Physicians Of Note And Their Accomplishments
Leonard H. McCoy, M.D. (2227-) (nicknamed “Bones”, as in the old-fashioned colloquialism “Sawbones” for a doctor or a surgeon) was the medical officer on the USS Enterprise NCC1701 – the humanistic counterpart to the logical Spock: capable of great compassion, yet also cranky, superstitious, and irrational. He is suspicious of advanced technology, especially the transporter, which he regards with distrust and often outright dismay, and occasionally is bigoted with regard to Spock’s half-Vulcan ancestry. He is the only American Southerner depicted among the racially and ethnically diverse crew of the USS Enterprise.
McCoy professes a preference toward “good ol’ fashioned country medicine,” however when he encounters highly invasive 1980s medicine, he refers to it as “medievalism” and reacts to it with anger and disgust (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). McCoy is a physician of considerable skill, capable even of successfully treating creatures whose physiologies he is unfamiliar with, such as the Horta (TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”).
McCoy was born in 2227 (TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”). He attended Ole Miss, which is the University of Mississippi, where he once met Emony Dax, a female Trill athlete with whom it is implied he had a sexual relationship (DS9: “Trials and Tribble-ations”). McCoy euthanized his terminally ill father, Dr. David McCoy, for which he carried lasting guilt because a cure for his father’s ailment was discovered not long afterward (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier).
In 2266, McCoy was named chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk, replacing Doctor Mark Piper. McCoy and Kirk become good friends, but the passionate, sometimes cantankerous McCoy frequently argues with Kirk’s other close friend and confidante, Spock. McCoy served until 2269, when the ship’s five-year mission ended. He retired to private medical practice by 2270.
During the 2271 V’Ger Crisis, Kirk uses a “little-known, seldom used, reserve activation clause,” which McCoy likens to being drafted, to recall McCoy to Starfleet as a commander and chief medical officer aboard the refit Enterprise (Star Trek: The Motion Picture).
By 2285, McCoy was an instructor at Starfleet Academy. Shortly before Spock’s death, Spock uses McCoy as a receptacle for his katra (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). The experience is traumatic for both McCoy and Spock; McCoy is taken into custody in response to his brazen attempts to reach the Genesis Planet in an attempt to reunite Spock’s katra with his body. Kirk and Hikaru Sulu break McCoy out of custody and, after stealing the Enterprise with the aid of Montgomery Scott, Pavel Chekov, and Uhura, recover Spock’s body and facilitate the return of Spock’s katra to his body. In the process, the Enterprise is destroyed (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock).
During the Enterprise crew’s three-month stay on Vulcan, McCoy makes a full recovery. McCoy’s “fine sense of historical irony” leads to him naming the crew’s captured Klingon ship the HMS Bounty. McCoy, along with the rest of Kirk’s crew, are not prosecuted for their illegal actions regarding the theft of the Enterprise and travel to Genesis; Kirk, however, is demoted and given command of a new starship, the USS Enterprise-A (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home); McCoy joins the crew as the chief medical officer (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier). McCoy is briefly taken into custody in 2293 and imprisoned on Rura Penthe, along with Kirk, when General Chang frames the Enterprise crew for the murder of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon. McCoy and Kirk are rescued, and McCoy aids Spock in constructing a torpedo to destroy Chang’s experimental bird-of-prey (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country).
Admiral McCoy’s shoulder board Between 2295 and 2363, McCoy’s life and activities are unknown, although a FASA roleplaying manual states that McCoy held a special staff rank known as “branch admiral”.
In 2363, Admiral McCoy is briefly aboard the recently-commissioned USS Enterprise-D, and compares Data’s mannerisms and speech to that of Vulcans (Star Trek: The Next Generation: “Encounter at Farpoint”). To achieve the rank of Admiral he would have had to have served as the Surgeon General of Starfleet, at least.
McCoy’s book Comparative Alien Physiology became a classic among medical textbooks on par with Gray’s Anatomy, and part of the knowledge base of the Emergency Medical Hologram (VOY “Message in a Bottle”).
Dr. Beverly Crusher was the Chief Medical Officer on board the USS Enterprise-D and its successor, the USS Enterprise-E. She initially held the rank of Lieutenant Commander until promoted in 2362 to the rank of Commander. She was also head of Starfleet Medical from 2365 to 2366.
According to her personnel file seen in the episode “Conundrum”, Beverly Howard was born on 13 October, 2324 to Paul and Isabel Howard in Copernicus City, Luna.
Her mother died while Beverly was young and she grew up with her grandmother on the Arvada III colony. The personnel file says she attended Starfleet Academy from 2342 to 2350. She married Jack Crusher in 2348 and gave birth to their son Wesley Crusher the following year. Jack Crusher proposed to Beverly Howard by giving her a book called How to Advance Your Career Through Marriage as a gag gift. Beverly’s husband died on an away mission in 2354, and it took her a long time to recover. Captain Jean-Luc Picard was the first to inform Beverly and her son about Jack’s death.
In 2364, Dr. Beverly Crusher was assigned to the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D as the chief medical officer under Captain Jean-Luc Picard. She would reintroduce her son Wesley to Captain Picard, who angrily chased the boy off the bridge after Wesley acknowledged an alert. Later, Picard would name Wesley an acting ensign, beginning Wesley’s Starfleet career.
