D is for Doctor

Not Doctor Who - I'm sure there'll be plenty of entries to come about my favourite TV show - but rather Doctor Leonard 'Bones' McCoy from Star Trek.

I have fond memories of the original series, shown many times on BBC2, back in the day when there were only the three TV channels that later became four. Most of them come from my early teens, when it was shown as six o-clock on a Thursday night. I'd watch it with my dad (my mum, a part-time nurse, worked evenings on a Thursday), then change the channel for Top of the Pops and Tomorrow's World.

Anyway, of the three main characters in Star Trek, Doctor McCoy was, and remains, my favourite. Captain Kirk is the hero, of course, leading his crew boldly where no man has gone before. He's great, but there's something a bit too larger-than-life about him. Of course, heroes have to be this way to drive a story with their actions, so that's never been a problem. And, as we're talking about interstellar exploration here, it's fitting that Kirk is as such.

I've always felt that Spock and McCoy acted as two sides of Kirk's conscience. In the Vulcan, Kirk has rationality and logic, in McCoy there is compassion - one represents science, the other humanity. There was always an 'everyman' aura about DeForest Kelley's performance; despite being in space, McCoy held on to his down-to-earth values, never losing sight of what he and his profession represented. He was fallible - Spock would blame his emotions for this - but every hero should be.

In the new films, Karl Urban plays Bones with a voice and mannerisms that are a tribute to Kelley's earlier performances, rather than a crass imitation of them. He's still the same McCoy though; a bit gruff and grouchy, but with a heart of gold. McCoy's the hero we all could be, the man who'd rather not be there, but will stand by his friends no matter what..

Star Trek has often been derided, but it's easy to pick apart something that's been going for nigh on 50 years, to laugh at primitive effects and dialogue that can be clunky, but watching it again years later, I can help but have a respect for it. The series worked because it had great characters involved in great stories, the triumvirate of Kirk, Spock and McCoy who were the best of friends.

My favourite quote about Doctor McCoy comes from the Deep Space Nine episode Trials and Tribble-ations. The crew have travelled back to the time of the original series, and Dax recognises him as 'Leonard', recalling with a knowing smile that he 'had the hands of a surgeon'. (Or something along those lines - look it up, watch it if you can.)

And remember. He's a Doctor, not a {insert occupation here}.