We had more Bones ...However,

[Dales]

I like many fans wanted more Bones in the film,but after I rewatched Beyond. I saw a flaw with the character.Off all the characters in Beyond apart from Chekov, Bones was the only character that did not have any personal thing that made him relatable or that added any depth to his character.

Kirk had himself questioning if he could be as great as his father.. he also struggled with restlessness and even loneliness. He wanted to leave his position on the enterprise as Captain.

Sulu had his family he left behind. although a small and easily disposable part in the film, but you get sulu's sense of sacrifice at the beginning when kirk reads the captain's log. the part where kirk says that members of the crew have given up a lot be here and they cut to sulu with his daughter's picture. you immediately have a sense of sulu private life and what he thinks about the most.

Spock had troubles with uhura and his duties. he struggled with continuing his relationship with uhura or giving her up to help repopulate his race. his struggles also deepens after he gets the news of spock's prime's death. in the 2nd arc of the film and while injured and unfit for combat duty, he goes to look for uhura due to his personal attachment to her.

Uhura had her own personal issues as well, her boyfriend for years was about to leave her for another woman. clearly she was upset like Bones said, but she was willing to do the right thing by letting spock go. even though she was heartbroken about his decision to leave the enterprise and leave her behind.

We had Jaylah , a girl who lost her family and spent her life, running, surviving and hiding from Krall. she finally decides to turn her life around when she meets the crew and Scotty especially. she joins star fleet academy in the end thanks to Scotty and Kirk . Jaylah , by the end of the film has opened a new chapter in her life.


'' You take my house and you make it fly''
One of the best lines in the film.

We had scotty, who formed a personal bond with jaylah over the course of the film and helps her as a character to become a person, more than what Jaylah has made herself to be. if it was not for scotty's kindness,faith and understanding of loss that people experience, jaylah would not have offered any help to the crew or turn her own life around and move forward to something greater.

Kirk: Let her go
Scotty: She has lost people too captain.

Then we have Bones and there is nothing going on with him that is his own. yes, there was the spock banter from tos but spock had a lot more going for him than a banter. he had a struggling planet (new Vulcan) to worry about , he had his relationship uhura , which was on thin ice and he had weight of spock's prime death to deal with.

Bones was an empty shell of a character in Beyond and the only character that did not have any depth to him at all aside from Chekov, but unlike Chekov, we never complained he was getting sidelined like Bones was, in the first two films.

If there is a star trek 4, I hope Bones has a personal little story of his own apart from listening to kirk's daddy issues and bantering with Spock.

 

[Nyotarules]

Interesting points, perhaps the movie should have shown a scene of Bones talking to his daughter by video during Kirk's voice over about what the crew has given up for the mission, unless this reboot Bones does not have any children. Or if he is childfree show him flirting with Chapel if she is on the ship.

 

[Cyke101]

I'm a big, big fan of Beyond but I think these are valid points. I raved (and still rave) about how much Bones had improved in Beyond compared to the previous two movies, and while I very much appreciate getting arguably as much screen time as Spock this time, I'm now comparing him to TFF and TUC. In TFF, his friends filled in that gap of motivation ("I doubt any God who inflicts pain for his pleasure." is a really great line), and in TUC, we saw him spring to action initially as only an MD could, because lives were in trouble (and galactic peace at stake). Here, while we see him jump into the action out of necessity, there could've been just a bit more motivation other than survival.

As compared in the OP, Bones doesn't have an external connection, but maybe that in itself could be inverted into a character motivation. Not that he isn't friendly or hurting for friends, but maybe struggling to develop the relationships he already has with the crew. With that said, I really enjoyed Bones and Spock on the planet, *finally* getting the chance to banter in the Kelvinverse, and I'd cite that exchange as a light example of what can be done with Bones' character. He doesn't hate Spock obviously, but he's coming to better understand his friend and colleague. If developed enough, that alone would've worked as Bones' own arc.

Since Chekov was brought up, I would've liked to have seen him not necessarily suck up to Kirk, but a more realized storyline of him trying to come to deal with, in his perspective, playing with the big boys. In the first two movies, he was sometimes nervous and jittery, inspired but worried about failing his captain. There could've been a small subplot of him slowly gathering more and more confidence and assertion thanks to Kirk's guidance -- honestly, I remember expecting to see this the first time Kirk and Chekov discover they're stranded, and Chekov kept asking Kirk what they should do next. As soon as Chekov told Kirk where to shoot his phaser, it seemed like that idea was dropped.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

If you've watched the 2013 video game, Chekov gets way more development there. Not only do you get a peek inside his head with the "logs" you find as part of gameplay, he also has great scenes. McCoy pleads with Chekov not to leave him on the Gorn-occupied planet under any circumstances, despite Kirk's orders to take the Enterprise back through the rip whether or not the landing party returns, giving the poor kid much angst. Later Kirk and Spock rescue an injured Chekov who has barricaded himself in a room with other officers. While the player helps him to sickbay, Chekov acts as their shooting arm, firing on attacking Gorn intruders.

