It’s OK. I was just just trying to inject some “Great Debates” style polemic into the thread so that it can stay here.
The whole crew commented on it in The Undiscovered Country, to the point that I thought their xenophobia would be a plot device.
…there goes my point that he only hassled Spock…
If they produce non-sterile offspring, what evidence is there that they are different species?
Terrible table manners?
In fact, it was a plot device. The whole point of that movie was about how prejudice causes us to do stupid things.
Cite?!?
It was so lightly done for Trek. They usually paint one side white and the other black. 
Groan.
Posted by TWDuke:
[QUOTE]
Now, you wouldn’t expect humans to be able to breed with energy beings, corrosive silicon-blobs or brains in jars, but if environmental pressures could result in independent development of creatures that closely resemble humans wearing false ears or prosthetic foreheads, it’s conceivable that their genitals could fit together and their chromosomes line up correctly.
Not bloody likey, but conceivable.
[QUOTE]
No, TWDuke, it is not conceivable. It is physically possible that at some moment all the molecules of air around me will, by sheer chance, all happen to be sent in the same direction at once by random Brownian motion, go over to the other side of the room and leave me in a vacuum. But I do not expect such an unlikely thing will ever happen from now until the universe grows cold. It is on the same order of probability that you or I might be able to breed with an extraterrestrial humanoid who, despite similar appearance, is not related to us at all. We would have better luck trying to cross a human with a carrot.
This problem, however, was more-or-less resolved in an episode (I forget the title) of TNG: It was revealed that all humanoid species in the Star Trek universe are products of a genetic seeding program by an ancient and now-extince race of humanoids: They sent probes all over the galaxy to find life-bearing planets, and implant genetic markers in the indigenous life that would in essence program the biosphere to, one day, produce humanoids, down to such details as four fingers and a thumb on each hand. If we can swallow that – then it is not inconceivable that these probes also programmed the resulting humanoid species to be sexually compatible and fertile with each other.
But only such a highly contrived plot device can account for such a result. “Convergent evolution,” my two-cheeked ass! Convergent evolution gave the shark and the porpoise and the ichthysaur similar shapes, but that doesn’t mean they can breed!
I do remember giving considerable thought to the entire issue regarding possible genetic interaction between species. As I recall, the question centered specificly on Julie Newmar.
PS: I note with dismay TW and BrainG’s droll use of the verb “conceive”. Don’t start thinking you can get away with that kind of shit around here. We know where it can lead.
And if either of you starts posting limericks, be advised: I will track you down. I will find you. You have been warned.
In the context of alien species, “race” means “intelligent species”. Ever heard of the human race? Furthermore, I think it’s unreasonable to assume that the old biological ideas won’t need to be redefined if we ever run across life that developed somewhere else. So saying “anything that can breed with a human is the same species as a human” is really only true if you’re looking at the life forms we already know. The definition of “species” that we have now does not take into account aliens.
I didn’t really see enough of TOS to determine if McCoy was racist, but that Pulaski! She was undeniably racist againt artificial intelligence.
But she was sure anxious to experience some of that Klingon romantic poetry!
McCoy and Spock were great friends. They just had complicated ways of expressing it sometimes.
Goat felching? cite?
On the other hand, McCoy did do Spock the service of giving him back his brain. And carrying Spock’s mind around for a while.
Don’t forget that McCoy got married to an alien.
You never saw Amok Time?
The hell are you doing posting in a Trek thread?
ummm…see I…Ummm…OKAY YOU FOUND ME OUT! I know nothing about STAR TREK…I’m sorry…please forgive me. 
You know, in spite of her character’s name, she wasn’t REALLY a cat-woman.
How can Dr. McCoy be a racist, when he himself is a blue-furred mutant?
Or didn’t you mean Dr. Hank McCoy?