No one ever said he was forced to. He just did. Also, he's a doctor, which requires more hair covering in medical settings. Easier to just shave
Poll Should Riker have been allowed to have a beard?
- Thread starter Spock's Eyebrow
- Start date
It's not really a spoiler to say Spock had a beard, as it's been well over six months, but it is important to note that Spock's beard was while he was on leave and out of uniform, and he elected to shave it off at the end of the season when he put his uniform back on. Not that he wouldn't be allowed to have it, as I assume it was just a character thing of him adopting what he believed to be a Starfleet appearance when in uniform.
McCoy and Spock both get their commissions reactivated, and both, oddly, decide to shave off their beard when this is done. We have Captain O'Shea from The Animated Series and now Ash Tyler and Hugh Culber from Discovery as contemporaries proving that this isn't a Starfleet requirement, just a personal one for these two.
Didn't Scotty also have a mustache in all the movies? Including the one where McCoy shaves off his beard?
So it might really just have been personal choice (especially with Spock) or because McCoy is a Doctor and the beard might be problematic with a surgical mask?
McCoy was probably a doctor in private practice during his retirement from Starfleet, so his shaving was probably not for medical practitioner purposes. Although I just learned this was a novelization only fact, and it's possible he was doing something other than medicine for those two-and-a-half years. Although I doubt it.
But, surgical masks are a thing of the past in the 24th century, per A Matter of Time, and I know from recent experience
that surgical masks are specifically loose enough to just allow a little environmental protection when dealing with patients, but not completely. As long as the cloth covers the nose and mouth, even a little loosely, one can wear a tight beard. McCoy's was a bit wild, of course, and might interfere with the disposable masks of today. I assume, by the 23rd and definitely 24th century, the air filtration on a starship, in addition to personal force fields as necessary (like when they don massive surgical garb, that doesn't cover the face), removes all need for the flimsy disposable device we see today.Maybe the personal force fields in the 23rd century work better with a tighter beard, like Culber's, so McCoy shaved for that reason. Crusher is the one who actually said beards were an unnecessary affectation in TNG, but didn't mention any medical reason for doctors not to have them (although she wasn't speaking to any Doctors in that scene).
when do we see him with a mask?
It's a precaution in case he needs to perform surgery? Pretty sure the Chief Medical Officer of a Starship needs to do that, judging from other installment of the franchise.
No he didn't. The first two miniseries of North and South were filmed and aired before TNG even existed and the third one in 1994. That had abolutely nothing to do with him growing a beard between seasons 1 and 2 of TNG, you didn't even look at the dates.
He simply brew one, the producers liked the look and asked him to keep it, that's all.
C
Captain pl1ngpl0ng
Guest
^ YEAH!
What about Worf who also had a beard? Geordi also had a beard for a while..
What about that nasty long hair growing from Deanna's mole on her neck? Why is this even a question?
What about that nasty long hair growing from Deanna's mole on her neck? Why is this even a question?
Special exemptions for weird alieny beards. Could be the source of some biofunction, like the Benzite ash tray thingy
A human beard might look super alieny to a Benzite.
PICARD: "Mr. Worf, I order you to shave that beard."
WORF: "I hereby resign my position as a Starfleet officer. It has been an honor, sir."
WORF: "I hereby resign my position as a Starfleet officer. It has been an honor, sir."