In Beyond, McCoy kind of serves as Kirk and Spock's confidant/counselor. He's matured somewhat from this bitter divorced man who's cynical about everything to your best friend who tells it like it is and is never too busy to help you when you really need it.

 

[Tosk]

Why is Bones supposedly not having a personal growth story in the film considered a "flaw"?

I would argue that he does have one of sorts, his relationship with Spock. Especially in light of Spock stating clearly his feelings about McCoy rather than continuing to assume that Bones knew how he felt about their interactions.

Also, Bones has filled this role in the narrative before. It's hardly new for him not to have personal stakes in the adventure at hand.

 

[Smellmet]

Much like his predecessor he was there primarily as the 'voice of reason' and for comic relief. I guess there wasn't enough room in the story for him to have a side story. Valid points nonetheless though.

 

[Malaika]

Why is Bones supposedly not having a personal growth story in the film considered a "flaw"?

because you are in a fandom where Uhura gets a ton of concern trolling because of her relationship with Spock, with people claiming she's just the girlfriend (in spite of her doing more for the plot and having her skills showed more than Mccoy most of the time), and yet the same people praise McCoy for the same thing they criticize her for, and thus the fact that he's really only (gets screentime through) 'the friend of hero' and he's defined by his interactions with the main guys. So you could say that it's trek fans who made this a 'flaw', or rather a vocal side of them did.


I think there is a difference between being defined by a relationship dynamic and thus just be the friend of hero/the girlfriend, and having relationships dynamics where things are 'mutual' and you have a voice too, even if you are not the protagonist so some level of 'secondary character' is inevitable.
Uhura and Bones had the second in the first movies, but in the last one he's more or less just a dude who listens to Kirk and then Spock's problems, but no one cares about his. He is pretty much being the sidekick supporting the Kirk/Spock bromance by pointing up how hard it would be for Kirk if Spock left, but the narrative doesn't care about how Bones would feel if Kirk left. Not only he's not allowed to express feelings about that, apparently his best friend didn't even tell him, in spite of their first scene establishing/reminding us that Kirk talks about his problems with Bones.
Further, when both him and Spock save Kirk, the narrative once again ostensibly makes it so that Kirk gives all the credit to Spock and how important he is to Kirk, essentially turning his other friend - Mccoy - into chopper liver (but at least in the other movie Bones was allowed to remind him that he had something to do with saving him too)

Urban said that the Kirk/Bones dynamic was just inferred in stid and I get his feelings but I don't think Beyond improved it and I don't see how he could be happier with how it was handled in Beyond, unless - yes, he only cares about more screentime (that, then, is another matter). Kirk/Bones was done better in the first movies IMO. His dynamic with Kirk was more mutual. He wasn't just the friend, Kirk also was his friend (likevise, Uhura is Spock's girlfriend, but he also is her boyfriend and she has agency in the relationship e.g., she's allowed to voice the fact that his behavior was hurting her) They showed them both worrying about each other at different moments, and he was the one who ultimately found a way to save Kirk. He had a voice to express his personal feelings too and it had nothing to do with the Kirk/Spock bromance.

In beyond, the team talked about a mutual understanding between Spock and Bones but I don't see it.
I see that Bones had one sided banter with Spock (I didn't get the feeling the dislike was really mutual) because of his own prejudices (and not knowing him well), but in the movie he gets to see a different side of Spock. But Spock? He didn't really get to know Mccoy better and in turn, the audience itself didn't.
This happened because they wasted the opportunity to also make McCoy share something personal about himself , be either in terms of his dynamic with Kirk (e.g., the fact that his friend was about to leave) or his own doubts about the five years mission, or even a vague mention of his divorce when he was listening to Spock talking about Uhura.
Even the ending, that look he gives to Spock and Uhura, I don't know but the more I rewatch the scene the more I, while appreciating the comic relief aspect of it, wish they just showed him being happy for S/U now that he has a better yunderstanding of Spock and the dynamic between them.. that would have showed some character development and 'evolution' in him instead of once again get him back to being the dude who finds Spock weird.

