean the Capella visit was later (unless we really disregard the visual evidence).

 

[Stevil2001]

I actually rather like the idea that McCoy's entry into Starfleet happened in roughly the same way and at the same time in the prime reality as it did in the altered one (apart from meeting Kirk at the same time though, as Kirk would already have graduated at that time, thanks to his father's influence). Perhaps Starfleet Academy is where McCoy met and became briefly involved with Nancy, from "The Man Trap"?

My thought in working on McCoy's backstory for A Choice of Catastrophes was that it's the same until he enlists in Starfleet in 2255. In the Prime universe, he's posted to Republic after enlisting (with Nancy Crater), and completes training onboard ship, while in the New universe he undergoes that training at Starfleet Academy.

 

[Leandar]

Yeah, cause wasn't there something, I seem to remember somewhere, don't remember if it was a TOS episode or maybe it was one of the books, somewhere where it was said that McCoy didn't go through the Academy?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I don't remember any such reference.

 

[JD]

It does sound vaguely familiar to me.

 

[Mysterion]

McCoy not going to the Academy is sort of implied in The Ultimate Computer. McCoy doesn't get the "Captain Dunsel" reference from Wesley, but the folks who've attended Starfleet Academy do.

 

[Noddy]

I actually rather like the idea that McCoy's entry into Starfleet happened in roughly the same way and at the same time in the prime reality as it did in the altered one (apart from meeting Kirk at the same time though, as Kirk would already have graduated at that time, thanks to his father's influence). Perhaps Starfleet Academy is where McCoy met and became briefly involved with Nancy, from "The Man Trap"?

My thought in working on McCoy's backstory for A Choice of Catastrophes was that it's the same until he enlists in Starfleet in 2255. In the Prime universe, he's posted to Republic after enlisting (with Nancy Crater), and completes training onboard ship, while in the New universe he undergoes that training at Starfleet Academy.

Why would he only train on the Republic in one reality, and not the other?

 

[Noddy]

McCoy not going to the Academy is sort of implied in The Ultimate Computer. McCoy doesn't get the "Captain Dunsel" reference from Wesley, but the folks who've attended Starfleet Academy do.

Well we now know that McCoy did attend the Academy.

 

[Christopher]

^We know that he attended the Academy in the timeline created by Nero's intervention. Is there evidence that he attended the Academy in the Prime timeline?