By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Here’s a question that you might get phasered for asking at a Star Trek convention: who do you think the most memorable character of The Original Series is? Many would say Spock, the alien who captivated audiences from the very beginning. Honestly, though, I think he’s more (as the character might say) “fascinating” than memorable. Others would say Captain Kirk, who effectively became the face of the franchise. It may be splitting hairs, but to me, that makes him more iconic than memorable. Personally, I think the most memorable TOS character is Dr. McCoy, who served as the irascible, emotional counterpart to Spock’s logic-loving Vulcan.
McCoy was great because he was always the ultimate audience surrogate. When Kirk and Spock would debate things in intellectual abstracts, the good doctor character would (with his southern drawl) bring everything back down to Earth. McCoy was so memorable, of course, because he was played to perfection by the late, great DeForest Kelley. He is so natural in this role that you might think he was Gene Roddenberry’s first choice for the role. As it turns out, he was! But Roddenberry lost fights with two different directors across two pilot episodes, which is why Kelley was actually the third man to play chief medical officer aboard the starship Enterprise.
The Doctor Is In
When Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek, DeForest Kelley was his first choice to play the show’s doctor. He wanted to cast him in the show’s first pilot episode, “The Cage.” However, Roddenberry had less power back in those days, and he occasionally let director Robert Butler boss him around. At Butler’s suggestion, Roddenberry cast John Hoyt for the role of the doctor in the pilot episode. In a way, this worked out: NBC rejected the first Star Trek pilot but ordered another one, and the only cast member who returned for the second was Leonard Nimoy. Had DeForest Kelley gotten the role back then, he may very well have been recast later on.
Later, Gene Roddenberry was working on Trek’s second pilot episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” He was still keen to have Kelley play the chief medical officer on the Enterprise, especially after the man starred in Police Story, one of Roddenberry’s failed pilots. Unfortunately, the past repeated itself: the director for the second pilot, James Goldstone, strong-armed Roddenberry into casting Paul Fix instead. NBC liked “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and greenlit the series; to this day, newcomers to Star Trek are baffled at Dr. McCoy’s absence from this episode.
His Memory Will Live On Forever
Finally getting the green light for his ambitious sci-fi show was obviously good news for Gene Roddenberry. Once NBC picked up his series, Roddenberry had a lot more control of just about everything, including casting. He was finally able to put DeForest Kelley into the show, and Dr. McCoy made his debut in “The Corbomite Maneuver.” Star Trek would come to define the veteran actor’s entire career, and he made the jump with the rest of The Original Series characters into feature films. Later, he appeared in the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, effectively passing the franchise baton to an entirely new crew of intrepid space explorers.
The quality and intensity of Kelley’s performance in Star Trek left an indelible mark on pop culture. Many years later, Karl Urban did his best Kelley impression when playing Dr. McCoy in the Kelvinverse films. Now, Punisher actor Thomas Jane is about to play the feisty doctor on the final season of Strange New Worlds. Together, these actors have done more than carry on the legacy of sci-fi’s greatest franchise. They have also carried on the legacy of DeForest Kelley, a wonderfully talented performer and the most memorable actor in Star Trek history.