During the first year, Dr. Crusher diagnosed and cured a polywater infection that was causing the crew to lose their inhibitions. She was seriously injured in the episode “The Arsenal of Freedom”, and would reveal to Picard that her grandmother had taught her about the roots and herbs used by the colony where she grew up.
Dr. Crusher left the Enterprise for a year when she was offered the head position at Starfleet Medical. During this year, her son remained on board the Enterprise. Crusher was replaced during this time by Dr. Katherine Pulaski.
In 2366, Crusher returned to the Enterprise and was reunited with her son and fellow officers. She would remain on the Enterprise-D for the remainder of the ship’s service.
After the destruction of the Enterprise-D at Veridian III, Crusher was assigned, along with most of the Enterprise-D command crew, to the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-E.
Julian Subatoi Bashir, M.D. is the chief medical officer of space station Deep Space Nine and the USS Defiant in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
As a child, Bashir fell behind in school and his parents, Richard and Amsha Bashir, had him subjected to genetic engineering. The engineering made him superior to most humans in mental acuity and agility. However, because genetic engineering is illegal in the United Federation of Planets, Bashir and his parents kept his procedure a secret throughout most of his adult life (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”). Bashir, in the Arabic language means “Bringer of Good Tidings”, which is also coincidentally a name of the Prophet Muhammad.
Bashir finished second at Starfleet Medical, having purposely missed a question on his final exam (DS9: “Distant Voices”). He had his choice of assignments and chose Deep Space Nine for the opportunity to practice “frontier medicine” (DS9: “Emissary”). His overly enthusiastic, self-important nature make some members of the crew, such as Miles O’Brien and Kira Nerys, reluctant to spend time with him. However, he eventually becomes friends with O’Brien, Jadzia Dax, and Elim Garak. Bashir falls in love with Dax, who goes on to marry Worf. After her death, Bashir joins Worf on a mission to ensure that Jadzia’s soul reaches Sto-Vo-Kor. Bashir and O’Brien become close friends, and are frequently shown playing games (like darts) or visiting the holosuite for a recreation of a historical battle.
Commander Sisko was a little more appreciative of Bashir: when some Federation ambassadors arrived on a fact-finding mission, Sisko appointed Bashir as “just the right officer to take them off my hands”, but also warns the doctor not to ‘hit anyone’; Sisko himself had been given a similar onerous task by Curzon, and he only got out of it when he punched one of the ambassadors.
During pre-Dominion war tensions, Bashir is kidnapped and sent to a Dominion prison camp and replaced with a shapeshifter (DS9: “In Purgatory’s Shadow”). His replacement attempts to destroy the Bajoran sun, wiping out Bajor, DS9, and a fleet of Federation, Klingon, and Romulan ships (DS9: “By Inferno’s Light”). The plan is foiled, and Bashir and his fellow captives escape shortly thereafter.
Bashir’s parents accidentally reveal his genetically engineered status. Bashir offers to resign his commission, but his parents instead arrange for his father to spend two years in prison in exchange for allowing Julian to continue his career. The logic being that for every Julian Bashir who is out to save lives, there is a Khan Noonien Singh who is out to destroy them. The consequences of his genetic engineering becoming public include O’Brien’s requirement that Bashir stand further back from the dart board during their games (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”).
Bashir attempts to integrate several other genetically engineered individuals into Federation culture, with mixed success (DS9: “Statistical Probabilities”, “Chrysalis”). The covert operations group Section 31 also becomes interested in him and twice unsuccessfully tries to recruit him (DS9: “Inquisition”, “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges”).
At the end of the series, Bashir remains aboard Deep Space Nine and has recently begun a relationship with Ezri Dax.
Phlox is the doctor aboard the NX-01 Enterprise. He is a member of the Denobulan race and was on Earth as part of the Interspecies Medical Exchange when called to service on Enterprise. As part of the Exchange, he corresponds regularly with his human counterpart on Denobula, Dr. Lucas (After the Xindi attack on Earth, Dr. Lucas was recalled from Denobula and transferred to the Earth Cryogenic Storage Facility known as Cold Station 12). Dr. Phlox has three wives, each of whom has two other husbands. Only one of his wives, Feezal, was seen on the show. Phlox has five children by his wives: two daughters (both of whom, like him, work in the medical field) and three sons (one of whom, Metis, was estranged from his father for some time).
The doctor is portrayed as having an open mind to other species and cultures (even the Antarians, a race that was once at war with the Denobulans). His sickbay contains an interplanetary zoo of animals, some of them as food for other animals which are used as source for medical drugs. He is curious and has a wry sense of humor. He also has an affinity for Earth cuisine, particularly Chinese food.
Phlox is also interested in religion: he once prayed with a group of monks which visited the Enterprise, spent a week with monks at a Tibetan monastery, attended Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and observed the Tal Shara ritual at the Vulcan compound in Sausalito.
Phlox’s physical abilities have been revealed gradually over time. He appears to need little sleep, instead embarking on an annual “hibernation” of sorts that lasts for six days. He also has great control over his facial muscles, being able to open his mouth wider than humans (as demonstrated by the impossibly large grin he occasionally sports (Broken Bow) ). When confronted with loneliness, his people can sometimes create incredibly realistic hallucinations (Doctor’s Orders). When threatened, Phlox also has the ability to inflate his head like a blowfish to scare off attackers (Home).
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