the one more individual and personal moment Bones was supposed to have was him being conflicted about using a phaser, but they deleted it. They seemed to be so focused on giving Spock and Bones pretexts to be a duo, even after they got back to the rest of the gang, that they didn't think about the fact that a) maybe it didn't make too much sense for Bones to participate to the rescue mission by going to the base with Spock rather than, say, stay back on the ship and wait for the crew in case someone was injured b) they essentially stuck Spock and Bones to each other for most of the movie even in a moment where they could have interacted with other characters more. As a result.. did Bones even talk with someone who isn't Kirk or Spock in the movie? Beside the brief moment with Scotty?


as for OP's argument, while I agree that Scotty still gets a bit more than Bones as an individual, I didn't find he had much of a personal arc either, his dynamic with Jaylah having in part the same 'flaw', so to speak, the Spock/McCoy one has. Pegg gave to both Bones and Scotty more screentime than Uhura (who was the almost third in the first two movies) by making them interact with the main dudes the first, and the new character the second, but ironically didn't really develop these characters more than before and didn't really give them a personal arc. This once again proves that screentime while important is not everything if you don't use it well.
However, I don't think they did much better with the other characters. Uhura is saved by the fact that she still has a good role in the plot in helping saving the day and she has her skills used. It was also interesting that, in a sense, she was the voice reminding us what starfleet is about to a dude that hated it. But still, she isn't as allowed to express her feelings in terms of her relationship with Spock (or her dynamics with Kirk, or the wasted one with Sulu) as she was before. It was refreshing to see a movie where the male character is more 'defined' (I hate this word tho) by the romantic relationship than the woman is (with him being the one pining the most in the wake of their initial break up, and him generally looking like a guy who still has a crush for his girlfriend after he had dated her for years now.. which is cute), but I wish she was also allowed to have a voice and her feelings for Spock and what happened between them wasn't just inferred. There are more scenes that talk about her and her relationship with Spock, than scenes where she's herself allowed to experience this dynamic that is part of HER personal life, not just something McCoy or others can gossip about to provide the narrative an excuse for comic relief.
Definitely, beyond is a movie that tried to give more development to characters who aren't Kirk or Spock, but like other movies it just shows how hard it's to do that when you are still stuck in that main guys narrative.

 

[dahj]

You don't need an "arc" to have character.

In fact, most of the time in stories it's not really necessary to have people change, grow or confront some personal problem to have a fully fleshed out character, you can just characterize them as they are now and how they interact with the world around them and still have them be interesting individuals.

So no, I don't think Bones was "empty" in Beyond, I think he worked just fine.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

He does have a stake: everybody on the ship he can save or see saved. It's called being a doctor.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Bones was never really relatable in TOS as far as I can recall. He was just a cantankerous old man who chafed under Spock's logic and loathed the consequences of Kirk's impulsiveness (even as he was made to suffer through them through no fault of his own). Even in the movies he didn't have much going for him except as a stabilizing force to keep Kirk and/or Spock from killing each other.

 

[Mudd]

McCoy was always the guy who threw in one-liners to leaven the interaction between Kirk and Spock. He was never a particularly realized character. Kelley was charming and a good actor and he made you love the stiff.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Bones was never really relatable in TOS as far as I can recall. He was just a cantankerous old man who chafed under Spock's logic and loathed the consequences of Kirk's impulsiveness (even as he was made to suffer through them through no fault of his own). Even in the movies he didn't have much going for him except as a stabilizing force to keep Kirk and/or Spock from killing each other.

Funny, in the Prime timeline, it seemed like Jim was stopping Bones and Spock from killing each other. In fact, in "The Tholian Web" when they thought Jim was dead and opened his safe, the note inside pretty much said, "Please don't kill each other."

 

[Franklin]

In ST09, we find out McCoy joins Starfleet because his personal life has gone to hell. There's mention of the divorce, but he's also carrying that flask and is a little scruffy, so he's obviously been through some things and has probably hit rock bottom. His life is now aboard that ship. He's an important part of what has become a remarkable crew, and though he may not always act like it, he's probably very happy there.

So, maybe he didn't have a story arc because he already has worked through all his issues and is at peace with where he is. If anything, given him flying that craft and becoming so adept at it in STB, we see a more adventurous side of McCoy.

 

[Devilpogostick]

Yeah, I think Bones has a decent role in the Kelvin films, as that guy who keeps people he's close to fairly grounded while being a grump who won't skimp words on how he feels towards someone or the situation.

