mccoy mode

sex and the star trek

I like to joke around that bones supposedly being with his wife the entire post 5 year mission as written in tmp novelization might just be jim kirk not wanting to accept any other possibility but there's also a lot to consider when you think about mccoy as an extension of how jim feels about the enterprise. jim is very possessive of the enterprise and he tends to be very possessive of his friends, largely of mccoy because mccoy is so willing to tolerate it. and for a while that works out for them. being on top of jim's various neuroses is a literal part of mccoy's job description and he spends a lot of time trying to explain to starfleet that jim is physically incapable of life outside a starship, like not fit for medical clearance incapable. so it's really interesting to think then about jim in tmp novelization and the copious descriptions of his desire and want for the enterprise, comparing it to how a man would lust after a woman, the sheer anger at the idea of that ship being anyone's but his own when he figures out that decker is going to be in charge of the mission. and then compare that to how he interacts with mccoy and how shatner plays that scene almost full of the same sort of anger and frustration that mccoy would be anywhere else, dare I say the implication that mccoy would belong to or with his literal wife natira instead of him. and this is not even the first time it comes up; he's constantly glowering at both of them throughout for the world is hollow and I have touched the sky, as if the very idea that not only would mccoy leave him, but he'd leave him for someone he'd just met, even if they are good for each other, is a completely unacceptable scenario.