Atlas McCoy app

[boldlyemoting]

[OOC]

Your Name: fakealchemist
Contact: fake.alchemist@gmail.com
Are you at least 16 years of age or older?: Yes
Current Characters(s): N/A

[IC]

Is this a re-app?:No.
Character Name: Leonard H. McCoy
Journal: boldlyemoting
Canon: Star Trek (TOS)
Canon Point: Post “Turnabout Intruder.”
Species: Human
Age: 42
History: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Leonard_McCoy
Personality: The lynchpin to writing McCoy is understanding the “triumvirate” of the TOS cast. The notion was that Captain Kirk is the center, the decider, with science officer Spock on one side presenting analysis and suggestions based on logic; McCoy was his foil as the representation of passionate emotion. “The Wrath of Khan” has an excellent example of the formula, as Kirk presents a briefing about the movie’s planet-transforming MacGuffin: Spock simply finds it interesting, but McCoy launches into a rant about overstepping boundaries and playing god. Most things are deliciously campy in TOS anyway, but McCoy is especially given to dramatics, and to be frank his emotional groundings can be irrational and inconsistent based on the moment-to-moment context. In “The Enemy Within,” we see McCoy both counsel Kirk that the captain needs his darker impulses to be a strong commander AND argue against Kirk’s subsequent decision to have them reintegrated -- because when it came down to it, the procedure was just too medically risky for McCoy to bear.

Starting from that base point, there are three main ways McCoy tends to present himself: the chummy country doctor, the grouchiest old man alive, and the idealist explorer with nerves of steel. The first is simple. The man’s glad to banter and serve as confidant, especially over a good drink. As the chief medical officer on a ship in deep space, Bones has the luxury of ignoring formalities from time to time. It’s not uncommon to see him wander onto the bridge not because he really has any business there, but because he wants to know what’s going on and maybe sass Kirk and Spock a bit. Teasing is great -- for example, joking about whether an alien life form preferred human ears or Vulcan ears, or poking at Spock when it turns out the “emotionless” friend grew up with his planet’s version of a teddy bear. Taking jabs at each other is just normal behavior to McCoy; he is actually embarrassed when he accidentally gives Spock a straight compliment, and he’s downright gleeful when he gets to “win” an argument like ordering Jim on a diet or requiring a stress-related shore leave. On the other hand, we see him soak up intimate moments like a private drink with Jim to celebrate a birthday.

But then there’s the grouch. McCoy is literally a guy who goes on a camping trip in the mountains with his friends, then sits around the campsite using binoculars to watch them have fun while pitching a fit about all the things that could go wrong with whatever they’re doing. Hey, McCoy’s a great doctor -- and with that comes an entirely too intimate knowledge of how things can go terribly wrong and kill you. For example, he infamously complains about transporters (how can people be so comfortable with being disassembled down to the molecules and then having them flung across space?!), and on multiple occasions he derides the medical techniques of the past as medieval horrors. McCoy’s complaining started a franchise-long gag of doctors complaining about being asked to do things that don’t fit their job descriptions. He’s a doctor, not an escalator, dammit! But at least the man wears his heart on his sleeve...even if it means he’s ignoring protocol to yell at a commodore about whether or not the man’s still sane enough to take command of the ship in an emergency.

Oddly, that brings us to the idealistic explorer. “Star Trek” was meant to provide an optimistic look at the future. One where gender, race, nationality and other such barriers were overcome and the quest to better ourselves ultimately took man into the stars and find out what other wonders lay out there. The exploring aspect tends to be muted in McCoy -- see the whole thing about pitching fits about how dangerous a given action is -- but it still plays an important role. Honestly, the fits shouldn’t be taken to mean Bones isn’t brave, as the man is willing to sedate his companions so they won’t prevent him from offering up his life to save them, and he balks at fighting back when forced into gladiatorial combat. The thing that’ll hit McCoy’s morale the hardest is being unable to help someone, as turns out losing his father to a disease shortly before its cure was discovered is a formative emotional scar, and he sulks in a dark room when he thinks he’s blinded Spock while trying to rid the Vulcan of a dangerous parasite. He is also curious, and he has been known to take a certain wonder in finding something new. When androids hijack the ship and offer crew members things that hit deep desires, McCoy out of all of them is the one to be excited about the facility’s extensive research labs. He “could spend a lifetime there,” which was what the androids were hoping in the first place, so. Good job buddy. McCoy also wholeheartedly debates the morals of hunting a dangerous alien that kills people to consume the salt in their bodies; it’s merely acting out of self-preservation, and wouldn’t the loss to the galaxy be too great with the creature’s extinction?

It’s difficult to wrap McCoy up into a neat package with all those passions and irrationalities. But that is the man: sometimes the prickly old man yelling at you to use some common sense, sometimes your good old boy come to grin and joke or provide some relieving counsel. Sometimes both in the course of the same conversation. Always the man who takes the side of humanitarianism, even when it’s impractical.

Powers & Abilities: Powers & Abilities: McCoy has no superhuman abilities; he’s “just an old country doctor.” But it is worth noting that he is a pioneering figure in medicine in his universe, dealing with medical challenges no one had run into before. For example, he’s talented enough to keep a Vulcan body alive after its brain has been removed and wire the body to operate on a remote control until they can get the brain back. Lacking proper medical equipment obviously hampers his usefulness.

In the right context he can do a little jerryrigging work on tech -- he assists Spock in “surgery” modifying a torpedo -- and Starfleet officers receive at least some hand-to-hand and firearms training. However, it’s obviously not McCoy’s strong suit, and he’ll probably complain about the fact that all of this is not his job.

He’s also VERY good at declaring when redshirts are dead.

Misc: N/A
Sample: http://theatlas-ooc.dreamwidth.org/5986.html?thread=177506#cmt177506 - Miles gets a new doctor, whether he wants one or not.

http://theatlas-ooc.dreamwidth.org/5986.html?thread=98914#cmt98914 - Engaging in wild speculation with Vestara.