Beyond was kinda that film where it's minor but you can see a bit why Kirk and Spock can come to him when expressing their personal slumps. For Kirk, Bones is his best friend ever since they joined the academy together with their personal lives at the time was at a low. I wasn't surprised that Kirk can tell Bones why he's in the dumps regarding his growing disinterest about continuing to explore deep space as well as realizing he has nothing to prove now that he's surpassing what George Kirk has done as captain. That's a lot to talk about in private really that I can see the friendship the two have.

Spock's case is a little more professional as the two got their jabs at each other but never let it interfere with their work. But when Spock did express his situation, I think he knew Bones was the right person to talk to since Bones would never sway Spock into either staying or leaving. Bones know its personal that he really shouldn't stick his nose into it, but the very least he can let Spock air out his feelings about it. Though hilariously enough, Bones admits he alone would be overjoyed but that’s Bones for ya.

He's kinda like Troi...Or basically what Troi is supposed to be in a sense when he's not doing his role as a doctor. Though frankly, I would enjoy Bones' company than I would for Troi honestly.

 

[Zonker]

Supposedly there was a thread running through the movie about Bones wrestling with his conscience and figuring out whether as a doctor he could pick up a gun to fight off the drones and liberate the camp, but it got cut for time. I was kind of hoping to see this in a directors edition but I doubt that will happen.

 

[Malaika]

Generally speaking, my impression is that Lin prioritized action scenes over a lot of the more quieter character moments that would have added depth, see the moment for Bones. The Sulu/Uhura moment where he talks about his family is also an example of that, and I suspect there were many more. Watching Beyond is like the director doesn't really want to waste time over the characters and their feelings, so there are a lot of 'implicit' things that maybe shouldn't be so implicit. He may take for granted that just because they, as a creative team, know about these things and thus the whole picture regardless the final edit, the audience will automatically know about them too in spite of not having the scenes.
And the thing is, for me a good director is first foremost a good storyteller, and as much as I don't mind Lin's work, I don't think he's a better storyteller than JJ. These movies already have a limited time to really develop the characters as people and if you minimize even the little we have, then the story lacks heart and your audience won't care about the characters. JJ gets that and he added character moments when he felt like they needed that (see the bar scene between kirk and pike in stid), Lin pretty much does the opposite thing and he cuts even the little the characters have.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

A novelization/comic adaptation probably would have re-added these.

 

[captainkirk]

I kind of felt that Pegg/Jung and Lin were trying to make two different movies. The action scenes and the dialog scenes just feel separate from each other in a way that they didn't in the previous two movies where to me they seemed to blend more organically. In Beyond it was more like they'd do some action, then Lin would hand the movie over to the writers who would give us some good character moments, then they'd hand it back to Lin for more action.

 

[Malaika]

I kind of felt that Pegg/Jung and Lin were trying to make two different movies. The action scenes and the dialog scenes just feel separate from each other in a way that they didn't in the previous two movies where to me they seemed to blend more organically. In Beyond it was more like they'd do some action, then Lin would hand the movie over to the writers who would give us some good character moments, then they'd hand it back to Lin for more action.

that would explain why he doesn't seem to make a real effort to talk about the characters in depth in interviews/commentary, and when he's forced to by direct questions he either is too generic and vagueish or he just sounds uninspired like someone who needs to google some details before they can truly reply to a question.

Or he just talks about them as if they were carbon copies of their tos counterparts. E. g., he seemed to completely miss foundamental differences between the original trio and the reboot characters, especially in terms of the Kirk/Spock dynamic and basic narrative elements when it comes to the previous team essentially making Spock a co-protagonist whose role really isn't just being Kirk's friend, even less the other friend who clashes with Mccoy and represents the devil at Kirk's side. Not when Kirk himself, if anything, had that role towards him here.
Reboot Kirk/Spock essentially already was a Spock/McCoy dynamic, that's in part why McCoy's role in the trio was redundant in the first movies, why the trio and those 'roles' fans ostensibly want to still give to these characters have little reason to exist in a narrative that doesn't even need them. While in tos it was Kirk with his two friends, the reboot's dynamic rather has two main guys who individually have a character whom they share a bond (McCoy for Kirk, Uhura for Spock) that goes beyond the one they are supposed to develop with each other . If Lin believed the characters are the same with the same dynamic then I have to think he didn't watch the first movies.

 

[captainkirk]

I almost got the impression that he wasn't a big fan of the previous two movies. Basically nothing from STID was referenced and he couldn't wait to change how everything from the uniforms to the ship looked.