# How did Luddites like McCoy and Phlox get such high-profile postings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715 "2021-03-11T15:35:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/21 "2021-03-11T18:49:24Z")
“He’s Earth’s greatest dictator and attacked the doctor.” “Hmm. Hope he doesn’t get bored in sickbay; let’s give him access to the ship’s documentation” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/22 "2021-03-11T19:42:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > They were close friends and ribbed each other. They cared about each other. There was some rivalry, but it was in fun. I beg to differ. Not only was McCoy serious, he even said crap like that when Spock wasn’t in earshot. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/23 "2021-03-11T19:53:25Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I beg to differ. Not only was McCoy serious, he even said crap like that when Spock wasn’t in earshot. In _Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country_, the entire bridge crew, and by extension the Federation, is called out for their bigotry and parochial views. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/24 "2021-03-11T19:55:28Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > In _Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country_ , the entire bridge crew, and by extension the Federation, is called out for their bigotry and parochial views. By a guy that only reads Shakespeare “in its native Klingon”. 🙂 They did deserve it though. The Federation is like root beer… ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/25 "2021-03-11T21:04:54Z")
Speaking as someone who used to work in tech for a very large healthcare provider company, it’s likely because doctors are recruited and paid to doctor, not to run/deal with technology. Most doctors just kind of toed the line, maybe with a grumble or eye-roll, but some were notoriously technophobic, and others were so hung up on how awesome and smart they were because they have a MD that they tried to tell us how to do our jobs. I have no doubt that Starfleet is just the same- some doctors are probably resistant to change, some are telling the captain how to do their jobs, and some are just doing their jobs the best they can. I imagine that McCoy isn’t exactly a technophobe, but he’s definitely a critical thinker and skeptic. The modern day equivalent would be a very experienced and skilled doctor who prefers diagnostic techniques and treatments that are tried and true, rather than haring off after bleeding edge stuff simply for the cool factor. Probably exactly what you want as a starship chief medical officer, IMO. Someone who’s going to be focused on solving problems with the tools he’s got, and who is going to be involved in critical thought and diagnosis about the medical issues they face. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/26 "2021-03-11T22:23:27Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I imagine that McCoy isn’t exactly a technophobe, but he’s definitely a critical thinker and skeptic. McCoy is a true doctor, not just a glorified techician. There are some doctors that just know what they were told. If they have a patient in v-fib, and the subspace warp powered electro-who-cardio-defibulator doesn’t fix it, they have no idea what to do next. McCoy would, if he had to, open up the chest and defibulate the patient with a jury rigged communicator and a bobby pin\*. Because he learned “how things work”. That’s how he knew to plaster the Horta. I don’t think the EMH (or maybe even Phlox) could have come up with that. . \*where am I going to get a bobby pin? In space? At this hour? ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/27 "2021-03-11T22:29:13Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > \*where am I going to get a bobby pin? In space? At this hour? [Nearby ensign pulls one out of her hair, which falls perfectly into flowing, lovely locks as a soft focus plate slides across the camera.] ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/28 "2021-03-11T23:19:21Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > [Nearby ensign pulls one out of her hair, which falls perfectly into flowing, lovely locks as a soft focus plate slides across the camera.] Kirk: what the devil is a man doing with a bobby pin? [shrugs] ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/29 "2021-03-11T23:41:31Z")
Would the Federation still be using such antiquated technology as a bobby pin? Wouldn’t they have more advanced control tech, like Gorilla Glue? ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/30 "2021-03-12T03:11:04Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Wouldn’t they have more advanced control tech, like Gorilla Glue? Dammit, Jim! I’m a doctor, not a carpenter! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/31 "2021-03-12T07:33:52Z")
McCoy wanted people to run technology, not technology run people. That’s why he was against M5. That’s why he didn’t respond to the blinken lights like the others. He liked medical technology fine when it was called for, but knew it wasn’t always called for. The bickering came from a long pulp tradition - for instance Monk and Ham in the Doc Savage stories. They’d give their lives for each other, and McCoy wanted to go on a suicide mission in “The Immunity Syndrome” so that Spock wouldn’t. Spock know this, that was why he put his backup mind into McCoy. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/32 "2021-03-12T07:44:22Z")
Back when I watched TOS for the first time, I had always thought that McCoy’s racism was an attempt to get an emotional reaction from Spock. And that it implied that racism was such a solved problem in the 23rd century that joking about it was considered acceptable. The idea that anyone could possibly mean it would be absurd. Of course, future revelations showed that racism was alive and well—e.g. how Vulcans had been racist towards Spock being half human. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/33 "2021-03-12T12:49:44Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > it implied that racism was such a solved problem in the 23rd century that joking about it was considered acceptable. The idea that anyone could possibly mean it would be absurd. > > Of course, future revelations showed that racism was alive and well—e.g. how Vulcans had been racist towards Spock being half human. It wasn’t even future revelations. “Balance of Terror” had a major sub-plot centering around a random bridge officer who had a visceral, racist _hatred_ towards Romulans, and by extension towards Vulcans when they discover Romulans and Vulcans are related races. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/34 "2021-03-12T15:26:06Z")
@Stranger_On_A_Train is right. In a society where the chief means of planetary transportation is essentially a suicide machine, a Luddite is actually the most rational member of any crew. It’s just a happy coincidence that the Luddite is also the token curmudgeon required in any 1960s ensemble cast numbering over five people. He is also the surrogate for an audience that has spent the previous ten years watching movies and TV shows about emotionless alien monsters invading Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/35 "2021-03-12T15:41:04Z")
As a nitpick: The clear intention of the writers is that a transporter isn’t a suicide machine. The federation constantly beams people without their consent, and presumably wouldn’t do that if it killed and duped people. The machine reduces you to energy, then beams that energy to a distant location and puts you back. You’re the same energy on the pad as you are on the planet, and that apparently is good enough for the people of Star Trek’s timeline to accept it as still being the same creature. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/36 "2021-03-12T15:45:05Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > As a nitpick: The clear intention of the writers is that a transporter isn’t a suicide machine. - Actually, it was cheaper and less boring than using a shuttlecraft all the time. :flees: ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/37 "2021-03-12T15:46:45Z")
“I could not die today, but I’d have to spend an hour hotboxing Spock’s rutabaga farts to get to the conference… you know, fuck it. Energize.” ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/38 "2021-03-12T15:50:13Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > The federation constantly beams people without their consent, and presumably wouldn’t do that if it killed and duped people. There’s another thing. Why is the Federation and Star Fleet so revered and trusted when half of the evil plots in the last 50 years of TV shows and films are instigated by those in its highest ranks. Admiral Secretly-in-cahoots-with-the-Romulans is never seen using a transporter. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/39 "2021-03-12T15:54:06Z")
Surely there are bad people in the Federation. But if the transporter killed transportees, you’d have to accept that in-universe those willing to murder and duplicate innocent people include Picard, Kirk, Sisko, Archer, and Janew… well she’d kill and dupe people, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715/40 "2021-03-12T16:02:31Z")
How would any of them actually know, except for the tech who made up the bullshit energy transfer theory? Even they might be kidding themself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-luddites-like-mccoy-and-phlox-get-such-high-profile-postings/937715.md?page=3)